It was a well-known console franchise - Super Monkey Ball - that first showcased the iPhone's gaming capabilities, back in 2007. But the iPhone certainly didn't become the home of console conversions. After several early attempts tried (and mostly failed) to emulate the console experience on mobile, the two platforms went their separate ways.

The touch-screen controls, lack of a universal (and cheap) controller and totally different attitude towards purchases have proven... 'problematic'. But even so, I sincerely believe the following console games would nonetheless be even better on iPhone. Yes, I do feel OK, thank you - why do you ask?

It's almost as though Animal Crossing was designed for a mobile phone. The hardware has a consistent clock for real-world calendar functionality. It's always connected so friends can visit easily. It is intended to be played every day when you have a few minutes, and opens and closes easily.

The game's cute, colourful graphics would perfectly suit iPhone. The multi-touch interface would be even better than 3DS' stylus control for inventory management, minigames and rearranging furniture. DLC could be provided automatically, there could be cross-save functionality with an iPad edition (which would also be fantastic)… basically this is an iPhone game ON THE WRONG PLATFORM.

Back in the halcyon days of 1997, I tried playing Wipeout 2097 with my Sega Saturn's Arcade Racer steering wheel. The wheel has no pedals, and no rumble, let alone Force Feedback. But you know what? It felt amazing with Wipeout. That sensation of not being in contact with anything that made Sega Rally Championship feel so detached was instantly a bonus. It felt like I was piloting an anti-gravity machine.

So the floaty, gyroscopic control of an iPhone would surely feel amazing with Wipeout. You could dive or pull the nose up through subtle tilting, and this ease of motion would leave your thumbs free for braking and firing your weapons. AG Drive has proven that iPhone can handle beautiful anti-gravity race tracks, but Wipeout is a volved and driveable experience. iPhone would feel better than analogue sticks in this instance, I'm sure of it.

Flying games don't always feel as good as perhaps they should on the iPhone, but Pilotwings' more nuanced, deliberate controls would suits gentle titling far better than coaxing your glider through the skies using a thumbstick or circle pad.

The beauty of the environments would benefit massively from the retina display, too, and the pick-up-and-play nature of its short challenges would also be perfect for those 'I've got six more minutes until the past's cooked' moments.

This may sound like an odd choice, but it's actually very similar to several iOS concepts that worked well. Prope Discoverer and Epic Citadel that focused on creating a beautiful, explorable environment that pushed the platform's graphical capabilities while providing a slow-paced, interaction-light experience. Even so, they were fascinating.

Those concepts share many features with Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Recreating The Cinese Room's beautiful and startlingly naturalistic visuals on mobile would be a tricky task, but iPhone 6 is certainly capable of giving it a good go. And the slow-paced, observation-heavy gameplay is perfect for the touch screen's interface. A gyroscopic 'look' function would also add to the experience.

OK, so this isn't even out yet, but the premise arguably suits a multitouch display better than Wii U's single-touch input. Sure, the iPhone's screen is small, but imagine using the pinch to zoom in and out of your created level, then drag blocks and enemies onto the scene. It would work so smoothly.

And if you're concerned about the controls of actually playing the game being imprecise, don't forget there are game pads available for iPhones. You could enjoy the pixel-perfect 2D platforming experience anywhere, make levels anywhere and upload them for your friends to enjoy – you guessed it – anywhere.

OK, this isn't even a thing on consoles any more, let alone iPhone. But imagine the terror if using an iPhone's gyroscoping motion sensing control to look around the hallway and bathroom in real-time. You literally wouldn't want to turn around for fear of Lisa waiting to scream at you.

Imagine doing that in the dark, with headphones on. Seeing as the game was always free anyway, acting as a teaser for the now-never-to-be-release Silent Hills, that would have been the cheapest laxative available. Such a pity it'll never happen.

I don't know about you, but I used to think anything that went up on the internet would stay there for eternity. Sadly, that's not the case. Servers get switched off, domain names expire, companies go under… even technology becomes obsolete. But sometimes, old official websites for video games slip through the cracks and remain live for years after their useful life.

The beauties you see now are like fossils, lurking below the bedrock of cat pictures and fertilising surface mulch of Oculus Rift Photoshops. And they aren't just cached or retrieved from WayBackMachine. These old video game websites are still live, right now (at the time of writing, at least), offering a perfect time capsule of what the net used to be like. So let's do this. Let's time travel!

The Gamecube's Animal Crossing website was designed to look like a newspaper - and feels exactly like reading an old paper, too. Excited prose explains how features like multiplayer work. You have to insert your friend's memory card into slot B, then you can visit their town. WHAT? You can trade items with friends, but Tom Nook has to give you a special code that you type into your game to redeem. DOUBLEWHAT? I'm suddenly incredibly grateful the last 10 years happened.

It's also amazing how much Animal Crossing itself has changed. I mean, considering it , just look at the malformed monstrosities that passed for cute animal residents back then. If anything makes me glad that New Leaf exists, it's this website. Still, nicely done, even if it does seem to be the first version of the site that was surely supposed to be updated. Why haven't the 'coming soon' boxes been filled up? Most odd.

Visit the site .

Sonic Adventure was THE most exciting video game in 1998. No, I'm serious. It was the first AAA quality title of the 128-bit generation. Look, OK, that might just have been me. But it has a website. It still has a website. In it, you'll find some still-great screenshots, lyrics for the cheese-tastic theme music and even the 2.6MB video that brought my college's net connection to a standstill in when it took an entire lunchtime to download.

Unfortunately for most people reading this, everything is in Japanese, with the occasional English word in CAPS for emphasis. But at least if you click through the links, it's pretty obvious what you're looking at. There are even some pre-release screens that show things that didn't make it into the final game. And look at the production values. They spent millions on the game, but about 100 Yen on the website, it would seem…

Visit the site .

This website won Macromedia Site of the Week AND Site of the Day on March 29, 2003, according to the banner proudly displayed on the landing page. This is gonna be good. And you know what? It really is! There's a first-person, pseudo-3D flash game to play, where you explore Tallon IV, uncovering suit and weapon upgrades, which play little video clips from the game itself, showing the features in action.

The video clips may be small, but they're of surprisingly decent quality considering the age of this site. And the fact that the game element still works (albeit with a slow-loading server at the other end) makes this worthy of a visit, if only to remember when Metroid Prime was the coolest thing in the world.

Visit the site .

Yes, it's Ridge Racer. I know. But we have to stop saying it one of these days. Besides, there's something more important to say here: Please be warned that while the site still works just fine (and that even includes the Shockwave-powered animations), minutes after I'd visited this page, Windows stopped working on my PC. Twice. Coincidence? Windows doesn't normally crash on me. So maybe it's best if you take my word for it that this one still works, rather than check it out.

But it really does still work. Look at those little tiles of joy. There's even a short loop of music from the game, which keeps playing forever. This site must have looked sensational back in 1998. Just like Ridge 4 itself did. Aww, man - I love that game. I'm gonna totally add this site to my web ring.

Visit the site .

Clearly nobody was expected to have any screen resolutions larger than a postage stamp in 2001, because this is tiny. But what a treasure trove. For starters, it's brilliant fun reading promotional words trying to explain a game you now know everything about. "Ico is a very different game. It's an adventure game but it has a look and feel that's worlds away from many other adventure titles." No kidding.

But this website actually has a Flash game built into it. It's a bit like Chu Chu Rocket in that you have to guide an automatically-running character by changing the environment – in this case moving blocks. As you do so, Yorda's cage gets closer to being within reach. That game doesn't work in every modern browser, but Chrome seems to run it just fine. Is it anything like Ico's gameplay? Hell no. But still, it's a curio and it's amazing it still works.

Visit the site .

Well that's one way of handling screen resolution. This is actually a remarkably slick website, allowing you to choose your favourite character pairing from four options at the start, which customises the colour scheme of the site accordingly. So Web 2.0, it hurts.

Sadly, the music loops waaaay too quickly. You can turn it off, but wait! There's also the option to change it, shifting between 50cc music, 100cc music and 150cc music. All dire, but also better than music. Yes, you're welcome. But even more sadly, there used to be some kind of Flash game called 'Racing Challenge'... but I can't get it to load. Probably no great loss.

Visit the site .

This early PS2 title may just be a brawler starring a guy who but it deserves better than to be lost to the mists of time. Square-Enix must think so too, because its original website is still live. It's actually not half bad. But it is 'half a screen' these days.

It's actually a multimedia fest with a Flash animation, complete with raucous music… and even a Flash game. That part doesn't work on my machine… apparently you'll need Shockwave ver 7.0.2 to make it work. I don't think anybody's had that since colonial times. Similarly, there are videos (using what must have been massive file sizes at the time), but they use Quicktime 4. And an ancient version of RealVideo. I feel so old.

Visit the site .

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't find a website for the original Ape Escape, but the totally-forgotten PS2 sequel is still cocooned in the world wide web, unable to break from its sticky prison, preserved exactly as it was in 2003.

The site appears to be rather basic at first, but it has its moments. The spinning monkey head that transitions between sections of the site is the dictionary definition of 'zany', there's a secret section of artwork if you get a password from doing well in the game itself (clever) and even two 'delectable' recipes for banana-based smoothies. Show me a modern site that does THAT. In fact, I'm off to make one. I'll probably post a pic of it on LiveJournal.

Visit the site .