All too often, there are a few games that we tend to remember for some reason, whether for good or bad. And when looking back at them, the games we know the best tend to have their flaws stick out more because we manage to remember every little detail. I will be looking at three games that I either really enjoyed or really wanted to enjoy, and what improvements could’ve been done to them.

Starfox Command (DS)

This, apparently, was the game that Nintendo wanted Starfox to be all along. A mix of strategy and dogfights, Starfox Command was the game that apparently was too complex to do on the SNES for some reason. I welcome the changes and even though I would’ve just preferred an interconnected map of on-rails levels, plotting out your own path for enemy encounters works just as well.

So where did it fall short? Artificially difficult gameplay, mostly. Each skirmish that you fight in is timed. In Starfox 64, a plot device was the reason behind some timed levels, and the actions you take within the allotted time determined the path you take next. This worked very well and wasn’t overdone.

In Command, running out of time is like losing a life. The game implies that it represents your ship’s fuel, but why are all your pilots sharing the same timer? Many times I would waste more seconds finding enemies than taking them out. My suggestion is to put more emphasis on the each ship’s own strengths and weaknesses, since they all operate differently already. Together with more challenging enemies, it would make the game more interesting.

Generation of Chaos (PSP)

Disclaimer: I am a strategy nut, and enjoy the occasional “thinking man’s” game over non-stop action that requires quick reflexes. And if it’s something where you can tweak the crap out of your characters beyond recognition, I can easily spend hours getting into this alone. That said, Generation of Chaos made me feel out of the loop. It is a unique blend of Civilization games, Final Fantasy Tactics and a dash of Monopoly and Advance Wars. It’s not a troop management game but a whole damn kingdom management game. Sounds exciting, but from the very beginning there’s too much to take in. Never before have I seen so many arcane rules and acronyms. The manual doesn’t do a good job of explaining them, and there are no good tutorials in the game to help you out.

Let’s get to the highlight of this game…the designers wanted to focus so much on its actual “battle mode”, where you command a legion of up to 30 troops (with the same job) as you are in the heat of battle yourself. But you really don’t feel in control of anyone but yourself. Whether it’s the fault of the developers or the limitations of the hardware, everything runs at a snail’s pace and the commands feel unresponsive. It’s not much of a stretch to say these battles are like the video game version of electric football. Your pudgy little guys are just crawling and bumbling around, with no clue on how to perform defensive maneuvers.

What would I suggest? This game already has problems making micromanagement accessible even to seasoned strategy players. Pikmin (Gamecube) had quick and snappy controls and it was easy to lasso around your units and make them do your bidding. This control system would’ve greatly helped in Chaos. Another alternative would be to ditch the interactivity in the battles altogether and just follow Advance Wars‘ way of determining battle outcomes: who has the better stats and the bigger platoons. It’s not a terribly original idea, but if you are trying to run and defend a whole kingdom turn by turn, I don’t want to be distracted by broken RTS gameplay.

New Super Mario Bros. (DS)

This game made a huge entrance with its demo, together with the announcement of the Nintendo DS at E3. Like waving plastic fruit in front of a starved, homeless man, Nintendo taunted Mario fans with new screenshots and gameplay videos for almost two years. Then at its launch, the game was met with critical acclaim and fans were satisfied with their first taste of pure, original 2D Mario in 15 years. As good as the game was, there was a lot more that could be done.

Don’t get me wrong- the gameplay is pure Mario, right down to the responsive controls and a few challenging areas. It’s hard to find faults with this game. But after toppling Bowser, it left many wishing for more. Have we become too attached to the stars we collect in the 3D games? Or yearned for more sidequests? Blasphemy- those things aren’t needed in a 2D Mario game.

What New Super Mario Bros. really needed was more secret levels. And better ways to uncover them. It did have two hidden worlds, but these were not that hard to discover (and you both discover them with the same exact technique). The hidden areas were presented very obviously on the maps. It’s not as enthralling as Super Mario World, or even Super Mario Bros. 3. In these games you could find more alternate routes and shortcuts to reach the king of Koopas, and cool extra levels that shine with creativity.

And speaking of Super Mario Bros. 3, it would help to have more power-ups. The mushroom and fire flower are there, that’s a given. But the Mega Mushroom feels very cheap compared to the invincibility star it replaces. The blue turtle shell was a nice idea which had potential. Finally, I get to knock enemies the same way those annoying Koopas ran into me so many times! But there were very few cases where I actually needed it, either to break bricks or sideswipe enemies. It’s not as convincing as the raccoon leaf of SMB3, and you can’t really fly either. Other original power-ups would’ve been great as well.

Well, these are the three games that I’d had to think about the most. Any games that you’d want to add to this list?