5. Dragon Spirit
Dragon Spirit was released in 1987 by Namco, and as someone who can remember playing the coin-op, let me tell you, graphically Dragon Spirit was ahead of its time. It was essentially a vertical shooter, with you controlling a warrior turned dragon out to (yes, you guessed it again) save a kidnapped princess. Your dragon breathes fire and can drop something resembling bombs on enemies attacking from the ground below. You also had the opportunity to grow extra heads on your dragon, from which you could breathe out more puffs of blazing fire. No real reboots of the game were ever done, and any sequels can't stand up and say they were as good as the original. The story behind the game was kind of weak, following that same 'save the girl' formula, but in the arcade that sort of thing matters less than on a home console. But these days I think Dragon Spirit deserves a home console revival, and I think it is in that very same weak link, the story behind the game play, that hold the key to that re-invigoration. My plan to bring back Dragon Spirit for all next gen home consoles would be centered around cementing the plot lines behind the game play. We would of course lengthen the game from its original version, but that wouldn't be first noticeable changes. I think that Spirit could easily be an 'open-world' game, where you could take yourself as the dragon, not in a straight line towards the final boss, but instead all over a world, taking different directions for your life depending on the missions you completed. I think Dragon Spirit has the potential to have a lot of interesting twists and turns, think of all the different people, different places you could take yourself across the world where people transform into dragons and enemies are around every corner. The game is practically BEGGING for nerdy fiction writers like myself to flesh out a rich-YET EASILY UNDERSTOOD-story line where you go from not just saving your princess but to saving your entire world. You could build up experience on your dragon, earning more power and strength, you could gain allies, and just to satisfy all those extroverts out there, add an online feature, where you could fly with fellow Spirit players on various missions. As I mentioned, for young me, Dragon Spirit had some of the best graphics I had ever seen in a video game, and I think a new version of it would have to demand nothing less the best looking flying beasts and detailed landscapes to fly over. A new Dragon Spirit has the potential to satisfy RPG lovers if done right AND old fashioned overhead shooters, I think it deserves a look by the video game powers that be.