Games that you loved, but generally are unknown/forgotten.

2013-08-02 06:56:41 pm

Remember when you were a kid, and you got a game that captured your imagination, a game so good all you did was eat sleep and breath it. Games like golden eye, Zelda, Mario, contra, doom, quake, final fantasy... the list goes on. they had great game play, a killer story that kept your eyes glues too the screen, or both.

There are still games that capture the imagination for me even after 19 years of gaming, recently games like The last of us, bioshock, dishonored.

These are all known gems, my question is what game had this effect on you that you may not find in a "all time greatest" list or others generally do not know about, hidden gems that where forgotten with time, or simply where shadowed by bigger titles. they may be flawed, buggy, considered unpolished but you still found great, no right or wrong answers.

just a fun little thread idea to get some good titles listed, that you won't find anywhere else.

Thread title:

nate

2013-08-02 07:58:03 pm

valkyria chronicles is not unknown or forgotten but it is most certainly underrated.

new super marisa land (魔理沙と６つのキノコ) is definitely the best doujin game i have ever played. and i don't even like mario games.

Michel

Edit history:

Michel: 2013-08-02 08:32:44 pm

2013-08-02 08:32:20 pm

Oh dear did I play Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor til it was dead.

It was one of the first RPGS I ever played on the PC and I loved it!
Thank you for reminding me of this awesome nostalgia :)!

BlackCatGaming

2013-08-02 08:46:20 pm

Nier though it isn't that underrated or unknown.
God Hand falls in the same boat as Nier.

Theirs also a few shmups that I play that are a bit unknown that I just love, such as the eXceed collection, the Gundemonium collection, Shikigami no Shiro series, though most if not all of those games are known by shmups fan so their not that unknown, more like the genre itself isn't that popular.

However the game that kept me captivated as a child was Magic Pengel the Quest for Color though I don't actually know how unknown that game actually is.

Old School Jim

Edit history:

Old School Jim: 2013-08-02 09:05:44 pm

2013-08-02 09:05:19 pm

been googlin the titles, some cool looking ones already, have to add some of them to my wish list : P

Triggerlily

2013-08-02 09:36:27 pm

I'd say Lost Kingdoms 1 and 2. I kinda regret never buying the first game >_<

Shox

2013-08-03 12:42:41 am

Definitely Winback 64. I loved that game as a kid and played it all the time.. unfortunately, some parts of it were ridiculously hard. ;/

Stupid

Edit history:

Stupid: 2013-08-03 03:25:17 am

Stupid: 2013-08-03 12:53:37 am

Stupid: 2013-08-03 12:51:44 am

2013-08-03 12:49:06 am

defying gravity

The Oxyd Series (Oxyd, Oxyd Magnum, Per.Oxyd, Oxyd Extra) and the Freeware Remake Enigma, which currently features 999 levels (but gets too difficult unfortunately)
I don't know any game that even comes close in the amount of variety it has to offer.

http://www.nongnu.org/enigma/

Onin

2013-08-03 02:42:44 am

^Oh god I remember that game from when I was like 8.

My favourite franchise ever is the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, which really didn't get enough attention outside the runet community.

TheVoid

Edit history:

TheVoid: 2013-08-03 02:48:11 am

2013-08-03 02:47:45 am

I'm going to mention Gruntz again (Mentioned it in the same kind of thread a long time ago), very awesome and funny puzzle game Cheesy

z1mb0bw4y

2013-08-03 02:51:38 am

Gets the cake.

Chex Quest is definitely one of these games for me. Best free game ever.

Another great one that didn't get the best reviews was Sin Episodes: Emergence. It's a game based on the source engine, and while the story is a bit sketchy and the difficulty is all over the place, I had a blast playing through this one.

Patashu

Edit history:

Patashu: 2013-08-03 03:23:50 am

2013-08-03 03:18:20 am

Ohmigosh, yes. Gruntz was such a good game Cheesy

It even had an online puzzle level making scene. Some insanely diabolical puzzles came out of their minds, proving the depth this game can reach Smiley

One of them, called The Three Musketeers, is so hard it has its own site dedicated to getting everything in it: http://gooroosgruntz.info/hintz/Custom/Guenter/TheThreeMusketeerz/Index.html
Just look at how jampacked the level is: http://gooroosgruntz.info/hintz/Custom/Guenter/TheThreeMusketeerz/TheThreeMusketeerz.jpg

I would like to put forward Sim Golf. It's one of the fun Sim- spinoff games. You literally build a golf course that golfers of various skillsets play, and they pay you based on how happy they are, and you have an avatar you can golf with yourself and host tournaments, etc. The golfing engine in this game is such that there are about five different kinds of shots with different trajectories, you aim it at a certain tile and based on your stats and skills the shot is executed - you can have the game simulate how different AI golfers would manage shots on different tiles of your course and you can scientifically hone your golf courses. Or just chill and have a lot of fun. Sweet game.

Ohmigosh, yes. Gruntz was such a good game :D It even had an online puzzle level making scene. Some insanely diabolical puzzles came out of their minds, proving the depth this game can reach :) One of them, called The Three Musketeers, is so hard it has its own site dedicated to getting everything in it: http://gooroosgruntz.info/hintz/Custom/Guenter/TheThreeMusketeerz/Index.html
Just look at how jampacked the level is: http://gooroosgruntz.info/hintz/Custom/Guenter/TheThreeMusketeerz/TheThreeMusketeerz.jpg

I would like to put forward Sim Golf. It's one of the fun Sim- spinoff games. You literally build a golf course that golfers of various skillsets play, and they pay you based on how happy they are, and you have an avatar you can golf with yourself and host tournaments, etc. The golfing engine in this game is such that there are about five different kinds of shots with different trajectories, you aim it at a certain tile and based on your stats and skills the shot is executed - you can have the game simulate how different AI golfers would manage shots on different tiles of your course and you can scientifically hone your golf courses. Or just chill and have a lot of fun. Sweet game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwxCESgGPRg

Ghoti

2013-08-03 05:06:18 am

Currently occupying the grey area.

My favourite from was a game from the Master System called Dragon Crystal. It was a top down turn based RPG with random dungeons. Kinda early turn based Diablo, before Diablo was a thing.

Patashu

2013-08-03 05:14:45 am

Quote from Ghoti:

My favourite from was a game from the Master System called Dragon Crystal. It was a top down turn based RPG with random dungeons. Kinda early turn based Diablo, before Diablo was a thing.

Did you ever see Fatal Labyrinth for the Genesis?

ZenicReverie

2013-08-03 09:45:27 am

Waiting hurts my soul...

Once I start playing through more of my backlog I'm sure I'll have more examples, but here are a few that I really like from the short time testing (may change as I get through the full game):

Lucienne's Quest (3DO)
Rings of Power (Genesis)
Everblue 2 (PS2)

RoboSparkle

2013-08-03 09:55:26 am

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Quote from Patashu:

Quote from Ghoti:

My favourite from was a game from the Master System called Dragon Crystal. It was a top down turn based RPG with random dungeons. Kinda early turn based Diablo, before Diablo was a thing.

Did you ever see Fatal Labyrinth for the Genesis?

I used to (and now do again) have both of these, Dragon Crystal is the spiritual successor to Fatal Labyrinth. There are a few of us on SRL that actually race Dragon Crystal fairly regularly and a TAS that just ruins it. I also (attempted) to speedrun this with commentary from AdamAK during ESA's bonus stream this year, but was RNG'd to death.

One of my favourites was Harlequin for the Amiga, an absolute gem of a platformer, such great design, music and it was absolutely huge!

LotBlind

2013-08-03 12:02:53 pm

Perhaps the first Star Ocean game, "The First Departure" could be counted in simply by virtue of having no international releases. It does have a fan translation though, and I saw a speed run of it once, though can't seem to find it now. Anyway, superb SNES RPG. Maybe it's not as "underdog" as many of the other games people are mentioning.

Sh0rtCircuit

2013-08-03 02:52:42 pm

...Wha?

Probably a widely known unknown, Brave Fencer Musashi. Very underrated for it's time, I think.

Something from the Atari era, it was either "Mountain King" or "Hall of the Mountain King." The first is probably correct, as I'm pretty sure the latter is a classical piece.

Dr.Clank

2013-08-03 05:12:00 pm

Always Being Blocked By The Big Guy.

I think Cruising the world for Nintendo 64 that was a good game to play with my friends.I don't know but maybe the first few crash bandicots as well.

phoenixriku

2013-08-03 05:27:03 pm

Wouldn't say this game is totally forgotten, but certainly not as popular with all the SNES hits. The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey and Minnie was one of my favorite games ever.

Ghoti

2013-08-05 08:02:46 pm

Currently occupying the grey area.

Never played fatal labyrinth, will have to look out for it.

avye

2013-08-05 09:07:23 pm

Probably Monuments of Mars. I can't even begin to count how much time I spent playing that game over and over again. It was probably my first casual speedrun.

Yagamoth

Edit history:

Yagamoth: 2013-08-06 03:07:24 am

2013-08-06 03:06:59 am

INTJ

Quote from Stupid:

The Oxyd Series (Oxyd, Oxyd Magnum, Per.Oxyd, Oxyd Extra) and the Freeware Remake Enigma, which currently features 999 levels (but gets too difficult unfortunately)
I don't know any game that even comes close in the amount of variety it has to offer.

Oh my god... I've been looking for this for ages. I don't remember much of it, but I remember it being awesome

Other than that, I have two games that are probably mostly unknown because (I think) they were only released in german.

- Elysium
A "Empire sim"-ish game by Magic Bytes, where you played a roman(?) emperor, handling all sorts of things such as building up your towns with structures, political issues, random and historically accurate events (e.g. the romans invaded this province then and then), build up army, etc. I never got far, but it was so awesome playing around with it.

- Kaiser
Another "Empire sim"-ish game, but considerably less complicated than Elysium

[quote="Stupid"]The Oxyd Series (Oxyd, Oxyd Magnum, Per.Oxyd, Oxyd Extra) and the Freeware Remake Enigma, which currently features 999 levels (but gets too difficult unfortunately)
I don't know any game that even comes close in the amount of variety it has to offer.
[/quote]

Oh my god... I've been looking for this for ages. I don't remember much of it, but I remember it being awesome

Other than that, I have two games that are probably mostly unknown because (I think) they were only released in german.

- Elysium
A "Empire sim"-ish game by Magic Bytes, where you played a roman(?) emperor, handling all sorts of things such as building up your towns with structures, political issues, random and historically accurate events (e.g. the romans invaded this province then and then), build up army, etc. I never got far, but it was so awesome playing around with it.
[img]http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/219865-elysium-dos-screenshot-infrastructures.png[/img]

- Kaiser
Another "Empire sim"-ish game, but considerably less complicated than Elysium
[img]http://s.uvlist.net/l/y2011/06/85674.jpg[/img]

AdamAK

2013-08-06 05:28:48 am

Totally rad

Quote from Ghoti:

My favourite from was a game from the Master System called Dragon Crystal. It was a top down turn based RPG with random dungeons. Kinda early turn based Diablo, before Diablo was a thing.

As RoboSparkle pointed out, Dragon Crystal has a very vivid scene right now!

Regarding hidden gems, I can't help but mention Beasts & Bumpkins. In my eyes, this is still the best RTS game ever, but it was most likely overshadowed by Settlers 2, Command & Conquer and Age of Empires. What makes it so amazing is that every villager lives his own life, and you as a king must guide (i.e., directly intervene in) their lives so that they eventually complete some level specific goal. Very different approach from most other RTS games out there, where every unit is a mindless drone.

Another somewhat forgotten game (though by no means unknown) is probably Secret Agent 006½. Excellent platformer game made by Apogee.

garik16

2013-08-06 08:52:31 am

I'm not sure if this counts as Unknown, but one of my favorite games of all time was the Star Wars: TIE Fighter, the classic space flight sim. Alas, not only has the space flight sim genre basically died, but the game has never been rereleased in a form that makes playing it not a massive pain, and certainly makes it not streamable.

I loved that game so much.