Obscure game recommendations

[x65943]

What's an off the beaten path game that you played that you wish more people knew about?

For Zelda ALttP fans I recommend Marvelous for SNES, runs off the same engine and is a well polished gem that we never got stateside - full translation available and an early project Aonuma (Zelda guy) was involved in

 

[slaphappygamer]

Kings bounty for the Sega genesis and gadget racers for the gba.

 

[Zense]

Dragon Quest Heroes Rocket Slime 3D for 3DS - Very unique and fun adventure game. Got a fan translation last year.
For the King PC/Switch/PS4 - Coop turn-based rpg and board game-like.
Metabots Metabee GBA - Interesting rpg with interesting customization options.

 

[Akorax]

Lego Rock Raiders

Info:

• Released: 1999
• Released (HD Fan remake): playable since 2019 but still in development.
• Platforms: PC and PS1
• Genre: PC=Real time strategy (tactics), PS1=Action
• Objectives: Collect energy crystals to help your lego figures store up enough energy to power their space ship so that they can travel home. To do so you'll have to mine, build up you base and defend against various kinds of monsters.
• Levels:

HD Fan remake:

• A guy nicked baraklava on the fan forum started a thread mid 2019 about a remake made in a modern game engine. Since then it has developed to become the most successful fan remake of the game ever announced. Currenty the main channel for the project is it's (very) active discord channel. If you have interest in the remake or the original game I suggest you pay the channels a visit.

Links:

• Wikipedia
• Rock Raiders United (fan forum)
• Manic Miners (RRU Forum Thread)
• Manic Miners (Reddit)
• Manic Miners (Discord)

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Ganbare Goemon series is hugely and criminally underrated outside japan... or inside for that matter since there hasn't been any new games in years, but even less outside japan.

Xenogears is another... obscure game. Only released in Japan and North america for playstation (and as psone classic on psn) it's a rpg with good music, interesting concepts and flashy moments. But it's slow pacing and overreliance on story telling may seem more like a visual novel with rpg gameplay than a actual video game.

Sin & punishment only had two games (And it would have been nice to have ported it to 3DS like other N64 or wii games games) In a time where rail shooters are lacking presence, that would have been nice. (but we did get kid icarus uprising on 3DS)

 

[Taleweaver]

Hmm... About half the games on my yearly list (https://gbatemp.net/entry/taleweavers-top-games-of-2019.16526/)..

But from recent years :

Hardback (android) : deck builders are fairly common as board games. Word games... Sorry of as well. The combination is fairly unique. Now wrap that in a video game, and it's like no other

Race for the galaxy(android) : okay, okay... The board game is pretty popular among gamers, but still... This is a high watermark for all mobile games out there

Cool, serve, delicious series : typing games revolving around a restaurant. While they're commonly part of humble bundles, I had it where I have copies away but got no takers. Either way... The third 's in early access right now, and certainly better than 2.

 

[DinohScene]

For anyone who hasn't played it yet, Okami.
RPG wise, Eternal Sonata.
Open world wise, The Saboteur.

 

[JuanMena]

NES: I would like people to play Magic Jewelry
GAMEBOY: I would like people to play Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R
SNES: I would like people to play Dragon View / Brandish / Pirates of The Dark Water
GAMEBOY COLOR: I would like people to play Bomberman Max Red
SEGA GENESIS: I would like people to play The Flintstones
TURBOGRAFX 16: I would like people to play Ninja Spirit
N64: I would like people to play Carmageddon
GAMEBOY ADVANCE: I would like people to play Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure / Broken Sword
GAMECUBE: I would like people to play Time Splitters 2
NDS: I would like people to play AGAIN / 999
WII: I would like people to play Puzzle Bobble +
ARCADE: I would like people to play: Bomberman World / Hook! / Snow Brothers 2 / Toki / Caveman Ninja / Gals Panic

 

[BillyBrush]

Definitely Apidya on Amiga...stage 1-1 misic brings back good memories

 

[Nobody_Important4u]

Sword of destiny- a good devil may cry clone
Space channel 5- short but sweet rhytm game
Under the skin- very funny arcady game made by capcom
Shadow of memories- a fun adventure game
Radiant historia- chrono trigger but better

 

[deSSy2724]

The whole original Soul Blazer trilogy (Soul Blazer, Terranigma and Illusion of Gaia/Time) for the SNES (action RPG), especially Illusion of Gaia/Time (from unique characters, story to graphics and OST/Music), btw for me personally Illusion of Gaia/Time has one of the best sountracks in video games I have ever heard of (and I gamed since the NES days to this day). The Granstream Saga is considered part of them but not really that good. Even AVGN didnt reviewed those mentioned games, this tells you how much it is unknown/underrated, sadly considering how many broken games there are out in last 40 years and how they are still noticed.....

 

[strawpoll-legend]

Otomedius is a Konami title, so it's not the most obscure, but it's pretty awesome. It's easy to dismiss as a generic cute anime girl game, but it's really fun. It was released for arcade and Xbox 360 (as Otomedius Gorgeous). It's a Gradius spin-off, so it has the fantastic level design elements from Gradius and Parodius, and each level is ridiculously memorable in its theming. For a game released in 2008, the graphics are still quite impressive. My favorite level from the arcade original is the Tokyo level (pictured below) because of its iconic visuals.

 

[Deleted User]

GAMECUBE: I would like people to play Time Splitters 2

I wouldn't call Timesplitters 2 exactly obscure. The series seems to have a decent following, there's multiple videos on youtube with 150k+ views, it was released on all three consoles and the game was also in the movie Shaun of the Dead. Then again, not sure if it had much sales on GameCube... Underrated? Maybe.

My recommedation would be Red Rope: Don't Fall Behind on PC. It's mainly meant for a shared screen co-op experience. Both players are tethered to each other with a rope, and must defeat ghosts and navigate the labyrinth. It needs really good communication skills with your partner, as you the rope required constant collaboration. It does not look like much, but was both fun and stressful. Since the game has no other buttons than moving around, it's also possible to play with yourself controlling both characters. It's quite a mind-bending challenge. The developers also made pixelated versions of first 50 (...i think they allowed 10-20 more later?) who beat the game and they were immortalized to the game with a quote. The game is so unknown that me and my partner were able to get that like after a year the game was released... and it still has like 60 Steam reviews. I think the game should've been ported to Nintendo Switch, it would fit it nicely and could be played with no extra controllers.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

• Papyrus - Game Boy Color
• Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu - NES, Turbografx 16
• Rhyme Rider Keroikan - WonderSwan Color
• Kaze no Klonoa: Moonlight Museum - WonderSwan
• No One Can Stop Mr. Domino - Playstation

 

[Nobody_Important4u]

• Papyrus - Game Boy Color
• Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu - NES, Turbografx 16
• Rhyme Rider Keroikan - WonderSwan Color
• Kaze no Klonoa: Moonlight Museum - WonderSwan
• No One Can Stop Mr. Domino - Playstation

Thank you for reminding of Mr. Domino it's a really fun puzzle game that people don't really talk about (and what a shame!) There was also similar game on Wii named minon everyday hero (i think that it had diffrent name in north america) i am not sure if it is by the same developer or they decided to clone it.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Thank you for reminding of Mr. Domino it's a really fun puzzle game that people don't really talk about (and what a shame!) There was also similar game on Wii named minon everyday hero (i think that it had diffrent name in north america) i am not sure if it is by the same developer or they decided to clone it.

Oh yeah! Domino Rally! I forgot about that game! They're similar, but not exactly the same. They're very distinctly different.

 

[deSSy2724]

The Lawnmower Man sidescroller for SNES (which is a Sci-Fi game) but even non Sci-Fi fans would like the game, im sure. Many might not like the movies (two of them) and the 3D PC game is pretty bad (one of the worst games I played on PC) but the game for the SNES is one of the best 2D co-op (yes, it has co-op too) games for SNES, PERIOD!

Game never gets boring, each level is basically unique.....

 

[emigre]

 

[hippy dave]

I've been playing Hatena Satena for GBA, a puzzle game which is basically a mashup of Picross and minesweeper. Japan only, with cutesy characters and pages and pages of Japanese text to plough through between puzzles. I've just found a faq which might help figure out what's going on http://bankbank.net/hatena/FAQ.txt - have been managing without so far and loving the puzzles.

 

[Jayinem81]

The Shadow Hearts games for PS2, well not as much the third one but 1 and Covenant are two of the best rpgs. They always went under the radar.