Dude, are you kidding???  We would BE the industry back then!

There's still an interest in some of the older school rpgs, like Final Fantasy 3/6, Chrono Trigger, Seiken Denetisningkinksisu Thr33, which all happen to be super nintendo, but you get the idea. Maybe.
Nothing is stopping you and/or us. Hop to it, you could totally do it. Make a team, find a programmer, make a kickass RPG. I'd be willing to help.

Actually there are a number of games you could reproduce to a good effect, IMO.

-The three previously mentioned RPGs
-Any Castlevania game ever with a decent story would be sweet
-Metroid
-any Shmup ever.
-and I've run dry... already.

Basically what seems to sell best (by sell I mean get free online game style attention) these days (Besides fancypants 3d graphics) are either unique ideas (HeliAttack 3) or unique twists/blends of common styles (Multiplayer RPGs are huuge, Maplestory being a sidescrolling (Mmo)RPG... quite like castlevania, come to think of it, with a completely different outlook).

So come up with a cool idea that has roots in something known (Platformer, RPG, shmup, puzzle, etcetera) and combine it with another idea from ANOTHER game, and you're SET. Now you just gotta show up every nes-graphics-creator ever and show them how to do things. It's like a videogame breeding ground.

Legend of Zelda meets mortal combat, anyone? RPG-style exp and equipment and map-travelling with StreetFighterlike random encounter battles? Don't mind if I do.
Ninja turtles duke nukem style?
A one-console multiplayer RPG? two to four people, free time combat chaos involving much swearing and yelling for healing, etcetera. Dunno what you'd do for the world map there, though. I guess just one person would control it, while other people... play tetris. Or something.

Some NES games just plain sucked, though. Not only in graphics, but in gameplay. Don't use those as examples.

lol. WHY, you ask, did I just waste my time writing this crap that is netiher useful or on topic? I have homework, that's why.

On a side note, completely unique ideas are always better, but much harder to come by.

Edited by Saboteur

-Any Castlevania game ever with a decent story would be sweet

I must ask why games need stories? I remember when I would sit there for hours playing space invaders AND I LOVED IT. nothing but game, and boy was it great.

The thing is, back then, there really was no "devotion" to pixel art; because only 1/100 people [guesstimate] had a computer, there was no study of it, and all that jazz. I'm proficient with NES restrictions because I've worked with them for so long; and if you study NES graphics, you'll see that over time, they improved greatly as artists had more experience. While that doesn't apply to every game, it's a known fact that with experience comes more skill, in every art form; you can't read a book and be instantly good, you have to try for yourself to see what works and what doesn't. In general, the "industry" back then, didn't really exist. Games were produced by very small teams, with most of the focus being on the actual programming, it wasn't until later when they seen what gaming systems with less restrictions could do that they cared about making the graphics awesome. see batman return of the joker for a f**king awesome programmed/designed game, btw.