Before Blockbuster came to represent the death of the brick and mortar video game rental business, it was a blue-and-gold juggernaut whose reached extended from coast to coast. In its prime, Blockbuster's influence was so great that it actually began requisitioning video games to be released exclusively in its stores. And while I'm sure this seemed like a very good idea on paper, in practice it spawned a whole slew of bad to mediocre titles, many of which were mere updates to existing releases.

Building a comprehensive list of all the Blockbuster exclusives is surprisingly challenging, mostly because it comes by way of word of mouth. Rumors and speculation abound about which games were "true" exclusives and which had proper retail release after the fact. For those in the latter category, I've included the [Limited Exclusive] tag. Please let me know if there are any I missed! But now, without further ado...

True to its name, ClayFighter: Tournament Edition was a slightly updated version of the original, in the same vein as Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition and others. The game fixed bugs, added new modes, and did a bunch of other stuff no one ever noticed or appreciated. It helped pave the way for the bizarrely named ClayFighter 2: Judgement Clay and, later on, another Blockbuster exclusive on the Nintendo 64.

This special version of Donkey Kong Country was designed specifically for the second Blockbuster World Video game Championships, which were held in 1994 (though it was really more of a North American championship). Donkey Kong Country was one of the featured games, and this version has only a handful of stages, no animal tokens, and a score counter, as the BWVGC was largely a high-score based competition.

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This is what most people expect when they hear the term "Blockbuster exclusive." Eek! The Cat on the SNES was a painfully overblown escort mission involving an old woman who relentless walks in whatever direction she's facing, a purple cat who was in no way Garfield, and teeth-gnashing, hair-splitting gameplay where you must protect this old lady from harm. The game itself is actually an updated version of , developed by the same team.

When beloved arcade beat-'em-up Final Fight made its debut on home consoles back in 1990, fans were disappointed to see that several features got cut along the way. No industrial stage. No cooperative play. No Guy. Everyone loves Guy! That's why Guy later got his own version of the game, where he replaced Cody. Still no industrial stage or co-op though...

While Eek! The Cat didn't garner much love, developer Ocean once again stepped up to the plate with another Blockbuster Exclusive, Mr. Nutz. The games stars a red, anthropomorphic squirrel - because we were so clever in the '90s - in a short, 2D platformer. While largely forgotten today, those who do remember the game remember it because it was rather, well, . And if you lived outside of North America, you could totally pick up this gem at other gaming retailers.

Fire Dogs continues the time-honored tradition of developers making terrible platformers based off of popular cartoons. Miraculously, the game somehow manages to squeeze hours worth of content out of a single episode of the Ren Stimpy cartoon, specifically the one about them painting themselves up as dalmatians to get a job at the firehouse. And if its sluggish, unresponsive controls didn't send you sprinting back to Blockbuster, the irritating music loop certainly would.

Not to be confused with the Donkey Kong Championship Cartridge mentioned earlier, the Blockbuster World Championship II video game was an all-in-one package for the Sega version of Blockbuster's World Championship event. The cartridge contained an oddball combo of Acclaim's NBA Jam and Judge Dredd, two wildly different styles of gaming for players to test their skills and compete for the high score. When the BWC was finished, these cartridges were supposed to be destroyed, however a few have survived to this day (fetching a pretty penny online).

The Game Factory cartridges were a forward-thinking bit of technology on the part of Blockbuster. They were basically flashcarts that could have any Genesis game available at the time loaded onto them via a dial-up connection. The cartridges came in different colors - blue, green, and red - which indicated the size and capabilities of the cartridge. It's interesting to think that a major retailer was using piracy techniques as a business strategy.

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It's starting to seem like every video game franchise had an obligatory Championship Edition at some point in the '90s. In Madden '93's case, this new edition added in everything from the base game plus the eight greatest NFL teams at that point in time (as of 1992, anyway). As anyone who has been to a second-hand game store knows, there is a veritable sea of used Madden games on the market, but this one - because of its rarity as a Blockbuster exclusive - is the mother of them all.

Blockbuster just couldn't get enough of that awkward ClayFighter action the first time around, so they brought the series back with another rental exclusive, this time titled Sculptor's Cut (because of clay, get it?). The biggest addition in this version was the inclusion of four new characters, one of which is the Statue of Liberty. Thankfully, Sculptor's Cut finally ended the tyranny of ClayFighter, and it has since become one of the most rare and expensive N64 cartridges in existence.

Amid so many horrors, Stunt Racer 64 enjoys the distinction of being an absolutely decent racing game. It combines arcade-style racing, with extreme futuristic technology like rocket boosters, which let your car perform all sorts of sweet, mid-air tricks. As you barrel roll - excuse me, aileron roll - your way to the finish line, you earn currency to buy new parts and cars. However, despite being a solid game, it never saw a wider release.

Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals - which is a real word jumble of a title - is yet another awkward, painful fighting game dropped into the laps of unsuspecting children thanks to Blockbuster Video. Sticking to genre traditions, Transmetals stars a whole bunch of characters who are all fighting for reasons no one cares about, and there are super moves. You don't even really fight so much as run around spamming projectiles while grunting "Urgh! Urgh! Urgh!"

NFL Blitz Special Edition is basically NFL Blitz 2001, only this time it's called "Special Edition" instead of "2001" which makes it different. This gets a pass, however, as NFL Blitz's hilarious combination of wrestling moves and simplified gridiron rules is still awesome. While Special Edition started out as a rental only, Blockbuster eventually started selling the game in its stores as well.

While Razor Freestyle Scooter was released on several different platforms, only the Nintendo 64 version was exclusive to Blockbuster. But not even the sweet, sweet allure of exclusivity could entice the masses to try this poor imitation of the Tony Hawk skateboarding series. How bad is it? It manages to have a plotline involving robots abducting children - in a scooter game - and still not be awesome.

This game is a collection of mini games themed around - you guessed it - track and field sports. And by "track" and "field" I mean "button" and "mashing" because that's just about all you do in it. For many kids, this was the ideal rental game, because you'd play it for a day or two and then never touch it again.

Capitalizing on the success of the Indiana Jones movies, Infernal Machine pitted Indy against the Soviets in a race to collect the four pieces of the titular device, a biblical MacGuffin that does something. While the game was praised for its detailed plotline and interesting stages, it was ultimately torpedoed by the killer of so many Nintendo 64 games: poor controls. In addition to being available to rent or buy at Blockbuster stores, customers could also order the game straight from LucasArts' website.

The troubled history of , which remains one of the most stupendous flops in gaming history, does not need to be retold here. Suffice to say, the underwhelming PC release spawned an equally underwhelming N64 flophouse exclusive to Blockbuster. It ultimately did little to help the struggling game, and was later given a standalone retail release.

It should come as no surprise at this point, but Eggs of Steel was yet another awkward, laborious game that further cemented the Blockbuster exclusivity program as a den of depravity with the motto "Who gives a shit?" The game stars a low-res animated gif of an egg wearing overalls who walks around a pre-rendered steel mill while reading letters from his girlfriend. His name is Charlie and sometimes he dies but not often enough.

Given the amount of raw edginess radiating from this game, one would assume Freestyle Street Soccer follows in the wake of Razor Freestyle Scooter as another watered-down, simplistic clone of a superior game. Somehow, miraculously, astonishingly even, this is not the case. Freestyle Street Soccer is a decent, arcade-style soccer game with four-on-four matches and an emphasis on tricks. Of course, the machismo-driven, turf-war attitude is still completely laughable.

The unfortunate Outlaw series of sports games - which mixed mediocre sports mechanics with a lethal dose of hypersexualized badittude - spawned a handful of Blockbuster exclusives. They were basically DLC packs you could rent. The two Golf games have Christmas-themed links and outfits for the golfers, while the Volleyball game is set in Hell (which is actually kind of awesome).

Chances are, there are still some more games out there that were part of the Blockbuster exclusivity program that aren't included on this list. If there are any I've missed, let me know in the comments below and I'll see about getting them added.

And for further reading on GR+ head on over to .

Now that the seems great, and Monster Hunter Ultimate 4 is definitely more Monster Hunter, but what else are you going to do with this hunk of faster-processing plastic after you're done with Xenoblade Chronicles 3D? Fortunately for all of us, Nintendo doesn't have to go back to the drawing board to find ideas that would be perfect for its handheld system.

Tons of existing properties from Nintendo and beyond could make great use of the improved 3D effects and bolstered control scheme - not to mention a good number that would've been absolutely fine on the old 3DS as well. Nintendo execs, if you're reading, consider this our official wish list of awesome games to get working on post-haste for your shiny new console revision.

Metroid Prime Trilogy has been a no-brainer port ever since 3DS hit the scene, but the upgraded specs and controls of New 3DS make it all the more obvious. Since Metroid Prime's combat uses a lock-on system, you wouldn't have to worry about being overly precise with the little C-Stick nub, and you'd have another set of shoulder buttons to work with so you'd rarely need to shift your grip. It could also offer a touchscreen-driven view option, for all those poor souls who are still hoping for Metroid Prime Hunters 2, as well as visor-swapping and map management.

Much like Xenoblade Chronicles, the Metroid Prime Trilogy would probably need to lose a little bit of texture resolution to function on 3DS, but rolling around in morph ball and dodging space pirates in buttery smooth 3D sounds like a fine trade-off. It would also be a great way for Retro Studios to get back into the groove of making Metroid games. Just saying.

Minecraft has released just about everywhere besides Nintendo 3DS at this point, which is a bit puzzling. Yeah, memory constraints would almost certainly make for less-expansive worlds than you see on its PC and console cousins, but that hasn't kept people from going gaga over the Pocket Edition on iOS and Android devices. And besides, why stick with just a Vita version when the 3DS could give you such an awesome new way to interact with the world?

Seriously, just imagine how cool it would feel to navigate around a mysterious cavern in full 3D - suddenly you hear a familiar hiss, and there's a creeper popping out of your screen. And as a step up from Vita, the top screen could be reserved for watching the game world, with inventory and crafting concerns neatly relegated to the touchscreen. Unfortunately, now that Microsoft owns Minecraft, it's not likely to release on any more non-Microsoft platforms than it already has. But still, we can dream.

Pikmin is one of Nintendo's most under-appreciated franchises, and you know if creator Shigeru Miyamoto wasn't so keen on the idea of little plant people marching around gigantic gardens it wouldn't have gotten this far. It's just been a little too niche to become one of Nintendo's flagship series, but porting the first game over to 3DS could introduce Pikmin to an entirely new generation of fans - fans who will then hopefully buy a Wii U and Pikmin 3.

The control scheme is just about sorted already - simply drop in the same touchscreen setup which was patched into Pikmin 3. And while the lush graphics wouldn't look quite so crisp on 3DS, the 3D effect could give you players a much better sense of the game world's mind-melting scale. It would also be a good chance for Nintendo to refine the strict time limits which made the original GameCube version too stressful for some - much the same way that sanding off a few rough edges in Majora's Mask 3D makes for a less stressful but equally intense experience.

Did you know that Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch was first released as a DS game? The Level-5/Studio Ghibli collaboration shipped on the handheld system in December 2010 exclusively in Japan. You're likely more familiar with the PS3 version, which released in Japan a little over a year later and throughout the rest of the world in early 2013, but issues with the game's physical Wizard's Companion book held the DS version back from international release.

Ni no Kuni didn't make much of a splash when it released overseas, but it's become abundantly clear that handhelds are now the last great refuge for JRPGs. So it makes almost too much sense to release an enhanced version of the original DS game on 3DS. Just imagine peering into that vibrant, Ghibli-blessed world on the 3D screen - you'd have to pick your jaw up before you could start playing. And yes, the resolution boost over DS should allow for a digital Wizard's Companion to work just fine.

Somehow Sega passed over Nintendo 3DS when it released its HD remake of Jet Set Radio, the cult classic Dreamcast roller skating game. No matter, though - all will be forgiven if it rectifies that mistake posthaste. Seriously, Jet Set Radio would be a perfect fit for 3DS - timed challenges are great for on-the-go play, and it could definitely handle the processing load. But why would you play it over the already great Vita version?

The most obvious reason is that it would just be super cool to blaze through Tokyo-to at high speed on a 3D display. Imagine getting a downhill grind on a nice long straightaway, watching the city soar from the horizon into your periphery as pedestrians scramble out of the way But beyond that, it would control great on a Circle Pad, and you could even use the touch-screen for a much more precise take on those notoriously tough graffiti challenges. Just say it out loud: 'Jet Set Radio 3D'. Doesn't it sound right?

Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Kid Icarus: Uprising is already a 3DS title! Isn't it kind of obvious to say that a 3DS game could, in fact, make a great 3DS game? Fair point. But it would make an even better New 3DS game. And it's largely because of one small, nubby, pencil-eraser-shaped addition: the C-Stick. Kid Icarus: Uprising was plenty well-received when it released in 2012, but it suffered from one nearly universal complaint: trying to control the high-speed shooting/brawling action with a Circle Pad and touchscreen was awkward at best, and carpal-tunnel inducing at worst.

Patching in a new control scheme that uses the C-Stick instead of the lower screen could change all that. Yes, Nintendo could've used the Circle Pad Pro all along instead of just making it an option for left-handed players. But now that tons of players natively have a second analog input to play with (and a 3D display they might actually leave turned on), it's time to go back and make Uprising's controls live up to the concept.

Almost by happenstance, Wario has grown from a one-off caricature of Nintendo's mascot into the star of his own subseries of games.Wario Land is his oldest solo franchise, and the flatulent one's most animated adventures is in Wario Land: Shake It. The colorful, dynamic world has a great look on the Wii, so it's a shame many missed out on its odd sense of humor while favoring the more mainstream New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

But perhaps Shake It is underrated because the Wii game was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Wario Land series had only been on portables up to that release, so the franchise might have been hurt by the transition, meaning it could reclaim its place as a handheld gem via some port work. The New 3DS should have no trouble making the intricate line art pop, meaning all the long hard hours of the animators won't have been wasted on a small percentage of the Wii's audience.

After some early ports of Street Fighter and Tekken, the 3DS's fighting landscape has become a barren wasteland. However, the release of reminds fans that the handheld can still be home to addictively fun melees, particularly if it takes advantage of a fan-service heavy crossover. That sets the stage for an anime-heavy tussle that needs to hop over from the Wii, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

The crossover was originally planned as a Japan-only release--given that most of Tatsunoko's characters are virtual unknowns in the west--but Capcom localized the game following vocal demands from fans. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom wasn't a on Wii, but maybe it was just aimed at the wrong audience. That hardcore fighting fans on 3DS are energized post Smash, and the New 3DS should be able to handle the fast-paced action. This fighter deserves to be played by more than the small cross section of hardcore fighting fans that are also Wii owners.

WayForward is a developer that often toils away in obscurity, making 2D throwbacks that are neck deep in affection for the 8- and 16-bit era of gaming. The team has gained some notoriety working on Capcom's DuckTales remake along with some other licensed games that are far better than they deserve to be, but those can't hold a candle to WayForward's sterling work on the Wii. Nintendo's waggle-heavy console is home to the team's remake of NES classic A Boy And His Blob, which deserves to be reborn once again on the 3DS.

In an age of polygons and purposefully retro pixels, A Boy And His Blob sidestepped both, instead going with hand-drawn visuals that support the overall warmth of the minimalist adventure. The platforming action demands logic and quick reflexes, tasking players with finding different combinations of the blob's abilities to get them to the end of the stage. It's an adorable game that would make a smart addition to the 3DS eShop, giving handheld players a chance to make a squishy new friend.

At this moment, I'm imagining you're thinking, "Ok, GamesRadar, this is all in good fun, but you've gone too far with this one. Who in the hell wants a fishing game for 3DS?" Would you warm to the idea if I told you Fishing Resort comes from the mind of Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka and his development team called Prope? Yes, at one time any type of game seemed like the next Wii Sports, even a breeze lifestyle sim based around catching trout. It didn't catch on then, but the 3DS might have been the right home for it all along.

Fishing Resort clearly takes inspiration from Animal Crossing, except it focuses on the fishing gameplay. The huge number of unlockables and wide variety of fish to catch scratches the same collectors itch as Animal Crossing, and with a similar relaxed vibe. Thanks to the huge global sales of Animal Crossing: New Leaf (and to a lesser extent, Tomodachi Life), there might finally be an audience primed for Naka's vision of digital angling. Plus, Prope already has experience with the 3DS after making Monster Manor, the addicting Mii Plaza game.

Thanks in no small part to the lack of western developed games for the 3DS, the handheld has become a treasure trove for Japanese games that would've been seen as too niche in the past. Titles like Bravely Default and Fire Emblem: Awakening are pulling in bigger sales than their genre counterparts on consoles, signaling that just about any obscure titles has a chance on Nintendo's handheld. And if the New 3DS opens the door to more Wii ports, why not give one of Japan's most obscure franchises another shot at western success by porting Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love?

Sakura Wars earned a following in Japan by mixing hardcore strategy elements with dating sim mechanics and a steampunk ethos, becoming one of the best-selling franchises on the Sega Saturn. After a dozen Sakura games went unlocalized, non-Japanese players finally got their first taste of the series on Wii, but the peculiar mix of robot battles and dating Broadway actresses was lost on system owners (crazy, right?). Now that the New 3DS has Wii level power, and a niche audience that's grown accustomed to weird things from Japan, maybe Sakura Wars will get a second chance to make a first impression.

Platinum Games' blood-soaked brawler didn't have nearly enough fanfare on the Wii. Its pulpy, black-and-white visuals were a stark departure from the rest of the Wii library, and the hyperviolent executions Jack doled out to his foes were more than worthy of an M rating. As captivating as the Sin City-style aesthetic was, there were times when the backdrop would blend into a monochromatic blur. You know what would change all that? Depth perception.

The gory insanity of the DeathWatch gameshow would leap off the screen in 3D, making Jefferson Island's gritty streets as visually mesmerizing as the over-the-top character designs. Plus, watching Jack plunge his chainsaw into a baddie's midsection as viscera splatters against the screen would kick the already-absurd levels of bloodshed up a notch. As long as you could ignore the horrified expressions of onlookers on the train/plane/bus, MadWorld 3DS would make for one hell of a handheld beat-'em-up.

The PSOne era moved away from cute mascots and sidescrollers, and Namco’s Klonoa was guilty of being both. The odd blue rabitty thing’s undeniable adorability might have turned off some PlayStation gamers, but the melancholy platformer earned a cult fan base. And Namco felt that the game deserved a full-fledged remake on the Wii, where it was likely even more overlooked the second time around.

Both the original and the remake of Klonoa had 2D gameplay in a 3D world that was mostly just suggested through camera angles and simple polygons. Klonoa’s 2.5D world would be much livelier in stereoscopic 3D, and classic platformers are already thriving on the 3DS. At some point Klonoa is going to run out of second chances, but we hope Namco gives the little guy one more shot at stardom.

Nintendo took a real risk on green-lighting Sin and Punishment: Star Successor, let alone localizing it in the west. Created by underrated developer Treasure, it was a sequel to an N64 game that didn’t leave Japan until it came to Wii’s Virtual Console in 2009. On top of that, it was the type of auto-scrolling shooter that Wii’s grandmotherly audience can’t be that enticed by. But Treasure still delivered a great game to the few players that noticed.

The Sin and Punishment series has always had more than a little in common with the Star Fox series, and SP would likely profit from a 3D conversion like the one Star Fox 64 enjoyed. And SP’s controls could be adjusted to work with the little-used second analogue stick, or it could replicate the input of Kid Icarus: Uprising. We’d miss seeing the action on our TV, but the fast pace of the action is better for a handheld anyway.

As the NES and SNES iterations of Punch-Out!! proved, waggle controls are not at all necessary to craft a fantastic boxing game. Less about actual punches and more about your adaptation to a set of patterns, the Punch-Out!! reboot on the Wii showed that Little Mac clearly had some fight left in him. Why not let him go a few rounds in the portable ring? Better yet, why not give King Hippo and Bear Hugger some three-dimensional girth that really pops off the screen?

Colorful visuals have a way of keeping their appeal even when shrunken down, and Punch-Out's cartoony style would likely follow the trend. The behind-the-back camera perspective would look nifty in 3D, and the sensation of seeing a punch actually coming at you would make it that much more apparent that it's time to dodge. A sideways Wii Remote was our preferred method of control for the original--a control scheme that would transition effortlessly to the 3DS. Simply put, we're shocked this port doesn't exist yet. Maybe Doc Louis has a thing against handhelds.

This combat-centric sidescroller is already one of the most beautiful games ever made, depicting the demons and ogres of Japanese myth with the fluid, painterly style that only Vanillaware can create. But close your eyes and try to imagine what these already-gorgeous visuals would look like after a trip through the 3D machine. The parallax layers of the background, mixed with the striking character designs, would make Muramasa look like an exquisitely detailed diorama come to life.

We already know that the game can work on a handheld system--Muramasa Rebirth is already available on the PlayStation Vita. So why not spend a little extra moolah and give the 3DS its own version? The more people who experience the journey of Kisuke and Momohime, the better. If Vanillaware was feeling extra generous, they could tweak Musou mode to be even more accessible, akin to the beginner-friendly nature of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D's New Mode.

You don’t need to imagine some fantasy world or sci-fi future to find a great setting for a game. You just have to think small and watch a few nature documentaries. There you’ll find a world of insects that is as brutal and stark as anything in God of War, and Deadly Creatures dropped players into such a world with a common spider and scorpion as the main characters. It was an incredibly unique game that no one played.

But its creative approach to third person action isn’t the only reason it deserves a new start on the 3DS. The world of insects was composed of underground tunnels, and the nooks and crannies of mundane homes. The levels were designed to feel alien. The look of those areas would only get stronger with the inclusion of a third dimension of depth. We just need to find who ended up with the rights after THQ closed, add a handful of touch controls, and we’re good to go.

Given that Link's adventures are pretty much a free money machine for Nintendo, there's really no reason not to make his darker escapade go portable. Unlike Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess would do just fine without motion controls (see: the GameCube version). The darker hues of its ethereal realm would look stunning in 3D, and the thought of seeing bristling fur on Link's wolf form fills us with a geeky glee. We'd also be able to fulfill our lifelong dream of carrying around Midna in our pockets.

Like Xenoblade Chronicles, this one might be trickier to pull off given the space capabilities of a cart versus a disk. But even if the textures were slightly downgraded, that's a price we'd gladly play to relive Twilight Princess in a new dimension. At this point, we're looking for any excuse to play through this majestic, multi-dimensional quest one more time.

One of the last games released by Hudson before the developer disappeared into Konami, Lost in Shadow had a simplistically novel approach to platforming. Platforms were constructed out of the shadows cast by structures in a derelict structure, and you explore that world as a boy reduced to a silhouette. It took 2D sidescrolling in a clever direction, but now the 3DS seems like it would have been the better venue for the game.

Lost in Shadow is all about the foreground and background elements working together to form a stage, but the flat standard definition of the Wii didn’t communicate it as well as stereoscopic 3D could. It saddened us that the game flopped on the Wii, but Konami could give this shadow a new lease on life as a high profile eShop download.

The 3DS already has one Paper Mario game (and approximately 30 games starring the mustachioed plumber), but hear us out. Super Paper Mario was originally planned as one of the final GameCube games, but Nintendo shrewdly moved it to the Wii early in that system’s lifespan. While it was a great experience, the controls were a little weaker in the transition, so pushing it to the 3DS would give the title the analogue controls it was designed to have.

Additionally, Paper Mario: Sticker Star proved that the flat variation on Mario’s world looks great on the 3DS, and the gameplay conceit of Super Paper Mario would enhance it further. The visual effect of continually flipping between 2D and 3D worlds would benefit from the extra heft that stereoscopic visuals would give the title. Early Wii adopters got to enjoy the smart gameplay and even cleverer writing of this platformer, but every 3DS owner deserves the same exciting adventure.

Some Silent Hill fans might think the series has been in the crapper since developer Team Silent was dismissed after the fourth game, but Climax Studios did their best to renew the franchise. Climax returned to the original, kept it creepy, but made the proceedings even ternal and personally torturous. The city of Silent Hill has always externalized the inner torment of the protagonist, but Shattered Memories did it in an impressively human way.

Outside of the emotional tale it tells, Shattered Memories also succeeds in creating a disturbing, dimly lit Silent Hill that’s worth exploring. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon already proved that the 3DS is great at creating atmosphere with shadows and a flashlight, so just imagine how that would work with flesh-eating, shrieking monsters. Also, a 3DS port could correct the mistakes of previous handheld port that came to the PSP.

The title of this touching JRPG might've been a self-fulfilling prophecy: As one of the last original Wii exclusives, hardly anybody noticed when it arrived stateside in 2012 amidst a wave of Wii U hype. That's a damn shame, because The Last Story is an enchanting tale of warring nations and the band of mercenaries stuck between them, set against the backdrop of a unique, apocalyptic landscape.

This is essentially a Final Fantasy entry in everything but name--not all that surprising, given that the game's director, Hironobu Sakaguchi, was involved in the production of nearly every Final Fantasy ever made. A 3DS version would give The Last Story a new lease on life, welcoming in a new legion of fans with open arms.

So, have we teased your imagination with the prospect of these would-be 3DS greats? Original IPs are always welcome, of course - but sometimes, it's a joyous experience to play something familiar in a whole new way. Did we miss any major candidates? Let us know in the comments!

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

Video game characters can live through just about anything. Actually, what I mean to say is that video game characters can die through just about anything, but they'll always come back. Doesn't matter if they're shot up, torn to pieces, or even plummet into a bottomless pit, they'll reappear within seconds to take another crack at their objective. There's one important caveat, though: they still die sometimes, usually when it's the end of a trilogy (or it's time for a reboot).

So the only conclusion I can draw here is that video game characters will only die under very specific circumstances. These almost never come up throughout the course of a game, so naturally they almost never die. What exactly are these fatal circumstances for your favorite characters? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I happen to have assembled a slide deck for just this occasion...

This one's obvious. Just because Snake's managed to outlast some half-dozen armed uprisings, a gaggle of super-powerful military robots, and a virus that was genetically engineered to kill his clone doesn't mean he can sneak by the third-leading cause of death in the world. That's right, the legendary soldier will be felled by . Why not lung cancer? I'm thinking all those nanomachines in his blood probably know how to seek and destroy malignant tumors, given his frequent exposure to radioactive weaponry. Nope, thanks to his pack-a-day habit, he'll just cough his way into oblivion.

Compare Cloud Strife's outfit in Final Fantasy 7 to his outfit in Advent Children. Go ahead, I'll wait. Did you spot the difference? Aside from dropping that radical bolted shoulder plate, I mean. Yep - no more weightlifting belt. Shinra was smart enough to make a lifting belt part of the standard SOLDIER uniform. After all, if you're going to have your elite paramilitary force swinging around swords that weigh literally hundreds of pounds, you'd better look after their lower backs. But it looks like Cloud got cocky after he struck out on his own. I give it five years before his vertebrae explode like popcorn kernels and he drops dead.

We don't know much about sexually transmitted diseases from before the Renaissance, since medicine wasn't really a big deal back then. So I can't say with certainty which STDs the Spartan warrior Kratos would be most likely to contract thousands of years ago. I'll go with the safe answer and postulate all of those available at the time. Kratos can't go half an hour without ending up in bed with a handful of comely ladies, and I have no reason to assume that his many lovers are any more selective about their partners than he is. So assuming Kratos survives his perpetually uncertain fate, he'll still drop dead of the ancient Grecian equivalent of syphilis.... after his junk shrivels up and falls off.

Despite saving both Hyrule and Termina, no one else would ever sing of Link's most heroic exploits. That's the problem with grand quests to set timelines back in order - if you do your job right, you're the only one who knows you did it. So Link wanders around feeling unfulfilled. As he gets older, he takes to picking fights in taverns to prove his skill in combat. Forgetful from drinking, he doesn't remember to stock up on fairies. He loses his last fight to a mean-looking goron and comes back a few hundred years later as the Hero's Shade, where he can at least pass his knowledge on to a new hero in green (and warn him to stay off the booze).

There are so many ways Amanda Ripley can die in Alien Isolation! It's a veritable buffet of fatality. She could be shot to death by a crazed scavenger, kicked to death by an android, or even have her noggin punctured by the alien's inner jaws, to name a few options. But don't worry, because I guarantee you she's going to be A-OK for at least the next forty years. How can I be so sure when I myself haven't actually finished Alien Isolation yet? According to the director's cut of Aliens, Amanda is slated to die of cancer at the age of 66. Duh.

Nothing can kill Max Payne. It's a sentiment that many of his enemies have marveled about at one time or another, but it's not true. Despite his miraculous ability to shrug off the massive bleeding and organ failure endemic to being shot hundreds of times, he still has one big weakness: a crippling addiction to painkillers. And yeah, he's built up so much of a resistance to the drugs over time that his body can handle enough to put down an elephant. But when he starts approaching his golden years, and the usual aches and pains of aging are amplified by ten lifetimes worth of grievous injury, he's guaranteed to go a pill too far.

Whenever one of the Kongs gets taken out, they know they can count on their partner to come along and free them from the next conveniently placed DK Barrel. You can tell this particular scheme was conceived by Donkey Kong. The brutish ape turns barrels into splinters just for kicks - so obviously it wouldn't take too long to escape from one if nobody was around to free him. But what about Diddy Kong, just as an example? Diddy has chimp strength, not gorilla strength. Leave him in a product of fine cooperage for a week or so and, well, at least you already have the coffin sorted.

Nathan Drake is near-indestructible, but he does have a certain weakness for one woman: Elena Fisher. So it's a good thing she's a pinnacle of loyalty, tenacity, and patience, always ready to help him whenever he needs it... which is a lot of the time. But even Elena's saintly patience has to break down some time. As you can see from the existence of Uncharted 4, Drake just can't stay out of the adventuring game, and he just can't stop dragging Elena into it. She knows he'll never actually die on his dangerous adventures. So there's only one way to break the cycle of bullshit: sneak up behind him while he's making breakfast and break his neck. He'd want to go out that way.

You know how sharks will supposedly die if they stop moving? It's not entirely true, since most species can use suction to get oxygen to their gills when they slow down. But Sonic the Hedgehog isn't one of those species - heck, he isn't a shark at all! It's easy enough to diagnose Sonic's breathing difficulties just by looking at his shiny black nose. No nostrils, see? And the way his mouth is stuck in a permanent smirk off to one side of his face means he needs to keep running super-fast to force enough life-giving breath down his misshapen airway. That little foot-tap of his isn't attitude, it's a desperate plea for help.

The Master Chief is unbeatable in a firefight, but it's not all skill on his part. He owes his life to his MJOLNIR powered armor suit, and, more specifically, to its regenerating shield system. It's absorbed enough firepower to scorch a small country (let's say Finland), but it always fwooshes back on after taking a few seconds to recharge. At least, it always does before the batteries run out. Seriously, it's a miracle it hasn't happened already, considering how much power that thing must chew up. One of these days he'll forget to plug it in before he goes to bed, and that'll be the end of John-117.

Jill Valentine's seen some shit. Regular zombies, super-zombies engineered solely to destroy her, creepy parasites in cryo-stasis; she's dealt with them all admirably. Some day she'll get to leave all the battles behind. But they'll never leave her. It's only a matter of time before some poor sleepwalker sets her into a PTSD-induced flashback, only for her to regain lucidity as she's standing over his kerosene-soaked corpse. Her lawyer will try to get her off on an insanity plea, but her reputation as a "Master of Unlocking" will be enough for the prosecution to establish a criminal history. She'll spend the rest of her life wandering around, looking for the right key to open her cell door.

Normally I'd feel bad for revealing all of these heroes' weaknesses, but to be honest, they've encountered so much pain in their action-packed lives that they probably feel downright deprived of the sweet release of death by now. You know of any other surefire ways to make a character croak? Let's hear it in the comments!

Do you thirst for ever more death and destruction? Are you OK? Alright, then why not try the and nine healing items that would totally kill you in real life.

Video game characters can live through just about anything. Actually, what I mean to say is that video game characters can die through just about anything, but they'll always come back. Doesn't matter if they're shot up, torn to pieces, or even plummet into a bottomless pit, they'll reappear within seconds to take another crack at their objective. There's one important caveat, though: they still die sometimes, usually when it's the end of a trilogy (or it's time for a reboot).

So the only conclusion I can draw here is that video game characters will only die under very specific circumstances. These almost never come up throughout the course of a game, so naturally they almost never die. What exactly are these fatal circumstances for your favorite characters? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I happen to have assembled a slide deck for just this occasion...

This one's obvious. Just because Snake's managed to outlast some half-dozen armed uprisings, a gaggle of super-powerful military robots, and a virus that was genetically engineered to kill his clone doesn't mean he can sneak by the third-leading cause of death in the world. That's right, the legendary soldier will be felled by . Why not lung cancer? I'm thinking all those nanomachines in his blood probably know how to seek and destroy malignant tumors, given his frequent exposure to radioactive weaponry. Nope, thanks to his pack-a-day habit, he'll just cough his way into oblivion.

Compare Cloud Strife's outfit in Final Fantasy 7 to his outfit in Advent Children. Go ahead, I'll wait. Did you spot the difference? Aside from dropping that radical bolted shoulder plate, I mean. Yep - no more weightlifting belt. Shinra was smart enough to make a lifting belt part of the standard SOLDIER uniform. After all, if you're going to have your elite paramilitary force swinging around swords that weigh literally hundreds of pounds, you'd better look after their lower backs. But it looks like Cloud got cocky after he struck out on his own. I give it five years before his vertebrae explode like popcorn kernels and he drops dead.

We don't know much about sexually transmitted diseases from before the Renaissance, since medicine wasn't really a big deal back then. So I can't say with certainty which STDs the Spartan warrior Kratos would be most likely to contract thousands of years ago. I'll go with the safe answer and postulate all of those available at the time. Kratos can't go half an hour without ending up in bed with a handful of comely ladies, and I have no reason to assume that his many lovers are any more selective about their partners than he is. So assuming Kratos survives his perpetually uncertain fate, he'll still drop dead of the ancient Grecian equivalent of syphilis.... after his junk shrivels up and falls off.

Despite saving both Hyrule and Termina, no one else would ever sing of Link's most heroic exploits. That's the problem with grand quests to set timelines back in order - if you do your job right, you're the only one who knows you did it. So Link wanders around feeling unfulfilled. As he gets older, he takes to picking fights in taverns to prove his skill in combat. Forgetful from drinking, he doesn't remember to stock up on fairies. He loses his last fight to a mean-looking goron and comes back a few hundred years later as the Hero's Shade, where he can at least pass his knowledge on to a new hero in green (and warn him to stay off the booze).

There are so many ways Amanda Ripley can die in Alien Isolation! It's a veritable buffet of fatality. She could be shot to death by a crazed scavenger, kicked to death by an android, or even have her noggin punctured by the alien's inner jaws, to name a few options. But don't worry, because I guarantee you she's going to be A-OK for at least the next forty years. How can I be so sure when I myself haven't actually finished Alien Isolation yet? According to the director's cut of Aliens, Amanda is slated to die of cancer at the age of 66. Duh.

Nothing can kill Max Payne. It's a sentiment that many of his enemies have marveled about at one time or another, but it's not true. Despite his miraculous ability to shrug off the massive bleeding and organ failure endemic to being shot hundreds of times, he still has one big weakness: a crippling addiction to painkillers. And yeah, he's built up so much of a resistance to the drugs over time that his body can handle enough to put down an elephant. But when he starts approaching his golden years, and the usual aches and pains of aging are amplified by ten lifetimes worth of grievous injury, he's guaranteed to go a pill too far.

Whenever one of the Kongs gets taken out, they know they can count on their partner to come along and free them from the next conveniently placed DK Barrel. You can tell this particular scheme was conceived by Donkey Kong. The brutish ape turns barrels into splinters just for kicks - so obviously it wouldn't take too long to escape from one if nobody was around to free him. But what about Diddy Kong, just as an example? Diddy has chimp strength, not gorilla strength. Leave him in a product of fine cooperage for a week or so and, well, at least you already have the coffin sorted.

Nathan Drake is near-indestructible, but he does have a certain weakness for one woman: Elena Fisher. So it's a good thing she's a pinnacle of loyalty, tenacity, and patience, always ready to help him whenever he needs it... which is a lot of the time. But even Elena's saintly patience has to break down some time. As you can see from the existence of Uncharted 4, Drake just can't stay out of the adventuring game, and he just can't stop dragging Elena into it. She knows he'll never actually die on his dangerous adventures. So there's only one way to break the cycle of bullshit: sneak up behind him while he's making breakfast and break his neck. He'd want to go out that way.

You know how sharks will supposedly die if they stop moving? It's not entirely true, since most species can use suction to get oxygen to their gills when they slow down. But Sonic the Hedgehog isn't one of those species - heck, he isn't a shark at all! It's easy enough to diagnose Sonic's breathing difficulties just by looking at his shiny black nose. No nostrils, see? And the way his mouth is stuck in a permanent smirk off to one side of his face means he needs to keep running super-fast to force enough life-giving breath down his misshapen airway. That little foot-tap of his isn't attitude, it's a desperate plea for help.

The Master Chief is unbeatable in a firefight, but it's not all skill on his part. He owes his life to his MJOLNIR powered armor suit, and, more specifically, to its regenerating shield system. It's absorbed enough firepower to scorch a small country (let's say Finland), but it always fwooshes back on after taking a few seconds to recharge. At least, it always does before the batteries run out. Seriously, it's a miracle it hasn't happened already, considering how much power that thing must chew up. One of these days he'll forget to plug it in before he goes to bed, and that'll be the end of John-117.

Jill Valentine's seen some shit. Regular zombies, super-zombies engineered solely to destroy her, creepy parasites in cryo-stasis; she's dealt with them all admirably. Some day she'll get to leave all the battles behind. But they'll never leave her. It's only a matter of time before some poor sleepwalker sets her into a PTSD-induced flashback, only for her to regain lucidity as she's standing over his kerosene-soaked corpse. Her lawyer will try to get her off on an insanity plea, but her reputation as a "Master of Unlocking" will be enough for the prosecution to establish a criminal history. She'll spend the rest of her life wandering around, looking for the right key to open her cell door.

Normally I'd feel bad for revealing all of these heroes' weaknesses, but to be honest, they've encountered so much pain in their action-packed lives that they probably feel downright deprived of the sweet release of death by now. You know of any other surefire ways to make a character croak? Let's hear it in the comments!

Do you thirst for ever more death and destruction? Are you OK? Alright, then why not try the and nine healing items that would totally kill you in real life.