Great games that have gone 'under the radar'
- Thread starter Captain Bland
- Start date
Recommended Videos
There's a really fun RTS called Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, it has 3 very unique, very balanced races, a fun single player, and it still looks pretty good to this day, it's basically polished a sheen. The online community is dead though, usally less than 100 people on although, that's it's only real low point.
I don't know if these games are "under the radar", but the Oddworld series is very fun to play, and my personal opinion is that it's as funny if not funnier than Psychonauts
I don't know if these games are "under the radar", but the Oddworld series is very fun to play, and my personal opinion is that it's as funny if not funnier than Psychonauts
Defiantly a great as far as I'm concerned. It was a shame that Bullfrog dissolved before Dungeon Keeper 3 could be made, and even more so when Mucky Foot rising from the ashes didn't last much beyond Startopia. Startopia was simply 'Dungeon Keeper in space' in many ways.Strafe Mcgee said:
For me, another great that slipped by was Hostile Waters (or Antaeus Rising as I believe it was tagged in the US). It certainly got UK PC Gamer pretty excited, but then the sales just never seemed to get going to match.
Hostile was likened to Carrier Command and the Battlezone games. Third person driving of a vehicle into battle but with some RTS elements too. There were some downfalls to the game, such as there being almost no replayability, no multiplayer and somewhat weak AI. But the real challenge came from the design of the islands battle takes place on, and the real hook of the game is its plot.
At first glance, the plot seems relatively predictable; you must battle through a series of islands from your carrier base to stop an evil cabal bringing war back to the peaceful world. But the actual writing and timing of the story through the game really drives you on.
I have to recommend it, not least because I stole the 'first play' out from under my friend when he went on holiday over its release. I owe it to everyone to point people toward a great game that may have slipped by heh.
Hostile Waters is great. The story was written by Warren "Internet Jesus" Ellis, so it's got great dialogue, and a lot of good world design.
Pikmin by Nintendo - very quirky look to it and seems like a kid game but it was very creative, had interesting puzzle elements and it was fun.
Katamari series - I'm not sure if people reviewed this game as average but it was something new and original, also very quirky and kid friendly.
Eternal Darkness - A horror game on the Gamecube relatively unheard of (maybe because it was on the gamecube) and difficult to find at local stores. The game had a what was called a "sanity meter", when it was low the character began to hallucinate. Your head might randomly fall of, the room is upside down, the game might appear to reset itself and you might even see the blue screen of death but none of it really happens. Mixed in with a creative storytelling, and relatively smooth gameplay it should have made more of an impact
Katamari series - I'm not sure if people reviewed this game as average but it was something new and original, also very quirky and kid friendly.
Eternal Darkness - A horror game on the Gamecube relatively unheard of (maybe because it was on the gamecube) and difficult to find at local stores. The game had a what was called a "sanity meter", when it was low the character began to hallucinate. Your head might randomly fall of, the room is upside down, the game might appear to reset itself and you might even see the blue screen of death but none of it really happens. Mixed in with a creative storytelling, and relatively smooth gameplay it should have made more of an impact
Gotcha Force on the Gamecube: Picked it up on a whim (it was probably cheap) a few years ago and had loooads of fun with it. Gamespot gave it a 5.0, Official Nintendo Magazine didnt even review it, so I think it counts as "under the radar". Think Custom Robo, give it uber cartoony graphics and throw in a bucket load of awesome.
Yes! Thexder on the Tandy 1000. I remember that name but I remember nothing about the game. Zeliard, Sopwith, If It Moves Shoot It, and Robocop too. I remember Zeliard was awesome and the other three were fun but hard as hell.Khell_Sennet said:
Seconded, Thirded and carried. Go and buy it, it rocks. My only problem was that you didn't get the Jet until the last level. But the ability to choose vehicles, weapons, (upgrades? I can't remember ><), fly choppers, drive hovercrafts and tanks, yadda yadda yadda. Great fun. Plus, the intro clip where the Anteaus bursts out of the water is so cool! XDGloatingSwine said:
It got good reviews, but appears to have flown under the radar. It don't know anyone else who has heard of it, let alone played it, but The Warrior's was pure awesome.
Thexder was awesome, but painfully hard, at least for me at the time. Same with its sequel, Firehawk.Khell_Sennet said:
Although the game got great reviews, Okami was highly overlooked, and Clover closed down due to its lack of success. I really really hope it sells better on the Wii.
Like a broken record, I have to once again mention the games Loom and Planet's Edge: Point of No Return. Loom got lost in the shuffle due to the popularity of Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island, and Planet's Edge was so overlooked that it doesn't even have a page on GameFAQs.
A couple more nods go out to Siege and its sequel, Ambush at Sorinor. They're kind of real-time strategy, but quite unique from what we know of the genre today.
Two more overlooked games are Sierra classics The Colonel's Bequest and its sequel, The Dagger of Amon Ra, two murder mystery adventure games that were actually quite scary for being games that aren't actually survival horror.
Tetrisphere is perhaps my favourite game on the N64. So awesome.
Alien 3 is one of my favourite games on the SNES, and the first Alien game that was actually any good.
Castles was somewhat well known at the time, but seems to have been lost in the past now, same with the Prince of Persia games, Blackthorne, Flashback, and Out Of This World.
Having come across it a bit later than its time, I'm not sure how well received The Neverhood Chronicles was while it was current.
Has anybody ever played Ancient Art of War at Sea? That was a brilliant game, and I've only ever met one other person who knows of it.
Anybody play the original Dune game on PC? How do you even categorize that one?
Faceoff, a really old PC hockey game that had some good sim elements, but also enjoyed some good hockey violence. It remains to this day as my favourite hockey game of all time.
That's enough for now. Maybe I'll post more later.
I played Sun Tsu's Art of War (Broderbund) on my first PC, an 8088 clone with 640kb RAM and monochrome monitor. I remember having to turn off the overclocking, because the game would run too fast at anything above 4MHz... Good times...Uglycat said:
-- Steve
Fallout Tactics was damn good. People shouldn't hate it for not being Fallout 3. Multiplayer is crazy fun.
Someone mentioned Bushido Blade? ONLY fighting game I can stand... more fighting games need to allow you to kill your opponent in a single blow.
Someone mentioned Bushido Blade? ONLY fighting game I can stand... more fighting games need to allow you to kill your opponent in a single blow.
I'd say Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. It's understandable though cause it had such a tiny print run.
Most of the ignored games I've played fall into the "oldschool gaming" genre, I enjoyed Corridor 7, Xargon, and Wacky Wheels among others. Corridor 7 was Wolf3d style and featured shapechanging enemy aliens which disguided themselves as furniture, Wacky Wheels was a Mario Kart ripoff, and Xargon was built on the Jill of the Jungle engine, thus incorporating "turn into a fish/toad/flame bird" type puzzles.
Terramax, I'm a huge Discworld fan, do you know if any of the Discworld games are technically abandonware yet? I'd love to try Noir, but I'm quite confident it wasn't even properly released in the US.
Terramax, I'm a huge Discworld fan, do you know if any of the Discworld games are technically abandonware yet? I'd love to try Noir, but I'm quite confident it wasn't even properly released in the US.
The Legacy of Kain games the first one being available on PC.
Xenogears got swamped by the Final Fantasy games.
The Zone of the Enders games. These two games have pretty much defined what I consider to be the second school of mech based combat, the first being of the slow clunky variety one sees with Mechwarrior. If you wanted to make a fast paced mech combat game the games to study are the Zone of the Enders games.
I would also throw Black in there for a fairly solid shooter with some neat particle effects. The only draw back is no multiplayer not even split screen if memory serves me.
Xenogears got swamped by the Final Fantasy games.
The Zone of the Enders games. These two games have pretty much defined what I consider to be the second school of mech based combat, the first being of the slow clunky variety one sees with Mechwarrior. If you wanted to make a fast paced mech combat game the games to study are the Zone of the Enders games.
I would also throw Black in there for a fairly solid shooter with some neat particle effects. The only draw back is no multiplayer not even split screen if memory serves me.
Freespace.
Freespace 2.
Freespace: Source code project.
It's now FREEWARE -- nonetheless still being an awesome space combat sim. The source code was released by Volition, and the modding community had a blast with it. Entire campaigns have been released by the community (including a BSG campaign for those interested). Not that the original campaign is bad -- I'm just saying there is a lot available.
Freespace 2.
Freespace: Source code project.
It's now FREEWARE -- nonetheless still being an awesome space combat sim. The source code was released by Volition, and the modding community had a blast with it. Entire campaigns have been released by the community (including a BSG campaign for those interested). Not that the original campaign is bad -- I'm just saying there is a lot available.