Your Guilty Treasure?

Battle Engine Aquila on the original Xbox. A mech/flying shooter hybrid, as in your vehicle is both a mech walker, and an aircraft. The easiest way to describe it is that it's like an AI vs AI RTS game, with you controlling one unit. Missions are generally large scale battles around islands, with some generic objectives like kill this thing, protect that thing etc., but there are some variations as you get further in - some being a little frustratingly RNG reliant on how long your comrades survive, but it never diminishes the enjoyment of the core shooting mechanics. Landing on an enemy mid-air, changing into your walker mode, shooting the shit out of them, and then flying off into the sunset never gets old. Sadly, its not supported via backwards compatibility (much to my annoyance when I tried it on my Series X), but it is on Steam.

LEGO Rock Raiders (the PC version) probably. I don't know if it holds up.

Little Nemo: Dream Master is a game that I loved as a child. Something about it just sticks in my memory. I loved the different suits you could get. Not sure if it holds up but I still remember it and have never heard anyone else talk about it.

@galiant: Another delightful Lego game from the Before (Traveler’s Tales) Times! I adored that game, to the point that I wrote (absolutely, cringingly godawful) fan fiction for it at age 7.

(I went back to it somewhat recently through Definitely Legal Means and regrettably it did not hold up very well)

Ring of Red I'd do anything a convenient way to play this on a modern system. It's a turn-based mech strategy game with a weird zoom targeting mechanic. No one I've ever talked to has heard of it except my three roommates in college who watched me play it at the time.

I made my peace that it will never get a re(boot/master/release) It was removed from PSN a few years ago for who knows what reason. I will once a year just watch it on Youtube but that doesn't scratch the itch.

I could be out of line here but I feel like applying the descriptor of "treasure" implies it's a physical object you covet enough to still own to this day. Otherwise these are merely "pleasures". I've played video games for most of my life but I could never bring myself to go down the rabbit hole of insane gaming collections. So with all of that in mind, for whatever reason I still have my install disc for Starsiege: Tribes and hell if I know what to do with it. I don't even know if it still works. That's about as good as I can manage in terms of somewhat obscure artifacts that I hold dear in some way. Like I also have a greatest hits-labeled copy of Xenogears that I can still play on my back-compat PS3, but it feels significantly less special than my original copy that is lost to time.

I was thinking about it and I don't think I've played anything obscure enough for this. There are games which I think are definitely under appreciated because they didn't have wide success but that's not really in the spirit.

Captain Claw, released in 1997, one of my favorite 2D platformers for Windows 95. It was tough as nails, had a great soundtrack and it even featured a set of animated cutscenes that would pull the story forward every two levels. It was developed by Monolith Productions, same guys who did "Blood" and "Fear", I think. Sadly, it has been basically forgotten. Wish they would gives us a proper sequel or at least release it on GOG.

The Nintendo DS version of Age of Empires, called Age of Empires: The Age of Kings. It was a turn-based tactics game that was far better than I was expecting for the $5 I spent on it when I bought it from the discount rack at Future Shop. It was basically Advance Wars but with Age of Empires 2 units and sounds. It was quite fun and had a good campaign. There was also a skirmish-like mode that added a lot of replayability.

I was struggling to think of a guilty treasure for a while but I realized that most of the games I played on the Game Gear and Game Boy as a child would probably be good contenders. Not only did OG game boy and game gear games just not make a big splash in pop culture but I remember playing a lot of third party games that I loved but never knew anyone else at school who played them. Unfortunately, I don't remember or still have any of those games. I might be able to find my old gameboy if I REALLY had to but the game gear is long lost, I wish I knew what happened to it. I'll try to list the games below:

Gameboy:
-A jet fighter game that might have just been called "F-14"? I remember it looking like complete shit but my brother and I played a lot of it.
-A Tom & Jerry platformer game that I liked up until I got to a burning building level which I remember being hard.

Game Gear:
-Some Jurassic Park sidescroller where you got some weird guns and shot dinosaurs. Don't remember much else.
-A Donald Duck platformer. I remember the boss battles were running away from various things such as a giant boulder and a shark. I also remember liking the music but whenever I emulate Game Gear games, they always sound horrible. Is that the emulator's fault or did the GG sound like ass? Damn, I wish I still had mine.
-I guess I'll put Tails here. The Sonic the Hedgehog sidekick had his own metroidvania and it was neat! It probably wouldn't age well though.

I also remember getting a game called Battle Beasts as a pack-in with Windows 95. It is impossible to find this game now because no one cared about it and the name is generic AF. It was kind of a bad fighting game but had a lot of fun VO and animation. I would probably still enjoy it if I could figure out how to play it today.

I have two Sega Saturn games that I have never met anyone else who has played:

Legend of Oasis - Action rpg with beautiful art and some lite metroidvania style open world exploring.

Blazing heroes - my first exposure to tactical RPGs which is now maybe my favorite genre. It absolutely does not hold up, tons of flaws, but I do love it.

Mount and Blade. I know it has a decent following and Bannerlord is perpetually in early access but the original just struck a chord with me. Right place right time but I spent hundreds of hours exploring and building up my army into a fighting force and just dicking around in the world. Either by destroying and razing entire nations or trying to become king through service I always kept trying to work my way up. That's not to mention the obscene amount of mods and how much more content they gave me and different settings. I could still to this day pop it on and get lost for hours and hours.

As the dark king of dubious RPGs and obscure nonsense, my pick is either my CRPG standby, The Temple of Elemental Evil (which I've pushed on multiple people in the past) or my new herald and standard for obscure janky bullshit, or Wizards and Warriors (2000). The former is just a fascinating thing as both a ultra-faithful D&D combat sandbox and recreation of an infamous adventure module. The latter is weird, janky, and feels like the lost evolutionary branch of the CRPG genre. It's also maybe the single one of my "maybe not the greatest" CRPG picks.

My non-RPG pick is probably Eador: Genesis or Fantasy General. Ain't no one making video essays about either of those games, at least not in the English language. Eador does the Russian game thing of incorporating a bajillion mechanics from eighteen other fantasy turn-based strategy games, somehow managing to make that stuff work in the process. Fantasy General is the opposite, where it's a streamlined, stripped down fantasy version of Panzer General. It's... kinda great? Has a really good soundtrack, GOG has given it away for free a couple times. Good shit.

Not to call you out specifically, but I feel like a game that sold millions of copies, was tied to one of the most successful media franchises of all time, and more-or-less enshrined its developer in the gaming mainstream is probably not a guilty treasure :P

Personal fave? Sure, absolutely. But I think it'd be pretty easy to find someone to talk about with. Hell, I'd talk about KOTOR with someone at length *right now*

I've got a few choices that I could think of off the top of my head. I'll list them in order of release.

Castle of the Winds a roguelike, hack n slash, dungeon crawler with the graphics of what I'd call Windows 3.1 business software. I played it a lot in my childhood and was never good at, but it was fun. I have no idea where I got it, though I'm fairly certain either my uncle or one of his kids installed it on a computer prior to them giving that computer to my family. I also just learned it was published by Epic Games of all things, or Epic MegaGames at the time.

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber a weird strategy, RPG hybrid. You would recruit a number of named characters and generic enemies into your forces, as well as hold a pool of generic soldier recruits. You could equip your various units with equipment and level them up in battle, eventually unlocking new classes. You would also build small team formations out of your pool of units and could have something like 5 different formations in each campaign level. The actual campaign maps were 3d terrains with various landmarks like towns and such, and you would plot out the movement of your little teams, occasionally getting into random battles, like your classic invisible Jrpg random encounters, or you'd come across an enemy squad. The battles themselves were played out by the AI, sort of like a proto-DotaChess or AutoBattler. It was a neat game with a lot of depth in its customizations. I'd love to see a modern take on this sort of game, if one doesn't already exist.

The Sexy Brutale an adventure, puzzle sort of game. It's only a few years old, but I don't really ever hear anyone talk about this game. I put it in the same category as something like Return of the Obra Dinn in that it's a mystery game where I wish I could go back and play it again for the first time. This was a game where when I first heard the name, and despite it having high praise from whomever I first heard about it from, just sounded like it'd be some kind of visual novel game, a genre that I don't really care for or much reverence for. It's a game that utilizes a time loop and takes place in a casino/hotel where you're solving various mysteries. It does the thing that I loved above The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask but expands on it, in that all events are on a set schedule and you have to try working within that.

@luissrod: Herc's Adventures was so good.

Undoubtedly, Original War. A game I think about to this day. I found it in a bargain bin around 2004 (I believe it's budget rerelease). It's an RTS game with multiple factions fighting over rare resources, the twist, their 'original war' is taking place 2 million years in the past.

No doubt riddled with problematic material viewed thru the lens 2021, but it combined multistrand storytelling and choice-driven narrative within an RTS. There are novel game mechanics and customisations, but the most compelling element is the genuine connection with your named units.

Is it a great RTS? is it an amazing story? Probably not. I just loved how much they went for something genuinely..ahem original.

@silentman0: I LOVED THIS GAME! We had the multi-tap and me and my friends would waste entire days playing this and Return Fire.

Impossible Mission for C-64 is one of the only games I will go back and play through every year. It's usually the game I use to start my day for my yearly Extra Life marathon, because I can talk about how the game works and my memories of it from my early years. Though it is somewhat procedural, I have basically memorized every room and trick of the game to where I can usually complete the game from start to finish in 30 minutes or less.

When I was a kid I would study the manual and draw out pages from it. I was obsessed. Funnily enough, I don't remember being able to finish the game as a kid while I now complete it every time I play (unless something catastrophically goes wrong).

Jeff has played Impossible Mission in the past and talked about wanting to know more of the ins and outs of the game. I've never heard of anyone putting as much time into the game as I have so I have always thought it would be amazing to share a video of a playthrough with him to explain the game.

Mine would definitely have to be Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal. It’s a RTS/tower defense game where you are fending off a slow moving liquid. It is extremely satisfying, has a surprisingly good story, and a good selection of custom levels. One of the most addicting games I’ve played.

There was a brief moment in time in which RTS/shooter hybrids exploded on pc in the late 90s and early 00s, stuff like Savage, C&C Renegade and Natural Selection.

This I think is the crown jewel of this type of game, the first game from Pandemic Studios, knocking it out of the park with a cool asymmetrical rts game that happens to let you control most every vehicle unit. Even though it recently got a remaster, NOBODY was talking about this game. And I can understand why: almost everything about the game is irreparably dated, in terms of sound design, interface, ease of use, and general controls. But if you can deal with some of the shortcomings, it still pretty enjoyable today, if not solely for the fact that nobody really makes these kind of games anymore. Successfully, anyway.

@rigas: Ring of Red is the game I always visualize in my head when people talk about Valkyria Chronicles, and I only just realized that! I don't remember if I ever rented the game, but it was definitely on some kind of demo disc and I played the heck out of that demo for a couple weeks.

This new show has me wondering what Brad and Vinny's answers would be... I don't know how obscure it is but I have never heard anyone talk about Tetrisphere. An N64 Tetris game.

For me it's probably Cloud Master on the Sega Master System. This is the game I probably have the most nostalgia for - first game I ever remember playing. But going back as an adult, it was still a pretty good side-scrolling shoot-em-up with interesting mechanics and ridiculous character design.

Even before it was a site meme, I loved Alpha Protocol.

It is, by an metric, a BAD GAME. Stealth is massively overpowered until you get into the boss fights, where it just becomes a mediocre shooter, and in one case becomes almost impossibly difficult if you haven't done a story beat, but it's so unique in terms of RPGs. Even TODAY, the idea of a near-future spycraft RPG with HUGE emphasis on choice and consequences in missions and in dialog is unheard of. Even little details like the statistic "Orphans Created" instead of a kill-count for your character indicates they were going for something different in terms of the modern-setting (in 2010, it was still a very rah-rah time) and in terms of RPGs. It was bold, it was ambitious, it was borderline unplayable at times, and I beat it 3 times. Once normally, once as a Rookie Agent, so that I could unlock the character class "Veteran Agent" and get a CRAPLOAD of skills to start off.

Two that immediately jump to mind is

Ys 3 Wanderers from Ys on the SNES. The music and opening cutscenes blew me away as a kid! As far as Ys games go it's a bit of the black sheep of the series. Kind of what Zelda 2 is within that series. It's pretty short all thing considered but something about it grabbed me.

The other is Sky Gunner on PS2. It's such a wonderfully bright and positive game. It's like playing a Ghibli movie. Super fun dogfights and a great visual style. Shame no one really talks about it.

Well, here it goes.

Sega Genesis - Aladdin, The Page Master (Based on that McCauley Culkin movie)

Playstation - FF8, Parasite Eve 2 (of course I liked the first one better), Legend Of Dragoon, Lunar Silver Star Story Complete, Area 51 light gun game, and every obscure RPG on that system, except Saga Frontier, even I knew that was bad.

Dreamcast - Shenmue

Playstation 2 - The Bouncer because it was nice to have a short game to beat before I could get a memory card.

And many more on the PC, Xbox, and GameCube. Cyberpunk 2077 is my most recent Guilty Pleasure.

@constantk: Man I haven't thought about of Ring of Red in a long time! I should play that game again and try to beat it. I remember the later stages getting rough!
In the spirt of SRPG's @Der Langrisser is mine! Another Masaya game like Assault Suit Leyos there are 5 ish in the series if we ignore the mobile spinoff and dreamcast games. All of them came out of pretty much came out on different consoles.
Only 1 had an official translation until the modern re-release of @Langrisser I & II (with not as good graphics). Der Langrisser added branching paths (It's basically Fire Emblem Three Houses but from 20 years ago) where you could basically be good/empire/evil or screw everyone I want to be god.

Effectively never heard anyone talk about it except for the recent mobile gacha game which is pretty good and the switch/ps4 remake.

100% Captain Skyhawk on NES.

This game was my first introduction to shmups in a way when I was a child. I think the graphics were ahead of the time with its sort of colorful 3D charm. Plus it was made by Rare!

I remember RoboTrek for the snes being a weird and goofy little rpg. I have super fond memories of the game but I dont really hear people talk about it when discussing Snes Rpgs.

@rpjeff said:

I had an Apogeeshareware disc with those games and others like Bio Menace and Monster Bash. I played of a lot those in my early days.

Raptor had amazing graphics for the time, but my favorite shoot'em up was Tyrian. It didn't look as good to me, but had a lot more going for it. Tons of weapons, sidekicks, special powers, and ship upgrades. It had much more story than anyone would ever expect from a vertical shooter. Message logs would be collected from data cubes and could be read between level. I didn't pay them much attention when I was young, but the writing was apparently quite sharp.

Ok, pretty sure no one in the thread has mentioned this one.

In 1998 there was a Gameboy game called Power Quest. It was a fighting game published by Sunsoft, and was one of the best of the genre on the platform. However, considering the Gameboy had only two buttons and a 160x140 resolution, it was complete trash.

That being said, the story mode was fantastic. It was a top down RPG where you went around town challenging people to fights with miniature robots. It was all very low stakes, which I love. Over the course of the game you won some minor tournaments, and built a healthy fighting game community with your friends. Very wholesome and upbeat from what I remember.

It's a game mode I would love to see implemented in a modern fighting game. Arcade modes are terrible for actually teaching players the mechanics of the game, and a sidequest where you have to perform a guardbreak is a lot more engaging than a dry tutorial. If Arc System can take the time to build their terrible lobby modes that no one ever uses, they could probably build a 2 hour throwback like that.

I still have the cartridge, but no way to play it. I should buy a GBA sometime.

Your wife sounds cool. Everyone rails on Intelligent Systems for not making Advance Wars games anymore, but I would kill that entire franchise for a new Cubavore.

@izzy_izumi: Ghost in the Shell for PSX was a surprisingly good game! I bought it as a fan of the show and enjoyed it quite a bit!

The original cover shooter! That game doesn't get enough credit! I'm sure the timing is debatable but it was the first time I remember hearing about cover mechanics.

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I've been struggling with this one because I don't know how "unpopular" these games actually were:

NES: Blaster Master

SNES: Uniracers

N64: F-Zero GX, Mystical Ninja starring Goemon

PS2: Project Snowblind

PS3: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Pixel Junk Eden

Hah, yeah, I wasn't even aware of the anime/movies/manga but the 99c video store at the time didn't have too many discs that weren't scratched to hell, so when this game showed up, I snatched it up the same weekend to try before people messed it up.

Blaster Master was awesome, but confusing to me as a child. Uniracers was absolutely great.

And way more people need to play Enslaved. The graphics alone are fantastic and the gameplay was pretty solid.

Been thinking about this in the context of the show. Something that I like(d), that I think people aren't really aware of, are owed more respect, and are relevant to my interests/life.. Two immediately come to mind but Im sure there are more. Having a whole list feels like cheating :P

Snap-On Gearhead Garage (1999) on PC is one. It took like 15+ years for people to actually make a modern version of this.. and its all those Car Mechanic Simulator games. People seemed to think those were some whole new idea, when it was done forever ago and I remember discovering it as a kid at like a WalMart or Kmart or something. Department stores always had those weird, under the radar titles that were niche but innovative. This is where I discovered titles like 1nsane and Cabela's 4x4 Off-Road Adventure. Still have my big box copy of it.

The other is Hard Truck 2 (2000). Again, think this was a department store find. I have both my original big box copies of the first game and the sequel. Euro/American Truck Simulators are just based on the old 18 Wheels of Steel games. And those games came out of Hard Truck. It might even be the same developer but have gone through 20 years of changes? I played this game a lot. At first, I had no idea how to play it, then some time later managed figure out the un-intuitive UI. Pick up loads, drive around the map and deliver them. This one was a bit unique because it kinda had like.. hijackers? land mines? Stuff like that. But it was mostly casual cruising around for me. I remember it having good music too.

Just thought of another. Mercenary Kings. Genuinely loved that game.

I have to say, there are some bangers on this thread.

Definitely Digimon World for the PS1 for me. The town-building aspect of its gameplay loop is something I wish other devs adopted. Still one-of-a-kind to this day.

My first thought was actually Doritos Crash Course. It was a multiplayer staple of my friend group for YEARS, and I still don't know why it existed or how it was actually kind of great.

@ono_sendai: Uniracers was so good. I kept waiting for it to show up on Wii VC, but found out it is in legal limbo because Pixar said the unicycles looked like one they made in a short film. And some idiot judge agreed with them. So no one can make cartoon unicycles anymore apparently.

That game was dope. Love a good training game.

Have you played Digimon World: Next Order? It's a sequel to Digimon World. Not like those PSX and PS2 sequels that were just kinda bad RPGs either, it actually brings back the mechanics and town building from first game. Highly recommend playing it if you haven't.

It has to be:

Metal Arms: Glitch in the system

Fantastic levels and weapons with varied gameplay and amazing sweary robots. The complete package and should have Ratchet and Clank level status!

@fingerprints: That is a superb choice! That game really shines.

Yeah, the Genesis/Mega Drive version of Countdown to Doomsday definitely streamlined a lot of things and had fewer races and classes. I remember if you didn't know about training at least some of your guys in Zero G then you'll basically be unable to move during the final mission as it is all on a space station.

I know that Matrix Cubed also had character transfer for the PC version...again linking it to Mass Effect forever in my mind.

'The Immortal' for Sega Genesis is mine.

Certainly the game I mention to friends and none of them know what the hell I'm talking about. Fun dungeon crawler with some really wild (for the time) fatality moves and deaths that can occur. The biggest fault of this game is that it's pretty much a one-and-done experience. Once you know the path and puzzle solutions, you can probably blast thru this game in under 2 hours, but I always remember it making a fantastic first impression on my young D&D rattled brain.

Three games come to mind.

The first is Jagged Alliance, an isometric turn-based strategy game for DOS. I first watched my older cousins play it at the time and was truly fascinated by it. They taught me how to play it eventually and I was totally hooked. I loved all the characters and their little quips and how you got to equip all their equipment. We use to make our own levels and challenge each other to beat them. Still love the game today.

Second is Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight for the Amiga. Me and a friend came across this game when going through his older brothers Amiga collection. Players take turns on a world map encountering different enemies or other players. These encounters play out in a 2d view similair to Barbarian or say a classic beat'em up. Quite gory for it's time which was half the draw at that age (we were about seven or eight) to be honest. Doesn't really hold up today if you don't have the nostalgia for it but it's still one of the games I hold dearest to my heart.

The last one is Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure for the Nintendo DS. Action platformer and puzzle game all in one at the same time. Super charming game that seems to be all but forgotten.

My guilty treasures are:

Project Sylpheed: an xbox 360 exclusive made by square enix. It was also SE's only attempt at making an ace combat style game set in space, being able to change your load out and that is also really anime.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space: A PS2 game that was basically a rail shooter with mobile suits and like star fox 64 had hidden changes that where made if you hit a specific action. It also covered War in the Pocket, 0083 and other one year war side stories.

.Hack Infection: This was basically my first rpg game on the ps2 and if I never picked it up I wouldn't have gotten into the genre. Seeing the commercial for the game on toonami gave me a wow factor in that a prequel anime sets up the game and that it also came with an ova that showed what was happening outside of the game.

Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues: This game is a contra clone for the SNES set months after jurassic park. You play as Alan Grant and a mercenary named Wolf (when playing with 2 people), the story basically has you stopping Biosyn from taking over the island. You pick which missions to do in any order and also have passive and aggressive weapons because there's a dino counter. The counter starts dropping for every dino you kill minus the raptors and if drops under 50 it's game over. I spent hours replaying this game with my brother to the point we were beating it on hard to get the true ending. Yup, this game had that.

@rejizzle: Yes, it's now on my wishlist on PSN. Thanks for the recommendation!

@spiritof: good one. Remember this one well, though that has a lot to do with the fatalities you’d perform at the end of battles.

I'm gonna lean towards an obscure title and say Dark Colony. It predates Starcraft, but came after C&C Red Alert.