Either I'm painfully unimaginative or a graphics whore but there's not really a single game where I'm truly curious what a demake would/could look like (especially since all official demakes I've ever played, namely Gameboy versions of major PC/console releases, were ass).

Well, it doesn't have to be graphics per say.

Maybe you would like to see a dumbed down game reverted to oldschool complexity and depth. Like an RPG such as Dragon Age going back to having a huge array of stats and abilities to diversify your character, and no WoW / Diablo style 'talent trees.' Requiring food and drink to survive, resting limitations, no fast travel nonsense, a fair amount of (meaningful) backtracking, no automatic regeneration of health and mana, less fodder filler combat, etc.

Edit: Aah crap, misread your post. Sorry, I'm tired. Should really go to bed (it's 4 AM, *gulp*).

And yeah, it's an interesting thought actually. Sadly the games that I want to see reverted to old-school glory are those that are remakes of old-school games so a demake would basically be the original game.

See? See? Be careful, kids -- it can happen to you too! :o

True, they often are. I suppose that's mostly because the people making them want to make some quick money borrowing someone else's ideas which they have nostalgic feelings towards and label everything that was stripped as 'streamlining to appeal to a broader audience.'

Though there are some exceptions. XCOM: Enemy Unknown was actually quite good. Yeah, it was missing some features from the original that were just fine and could easily have been transferred with extra development time, but they did add a bunch of new features as well.

I never thought of that. Very good point. But those are not de-makes per say, just bad ports really.
(example, the snes games on gba... cutting/cropping off a huge part of the screen: snes=256x224 vs gba=240x160)

YOU'LL NEVER TAKE WARFRAME FROM ME!!!!!

I'd like to see Blood Dragon done up like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D

Ninja'd

Ocarina of Time 2D

This is not a port. :D

I'd love to see a turn-based version (or at least the option) for every RTS and fantasy RPG.

After seeing a Borderlands 2 de-make pic on facebook then seeing this thread, I immediately thought: Borderlands 2D = Chaos Engine-type game. I think the Bitmap Bros artstyle would suit Borderlands very nicely :)

I wouldn't want to sacrifice better graphics or physics, but I think older FPS gameplay was better than the cover based systems used today. So I'd like to see a lot of shooters rolled back to that kind of gameplay.

Bitmap Bros art would look nicer at any rate.

System Shock 2 as a 2D side scrolling Metroidvania.