In your opinion, what are this generations sleeper hits?

So I'm browsing around through Amazon after someone mentioned how great a game Radiant Historia is. This was when I stumbled upon another DS game called Monster Tale. After looking through the reviews on Gamerankings, I noticed it had some pretty decent reviews. So I decided to pick it up.

The game has a Castlevania feel to it because of its 2D side scrolling and how you're going through different parts of a map. You also gain different abilities along with purchasing upgrades to those abilities. Now, the best part about this game is the monster that you take care of. Your monster gains experience depending on if he helps you kill other creatures and the items that you throw down to the bottom screen. Sometimes even those items help you kill other creatures. For example, if you were to acquire a catapult. You would send your monster to the bottom screen and he would study it for a little bit and start using it to launch cannon balls towards the upper screen. Here's the next best part. As your monster gains experience, he can evolve into different forms. Depending on those forms, he would have different abilities. He can also master the abilities so you can equip them for him to use in different forms.

The game plays fantastic and I don't want anyone to miss out on a great title that a not-so-well-know developer has made.

Pretty much anything WayForward has done this generation (or, any generation really), fantastic 2D games with very little fanfare.

Rock of Ages

@Zippedbinders said:

Pretty much anything WayForward has done this generation (or, any generation really), fantastic 2D games with very little fanfare.

They did Contra 4? I think they got some fanfare for that.

@Buzzkill said:

Rock of Ages

The best use of a "This is Sparta" joke ever.

Anything made by From Software, Demons Souls transitioning into the popularity of Dark Souls. 

The Darkness and Singularity. I guess.

EDIT: Fuckmothering Minecraft

NIER

also resonance of fate

@Bobby_The_Great said:

Anything made by From Software, Demons Souls transitioning into the popularity of Dark Souls.

They did all those Armored Core's. Isn't that something?

Bayonetta and Lost Odyssey.

I thought the environments in Monster's Tale were super boring and static missing all the details and clever design that is in a good Metroid or Castlevania. The action was good though.

Are we talking about sleeper hits (games that have unexpectedly become very popular and/or successful) or hidden gems (great games nobody talks about)? If it's the latter, as the comments lead me to believe, then 999.

If you haven't played Valkyria Chronicles, go play VALKYRIA CHRONICLES.

Bulletstorm for me. God damn fun shooters are hard to find.

@JoeyRavn: 999 is an amazing game, I sat through and played it in one sitting, which is rare for me!

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Saints Row: The Third

League of Legends

I don't remember anyone caring too much about any of these before they came out.

@Kidavenger said:

Saints Row: The Third

I would say SR3 had quite a lot of hype building up to it's release.

I haven't actually played it yet, but Rayman: Origins was a game I've heard many good things about, despite having been released out of nowhere.

I'm still a bit sad about how little The Binding Of Isaac was talked about, before and after it came out, especially with the fame of Super Meat Boy.

It is an amazing game that has so much replayability to it due to the 100% randomness, and it's only 5 bucks!

@shootermcclay said:

If you haven't played Valkyria Chronicles, go play VALKYRIA CHRONICLES.

This. Took me awhile to get around to finishing it after getting to chapter 8 or so, but man do I feel bad about that. Valkyria Chronicles is so good.

Slight spoiler about the end of the game.

If we're talking great games no one played then: Tactics Ogre, the best game of this generation in my opinion.

I would say the new Deus Ex is somewhat of a sleeper hit, I didn't expect it to be very good and it actually turned out awesome, and I think a fair number of people played it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Mirror's Edge and Enslaved.

Call of Duty. Totally came out of left-field.
 
I see bright things for its future.

@N7 said:

Call of Duty. Totally came out of left-field. I see bright things for its future.

Following in the footsteps of Halo going from absolute obscurity to mega-hit with Reach.

I feel like a lot of people don't understand what a sleep hit is. A sleep hit is a game that no one was really paying attention to, and then when it came out it ended up being surprisingly popular.

I think Terraria would be a perfect example of this. It was pretty much unheard of before release, and I am pretty sure they made over a million dollars within the first week. Obviously it got a huge boost in sales by riding on the coat tales of minecraft, but that doesn't matter.

Mirror's Edge

Binary Domain

Singularity

Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon and Alpha Protocol.

Dead Space came outta nowhere. At first, I wrote it off but it was amazing.

Saints Row The Third did really well, especially on this website.

Wii games like Muramasa, Boom Blox, Monster Hunter Tri, Sin and Punishment, A Boy and his Blob, and Zack and Wiki also gave people reasons to keep their systems. (Hidden Gems)

@AlecOfTheWest said:

@Kidavenger said:

Saints Row: The Third

I would say SR3 had quite a lot of hype building up to it's release.

Hmm, maybe, guess I just had zero expectations for the game, and it definitely did much better than anyone expected.

How about Plants vs. Zombies then.

I liked Enslaved a lot and like no one bought it. Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines (however the fuck you abbreviate it) is also a criminally underappreciated game. Sure, you need a fan-made patch to make it playable but it's one of my favorite RPGs of the last 10 years. The only good thing 4chan ever did was alert me to its existence.

I didn't really play many video games in middle/high school so there's undoubtedly some diamond waiting for me to find and sing its praises. I just played WoW every day so I dunno man.

Edit: I realize that this generational thing is a console thing. I play PC games mostly so I don't really know what you would call a generation for them. Vampire came out in 04 and the Xbox came out in 05 so I guess that's close enough.

@N7 said:

Call of Duty. Totally came out of left-field. I see bright things for its future.

Following in the footsteps of Halo going from absolute obscurity to mega-hit with Reach.

Hmm... since Tactics Ogre and Valkyria Chronicles got listed, I guess I'll go with Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light. I really dug into that game and loved all the different classes and ways to approach it as well as the really nifty art of the game. Makes me wish I liked the main console games more.

@BleedingStarX said:

Mirror's Edge

Binary Domain

Singularity

Maybe I should try out Binary Domain. I haven't really heard anything about it.

Vanquish.

@AlecOfTheWest said:

@Kidavenger said:

Saints Row: The Third

I would say SR3 had quite a lot of hype building up to it's release.

Definitely. Some brilliant marketing across the board got plenty of people excited. Plus the series was pretty popular to begin with.

Vanquish.

Ghost Trick

Tactics Ogre

Valkyria Chronicles 1 & 2

3D Dot Game Heroes

Monster Tale had a quick look bro.

Super Meat Boy and Bastion.

You have no idea what a sleeper hit is, do you?

VVVVVV for sure.