obscure games

[Jolan]

Anyone ever heard of Sanitarium, Eternal Darkness, or Painkiller?

First one was a rather weird point-and-click adventure, I remember it because of Olmek. Second one was the game with the sanity effects and everything, right? Didn't actually play it, but I really want to. Last one is one of my favourite Serious Sam-type FPS

 

[Cyan]

weird game ... Lain on Playstation !

very Wired

just a video and sound databank from Lain universe that you have to unlock in the right order.
It was really boring game (2CD for that game, but I never reached CD2

).

 

[Recorderdude]

Gekisha Boy looks awesome! I will definitely have to buy them!

So you know, the HuCard of the first one is really expensive, but the PSX port of it (Simple 1500 series vol. 94 the camera man) is MUCH cheaper and more common, and includes an extra stage (one I've yet to play though, I really need to POPS my copy and run through it to see what the stage is)

The second game is fairly cheap too.

Make sure your PS/2 has a mod so it can play imports. Besides that, have fun! Gekisha Boy is my favorite underrated series of all time, and I SO wish it got more attention than it did in the US and Europe - hell, they were planning to release the second one as "polaroid pete" in europe, and, besides the obvious plug, leave it mostly unchanged. It was all finished, translated and ready to go...then, ONE DAY before release the European publisher pulled it.

Also, use an online FAQ for them both so you know what the level objectives are.

 

[koimayeul]

haha gekido is awesome on PCE i have a rom with english patched somewhere, its named photograph boy, didnt know about a ps2 one thanks for sharing the info!!

my contribution to topic would be hum.. Work Time Fun on the PSP, really weird one but somehow likable waste of time.. ramen timer, START!! muscles muscles WTF

 

[Recorderdude]

Yeah, the PS2 sequel is really cool and adds a ton onto the first one.

I have the eng trans image by zatos hacks too. It's great that someone took the time to translate it.

While we're on PSP, then, the "shmup portable" games are worth mentioning, namely twinbee and parodius portable and they pretty much contain lots of games that never saw the light of day in the U.S. Parodius is without a doubt my favorite SHMUP series, and there were FIVE games in the series thus far: parodius (MSX), parodius DA (arcade), gokujou parodius (arcade), jikkyou oshaberi (chatting) parodius (arcade) and Sexy Parodius (arcade) all of em are so zany and japanese that you can't hellp but enjoy them. "parodius portable" contains all five, and they also all had ports/collections on the PS1. Here's some gameplay from sexy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yMgwnUdVts

A few other obscure AWESOME games include the Bobobo-bobobo RHYTHM GAME for the PS2, which has a sountrack that, honestly, rivals katamari damacy's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWx3pW8PYIg and Vib Ribbon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbHO1ZYhtLk, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-N0AyTYQXk...feature=related vib ripple http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcDNRQkcJ5I and mojib ribbon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rCvPgOUz6c...feature=related ALL are a unique joy to play. If you have an import friendly PS1/2, get them. NAO.

 

[doyama]

Anyone ever heard of Sanitarium, Eternal Darkness, or Painkiller?

Yahtzee did a great review of Painkiller.

"It has a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning. It could only be better if it had tits and was on fire"

 

[choconado]

First I'll offer up my beloved favorite NES title: "Monster Party". It appears that the designers originally wanted to make a gory horror platformer, then realized they couldn't get away with it after already having a substantial start. Then while trying to decide how to fix the problem, they used what lots of people use when met with a difficult puzzle: Pot. Lots and Lots of Pot. You play as a young little leaguer, Mark abducted by a purple alien birdman, Bert to save his world from *other* monsters. You run around with a baseball bat fighting creatures. If you find pills, you temporarily turn into the birdman who can fly and shoot increasingly powerful laser beams (WHY WOULD HE NEED YOU?! ) and the bosses are total nutbars. some of them make sense, like Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors" or a mummy or stuff like that. Then you get weird stuff like what appears to be a Gundam made out of wood that throws javelins at you, or my favorite, a bloody version of a fried food appetizer sampler platter--Shrimp, then onion rings, then pot stickers. Then there's the WEIRD bosses, about 2/3rds of the way into the game you come across a boss that's some zombies with a music box that say "Watch us dance." (The bosses all say weird stuff). Now, by this point your instinct is to run in swinging. But no. You just watch them pull off their thriller routine, and sure enough, they disintegrate after a minute. Even worse is the second boss of the game, a rotting monster on the ground that says "Sorry, I'm Dead"...and it is. Whoops.
Next, I'll point out a PS2 game. "Rez". It's a trippy music based game that looks and plays similar to Space Harrier. I've heard there's some other versions of the game since. What's super obscure about it is there was a special European edition that came with a player two peripheral. It was a box that pulsated with the music/beat of the game. And it came with a cover that was advertised as easily washable. There's no easy way to say this; it turned the game/system into a sex toy. I guess that's one way to get your girlfriend interested in games.

 

[toguro_max]

By "obscure" I understad that it's a game that mostly went under radar, that few people has played / heard of.
Based upon this, I have some (i'll will try avoiding doujin games).

Rizing Zan: The Samurai Gunman (PSX) - I'd call this game "the Red Steel precursor, in 3rd person", bacause that's what it is: an 3rd person action game where you play as a Gunman who weld not only guns (duh), but also swords.

Maken X (DC) - A FPS that uses basically mellee attacks, and have a nice "brainjack" feature.

Sanitarium (PC) - As already mentioned, a nice (and disturbing) point-and-click adventure game with a awsome atmosphere.

Bad Mojo (PC) - A cockroach simulator! Well, sorta. It's and adventure game where you play as a cockroach. It's a well known game amongst old gamers.

City Connection (NES, MSX) - You control a car in a mission to "paint" the streets.

Gonzales (MSX) - A platform game where you play as a mexican guy jumping around cactus and stuff.

Pulseman (GEN) - An action-platform game that was not well known back on it's day because it was a japan-only game.

I.Q. Intelligent Qube (PSX) - A puzzle-platformer-wtf game, where you need to match rolling cubes to avoid bein squashed.

There are some others, but these are the first that comes in mind.

(...)
Next, I'll point out a PS2 game. "Rez". (...)

Hmm, well, technically, REZ is a Dreamcast game ported to PS2, not a PS2 game.

 

[choconado]

my point was that it was weird for the European PS2 version.

I remember IQ from a Sony sampler disc! It was hard!

 

[PolloDiablo]

Super Mario 13 = Whomp 'Em

 

[Zarxrax]

Few people know that there was a Dragon's Lair 3.
I had it for PC, and it come on about five 3.5" Floppy Disks (NOT CD!!)
This would mean that the entire game fit in something like 7MB. Quite amazing, I think.

The gameplay was mostly just a rehash of some scenes from Dragon's Lair 2, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7VHSJ-bCJk