Official, Moderated, Definitive "Game You Haven't Heard Of But It's Great" Thread

[digitalpress]

Definition:
"Official": Sanctioned by Digital Press. Whatever that means.
"Moderated": Under constant review by the OP. That's me.
"Definitive": Because of the previous two things.

We've danced around this subject so many times over the years but as the VETERAN gamers most of you are, we need something like this much more than a "What are you playing today" thread. What we're looking for are games that you KNOW are good and you KNOW have been overlooked. And the purpose of this thread is to turn someone who has played "everything" on to something they've never played before. We've all missed nooks and crannies in our gaming along the way - let's fill them in.

Examples:
- games from third party manufacturers on highly dominated first-party consoles.
- quality games on systems not considered quality systems.
- games that probably get passed over because they have words like "football", "racer", or "super" in the title.
- games that flew under the radar.
- strange games from Japan, even arcade games.
- games as far back as Pong and as recent as last month's releases, somehow overshadowed by bigger hype or bad timing.

Fair warning: this is going to be a moderated thread. If you post a game suggestion that I think most people know about, I'm going to delete it. This doesn't reflect badly on you in any way - in fact, no one will even know it happened. You'll just have wasted a few minutes of your time. Don't let that happen... don't try to slip Vib Ribbon or Gunstar Heroes past me, because everyone knows those are good games that were once overlooked. THIS community never overlooked them.

Also note that if you simply comment on a previous title without offering one of your own, your post will be deleted. This thread is meant to be a repository for those looking for something "new" without having to browse through countless musings on the merits of - for another example - River City Ransom. Comment away! Just be sure to add something to the mix.

So without further ado, I pass this thread along to our esteemed community.

[sisko]

Title: Ranma 1/2: Ougijaanken (known by many other titles on the web - this one seems to be the most common).
System: Super Famicom
Genre: Puzzle



Essentially - this is "Rock, Paper, Scissors" meets Tetris Attack meets Super Puzzle Fighter.



What makes the game fun is that it is so beautifully simple, and is based on an old childhood game that every knows. When you place a dominant piece on a weaker piece (ie paper on rock) the weaker pieces are cleared.

Once you clear so many pieces, or complete a chain combo - filler pieces are sent over to your opponent in an attempt to squash them. While you are clearing pieces, you are also building up your "special" meter which can be used to inhibit your opponents abilities.

There are several characters to choose from, each with their own stats - allowing for more strategy than a typical puzzle game.

This frenzied and fast paced game is one that every puzzle lover should try out. The best thing is that you don't need to know Japanese or be a Ranma fan to enjoy it!

[G-Boobie]

Game: Pathologic
System: PC (windows)
Developer: Ice Pick Lodge
Year of release: 2005

One of my absolute favorite developers is a Russian studio called Ice Pick Lodge, and their first effort, Pathologic, is one of my all time favorite games. It's difficult to find (the only option for most of the english speaking world is Direct2Drive and it's ilk), very difficult, and may not be a 'game' in the traditional sense. Despite these obstacles, Pathologic is very much worth your time.

The premise is deep and multi-layered, but I'll try and summarize. A frontier town on the Russian steppes is struck by a mysterious plague that kills swiftly and painfully. You have twelve days to stop it, or the entire town dies. including you. You choose one of three characters after you start a new game: a suave city doctor, a haruspicus returning home to bury his father, or a strange girl with the power to heal or kill with a touch. All three characters populate the game world regardless of who you choose, and you must play through the game with all three characters in order to learn the whole story. Each character has their own path to follow, which is guided by strange bird masked fellows called executors. These characters exist both to keep you appraised of your progress, and to keep the fourth wall firmly broken. Sometimes they even seem to know what you're thinking, and speaking only in text windows doesn't dull the creepiness factor one bit. Executors sometimes talk to YOU, the player, which leaves your avatar confused and alarmed.

The town is persistent and so are it's NPC's... Unless they die of the plague or the violence it breeds. Important characters have photos in their glossary entries: unimportant characters are ragdolls. The plague doesn't just affect the inhabitants either: as the game progresses, even buildings and landmarks start to rot and scab over.

The game plays vaguely like Morrowind or Oblivion, though your interaction with the world and it's inhabitants is far more complex. You not only need to manage an inventory, but your reputation, your hunger, and your restfulness. You must master the black market that takes over commerce once the plague strikes in order to eat and stay healthy. You must minister to the plague's victims while completing important tasks to advance the game. You seldom fight, except the plague, which refuses to be mastered. And every night, when everyone else but the drunk or sick are asleep, you can watch your day's triumphs and failures acted out by the executors and other strange characters. Combat is rare and stressful: you're playing a healer, not a warrior. Pathlogic demands that you wisely use your time and your mind: trying to shoot or bludgeon your way through the game will have you reloading frequently.

I cannot stress how draining this game can be. My first time playing it, I had to stop for a couple weeks because it was starting to affect my mood in real life, and not in a positive way. Pathologic is dark, unsettling, and sometimes painful to play. You can lose very easily. Events can quickly spiral out of your control and leave you frustrated and desperate... But you keep coming back because there's never been a game like this before, and it's unlikely that there will be again.

Pathologic isn't for everyone, or even most people. It dares sometimes to be no fun at all, but it does so for a reason, and it's something that I wish more developers would experiment with. Hotel Rwanda is not 'fun' to watch... But it leaves you with something when the credits roll. Pathologic is like that. There are very few games that ask so much from the player, but there are even fewer that leave their mark as deep as this one can.

[Hawksmoor]

Game - Demolition Racer: No Exit
Platform - Dreamcast
Developer - Pitbull Syndicate
Publisher - Infogrames



This is an absolute fantastic game that was overlooked by virtually everyone. It was similar to Destruction Derby on the PS1, but superior in pretty much every way. The racing was great, the car combat was great, and it was a hell of a lot of fun.

[adam_devry]

Game: Eat Lead: the return of matt hazard
System: Xbox 360.

To me i think this game is very overlooked. I liked it it was very funny and some levels where kinda hard so I pick Eat Lead so if you havent tried it you should

[Kroogah]

Title: Turntablist - DJ Battle
System: Wonderswan
Genre: Rhythm

I had a Wonderswan back in, oh, 2002 or 2003. 3 games for it, the other 2 being a crappy AJPW title and Mr. Driller. This game has stuck with me for the last 6 years, making me regret selling the damn thing and wanting to rebuy the damn thing. Funny thing is it's the only Wonderswan game I care about.

One thing that instantly identifies it as a classic is the hilarious, somewhat racial, lol-Japan cover art:



This game was released around the turn of the millennium, when turntables were at least temporarily outselling guitars in several parts of the world, especially Japan. And of all the hip-hop themed games I've played, this one is as close as you'll get to being in a Scratch Battle without dropping a few thousand dollars on 2 Tech 12s and some battle records.

Just like the DMC, gameplay involves you and a rival DJ taking turns putting together timed routines (by hitting the buttons on the Wonderswan's 2 d-pads) scoring based on variety, rhythm, and combo strings. Certain keys hit in the right order and timing trigger secret scratches that give you tons of points. You battle your way through 8 or 9 opponents, unlocking their battle records as playable sound sets as you defeat them.

The sound is fantastic, many recognizable samples and scratch sounds. And some of the computer's routines are sick enough that they still float through my head to this day. It's a pretty cheap game nowadays, I recommend it to all WS owners. And if you don't like it, I'll buy it off of you. Srsly.

[Leo_A]

Sky Odyssey for the PS2 is a easy one that always comes to mind when topics like this come up. Great little Pilotwings clone that came out during the PS2's launch window.

[Kroogah]

I suppose some people will be disappointed if I don't post Pop'n Music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqPg5O1zzBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwAzUDIE9b8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY21hkUef6E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZia_raDSZ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMktVM-C1c oh god thats me

[Ed Oscuro]

If it please the court, I'd like to briefly introduce four games:

Nosferatu - PC - PAN Vision - 2003

It's an FPS...with a time limit, and randomized castle interiors! Turns out it isn't endlessly replayable, but it is fun, very atmospheric (amazing scripted music design), and hard. Parts of the game (not the lighting or the full-screen grain effects) look a lot like it's using bits of Quake's engine - in 2003, this may have doomed it to obscurity.

The Wheel of Time - PC, Legend Entertainment, 1999

On the flip side, here's an early (1999) Unreal Engine game that didn't get much press. It plays a bit like a shooter, but with magic items (and a far larger inventory of them than than usual - instead of single weapons, the 1-0 keys hold categories, where pressing the key repeatedly will bring up one of the three or so items in that category). Not all the magic is seek-and-destroy missiles or laser beams; there's plenty of tools as well - including the awesome "swap places" trick, which lets you, well, swap places with an enemy on the other side of a barrier, or "shift," which lets you do the same without any helpful enemy in sight.

Even more, there's a sort of "castle defense" mode that you run into now and then where you can rush around and plop traps and people into position in anticipation of an enemy assault. It's probably not been played much in ten years, but the game builds up towards a huge online team-based multiplayer battles. Did I mention the writing and especially the scenery are very good, especially for the time? Yes.

Volfied - Taito, arcade, Genesis, Amstrad (I believe), FM Towns.
We've been talking about this one over at Shmups Forum. It's probably quite familiar among many gamers but doesn't get talked about a lot much of the time. It's basically the Arkanoid version of Qix, with cooler boards and enemies, and a higher minimum requirement for level completion. It's quite possible to get 99.9% completion for a huge bonus, too.

Mystic Warrior(s) - Konami, arcade, 1993
So there's Contra, and there's Sunset Riders, and even COW Boys of Moo Mesa, but what's next? Mystic Warriors, which plays more like Sunset Riders than anything else (COW Boys is a beat-em-up with guns). For some unknown reason this one never got a home port, and more's the shame. The only gripes I have with it are that, like Sunset Riders, you choose your weapon set when you pick a character, rather than being able to select one during gameplay itself - though this also has its obvious advantages. Big, epic levels with more action than should be legal - and the excitable announcer yelling "TEMPURA!!!" when you pick up food is one of my favorite gaming moments of all time.

[portnoyd]

Game - Skyblazer
Platform - SNES
Developer - Ukiyotei
Publisher - Sony Imagesoft

Definitely an overlooked platformer from what would eventually become Nintendo's superior for the next generation after 16-bit. A side scroller with a lot of unique abilities for your character to collect over the course of the game which really vary the gameplay well.

[Cantaloup]

Ok, I'll give it a shot:

Sundog: The Frozen Legacy by FTL for the Atari ST (also released for the Apple II).

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SunDog:_Frozen_Legacy
History and more info: http://www3.sympatico.ca/maury/games/space/sundog.html

[obesolete]

Brawl Brothers/Rushing Beat Ran
Snes

It's a double dragon type beat em up with 5 possible characters. It's kind of easy and had really cheesy music that can almost be compared to a golf game at some points. but it's pretty fun. Although I only own the north american cart i've ONLY played the japanese version that's burried in the cart. It can be unlocked with a code on the opening jaleco screen.
The english version has a modified sewer level that is a maze. Screw that!

[BetaWolf47]

Okay, let me try:

Bio-Senshi Dan: Increaser Tono Takai (Bio-Warrior Dan translated) - Famicom

This was a Famicom game released in 1987 by the late Jaleco. It was planned for release in the US as Bashi Bazook: Morphoid Masher, but the translation got canned. Bio-Senshi Dan is a sidescrolling adventure set in a sci-fi reality, featuring a unique timed level sequence: the longer you take to get to the end of the level, the more difficult the boss will be.

Lost Levels page
Translation file (IPS)

<EDIT> Hey, two Jaleco games in a row. Nice one, obesolete!

[Kroogah]

Brawl Brothers/Rushing Beat Ran

Hell yeah. Avoid Rival Turf/Rushing Beat because it's a bit too much like Final Fight only worse, but Brawl Brothers is a damn fine SNES title. Overlooked too often these days (since it's not made by Nintendo, Capcom, Konami, or Squaresoft)

[AB Positive]

Title: D/Generation
Platform: Amiga (although there are Atari ST and DOS ports)


An isometric 3D action/puzzle game for lack of a better term. Futuristic setting where a jetpack-courier brings a prototype to a scientific research company. You have to work out where the man you're meant to deliver you package to actually is while rescuing staff that have been taken hostage by the prototype creatures they were producing.

I say action/puzzle because although you get a laser and can shoot some of the creatures in the building it's more about dodging and rescuing rather than fighting. Avoid electrified plates in the flooring, dastardly traps and confusing mazes to get to level 85 where you hope to find your package's recipient.

[Kid Ice]

Crime Killer (Playstation, Interplay, 1998) .... Maybe gamers overlooked this one because of the generic title, which has little to do with what happens in the game. You drive around in a very fast police car blowing up (or "pacifying", but usually just blowing up) the bad guys. I know this describes a million other games, but the sensation of speed in this game is exhilirating....almost Wipeout-like. Neat music and and graphics, it reminds me a lot of Psygnosis titles like G-Police. This game came out in the spring of '98 in a crowded field of now-classic PlayStation titles like Gran Turismo, Einhander, and Tekken 3....I wouldn't say it's quite on the level of any of those, but it's close.

[Flack]

Bounces (C64)
Denton Designs (c) 1985

Bounces is a one or two player game where two warriors (one knight, one viking) battle head-to-head in the futuristic sport of the same name. The object is to catch a flying black bouncy ball and shoot it into the openings in the ceiling. Each warrior is fastened to the wall with a large rubber band, so the further you get from the wall the harder it is to walk. You're also on roller skates, so after a few moments you'll start sliding back toward the wall anyway. When the ball flies by you can catch and shoot it at the openings, or at each other. Also if you get close to your opponent you can just whack them in the head and knock them down (at which point the rubber band will pull them back to their side). I don't know why this game is so enjoyable but it's one of the most fun two-player games I've ever played. The animation is superb and hitting someone just right with the ball is oddly satisfying.

[Arcade Antics]

Builder's Block
Jaleco for Sony PlayStation, 2000

Brilliant puzzle game where the goal is to build buildings (with matching colored blocks) and then knock them down. The bigger the building, the bigger the score. An obscure PS title ported from the even more obscure Taito coin op, Land Maker (1998).

[Kroogah]

Title: Eversion
System: PC (freeware)
Genre: Platformer

A bright NES-like platformer where you have the ability to switch between different worlds (hence the title). Plus, it's free. To say any more about why this game is so damn great would spoil it.

Download link: http://zarat.us/tra/offline-games/eversion.html

[Malon_Forever]

I don't know how much this gem is known about (so delete if nessecary), but I rarely ever
hear anyone give this game any love.

G.I. Joe: Atlantis Factor



This game is the real deal. What else did you suspect from Capcom. It's got the simple yet addictive gameplay, multiple charcters to play as (as you progress), multiple paths to take, and a killer soundtrack. Anyone who hasn't played this game, really needs to check it out.