That underrated, forgotten gem of a game.

[uchytjes]

If you play games long enough, you begin to develop a favorites list. On most people's lists, there is usually one game that would make people scratch their heads. whether its because they think its a horrible game or just have never heard of it, they tend to question the list creator's choice in the matter. This is the thread for those games. The underdogs, the diamonds in the rough, the generally forgotten titles that, for one reason or another, you have remembered throughout your gaming career.

Spoiler: My choice (and only reason I made this thread)

STEAMBOT CHRONICLES. My god, do I ADORE this game. I mean seriously, you can do EVERYTHING in this game. Heres a short list of what you can do: learn and play instruments, fight bandits, help build a railroad, play the stock market, fight in arenas, BECOME a bandit, discover the mystery behind your amnesia, get the girl, be a dick towards the girl, invent the airplane, search for ancient artifacts, create a hot springs, invent the electric guitar, and so, so much more.

Oh, and did I mention that you ride around IN A BI-PEDAL ROBOT THAT FIGHTS OTHER ROBOTS!? I cannot understate my love for this game, and my sadness that the developer cancelled it's sequel. But oh well, I guess theres no helping it...
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.
.
;_;

So, what is your underrated gem?

 

[ResonanceGames]

Before this gets flooded with games that are in no way underrated (and it will), I want to toss out Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. I think both of those games have tons of great qualities and are absolutely worth playing, but some flaws and middling review scores have made them more or less forgotten.

 

[Eddie the head]

I liked Blast corps. Sometimes it was fun to just blow shit up.

 

[Shadowstar38]

May I present to you...

This is my all time favorite game from the Gameboy Advance. I sunk more time into this than Pokemon Rudy. It's that fucking good.

EDIT: fixed image

 

[Jason Rayes]

Id list Outcast, it was a great game with an awesome orchestral soundtrack (By the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra!!??). Unfortunately it didn't do well and the sequel was cancelled. I think its party due to the fact that it used its own voxel based engine, not your shiny new 3D card.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaHTNj_hSl0&feature=related

I'll also mention Beyond Good and Evil as people need to be reminded that hardly anyone bought that awesome game.

 

[TaintedSaint]

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. If you have never played it you are going yourself a grave injustice.

 

[Misterian]

I'd say Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Movie, The Game. again, but having added this to the list before, it's starting to feel redundant.

So I shall recommend; Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure for the PS1.

Sure, the gameplay is mostly very easy, but the story is great, the characters are great, the atmosphere is great, plus it has excellent camp value matching that of a disney movie and is perhaps one of the few games that are musicals that aren't rhythm games.

How many games do you have have moments where characters spontaneously break into song that aren't rhythm games?

 

[themind]

Beyond Good and Evil. Amazing PS2 game. Gladius as a table-top turn-based RPG is solid, and Shadow of Rome for PS2 is a damn good game. Also anyone who likes Scarface *has* to play Scarface: The World Is Yours, GTA style but the guy they got to do Tony Montana's voice is picture perfect, he got some lessons from Al Pacino himself.

Body Harvest. An N64 gem that rarely gets mentioned with the heavyweights on that console. Also on N64, Gauntlet: Legends and Ogre Battle 64 (if you can ever find a copy) are also fun.

If you can ever find a copy of Crash and the Boys: Street Challenge, it is one of the best two player NES titles ever. It's got River City Ransom type graphics, but it's done as an Olympics style game. A must play if you can get a copy. GI Joe & Super Dodgeball deserve an honourable mention.

 

[Norrdicus]

Scurge: Hive on GBA went largely unnoticed by the gaming community. Wrongfully so, it was an extremely solid isometric Metroid-clone

In fact, the protagonist of Scurge was the kind of person I wanted Samus to be in Metroid: Other M. Not horribly talkative, but still has a good mix of professionalism and humor

 

[Beautiful End]

Two choices:

1. Little Samson - NES: My god, this game is probably my favorite of all time. I love the music, the characters, the plot is easy to understand and okay for the time it was released, it's well balanced, the palette and worlds are great, the music is fun...I could go on and on. If you have a chance to play it, do so (It's $100 on eBay so.. *ahem*).
Everyone who played it admits its one heck of a game. Sadly, it came out in the same year the SNES came out so it was horribly ignored and underrated. *Sigh*

2. The Legend of Dragoon - PS1: Alright, so that one's more well known but there are still people out there who don't know about it and don't care about it. Just like Little Samson, Legend of Dragoon came out around the same time as Final fantasy 7 so...yeah.
Maybe the graphics haven't aged well and heaven knows the voice acting isn't the best. But aside from that, it had a lot of things going on for it. The story was pretty good, for one. The combat was unique up until that point. The world was pretty interesting and the characters were well rounded.
People who have played the game and loved it are often claiming a sequel. but we'll never see that day.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Jazz Jackrabbit for GBA is amazing and so is Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri

 

[The Madman]

Age of Wonders

The series did fairly well but it just seems to have become completely forgotten over the years which is a pity because it was a fantastic series. Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic has got to be one of my all time favourites even, such a damned good game!

 

[Violator[xL]]

Masters of Magic. I mean, civilization with (lots of) fantasy races, an under/mirror world, heroes, spells, creating and finding artifacts, loot!

This basicly had it all!

 

[Playing The System]

Mafia II didn't get enough time in the spotlight if you ask me!

I've just recently been playing through that game again and I'm just loving it, the characters a well rounded (given some fall into stereotyping of the usual "Gangster" but I'm cool with that), and story and pacing goes smoothly and just over is a great experience with quite deep immersion when you let it draw you into the world it's created.

 

[Tanis]

DS:
Legend of Kage 2:
Like the old school Ninja Gaiden, but easier (most of the time). Great art, graphics, story and a fairly complex magic system. Add in two characters that play differently enough to justify playing through both 'stories' and you have one of the best games Square has put out in YEARS.


PS2:
(Naval Ops Series) Warship Gunner 2:
Think Armored Core (but not as fucking slow, most of the time) with page after page after page of upgrades and ships types.
Play as everything from some little Currier to a submarine to an Aircraft Carrier and a story that's ripped out of the Ace Combat games, and you've got one of the most under looked games on the PS2.
The sales of this game were just plan shameful.


Baroque:
While this game does nothing to prepare you and, lets face it, the story you pretty much accidentally bump into, that's one of the reason you keep coming back. A tower that never seems to end, great character and monster designs, haunting music, difficulty that goes from a walk in the park to a walk in the hurricane, this game is just an odd kind of fun.
A total throwback to dungeon crawlers like Diablo or Planscape: Torment, no game is ever exactly the same.
Add to it the fact that dieing actually makes you progress, and you've got one weird but fun game.

Dropship: United Peace Force:
One of the odder games I've come across (and that's saying something) you play as well a..dropship that carries your other ships into combat and spy missions. With game play that goes from 'Ace Combat' to 'Tank Battle', there's really a variety of ways to complete missions and fun to be had.
My biggest issue with this game is that the level are too damn long and while there are check points, they don't really help if you just want a quick play.


Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex:
A GOOD anime based game? What the fuck, am I right?
While not the best game in the world, the simple fact that this game is not total shit (SEE: GitS on the PSP) and has a GREAT 4 player multi-player mode with a decent story, great graphics, and controls that actually work, some really good weapons and combat, this is one of my favorite anime based games out there.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto:
You play as a drunk alien British mercenary, a naked water chick, and a huge fucking dinosaur like thing. What's not to love?
A game that never seems to take itself to seriously (SEE: Most lines of dialogue in the game), some great game play that differs from each storyline (or creature class), plus some really fun run and kill game play, and you've got an over looked gem.

Gitaroo Man (Also on PSP):
Gain a magical guitar, fight a baby demon in the tutorial and proceed to fight (with the power of music) skeletons and evil alien keyboards and you've got one of the quirkiest rhythm music games on the PS2.
One big issue is that when you pause the game on a song you HAVE TO replay from the start, this has been fixed in the PSP port of the game (thank fucking god).


God Hand :
Insane 2D beat-em-up but 3D, genuinely funny moments and ball busting difficulty.
Add some of the best music in a game, with an amazing replay value and a custom combo maker and you've pretty much got the new school answer to Double Dragon or Battletoads...but without the shitty racing stages.


Gundam: Zeonic Front:
Yeah, yeah I know...A gundam game, underrated or Under appreciated? What the hell am I smoking, right?
Well, guess what, you'd be wrong. This is the Gundam game for people who don't really like...well...Gundam games.
A tactical third person shooter (SEE: SOCOM) with mechs, this is one of those weird games were even people I know who don't give a crap/like Gundam (or anime for that matter) seem to enjoy this game.
While not the most complex or long game of its kind, there's something surreal about leading a group of 5 Zaku like you're a freaking general into the fray as if this were SOCOM or a online team up of some random FPS.



A few others I'm too lazy to write up:
Klonoa 2
Okage: Shadow King
Oni
Psychonauts
Red Faction 1
Samurai Western
Shadow Of Destiny
Skygunner
Soul Nomad & The World Eaters
Sub Rebellion
TransFormers
VCL Presents: Motor Mayhem
Whiplash
Wizardry: Tale Of The Forsaken Land
Wrath: Unleashed
Zone Of The Enders 2: The 2nd Runner

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Spoiler: My choice (and only reason I made this thread)

STEAMBOT CHRONICLES. My god, do I ADORE this game. I mean seriously, you can do EVERYTHING in this game. Heres a short list of what you can do: learn and play instruments, fight bandits, help build a railroad, play the stock market, fight in arenas, BECOME a bandit, discover the mystery behind your amnesia, get the girl, be a dick towards the girl, invent the airplane, search for ancient artifacts, create a hot springs, invent the electric guitar, and so, so much more.

Oh, and did I mention that you ride around IN A BI-PEDAL ROBOT THAT FIGHTS OTHER ROBOTS!? I cannot understate my love for this game, and my sadness that the developer cancelled it's sequel. But oh well, I guess theres no helping it...
.
.
.
;_;

ARMORED CORE, ANYONE?!

No really. That is what I was going to say anyway (maybe not the latest one particularly, but definitely all the ones before it) and it just so happens to be bipedal (or quad, reverse joint, or tank) customisable mech fighting goodness. From what I can tell it doesn't come anywhere near the story that your game has and the characters are non-existent but it is about the only customisable mech game left.

Also Monster Hunter. But no matter how appreciated it is, I'm not going to get to play it until Capcom stops being an asshole and releases one for Playstation. It's been years Capcom. You had a fanbase.

 

[Shinsei-J]

Klonoa, yep, I'm still badgering on about that game.

The music, the characters, the setting, the mechanics, all great by themselves but together they created something I can't find fault in.
I find it to be the perfect game (in my own opinion) yet it got massively overlooked.

 

[Snarky Mark]

etherlords 2 horrible front end incredibly fun battles