Reboots often get a bad rap for drastically shifting away from what made the original material special, whether that be in gameplay tone, cast, whatever. It seems like any time a longrunning franchise is receiving a reboot, it sounds like the first in a veritable sea of red flags. This has particularly been the case for movie franchises in the 2010s, but let’s not forget the ocean of gritty reboots in the 2000s, when Japanese companies were trying their damn hardest to appeal to the West: DmC Devil May Cry, Bionic Commando 2006, Bomberman Act Zero, the list goes on.
But video game reboots, more often than not, have a tendency to be better than their counterparts in movies and television. Crystal Dynamics’s Tomb Raider 2013 revitalized the franchise with gorgeous action setpieces and a deeper look into Laura Croft’s backstory. Santa Monica Studios’s God of War 2018 gave us a new action adventure with an emotional cinematic hook while technically continuing the story of Kratos’s vengeance against the gods. Finally, Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden 2004 faithfully translated the brutal hack and slash action of the 2D games into the third dimension and spawned a whole series of its own.
So where does Nintendo fall into all of this? Well, their reboots have had their share of successes and failures over the years. Let’s start with the good ones, shall we? Donkey Kong Country received its third mainline entry in the year 1996, and ever since the franchise has remained allocated to spinoffs and cameo appearances in Mario games. But in the late 2000s, Nintendo tasked Retro Studios, the same team that successfully brought back the Metroid series at the start of the decade, to recapture the magic and challenge of the Donkey Kong Country franchise. And thus [Donkey Kong Country Returns](https://youtu.be/yVq7XNV7K0w) was born, releasing in November 2010 to great success and spawning an even better sequel in Tropical Freeze.
Punch Out is a franchise about as old as Mario, even originating in the arcades, but is nowhere near as prolific. After its fourth outing on the Super Nintendo, the series went dark outside of an Assist Trophy appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. But in the mid 2000s, Nintendo teamed up with Next Level Games, the studio responsible for the Mario Strikers games, to bring this boxer back into the ring. The result of these efforts was [Punch Out Wii](https://youtu.be/nHxoCloQcUg), a cel-shaded revisit to the boxing days of yore, even featuring a guest appearance from Donkey Kong himself! This reboot would be Little Mac’s ticket into the Smash Bros. series from the fourth installment onwards.
Finally, we have Kid Icarus. From humble beginnings, the series saw two 8 bit ventures before disappearing just as fast. Then in 2008, Brawl came around and many people were introduced to this weird angel kid and his powerful goddess. This garnered interest in a new potential Kid Icarus game, and Masahiro Sakurai was happy to oblige. Released for the 3DS in 2012, [Kid Icarus Uprising](https://youtu.be/a7detDcmMKY) completely reinvented the series formula, replacing the originals’ platformer roots with an action packed on rails third person shooter. Adding to all of this, we got new entertaining voice acting and banter, tons of weapon choices, an overwhelming amount of challenges and collectables, and an entire online multiplayer component to boot. No wonder people are still begging for a port or sequel nearly ten years later.
But just as often, there are reboots that fail in one way or another, and they tend to disappear its series as a consequence. Wario Land was thriving on Nintendo’s handhelds in the 90s but vanished soon after. Nintendo and Good Feel partnered up to revive the franchise on the Wii with [Wario Land Shake It](https://youtu.be/XVsxFXvcZQY) (known as The Shake Dimension in Europe). And while it was a delightful hand-drawn 2D platformer in its own right, it failed to set the sales charts on fire. Star Fox saw its last entry on the DS with the polarizing Star Fox Command. Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto and PlatinumGames brought the franchise back to its roots with [Star Fox Zero](https://youtu.be/s6PEecNY0Sc) in 2016, but that was hampered by its GamePad-centered control scheme that split audiences in half. Mario Party has had it rough ever since NDCube took over the series, but the series finally went back to basics with [Super Mario Party](https://youtu.be/by_XTria-mQ) in 2018. However the biggest complaints about that game were the lackluster boards and online play right out of the box, both of which were thankfully addressed in the next game. Finally and most tragically, AlphaDream attempted to bring Mario & Luigi back to its roots with the [Superstar Saga remake](https://youtu.be/OI54_yxpwkY) in 2017. But due to its nonexistent marketing and unfortunate timing (sandwiched in between Mario Odyssey and Metroid Samus Returns), it and the subsequent Bowser’s Inside Story remake became some of the worst selling Mario games of all time. Here’s hoping the upcoming [Advance Wars](https://youtu.be/fftL_XeK2qU) remakes don’t suffer a similar fate.