8. Kung Fu Master
Released only a year after Dragon's Lair in '84, Nihon Bussan/Av Japan's Kung Fu Master was a game it seemed like as kid I couldn't get away from. It was in arcades, Pizza Huts, grocery stores, churches...okay, maybe not churches, but you get the point. KFM was hugely popular around my way, partly I think because of it's simplicity, partly because I think at times it just frustrated the hell out of people who would sink a good dollar or two into getting a couple of levels deep into it only to then be taken out by a pesky 'Igor' type of enemy that was REALLY annoying, or maybe just you made it to 'The Giant' at the end of level 3, only to get kicked mess and quarters right out of you. KFM like most of games on this list was fairly simple to wrap your head around walking up to it with slice of pizza in the hand or maybe with that first quarter you meant to spend in the arcade that day. A side-scrolling gem from the past, you controlled, well, The Kung Fu Master presumably and were after some jackass who's kidnapped your girl Sylvia and taken her to an aptly named 'Devil's Temple' were all sorts of bad guys are waiting to take you on, including 4 mini-bosses or 'Sons of the Devil'. Game play consisted of you working your wake through the temple one side-scrolling level at a time taking on enemies AND a clock that was working against you. Some of the enemies were notorious headaches such as the aforementioned Igor wanna-bes, there were also these clay pots with snakes inside, ugh, they could be the worse. Make it through this gauntlet and you faced off with Mr.X-the jerk who took your girl at the end of the last level of the temple. However, once you were able to take out Mr.X, the game would simply re-start itself, with your KFM back at the beginning of the temple. Hmm..kinda' lame for some of us who devoted allowances on the thing, how do we bring it back without bringing back those grumpy old memories? Kung Fu Master never really got enough steam to garner a next-gen release, was it possible fans were still raw about it's disappointing end or the fact that to be a side-scroller these days you really need to be something special? Well, let's tackle both issues for KFM, because even though I never got far at the game in the arcades, I still played the hell out of it, enjoying a lot of the sound effects almost as much as the action. Once again, let's start with the foundation, what has been done for the game so far, and build on that. Keep our hero's story for old time's sake-the same old, 'girl kidnapped now save her' spill but this time, for our new generation of gamers, let's make the story more interesting. Why not add drama to the game by changing the Devil's Temple from a simple one way road filled with enemies to Mr.X to a complicated, maze-like structure for our PS4s and Xbox 720s. You can go THIS way and find an easy path to the first mini-boss you'll need to face, or go THIS way and find a hard as hell trial by fire filled with foes galore, including those same old annoying guys we remember, those Igors and snakes, the fire breathing, all of it. We could make it so if you complete these harder paths you're rewarded in some way, maybe by equipping your KFM with weapons they could carry with them on their way to Mr.X? I don't think KFM needs to changed from a side-scrolling game and DON'T think it needs a lot of 'earning experience' nonsense to be fun. Let there be other, less stressful, less code-cracking ways to make the fun new, add ways to get a map for the level you're on, a hint on how to beat a mini-boss, something that keeps the game mostly simple. Making the Devil's Temple a maze, upping the graphics to the BEST a scroller has ever seen and adding some depth to the story (maybe some awesome 'Ninja Gaiden'-caliber cut scenes??) and you have yourself a game that could be sold a few bucks cheaper that epics or franchises that could gain a cult following I believe it's always really had.