Mario Collection: 5 lesser-known gems we’d love to see remastered

Yoshi’s Safari (1993)I wouldn’t blame you if you missed this one. It was only available if you had a Super Nintendo and the Super Nintendo’s Super Scope. I was a nerd growing up around nerds and I have only met one person in my entire life who had one. While light games weren’t abnormal, the Super Scope, being a massive thing that sat on your shoulder while you looked through a scope, absolutely was.

But it is because of this giant tube that we got Yoshi’s Safari, a game in desperate need of help and a loving remake. The game definitely had some problems.

It had a weird time limit mechanic on it which is normally something you only see arcade shooters have to encourage you to put in more quarters. On a home launch, this is absolutely bizarre. It also has a fairly unforgiving difficulty for such a strange title, which made it even stranger when you beat the game and are given a “cheat code” that makes the game more difficult.

But here’s why I want this remade, the character design. Bowser takes over a whole new place and kidnaps the king and prince of it. Then, he looks at his Koopalings (this was before Bowser Jr.) and says to Iggy, the most terrifying of all the Koopalings, “You know what dawg, you take over the whole stopping Mario bit. Unlimited budget. Treat yourself.” And IGGY DOES.

Iggy gets to work designing insane mechs for Bowser, his fellow Koopalings — except for Wendy who thinks she’s too pretty to hide behind a robot –and even the enemies. Do you want to fight a giant mecha Koopa with Blastoise like cannons? You got it. Ludwig sitting in the head of a giant mechanical dragon with an alarmingly calm face? Got that too. Bowser in a giant Bowser suit that looks like a mix between a medieval knight and Mecha-Godzilla? We’re all in this fever dream together baby ’cause we got that too!

I think this could be something fun on the Nintendo Switch, using the Joy-Cons to aim at the screen or in handheld mode tapping to shoot.