The Mega Man games have come to mobile! And by the looks of it they’re pretty terrible. But that didn’t stop the content gears in my brain from whirring into action. What, I thought to myself, other old games would I like to see on mobile.

And so this list in all of its nefarious glory was born. It is a controversial list, I will not deny it, but then that’s sort of the point of these things really.

Anyway, here are some classic older franchises that need to make their way onto mobile sooner rather than later. And if they could make a better job of it than Mega Man, that’d be splendid.

Castlevania

Who wouldn’t want to play Castlevania on the go? I mean, sure, there wouldn’t be any buttons, but I’m sure Konami could find a way round that. I mean, there are platformers that work brilliantly on mobile.

And let’s not beat around the bush here, these are some of the best looking games of the 90s, dripping in the sort of gothic pixels that would make anyone salivate. So yeah, get this done.

Alex Kidd

I love Alex Kidd. I’ve got in a lot of arguments about how he’s not called Alex the Kidd. And when I say arguments I mean I’ve nearly come to blows about it. That’s how passionate I am about not mis-naming my hero.

Basically I want a port of Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Because quite frankly it was the best game on the Master System. And anyone who disagrees with me is just grumpy about having to play rock-paper-scissors.

The Disney platformers

There was a huge swathe of amazing Disney platformers on the 8 and 16 bit consoles. My personal favourite was The Lion King on Mega Drive, which wasn’t just lovely, it was hard as nails as well.

Then there was Aladdin as well. Hell, we’ve all got our favourite. And being able to whip out my phone and play them at inappropriate times would be absolutely wonderful.

James Pond

Any game where the title is a pun is good by me. And if that pun extends to pretty much every element of the gameplay experience, then all the better. Fish. Spies. Jumping. Winner.

I’d love to see the sequel as well. Because Robocod is another excellent pun. Also the games are really good and deserve far more credit than other people might give them.

Turrican

Basically the best platform shooters from the past. Tough as old boots and lovely looking, Turrican 1 and 2 set a super high benchmark that you might argue is still to be bettered.

Plus look at that name. Roll it around your tongue. Turrican. Turrriiicccaaaaan. Games don’t have cool names like they used to in the past and quite frankly I’m sick of it.