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Industry Folks Talk Underrated Games
A topic we've touched on several times in the past here is discussed in the answers to another of Gamasutra's Questions of the week. Underrated games are the order of the day. From the article: "Natural Selection by Unknown Worlds is an outstanding work combining FPS action and RTS strategy elements. NS has gained a great following, but it has been overshadowed by success of Counter-Strike. The game play of NS naturally draws players to work together. I have always found the teamwork in NS better than most other FPS network games. The variety of classes in Aliens and Marines provides a lot of depth of play to experience. The RTS elements in the game were beautifully put together." I've always been partial to Shiny's Sacrifice , a weird little First Person RTS title where you play a mage that summons all of your units. Any titles that you think didn't get the attention they deserved?
...Marathon 2: Durandal, and Marathon Infinity. You know, back from before Bungie became Microsoft.
If you want to find underground or indie games, I'd recommend sites like
http://www.gametunnel.com/
http://www.madmonkey.net/
http://www.indiegamer.com/
Black Sky
2D Elite Inspired Game
Little press? Are you kidding? Every gaming magazine, website, comic, fansite I've ever been to has heralded how amazing Ico was. It got press everywhere. Just because no one bought it doesnt mean there was little press.
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
Clive Barker's Undying - great reviews everywhere, terrible sales.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Some games that never quite received the love they deserved:
The Guardian Legend (NES)- the first game to combine an overhead shooter (shmup) with a 3/4 RPG. Interesting puzzles, excellent controlls, and one of the deepest adventure games of it's time.
Rygar (NES) - combining 3/4 adventure with a sidescrolling action, this was one of the few NES translations that was *better* than the arcade version (don't remind me of Double Dragon *sob*). The PS2 Followup was an excellent sequel, God of War before GoW existed, but suffered from a horrible storyline and the worst voice acting ever.
Crystalis (NES) - a 3/4 overhead Action/RPG that was the first true Zelda-Killer, it was one of the greatest achievements of the 8-bit era to go unnoticed.
River City Ransom (NES) - the original Brawler for the NES, the depth of which was quite impressive considering the weak storyline.
Phantasy Star 2 (Genesis) - The greatest RPG of it's time, Final Fantasy be damned. A rich storyline in a futuristic setting, several worlds to explore, and a cataclysmic epic with a truly satisfying conclusion.
Actraiser (SNES) - The unique hybrid of Sidescrolling action and RPG/RTS was constantly changing to keep from getting stale. One moment you're marching through a forest on your way to slay a boss, the next you're building roads and accepting gifts from worshippers, then you're back in a forgotten pyramid. Also one of the most underrated soundtracks, with one theme in particular that sounds very similar to Brian Adams' "Hazard"
and finally
Tetrisphere (N64) - One of the greatest puzzlers ever created, this underappreciated gem was the first to bring Tetris to 3D in a form that I actually enjoyed. An awesome techo soundtrack; smooth, slick two player action, and simple rules that reveal a complex and engaging system made this one of the best Tetris games of all time.
The ZX Spectrum hosts a tresure trove of games that are mostly unknown outside of Speccy strongholds. Ultimate (which later became RARE) released a whole slew of games during the eighties which were innovative, fun and often offered types of play which have never been recreated on modern platforms. Attic Attack, Knight Lore, Jetpack, all classics and worth looking up. Plus games like School Daze ( set in a school, Take Two's Bully sounds suspiciously like a remake of this), Fat Worm Blows a Sparky, Knight Tyme, Lords of Midnight, Target Renegade, How To Be a Complete Bastard, too many to name.
The Snes had tons of really great RPG's many of which have only become playable to no japanese speakers thanks to fan Translaton patches. Titles like Bhamut Lagoon, Seiken Densetsu 3 ( the real sequal to secret of manna), some weird ones like Wedding Peach (bloody nuts but oddly fun) and Sailor Mood, plus some stuff that had wester releases but never took off like the Adventures of Spike McFang and Terranigma.
Atari classic I,Robot has got to be worth mentioning, the first true 3d game, released in 1983 in the arcades, sank without trace, but was at least a decade ahead of it's time, Starfox seemed to borrow a lot from this game.
To me however, the most underrated game of all time has got to be Gunpey. Appearing on the Bandai Wonderswan, both game and console were developed by the legendary Gunpei Yakoi, the man responisble for the Game and Watch and The Gameboy. A stupidly simple puzzler, its really worth looking for. You can get both console and game for next to nothing on Ebay, why this never got a western release I'll never know but it's a lot of fun.
I refuse to believe Battlezone ever existed. I mean, the thing came out in the dark ages of 1998 and that thing had everything. RTSing and FPSing and ninjaing and hovertank racing and Cold War cliches. Nope, such a great concept obviously never existed.
Or maybe it did exist, it was just that it was too far ahead of its time and most people just forgot about it.
Oh, wait, it did exist, I have the game box and manual and CD and all other stuff right here. ::blows dust off the box:: Hmm, now if only I had Windows around to try this one out, maybe I could install it on QEMU... ::browses through the computer part drawers and can only find a Windows 95 OEM CD:: No wait, I cannot touch this artifact of evil, looks like the verification has to be done later!
Yeah, the word "underrated" is being somewhat misused here. Most of the games are merely "unpopular"- the majority got very good scores from the critics and simply failed to sell well.
Home of the Underdogs, for all those under-rated games of yesteryear.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Presentation
The characters in the game are very stylized, with anthropomorphic animals running about everywhere alongside humans. This gives the game a very "kiddie" feel at first glance. The voice acting is very well done and after a few hours of playing the game you will find yourself genuinly liking the characters after enjoying their banter and interactions.
Gameplay
The gameplay has a strong focus on exploration throughout, and it has much diversity as you find yourself performing many different activies throughout the game (racing, puzzle-solving, ship-based combat, personal combat, stealth). The pacing is very well done in the game, keeping the gameply fresh throughout. The personal combat is probably the weakest aspect of the gameplay, and it is unfortunate that the opening scene of the game is a big combat. Some of the later stealth/photgraphic missions really put the basic combat to shame. The game also uses an interesting partner mechanic, allowing the NPCs toprovide specific help to allow you through some situations.
Plot
As I mentioned earlier, at first glance the game appears marketed towards an 8-12 year old audience. The graphics are brightly colored and the characters appear very cartoony. The plot to the game is surprisingly sophisticated. A war against the "Domz" is happening, and only the "Alpha Squadron" stands between them and the planet's helpless population. The story introduces themes of propaganda and as Jade, you pick up the responsibility of exposing the truth to the public at large. Witnessing the populace of the city slowly change their view as you bring more and more condemning evidence to light is a very rewarding experience.
All in all, I really enjoyed the game and it was one of the first games that I was able to get my journalist wife to play with me (she's since branched out and we enjoy many evenings playing games together). The production values are high, although there seems to be no particular reward for collecting 100% of the items that are strewn about the world (you only need a certain amount of them to buy the final upgrade for your hover-craft), which was a disappointment.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
-Voltaire