gaming Underrated Video Games

[Commander Bubbles 1,343]

Underrated Games Thread

 

I'm a kind of guy who goes often against the grains of society. Therefore, it's no question that I'd play some out-of-the-normal games, and many of them turn out to be real gems. What games have you played that barely gets any attention?

 

Ace Combat series- the story, gameplay, and episodic structure of the missions always made the Ace Combat series stand out from the rest. Zero had one of the best stories I had ever seen in a war game, neck and neck with MGS3. Assault Horizon was an absolute bust, however.

 

Airforce Delta Strike- I'm not an Okatu fan or whatever here, but the futuristic, sci-fi, anime style of AFDS really set it apart from other games. It had a lot of airplanes at your disposal (130+), a ton of different missions, ranging from blowing up a space elevator, flying into a subway tunnel with a P-38 to destroy tanks and VTOL jets, and, perhaps my favorite part of the entire game, flying modified fighter planes like F-15s and F/A-18s into space. Certainly, it wasn't up to par with the Ace Combat series, but it's still an enjoyable title that I still play even to this day.

 

Sky Drift- think of it as Mario Kart with WWII planes. It's a neat concept to fly modernized WWII planes in competitive air races through tropical islands, snowy mountains, and the like. The graphics were pretty damn good for an independent game, and the gameplay was high-speed and frantic. Just the way I like it.

 

Enthusia: Professional Racing- all I can say is holy crap did Konami really outdo themselves in their first racing sim. Extremely realistic car physics that surpass that of Gran Turismo 4, and even modern games like Forza 4 and Gran Turismo 5 really make this game a beauty. Normally, it takes a company many tries to get a great racing sim, and while Enthusia not being perfect, really hit the nail on the head.

 

These are really the only games I can really think of off the top of my head at the moment. Share your underrated classic games here!

[DusK 1,264]

Pretty much anything released by Treasure for the Sega Genesis. Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, Alien Soldier... Treasure did some solid work.

 

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes came close to the end of that console life cycle, so it didn't get much love despite being an absolutely amazing game.

 

There's this little N64 RPG title not a lot of people heard about called Hybrid Heaven. Deep, amazing story, addicting RPG gameplay centered around hand-to-hand combat, what's not to love?

 

Speaking of largely underrated N64 games, Perfect Dark. Easily better than Goldeneye, but because it came close to the end of the N64's life cycle, it didn't get as much attention.

Edited January 2, 2013 by DusK

[D1SC0RD 987]

Neopets: The Darkest Faerie

 

I've recently gotten back into Neopets, and of all the nostalgic things about it, this game ranks in the top 5. I never actually beat the game though... I got to a "scary" part and didn't want to move on. I loved the game though.

 

I've been watching a play-through of the entire thing. I'm so sad about all the fun things I was too scared to do! I wish I could play it again.

[Sarajevo 124]

Very interesting thread. I remember on my PS2, there was this game that I just had an absolute blast playing it, and it made me sad that no one really even knew about it, and it didn't get much acclaim... anyway, it's called Extermination, and it's similar to the Resident Evil Series. being around 10 when I played it, it really caught my eye since it was creepy, interesting, and well done in terms of the creepy, dark environment. 

 

 

A truly great game, first rated Pegi 18 game I played too ^^

Edited January 2, 2013 by Sarajevo

[Megas 27,136]

Okami.

This is what you get when you take the Wolf segments from Twilight Princess, and make it 100x better. Unfortunately low sales and being released at the end of the PS2's life cycle made it go unnoticed and ultimately killed Clover Studios

 

Viewtiful Joe series is also great, and sucks that Capcom still won't make a third game

 

And God Hand.

 

All hail the Clover Master race

Edited March 5, 2013 by Megas75

[Jghx5 33]

I like the tall tale games Sam & Max games they made.  I found these games fun and funny and always a great time playing them.  I hope they make more.

[MagicRythm 13]

i think bubsy 3D is under rated..... JUST KIDDING! really i think that mario party 8 is under rated, i mean yeah it is pretty much the same thing and sucks to play alone but when you've got friends like mine mario party 8 is just one big funny night.

[Celtore 2,769]

I feel that the megaman battle network series is overlooked quite a bit. Sure it's a spin off, but just because it's a spin off doesn't make it a bad game. Each game in the series, I loved experimenting with all the chip folder possibilities and I came up with quite a few deadly combos. I really liked my stun folder in BN6.

 

Also a quick note, star force never stood up to battle network. It did start getting better at the third game, but they decided to end the train wreck there.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Celtore

[Fridge 382]

There was a game that Square Enix created called Nier that was very very good, but it seemed to totally under the radar. Its a great little RPG that actually only tells its full story after being played about 4 times.

[SrFrog 926]

The Musashi games had the bad luck of having to compete with some of their parents company better known tittles, like Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. Which is sad, because it really contains some of those elements that made Squaresoft great at one time.

[weegeez 150]

I want to say Okami or Psychonauts, but those seem to have a more recent cult like following.

 

SO Im gonna go with Super Paper Mario. Why? It gets a lot of shit for being different from the first two, which is totally unfair. When you actually give it a chance and look deep into the storyline and gameplay, you have yourselves, one of the best and original gaming experiences you may ever discover. ALthough I prefer the first 2, this game is still amazing and the storyline is fantastic, best of any mario game, maybe any nintendo developed game

Edited January 2, 2013 by weegeez

[Mephala 2,633]

While Tim Schafer is getting cult followings on Pyschonauts and defined the action-adventure with Monkey Island, his most powerful work still goes unnoticed-Grim Fandango.

 

While it was critically acclaimed it hasn't seemed to have stuck with people. It's an amazing game, trust me. The characters are all very strong, each with a unique personality (Olivia Ofrenda is my hero.) The story was fun and had loads of witty lines, like this exchange between Manny (the main character) and Mercedes (his client, who he is taking to the Ninth Underworld).

 

Manny: "Did you kill much when you were alive?"

Mercedes: "Very little."

Manny: "Never killed anybody."

Mercedes: "I have to confess; I never killed anybody."

Manny: "Not even a teensy bit of killing?"

Mercedes: "MAYBE I JUST WASN'T TRYING HARD ENOUGH."

 

More awesome quotes here:

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0177822/quotes

 

The soundtrack is also great:

http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=%2F#/watch?v=5-K8R1hDG9E

 

All in all-best game ever made. It's simply fantastic.

[Zink 80]

I like the tall tale games Sam & Max games they made.  I found these games fun and funny and always a great time playing them.  I hope they make more.

 

I completely agree!

There are so many funny jokes in the series it makes them impossible to put down.

"Hey look Max, It's a ring!"

"Oh, Sam, this is all so sudden!"

"Shut up, bonehead."

[PinkiePai 181]

Oh I used to play Deus Ex a lot before, still have it. It's pretty old, and the graphics aren't the best, but that's the good part because my computer is a box full of scrap metal that runs Fallout 3 with min quality and low-res mod on it at about 15 fps, which is just downright pathetic, but wait, there is more! It also overheats every 40-ish minutes and then I have to close the game and browse something while it cools. Well back to Deus Ex, it was a great story and the atmosphere was also very good. Nice RPG elements to the usual FPS stuff, you could stealth through the whole game, or do a non-lethal play through ( just knock the buckers unconscious), it had multiple paths, different endings, and it changed depending which NPC's you kill or let live ( they could come later in the game and help you if you haven't killed them before)... Oh well, good time

Edited January 6, 2013 by PinkiePai

[I used to be a stranger 7,989]

Sim Tower.

 

It was like Sim City 2000, but vertical. I never managed to build a full size skyscraper, but it would've been fun to do.

 

Sid Meier's Railroads.

 

I miss playing that. It was a business sim/real time strategy game because not only are you buying and selling stocks of your opponents, you're also laying down track and setting up train routes to get the best-selling goods before anybody else.

 

 

I'm a kind of guy who goes often against the grains of society. Therefore, it's no question that I'd play some out-of-the-normal games, and many of them turn out to be real gems. What games have you played that barely gets any attention?

Ace Combat series- the story, gameplay, and episodic structure of the missions always made the Ace Combat series stand out from the rest. Zero had one of the best stories I had ever seen in a war game, neck and neck with MGS3. Assault Horizon was an absolute bust, however.
 

Did you ever manage to beat all missions on Ace difficulty with an S rank?

[Commander Bubbles 1,343]

Sim Tower.

 

It was like Sim City 2000, but vertical. I never managed to build a full size skyscraper, but it would've been fun to do.

 

Sid Meier's Railroads.

 

I miss playing that. It was a business sim/real time strategy game because not only are you buying and selling stocks of your opponents, you're also laying down track and setting up train routes to get the best-selling goods before anybody else.

 

 

 

 

Did you ever manage to beat all missions on Ace difficulty with an S rank?

Shattered Skies is the only game I have that I actually beat 100%. S Rank on all Ace difficulty missions. Ace Combat Zero and 5 have weird S Rank requirements that I haven't always been able to meet, even on the easier difficulties, as opposed to "Get X points for S Rank" from Shattered Skies.

[Musketeer341 10]

Legend of Dragoon-  story, gameplay and music was incredible.  It was kind of a low-dark fantasy..with dragons,magic and some fantasy creatures.

 

Bushido Blade (series)-  the ultimate samurai simulator.  The game(s) had an array of characters and it had a one-hit kill mechanic.  Each weapon was played differently, bosses were somewhat unique (especially when you fight someone that has a gun).

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

Sly Cooper - One of the most classic games I've ever played. I've been meaning to get my hands on the 2nd and 3rd sequals of the game. The first is a true classic. Nothing like doing some good old sneaking and stealing for a good cause. 

[SirPoniesAlot 7]

SplatterHouse  (The 2010 one, I know you said classics but I just had to. )

Getting a lot of hate from reviewers (for stupid reasons) and very little adverising.

It was delayed 3 times, the third time it was scraped and redone (Which I am glad they did) and the game had a unique look of its own.

Good controls, a simple story and looked nice and dark (not brightness wise). Had an amazing soundtrack if you are into metalcore, deathcore, and heavy metal.

It was a great game, not the best, but definatly a ton better than most reviews made it out to be.

The game also has the 3 original games as unlockables.

It had audio journals of the mad scientist in the game.

But I think my favorite thing was that they included the most popular fan forum of the Splatterhouse series in the Special Thanks credits.

It was clear this game was made to play tribute to the many fans that the series still holds.

 

Vitual-On Series

The entire series starting back in the Sega Saturn days has always been an underraeted series.

It is a Mech Fighter, the most unique one I have played in mt days.

Having quite the large fan base, but still tons of people do not know of the games.

I think it to be one of the longest lasting under appreciated game serieses to this day.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Sketches

[twistdapony 31]

Underratd games eh... I'd have too say Killer 7 is a pretty underrated game. As well as that, I think "Rhapsody" BY Atlus was an overrated games. It's shocking that some of the best games i've EVER played, most people have never even heard of em. 

[Rolls Royce 606]

Two words... The Ship.

Just think Assassin's Creed combined with The Sims, you have one person you have to track down and kill while another person is trying to track down and kill you.  Along with this, you have some needs to keep up with like hunger, hygiene, sleep, etc.  This game is so much fun, and it's only $20 on Steam.  Chilled Chaos has a large amount of gameplay of The Ship on YouTube, check it out.

[Mortimer 332]

The PSX version of Quake 2. When people said they were going to port Quake to PSX, everyone laughed because of the hardware's limitations. However it's sequel, Quake 2, had completely revamped graphics that made the game almost impossible to port to the PSX. A group of wise man ported the game to the PSX in an almost perfect way. They had to cut the less important levels (5 but they reincorpored several segments from the cut levels into new ones) and the framerate, but in addition it got even better music, better lightening and a lens flare effect (something that was new at that time) and a new enemy. Overall, i prefer this over the PC version.

[Jessper 735]

Space Pirates and Zombies and Bounty Hunters (SPAZ BG).

Noone knows it and those who do avoid it because the name just doesn't really imply a great action space sim.

But it is. It has great 2D graphics, lot of ships, full customisation of everything, story, humour, fleet and station management, RPG, mining, fighting, trading... It's kind of like user-friendly and simplified X3.

And I think it was actually made by just two people.

[TooTsaka 43]

I want to say Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Seriously, that game is amazing. Don't know exactly how popular it was, but it deserves to be recognised much more than what may as well be another Wario Ware game: Raving Rabbids.

 

Rayman 2 had a stunning soundtrack. This is pretty much the main theme for Rayman 2 and it's just... well, I LOVE it! I loved it when that music kicked in in the middle of the game.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMI3HNsZ6hQ

 

It was a light hearted game with an underlying darkness that Rayman 3 just lacked. When I was a child, I simply fell in love the game and was moved by the ending. I played it all over again one or two years ago and still loved it very much. I just don't see how the game should be overshadowed by Raving Rabbids. Also, the last few levels of the game: absolutely outstanding. I suggest you take a look at those last few levels. They were an absolute blast to play through.

[Chocolate 109]

So many underrated games. Where do I start?

 

Valkyria Chronicles - This game is probably my favorite PS3 game of all time. It is both a work of art and an amazing game. If you like SRPGs and you haven't at least tried this game, I highly reccomend you do. It's an amzaing game that completely flew under the radar during its release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJPhasMsayI

 

Panzer Dragoon Series - A series that got its start on Sega Saturn, they have always been ignored. This is basically Sega's Star Fox, if you will. Though imo this is done much better. The enviorments, the setting, the story is all so engrossing. The last one to ever come out was Orta on the original Xbox and it bombed so hard we will probably never see another entry in this beautiful series. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_16fFkw965c

 

Brave Fencer Musashi - I honestly believe this was one of the best PS1 games ever created. It blew me away when I played it back in 98 as a young boy. I believe it was overlooked during the time because of games like FF8 which were around the corner during its release. It was because of this game I couldn't play any 3D Zelda titles because it made them feel dated. (No offense to Zelda fans, it's just my unpopular opinion).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBzZB7rZlqA

 

Honorable Mentions: Shining Force Series, Virtua Fighter Series, Otogi series, the Yakuza Games