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Thread: good overlooked titles on 16-bit era consoles?

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    Default good overlooked titles on 16-bit era consoles?

    I know that the terms "hidden gem," "underrated," "cult classic," get thrown around a lot and we all have a different opinion on what is considered to be a lesser-known quality title, but seeing firsthand what buying trends are for 16-bit games, I can tell you that most of what people buy involve either a plumber, a blue hedgehog, a guy with a funny green hat, or a gorilla with a necktie.

    Beyond those three franchises, you have a subset of "classics" that I would say the semi-hardcore crowd pay money for- Metroid, Castlevania, Contra, Streets of Rage, Ecco, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG, and the like. These are all very popular and very good games, but we all know them.

    The SNES and Genesis boast a library of 700+ titles each, meaning a solid 1,500 titles between the two of them. It can't simply just be that the only good games are the ones we've all heard of.

    For purposes of this thread I mostly am talking about the following consoles:

    - Super Nintendo
    - Genesis
    - TurboGrafx-16
    - Sega CD

    Almost hesitant to throw the Jaguar in with that group since they largely share the same subset of games released in that era, but I won't count it because of its awesome, INCREDIBLE 64 BITS OF MEGA POWER!!!! (do the math, dude)

    Anyways, here's my list of some less-talked about, maybe-less hyped from the magazines of their day titles:
    - Legend of the Mystical Ninja (SNES) Didn't play it very long but colorful, large sprites, great easy-to-understand game.
    - Sword of Vermillion (Gen) Haven't gotten very far but I'm a huge Dragon Warrior fan and this game reminds me of it. The battle system isn't the traditional turn-based JRPG type, so it is a little more involved.
    - Arkanoid Doh It Again (SNES) The NES/arcade Arkanoid is well-known but I don't know how many people played this late SNES release. very fun
    - Mega Bomberman (Gen) Bomberman is a well known and well established franchise but again I don't know how many played this one which is my favorite in the series
    - ClayMates (SNES) don't know how many people played it but I don't think I've met anyone who has. fun basic platformer with some neat in-between level stuff as well as a fun mini-game where you bounce a ball on a 3D rotating plane.
    - Virtual Bart - again here, this could be a very popular title for all I know but I don't know anyone who's played it. fun game with a wide variety of action, one of the better (dare I say, the best?) Simpsons games that comes to mind.
    - Lagoon (SNES) fun traditional RPG
    - Pac-Man 2 (SNES) we all know who Pac-Man is but I'm not sure how familiar people are with this title. It's great, I don't know why magazines lambasted the controls. the sense of trying to direct Pac-Man through a dangerous and unforgiving world was a lot more challenging than simply moving him yourself.
    - Plok (SNES) fun, goofy platformer about a guy who almost looks like he could be a stand-in for a member of the KKK. I really like the design of the enemies in the game and the upbeat music.

    What are some games you guys like that don't get a lot of attention?

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    I have played Claymates, but I can't say I got all that far because of outside circumstances.

    For me Robotrek AKA Slapstick for the SNES was a blast. It's very much a goofy Enix RPG.

    Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (SNES) is a semi-example. I've played this version on emulator and had some fun, but I prefer the PS1 version.

    When I was a kid we were all soulless minions of orthodoxy so just about everything we played was mainstream except for RPGs that count as mainstream these days. It would take another generation or two for me to get more broad-minded outside of Game Boy.
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    Virtual Bart is a TERRIBLE game.

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    Quote Originally Posted by A.C. Sativa View Post
    Virtual Bart is a TERRIBLE game.
    Comments like yours make this kind of thread a lot less fun: who wants to name a game they like, only to have someone say one of your choices is "TERRIBLE" without actually offering anything of their own? I'm not a fan of Virtual Bart but one man's meat is another's poison, and I enjoy a lot of games others don't -- and vice versa.

    Anyway, I like Jewel Master a lot on the Genesis. It's clunky in certain ways but the core action-platformer gameplay is good and the music is among my favorite on the system. I also think very highly of Gain Ground, one of the few games that's just as good co-op as solo (and vice versa).

    On the SNES, I played Dragon View recently and enjoyed it more than I expected. Some of the backtracking gets old but it didn't wear out its welcome as completely as most RPGs I've played.

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    Legend of Mystical Ninja aint overlooked, lots of people know its great.

    Lagoon isnt overlooked either, its a pretty crappy rpg.


    Quote Originally Posted by goldenband View Post
    Comments like yours make this kind of thread a lot less fun:
    I disagree, I like to hear other people's honest opinions, even negative ones.

    Quote Originally Posted by gbpxl View Post
    - Virtual Bart - again here, this could be a very popular title for all I know but I don't know anyone who's played it. fun game with a wide variety of action, one of the better (dare I say, the best?) Simpsons games that comes to mind.
    One of the better or best Simpsons games huh... I guess youve never played the Simpsons Arcade game, huh?
    Last edited by bb_hood; 01-28-2018 at 12:14 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bb_hood View Post
    I disagree, I like to hear other people's honest opinions, even negative ones.
    If there's some substance to it, sure; I'm always happy to read a thoughtful critique of something I love, or a passionate defense of something I hate.

    But how is saying "That game is TERRIBLE", and nothing else, helpful in any way? At least something like "Virtual Bart? I can't stand that game -- what exactly do you see in it?" might lead to an interesting conversation.

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    I think Lagoon is a good mention. It doesn't deserve all the hate it gets. It's admittedly quirky in a number of ways (in how it scrolls, in the fact that it was originally designed with Ys-style bump combat but was altered to Zelda-style sword slashing, without making the toothpick of a sword any bigger, etc.), but it's still fun to play and has some excellent music.

    Anyway, I recommend On the Ball on SNES for a game that seems to go completely unknown and unloved. You navigate mazes within a time limit by rotating the maze itself. The style of the game is totally bonkers, with the weird art in the backgrounds, strange music, and hilariously bizarre pictures that are like motivational posters, which appear at the end of each set of mazes.

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    Here are couple of titles I find enjoyable for snes

    - super off-road Baja
    - top gear 1/2
    - phantom 2040
    - cool spot
    - robotrek
    - biometal
    - big sky trooper

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    i'll agree with biometal only if its the japense version with out the really bad remix of "Get Ready!"

    I only own the game for its built in test features

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    Some of the games within Virtual Bart suck- the pig one, the dinosaur one. but I like the tomato one, the waterslide, and the baby one is decent

    I never played The Simpsons Arcade game mostly because I'm too young to have had access to it when I was younger. If it came out between 1990 and 1993, I would've only been 1-4 years old when it was in arcades.

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    Vermillion was okay at the time, when there were only a handful of RPGs but in retrospect not very good. Awful combat (any of the types, I think there were a few) and woe if you don't get ahold of the hintbook (included shrinkwrapped to the case when it was new, like Phantasy Star 2)

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    Sewer Shark. It seems like everyone lumps it in with "those FMV games" but it's actually a really fun rail shooter and the scenery chewing performances are fun as hell.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WulfeLuer View Post
    Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (SNES) is a semi-example. I've played this version on emulator and had some fun, but I prefer the PS1 version.
    Does the SNES version still have that voice that says "LIBERATION!"? That is the most wonderful sound to me, never fails to get a smile.

    I remember loving Robotrek, but I sold my copy a long time ago and don't remember why (I think I was just bored of RPGs at the time).

    The 16-Bit era is a very interesting one to me, because it was a period where everyone was still experimenting and very little had been set in stone, and you still got a lot of weirdness like Amiga ports to the Sega Genesis, or things like Super Hydlide (also for Genesis), which I really like but most people are mixed on, though its generally agreed that it's better than its infamous predecessor (fun fact... Super Hydlide is the third game in the series. Hydlide II is the only one that never got a console port).

    I remember liking this game called Neutopia for the TurboGrafx/PC-Engine (hucard). It was a blatant clone of the original Legend of Zelda, but it had just enough to set itself apart and establish its own identity, and after all, it is cloning the best of the Zelda series, so its based on a good foundation. There's a sequel as well, and both were released in English.

    I also remember liking this game called Dragon's Curse, also a hucard for the Turbo. It's sort of a metroidvania, and fun fact... its the third game in the Wonder Boy series. But with this one, the titles get weird... okay, first I need to explain that the original Wonder Boy also spawned the Adventure Island games (which were called something like Takahashi-Meijin's Boukenjima in Japan). Wonder Boy III was called The Dragon's Trap on the Sega Master System, but it had two different titles on the Turbo: In the US, it was called Dragon's Curse... and in Japan, it was called Adventure Island! Making it more confusing is that there's a different Wonder Boy III, an arcade side-scrolling shooter/platformer that was released on the Genesis.

    Awhile ago, I was really into strategy games and played this Genesis title called Master of Monsters. It doesn't really have a plot as far as I can tell, but I'm having fun with it. I also kinda-sorta dug this RPG called Traysia, which played like a stripped-down Ultima IV, but I did eventually lose interest.

    When it comes to the Genesis one game I recall really getting a bad rap was Crusader of Centy. Seriously, magazines at the time all showed their slavish Nintendo fanboyism by all saying things like "it's so blatant it might as well be called Legend of Melda!" I even remember some 14-year-old on Usenet repeating this verbatim. The kicker? It's not really all that similar outside of being a top-view game that stars a kid with a sword. The structure is different and the plot itself is one of the most unique in gaming, with the early reveal being that maybe, just maybe, the humans are afraid of a threat that doesn't exist. I actually had my heart pulled at points.

    The SNES.. has no shortage. Seriously, just grab something, its probably an overlooked gem.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Edmond Dantes View Post
    Does the SNES version still have that voice that says "LIBERATION!"? That is the most wonderful sound to me, never fails to get a smile.

    I remember loving Robotrek, but I sold my copy a long time ago and don't remember why (I think I was just bored of RPGs at the time).

    The 16-Bit era is a very interesting one to me, because it was a period where everyone was still experimenting and very little had been set in stone, and you still got a lot of weirdness like Amiga ports to the Sega Genesis, or things like Super Hydlide (also for Genesis), which I really like but most people are mixed on, though its generally agreed that it's better than its infamous predecessor (fun fact... Super Hydlide is the third game in the series. Hydlide II is the only one that never got a console port).

    I remember liking this game called Neutopia for the TurboGrafx/PC-Engine (hucard). It was a blatant clone of the original Legend of Zelda, but it had just enough to set itself apart and establish its own identity, and after all, it is cloning the best of the Zelda series, so its based on a good foundation. There's a sequel as well, and both were released in English.

    I also remember liking this game called Dragon's Curse, also a hucard for the Turbo. It's sort of a metroidvania, and fun fact... its the third game in the Wonder Boy series. But with this one, the titles get weird... okay, first I need to explain that the original Wonder Boy also spawned the Adventure Island games (which were called something like Takahashi-Meijin's Boukenjima in Japan). Wonder Boy III was called The Dragon's Trap on the Sega Master System, but it had two different titles on the Turbo: In the US, it was called Dragon's Curse... and in Japan, it was called Adventure Island! Making it more confusing is that there's a different Wonder Boy III, an arcade side-scrolling shooter/platformer that was released on the Genesis.

    Awhile ago, I was really into strategy games and played this Genesis title called Master of Monsters. It doesn't really have a plot as far as I can tell, but I'm having fun with it. I also kinda-sorta dug this RPG called Traysia, which played like a stripped-down Ultima IV, but I did eventually lose interest.

    When it comes to the Genesis one game I recall really getting a bad rap was Crusader of Centy. Seriously, magazines at the time all showed their slavish Nintendo fanboyism by all saying things like "it's so blatant it might as well be called Legend of Melda!" I even remember some 14-year-old on Usenet repeating this verbatim. The kicker? It's not really all that similar outside of being a top-view game that stars a kid with a sword. The structure is different and the plot itself is one of the most unique in gaming, with the early reveal being that maybe, just maybe, the humans are afraid of a threat that doesn't exist. I actually had my heart pulled at points.

    The SNES.. has no shortage. Seriously, just grab something, its probably an overlooked gem.
    Crusader of Centy actually got really good scores from some of the publications I've read. 80-95% average across the board from what I remember reading (Die Hard GameFan was one that I remember seeing a high score from)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Edmond Dantes View Post
    Does the SNES version still have that voice that says "LIBERATION!"? That is the most wonderful sound to me, never fails to get a smile.

    I remember loving Robotrek, but I sold my copy a long time ago and don't remember why (I think I was just bored of RPGs at the time).

    The 16-Bit era is a very interesting one to me, because it was a period where everyone was still experimenting and very little had been set in stone, and you still got a lot of weirdness like Amiga ports to the Sega Genesis, or things like Super Hydlide (also for Genesis), which I really like but most people are mixed on, though its generally agreed that it's better than its infamous predecessor (fun fact... Super Hydlide is the third game in the series. Hydlide II is the only one that never got a console port).

    I remember liking this game called Neutopia for the TurboGrafx/PC-Engine (hucard). It was a blatant clone of the original Legend of Zelda, but it had just enough to set itself apart and establish its own identity, and after all, it is cloning the best of the Zelda series, so its based on a good foundation. There's a sequel as well, and both were released in English.

    I also remember liking this game called Dragon's Curse, also a hucard for the Turbo. It's sort of a metroidvania, and fun fact... its the third game in the Wonder Boy series. But with this one, the titles get weird... okay, first I need to explain that the original Wonder Boy also spawned the Adventure Island games (which were called something like Takahashi-Meijin's Boukenjima in Japan). Wonder Boy III was called The Dragon's Trap on the Sega Master System, but it had two different titles on the Turbo: In the US, it was called Dragon's Curse... and in Japan, it was called Adventure Island! Making it more confusing is that there's a different Wonder Boy III, an arcade side-scrolling shooter/platformer that was released on the Genesis.
    All of these I'd recommend. Robotrek is great, Dragon's Curse/Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (and now the 2017 remake which is beautiful, and Neutopia and Neutopia II. All great stuff.

    Also, here's the "Liberation!" sound file extracted from the SNES Ogre Battle ROM with an oldie but goodie, SNESSOR95: Liberation!

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    There is a trio of games from Malibu Interactive which could get a little more attention.
    Ex Mutants, Dinosaurs for Hire, and (Sega-CD) Three Ninjas Kick Back
    They've got a distinct flavor, somewhat difficult I think, ..idk what to say about em. I think they're all well made and interesting games among the rest of the Genesis library.

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    Cybernator
    Metal Warriors.
    Knights of the Round
    Run Saber

    I don't hear people talking about these much at all. Esp the first 3.



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    I know I've heard of Run Saber before. What systems are all those on?
    RPGs: Proof that one you start done the dork path, forever will it dominate your wallet's destiny.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WulfeLuer View Post
    I know I've heard of Run Saber before. What systems are all those on?
    SNES.

    Run Saber is pretty much an exact clone of Strider. May as well be a 16-bit sequel..much more so than the US Gold Strider II. It's sad because how bad Strider Returns outshines how good Run Saber is. Before Strider 2 on PS1 this was the best sequel even if not official we had.



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    Default Depends on what you like

    I really like arcade ports and the Genesis has a lot of them
    Here's some good Tengen ports.
    Road blasters
    Marble Madness (Japanese version)
    Gauntlet 4 ( that music )
    Paperboy
    Pit fighter ( if that's wrong, I don't want to be right )

    it's always fun to explore.

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