I've been tinkering with the idea of compiling a list of series (games, comics, movies, anime) that had representation on the NES/Famicom, but poorly. Then find notable substitutions for those games (whether they're officially related to the property or not). Couple examples:
Don't Play:
Marvel's X-Men - it's clunky, has bad AI partners you can't disable that kill off your team, it's hard to even tell who's who from the sprites...
Play This:
Wolverine - a much smoother action game with side characters such as Jubilee, Psylocke and Havoc
Don't Play:
Dirty Pair - the gameplay is stale, most levels are one-hit deaths where you start over from the beginning, it looks like a licensed rush job
Play This:
Layla - heavily based on Dirty Pair... I dunno, haven't actually played this game yet. :-[ But from what I saw, it looks more fun
You get the idea
Layla is definitely an improvement over Dirty Pair, but not as much as X-Men vs Wolverine haha.
I like this, I will think about this. First thing that popped into my head was M.U.S.C.L.E. (that got released in the US) vs KinnikuMan M.U.S.C.L.E for the FDS... but that is kind of a lateral move.