Super Mario Bros. 2
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Wii Virtual Console
Release: 7/2
ESRB: E

Let's face it; people dig old games released on new consoles.  There's something about the charm of these old classics that make them sell again today despite their eight or sixteen-bit graphics and limited control schemes.  Super Mario Bros. 2 is a perfect example of a wacky old game that's a ton of fun to revisit today. 

It may have been the weirdest of the Mario titles (and that's saying a lot - after all this is a series about a pair of Italian plumbers fighting against turtles and freaky dragon-things while eating mushrooms and diving into sewer pipes), but its also one of the best.  This was the first time that Toad and Princess Toadstool were offered up as playable character choices and the first time that choosing one character over another actually meant something in Mario's world.

It also marked an interesting departure from the original Super Mario Brothers gameplay, requiring players to stomp on enemies and then toss them at other enemies, rather than simply hopping on their heads.  Veggies growing in the ground could also be used as weapons.  Super Mario Bros. 2 on the Wii goes a long way toward showing us why those games of days gone by were as fun to play as they were and proves yet again that if you have solid gameplay you don't need to have next-generation graphics and flashiness.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Developer: Backbone
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade
Release: 7/11
ESRB: E

Let's face it, people dig old games released on new... erm, I think I just fell through some kind of wormhole or something - with Super Mario Bros. 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog on the list I feel like it's 1992 rather than 2007.  In any case, Sonic was Sega's answer to Nintendo's Mario and he served the company well as a mascot, something that Crash Bandicoot, for example, was never able to pull off for Sony and something that hasn't been attempted by Microsoft as of yet (I suggested "Billy," an animated wad of cash with a caricature of Bill Gates for a face, but the company hasn't returned my calls).

Sonic the Hedgehog is a platformer on the surface (you run to the right, hop on enemies to take them out, avoid falling, etc), but had a focus that rubbed against the grain of everything games like Super Mario Bros. had established as the status quo.  Sonic's emphasis on speed and flash made it stand out from the crowd back when it was released (it came packed in with my Genesis if I remember correctly) and, while it doesn't seem as zippy as you may remember, the gameplay still holds up. 

Updating Sonic for the next generation, Backbone added an enhanced visual mode and, of course, leaderboard and Xbox Live Achievement support to keep players coming back for more.  As rehashed old games on modern consoles go, you can do a lot worse than Sonic.

NCAA Football '08
Developer: EA Sports
Publisher: EA Sports
Platform: Xbox 360, Xbox, PS3, PS2
Release: 7/17
ESRB: E

Football is football, no matter how you serve it up, and for the past few years we've been pretty much aware of what to expect from the two biggest titles in the sport, EA's Madden and NCAA franchises.  While the first couple of next gen games in the series suffered from a relatively short list of modes and options, NCAA 08 has them in spades.  Since it is these extras that will make the games stand out, this is a Good Thing for the franchise. 

In addition to the expected quick play and local or online multiplayer modes (ranked and unranked) this title offers a returning Dynasty mode as well as the newly implemented Campus Legend and Super Sim modes.  Minigames return as well although they're the same ones that were in last year's game.  Despite that small repetition NCAA 08 offers the stellar gameplay that the series is known for and now has the variety to keep players at it for a long while - at least until next year anyway.