Summary

Games are usually remade for a variety of reasons — sometimes they’re just not accessible anymore, sometimes they’re just a popular series that people like to have on newer systems, and sometimes it may just be a cash grab.

Whatever the case may be, remakes are fairly common in this day and age, and newer systems are chock full of them.Nintendo, especially, has been loving the trend of remaking games - though this isn’t exactly a new behavior for Nintendo to indulge in. You might just find, however, that the most amount of remakes and remasters, happen on the newest consoles.

Playing the first level in Super Mario Bros.

173 Nintendo Games Have Been Remade

Give or take a handful, and there have been 173 different Nintendo-published gamesthat have seen themselves resurface across different consoles. Thisincludes remakes, remasters, and re-releases. Some of these games are lucky enough to get physical form (usually if they were popular enough, like the Legend of Zelda or Pokemon series), while others are confined to being online exclusives only.

An unfortunate handful of nostalgic games are further confined to needing a Nintendo Switch Online membership if you hope to gain access to them. Both the Wii (counting the Wii U separately) and the Nintendo Switch have seen an absurd number of remakes, remasters, and re-releases, though ultimately, the Nintendo Switch comes out on top with the highest number of previously released games gracing its console.

Kirby and Elfilin doing a victory dance with text saying Stage Cleared in Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

Yes, remakes, remasters, and re-releases are different - but ultimately they all achieve the same goal. An old game ends up on a new console for new players to experience and older players to revel in the nostalgia of.

The most popular series to remake is going to be anything with Mario’s name in it.Super Mario,Mario Kart, Mario versus Donkey Kong; Mario is the poster boy for Nintendo, so it makes sense that games with his namesake would be the most popular to remake and remaster. Withover 31 different “Mario” named entries, Mario games make upalmost 18 percent of the total remakesand re-releases.

Taking second place is, also somewhat surprisingly,Kirby. Kirby games don’t seem all that popular today, but when the Gameboy and Wii were big, they saw quite a few different Kirby remakes, re-releases, and remasters. With 17 different remakes,the Kirby franchise can lay claim to just under ten percentof the 173 remakes.

Coming in an easy third place, with 14 different remakes isPokemon. Pokemon received a resurgence with the Trading Card Game, but it’s also faced more popularity on the video game front, too.

Sitting at aroundeight percent of the total remakes, Pokemonis cheating just a little bit with games like Pokemon Red and Blue or Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond. Although these duos are released at the same time, together, for all intents and purposes, they are different entities that receive their own entry as a remake.