The Most Over-Looked Developer

[Onyx Oblivion]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_%28company%29#Games_developed_by_Treasure

I nominate Treasure.

Treasure. They've been making good shit for a long time. And some of its pretty hardcore, but they have plenty of games that anyone can play, too. But this isn't a review, so I'm not going to describe these game in detail or anything.

They took Astro Boy[footnote]Astro Boy: Omega Factor and Gunstar Heroes are both in my top 10 games ever.[/footnote] and Bleach and made great games out of them. Great HANDHELD games, at that, which is probably why they're often overlooked.

Bleach: Blade of Fate was so damned good, that it was runner-up for Fighting Game of the Year by IGN in 2007. And its a DS game. It lost to Virtua Fighter 5, if you were wondering.

http://bestof.ign.com/2007/overall/3.html

And then, there is Gunstar Heroes. A Genesis masterpiece. If you have an internet connection for your Wii/360/PS3...It's cheap and downloadable.

There was also this little gem called Dynamite Headdy.

In case you were wondering, these guys are actually still in business. With their most recent title being "Sin and Punishment 2".

Do you agree? Or do you nominate someone else?

 

[Kollega]

Spoiler: I nominate In...

I nominate Introversion Software. Fell for it, didn't ya?

Seriously though - they may have some "nerd cred" thanks to Darvinia and Defcon, but not many people even know about them. By the way, they finally decided on what game they're developing now, Subversion, will be. It will be a spy simulator, apparently.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Once again, I will have to go with Pangea Software. It's a shame that they've been reduced to making iPhone apps, because back in the day, they made awesome fucking games. Power Pete and Nanosaur are two of my favorite titles of all
Some more information about Nanosaur can be found here

 

[reg42]

I don't know hey. That's a tough choice, seeing as I don't play many games from a specific dev. Maybe Obsidian? I know that sounds weird, but people don't (or rather didn't until recently) acknowledge them because they're overshadowed by the fact that they haven't made an original IP yet.

 

[Raikov]

I never played many Treasure games except for Gunstar Heroes. But it was good enough that I'll agree with you.

I myself though, would nominate Paradox interactive, a Swedish developer. They've made some great, complex RTS's in their day, but I'd say the best of the bunch is the Europa Universalis series, which includes: Europa Universalis 1-3, Hearts Of Iron I-III, Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis: Rome and Victoria.

Perhaps some of the deepest grand strategy games you'll ever play. I spent most of 2007 playing Hearts Of Iron II, and I would rate it one of the most engrossing games ever.

Strangely, they never seem to get mentioned though.

They never get mentioned for precisely that reason. Games that can't be appreciated by the general public rarely get any good publicity. This is especially true of very complex strategy games that requires very good micro/macro managing skills.

OT - I'd go for Ambrosia Software. They have several simple games, like "Defcon" and the like. I bought "Escape velocity Nova", a 2D space shooter with RPG elements. It was a bit of a hazzle to ship the game from Australia to Sweden, but it was well worth the 25? I paid for it.

 

[dmase]

A2M http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviour_Interactive

Ignore the movie and tv based games and just pay attention to the Jersey Devil and the up and coming Naughty Bear(who knows if it is good). I wasn't sure about the playstation 2 version of Mercs i never played it but I dont' see how they could have messed it up.

 

[Plurralbles]

hold on I have to rummage through my games...


Cloverstudio.

Easy. Lightning struck once with Okami... but looking at them... it struck a good amount of times with Viewtiful Joe.


But it doesn't exist anymore so... I guess they were never taken seriously and capcom kept all their IP's... Their talent though trickled into Bayonetta.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

A2M http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviour_Interactive

Ignore the movie and tv based games and just pay attention to the Jersey Devil and the up and coming Naughty Bear(who knows if it is good). I wasn't sure about the playstation 2 version of Mercs i never played it but I dont' see how they could have messed it up.

I'm still not sold on them, while I loved Wet...the rest of the list is hard to ignore. REALLY HARD. That said, they've changed. But they still haven't done much worth talking about. The PSP/DS/PS2 ports of the 360/PS3 games tend to turn out horrible messes.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

hold on I have to rummage through my games...


Cloverstudio.

Easy. Lightning struck once with Okami... but looking at them... it struck a good amount of times with Viewtiful Joe.


But it doesn't exist anymore so... I guess they were never taken seriously and capcom kept all their IP's... Their talent though trickled into Bayonetta.

I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to nominate them, but they get their fair share of praise from the real gamers.

I loved Okami, VJ, Bayonetta, all that stuff.

 

[Blanks]

I don't have one in mind but i want to say any developer not North american or Japanese

I don't think the European devs get enough love >.>

 

[Optimus Hagrid]

All I can think of is this guy. He makes some cool shit.

http://www.cactus-soft.co.nr/

There was also this little gem called Dynamite Headdy.

http://bimshwel.com/renk/dab/dab.htm

 

[Cilliandrew]

Treasure underappreciated? I dunno, i see their name brought up quite a bit on other sites as a pretty popular developer. At least among the messageboard set.

I don't know if Pandemic counts. I just found i always enjoyed the titles put out by Pandemic. The first real developer where i would purchase game simply if their logo was on the cover.

Too bad they're gone, now.

 

[Seldon2639]

Intelligent Systems:

Makers of the Fire Emblem series, and the Paper Mario series, and Advance Wars, but no one knows them independent of Nintendo. They're subsumed by the larger company, and that's sad

Camelot:

Makers of Shining Force (the most kickass turn-based strategy game of all time), Golden Sun, and the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series. But barely anyone knows about them.

 

[Christemo]

i nominate New Worlds Computing. they made 4 HOMM games before the franchise was bought by Ubisoft, and 3 and 4 in that series remains in my top ten games ever. someone like Ubisoft need to revive the company and give them back their franchise. if they made the future HOMM games, i would be so happy.

 

[Terramax]

snip

You didn't mention Guardian Heroes for the Sega Saturn, or Ikaruga for that matter, so you fail!

Nah, good choice my friend, although I'll choose a similar company - G.Rev, who specialize mainly in 2D shooters. Mostly renowned for Wartech, but they really shined with Boarder Down and, my fav game Under Defeat, for the Sega Dreamcast.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

snip

You didn't mention Guardian Heroes for the Sega Saturn, or Ikaruga for that matter, so you fail!

Those are indeed great.

And so is Bangai-O Spirits on DS.

 

[SavingPrincess]

I wouldn't call them overlooked so much as underapprecaited, but Atlus has always impressed me with their willingness to be a major developer/publisher that travels outside of the box and tries to do new things. Not just that but as a publisher they're willing to give developers a chance to take risks.

Developed

• 
  Persona (Shin Megami Tensei)
  Trauma Center
  Etrian Oddesy
  Bonk's Adventure

Published

• Ogre Battle
  Disgaea
  Guilty Gear
  Lufia
  Shining Force
  Super Robot Taisen
  Touch Detective
  Metal Slug

That's a small sampling.

Again, not necessarily overlooked, but in my opinion highly underapprecaited.