Wait. Wait this is really fun somehow.

[Pike]

What are some games that you didn't expect would be fun but actually are?

A big one for me is FFX. The whole game is basically just a bunch of corridors taking you through the story on a rail like Splash Mountain, and yet when I play I can't stop and I just have a blast. I still have no idea why it's so fun to me.

I just find it unusual because with most games - even "So bad it's good" games like EDF 2017 - I can pinpoint exactly why I find it fun. But I really can't tell you why I enjoy FFX so much.

How about you?

P.S. inb4 this turns into some sort of rehashed debate about FFX/Tidus/etc. That's not the point of the thread :mad2:

[Dr Unne]

This week's Humble Weekly Bundle (https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly) aka "donate $6 to Red Cross and get some free games" included DeathSpank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeathSpank). At a glance it looked crappy. I tried it out on a whim.

I discovered that it's surprisingly fun. Kind of a Diablo clone full of stupid humor. Turns out this game was designed by Ron Gilbert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Gilbert) of Monkey Island fame.

[Skyblade]

Time and Eternity wins the award for me. It's not really a good game. But I still had a blast with it. Beyond its myriad problems is a core that I could really get into.


A big one for me is FFX. The whole game is basically just a bunch of corridors taking you through the story on a rail like Splash Mountain, and yet when I play I can't stop and I just have a blast. I still have no idea why it's so fun to me.

Because, no matter what the structure of the game itself, a well structured world can be incredibly engaging.

Sorry, enough about FFX.

[Spuuky]

Atom Zombie Smasher
BIT.TRIP Runner2
Divinity 2
Hotline Miami

I'm sure there are plenty of games I thought would be good, but were great, too. These are ones I expected basically nothing from and were at least pretty good.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Final Lap Twin. I played it at a time where I just liked playing platformers and such (and I have never been a racing game fan), but I couldn't stop playing this game. It's a racing RPG for the Turbografx, complete with random encounters that consist of racing around the track. Your goal is to beat the best racer in each area. If you lose, you get sent back to your hometown, and your dad pretty much just tells you "You'll do better next time, here's $500." So fun.

On the racing front, I didn't expect to like Need for Speed Most Wanted as much as I did.

Also, surprisingly, Sonic the Hedgehog '06. I knew exactly what to expect, and I think the game is surprisingly pretty fun. The glitches just make it more funny for me.

[NeoCracker]

Digimon World 2. That game only has the grind. There is nothing else. No plot worth mentioning, no engaging characters, shitty non-involved dungeons, sub-par graphics, and it's only redeeming quality being a pretty decent battle system.

The only way you can play this game is if your are a massive grind whore like I can be, though even then you it's horrid.

Still enjoy it though. :p

[Bolivar]

Final Fantasy XIII.

[Pike]

Atom Zombie Smasher
BIT.TRIP Runner2
Divinity 2
Hotline Miami

I've played three of those four (I haven't played Divinity 2) and all three surprised me as well. Especially BIT.TRIP. I put a lot more time into that than I thought I would.

[Jessweeee♪]

Mobile Light Force 2

[Tigmafuzz]

Papers, Please (http://steamcommunity.com/app/239030) is definitely a game that you wouldn't expect to be very fun, but it is.

Zafehouse Diaries (http://store.steampowered.com/app/249360/) is one you wouldn't expect to be fun unless you're into that kind of game.


DeathSpank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeathSpank)

I've loved DeathSpank for a long time. It's really great.I absolutely love DeathSpank.


Hotline Miami

I played a flash game several years ago that played exactly like Hotline Miami. The guy who made that game also made some other top-down style game where you play as a medieval knight killing monsters or some such. Playing Hotline Miami just made me want to go play those old flash games again, but I couldn't find them ;_;

[Pike]

Papers, Please (http://steamcommunity.com/app/239030) is definitely a game that you wouldn't expect to be very fun, but it is.

Nonsense, I knew that would be a blast the first time I heard of it!

[Madame Adequate]

Given that it began life as True Crime 3 I didn't expect anything at all from Sleepy Dogs, but it turned out to be amazing and it's one of my all-time favorite games in that genre.

[Karifean]

Call of Duty 4. No seriously, I never had had ANY interest in FPS games before, but it turned out to be pretty nice. It was most likely just because I was playing with a group of friends and we were all new to the genre so we all had similar skill levels and gradually got better together. It definitely showed me the fun side to FPSs.

[escobert]

I have no idea why but after 1000 or so hours of Civ V I can't stop playing.

[Pete for President]

Agreed on Hotline Miami. Braid too. At first I thought it was just some Mario game, but it was way more interesting than that.

[Pike]

Agreed on Braid; I can't say I ever beat it but I put a few hours into it which is more than I thought I would.

[Loony BoB]

So guys, how many lollipops did you get?

[Pike]

So guys, how many lollipops did you get?

A lot.

TWO DAYS UNTIL THE SEQUEL :hyper:

[Hollycat]

Freelancer. When my parents gave it to me I thought, Oh boy another crappy rippoff of something.

Then I played it while my Gameboy was charging one day and was enlightened.
It was like the holy grail of gaming.

[krissy]

ff7
same story as hypo
i got it and i wa slike 'ugh i wanted star wars dark forces'

[Ayen]

Yoshi's Story. I didn't think that much of Yoshi back then and didn't expect the game to be good at all. It ended up being crazy fun and I couldn't stop playing until I finished it.

A more recent one would have to be Final Fantasy X-2. Everyone kept saying how horrible it was and talking about how it was the beginning of the end of Final Fantasy (I know some melodramatic people, let me tell you), but when I sat down to play it I didn't find it to be that bad. Campy maybe, but not the god-awful game I was expecting it to be going in. X-2 does not live up to the hype of its haters.

[Cosmiccandy]

Jade Cocoon 2. The dialogue is heavy-handed, the story is rock simple, the characters are annoying, its plagued with various bugs, and its level design is uninspired. But godamm there is just something so engaging about the combat and leveling system in this game that absolutely hooks me. Call it a Pokemon clone all you want, I wasted untold hours of my teens on this game.

[Polnareff]

Final Fight Streetwise.

This game was panned because of its urban setting and a twist that takes place about 3/4 of the way through which turns the game into your character, Kyle, beating up on a bunch of drug-addled zombies. Despite that and the gratuitous, in-your-face "badass" crap, the game is actually very solid. I still wish we'd gotten Seven Sons instead.

[Captain Maxx Power]

I used to look down my nose at MMORPGs. Now I'm usually playing at least one with some regularity.

[Mirage]

I'm trying hard to find a game that I played that I didn't think would be fun but turned out to be fun anyway. I think I'm too conservative when it comes to trying new games. Perhaps I am only playing games that I am pretty confident that I will like?

[Spuuky]

I'm trying hard to find a game that I played that I didn't think would be fun but turned out to be fun anyway. I think I'm too conservative when it comes to trying new games. Perhaps I am only playing games that I am pretty confident that I will like?That just means you aren't buying enough Humble Bundles, in which you are bombarded with games that you had on intention of buying otherwise.

[Mirage]

No, it means I have more games than I have time to play already, and can't really make enough time for even more games.

[Pike]

You can always make time for more games. Humble Bundles especially. There's a lot of hidden gems in those for a bargain price.

[Mirage]

No sir, I can't :(. Not without sleeping less than 6 hours every day. That's not very smart when I work with what I do.

[NeoCracker]

No sir, I can't :(. Not without sleeping less than 6 hours every day. That's not very smart when I work with what I do.

Sounds like you either need to:

A) Smoke Cracl
B) Develope Insomnia
C) Both A and B
D) A Jar of Almonds

[Mirage]

I don't want to crash at work and kill myself and possibly others, so no thanks.

[NeoCracker]

I don't want to crash at work and kill myself and possibly others, so no thanks.

Meh, whatever works for you, I'm just glad I got a chance to make that reference! :monster:

[Mirage]

Which reference? I thought you were just taking ideas from your real life.

[NeoCracker]

D) A Jar of Almonds was the reference in question. :p

[Mirage]

Oh so it was from real life experiences!

[Quindiana Jones]

Jar isn't a verb. :confused:

[NeoCracker]

Jar isn't a verb. :confused:
...DAMMIT JUST GET THE REFERANCE AND STOP THE NITPICKING!

[Mirage]

what is it a reference to?

[NeoCracker]

IT's not the same if I have to explain it. :cry:

[Spuuky]

Actually, jar is a verb. But it isn't used like one there.

[Mirage]

IT's not the same if I have to explain it. :cry:

If it is a reference to a particular thing, you're not explaining the reference by saying where it is from. Just like I'm not explaining a movie by telling people the name of it.

[Quindiana Jones]

Actually, jar is a verb. But it isn't used like one there.

Well, it's lucky I was referring to the only use of the word jar in this thread, or boy would my face be red.

[Tigmafuzz]

When is a door not a door? When it's ajar!

[Elskidor]

I suppose mine would be classic Everquest between 1999 and 2004. My friend bugged the crap out of me to try it, and I had no idea what the hell it was. He even over 100 bucks worth of stuff for my computer so I could run the game, so I felt I had to try it, although I was really dreading it. Bastard had me hooked and calling out of work! I still remember being a wee level stuck forever in Crushbone Keep, and he kept telling me I was the tank....it confused me, because I kept wondering when I was going to turn into some massive army tank, and why army tanks were in a fantasy based world. Good memories. He was a terrible MMO instructor, but we had a blast.

[TrollHunter]

Cave Story

I picked it up because people kept recommending it to me and it was on sale on steam. I didnt realize just how much fun I would have.
This game has become such a favorite of mine I'm working on a cosplay for the protagonist 'Quote'.
The music is spectacular, the difficulty is just right, the controls are tight and precise, and even the story is pretty fantastic. Everything about this game is just sublime, and I picked it up really just on a whim.

[NeoCracker]

It's a referance from Whose Line is it Anyway you uncultured bastards. :colbert:

[Polnareff]

"Whose Line?" is cultured? News to me. :monster:

[NeoCracker]

Clearly you aren't very cultured then! :monster:

[Vermachtnis]

Harvest Moon, I got into the series with Rune Factory because a farming sim sounds boring as hell. But I like Rune Factory and decided to give the main series a try and got Boy and Girl for the PSP and you know what. I loved it. I loved everything about it. The music was nice, the characters were interesting, and the actual farming was fun. Also I had a puppy and we played with a ball until I lost it. And it taught me a very important life lesson: people will like you if you keep giving them stuff everyday.


Digimon World 2. That game only has the grind. There is nothing else. No plot worth mentioning, no engaging characters, shitty non-involved dungeons, sub-par graphics, and it's only redeeming quality being a pretty decent battle system.

The only way you can play this game is if your are a massive grind whore like I can be, though even then you it's horrid.

Still enjoy it though. :p

I thought I was the only one in the world who liked this game. I mean, yeah it is pretty awful, but I still like it.

[Elskidor]

Harvest Moon

I named 2 of my cats after that game. I thought it was the coolest name for the longest time so I had Harvest Moon, and when he died I named a new kitten Harvest Moon II. Oddly enough I never actually got around to playing the game though.

[Polnareff]

Clearly you aren't very cultured then! :monster:

Pop culture these days is more like "pop UNculture," really. :monster:

Elskidor, there are farms all across the USA with the name "Harvest Moon Farms." I still get a good laugh every time this one customer comes in wearing a shirt from there.