1. Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight

Moonstone could best be described as one of the first MMORPG’s, only without the first M or possible the O. So maybe that’s not the best description at all. Moonstone allowed up to four players to duke it out as one of four knights, each starting in four different regions of a map, the Misty Moors, Wetlands, Great Forest and Northern Wastelands. Players took turns moving their little knight icon to one of the points of interest on the map. These included a city and a wizard’s tower, but were mostly made up of encounters with monsters that each required very different tactics to defeat. The knights huge sword swings and chops created about as much blood as you would expect and the game was deliciously violent.

At the end of a battle there were the spoils of victory: new armour, weapons, magical items and cash. Experience points were also added that could go into a number of attributes. There was a key hidden in each of the regions as well and herein lay the real fun of Moonstone. All four keys were needed to enter the final battle and win the Moonstone and players had to attack each other (a second joy stick was plugged in at this point) and loot their corpse. Throw in a patrolling dragon and the ability to decapitate your mates and you’ve got a four player role player game that turns siblings and friends into bitter enemies.

With its turn based structure creating a fun four player version of Moonstone for the next gen consoles would be a cake walk. Keep the board game style play, throw in more elements to each region and keep the gore level intact.