Underrated Games

[Ishin Ookami]

Well, we have a thread going on about overrated games... howsabout we start talking about games that are underrated, AKA damn good but just didn't get the hype they deserved. here is my list.

Zone of Enders: The Second Runner.

I have a grudge against every blasted MGS fanboy out there. Basically the first ZOE was already a above average title, that came with the MGS 2 demo. People heard about this, bought the game for the damn demo, and used the game for a coaster. When the sequel came out, which fixed everything that was mediocre about the first ZOE and improved everything that was right, Noone cared. One of the most technique ridden, awesome looking, original and damn fun games ever produced, and the whole series is now discontinued.

Sky Gunner:

This game is what happens when the space batlle sequence from Ace Combat and a hayo Miyazaki film get together and make sweet sweet love. Awesome controls, intense and original aerial combat, great graphics and just a overall awesome package. And has anyone even heard of the game?

Zelda: Links Awakening.

My favorite old school zelda title, even held in greater honor than A link to the Past. Shame it came out for the original game boy, cuz it is just so perfect.

Fatal Frame:

I love this franchise as much as I'm afraid of it. Good storytelling, great combat, and bloody hell if it hasn't made me scream like a little girl. I have a reputation for being one of the more gutsy amongst my friends on account that I've been able to finish all three, many have tried to play Crimson Butterfly, only to get as far as chapter three before going all fetal and begging for mercy.

Tenchu

Despite my aforementioned grudge against MGS fanboys, I do respect the series. However Tenchu I have always held in higher regards. On every technical aspect, MGS is the better franchise, and always has the better games, but I just love Tenchu's aspect of being the stealthy hunter, instead of the hunted. Oh yah, and Ayame rocks. She is one of the coolest female characters in all of gaming history.

[NeoCracker]

Lufia and BoF are the most underrated Series I know of.

[Polnareff]

Zone of Enders: The Second Runner.

I have a grudge against every blasted MGS fanboy out there. Basically the first ZOE was already a above average title, that came with the MGS 2 demo. People heard about this, bought the game for the damn demo, and used the game for a coaster. When the sequel came out, which fixed everything that was mediocre about the first ZOE and improved everything that was right, Noone cared. One of the most technique ridden, awesome looking, original and damn fun games ever produced, and the whole series is now discontinued.

I'd say that the first one is way more underrated. You said it yourself, people used it as a coaster (I didn't, I bought the game to play the game). ZoE2 is actually pretty well-known as a PS2 game, and on lists of PS2 games that people should buy, ZoE2 always shows up.

Sky Gunner:

This game is what happens when the space batlle sequence from Ace Combat and a hayo Miyazaki film get together and make sweet sweet love. Awesome controls, intense and original aerial combat, great graphics and just a overall awesome package. And has anyone even heard of the game?

I've never played this before (wanted it for ages and still can't find it, forget buying online), but it's mostly underrated because it got so few copies printed. Seriously, the game is too hard to find. I can find Rhapsody and the original Xenogears in stores 20 times each before finding Sky Gunner. And I have. [/end rant]

I agree with your other entries, though. Tenchu is a great game (though the controls need work still). Link's Awakening is infinitely more interesting than Link to the Past, and Fatal Frame is probably creepier than SH and RE combined, and that's saying something there.

Here are mine:

Vampire Savior (Darkstalkers 3):
The most underrated fighting game in existence. Capcom really outdid themselves with this game. With its remarkable characters, great music, fun gameplay system, and its inherent quirks, it is probably the best 2D fighter Capcom ever released on CPS-2.

Panzer Bandit:
Okay, so it's underrated mostly because of it only being released in Japan. Meaning I'm being hypocritical. But that's no excuse since a lot of well-known games are imports (see Jump Super Stars for example). This game is a great side-scrolling 2D beat-'em-up with a lot of flair. It's kinda like if you put Shonen Ninja Sasuke and Gunstar Heroes into a big blender and added Fatal Fury's plane-changing system for good measure. There's even a Battle Royale mode for your delight in case you wanna beat up some friends.

Rapid Reload:
Known in Japan as Gunners Heaven, this game packs more enemies, chaos, and cool weapons into one level than Gunstar Heroes does into its entire game (maybe not its entire game but you get my point). And that's saying something. It requires you to think on your toes a bit more too. The enemies are meaner, the AI is smarter, and everything that can kill you will probably end up killing you if you don't react quickly. People always say that Gunstar Heroes is the epitome of side-scrolling shoot-em-up fun but I disagree.

Breath of Fire III:
Classic story. Great characters. Memorable settings. What more can I say?

[Fatal Impurity]

The Grandia series of course!

People know of it.

People even really like it.

Yet it still fails to sell truck loads eventhough its one of the most solid and enjoyable RPG series out there!

Also the Dreamcast! (i know its not a game but it was still HUGELY under-rated!)

The Dreamcast had so many brilliant and classic games (many of which are still being played today due to the HUGE amounts of Dreamcast to gamecube/ps2 ports) and was a pionier in networked games consoles being the first home games console to truly bring the online gaming experience to the average home!

[Auragaea]

Ephemeral Fantasia.

[Dreddz]

Well, I would say Ico, but after SOC, suddenly everyone knew about the game ( and claims they had the game all along, pfft ).

The Rival Schools series is also underrated, but I guess fighters in general are nowadays.

Oh, and Grandia of course.

[Wolf Kanno]

Breath of Fire series. Specifically Dragon Quarter. The gameplay was new and fun, the characters were infinetly more deep than past installments and the story... oh my god the story was dark and creepy. It definetly had a 1984 vibe to it and the fact you could kill yourself by using the over powered dragon form made the game far more strategic than most RPG's I know.

Suikoden 1, everyone knows about Suikoden II, but what about the first game. It's surprisingly more deep and well written than most games released around it's time. McDohl is still my favorite main character from the entire series.

Lufia series, if you've actually played them, you know they are pretty damn solid. The first game has a real strong original story while the second game has a wonderful new combat system that is just wonderful to play. Too bad the third installment is pretty mediocre...

[Slothy]

The Dreamcast had so many brilliant and classic games (many of which are still being played today due to the HUGE amounts of Dreamcast to gamecube/ps2 ports) and was a pionier in networked games consoles being the first home games console to truly bring the online gaming experience to the average home!

Agreed. Frankly, I would have rather seen both the Gamecube and Xbox fail over the Dreamcast. I can't put it ahead of my PS2 as far as receiving my love, but had it lasted longer, it may give it a good run for its money.

As for my picks, I'll go with both ZOE and ZOE2 for reasons mentioned before. Everyone may have heard of ZOE2, but not many people bought it, myself included. Which reminds me that I have to track down a copy someday.

Also, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon on the N64 was great. It's hands down my favourite N64 game not just for being a fun platformer/adventure game, but for being one of the wackiest gaming experiences ever.

I'll also throw Mischief Makers on my list simply because it's a great game. Very unique gameplay, and incredibly fun and original, and like Goemon, pretty wacky fun.

[Fatal Impurity]

I'm gonna put Star wars Episode 1 podracer (on the N64 ive never played the other ports) on my list just for the fact that the game was miles ahead for its time and still remains as one of the most solid fun racers ive ever played, and strangely enough for a racer it had oodles of depth as it let you customise, replace, and repair your craft as you saw fit in order to succeed...plus the inclusion of nifty well balanced (and often treacherous) shortcuts which made the game tactical and made it so experienced players were rewarded for learning the in's and outs of the game.

Whilst this may not seem so breathtaking now if you think about the breakneck speeds and the fact that the game was released way back in 1999 when most if not all of these features were unheard of or were a rarity. (Gran Turismo being the only racer i think of with anywhere near the same amount of depth, but it lacked the "funfactor") There is also the graphics (for the time) to consider which were highly detailed and smooth (for the time) plus the game had the benefits of the N64's short/non-existent load times. This game truly does deserve classic status eventhough it only got mediocre reviews!

[JKTrix]

Zone of Enders: The Second Runner.

I have a grudge against every blasted MGS fanboy out there. Basically the first ZOE was already a above average title, that came with the MGS 2 demo. People heard about this, bought the game for the damn demo, and used the game for a coaster. When the sequel came out, which fixed everything that was mediocre about the first ZOE and improved everything that was right, Noone cared. One of the most technique ridden, awesome looking, original and damn fun games ever produced, and the whole series is now discontinued.

This is one of my favourite games ever. In fact, I just received the Japanese 'Special Edition' yesterday. (It was on sale somewhere, got a bunch of other stuff too :P)

It was rated pretty well, but it is generally overlooked by many many people. It's too bad.

I wasn't even interested in the PS2 until I heard about this game. I had been watching the anime on Fansubs and I had the GBA SRPG and was completely taken by the series in general. I don't think the series is quite 'Discontinued'... just no plans for a new game yet :P Kojima has mentioned a 'ZOE3' on a couple of occasions, but it was more of a passing joke (in fact, I heard it live, straight from his mouth, when I was in Japan for TGS last year. Too bad I didn't know what the heck he said, I just heard "ZOE3").

Jehuty is in MGS3.

[chionos]

[QUOTE=Astronite;2097284]

Zone of Enders: The Second Runner.
Breath of Fire III:
Classic story. Great characters. Memorable settings. What more can I say?

Yes, really the entire BoF series in general.

Secret of Evermore ~ I don't know what it is about the game, but I loved it the first time I played it, and have played it many times sense, and still love it.

Well, I would say Ico, but after SOC, suddenly everyone knew about the game ( and claims they had the game all along, pfft ).

I agree Dreddz. Ico was fantastic, and I'm glad that SOC brought more attention to a great game, but nobody likes a hypocrite. Some game reviewers were guilty even; gave it a bad review when it came out then praised sony and Ueda to high heaven when it became more popular and won all the awards.

Ace Combat series ~ I guess it sells well enough to not be considered underrated, but nevertheless I think it's underappreciated by the gaming community in general. I especially like AC4. Namco has a certain style that I enjoy. I love Soul Calibur's fighting, and I think they did an ok job with xenosaga(though it doesn't do xenogears a bit of justice).

Klonoa 2 ~ another Namco game, and it's incredible. I don't know why I even bought it in the first place, as I'm not much of a platformer, but I'm glad I did. It reminds me of a game on sega saturn that was an incredibly inventive platformer. Can't remember the name of it though.

[black orb]

>>> Front Mission 3, well im sure nobody like this game but I think its awesome..

[Pete for President]

Tenchu

Despite my aforementioned grudge against MGS fanboys, I do respect the series. However Tenchu I have always held in higher regards. On every technical aspect, MGS is the better franchise, and always has the better games, but I just love Tenchu's aspect of being the stealthy hunter, instead of the hunted. Oh yah, and Ayame rocks. She is one of the coolest female characters in all of gaming history.

Tenchu 1 and 2 are definately underrated, after 2, when the creators made changes in production teams etc, the series went downhill. The atmosphere (especially in Tenchu 2 imo) was near perfect.

[Roto13]

Also, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon on the N64 was great. It's hands down my favourite N64 game not just for being a fun platformer/adventure game, but for being one of the wackiest gaming experiences ever.

May I kiss your ring?

That game was fantastic! Singing shoguns, a giant space peach, fighting robots, hitting stuff with a tobacco pipe, what's not to love?

[Cruise Control]

Lufia.

While Timesplitters isn't underrated, no one ever hears of it. Everyone that plays it admits its awesomeness though.