Hidden gems/games that surprised you on fun etc.

Everyone knows the huge games. Just wondering what games you didn't expect much from but for whatever reason really hooked you?

For me:

1. The fatal frame series. XBox and PS2. I LOVE these survival horror games with 2 being the best. I only wish I could have been able to play the last 2 that Nintendo made Japanese exclusives.

2. War of the Monsters for PS2. What an absolute blast!

3. Lots of fighting games I missed and now that i'm going back with emulators or old systems I didn't own before: recently i've really loved discovering Garou mark of the wolves for Neo Geo MVS/AES.

4. Nemo Dreamaster for the NES. Challenging and fun with seriously bright and colorful graphics for the day.

I'll just leave it at that for now, was wondering what you guys had.

 

4 was fan translated, although not perfect it at least allows you to play through it. However it's whoreshit with motion controls.

 

Actually, the Wii U one is getting a Western release in a couple of weeks.

 

I think Rampage Knights kind of meets this subject for me. At first glance, it looked like some crap ipad game on the surface. After watching people play through it on twitch, my attitude about it changed. Still don't really like the art style much, but the co-op game turned out to be very fun. Not many good beat 'em up's being made these days, let alone 2D ones. Maybe I'm just to desperate for something to fill that niche.

 

monster rancher series. like pokemon but way more interesting.

 

Undertale is probably the most recent time this has happened to me.

-doulomb

 

Agreed with Undertale. I just saw people talking about it, seen a feature I liked then played. I wasn't expecting serious feels for an RPG, it typically only happens on Visual Novels.

 

It being given away for free at the time, I didn't expect much, but Archibald's Adventure turned out to be a really nice action/puzzler combination.

 

Binary Domain pretty competent Gears of war clone that feels a bit more arcadey than Gears.
I've been trying to play Vanquish but it doesn't have the same oomph that Binary Domain has.

Until the first boss fight where I couldn't do dick, I really liked the FPS rendition of Syndicate.

Bulletstorm on PS360 is a fantastic FPS NOBODY played and as a result is super cheap these days. It's really funny, colorful and has creative ways of killing enemies. The Boss fights are fun as fuck and it's just an overall joy to play and more people need to play it. It's not your typical Call of Halo bro game either.

Super magnetic neo on the Dreamcast is a fun if not difficult platformer that feels like Mega Man had dirty sinful robosexual relations with Crash Bandicoot.

Soul of the Samurai is a Konami game on the PS1 that does the whole resident evil thing but in Fudal Japan and without zombies.

Nobody ever talks about I Ninja anymore, a Namco Published Agronaut platformer that is really REALLY hard, but really fun.

Plok on the SNES with a lot of creativity and did somethings Rayman does before Rayman existed.

3d Dot Game Heroes on the PS3 is Zelda without actually being called Zelda. People know about it but not many people really talk about it.

Doujin games could be their own thread, SO MANY are out there and so many are good. Amazing shmups, interesting platformers, other UNIQUE games. It goes well beyond Touhou.

 

I agree with everything you said specifically the part with the doujin games though i mean the ones on the Xbox 360 live indie games section.

 

Fatal Frame for the Wii U reviews are in and most say the same thing. That the atmosphere and scare factor are high as always but this time is a little redundant as far as enemies and gameplay. When I do get a Wii U eventually, i'll check it out anyway, by then it will eb fairly cheap so what the heck. I've played all but the japanese exclusive so far.

 

The game won't get cheaper, it's digital only in the West. And it's like 15GB, so if you got the small Wii U (or even the larger 32GB one) you're pretty much screwed and gotta get your own hard drive.

 

Digital Only?..Wow, what a great idea that was... well, looks like my Fatal Frame Days are over except when I go back to play the old ones. (just finished 1 again about a week ago). Thanks for the heads up

 

Plus the game is censored

 

Lup Salad for PS1 is an amazingly addictive puzzle game. It's sort of a Sokoban-game with gravity. The blocks will fall to the bottom of the screen and will disappear if 3 or more come together.



It was always a sort of rare and fairly unknown PS1 gem, but it seems that it had a small following because shortly after I purchased it, the company announced and released sequels for DS and PSP.





There are 100 stages that got me hooked like a total junkie. I finished all of them in a matter of a maybe a week and thought the game would be over - but instead, it unlocked "Hard Mode" - which contained another 100 stages, and even the first few of these were really tough.



An absolute puzzle gem with beautiful yet basic graphics.

 

Lup salad is on the North American PSN if anyone wants to check it out

 

While admittedly "Alice Madness Returns" wasn't a powerhouse when it came to gameplay it was huantingly beautiful and world that I fully enjoyed exploring. I also enjjoyed much of the music, fit right in.

 

I don't know if you can consider the Serious Sam games hidden gems, but it's a franchise that has been forgotten.
So many awesome games...

 

Tales of Phantasia on the SNES. When people list great SNES RPG's you always get the usual Square games and stuff. Rarely do people mention this game. I realize it was only released in Japan, but playing through the english translated one reveals that this is pretty much the epitome of an RPG on the SNES. Cool story, great music, great graphics, and the attention to detail puts game like Final Fantasy VI to shame (which is hard to do, a great game). The battle system is totally different, but fun and quick. I'm usually a turn based RPG whore, but I still really enjoy this particular fighting system as well.

 

Elemntal Gimmick Gear.
Lost in Shadow
rain
Record of Lodoss War

to name few off the top of my head.