Firstly, whilst the obvious suggestion is "why not Super NES Remix?", I think the NES naturally lends quite well to the generally quick and snappy gameplay of the
Remix series (which I'm like 80% sure was inspired by 9-Volt's sections in the
WarioWare series.)
This leads me to my second point:
actually focus on the Remix aspect of the game. NES Remix 2 is a good example of this wherein the entire game only actually contains 20 "Remixes", with the rest of the minigames being... kind of just that, minigames made out of the original games with tasks like "reach the flag in a Mario level" or "defeat Mother Brain", but the thing with
NES Remix is that people are there...
for the Remixes? There's tons of potential for the kind of stuff you could do there. Whilst I don't think crossing over is always necessary, it'd still be neat to use each game's unique aspects in unique ways as opposed to just providing snippets of the actual game (obviously intended to advertise the Virtual Console.)
In fact, if you felt there wasn't enough: go full
Mario Maker and let people make their own Remixes! I'm sure you'll probably find a lot of SMB 1-1 recreations where you could play as Link, Samus or Kirby, but hey. There's plenty of potential. Also, in terms of potential: let's suggest something obvious. More sources!
NES Remix had 16 games to start with:
Balloon Fight | Donkey Kong Jr. | Ice Climber | Tennis |
Baseball | Donkey Kong 3 | Mario Bros. | The Legend of Zelda |
Clu Clu Land | Excitebike | Pinball | Urban Champion |
Donkey Kong | Golf | Super Mario Bros. | Wrecking Crew |
And
NES Remix 2 features 12 more:
Dr. Mario | Kirby's Adventure | Punch-Out!! | Super Mario Bros. 3 |
Ice Hockey | Metroid | Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels | Wario's Woods |
Kid Icarus | NES Open Tournament Golf | Super Mario Bros. 2 | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link |
This is an awesome starting point: but let's do the pretty obvious thing and toss in a few more!
Devil World | Donkey Kong Jr. Math | Duck Hunt | Gyromite |
Pro Wrestling | StarTropics | Tetris | Wild Gunman |
Yes, I'm aware
Duck Hunt, Gyromite and
Wild Gunman use peripherals, but I can imagine a fun remix involving something like Mario having to jump on all of the ducks, or a player having to activate the switches for Professor Hector in
Gyromite perhaps. Also, whilst
Tetris is technically third-party, I felt it'd be an appropriate inclusion that wouldn't tread on too many toes (as much as I considered stuff like
Castlevania and
Mega Man, it just missed the cut.) It might feel like we're scraping the bottom of the barrel, but there's a lot to work with here - whether it be the Devil from
Devil World moving the screen around whilst you're in a
Zelda dungeon, or perhaps Starman from
Pro Wrestling having to fight the Urban Champion!
Look, this concept is too cool to be left to rot in the last generation. I'm aware
WarioWare, well,
exists, but
NES Remix specifically has a lot of potential that could still be worked with. Also it has a weirdly good soundtrack that nobody ever talks about lol
I would personally include modern DK-themed reskin of DK. Jr with K. Rool and Bananas in place of Mario and Cranky.