Your super-special-secret- game to recommend?

[Bimmel]

Name your special great game that only you have found and no one else. We don't talk about Uncharted, Pokemon or Mario - something far of the main branch. Forgotten treasure nobody saw but you. Like an Indie game with a great idea or a forgotten pearl from the past that you played.

Please tell us why this game is so great, pictures from at least the boxart would be nice.

I'll start as an example.

Rule of Rose (PS2)

I played through this game one week ago. The story is one of the greatest I've seen in some time. Never saw that game in the stores or heard of it, just stumbled in a trailer from YouTube and was hooked in a moment. But be warned - the game mechanics are as cruel as it gets. Combat is horrible, but manageable with a bit of training. You will be frustrated. But it's worth it.

Just take a look for yourself.

 

[teegeeack]

Rule of Rose (PS2)

Never saw that game in the stores or heard of it

i remember people talking about it on another forum i used to go to, before the game was released. i saw it in a store around the time of its release, but never again after that.

i think on that forum, maybe out of 50 active users and about a dozen people expressing interest in the game, only 1 or 2 people ended up saying that they bought rule of rose, played it, and liked it.

it was kind of like the cinema run of an extremely unpopular movie. it's there one week, and one week later it disappears and absolutely nobody remembers it.

 

[Scarlet]

I always used to tell friends about Rhythm Thief. You don't know how happy it made me to see it released through a Humble Bundle. Now everybody can enjoy it <3

Whelp, to fit with the post I'll add details, for those who didn't manage to grab it

Spoiler: Pretty big pic of our fabulous main character and his doggoo

T'was released back in 2012 and for a reasonable amount of time, was a relatively rare 3DS title. Before its release on the eShop, the game was sparsely in stores, and when it was, sold for £35-40 even a few years after release. The eShop release, although making it more accessible, was priced at £40, and so the game was once more overlooked. Makes me sad. As of recent, Argos sold the game dirt cheap in the UK (like £5 for a copy) and it suddenly became common - and then we had our recent Humble Bundle :3

I'm not all that good at explaining why games are fantastic, but I'll try... To me, it is the greatest thing Sega have made for the 3DS. The rhythm games are well put together, and reflect Phantom R's sense of style and personality perfectly. The story kept me interested throughout with fantastic plot advancement and twists. My only complaint would be that Sega still haven't made a sequel, and I really hope they come back to it.

Hope that's enough for y'all ;3

 

[Bimmel]

i remember people talking about it on another forum i used to go to, before the game was released. i saw it in a store around the time of its release, but never again after that.

i think on that forum, maybe out of 50 active users and about a dozen people expressing interest in the game, only 1 or 2 people ended up saying that they bought rule of rose, played it, and liked it.

it was kind of like the cinema run of an extremely unpopular movie. it's there one week, and one week later it disappears and absolutely nobody remembers it.

I can't argue that the game plays like shit. Clunky controls and rare healing items were killing me more then once and I was about to throw the controller out of the window. Even the developers know that the gameplay mechanics are really bad - sadly that was their last project as far as I know. It's a really "special interest" stuff. I just love how the game "talks" to you without saying anything until the last chapter.

I always used to tell friends about Rhythm Thief. You don't know how happy it made me to see it released through a Humble Bundle. Now everybody can enjoy it <3

I remember that game well. Always played the demo back then. ;-)

Later when I played through the full game I was not that satisfied, but maybe I wanted to much from it. A second title would be great.

Oh, it came on Steam? There seems to be anything, great platform.

 

[Scarlet]

I can't argue that the game plays like shit. Clunky controls and rare healing items were killing me more then once and I was about to throw the controller out of the window. Even the developers know that the gameplay mechanics are really bad - sadly that was their last project as far as I know. It's a really "special interest" stuff. I just love how the game "talks" to you without saying anything until the last chapter.


I remember that game well. Always played the demo back then. ;-)

Later when I played through the full game I was not that satisfied, but maybe I wanted to much from it. A second title would be great.

Oh, it came on Steam? There seems to be anything, great platform.

Edited my post to add a little more ;3 But nah, it was in the recent Nintendo Bundle. Picked it up digitally with the rest of the games for around £9.

 

[Bimmel]

Edited my post to add a little more ;3 But nah, it was in the recent Nintendo Bundle. Picked it up digitally with the rest of the games for around £9.

Great! Exactly what I wanted. Now everybody can look and feel if the game is something to look into.

Great deal for 9 Pound!

 

[osirisjem]

I loved HotWheels Battle Force 5.
http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/mxcDXqcR1nUyz-6oVbA8A7-d7Ppg-O2J

 

[Taleweaver]

Please tell us why this game is so great, pictures from at least the boxart would be nice.

I'll start as an example.

I don't want to offend, but based on what you wrote I honestly have no idea what kind of game this is or even what the trailer is about (six minutes trailer with zero gameplay? nice going ). It's like I'm watching an anime trailer of "The duke of Burgundy".


Anyhow...I could go on about semantics and how "no one else" is pretty relative, or that I'm playing under the radar games pretty much exclusively, but I'll leave that sort of opinion to those who care.

My main choice would be Cook, serve delicious:

Trailer:


I picked this up on a steam sale on a hunch ('hey, I don't have a restaurant simulator yet in my collection') and because it was hardly a couple bucks. It's sheer luck that I've downloaded, installed it and played it, because this is just something I do (meaning: I randomly pick things from my steam collection when I'm bored of the games I've played).

So...though it's arguably partially indeed a restaurant simulator, it is certainly NOT where the meat of the game is (and as such, the trailer absolutely doesn't do it justice, aside from showing the catchy music). Mostly, it's about pressing the correct buttons in a steadily increasing stress level. And man, does it get hectic at times (even though you choose the menu yourself). But to me, it's absolutely addicting, fun and entertaining.

The game apparently has some following (I certainly do ), but I've never heard of it before I bought it.



Oh, and incidentally: I've seen the game on humble sale just yesterday (-70%). Sorry if this sounds like a commercial fad (I'm NOT affiliated with the maker, though I've been in touch with him about a sequel to this game), but I absolutely meant it when I made this one my top game from last year. It's EASILY said that it'll be worth every penny.

 

[MockyLock]

'llo here !
I would recommend Demon Stone, PS2.
It's not a well known game, at least from people around me.
Really enjoyed it !

 

[Bimmel]

I don't want to offend, but based on what you wrote I honestly have no idea what kind of game this is or even what the trailer is about (six minutes trailer with zero gameplay? nice going ). It's like I'm watching an anime trailer of "The duke of Burgundy".

You are not. I struggled with explaining the game without spoiling the story or let it sound boring.

Let me try that again.

It's some kind of survival horror, but even that description does not fit with the game. Basically you just walk around as the girl and her friend, a dog. Sometimes on an airship, sometimes inside an ophanage. Every chapter is based on a fairytale of some kind. There is a club called the Aristocrats, which consists of some other girls, giving you something to search for in every chapter. Your dog has the ability to sniff other items out - and that's basically it. You get an item that is connected to the object you are searching for, give it your dog to sniff it out, and go on. Then you find another one, which leads to a new item.. and so on.

And if that does not sound boring enough, the combat is very stiff. Imagine some Silent Hill 2 combat system with most of your attacks not hitting. Without guns, of course. Sometimes it's a knife, a kitchen fork or later a shovel.

For some gameplay watch at 31:00.

 

[Sakitoshi]

For me is Jazz Jackrabbit.
You control a green rabbit with a high tech gun capable of firing different kind of ammo abd your mission is to rescue your girlfriend Eva Earlong from the evil turtle boss Devan Shell.
It's classic run'n gun action. I played it like a madman back in the day and dat soundtrack.


I have another one that I deply enjoyed just a month ago.
Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight.
I'll let the trailer and snomaN do the talking for me. He sums up all my thoughts about this masterpiece.

 

[DinohScene]

Okami for PS2/PS3 and Sheep for GBA.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

AKA "Cult Classics: The Thread"

Guardian's Crusade would be mine. Old PS1 game released in the US in 1999, it was a really simple RPG game, the kind of game that was designed to help introduce someone to the genre in general. But even with it's simplicity, it had a lot of neat features for a PS1 game. No random encounters, instead you saw little enemy ghosts (that looked more like little sperm than ghosts ) around that you could avoid which was nice. Instead of using small sprites for characters and tiny "town" sprites that you transitioned into, everything in the overworld used 3D models and going into towns and stuff was seamless which was "advanced" for the time. The story isn't too bad, either, for a "starter" RPG anyways. tl;dr you find a baby monster, you go on a quest to bring it to it's mother, oh shit the world is ending, you fix it for the lulz, yaay.

 

[endoverend]

You could rattle off a whole list of PS2 games that meet the criteria. Personally I loved the Sly Cooper series, particularly Sly 2. Though it's not really "obscure" per se, it was probably the best stealth experience in video gaming even against today's standards, and had tons of stuff to do with huge worlds with tons of secrets and collectibles. Not to mention, the cartoon-style graphics and music were absolutely fantastic. Another great PS2 classic was Gran Turismo 3, that game had a terrific and challenging career mode.

I would also recommend the Timesplitters games, particularly the second one on PS2 or Gamecube. They had a co-op shooter mode that was way better than the well-known games like Goldeneye, and an actually interesting co-op story mode. Awesome game to play with friends.

 

[Bubsy Bobcat]

I've mentioned this game a few times before, but The Smurfs' Nightmare is a great little platformer on the GBC. It feels a lot like the classic Rayman games.

 

[Hungry Friend]

Last Blade 2 for the NeoGeo and I think it may be in downloadable form(official I mean ) as well for PSN & XBLA but I'm not entirely sure. The US versions are censored, as in the blood was taken out so if you can get your hands on the Japanese version or simply emulate the arcade version and go into the settings to enable the blood, you can do that too. Aside from the arcade version, emulated or legit, I'd buy or burn the JP Dreamcast version, although in burned form there's a bit of a sound delay. The sound is streamed in real time so in burned form it's kinda wonky.

Nitpicks aside, it's THE best 2d weapons fighter available, and #1 is awesome as well, but 2 took everything that LB1 did and made it even more awesome. Visually, it's very hard to believe it's a NG game when you play it because much like the Metal Slug games, the art is superb, the animation is CPS3-quality and most importantly the gameplay is tight, responsive and smooth as silk, rivaling even the best SF and KOF games.

EDIT: video of high-level play:

Spoiler

 

[Seriel]

I always used to tell friends about Rhythm Thief. You don't know how happy it made me to see it released through a Humble Bundle. Now everybody can enjoy it <3

Whelp, to fit with the post I'll add details, for those who didn't manage to grab it

Spoiler: Pretty big pic of our fabulous main character and his doggoo

T'was released back in 2012 and for a reasonable amount of time, was a relatively rare 3DS title. Before its release on the eShop, the game was sparsely in stores, and when it was, sold for £35-40 even a few years after release. The eShop release, although making it more accessible, was priced at £40, and so the game was once more overlooked. Makes me sad. As of recent, Argos sold the game dirt cheap in the UK (like £5 for a copy) and it suddenly became common - and then we had our recent Humble Bundle :3

I'm not all that good at explaining why games are fantastic, but I'll try... To me, it is the greatest thing Sega have made for the 3DS. The rhythm games are well put together, and reflect Phantom R's sense of style and personality perfectly. The story kept me interested throughout with fantastic plot advancement and twists. My only complaint would be that Sega still haven't made a sequel, and I really hope they come back to it.

Hope that's enough for y'all ;3

^^ Seconded.

 

[JaapDaniels]

Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel

see: http://sarien.net/policequest

this game teached me the basics of english, i didn't learn it at school, i got a vocabulary dutch-english and english-dutch... i was about 6 years old. afteri understood the basics i started to make my own demo's with turbo pascal on dos...
wished there were games more build towards modern machines but likewise are an fun way to learn english (still being as hard, cause if it was as lazy as now a day games i see.. i quited the game as soon as possible)

 

[astrangeone]

For the DS there were a ton of games that I'd recommend that were a tiny bit weird:
- Feel the Magic - a mini-games compilation that didn't feel like Wario Ware (don't get me wrong, Wario Ware had a lot of good ideas, but it always came off as "forced comedy", Feel the Magic takes place in present day, but with random challenges to GET the girl.
- Soul Bubbles - saw this at my local Toys R Us, and ended up playing it on my R4 at the time. I wish I got a physical copy because...wow. Basically an action/puzzler with you as a little monk dude blowing bubbles through the area and avoiding traps.
- Aliens Infestation - a late release for the DS; was kind of like a return to Super Metroid AND had permadeath for characters. Brutally hard, but short as well. (The first boss ripped me to shreds.)
- Okamiden - Never saw this in stores, and now I wish I had the money to pick this up. Wonderful title and continues the story from Okami! Beautiful art style and you'd swear that the characters are real people...
- The World Ends With You - despite the stupid dual screen battles (I never got the hang of it), it was a great little IP. Modern Japan, real characters and an annoying main character (seriously, Neku starts off so annoying that you want to go..."Are all teenagers this annoying? Was I this annoying as a teen?"), basically it's Final Fantasy meets stuff about afterlife and how people grow and change. (Final Fantasy + Buddhism?)

 

[Deleted member 386348]

The Touhou series. They're pretty obscure and I feel like no one plays them. They're bullet hell games (with some spin-offs) that are great time wasters.