Great, but Unappreciated Games

So with several of my friends who disliked Majora's Mask playing it on the 3DS and enjoying it now I was curious about other games people held dear that were overshadowed by other games or just didn't find success.

For example:

Second Sight by Free Radical Games. It came out around the same time at Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, which both being psychic power based shooters meant that every game review had to address the other. Largely for being more action based Psi-Ops was recommended over Second Sight. Fortunately I was a fan enough of Free Radical (this was before Haze) that I gave it a chance. I found the two games to be incredible different. Second Sight was much more of a stealth based story driven game. I honestly consider it better then Psi-Ops due to its story as well as its stealth gameplay and smart use of psychic powers to avoid combat.

So what other games should be checked out that we might have missed back in the day?

Kid Chameleon is a forgotten gem. That game's so god damn good and should stand as a classic.

Inb4 Pyschonauts. :P

I don't think Tomba and Tomba 2 are mentioned in terms of the great ps1 games. I could be wrong I don't know. To me those games were my favorites for ps1

Driver: San Francisco is way better than it has any right to be. I'm glad GB covered it, which led to me eventually playing it. I bet that game sold TERRIBLY and your average gamer probably never heard of it, because the notoriety of the Driver series has really taken a nosedive after the first couple games came out.

The Metro series. I didn't like the original version of 2033, but the redux version is great. And Last Light is a phenomenal experience that I believe got overshadowed by the Xbox One reveal catastrophe.

Ape Escape doesn't get nearly enough love. Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank: Ape Escape is better than all of these! Hell of a game those Ape Escapes. Whenever there are long stretches between The Last Guardian announcements I think to myself "maybe SCE scrapped it to work on a new Ape Escape," and am always disappointed when this is not the case despite thinking I'll like The Last Guardian quite a bit.

Ape Escape!

Wild 9, think polygonal futuristic side scrolling platformer in which the main character uses an electric whip to grab stuff and toss it around.

You know those flame pits you have to jump over in other games?Grab an enemy and hold him over the fire for a wonderful BBQ. You like those chompers that crush you if you don't go by fast enough? Whip an enemy into for a fine new poster to hang in your room. Meat grinders on the floor are fantastic opportunities for finely made ground beef from your enemies. Have to push many heavy objects to get to a higher area? Why stress your self when you can grab it with our whip to easily place it wherever you want, but be careful to not stub your toe. Are there random hooks in the air you can't reach? Go ahead and just reach out with our magical electric whip to swing your way to safety! There are guns and missiles too but use our whip, much more fun when you destroy stuff by your own hand.

I want to say there are also acid polls or airplane propellers you can throw enemies on for fun times. Also later levels you travel on this super wierd but awesome space hover/flying thing where you shoot and chase enemies and the game changes into something else entirely. Fuckiing awesome game, give me a sec and I'll edit some vids into this post.

Random dude playing first level, just noticed the first level is called Bombopolis, I think it's a sign....

Some driving the random weird ship thing.

God Hand would get a vote from me. I remember reading lukewarm reviews for it when it came out, then thought it was addictive as hell when I played it. It's flawed, I guess, but most of the flaws, like a nonexistent story, nonsensical characters, and repetitive, spring-loaded enemies and environments don't seem to play into it much anyway. It's all about the combat. I loved it.

Okami, Prey, Singularity, and just recently Wolfenstein The New Order and Bayonetta 2. All of these come to mind.

Second Sight was under-appreciated? I remember when it came out it got solid reviews (IGN 7.9, Edge 7/10, GameSpy 4/5, Game Informer 8.5/10). I mean It's a good game, not amazing, and I think it's remembered as such. And @zkowaliczko1994, Metro? A series that was fairly well received and sold well enough to get a sequel and a re-release, all within the past five years, is hardly under-appreciated.

As @bisonhero mentioned, Driver: San Francisco is a better example. UbiSoft said it sold well, but it never seemed like a popular game ... and after some terrible entries in the series it's no surprise.

It might sound crazy but Duck Amuck on the DS stands out to me. I remember the devs saying it's the only DS game that got approval to disable the sleep mode but there's a mini-game where you had to close the console. It was super short but the way you interacted with Daffy as he broke the fourth wall... I mean it's not a classic, but it was inventive if nothing else.

That's quite a bold claim--a claim so bold I actually want to try the series now.

Blast chamber. Yes I said blast chamber.

I will keep sounding my The Banner Saga was the best game that came out last year horn.

Also I just finished Lisa: The Painful Rpg. It's actually really well written and aweomse. Seems like no one has played it based off google searches for discussion on it though.

@bisonhero: Driver: San Francisco was such a great surprise. I played the hell out of the original Driver and avoided the rest (sorry, framey Chicago). So I came back to SF wondering how a driving mission game would work in the modern age.

But it felt good, there was a ton to do, the story and characters had so much personality, the online was super fun, and the shifting business never got old. Even the variety of cars was worth digging into, since you couldn't just use the fastest one throughout. What a fantastic game. I wish my nephew didn't borrow and lose it.

Quest for Glory is pretty unappreciated.

@tru3_blu3: Okami....the industry's best Zelda game....motha fuckas dont know what art is!

Also, to add to the legions of people who can't explain how some other kind of Nuts and Bolts game has not been released...absolute skulduggery afoot.

It's just my opinion. I think Metro is one of the best shooters I"ve played in recent years. Plus, what 4A was able to accomplish with THQ crumbling and their horrid working conditions is astonishing.

X-Com: Enforcer!

This lovely humanoid gifted me the game, and to my surprise, it's actually pretty awesome. It's janky, ugly, has horrible voice acting, but it's super fun. It definitely doesn't deserve the bad rap it got, I think people got caught up on the game not being what they expected/wanted from an X-Com game.

Forget the X-Com branding, it's a lot closer to Serious Sam; it's all about blasting hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of aliens with insane weapons. I will mention though, that the game starts off a bit slow, but once you start unlocking stuff, it becomes great. People in 2001 would have probably been all over it if had a different name. To put it another way, it's the kind of crazy, over-the-top nonsense that Dan would really dig.

Here's a screenshot of me zapping a whole lot of stuff with a lightning gun:

@irvandus said:

Also, yeah, of all of the fucking weird low budget games that GB East has Quick Looked in the past several months (because apparently "GB East" is code for "may only Quick Look Steam games no one has ever heard of"), Lisa was BY FAR the most interesting looking. I plan to buy it sometime in the next few months.

Seconding God Hand as a hidden gem. Environments are blad as shit especially for a game that came out in the twilight years of the PS2, but everything else was pretty damn great.

Story is nothing to write home about, but it never took itself seriously anyway, and the characters and dialogue were goofy but in a fun stupid way.

Now the gameplay, that was excellent. It's hard, but fair. Tons of moves with a lot of viable options that make customization a plus instead of bogging the fighting system down. Progression in unlocking new stuff flowed perfectly, so you became stronger in tune with the difficulty ramp. Controls are tight, and every enemy followed discernible patterns so you never feel like a victim of chance or randomness that is super frustrating for games in this genre. When you die, you know exactly it's because of you messing up.

Boss fights are all memorable, too, which is absolutely key in character action games. They had the right amount of challenge and were presented with the scale that made each one feel big. It's what kept DmC from reaching its true potential.

The soundtrack is underrated, too! From the main theme to Elvis' theme to the goddamn credits song.

Fuckin' love that game so much, and it sucks that there's very little chance for a sequel to come out.

I too will say Prey! I thought it was very good and especially really atmospheric with cool environments. I remember playing it several times.

I missed all the dev hell behind it and had only heard of it once or twice before playing it.

Oh, and Critical Depth. It's Twisted Metal underwater.

Giant levels filled with secrets, a fantastic soundtrack, and it shared a ton of the personality that Twisted Metal 2 had. It even added some twists to the campaign by having you fight over orbs to open a gate to the next level. But alas, it moved a little slower and it didn't resonate with a big audience. I loved it and played the hell out of it, and I look back at it several times a year for reasons unknown.

Some people argue that Rogue Trip is the better post-TM Singletrac game. Some argue Animorphs. But Critical Depth is the one for me.

Mole Mania for the Game Boy, cool little puzzle game from Miyamoto. Feel like no one remembers it, I want a remake of this for the ds or Wii U. The puzzle is above ground but there are tunnels underground (which would be perfect for a bottom/gamepad screen) just try to get a bomb into an exit. Gets tricky pretty quick.

@shivermetimbers: Fuuuck dude I thought I had it!

I think a bunch of the lesser known PC games of the 80's and early 90's. Uncharted Waters 2, Sword of the Samurai, etc.

Also the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games. Back before Koei was a piece of shit company known only for its Dynasty Warriors shit, they made strategy games, and RPG-ish games. And crazily enough, the best platform for their games was the PC, specifically (at least as I've played), on MS-DOS. Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3, and Uncharted Waters 2: New Horizons were great games!

Clive Barkers Undying....

I can't think of a more under appreciated or overlooked game...

Custom Robo on the Gamecube. The campaign was largely forgettable, but my friends and I sunk dozens of hours into the multiplayer battle mode when we were 14.

Pretty much anything reviewed over the last 10 years. If it got a 6 (out of 10) its probably pretty good. Pussy, i mean expert reviewer, difficulty seems to skew a lot of results.

Drakan order of the flame.

What? Indeed. Not enough people heard about the game but it was a solid 3rd person action game with loot/equipment systems. Not only the footcombat was fun, You could also step on a dragon and control said dragon. He gathered mutiple abilities as well ( fire, ice ,poison breath)

Not the best game ever created, but should be mentioned more often. Same goes for Rune and Shogo mobile armored division.

i just finished max payne 3 and i gotta say, not the max payne game we wanted but definitely the kane & lynch game we deserved. production values are off the charts and the soundtrack is fucking terrific. took me a couple hours to get use to the whole thing but i actually really dug it.

Copying this from another post I once made:

Plenty of games I could put here but the one that's been on my mind recently is War of the Monsters.

A really fun giant monster fighting game, especially in multiplayer. Sizeable battle arenas with plenty of destructibility. Endearing 50s monster flick styling and solid gameplay.

Not beholden to license holders either so you can enjoy your off-brand King Kong or Godzilla without annoying limitations.

Downhill Domination is another underrated game from this developer, Incognito Entertainment (creators of Twisted Metal Black and Warhawk).

Many of its key members, David Jaffe in particular, left in 2007 to form Eat, Sleep, Play, Inc. so I wouldn't expect much from this studio today.

I think Rockstar's The Warriors is a really forgotten game that I think is their second best game behind Red Dead Redemption. It's the best 3D beat em up ever (nailed the combat with a totally unique and chaotic brawl feel) and has a lot of fun little extra systems going on that add depth. They absolutely nailed a odd ball license choice as well as any game as ever emulated their license. The multiplayer was even really good! Co-op and versus modes.

It is a classic and doesn't' ever get brought up. I really liked Bully too but I think this was a better game for sure.

Gotcha Force. It's like Custom Robo but better because the arenas are much bigger, there are a ton more enemies at once and you can play as a GODDAMN SPACE DRAGON.

This one's easy duders. Mario Party. End thread.

Still one of the funniest games I have ever played.

Valkyrie Profile for the PS.

Singularity comes into my head every time something like this is asked. It still pisses me off that it was pretty much the end for Raven Software as we knew them and to go out on such a quality game where Activision pulled all money on marketing the game near release really pisses me off. It's just insane. Raven could have easily produced another one of their big name franchises with sequel potential that Activision relies on these days. Instead... they gutted the studio, put them on intentionally designed mediocre maps (so spawn placement and the fact that you can be shot from 20 different places at any spot in a CoD map can give everyone kills sometimes) and now some Chinese Call of Duty. Just... ugh.

Anyways, I always felt that Battlefield 2142 didn't get nearly the amount of attention and community size the previous games had gotten.

Def Jam: Fight for NY

/thread

I remember loving the game sphinx and the cursed mummy. Though I had never played a zelda game before, so that might have influenced my perception of it.

I also really liked the first 3 harry potter games. They were, at least, way better than they had any right to be.

Also really liked Def Jam Vendetta (sorry post above me. When I saw Def Jam, I immediately thought of vendetta, which is why you probably just got a "replied" thing from me).

Gonna keep banging the drum of Binary Domain and Spec Ops the Line. Both don't get enough credit in my opinion

I feel like all of these games--maybe aside from Prey--were critically well-received.

Any of the great games that were exclusive to Saturn are under appreciated by virtue of the fact that nobody bought them, at least in the US. Let's go with Dragon Force, Saturn Bomberman, Sega Rally Championship, and Panzer Dragoon Saga.

• Fable 1, 2 and 3;
• Dishonored;
• Bulletstorm;
• Silent Hill: Downpour;
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

There isn't anything like the Fable franchise. With the same humour, whimsical quality, and the world of Albion.

Dishonored is a good steatlh game, set in a steampunk universe.

Bulletstorm is a fun fps with great moments, funny and I loved the variety of creative ways to deal with the oponents. Also the scenarios are sometimes beautiful.

Silent Hill: Downpour is overall the best Silent Hill to me, between the greatest encarnation of the town, side quests, good graphics, a good story and sidequests.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a great place to experiment the force powers of Star Wars to the most extreme they have ever been.

Gallery

Strike Commander? In 1993, Chris Roberts' of Wing Commander and Star Citizen fame made an arcade air combat game with all the narrative bits and mechanics of the old Wing Commander games. It essentially became a precursor to the Ace Combat series, but it's very rarely brought up when Chris Roberts' legacy is discussed.

I still consider Shattered Steel to be Bioware's best game to date. Sadly nobody seems to agree or even want to acknowledge it exists.

Gallery

I think Dark Reign is one of the best RTS games of all time, but it seems to have been overshadowed by Total Annihilation and StarCraft, which were released shortly after it.

Gallery

When it comes to space sims, I think Independence War: The Starship Simulator is criminally underappreciated. As the title states, it's not your regular WWII-dogfights-in-space game, but a game where you take command of a starship with several bridge stations as well as TNG style saucer separation.

As for a more recent release, I think Ziggurat was the best game of 2014 by a large margin. But it only got two votes in the Giant Bomb community GOTY list. :(

God Hand is a fucking masterpiece and is probably the best character action game I've played. Rockstar's Table Tennis is another one. It is definitely up there with my favorite games from them.....except Jesper...fuck that guy.

Vroom vroom, motherfuckers.

No One Lives Forever was amazing when it came out. It seems to have been forgotten by most. This was my favorite game when i was young. I recently played through Wolfenstein: The New Order, and i got some of the same feeling from it (- the humor), just a great FPS single player experience that take you on a globetrotting adventure that doesnt take itself to serious.The second one was also really good. I wish there were more of these types of games. Hope Monolith will make a third one (Contract J.A.C.K doesnt count), but i think there is some IP copyright confusion, so it'll probably (sadly) never happen.

Someone watched Demo Derby recently :b

I am going to second the guy who mentioned Binary Domain. Not" great" per say but an interesting japanese take on a western third person shooter with a pretty lengthy campaign.