Underrated Games

pokeplayer984 · **on:** August 02, 2010, 12:20:53 AM

Underrated: Not given enough recognition for its quality

Those are the types of games that we will be talking about. Games we believe to be good, but don't get all the hype they deserve.

My first choice is A Boy and His Blob for Wii.

This is a strategy game like no other. The basic concept is that one night a spaceship crashes onto Earth. A young boy goes out to investigate. At the crash site, he befriends the small blob (Only half his size.) that comes out of the ship.

However, he soon finds that the little blob did not come alone. Black Alien Creatures have landed and have disguised themselves so they can take over.

Figuring out how to stop these creatures, he soon finds out that his new friend can transform whenever it eats a jellybean. Now armed with an endless supply of jellybeans, he and the blob must save the world from this evil race of aliens.

Yeah, yeah, yeah! It doesn't make much sense, but what do you expect from the world of gaming?

Anyways, in this game, you must use various jellybeans to make the blob transform into various items, which you must use to get through the obstacles and beat the level.

The choices in jellybeans are preselected before each level, so you have to work with what you got. In some cases, it can make the obstacles rather tricky to pull off.

The biggest thing though, is that you only get one hit. One hit and you're dead. In fact, you just touch the enemies and you die, and you have to start from the beginning of the obstacle you died at. This kid literally has NO defense against these enemies, and you must use all the brain power you have to stay alive. You do have unlimited lives, but at some of the obstacles later in the game, you're going to die. A LOT!

The obstacles do start off easy, but they get harder and harder as you progress through the game. In the later levels, even if you know how to beat the obstacles, you're going to die. A LOT!

Still, this is a good game and I suggest it to anyone who's into strategy games.

I have gotten pretty far, but I have yet to beat it. (And I've had this game since last Christmas.)

So, that's my first pick for underrated games. What about you guys?

See ya later!

Campion1 · **Reply #1 on:** August 02, 2010, 12:45:05 AM

I remember that game when I was a kid.

Maximo VS the army of zin was one of the PS2s best games, but it didn't get a lot of recognition and it's sequel was canned.

Tomb Raider Anniversary was an EXCELLENT remake of the original, and in some ways even better, and THAT game was not taken seriously enough beyond being "just another TR sequel"

NFL 2K was THE BEST sports game I have ever played.

Crash Team Racing, in my opinion, was better than mario kart 64.

Magic Carpet was an astonishing game for it's time in 94, but it was overshadowed by Doom

Also, Wolfenstein enemy territory and pokemon puzzle league.

MrDrake · **Reply #2 on:** August 02, 2010, 02:09:07 AM

The Lost Vikings - I remember this game on one of my older computers....but I don't think many do know this game. Basically, you have three vikings....I forget their names. One can run and jump, one can attack, and the other one can block attacks and use his shield to glide down to lower levels. And what's more, it plays as a puzzle platformer-like game.

The Incredible Machine - Not sure how many know of this game....basically puzzles. example being, you had to use a magnifying glass to light some dynamite...to get a bowling ball moving so you can....suash a mouse, or something random like that.

Serious Sam - A shooter game, but I doubt it has as much recognition as some of these terrible shooters now a days, like Halo or Call of Duty sort of thing. But man, was Serious Sam awesome.....one of my favourite shooter games around.

Malte279 · **Reply #3 on:** August 02, 2010, 05:39:46 AM

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - I'm afraid some may have considered the game too complex and I suppose the rather elementary graphics of this turn based strategy game put of those who want to see something spectacular. However, I consider this game one of the best of its genre surpassing even many games of the same genre that appeared at a later time with a more fancy graphic.
It came with a number of functions which are not commonly found among these games like the option of creating your own specialized units (based on what technologies are available for you) and the diplomatic functions in this game are superior to most other games of its class (you cannot merely form alliances and break them, but if you do the later your reputation will seriously suffer making it more difficult to form new alliances, your relationship with other factions is strongly influenced by your political ideals, and if you are allied with someone in a war against another faction you can actually make detailed battle plans making or accepting suggestions on where he / she respectively you should attack.
I would very much welcome a new edition of the game with the option of playing with more than seven factions at a time, but alas it is not likely to happen.

Waluigifan · **Reply #4 on:** August 02, 2010, 07:49:52 AM

Wii: Captain Rainbow

Captain Rainbow has the lowest sells for a Wii game, only 6000 copies were sold in the first week of release. The "Famitsu Magazine" rated Captain Rainbow a 31 out of 40, so Captain Rainbow got favorable reviews. It was only released in Japan. A release date for Europe was planned, but it was never released in Europe (maybe because of it's low selling status).

Here are some information about the game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_rainbow

I've beat the game with the help of an English walk-through. I especially love the music, the style and the atmosphere of this game, making it my favorite Non-Mario game on a Nintendo console.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #5 on:** August 02, 2010, 09:05:06 AM

I've heard of Serious Sam. I think a friend of mine sent it to me. I haven't played it yet though. The only other shooter game I have on the computer is Halo, which I really enjoyed when I first played it. But nowadays I prefer playing the multiplayer aspect of Halo. I wouldn't call Halo a "terrible shooter"; I do agree that it is a good game. But it's not exactly unique, in my opinion. I think the main reason it got so popular wasn't because of the main game itself, but the multiplayer and co-op instead. As for Call of Duty, I never played it myself so I don't know why people like it so much. But I wouldn't call that game terrible either, especially since I have nothing to go on. I'd need to play it myself to know if I like it or not.

Serris · **Reply #6 on:** August 02, 2010, 10:35:29 AM

Total Annihilation is generally considered to be one of the best real time strategy games of all time.

Unfortunately, it was released right at the same time as Starcraft and it simply lacked the advertising power to compete.

Malte279 · **Reply #7 on:** August 02, 2010, 11:22:53 AM

Quote

Total Annihilation is generally considered to be one of the best real time strategy games of all time.

Aye, that one was really good

I got its successor game "Supreme Commander", but for some reason it doesn't feel the same. There is nothing wrong with the game but for some reason it is not the same. I wonder if perhaps the innovations and new games put out have risen the level of expectation to such a degree that a game we would have found plain awesome some years ago is not enough anymore to really impress us today.
If this is true (and I reckon it to be with some likelihood) I wonder what it will mean to the video game market. Will they always be able to come up with something new and interesting enough to keep people hooked or will the market be so overfed that at some point the sells will stagnate or grow less?

Belmont2500 · **Reply #8 on:** August 04, 2010, 09:57:52 PM

Just about every 3D Castlevania game can be considered underrated, many people say that the CV series should stay 2D, as much as I agree, the 3D games were and are just as good as the 2D ones,if not better.

The ones on the N64 were fantastic and the PS2 games were awesome, the upcoming Castlevania Lords Of Shadow(which is in 3D) looks freaking amazing and yet these games don't get enough credit.

brekclub85 · **Reply #9 on:** August 05, 2010, 12:32:16 AM

Final Fantasy X-2: Was deemed too "cutesy" and comedic by some, but I think it felt similar to Final Fantasy V, which also had the same more light-hearted tone, plus a similar job system.

Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing: Is better than MK Wii, IMO.

Sonic R: Really, the "Worst Sonic Game" Screwattack.com? Seriously?

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII: Interesting third-person shooter, and it developed Vincent's character well.

Superman 64: Just kidding.

Crash Twinsanity: Made up for the terrible Wrath of cortex, and had some pretty funny dialogue.

Littlefoot1616 · **Reply #10 on:** August 06, 2010, 06:03:00 AM

Bit Trip Runner (Wii): The concept is wonderfully basic but the challenge is rock hard. Styled in old school 8-bit graphics and music (Atari owners would be proud), you simply have to get from the start to the finish avoiding obstacles as you go. The little guy runs automatically and you just time your jumps, slides and kicks to overcome whatevers in your way. The music builds as you grab multipliers and sounds awesome. I found this after watching a random games review on Gamespot. Here's a vid below...check it out! It's great fun!

Bit Trip Runner Demo

pokeplayer984 · **Reply #11 on:** August 06, 2010, 10:07:48 AM

Quote from: brekclub85,Aug 4 2010 on 10:32 PM

Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing: Is better than MK Wii, IMO.

Do you know how many people are going to kill you for that one?

brekclub85 · **Reply #12 on:** August 06, 2010, 11:44:46 AM

Quote from: pokeplayer984,Aug 6 2010 on 09:07 AM

Quote from: brekclub85,Aug 4 2010 on 10:32 PM
Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing: Is better than MK Wii, IMO.
Do you know how many people are going to kill you for that one?

I'm not worried. MK Wii is not the most popular entry in the series, now if I said it was better than MK64 I'm sure I'd be killed then.

Caustizer · **Reply #13 on:** August 06, 2010, 03:53:09 PM

Quote

Total Annihilation is generally considered to be one of the best real time strategy games of all time.

Unfortunately, it was released right at the same time as Starcraft and it simply lacked the advertising power to compete.

While I never really played Total Annialation, I have played Supreme Commander 2 and to a lesser extent Supreme Commander 1 enough to comment on this. I can see the good in the game style - that is massive armies versus massive armies on huge maps without depleting resources - but I don't think it can really compete with Starcraft for a couple of reasons:

1) Massive battles revolve around rock-paper scissors with the only real strategic measure being how many units you have and if you are countering your opponent or not. Terrain is huge and open, playing little to no role in the battle most of the time.

2) Units are bland and lack personality... no unit acknowledgements and straight forward designations like 'light tank' 'heavy tank' 'artillery' 'gunship' make it hard to become attached to the game you are playing.

3) All factions build the same way, and play very similar apart from experimentals.

Now I'm not saying TA or any of its spiritual successors are bad games - far from it - but usually when a game is unpopular it's for a reason.

Campion1 · **Reply #14 on:** August 06, 2010, 04:04:37 PM

Quote from: Caustizer,Aug 6 2010 on 02:53 PM

But usually when a game is unpopular it's for a reason.

Or for a number of reasons, most of which that have nothing to do with the game itself.

WeirdRaptor · **Reply #15 on:** August 07, 2010, 06:48:15 AM

Here are some examples I can think of:

1. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem: This is easily one of the most frightening Survival Horror games I have ever seen. Simple and sleak controls, terrifying enemies, who don't just scare you, but make you paranoid, because some of them can look no different than ordinary humans, and the plot is simply Locecraftian. It only didn't do well because stupid fanbous treated the Gamecube like crap because it didn't have a DVD Player...which they already probably had, anyway.

2. ANY game from the Tales series also counts. Great series, I much prefer it to Final Fantasy in almost every way. Alas, it lacks leather clad momma's boys for fangirls to write yaoi about.

3. Cold Shadow. A fun Disney game. Kinda flew under the radar, though.

StarfallRaptor · **Reply #16 on:** August 07, 2010, 05:01:07 PM

Thank you WR.

Also: Any of the Gundam Series. Save for Gundam: Battle Assault 1 for the Playstation. That one was just bad.

pokeplayer984 · **Reply #17 on:** October 24, 2010, 09:52:17 AM

Bumping this up with my last post.

Sonic Unleashed - Now, I know there's debate on this. This one is indeed a mixed opinion. Some think it's a good game, some think it's a bad game. To me, it's a decent game, not a bad one by any means.

I know where people complain, which is the nighttime stages. It's because at that point, Sonic loses his speed. However, it becomes understandable because of the STORY. He's under a freaking curse. He hates the idea of him losing his speed as much as others do, but he doesn't let it bother him. In fact, he tries to use the curse to his advantage so he can break it.

The levels are designed rather well for both areas. Daytime is filled with non-stop speed, and nighttime feels like an old-school beat 'em up, which I've enjoyed since their big domination in the 90's.

The controls are superb. They feel very natural and are easy to learn. It's easily a pick-up and play game.

Indeed, the quick-time events are a problem. They require memorization of the controller you are holding and reacting fast enough to pull it off. It was rather frustrating that the final bosses required such a thing to beat.

To be honest, to me, this really is underrated. I really don't get where people are complaining with it.

F-14 Ace · **Reply #18 on:** April 22, 2016, 11:48:45 PM

Am I the only one who actually enjoyed Assassin's Creed 3 and Assassin's Creed: Rogue? I mean, these games get nothing but hate from the fandom but I found them both quite enjoyable, though AC3 did have it's share annoying issues and trading system sucked.

Rogue actually has one of the more interesting stories in the Assassin's Creed series. Shay gets a lot of undue hate from the fandom for joining the Templars, but I find that his reasons were justifiable.

chomper94 · **Reply #19 on:** August 18, 2021, 03:28:55 PM

Here’s one: Pilotwings Resort for the 3DS.

It was game that was one of the launch titles for the system in 2011.

In this game, you basically have two modes: A mission mode, where you do various challenges (you can literally go in a flying squirrel suit). And a free mode, where you fly around Wuhu Island to collect info points, balloons, and fly through rings and collect trophies.

It’s reason for being underrated is due to the fact that Pilotwings is not really a recognizable franchise, and when it released, sales quickly tapered off, and only sold about more than 57,000 copies, which isn’t a lot.

And for my honest opinion on the game? It’s technically not that long, and you can probably finish the mission mode in a few hours, but it makes a relaxing experience.