For all the flashy graphics, cool moves, and complex combos, a fighting game is only as good as its cast. Without a strong roster of compelling, unique fighters to choose from, brawls will end up feeling kinda 'meh'. But Capcom's legendary Street Fighter series has always offered a diverse range of awesome characters - and it looks like will be no different. Whereas Street Fighter 4 put a lot of emphasis on its eccentric newcomers, SF5 looks like it'll bring back old favorites - with a few new twists.

Only a handful of fighters have been revealed so far, but rumors are always afoot about who might secure a spot in the roster. We've rounded up all the for-sure fighters who will be in SF5 - and just for the fun of it, included our picks for some hopefuls (or ridiculous long-shots) that might make a return. So, which character will you be choosing as your go-to main? Time to make your selection.

These guys and gals will definitely be in Street Fighter 5.

It simply wouldn't be Street Fighter without series frontman Ryu. With his iconic gi, noble fighting spirit, and fireballs aplenty, Ryu is back to kick some butt in SF5. As always, his suite of specials - hadokens, shoryukens, and hurricane kicks - make him a well-rounded fighter that can deal with any situation, against any opponent. Ryu's the kind of character that appeals to beginners and veterans alike, thanks to his versatility and timeless moveset.

In SF5, Ryu seems to have retained his signature moves - including his normal attacks, such as the crouching medium kick that easily combos into a point-blank hadoken. Though not much has been disclosed about the so-called 'V-Trigger' ability in SF5, it seems to provide fighters with a burst of elemental power. Fittingly, Ryu's V-Trigger is themed around lightning, which makes us think of the old .

The first lady of fighting games is back, and it looks like her kung fu is better than ever. You no doubt know Chun-Li for her adorable hair buns, spiked bracelets, and thigh muscles that look beefy enough to snap bones like twigs. Like Ryu, Chun-Li has her standard special moves at the ready: lightweight kikoken projectiles, lightning legs that strike like a machine gun, and a variety of tricky flip kicks that can throw opponents off-balance.

Her playstyle favors agility over big damage, but Chun-Li's more than capable of some devastating combos and meaty hits. Counter to Ryu's lightning-based V-Trigger, Chun-Li seems to enhance herself with the power of flowing water, which makes her Spinning Bird Kick look like a whirlpool of death. It also look like she's got a few new normal attacks, such as a peculiar crouching fierce(?) punch that slides her ever-so-slightly forward.

In English versions of Street Fighter, he's Charlie; in Japanese, he's Nash. Convenient, then, that his full name clears up any possibility of mistaken identity. Charlie is a staple of the Street Fighter Alpha series, before he met a heroic end saving Guile and Chun-Li from a fatal explosion. So if he's dead, how is he back for SF5? One look at his new form, which appears to be bits and pieces of rotting flesh stapled together like Frankenstein's monster, should provide some answers.

Not only has Charlie's appearance changed - he also has some new game-changing special moves in addition to his previous toolkit of sonic booms and flash kicks. Through some kind of strange magic (no doubt related to the jewel embedded in his forehead), Charlie can now teleport around the screen for devious mix-up opportunities. He's also got what looks like a descending flash kick, as well as a face-electrifying command grab. Crazy!

For us, the moment M. Bison returned to Street Fighter was the most important day of our lives. But for him... it was Tuesday. The classic big-bad of Street Fighter is back, provided we're not misinterpreting the stinger at the end of Charlie's reveal trailer. Known for his devastating Psycho Crusher and unrelenting Scissor Kicks, M. Bison is the perfect fit for players that like to apply pressure on their opponents and never let up.

We've yet to see his full moveset, but one thing's for certain: Bison will definitely be sporting that classic dictator's cap of his. It kinda looks like he's got signature cape on, as well - but it's hard to tell before he explodes the camera with a burst of Psycho energy (complete with menacing laugh).

Acting as the American yin to Ryu's Japanese yang, Ken Masters is as much a part of the series as his trusty sparring partner. His trademark fiery dragon punch is always a crowd-pleaser, and Ken's quicker hurricane kicks offer just enough variety to distinguish his Shotokan fighting style from Ryu's (they did study under the same master, after all). Plus, what would flowchart following gamers do without him?

Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! Tiger Uppercut! With the way people gravitated to him when SF4 first debuted, Sagat seems like a no-brainer addition to the hypothetical SF5 roster. Less of a villain and more of a principled antihero, Sagat's eye patch, scar, and obsession with moves named after large feral cats are all a well-established part of Street Fighter lore. We're just hoping that, if he is in SF5, he won't be as overpowered as he was in his first SF4 incarnation.

Of the four brand-new fighters to be introduced in the Street Fighter 4 roster, Viper's the one with the most staying power. Capcom set out to create a cool, technically complex heroine that felt like she could belong in the King of Fighters universe, and the result was a hit with players who don't mind difficult inputs for combos. Plus, her part in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 made her something of a hit - her crazy Seismic Hammer and Thunder Knuckle setups are always a sight to behold.

Believe it or not, Poison had never been playable until Street Fighter X Tekken (unless you somehow picked up the ridiculously obscure Final Fight Revenge). But popular demand spurred Yoshinori Ono to include her in the game, and the resulting elation following her announcement was an encouraging sign for fans of the transgendered fighter. Now, with two fighting games under her belt - including a strong showing in Ultra Street Fighter 4 - there's no reason Poison can't come back for SF5.

Here's another female fighter who should totally stick around for SF5. Ibuki makes up for her relatively weak damage by having some of the trickiest mobility in the game, letting a skilled player dash circles around their confused opponent. Adding her to the Super Street Fighter 4 roster was a stroke of genius, and her aerial attacks and kunai-tossing work just as well in 2.5D as they do in regular ol' 2D.

Alright, we could probably go on stating obvious character inclusions all day. Blanka, Zangief, E. Honda, Dhalsim - we have no doubt in our minds that they'd make the cut for SF5, and if they're ever confirmed, we'll gladly add them to the list. But it's interesting to hypothesize about the borderline characters; fighters who have enough clout to sneak their way into the SF5 roster. The more the merrier, we say, so if Capcom sees fit to include the followings fighters, we'd be delighted.

Despite only appearing in Street Fighter Alpha 3, Karin’s a fan favorite who never misses the chance to demean her assailants. Born into the rich Kanzuki family, Karin fancies herself to be Sakura's rival after Sakura trounced her in a scuffle. Like Dudley, she’s always accompanied by her loyal butler; unlike Dudley, she rarely treats her butler with much respect. But all is forgiven when you see her crazy kick loops in the corner!

Everyone's favorite loincloth-wearing tyrant deserves to make the jump to 3D. Ever since he debuted in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, he's been a fairly popular mid-to-high-tier character, knee-dropping and Chariot Tackle-ing his opponents into oblivion. His Aegis Reflector super move can also be a game-changer, bouncing back incoming projectiles and setting up nasty unblockables on knockdown. We'd gladly welcome this metal-controlling megalomaniac into the SF5 roster.

When it comes to Capcom games, Maki’s been around the digital block. First appearing in Final Fight 2 as an analogue for the absent Guy, Maki resurfaced in Capcom vs SNK 2 before finally landing a gig in the Street Fighter lineage, with a slot in the Street Fighter Alpha 3 ports for the Game Boy Advance and PSP. Like Guy, she's another disciple of the Bushin-ryu style, using her tonfa to lay the smackdown on Mad Gear goons and rivals alike. Maki and Ibuki would get along like ninja peas in a pod.

It seems like SF fans have been quietly waiting to see the triumphant return of Q. This terribly mysterious fighter might be man, machine, or monster - no one's seen underneath his metal mask and lived to tell about it. His fighting style is also quite unlike any other character in the series' history: a sort of lanky, lumbering brute that can withstand absurd amounts of punishment when played correctly. Something tells us that Q is just enough of an oddball sleeper hit to make it into the next game.

This zany pro wrestler has only appeared in Street Fighter Alpha 3, but she gets a nod in SFxT via Kuma's alternate costume. With her ridiculously impractical attire and a grappling style fashioned after Zangief's piledrivers, R. Mika deserves life in 3D for the next crossover. Like Hugo, she utilizes her butt as a weapon, flinging herself into the opponent backside first for maximum damage. It's all for her fans, and the Japanese wrestler's moxie comes through in her win quotes: "Don't underestimate me! I believe in my dreams!"

So, which fighter are you planning to play as (or hoping makes a comeback)? Let us know in the comments below!

And if you're looking for more, check out .

As PBS series Antiques Roadshow has taught me, the world of collectibles is a volatile one. You may have a priceless, one-of-kind game sitting on your shelf right now. Then again, it’s just as likely something you think is rare has become all too common in this increasingly digital world. In my many years as a gamer, I’ve seen a number of titles go from hard-to-find to ubiquitous.

GamesRadar has already explored the world of valuable . Now’s the time to explore what happens when a previously unavailable game go back on sale. Did their prices drop on eBay? Did the public give these rare games a new chance? Read on...

Back in the mid-’90s, owning Chrono Trigger was your key to instant gamer cred. The SNES time travelling RPG was an early darling of the online gaming press, but its late release on the console was overshadowed by the PlayStation and Saturn. Though easy to find at launch, the limited number of copies meant that a couple years later it was fetching at least $80 for the cartridge on eBay, and the cultish popularity seemed to doom it to never see rerelease.

Collectible prices on an English language version kept increasing until 2001, when North America finally got the PSone remake. Some shabby load times and other tech hiccups kept it from being perfect, which still kept the SNES version in demand. The DS remake finally did the port job correctly, even if . Currently, the DS version is pretty easy to come by, while a boxed SNES edition can go for up to $200 on eBay. Much like a classic car, it seems people want to stick with the original.

Earthbound (Mother 2 in Japan) has a similar case to Chrono Trigger, only its publisher let it grow even more obscure. After the prequel almost saw release stateside, EarthBound got a massive promotional push from Nintendo back in 1995. The game’s massive box, odd advertising, and off kilter writing and visuals made it stand out from the pack, but also virtually guaranteed it to fail commercially. Despite the hard work of Nintendo of America, the sales were poor, meaning a relatively small number of copies were available from resellers.

Earthbound received both a remake and a sequel in Japan, and its characters have made multiple appearances in the Smash Bros. series, but the game itself remained hard to get ahold of. The prices for the SNES version climbed and climbed on eBay as the Wii’s Virtual Console made a habit of selling seemingly every classic Nintendo game except for EarthBound. In 2013, nearly 20 years after its initial release, Nintendo FINALLY put EarthBound on the Wii U’s eShop, to the pleasure of a very vocal minority. Now millions can legitimately experience the game, though that hasn’t hurt the price of the original cart, which, even without the box, sells for at least $150.

Metroid Prime does the impossible by artfully translating the series’ iconic exploration into a first-person adventure game. The series of games are some of the best stuff the GameCube ever saw, and the third entry works amazingly with the Wii’s motion controls. Remaking the first two releases for said waggly inputs and packaging them as a trilogy sounds like goldmine, but Metroid Prime Trilogy instead became one of the Wii’s most elusive titles.

Within months of the 2009 launch, Metroid Prime Trilogy became hard to find, often fetching close to $100 second-hand. Some conspiracy theorists believed Nintendo wanted Prime off the market to put the spotlight on Metroid: Other M, but whatever the reason, the trilogy became the most desired Wii game around. More than five years later, Nintendo pleasantly surprised fans by putting the trilogy on the Wii U eShop, even charging as low as $10 for it in the first week. Though the physical release still has some value, I feel bad for anyone who splurged on getting the original edition a month earlier.

Based on this list you’d think Nintendo has a thing for making some of its games really hard to find. Xenoblade is an extra-strange case, because it seemed like it would never come to the United States, even though it should have. After critical success in Japan, Xenoblade got a full localization by Nintendo of Europe, while the US branch seemingly ignored the JRPG. When it finally came to the US a year after its EU launch, Xenoblade arrived in limited quantities that were sold exclusively at GameStop. Obviously it soon became a real collector’s item.

Though remarkably common in Europe and Japan, American Wii owners were paying a pretty penny for the RPG to resellers, GameStop included. The game became available once again in the US, when GameStop suddenly had an influx of used Xenoblade copies it sold for $90. , saying ‘Stop received new copies and instead chose to mark them up as used, and the outcry pretty much calmed down once that limited stock vanished. Now the game will see a full remake on the New 3DS, and most shocking of all, it’s coming out at basically the same time worldwide.

This game was once the perfect recipe for an expensive collectible. Radiant Silvergun is a Japan-only release that had critical acclaim as the best Saturn game you’d never be able to play, which made Sega fans more rabid than ever. Plus, the title was developed by Treasure, a company known for avoiding sequels and remakes, and it’s for Saturn, a system that was once notoriously difficult to port from. No wonder the game went for more than $300 on eBay at the time.

The 2000s saw Treasure not only relax its stance on never wanting to do remakes, as Saturn ports became increasingly common on the 360 and PS3. Still, Radiant Silvergun was a holdout on the list of remakes until 2011. When it finally arrived, players worldwide could finally get a taste of its particular brand of bullet hell, perhaps coming to the same con conclusion I did: Ikaruga did it better. Regardless, the import version of the Saturn original still commands $200 on eBay, though maybe that’ll go up if Radiant Silvergun’s digital version never shows up as a current generation download.

Fans have been begging for an HD remake of Final Fantasy 7 for years, and it wasn’t that long ago those same people had trouble getting their hands on any version of the game. FF7 was a major early hit for the PSone, and the first Japanese RPG to truly go mainstream with western gamers. Despite sales in the millions and multiple print runs, Final Fantasy 7 was actually a difficult game to find during the PS2 era.

Whether you blame Square-Enix not keeping the game in-print, or collectors not parting with their copies, FF7 commanded a fairly high price once - especially if the game wasn’t in ‘Greatest Hits’ packaging. By 2009, after a handful of FF7 spin-offs suggested the first game was left in the past, the original version of the three-disc adventure came to PSN, making the game finally playable on PS3 and PSP. An HD-ish port is planned for the PS4 soon, and in the meantime, the PSone retail copies are now in the $60 range. Imagine what those would go for if an actual remake happened?

Every other game on this list has its share of fans, whether those diehards number in the thousands or even just the hundreds. Meanwhile, this 1994 biblical tribute is more of an infamous industry footnote. Super Noah’s Ark 3D reskins Wolfenstein 3D - seriously, even the map is the same - making the Nazi shooter into a game about tranquilizing goats. And it’s the only unauthorized game that legally works on the SNES, thanks to the odd bypass of plugging another SNES cart on top of Noah. How in the heck (don’t want to offend Noah) does this game even exist?

Like most of publisher Wisdom Tree’s games, Super Noah’s Ark 3D didn’t reach a large audience, but it later on became a prize for collectors of sheer oddities. Then, in 2014, the game resurfaced, not just as a legitimate PC download, but in a brand new run of that are still available for purchase. This new lease on life is just the type of miraculous resurrection one expects from the creators of Jesus in Space (a very real game, honest).

Monkey Paw Games is the MVP of this list, because giving new life to forgotten PSone games is pretty much why the company was founded. This small-scale publisher has been banging out PSN ports of games no one else cares to make available, re-furnishing the world with the likes of Tomba!, Alundra, and Vanguard Bandits along the way. But getting Arc of the Lad out digitally may be the group's greatest triumph.

The Arc of the Lad games began in 1995 in Japan, but didn’t see release in the US until all the games were bundled together as a collection in 2002. The series wasn’t only among the last major PSone titles, but also one of the final releases of niche publisher Working Designs. All those factors meant the game would be in short supply and high demand, so the collection’s rare, fancy box set and extras still command a high price on eBay. Fortunately for those of us on a budget, Monkey Paw finally expanded Arc’s potential audience by porting all three games to PSN in 2011.

Those are some previously super rare games that the less dedicated, more thrifty can finally get their hands on, but I’m sure you gentle readers can think of a few I forgot. If so, please tell me all about them in the comments!

Want some more rarities? Check out .

As PBS series Antiques Roadshow has taught me, the world of collectibles is a volatile one. You may have a priceless, one-of-kind game sitting on your shelf right now. Then again, it’s just as likely something you think is rare has become all too common in this increasingly digital world. In my many years as a gamer, I’ve seen a number of titles go from hard-to-find to ubiquitous.

GamesRadar has already explored the world of valuable . Now’s the time to explore what happens when a previously unavailable game go back on sale. Did their prices drop on eBay? Did the public give these rare games a new chance? Read on...

Back in the mid-’90s, owning Chrono Trigger was your key to instant gamer cred. The SNES time travelling RPG was an early darling of the online gaming press, but its late release on the console was overshadowed by the PlayStation and Saturn. Though easy to find at launch, the limited number of copies meant that a couple years later it was fetching at least $80 for the cartridge on eBay, and the cultish popularity seemed to doom it to never see rerelease.

Collectible prices on an English language version kept increasing until 2001, when North America finally got the PSone remake. Some shabby load times and other tech hiccups kept it from being perfect, which still kept the SNES version in demand. The DS remake finally did the port job correctly, even if . Currently, the DS version is pretty easy to come by, while a boxed SNES edition can go for up to $200 on eBay. Much like a classic car, it seems people want to stick with the original.

Earthbound (Mother 2 in Japan) has a similar case to Chrono Trigger, only its publisher let it grow even more obscure. After the prequel almost saw release stateside, EarthBound got a massive promotional push from Nintendo back in 1995. The game’s massive box, odd advertising, and off kilter writing and visuals made it stand out from the pack, but also virtually guaranteed it to fail commercially. Despite the hard work of Nintendo of America, the sales were poor, meaning a relatively small number of copies were available from resellers.

Earthbound received both a remake and a sequel in Japan, and its characters have made multiple appearances in the Smash Bros. series, but the game itself remained hard to get ahold of. The prices for the SNES version climbed and climbed on eBay as the Wii’s Virtual Console made a habit of selling seemingly every classic Nintendo game except for EarthBound. In 2013, nearly 20 years after its initial release, Nintendo FINALLY put EarthBound on the Wii U’s eShop, to the pleasure of a very vocal minority. Now millions can legitimately experience the game, though that hasn’t hurt the price of the original cart, which, even without the box, sells for at least $150.

Metroid Prime does the impossible by artfully translating the series’ iconic exploration into a first-person adventure game. The series of games are some of the best stuff the GameCube ever saw, and the third entry works amazingly with the Wii’s motion controls. Remaking the first two releases for said waggly inputs and packaging them as a trilogy sounds like goldmine, but Metroid Prime Trilogy instead became one of the Wii’s most elusive titles.

Within months of the 2009 launch, Metroid Prime Trilogy became hard to find, often fetching close to $100 second-hand. Some conspiracy theorists believed Nintendo wanted Prime off the market to put the spotlight on Metroid: Other M, but whatever the reason, the trilogy became the most desired Wii game around. More than five years later, Nintendo pleasantly surprised fans by putting the trilogy on the Wii U eShop, even charging as low as $10 for it in the first week. Though the physical release still has some value, I feel bad for anyone who splurged on getting the original edition a month earlier.

Based on this list you’d think Nintendo has a thing for making some of its games really hard to find. Xenoblade is an extra-strange case, because it seemed like it would never come to the United States, even though it should have. After critical success in Japan, Xenoblade got a full localization by Nintendo of Europe, while the US branch seemingly ignored the JRPG. When it finally came to the US a year after its EU launch, Xenoblade arrived in limited quantities that were sold exclusively at GameStop. Obviously it soon became a real collector’s item.

Though remarkably common in Europe and Japan, American Wii owners were paying a pretty penny for the RPG to resellers, GameStop included. The game became available once again in the US, when GameStop suddenly had an influx of used Xenoblade copies it sold for $90. , saying ‘Stop received new copies and instead chose to mark them up as used, and the outcry pretty much calmed down once that limited stock vanished. Now the game will see a full remake on the New 3DS, and most shocking of all, it’s coming out at basically the same time worldwide.

This game was once the perfect recipe for an expensive collectible. Radiant Silvergun is a Japan-only release that had critical acclaim as the best Saturn game you’d never be able to play, which made Sega fans more rabid than ever. Plus, the title was developed by Treasure, a company known for avoiding sequels and remakes, and it’s for Saturn, a system that was once notoriously difficult to port from. No wonder the game went for more than $300 on eBay at the time.

The 2000s saw Treasure not only relax its stance on never wanting to do remakes, as Saturn ports became increasingly common on the 360 and PS3. Still, Radiant Silvergun was a holdout on the list of remakes until 2011. When it finally arrived, players worldwide could finally get a taste of its particular brand of bullet hell, perhaps coming to the same con conclusion I did: Ikaruga did it better. Regardless, the import version of the Saturn original still commands $200 on eBay, though maybe that’ll go up if Radiant Silvergun’s digital version never shows up as a current generation download.

Fans have been begging for an HD remake of Final Fantasy 7 for years, and it wasn’t that long ago those same people had trouble getting their hands on any version of the game. FF7 was a major early hit for the PSone, and the first Japanese RPG to truly go mainstream with western gamers. Despite sales in the millions and multiple print runs, Final Fantasy 7 was actually a difficult game to find during the PS2 era.

Whether you blame Square-Enix not keeping the game in-print, or collectors not parting with their copies, FF7 commanded a fairly high price once - especially if the game wasn’t in ‘Greatest Hits’ packaging. By 2009, after a handful of FF7 spin-offs suggested the first game was left in the past, the original version of the three-disc adventure came to PSN, making the game finally playable on PS3 and PSP. An HD-ish port is planned for the PS4 soon, and in the meantime, the PSone retail copies are now in the $60 range. Imagine what those would go for if an actual remake happened?

Every other game on this list has its share of fans, whether those diehards number in the thousands or even just the hundreds. Meanwhile, this 1994 biblical tribute is more of an infamous industry footnote. Super Noah’s Ark 3D reskins Wolfenstein 3D - seriously, even the map is the same - making the Nazi shooter into a game about tranquilizing goats. And it’s the only unauthorized game that legally works on the SNES, thanks to the odd bypass of plugging another SNES cart on top of Noah. How in the heck (don’t want to offend Noah) does this game even exist?

Like most of publisher Wisdom Tree’s games, Super Noah’s Ark 3D didn’t reach a large audience, but it later on became a prize for collectors of sheer oddities. Then, in 2014, the game resurfaced, not just as a legitimate PC download, but in a brand new run of that are still available for purchase. This new lease on life is just the type of miraculous resurrection one expects from the creators of Jesus in Space (a very real game, honest).

Monkey Paw Games is the MVP of this list, because giving new life to forgotten PSone games is pretty much why the company was founded. This small-scale publisher has been banging out PSN ports of games no one else cares to make available, re-furnishing the world with the likes of Tomba!, Alundra, and Vanguard Bandits along the way. But getting Arc the Lad out digitally may be the group's greatest triumph.

The Arc the Lad games began in 1995 in Japan, but didn’t see release in the US until all the games were bundled together as a collection in 2002. The series wasn’t only among the last major PSone titles, but also one of the final releases of niche publisher Working Designs. All those factors meant the game would be in short supply and high demand, so the collection’s rare, fancy box set and extras still command a high price on eBay. Fortunately for those of us on a budget, Monkey Paw finally expanded Arc’s potential audience by porting all three games to PSN in 2011.

Those are some previously super rare games that the less dedicated, more thrifty can finally get their hands on, but I’m sure you gentle readers can think of a few I forgot. If so, please tell me all about them in the comments!

Want some more rarities? Check out .

As PBS series Antiques Roadshow has taught me, the world of collectibles is a volatile one. You may have a priceless, one-of-kind game sitting on your shelf right now. Then again, it’s just as likely something you think is rare has become all too common in this increasingly digital world. In my many years as a gamer, I’ve seen a number of titles go from hard-to-find to ubiquitous.

GamesRadar has already explored the world of valuable . Now’s the time to explore what happens when a previously unavailable game go back on sale. Did their prices drop on eBay? Did the public give these rare games a new chance? Read on...

Back in the mid-’90s, owning Chrono Trigger was your key to instant gamer cred. The SNES time travelling RPG was an early darling of the online gaming press, but its late release on the console was overshadowed by the PlayStation and Saturn. Though easy to find at launch, the limited number of copies meant that a couple years later it was fetching at least $80 for the cartridge on eBay, and the cultish popularity seemed to doom it to never see rerelease.

Collectible prices on an English language version kept increasing until 2001, when North America finally got the PSone remake. Some shabby load times and other tech hiccups kept it from being perfect, which still kept the SNES version in demand. The DS remake finally did the port job correctly, even if . Currently, the DS version is pretty easy to come by, while a boxed SNES edition can go for up to $200 on eBay. Much like a classic car, it seems people want to stick with the original.

Earthbound (Mother 2 in Japan) has a similar case to Chrono Trigger, only its publisher let it grow even more obscure. After the prequel almost saw release stateside, EarthBound got a massive promotional push from Nintendo back in 1995. The game’s massive box, odd advertising, and off kilter writing and visuals made it stand out from the pack, but also virtually guaranteed it to fail commercially. Despite the hard work of Nintendo of America, the sales were poor, meaning a relatively small number of copies were available from resellers.

Earthbound received both a remake and a sequel in Japan, and its characters have made multiple appearances in the Smash Bros. series, but the game itself remained hard to get ahold of. The prices for the SNES version climbed and climbed on eBay as the Wii’s Virtual Console made a habit of selling seemingly every classic Nintendo game except for EarthBound. In 2013, nearly 20 years after its initial release, Nintendo FINALLY put EarthBound on the Wii U’s eShop, to the pleasure of a very vocal minority. Now millions can legitimately experience the game, though that hasn’t hurt the price of the original cart, which, even without the box, sells for at least $150.

Metroid Prime does the impossible by artfully translating the series’ iconic exploration into a first-person adventure game. The series of games are some of the best stuff the GameCube ever saw, and the third entry works amazingly with the Wii’s motion controls. Remaking the first two releases for said waggly inputs and packaging them as a trilogy sounds like goldmine, but Metroid Prime Trilogy instead became one of the Wii’s most elusive titles.

Within months of the 2009 launch, Metroid Prime Trilogy became hard to find, often fetching close to $100 second-hand. Some conspiracy theorists believed Nintendo wanted Prime off the market to put the spotlight on Metroid: Other M, but whatever the reason, the trilogy became the most desired Wii game around. More than five years later, Nintendo pleasantly surprised fans by putting the trilogy on the Wii U eShop, even charging as low as $10 for it in the first week. Though the physical release still has some value, I feel bad for anyone who splurged on getting the original edition a month earlier.

Based on this list you’d think Nintendo has a thing for making some of its games really hard to find. Xenoblade is an extra-strange case, because it seemed like it would never come to the United States, even though it should have. After critical success in Japan, Xenoblade got a full localization by Nintendo of Europe, while the US branch seemingly ignored the JRPG. When it finally came to the US a year after its EU launch, Xenoblade arrived in limited quantities that were sold exclusively at GameStop. Obviously it soon became a real collector’s item.

Though remarkably common in Europe and Japan, American Wii owners were paying a pretty penny for the RPG to resellers, GameStop included. The game became available once again in the US, when GameStop suddenly had an influx of used Xenoblade copies it sold for $90. , saying ‘Stop received new copies and instead chose to mark them up as used, and the outcry pretty much calmed down once that limited stock vanished. Now the game will see a full remake on the New 3DS, and most shocking of all, it’s coming out at basically the same time worldwide.

This game was once the perfect recipe for an expensive collectible. Radiant Silvergun is a Japan-only release that had critical acclaim as the best Saturn game you’d never be able to play, which made Sega fans more rabid than ever. Plus, the title was developed by Treasure, a company known for avoiding sequels and remakes, and it’s for Saturn, a system that was once notoriously difficult to port from. No wonder the game went for more than $300 on eBay at the time.

The 2000s saw Treasure not only relax its stance on never wanting to do remakes, as Saturn ports became increasingly common on the 360 and PS3. Still, Radiant Silvergun was a holdout on the list of remakes until 2011. When it finally arrived, players worldwide could finally get a taste of its particular brand of bullet hell, perhaps coming to the same con conclusion I did: Ikaruga did it better. Regardless, the import version of the Saturn original still commands $200 on eBay, though maybe that’ll go up if Radiant Silvergun’s digital version never shows up as a current generation download.

Fans have been begging for an HD remake of Final Fantasy 7 for years, and it wasn’t that long ago those same people had trouble getting their hands on any version of the game. FF7 was a major early hit for the PSone, and the first Japanese RPG to truly go mainstream with western gamers. Despite sales in the millions and multiple print runs, Final Fantasy 7 was actually a difficult game to find during the PS2 era.

Whether you blame Square-Enix not keeping the game in-print, or collectors not parting with their copies, FF7 commanded a fairly high price once - especially if the game wasn’t in ‘Greatest Hits’ packaging. By 2009, after a handful of FF7 spin-offs suggested the first game was left in the past, the original version of the three-disc adventure came to PSN, making the game finally playable on PS3 and PSP. An HD-ish port is planned for the PS4 soon, and in the meantime, the PSone retail copies are now in the $60 range. Imagine what those would go for if an actual remake happened?

Every other game on this list has its share of fans, whether those diehards number in the thousands or even just the hundreds. Meanwhile, this 1994 biblical tribute is more of an infamous industry footnote. Super Noah’s Ark 3D reskins Wolfenstein 3D - seriously, even the map is the same - making the Nazi shooter into a game about tranquilizing goats. And it’s the only unauthorized game that legally works on the SNES, thanks to the odd bypass of plugging another SNES cart on top of Noah. How in the heck (don’t want to offend Noah) does this game even exist?

Like most of publisher Wisdom Tree’s games, Super Noah’s Ark 3D didn’t reach a large audience, but it later on became a prize for collectors of sheer oddities. Then, in 2014, the game resurfaced, not just as a legitimate PC download, but in a brand new run of that are still available for purchase. This new lease on life is just the type of miraculous resurrection one expects from the creators of Jesus in Space (a very real game, honest).

Monkey Paw Games is the MVP of this list, because giving new life to forgotten PSone games is pretty much why the company was founded. This small-scale publisher has been banging out PSN ports of games no one else cares to make available, re-furnishing the world with the likes of Tomba!, Alundra, and Vanguard Bandits along the way. But getting Arc of the Lad out digitally may be the group's greatest triumph.

The Arc of the Lad games began in 1995 in Japan, but didn’t see release in the US until all the games were bundled together as a collection in 2002. The series wasn’t only among the last major PSone titles, but also one of the final releases of niche publisher Working Designs. All those factors meant the game would be in short supply and high demand, so the collection’s rare, fancy box set and extras still command a high price on eBay. Fortunately for those of us on a budget, Monkey Paw finally expanded Arc’s potential audience by porting all three games to PSN in 2011.

Those are some previously super rare games that the less dedicated, more thrifty can finally get their hands on, but I’m sure you gentle readers can think of a few I forgot. If so, please tell me all about them in the comments!

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