Your favourite video games that most people haven't heard of?

Just wondering what games you grew up with loving that most people you know aren't aware of.

Planescape Torment. A brillaint, brillaint game, shed aside.

90% of the games I've ever played.

mario

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

Planescape Torment. A brillaint, brillaint game, shed aside.

I heard of it BOOM

also most PC gamers have heard of it...

@Animasta said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

Planescape Torment. A brillaint, brillaint game, shed aside.

I heard of it BOOM

also most PC gamers have heard of it...

All billion or so?

@whyareyoucrouchingspock: Well not ALL of them. But there's a pretty big fanbase for it, myself included.

As for me, I was in love with a PS1 racing game called Vanishing Point when I was a kid. I played it not too long ago and... well, it has its issues, but I still kind of like it. It had weird challenges that I remember being fucking infuriating when I was young.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Animasta said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

Planescape Torment. A brillaint, brillaint game, shed aside.

I heard of it BOOM

also most PC gamers have heard of it...

All billion or so?

Dude...I hate to break it to you, but everybody knows about PS:T.

Gor me it's Micro Machines, which is less a game that nobody has heard of and more a game that nobody in my age group knows about. Game is awesome.

Any if not most PC only game.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream - It's pretty terrifying, and the voice acting quality wasn't bad for it's time. Also holy shit - Harlan Ellison!

Virtually every super metroid hack except Super Metroid Redesign, just because I think at least a handful of people have heard of that thing by now.

I'd also say Cave Story, but yeah that's gotten much more well-known over the years, especially with the re-releases.

Iji would be a good fit, though. It's pretty unknown.

@nintendoeats said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Animasta said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

Planescape Torment. A brillaint, brillaint game, shed aside.

I heard of it BOOM

also most PC gamers have heard of it...

All billion or so?

Dude...I hate to break it to you, but everybody knows about PS:T.

You aren't really breaking anything, because, you are wrong.

This includes core gamers as well as "everyone else". I have seen numerous occasions on more popular gaming boards than this one (gametrailers for example) of mainstream gamers not even aware of the title of the game. Aside from selling poorly, it's also a fairly old game. Whats keeping it alive are mostly the people who originally played it, with alot of them most likely, pirating it, contributing to the games failure.

I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream? I have no idea if this game is well-known or not.

@Video_Game_King said:

90% of the games I've ever played.

Considering you thought Legacy of Kain was obscure its probably more around 10%.

WWE crush hour

it was 20 bucks :|

@nintendoeats said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Animasta said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

Planescape Torment. A brillaint, brillaint game, shed aside.

I heard of it BOOM

also most PC gamers have heard of it...

All billion or so?

Dude...I hate to break it to you, but everybody knows about PS:T.

Gor me it's Micro Machines, which is less a game that nobody has heard of and more a game that nobody in my age group knows about. Game is awesome.

I had a MM game for N64, not to mention a whole crap ton of the actual little cars. Man those were great.

Anyway a game on the PS1 that I absolutely loved and no one I mention it to seem to remember it, although I'm sure a lot here will, was Motor Toon Grand Prix. Played that game for hours on end.

Monster Party

The Adventures of Lolo

Toobin'

Wonder Boy in Monster World

Cool Spot

Super Mario RPG

Tomba

The Neverhood

This is a remarkably difficult question for me to answer. Most of the games I have liked are well known, even if many people haven't played them (Planetscape Torment fits in this category, IMHO). Some of the games I think of are just clones of better known games, so that doesn't seem fair. And the most obscure games I can think of I played when I was very young on Atari 8 bit computers and later the Amiga, those games were mostly not good, but they were all I had.

Here is an old one that I did like: Ogre, based on the Steve Jackson designed board game (I didn't know that at the time). A one or two player game turn based strategy game. One side lays out a mix of tanks, cannons, hovercraft, and infantry units to defend a command center on a hex based map, the other side gets the monstrous Ogre tank, which has cannons, missiles, and antipersonnel batteries (probably more that I can't remember), and can run over the other units in the game.

I really don't think anything good flies under the radar anymore, thanks to the internet we hear about all the games, even the ones that aren't for us.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@nintendoeats said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Animasta said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

Planescape Torment. A brillaint, brillaint game, shed aside.

I heard of it BOOM

also most PC gamers have heard of it...

All billion or so?

Dude...I hate to break it to you, but everybody knows about PS:T.

You aren't really breaking anything, because, you are wrong.

This includes core gamers as well as "everyone else". I have seen numerous occasions on more popular gaming boards than this one (gametrailers for example) of mainstream gamers not even aware of the title of the game. Aside from selling poorly, it's also a fairly old game. Whats keeping it alive are mostly the people who originally played it, with alot of them most likely, pirating it, contributing to the games failure.

That is what we call confirmation bias.

Netstorm.

I suppose Zork: Grand Inquisitor too. (and preempting a torrent of "but people know about Zork" I quote OP: "...that most people you know aren't aware of".)

I have a few per system that I've owned.

*AHEM*

Colecovision; One-on-One (fucking-a was this game great), BC's Quest for Tires (hard as hell), Mouse Trap (it was a Pac-Man clone)

Master System; Zillion (essentially Metroid for the MS), Psycho Fox (from the people who made Decap Attack, it's a very similar game), Galaxy Force (it's a behind the ship shooter)

Genesis, Sega-CD, 32X; Flashback (It's not mentioned a lot but people better have fucking heard of this game), Dungeon Explorer (top-down Diablo-ish type of game), Shadow Squadron

N64; Top Gear Rally (the first one not the broken-ass second one), World Driver's Championship, Shadowgate (slow, kind of boring but man do I like it)

I can't really think of more recent examples right now.

@nintendoeats said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@nintendoeats said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Animasta said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

Planescape Torment. A brillaint, brillaint game, shed aside.

I heard of it BOOM

also most PC gamers have heard of it...

All billion or so?

Dude...I hate to break it to you, but everybody knows about PS:T.

You aren't really breaking anything, because, you are wrong.

This includes core gamers as well as "everyone else". I have seen numerous occasions on more popular gaming boards than this one (gametrailers for example) of mainstream gamers not even aware of the title of the game. Aside from selling poorly, it's also a fairly old game. Whats keeping it alive are mostly the people who originally played it, with alot of them most likely, pirating it, contributing to the games failure.

That is what we call confirmation bias.

I'm using facts and personal experience to reach a logical conclusion. You are using a blank statement.

i always thought cobra triangle was pretty obscure, but then the internet existed and i was proven wrong.

edit: also cosmic carnage, the only 32X game i owned

Popular TV series and the game also had a US release I hated but the Japanese Ranma 1/2 Super Hard Battle was super cool. It was on Super Famicom.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure on the PS1.

T&C Surf Design on the NES. I liked skateboarding with the tiki mask.

I really like Chocobo Tales for the DS, even if it is a bit of a kids game.

This one:

Seriously no one played this game nor did anyone hear about it. Man what a bizarre, but great, game.

If you want to know what all that was about then you will have to read my review: http://www.giantbomb.com/gregory-horror-show/61-6964/user-reviews/?review_id=20329

Top Gear 2 for the SNES.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl for the PC.

There may be some more, but I'm sleepy. There are so many great games out in the world right now.

A Japanese game about multi track drifting!. And you're drifting FUCKING TRAINS! 
 
They released a teaser video involving a giant shark staring down a train, dunno how they'll implement that,
 
  

Did anyone else play Creatures? It was so far ahead of its time it still blows my mind today.
 
Really interesting wiki article too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures_%28artificial_life_program%29#History

@LordXavierBritish said:

AWW SHIT. I remember getting this game based solely on that fucking box art. Only to be blown away by DRAGON QUEST MECHA BATTLES.

I've played most all have mentioned here (which not only makes me feel old but also out of touch... great I guess I'm getting there then). 
I'll mention a few: 
 
Commander Blood- Its an old Mindscape FMV (Adventure?) game that is kind of difficult because it makes no sense where to go. One of these days I'll finish it. I used this one first because I still own it, and there is no Giantbomb wiki page for this game. There is, however, a youtube play through if you care to see part of it. It's really weird, but cool at the same time. Sad its so damn obscure. 
 
Battle Beast - it's my only wiki page so far. Most haven't heard of it, but some probably have. It's a terrible fighting game, but decent animation as was normal for most all 7th Level games (notice how that wiki page has nothing on it but the logo haha). 
 
Ghosthunter - PS2 game that failed. Fuck if I know why. The game is awesome. Only downside, the ending feels like they ran out of money. Parts of the ending are a little broken (not unplayable, just off. Sounds missing and what not- hard to explain if you never played it). Game is superb though, didn't get a fair shake if you ask me. 
 
I could probably name more, but eh... I know/own obscure PC games. Yay... *sigh*... me

Ultimate Spin Doctor. I'm pretty sure almost no one here will know of it and NO ONE I know has ever so much as heard of it.

Oh and Get Medieval, no one I know has heard of that, but I'm sure a decent number of folks here have heard of it.

And Tigger's Honey Hunt on N64. I was young, don't judge me! Game still has great animation though, for what it's running on.

I really loved Hellnight (a.k.a Dark Messiah in Japan) for PS1. It was a first person horror game similar to what Frictional is doing now with Penumbra and Amnesia where you don't have any weapons but have to hide from a monster. For some reason Atlus and Konami never published it in the US only certain parts of Europe.

Bloodline Champions. It is a MOBA without the tower defense part.

Just to throw my two cents in: I've heard of Planescape: Torment, as have the people I personally know who play games. I mean, there was a trailer for it in front of either Fallout 1 or 2, and those were pretty popular.

I played (and really enjoyed) the Journeyman project series back in the day, after watching a bunch of Random PC Game videos, I'm sure my positive memories are entirely unfounded nostalgia. Were those well-known? I don't think they were especially obscure.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon.

http://www.giantbomb.com/swagman/61-16477/

Swagman - which I played on the Sega Saturn.

I think that would be Maximo vs Army of Zin. A 3D spiritual Successor to Ghost & Goblins (a game series I have actually never played) that's just the right amount of challenging for my liking.

One of the few games where I've gone back, put it on hard and enjoyed it even more. It didn't sell and the planned sequel was canned, such a shame.

I was also a big fan of the first game, it's kinda different and even more oldschool.

viewtiful joe. i consider it cult enough. though i dont know of any really cult game in my collection

Street Combat

If there's a single other person on this site that played this game and was aware of its bizarre heritage when it came out, I will be surprised.

Blackout was a game for PC/Mac I played through with a friend. It's a dark tale with multiple endings. Part of why I really enjoyed it was that aside from being a pretty decent click adventure, it was all made of freaky looking puppets but the game's voice cast had some really good famous scandinavian actors (at least the Swedish side of things). Part of the fun was my friend playing through it and at first you're at your therapist and she asks for your name and you get to write it in. Later on someone calls you by name (voiced) and they used the same name my friend entered which was a complete mind fuck even though we realized later by reading the novel that came with the game that it was what the character was actually named, they just happened to share the same name. The game contains prostitution, snuff films, violence and ending that game any other way than a demon-like personality was pretty hard I recall. Always liked going to the asian restaurant and order something nice looking and listening to the jukebox. Had nightmares after that game too. Probably might have been a bit too young to deal with the content of the game at that time, still one of my all time favorite experiences gaming wise.

What is maybe, possibly my all time favorite game and nobody I've ever talked to in person has played it and most have never even heard of it.

Winback Covert Operations

Twisted Edge Snowboarding

Elf Bowling

Dope Wars

Thats about all I can think of now.

sanitarium

Front Mission 3 and Bushido Blade 2. Man, I played the hell out of those games and love em.

Hey... Remember when Squaresoft made a lot of games.

@Castiel said:

This one:

Seriously no one played this game nor did anyone hear about it. Man what a bizarre, but great, game.

If you want to know what all that was about then you will have to read my review: http://www.giantbomb.com/gregory-horror-show/61-6964/user-reviews/?review_id=20329

i remember playing this at e3, i don't think it ever came out here though, i assumed it just got cancelled. now i know.

Hmm, this is difficult....

People know a lot of the games I like but some that come close or at least I don't hear about enough are:

Phantom Dust (This one might actually be well known)

Legend of Kage (This one too)

Ninja Spirit

The Faery Tale Adventure

Those at least come close to it.

Hmm, well none from this generation because frankly every single game that comes out these days is so widely reported on that we end up knowing virtually every release. From days gone by though...

Master of Darkness for the Master System - Think Castlevania without any backtracking.

Street Racer and Wreckin Crew for PS1 - Street Racer was this amazing Mario Kart clone with goofy as hell characters and a really fun Rumble mode where all the cars basically started in a sumo ring and had to knock each other out. Wreckin Crew was similar but more race-oriented. I used to be a big fan of obscure racers.

Jersey Devil - Some might have heard of this but I still consider it pretty unheard of, pretty standard 3D platformer but it had some amazing music and a really cool design.

Super Putty on the SNES - Again, might have heard of this but most people I know don't recognise the name. Really unique puzzle platformer. It also has a pretty interesting history, with the idea for the game actually coming from a TV competition winner.

Pandemonium! 1 and 2 - These are certainly more widely known I would imagine but I just have to include them. 2 of my favourite games of all time, setting the standard for '2.5D'.

@Slay3r1583: WHAT?! Ah, poor Suikoden. Love that franchise, I made an effort to play through V some time ago but got distracted by other games. If they ever crap out a new one I'll probably pick that up too. Though, no sign of that ever happening.