Awesome games people should know about!

[Rez09]

Have a great game to share that you think most people haven't heard of? Or maybe a title that may have been overlooked among other great releases? Perhaps even something people have heard of but you feel still hasn't gotten the attention it deserves? Want to spread some love to these underappreciated games?

I know I do! \ ^_^ /
And that's why I'm going to share them in this thread!
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(And you should share yours too!)

These games don't have to be among the best games ever, nor do they have to represent the best a console or genre has to offer, they just need to be what you feel are:

Awesome games everybody should know about!
(+5 dramatic fanfare here)

For my first game, I'm going to throw out some hints to see if anyone can guess it before revealing it.

1) It's a Sega Master System game
2) It involves a knight
3) And a trapped princess
4) It does not involve lances
5) There be dragons

Think you know it?
Annnnnnnnd behind spoiler curtain #1 . . .

Pit-Pot: the Magical Castle - Sega / Sega - 1985 - Puzzle / Action

About two years ago I went on a quest I dubbed 'exploring the Sega Master System' where I played every game on the system for at least twenty minutes or until a gameover. There were some great games, and some terrible (though damn pretty, I have to say) ones, but most ultimately ended up forgettable; three games, however, surprised the hell out of me.

Pit Pot was one of those titles.

Initially I had very low expectations for the game, especially after playing Astro Warrior which it was bundled with, but then a witch threw me a hammer, the ultimate weapon of manly knighthood and do-it-yourself home improvement.

I was intrigued.

When I got into the game itself, it wasn't the sub-par platformer I was expecting, but instead a top down affair with a maze to navigate, monsters to bash, and loot to collect. Then I got to the princess at the end and got a game over because I'm a terrible person and, maybe, smashed the platform she was on and dropped her into the dark abyss. Then I got there again, didn't drop her, and got a game over anyway because I didn't have the items I needed.

It was at this time I realized the game wasn't the standard 'get to the end' affair I was used to, but instead a puzzle game of sorts where you have to navigate the maze to find these items. So, I busted out my trusty notepad and pencil and set forth again, mapping the dungeon as I went along. THEN I found out, after scouring every room for treasure except one that didn't appear to open and still getting a game over, that every room DOES, in fact, open and sometimes you have to explore the surrounding rooms for a less apparent way to get into them. I learned that destroying or hammering certain tiles can make items appear / disappear, and I began to wonder what else I had missed in the castle.

Somehow, by the time I completed the second stage, my 'twenty minute, one game over' affair had morphed into a 'two hour, ten+ game over' exploration fest, and I wasn't the least bit sad about it. In fact, I went back to it a few months ago and had just as much fun as the first time on the next difficulty up.

If you like puzzle games and exploring castles, trying out new things and making simple maps (not to mention bashing everything you don't like with a hammer) along the way, then you should really give this game a try. It's far from the best the SMS has to offer in any field, but it is (wait for it . . . ) an awesome game you should know about.

HAMMAH! SMASH! GOBARIN!

[Ayen]

BattleTanx Global Assault



There's a level where you can actually blow up the White House. Do I even need to say anything more?

[Rez09]

^

My favorite multiplayer game on the N64. Sooooo good.

I always wished I could get Goliaths back on rails after I took them off, though.

[Pumpkin]

I don't know what games are popular or not so I'll list three that a lot of people I've spoken to seem to not know about

Atelier Arland series
Okay so I've played Atelier Totori and Atelier Meruru, and I personally prefer Totori, but they're both fun games. Totori is about a young alchemist girl who wants to become an Adventurer and find her mother, and Meruru is about a young Princess who wants to become an alchemist, but she has to prove to her father that alchemy can be used to benefit the kingdom

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Some things:
-Time management is a large part of the games
-Lighthearted tone, bright graphics, upbeat music
-Large casts of playable characters
-Not a deep story or plot, although it isn't like its total junk either. Just might not be for some who want a deeper more serious or investing story

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This is the exact party I used most

Agarest War series (Agarest Senki/Agarest Generations of War/Record of Agarest War 1, Zero, and 2)
Haven't played 2 yet but I've played the others. Basically they are political drama stories with dating sim aspects. In each game you play as a hero who needs to chose a bride. The next generation will follow their child. In the first game there are 5 generations, Zero has 2 generations, and 2 has 3 generations.

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Some things:
-Tactical/Strategy RPG
-There are A LOT OF FIGHTS. Like 80% of the game is fights. Good if you like strategy RPGs. *Tip: Fights can be made considerably faster by turning the attack animations off
-Loads of characters, as would be expected from games that span several generations
-Dating sim aspect
-I found the story very interesting and compelling, and is one of the few political dramas I can actually follow. The downside is you need to do like 30-60 minutes of fights to get 5-10 minutes of story. Unless you're significantly better at the game than I am, which is entirely possible
-The first one has an easy difficulty but zero does not. Trust me when I say it makes a difference
-Despite the massive amount of characters, most of them are interesting and actually get personalities and development instead of just being background noise
-Fanservice. It is clearly there. Although not as bad as I thought it would be based on some image searches, but it is certainly there

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Fairy Fencer F
I'm listing this one because I'm playing it now and I am very much enjoying it! It's about a hungry dude who pulls out a magical sword and has to go collect fairies to revive the Goddess. Along the way he meets others with Fairy companions

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Some things:
-Funny. Some parts are overdone but the game has made me laugh out loud more than once
-Overall a more lighthearted story. It's supposed to be silly and fun
-Not super difficult
-Loads of customization. Heck you can customize the fairies that you use to customize your characters to a certain degree. You can add effects to the dungeons if you'd like
-Weird characters. They're very... weird. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending
-Fanservice
-Overall bright atmosphere
-Missable characters

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[Crop]

Team Buddies.

[Yellow_Magic]

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[Ayen]

^

My favorite multiplayer game on the N64. Sooooo good.

I always wished I could get Goliaths back on rails after I took them off, though.

I knew there was a reason I liked you.

[Shorty]

Limboooooooo.



A super creepy, super excellent little puzzle game. I love it.

[Vermachtnis]

This game is great. It's a Metroidvania type game and the combat is really fun and the game has a decent challenge. The characters are fun. The plot is alright, I mean there's a few points that you might get annoyed at how absolutely useless everyone outside those three are. But it's still a nice coming of age story. Also, Stella, the one of the right with the drill hair, is a complete badass.

[Wolf Kanno]

I always feel the need to recommend Gitaroo Man, a quirky Japanese Rhythm game for the PS2 about a young boy and his talking dog who discovers he's an alien music warrior named Gitaroo Man and fights off quirky assassins while learning self-confidence. Maybe I should just show you...

[Karifean]

*cough*

[Rez09]

Oooo, I've wanted to try the Agarest War series, but I neither own nor know anyone I could borrow the titles from. It's too bad, because they usually catch my eye when browsing for PS3 games I might be interested in.

Is Atelier Annie part of the Atelier Arland series? That's the only Atelier game I've played. It was pretty fun, though I suspect I would have enjoyed a second playthrough more than my first, since I'd have a better idea of what I was doing from the get-go.

I just looked up a video of Team Buddies annnd . . . I am ashamed of myself for having never heard of this game before. O_O It looks AWESOME. This would have been amazing in multiplayer with the people I play games with.

I played Gitaroo Man on a demo disc; that game is pretty crazy. I was awful at it, too! It's a lot more complicated than other stuff I had played at the time, like Um Jammer Lammy and Parappa. I hear there's a PSP port that's a lot easier to get ahold of, so maybe I'll have to get that version and try the full game.

I checked my library on Steam and I own both Limbo and Fortune Summoner . . . and have played neither. There's just too much on my list like that. ._. I think I'll do a mini-marathon sometime soon and play Fortune Summoner, Dust, and Valdis Story back to back. All three look fun, I own them, and I haven't played them.

EDIT: They consider Baldr Force a visual novel. O_oa Well, I guess I can put that on my list of played Visual Novels as well. I love that game! (Baldr Bullet is on there as well, which was even better than Force. \ ^_^ /)

Now, hints for my next game:

1) It's an NES game
2) It's a port of an arcade title
3) It involves Jeeps, 4) POWs, and 5) many explosions
6) Is best enjoyed in multiplayer

Think you got it?
Let's find out!

Jackal - Konami / Konami - 1988 - Top-down Shooter

Funny story about this game: I don't like most top-down shooters, especially the ones I've played on the NES. This game, however, is a complete blast. You, and that friend you pulled from whatever they were doing to play with you, take control of two jeeps, drive around shooting machine guns and throwing grenades/missiles, drop off saved POWs on helipads, and fight spiffy bosses. From a purely formulaic point of view there is absolutely nothing special about the game.

Except that it is, mechanically, amazingly fun to play. Your machine gun always shoots north regardless of where your jeep is facing, which sounds bad at first but actually works out great since you always have that direction covered and never have to stop and aim up when you'd rather be moving in a different direction. Additionally, you have an unlimited supply of upgradeable missiles/grenades that fire in the direction you are facing, providing the flexible fire your machine gun does not.

The screen also moves with you instead of auto-scrolling like in most other shooters, and you can move backwards if you want to as well, unless you are fighting a boss of course. This means you can always move how you want, when you want, unless your friend decides to hold you up while they rescue POWs.

Speaking of which, POWs provide a nifty upgrade mechanic to the game. Your jeep starts out with a basic grenade as its secondary weapon, and reverts to it when you die, but certain POWs (as well as unloading chains of five or so normal POWs onto a helipad) can upgrade it to a missile, then to a missile with a larger blast radius. This gets pretty valuable as the game follows the genre staple 'one-hit, one-death' mechanic, and filling the screen with fiery death does a good job protecting you from enemies. Fortunately, POWs are super easy to find and collect, so there are plenty to go around and keep you upgraded. They are also oddly satisfying to collect, especially when you steal them from your buddy's smoking jeep when they die due to you not scrolling the screen.
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(I'm a terrible person, please never play games with me)

Konami made an amazing showing on the NES, and I've always felt Jackal was one of their least appreciated releases. It has a great set of mechanics in the machine gun, grenades/missiles, and nonrestrictive camera, the POWs are a great and satisfying way to do power-ups, and the game is an awesome multiplayer experience. If you have a friend around and are even remotely open to the genre, give this game a try, even if the videos on youtube don't seem that impressive. It's a lot of fun, and while it may not be Gradius or Gun Nac, or even Konami's best multiplayer NES game, it still remains . . .

an awesome game you should know about.

[Pumpkin]

The three in the Atelier Arland series are Rorona, Totori, and Meruru. I've also played Escha and Logy but that's a different Atelier series. I can't comment on the others because I haven't played them

[Ayen]

This is another favorite game of mine that I used to play all the time as a kid. I recently got my hands on it again after a good couple of decades has gone by and it's every bit as awesome as I remember it being. I have the whole Road Rash franchise, actually. Love them all.

[escobert]

Everyone just needs to play DayZ
(Just go to 17:00 in for the funny stuffs)