Gamertell

Last night, I had a revelation. After spending the better part of the evening playing through the phenomenal ToeJam & Earl, I decided that the series deserves a properly funky now-gen sequel. Never mind the oddball Xbox title ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth; the hip hop aliens from Funkotron deserve a full blown retro revival.

Just look at how developers are finally “getting it” with bringing older franchises back to life. See Space Invaders Extreme, Bionic Commando Rearmed and Mega Man 9 this year alone. Nintendo has certainly made older games one of its biggest moneymaking strategies (see Virtual Console, the soon-to-be-released Wii remakes, the new Punch-Out!, etc.), and franchise reboots are all the rage right now.

What made T&E so special was its awesome co-op and hilariously trippy atmosphere. You (as ToeJam or Earl) traversed layers of randomly generated levels searching for pieces of your missing ship, avoiding crazed earthlings (the boogie man is my favorite) and progressing via elevator. A new version could go up on WiiWare with updated graphics and smoother animation - and perhaps a few new crazed earthlings. It would also make a phenomenal DS game or XBLA title too.

And on that note - what other games would you love to see rebooted? Donkey Kong Country? Kid Icarus? Let us know in the comments!

Read [Joystiq]