Quoted from Captain_Howdy:Nintendo is guarding their IP very closely,
It will be very difficult to get the license, and quite costly.
Contra is Konami brand
That was my first thought. They are VERY tight with their IP and have aggressively pursued the emulation community much more vigorously than any other company in recent years, resulting in numerous web sites being taken down or severely neutered of content.
I think securing a license would be an expensive exercise in frustration, and probably not worth the effort given all the other good properties out there which can be licensed much more reasonably.
Added over 3 years ago:Edit/addendum:
Just found this article on Ars: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/06/former-rom-site-owner-must-pay-2-1-million-to-nintendo/
That they would rather spend their resources suing their biggest fans (likely a largely "judgement proof" cohort) than figuring out a way to give them what they want by making the games available at reasonable cost and turning a little profit tells you all you need to know about their corporate philosophy, and as such it is probably a fool's errand to think that they would be anything less than absolute control-freaks in a collaboration on something as major as a pinball machine!
