Favorite Obscure Video Games

[Raccoon Lad]

Let's have some fun, list your favorite obscure video game. Many fun games are obscure, or just not well known.
List the game and the platform, and a breif description if you want.
I'll start:
SnapJack- Arcade: An fairly unknown game by Universal that plays a bit like a cross between pacman and moon patroll.

[NE146]

Taito Marine Date: One of the first trackball games ever. They used to have it at the local mom n' pop store and that's the ONLY time I've ever seen it. You basically get 3 or 4 "spins" of the trackball to propel an octopus through a hazardous maze to get to the end where his girlfriend is. The game is not emulated yet although a couple of screenshots are out there showing it partially. I remember the background being ocean blue although the partially emu'd version is all black. it'd probably suck via emulation anyway, with it being trackball controlled...unless of course you have a tracball. (Sort of like playing Capcom's Bowling with a mouse or keyboard). The game wasn't all that really.. but I'd just like to see it for pure nostalgia's sake as I used to play it a lot as a kid. :)

2nd: Taito Space Chaser and Taito Crazy Balloon. Both are in the same boat as above but ARE emulated. However, they have no sound yet which is sorely missed :(

[portnoyd]

Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blowout for the NES. A guilty pleasure.

dave

[TheRedEye]

Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom for NES. One of my favorite adventures of all time. Where the hell else do you find a donut in the trash can of a night club and feed it to an inmate to get the information you need to escape from the anthropomorphic banana guards? What other game lets you smack everyone you meet? WHAT OTHER GAME HAS OLD MAN CORN??? Nothing, dammit.

I love that goddam game.

[icbrkr]

Mag Max in the arcade! I spent much of my sister's money playing that. I've only seen one home version (NES) and it paled in comparison. Luckily, they finally got it going on MAME.

Brian

[Tempest]

Super Don Quixote and Pleiads. I'd also say Cloak & Dagger, but I'm not sure that one counts as obscure (although I've only seen one once).

Tempest

[TheRedEye]

Oh yeah, seeing Tempest reminded me...Magician for NES is another obscure favorite. Very, very innovative game, kind of combines an action game with Loom by Lucasarts.

Also, don't know if this is considered "obscure," but I'm extremely partial to "Shark! Shark!" on the Intellivision.

[scooterb23]

I really dig the Journey arcade game... I play it everyday on MAME.

Another game I like, but is a royal handful on MAME is Night Stocker, combination driving and shooting game...

[NE146]

I really dig the Journey arcade game... I play it everyday on MAME.
heh I've always dug that game too. :) Too bad Mame cant duplicate the actual audio tape that plays in the arcade game (but I guess you could always play some mp3's in the background). But you just gotta love the kooky gameplay and controlling a little Neil Schon. :D

[The Brown Eye]

Vanark/Playstation - Great shooter
Steep Slope Sliders/Saturn - FUN snowboarding game
Doom Troopers/SNES - Excellent run and gun shooter

These are just off the top of my head.

[Kid Ice]

some favorite obscurities:

Monster Smash - C64
"Smash" monsters using two sets of graves. Quite addiciting, and I've never seen anything else quite like it.

Krazy Kreatures - NES
I don't really remember what takes place in this game, I just remember it being super addiciting.

Mega Zone - arcade
I LOVED this game in the arcade, but I haven't played it much in MAME.

the kid

[IGotTheDot]

Kablooy! is a great puzzle game for the SNES. I never heard of it until a guy I know just gave it to me. I have never seen it anywhere else either. Guess I am lucky.

[boatofcar]

Little League Baseball-NES...I think this is obscure anyway...

SNES Addams Family, my favorite platform game of all time

Biker Dave-Atari 8-bit...this was some Antic Magazine game...it was great!

STUN(N?) Runner-Arcade

[Dobie]

Kickle Cubicle for the NES is definitely a favorite of mine. Boatofcar mentioned Little League Baseball--that happens to be my favorite baseball game for the NES!! Great game.

[NoahsMyBro]

City Connection! -- Jaleco

[Arcade Antics]

Too bad Mame cant duplicate the actual audio tape that plays in the arcade game (but I guess you could always play some mp3's in the background). But you just gotta love the kooky gameplay and controlling a little Neil Schon. :D

Ah, BUT, NE1 and Scooterb, Retrocade CAN duplicate the Journey tape loop that plays during the roadie stage...

It's a thing of beauty, really. I too, have always loved that game. You gents best go track down Retrocade and play Journey that-a-ways for the most complete experience. :)

[Revolt]

Satans Hollow :lol:

[Tetsu]

Sky Blazer: a platform game by Sony Imagesoft along the lines of Super Ghouls n Ghosts or Actraiser, but you fight with your fists. Nice mode 7 effects, lush graphics and a cool soundtrack

Run Saber. A fun 2-player Contra type game, except you have laser swords.

[mattpfeil]

Well both of mine fall into the Game Gear, oddly enough:

Dragon Crystal : THis game totally ruled, it was turn based kinda, but in a weird weird way...there is this little egg that follows you around and with exp -turns into a baby dragon, then the dragon gets bigger and then he grows armour..and you know what the best part is? i dont know what happenes after that cause the game is hard as Frank Dux...oi vey..PS if anyone has ever beaten this game, let me know, drop me a mail or something, cause id love to know what happens, i been trying to beat this thing since the 8th grade, and im 23 now;(

Crystal Warriors : If it werent for this game i dont think FFTactics would exist, it was the first time id seen anything like this..and im thinking it may have been made by Konami cause its alot like a primitive vandal hearts.
Anyways, these game rocked, if you can ever find them at a game shop, PAY THE PRICE!, its worth it.

[scooterb23]

Ah, BUT, NE1 and Scooterb, Retrocade CAN duplicate the Journey tape loop that plays during the roadie stage...


Downloading...stupid 56k...

[Sothy]

KABOOM.... this one is found at newgrounds.com Atari version its not.

[Sniderman]

Donkey Kong 3 - starring Stanley the Bugman (arcade and NES) - Loved this game growing up. For years, no one believed me when I said I used to play a game where you shot ol' DK in the ass with bugspray.

Tailgunner (arcade) - great, great vector game. Kind of simple target shooting, but it had a lot of action in the upper levels.

[bluecollarninja]

power blade for the nes.

a side scroller were you had crap loads of boomerangs. and went around.....

boomaranging things.

[Cafeman]

The names all escape me...

- Gottlieb's coin-op Reactor game. Trak-Ball control, strange gameplay, and this awesome music!

- There was an arcade laserdisc motorcycle racer where you'd race across the solar system, moons, etc. I loved that game.

- On the Genesis, there was an obscure little robot fighter with great and humorous animation. Me & buds would play the 2-player mode, you built your bot with whatever arms/attachments/legs you wanted. It was great because you could pull the torso off your opponent, and had weapons like a Drill, etc. I just can't remember its name.

[digitalpress]

@Cafeman: Cyborg Justice.

[k8track]

The one really bonafide obscure game that I can think of at the moment is Jukebox, by Spinnaker, for Colecovision. Not the best game for Coleco, but I love it, nevertheless. It just has that really addictive, replay quality to it (for me, anyway) that makes you immediately try it again and again (like Shanghai for SMS, Super Breakout: game 7 [Progressive Breakout] for Atari 2600, Tetris, and Dragster for the 2600). And it's got some really neat music to boot, though it can get a bit old after a while. I'm always a sucker for those dancing cats at the end. I've only won the game once, and I wish it had a significant, celebratory ending, but unfortunately, it's the same ending even when you lose (still, it's the dancing cats, so it's not so bad).

Speaking of Shanghai for the SMS, I'm not sure if this is considered to be obscure enough, but I'll list it anyway. My ultimate addicitive game for any system, bar none. I'm always coming back to it again and again, trying to solve it in five minutes.

Another semi-obscure game I love is Super Skateboardin' for the 7800. Haven't played this one in a while, I should dig it out. All you Tony Hawk fans out there, you might be a bit disappointed, because it's not so much about the skateboarding; it's more of a maze/platform game, trying to accomplish all the tasks (i.e. turn off everything--lights, switches, etc.) in a certain time limit. The skateboarding is incidental.

And I'm not sure how obscure any game by Atari for the 2600 is, but I really love 3-D Tic Tac Toe, and I never see anyone mention it ever as being one of their favorites. I used to be obsessed with this game as a kid, I just thought it was so cool. And it was designed by Carol Shaw, so after a while you see cameo appearances by enemy helicopters, checkers, and polo players on horseback. Or maybe that's the paint thinner talkin'.

**SNIFF!**

[k8track]

@Cafeman--the laser disc game you're thinking of is STAR RIDER by Williams. I, too loved that game back in the day. It was at CGE 2K2 this year and it was so wonderful to play it.

[Aswald]

Snap Jack.
Redclash.
Cuber.
Killer Comet.

CV Illusions.

[Cafeman]

Ah yes, Star Rider! Thanks for the memory jog! As if it were possible to regret not going to CGE even more now!

[Raccoon Lad]

Star Rider's great, I got high score on it and put in my full name "raccoon lad rules" Too bad they unplugged the machine 10 minutes later.

[Arcade Antics]

Speaking of CGE2K2, they had one of my all time FAVORITE games there, and I finally got to play it for the first time since the days of Chuck E. Cheese...

WACKO.

Absolutely love that game. A needlessly obscure classic. Phenomenal game.

[TheRedEye]

I'm not sure if Mad Planets is considered obscure, but I love that game. It was sorely missing from the last CGE.

...but that's okay, 'cause I got plenty of free Galaga!

[Arcade Antics]

Yeah, Mad Planets rocks. I also missed playing Krull this year, but hey! They'll be back...

[ashbourn]

Alien Storm for genesis
dark legeni for saturn

[geelw]

pretty much ANY old pinball machine with only 4 or 5 digit digital counters... most were by gottleib or bally, if i remember correctly. memories...

other arcade stuff:

cube quest- really oddball arcade shooting game with trippy computer-generated images
blaster- played it to death, but i've forgotten everything but those GIANT power-ups, lol
the three stooges- too damn funny with multiple players
deep scan- sega had a thing for submarine games for some reason- this one was the most fun, i think...
trog! oh yeah!
space lords- i THINK that was the name of it- atari's multiplayer networked stand-up space shooter- one player was the pilot, one was the gunner- would have made a HELL of a jaguar conversion, i think!
U.F.O- well, that's the name i remember. BIG machine, you sat in it, and it revolved, as you shot at goofy aliens in saucers hovering over a suburban neighborhood...

home consoles:

arkista's ring (NES)
the magic of scheherazade (NES)
crystal mines (NES)
the divide: enemies within (psx)
operation logic bomb/ikari no yousai (snes/sfam)
zoom! (genesis/md)

[YoshiM]

For the CoCo: Cheese Bombs by I believe Richard Ramella from an issue of Hot CoCo Magazine. It's simple: you are a robot trapped in a cheese machine. There are two vertical chutes and two horizontal chutes and cheese gets launched down each randomly. You must move your robot out of the way by clinging to the sides of the machine, ducking, or climbing up (with your feet against both walls of the chamber) to dodge the cheese.

Another CoCo favorite was Klendathu, based on Starship Troopers. Move your man from sector to sector and then transport in and fry the bugs with your flame thrower.

But then again, most things on the CoCo are fairly obscure :P

[kevates]

Frankie Goes To Hollywood for the C64
Pepsi-Man for the PSX
and, of course...

Gladiator in the arcade (go, Dave, go...)

[Li Wang]

I was a really big fan of Culture Brain and all of their obscure series as a kid. I think they're a true underrated company worth of mentioning in this kind of thread.

One thing that makes CB stuff really interesting is comparing the Japanese and American games. These might have been the first Japanese games released in America where the American versions are sometimes far superior. Check out the American version of The Magic of Sheherazade and the highly inferior "Arabian Dream Sheherazade" which the game was made from. Graphics, the entire overworld, music, and the gameplay in general was overhauled so much in the American version it's like playing a completely different game. And it's way better, too.

[ROBOTRON]

Hmmmm...

Amidar
Pengo
M.U.L.E.
Guardian Legend
MotoRoader
Vanguard
Herzog Zwie
Savage Reign

to name a few...

[le geek]

Anarchy for the Amiga by Psygnosis(maybe an Atari ST ver too. anyone?) A very nice Defender update, I prefer it to D2K

Gravattack (way cool Amiga shareware game, later released as the inferior Dr Plummet's House of Fun) I still wish I knew the secret bonuses...

Maybe not as obscure (at least to those of you in Europe) Wizkid! Very wacky sequel to Wizball, by Sensible Software...

Cheers,
le geek

[Kid Fenris]

I'm not sure how many of my choices qualify as "obscure," but here it goes.

Vice Project Doom (NES) -An excellent game that's part Spy Hunter, part Ninja Gaiden, part Operation Wolf, and part pulp action flick. It's everything that those Golgo 13 titles should have been.

Princess Crown (Import Saturn) -A great 2-D action/RPG with gorgeous hand-drawn visuals, a fun little story, and a battle system that's almost closer to a fighting game. Though not unknown among import fans, it's seldom mentioned in other circles.

Popful Mail (SegaCD) -Everyone remembers the Lunar games (and rightly so), but there's far less recognition for this hilarious, well-made, anime-fueled Action/Platform/RPG, which was also translated by Working Designs. I think that one member of our community actually bears the game's title for a board name, so I know I'm not alone in liking Popful Mail.

Emerald Dragon (Super Famicom/Import TurboDuo/Others) -This RPG was ahead of its time, with pretty FMV, a creative battle system, and a story that's surprisingly unique for an early-90's role-player. Even the supposedly inferior Super Famicom version is good.

Metal Warriors (SNES) -A pseudo-sequel to Cybernator, this one earned my admiration on account of its non-linear levels and highly enjoyable two-player mode.

Other picks: Alcahest (SFC), Shantae (GameBoy Color), Elemental Gearbolt (PlayStation), and Alisia Dragoon (Genesis)

[hades]

Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom for NES. One of my favorite adventures of all time. Where the hell else do you find a donut in the trash can of a night club and feed it to an inmate to get the information you need to escape from the anthropomorphic banana guards? What other game lets you smack everyone you meet? WHAT OTHER GAME HAS OLD MAN CORN??? Nothing, dammit.

I love that goddam game.

Yes! I remember renting Tomato quite a few times until I beat it. It was definately an odd game, but none the less extremely fun!

[ianoid]

Apple 2: IO Silver by Beagle Bros (still looking for this in any form)

MAME: Fantasy (only time I got laid before the age of 12.)

Apple 2: the Bilestoad (the original game with gratuitous blood and hacked off limbs)

ian

PS Kaboom is not obscure, and I'll have to check out WACKO. It would be easier if I still had a MAME setup.

[Keir]

<= Ultimate Wizard

[Tempest]

Apple 2: the Bilestoad (the original game with gratuitous blood and hacked off limbs)

Oh man I remember that one. I loved it! I wonder if someone could do an Atari 7800 version of this...


Tempest

[WiseSalesman]

NES: Dragon Power and Magic of Scherezade
SNES: (okay so it's not all that obscure) Legend of the Mystical Ninja

[jaydubnb]

My pick: Go Go Ackman 2, a game based of the Akira Toriyama manga. Its average to above average hop and bop, but the patented Toriyama visual style bumps it up a couple of notches.

[Ruudos]

Adventures of Rad Gravity (NES) - See avatar

And Frankie Goes to Hollywood is cool, I've played that game much until it didn't work good anymore (game would crash at the moment tat you pointed toward a monitor which let you play a mini-game).

[RJ]

I typed in quite a few 8-bit Atari games in my day- some of the best are:
Wireball (Antic)
Rebound(Antic)- anything by JD Casten was good)
A-Rogue(Antic)
Warrior 3000(Antic)
Acrobat(COMPUTE!)
Blueberries(COMPUTE!)
Euchre(COMPUTE!)
Time Crime(from Adventures w/ the Atari by James Hardy(?))

& Panther, a retail game by Mastertronic (w/ LA SWAT flippy)

[Master_System]

Well, my obscure choices >:( are:
Street Fighter III - N.E.S. (a pirate version of Hong Kong, not bad really, also appears in spanish vg magazines), i played it a lot.
Spit Wad Willy - P.C. (a bad clone of Pang! but very funny).
Street Figher IV - N.E.S. (no comments), i remember the name of a pair of characters: Pasta, Musashi, Ryu, Combon (Musashi and Combon were the bosses)
Fatal Fury - N.E.S. (Very poor, there were a lot of characters). I remember that Cheng Sinzan is called Teng here and he looks like a big bad fat gay person with a red t-shirt.

I know about a lot of obscure games, but i don´t remember anymore now. If i could remember, i wrote anything else.

Matias
Buenos Aires, Argentina

[slapdash]

Is LazerChess (or was it LaserChess?) for the Amiga obscure enough?

[oesiii]

Spiker (arcade)

Whenever I fire up MAME, I always sneak in a quick game. I don't know why but I like the simplicity, controls, and graphics.

[ShinobiMan]

SNES: Plok-Very creative platformer about a character made of clay trying to locate a flag someone stole from his home.

NES: Shatterhand- Excellent action game made by Jaleco... mostly like Power Blade.

SMS: Dead Angle- A very rewarding and innovative shooting game in which you control a see-through detective in an almost 1st person perspective.

Genesis: High Seas Havoc- Clever name and clever game featuring a Seal as the main character.

[liab1228]

NES - Krazy Kreatures

[Tempest]

What about Gain Ground for the Genesis? There's a closet classic if I ever saw one. Took me forever to track down a copy (now I have it for the SMS too!)

Tempest

[chuckydj]

Let's have some fun, list your favorite obscure video game. Many fun games are obscure, or just not well known.
List the game and the platform, and a breif description if you want.
I'll start:
SnapJack- Arcade: An fairly unknown game by Universal that plays a bit like a cross between pacman and moon patroll.

Similar to this...maybe the same game I remember a game called smacks and jacks(something like that) where you had a rollerball and moved the guys head around the screen eating up things. Also another game that abviously will never be emulated...Baby Pac man. The mix of pac man and pinball all in one machine. If I could get another arcade game in this room that would be my choice. :-)

[Daniel Thomas]

I guess, technically, Herzog Zwei qualifies as an obscure game, even though it's famous for practically inventing a whole genre (real-time strategy). I finally discovered it a couple months ago; I've been kicking myself for overlooking it all these years ever since.

And why the heck aren't there online Herzog matches? Everyone's got a copy of Gens, right?

[hurstman]

lol I used to play the hell out of Friday the 13th for the nes when i was growing up.Now that i have the rom i dont know what the hell I was thinkin. :P

[++Valis++]

Cool choices, agree with a lot of 'em.

I've always LOVED Splash Lake on the Turbo CD/Duo. Differently arranged rows of blocks on water, you as some sort of bird creature have to peck out these blocks as you move around to trap your enemies on a row of blocks that you disconnected from the main set so they'll sink! Amusing cartoonish characters (including a log that wears sunglasses and smokes cigarettes!), challenging as you progress in the game, goofy 80's game music... one of my all-timers, obscure or not.

[sniperCCJVQ]

Everytime i fired up MAME, i play those three obscure games:

Major Title by Irem: This is maybe one of the most fun and easy golf game i ever play. Too bad Major Title 2 still have some graphic problems.

Vendetta by Sega:
Is this game ever been release on the Genesis ?
Because Sega really surprized me with this one. I thing it's way more challenging and hard than the original Double Dragon, choice of 4 differents heroes with their own moves, "gay dudes" try to "attack" you on the 3rd level, great choice of weapons (chain, gun, baseball bat, barrel, bottle)

Body Slam by Sega :
Hehe! Sega once again !.
A not so easy wrestling game with girls ! but since MAME version 0.5X
it's a not playable (said "game over" you the started the match ") the driver must be rewrite, still wait for this.

[autobotracing]

most obscure arcade game would be that iritating stick game .it spooked the hell outta me when is did the air blowing thing when you lost :o

[Magus]

Beat em and eat em

[orrimarrko]

Arcade: Boot Camp - like Track 'n Field only with army recruits! :-D

Genesis: Arcana - neat concept at the time

[vintagegamecrazy]

Tengen Tetris, Caltron 6in1, and Meteorites for the Atari 5200. I own them all and they are all great.

Vintagegamecrazy

[scooterb23]

A couple more semi-obscure games that I really liked growing up in the arcade

Two Tigers - Lots of fun, especially with the flight sticks...dad and I spent a lot of money dogfighting in this game.

MACH 3 - A laserdisc game where you flew a jet through canyons...think Top Gun / Afterburner style play, there was also a top down bombing run game on that same machine that I was really bad at, but it was fun.

[mauigamer]

Bruce Lee and the Legend of the Green Yamoo for the C64.

[slapdash]

Two Tigers - Lots of fun, especially with the flight sticks...dad and I spent a lot of money dogfighting in this game.

Hey! Was that the one where you're trying to sink ships? That was a cool game...

And it reminds me of one that's even more obscure, that I found in the same bowling alley game room -- Beezer! I couldn't believe that they were actually planning on porting it to Intellivision. That's a prototype that I'd like to find...

[brandver3]

Megaman Soccer.

When I tell my friends about it they look at me like i"M on crack. But I thoguht it was a fun game. I love running aroung with a team of Protomans reeking havoc.

I wish Gutsman was in it though.

[IntvGene]

Anyone who likes MULE or other enterprising games should definitely check out Run for the Money for the C64 and the Atari 8bit. It was an amazing game way ahead of its time.

Obscure, but great. You landed your spaceship on this planet full of monkeys... called Simians. Your ship was also your factory. It's a 2-player game where you compete to sell your bananas to them. Advertising, customer loyalty, product quality, this game had everything!

[odysseyzine]

NES - Isolated Warrior -- I spent many, many hours playing this over Christmas break. It seems kind of twinky now, but I still love to give it a spin every now and then.

NES - Mighty Bomb Jack -- Not sure if it counts as obscure, but it was definitely unique. And I spent a ton of time in search of Beelzebut.

Game Boy -- Heiankyo (sp?) Alien -- I still love this game. It's the best hole-digging simulator going!

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Ok, i play a lot of obscure games, here is my list (of my favorite ones or the games that really impact me!):
Mary Pizza Pop (Famicom) --> Also it´s called Mario 7
Somari (Famicom) --> An hybrid of Mario and Sonic
Mario Fighter (Famicom) --> It´s pathetic, you found a review of it in my website.
Mario Wheelchair (Famicom) --> ........
Virtua Fighter vs. Tekken (Genesis) --> Not bad...only the worst game i played before :-(
And i have a lot more, but i´ll write about them soon...

[WiseSalesman]

I forgot to mention:

Lucky and Wild, arcade. Combination driving/shooting game for two players (one had a pistol and steering wheel, the other had a sub machine gun).

[diskoboy]

Oh God... Here's my list.

Arcade:
Vanguard
I, Robot
Gaplus (Galaga 3... Yes, I think it's better than Galaga)
Bubbles
Blaster
Time Pilot
Pooyan
Wacko
Congo Bongo
Discs of Tron (which I'm surprised no one has mentioned)
Zoo Keeper
Tapper

Computer:
Spare Change
Adventure Construction Set
BC's Quest for Tires
Pitstop II
Alkabeth
Oil's Well
Karteka

Console:
Shark! Shark! (Intv)
KC Munchkin (O2)
Pick Axe Pete (O2)
Megamania (2600)
Seaquest (2600)
Spider Man (2600)
Monkeyshines (O2)
Night Stalker (Intv)

[gamingguy]

Silent Service/Red Storm Rising - best submarine sims I've seen so far.

[NE146]

Oh God... Here's my list.
Arcade:
Vanguard
I, Robot
Gaplus (Galaga 3... Yes, I think it's better than Galaga)
Bubbles
Blaster
Time Pilot
Pooyan
Wacko
Congo Bongo
Discs of Tron (which I'm surprised no one has mentioned)
Zoo Keeper
Tapper

hmmm.. yeah those games are great but I wouldn't exactly call Zoo Keeper, Tapper, Blaster, Vanguard or especially Time Pilot "OBSCURE" ;)