The early 90's was a great time to be a gamer. From the mainstream SNES, to the hardcore Genesis and even the underdogs like the TurboGrafx-16 and NeoGeo, a lot of the greatest games of all time can be found in this generation. While many of these games have gone on to be long-running and beloved franchises, some of the games never escaped the trappings of their 16-bit prisons.

Today I present a list of the top 5 games from the 16-bit generation that need a proper reboot.

#5 Haunting featuring Polterguy

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_{^{Image source: Lucas Maitland on YouTube}}

This little-known game on the Genesis stood out among the shooters, sports games and action titles that the system was filled with. In this game, you played the role of the titular spirit whose goal was to scare the family who has moved into your home. You achieve this by possessing items throughout their home, from televisions to paintings and even potted plants and using these items to scare the people out of the home.

Its a great concept and could be vastly improved upon with the hardware we have available today.

#4 Sunset Riders

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_{^{Image source: The Annals of Retrodom}}

Red Dead Redemption showed that there's a thirst for western-inspired video games. Strangely enough, none have sprung up in after RDR had a tremendous amount of success.

Sunset Riders was a port of the arcade game in which you took control of one of four characters and blasted your way through cartoony wild-west stages. Rather than the gritty, realistic worlds of RDR, seeing a lighthearted take on the genre would be very well received.

#3 Actraiser

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_{^{Image source: Gamestyle}}

"God-simulators" were very popular in the 16-bit era, from games like Populous to Sim City. This extended into the hybrid sim/action title Actraiser. While its sequel mostly eschewed the world-building simulation aspects of the original, a new game in the series could come full-circle and bring the series back to life, potentially with multiplayer online aspects that could pit civilizations against each other in "holy wars".

On second thought, that's probably not a good idea.

#2 Bonk's Adventure

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_{^{Image source: dtm-arts}}

The mascot of the TurboGrafx-16 console received three main games (plus one port to the NES) and a high-tech shoot-em-up spinoff (Air Zonk). A reboot was in development for the Wii, but I'm not aware if it was cancelled or never released outside Japan.

Now is a great time to bring back this popular character. A new Bonk game outsourced to 2D platforming geniuses at WayForward could be a fantastic revival.

#1 Final Fight/Streets of Rage

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_{^{Image source: Throwbacks}}

Both games are very similar and each received three entries on the Super Nintendo/Sega Genesis respectively. These were the most popular beat-em-ups of the 16-bit era, but essentially have been trapped there since the mid-90's. While a 3D revival of Final Fight was tried about 15 years ago with Final Fight: Streetwise on the PS2/XBox, it was a commercial and critical failure.

New games in these series that maintain the original series 2D gameplay could be hugely successful. Double Dragon has gotten a modern makeover, so why shouldn't these games get one as well?

What do you think? Are there any neglected games from the 16-bit era that you would love to see rebooted? Let's discuss!

Thanks for reading. As always, upvotes, resteems and comments are appreciated!

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_{^{Title image sources: Giant Bomb}}