The underrated games thread

[bshort31092]

I may be one of the few avid sports gamers in the world but And1 Streetball is better than any NBA Street or NBA Ballers except NBA Street Vol. 2. The iBall control is awesome for sick tricks with the ball that make Street and Ballers look like traditional basketball. I guess adding in Hot Sauce helps.

 

[JackAttack]

Phantasy Star 4

Piss poor spelling job, grade A RPG.

This was an amazing RPG that unfortunately was overshadowed by the Final Fantasy series. It had a fun and addicting battle system, with a ton of abilities to keep you interested. It was by far the best Phantasy Star game, and one of the best games on the Sega Genesis.

The battle system had a number of innovative features. You could also set up macros, which are basically like FF 12 gambits. Using a certain combination of attacks could also activate special team attacks.

Throw in great characters and an amazing soundtrack and you have one heck of an RPG.

 

[Mr. TM]

For a series that is often given great reviews, this game is often left out. Final Fantasy the original 1987 (1990 in North America) installment is by far my favourite of the games. The gameplay is very large for a game that is over 20 years old, and although it can be quite easy if a great team is selected, a goal that people try to do now is to create their own level of difficulty by creating teams not well suited to winning (best example being the White Mage pursuit). Now if you are a fan of Nintendo Entertainment System games, I see no reason that you aren't a Final Fantasy fan. I believe in North America it has been rereleased twice now, for the Game Boy Advanced as well the playstation, so if you want a great game for either of those systems, pick it up.

 

[Spunky]

XIII

XIII got hit by many as, "just another first-person shooter". This couldn't be further from the truth. With its comic-book foundation, unique styling, fantastic storyline, and David Duchovny as the voice of Agent XIII, what you had was a completely engrossing game experience. If "The Bourne Identity" was a video game, (and it were in comic book form) this would be it. Perhaps i'm just a sucker for conspiracy theory based games, but i think this one is a "must play".

 

[Blade]

Fahrenheit (known as Indigo Prophecy in USA) is an action/adventure 'interactive movie' created by Quantic Dream. It was released in September 2005, and has grown a cult following. Despite not being very well known, it is one of the most critically acclaimed games of the last generation, getting many great reviews and 'Game of the Year' awards.

In this paranormal thriller, New York City is stunned by a series of mysterious murders that follow the same pattern: ordinary people become possessed and kill absolute strangers in public. In this video game, the main male character must uncover the supernatural forces behind his crime.
Quantic Dream claim it's the first ever truly 'interactive movie' and it's hard to argue with them. The choices you make in the game affect the outcome.

Take the first scene, for example. The character you play as has just murdered someone in the bathroom of the New York diner. The strange thing is, your character didn't do it, as he appeared to be possessed while he murdered the person. So what do you do? Do you try hide the body? Do you wash the blood off yourself? Do you go out the back door so nobody notices you? Do you run out of the Diner so you can get away as quickly as possible? Or do you pay for your dinner so you don't attract suspision?

This game is one of my favourite ever, and it is one of the most unique experiences you can have on a games console. It's on PS2, Xbox and PC, with the Xbox version being the best. It's 4 years old so you can probably find it cheap somewhere

 

[pyrusane]

A game that I abso-freaking-lutely loved on the PS1 was Suikoden. It started out like your standard RPG game, but you ended up with a total of 126 playable characters. There were two types of combat, your standard RPG combat as well as siege combat, which was more like an RTS game than an RPG. And the troops you could control for the siege combat was determined by which characters you had managed to recruit. Its difficult to find these days, last time I checked eBay (a couple of years ago) there was one copy and the bidding was up to $135.00, which is freaking outrageous for a PS1 game.

 

[stebbinsd]

I'd like to recommend Indigo Prophecy (which is called "Fahrenheit" in Europe). It's for the original Xbox, PS2, and PC, and you can download it on the 360 as an original Xbox title.

For all intents and purposes, this game shouldn't be good, because it breaks the number one rule of video games: Put gameplay first, and everything else second. However, the story for Indigo Prophecy is so good, it makes up for the relatively shallow gameplay. The game even won Gamespot's "Best Plot" award in the year it was released. It's essentially a movie equivalent to a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

 

[The Legendary 23]

Shadowrun.

Completely flying under the radar for most gamers, this game for the 360 was one of the most addicting games I've played. I bought it a month before Halo 3 came out, thinking it would tide me over. I played Halo 3 for a about a week, realized it sucked, and went back to Shadowrun.

Simply, it is Counter Strike with magic, but the game goes a lot deeper than that. Being a multiplayer based game, there are four races, all with their respective abilities, and tech, magic, and weapons to buy on top of it.

I've seen it for under $15, and it still has a faithful (but small) online community.

 

[Mr. PPV]

A game that I abso-freaking-lutely loved on the PS1 was Suikoden. It started out like your standard RPG game, but you ended up with a total of 126 playable characters. There were two types of combat, your standard RPG combat as well as siege combat, which was more like an RTS game than an RPG. And the troops you could control for the siege combat was determined by which characters you had managed to recruit. Its difficult to find these days, last time I checked eBay (a couple of years ago) there was one copy and the bidding was up to $135.00, which is freaking outrageous for a PS1 game.

Didn't expect to see anyone here a fan of the Suikoden series, if you love the first one then I highly recommend you find the second (if you are willing to pay the $ for it). Anyways....

Nights was probably one of the most underrated games of all time. The game was released in mid-1996 when the Playstation and N64 were making a big splash and the Saturn was dying ever so slowly due to its lack of good titles. But if you were still playing on the Saturn at that time, chances are you picked up this buried treasure. This is my favorite Saturn game and my favorite Sega game of all time. In fact, this game is the only reason I got a Saturn in the first place. The gameplay and level design was phenomenal and it encouraged you to get an "A" rating for each level to get the better ending(which wasn't really that great). Like Sonic the Hedgehog, this game was developed by the same team (Sonic Team) and the music was outstanding, some of the best music in games.

 

[Kashagi]

I'd like to recommend Indigo Prophecy (which is called "Fahrenheit" in Europe). It's for the original Xbox, PS2, and PC, and you can download it on the 360 as an original Xbox title.

For all intents and purposes, this game shouldn't be good, because it breaks the number one rule of video games: Put gameplay first, and everything else second. However, the story for Indigo Prophecy is so good, it makes up for the relatively shallow gameplay. The game even won Gamespot's "Best Plot" award in the year it was released. It's essentially a movie equivalent to a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

When this game came out, it was the most exciting game I played that year, it was also the most dissapointing, funny how it can do that.

This was the game I was hyped about, finally a game that is really exploring the new technology we had, I was happy to put up with the little flaws in the gameplay because the game was just so innovative. The story was fantastic! Even from the very beginning, murdering a man in a public bathroom and trying to clean it all up as a police sits in the bar outside, deciding to go to the toilet.
Then the fact that you play the detectives at the same time, its a fantastic idea, the game was a great thriller and you eagerly wanted to know how it was going to end, what would happen next.

Unfortunately, then the game let me down when it thought it was the Matrix. The final quater disgusted me, flying characters, a hooded monster, cults, a huge fight on a rollercoaster (if i remember right), there was also a sex scene towards the end between the two leads.... upon barely meeting each other. To me, the game really just turned stupid towards the end, and really was a big letdown. But the ideas the game had, and implemented... Fantastic. I really hope something else like it comes out.

 

[Razor]

Final Fantasy Tactics

The game first debuted on Playstation One, then got rereleased with a few touch ups for PSP. This game rocked the socks off of any Final Fantasy before Final Fantasy VII for sure. I would argue it's better than all of the Final Fantasy games, but that's saved for the epic showdown that will be the Final Fantasy Tactics vs. Final Fantasy VII final I'm hoping for.

The graphics are beautiful for a PSone game, the gameplay is fantastic. The story is full of intrigue, and is really top of the line for a Final Fantasy game. It still holds up to this day. Amazing, awesome game.

 

[Cracka Jack]

Amplitude

It was made by Harmonix (the makers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band), and was a PS2 exclusive. This was a really fun music game, and a precursor to the future of music games. And it wasn't just rock music, but all different genres. Plus, you didn't need to buy any expensive peripherals to play it in its intended way.

The original is Frequency, but I havn't played that one. Harmonix just released Rock Band Unplugged for PSP, which is pretty much a re-do of this game.