Top 10 Underrated Games

[Alyxx Thorne]

You can read the original list at Alyxx' Game Room.

 

So I made a list of the top 10 games I find overrated. So I figured I might as well make a list of the games that I personally feel don't receive as much recognition as they deserve. Here's my top 10 list of underrated games!

 

10. TRON 2.0

While this game sort of branches on being underrated since it's actually sort of a cult hit, just like the movie it's inspired by, I feel it doesn't really deserve as much recognition among FPS fans as it should. For one, the graphics, which were incredible back in 2003, are still pretty sweet today and with some fan made mods, you can run this game in full HD glory on your PC and it holds up incredibly well. It also felt like a better sequel to the 1982 movie than TRON Legacy was and in terms of style, keeps more in continuity with it too. As a movie-licensed game, it's one of the best I've played and as a game on its own, the gameplay just feels deeper and better than other FPS's of the time like Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 which relied far too much on gimmicks like horror and physics, whereas TRON 2.0 feels more like a proper FPS RPG hybrid set in the TRON universe. Multiplayer is also a lot of fun and if you ever dreamt of having a lightcycle match or disc game with your friends, you can do it here. If you're at all a TRON fan like me, you OWE it to yourself to play this game at least once and it still has a pretty active fan community.

 

9. Wario's Woods

When talking about puzzle games, you often mention games like Tetris, Bejeweled or Bust-A-Move. But rarely do I hear people talking about Wario's Woods on NES/SNES. It's definitely one of the most addictive puzzlers I've played and I remember playing it a lot in my childhood. You play as toad, going from tree to tree in Wario's Woods and the goal is pretty much to blast away rows of 2+ monsters either vertically, horizontally or diagonally using bombs given to you by Birdo. Birdo has a timer though and once it's run out, Wario will take over and start spamming more monsters to blast away and knock the tree to make a giant Thwomp at the top to fall down, each knock making it fall further and further down, making the game feel increasingly claustrophobic. It's a pretty good puzzler and can get quite hectic on later levels. Highly recommended!

 

8. Conduit 2

When talking about the Nintendo Wii, it's not often you talk about what First Person Shooters were good on it. Sure, the Call of Duty ports might have been decent if very stripped down and you did have Metroid Prime Trilogy on it which added a good amount of FPS action. But one of the franchises that I think did best on it was Conduit and Conduit 2 is definitely my favourite of the two games. It feels kind of like a mix of Halo and X-Files and does a good job getting the most out of the Wii hardware, even supporting surround sound and running in 480p mode. One of my favourite things about this game and that makes me prefer it over the original is that the protagonist is voiced by John St. John, famous for portraying Duke Nukem himself and he definitely adds a big cool factor to the hero. Conduit 1 and Conduit 2 are must-play games imo if you own a Wii.

 

7. Gunman Chronicles

When talking about Half-Life, I often feel like the game is kind of overrated. Sure, it did a lot of cool things and it is a good FPS but there is one game I actually feel is kind of superior to Half-Life and also used the exact same game engine. In fact, it started out as a Half-Life mod. Gunman Chronicles does a lot of really cool and actually quite inventive things that in my opinion made it a totally unique game and so much more than just a HL mod. For one, it gave you guns that you could customize, like customizing the spread and amount of shells to fire with your shotgun, or customizing your rocket launcher so you could make it into a grenade launcher if you wanted to, and use your grenades as trip mines if you set them correctly. Also, the setting of literally having cowboys in space makes it even more unique and I don't think I've ever seen a game have such unique and diverse levels before with such an interesting cast of characters. It's a really awesome mix of western and sci-fi and even cyberpunk that I think is incredibly cool. Definitely worth checking out if you can find a copy.

 

6. Syndicate

Syndicate is a game that sadly fell completely under the radar last year. Sure, it might have been a disappointing reboot to the fans and the heavy use of bloom might have thrown a lot of graphics-oriented people off, not to mention the PC port was kinda shoddy but this remains one of my favourite games of 2012 and favourite games of all time. It nails down the cyberpunk aesthetic and really made me hooked on the multiplayer. The more I play this game the more I just love how cool it looks and how well it makes me feel like part of a cyberpunk universe and I just can't help but think that I might be one of the few people who are still into this game. So yeah, I consider it kinda underrated.

 

5. Eradicator

When you talk about mid 90's First Person Shooters, a lot of titles come to mind. Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, Quake, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone but me remembering Accolade's Eradicator. I remember playing a demo back in the day and just totally being sucked into it and since then I've just watched it fade into obscurity while better known games get all the credit. At the time, Accolade didn't have a good credit and granted this was probably their last really good game. It didn't help either that it used the Build engine and came out around the same time as Quake and failed to gather any audience since those who weren't into Quake were into Duke or Doom. Still it's a pretty solid FPS with a really good sci-fi atmosphere and worth looking into if you're into old FPS's.

 

4. Starfox Adventures

For some reason, Starfox Adventures is pretty much universally despised by the majority of gamers, especially Starfox fans. And while I guess I could see why since it doesn't really play like a Starfox game, actually it has more in common with Zelda than Starfox, I definitely don't agree that it is a BAD game. There is a LOT I love about Adventures, especially the whole atmosphere of adventure it has, that it takes time to set up a compelling universe and that it greatly expands upon the characters and mythology set by Starfox and Starfox 64. I remember reading about this game back in the day and actually being really hyped about it. I wanted to play a different Starfox game and to this day, I would still claim this game is pretty good. So screw the haters, it's worth at least one shot and you can get it cheap on ebay these days.

 

3. SiN

Oh... boy... you wanna talk underrated? Talk about fucking SiN. It's one of those games that I would like to call "Half-Life casualties", simply because it failed because it came out at the same time as Half-Life. Even though in many ways, SiN was a lot more groundbreaking in ways that Half-Life couldn't touch. SiN had actual missions where the outcome decided how your next level was gonna be like. You could enter it from another area, you could sometimes even find entirely new levels depending on how your mission went and for the time, this was mindblowing. Another thing that SiN did, WAY before games like Doom 3 made a huge deal out of it, was interactive in-game computers. That's right, in SiN, you could use computers. You could even go into a cute little DOS prompt and dig through the files to find passwords and hidden easter eggs and again, for the time, this was INCREDIBLE. I cannot even begin to state why I think SiN is probably the most underrated shooter of the 90's but there are lots of them. It's only sad that Half-Life stole the glory because I think SiN could really have taken it if it had gotten a bigger fanbase. To this day it remains one of my favourite games and I am still amazed at how much groundbreaking stuff they did back then. It also helps that unlike Gordon Freeman, John R. Blade actually talks and has a wonderful Duke Nukem esque attitude that just makes this game really awesome and in many ways, it feels like a lost Duke Nukem Forever. In fact, rumors has it that it started as a Duke Nukem game but grew into its own thing. Ironically, it got a sequel around the same time as Half-Life 2, using the Source engine. SiN Episodes: Emergence was the first of several planned episodes but sadly Ritual Entertainment got bought out and no further installments are planned in the series. I highly recommend checking SiN out because it's definitely an underrated classic in so many ways. It's so good, it's a sin.

 

2. Super Mario Bros. 2

SMB2 is often referred to as the black sheep of the original SMB trilogy. And why? Because when people found out that it actually is just a reskinned version of another game, they felt deceived. Thus, SMB2 is considered a bad SMB game. But hang on a sec, just because it's a reskinned version of another game, why does that automatically make it bad? I want to disagree here. I think it's actually a pretty good game and I've had a lot of fun with it. And for once, it was a game where you could play as several different characters, each with their own abilities and the difference between Mario and Luigi was much further established here and almost completely ignored in further installments were Luigi was reduced to a mere palette swap. It also introduced several other characters that are now canon as well as Birdo, the first transvestite in Mario history. Almost kinda fitting she comes from a game that is considered the freak of the franchise. Definitely an underrated game by all accounts.

 

1. Daikatana

With an ad campaign stating you were gonna become Romero's bitch, and with the hype train going insanely off track and with a development cycle that can only be described as total chaos, it's a wonder Daikatana even got released. And when it got released, it was an underwhelming game that looked really dated in comparison with other games of the time. Thus, Daikatana is widely considered one of the biggest failures in gaming and also one of the worst FPS's of all time. But personally, having played through the game and even writing a review of it, I would have to disagree. What Daikatana did at the time was simply mindboggling, it was trying to establish itself as a co-op FPS experience, something nearly no games to that point had tried. It was extremely ambitious and in a lot of ways, it sort of failed but this is definitely a game that I feel is incredibly underrated as I simply love how much variety there is in level design and weaponry, and how the RPG elements makes it feel like a deeper experience than Quake for instance, and how you build comradery with your companions. I really got immersed into this game and simply loved it and to me, Daikatana is the most underrated game of all time.

 

- Alyxx

[Pinkie Pie]

I haven't played almost all of these games, but I heavily disagree with SMB2. It's just personal preference, but I don't like it at all. And the cockblock ending 'It was all a dream!' trope just makes matter worse.

 

Star Fox Adventures, I think is a really good game on its own (they seriously made their own language for christ's sake) it's just a bad STARFOX game. But for an adventure game, it's not bad.

 

Haven't played Tron 2.0, but I kinda want to.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I disagree that Adventures is a bad Starfox game because it actually expands on mythology and characters and therefore makes you more engaged into the whole franchise. To me, innovation and trying out different genres is not a bad thing and that makes Starfox Adventures probably the best Starfox game in my eyes.

 

SMB2 is probably a matter of opinion but I personally consider it a great Mario game.

 

And TRON 2.0 is definitely a must-play if you can find a copy, either ebay or pirated. Strongly recommend getting the Killer App mod for it as it adds widescreen and high resolution support.

[Pinkie Pie]

It's a bad Starfox game because it ISN'T a Starfox game. Not in the way it was introduced. Starfox is about flying a little plane and killing monkey heads. Adventures was a third person adventure game. Not bad, but not Starfox.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I still say that attitude is kinda bullshit, but I get your point.

[Luis]

I'm a hardcore Star Fox fan. The first one I ever played was the first one in a neighbor's SNES when I was a little kid. We jumped on the bed and screamed like cheerleaders when we finally got to beat Andross. Then I got my first Gamecube and played a pirated copy of Assault on it. Great Star Fox game, imho. I remember crying when Peppy sacrifices himself for star Fox to reach the Aparoid Queen. Then it was all about getting the golden medals, finding the secret flags, unlocking Wolf, Peppy and others in the multiplayer and beating my friend's asses in the secret stages it took me hours to unlock. Assault was a very solid game.

 

Then Adventures came to me. i never had the chance to finish it though, my pirated copy reached a certain point and stopped working there. There were a few details like "why is the arwing all rounded?" And "where the hell is my blaster?" That I didn't quite dig but looking back it's a good step Rare made by making the game different to the others.

 

 

 

The saga has been willing to innovate since the developpement of Star Fox 2 (which I beat on the japanese text "almost finished" beta). If you haven't played it, it involves selectable arwings and transforming ships. You had to travel around the universe and stop missiles from hitting Lylat's planets and they all changed their course depending on the choices you made.

 

The point is the game can't remain in what SF and SF 64 were. Even Assault contained third person shooter gameplay where you switched from it and the classic open air arwing fighting scenarios. Would be really boring if all we got were Reskined Star Fox 64s.

[Alyxx Thorne]

That's my point. I love Adventures and Assault because those games feel new and innovative and ADD something to the universe rather than just being shooters.

[Luis]

Have you played Star Fox 2? It's actually very good and kind of obscure due to it's cancellation and posterior revamp.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Yep, played it in emulator several times. It's a pretty good game.

[The Hamburglar]

Glover.

 

a gaming masterpiece.

 

i can't think of 9 others.

[Axeldeath]

Conduit 2 and Syndicate deserved their poor sales.

 

Original System Shock, NOLF, Psychonauts and BG & E are a few games I consider underrated

[Alyxx Thorne]

Conduit 2 and Syndicate are two of my favourite FPS's.

 

Haven't played System Shock, Psychonauts or BG&E and NOLF was hardly underrated since it was pretty much Game Of The Year when it came out. I can only list games that I've actually played.

 

But yeah, if that's your opinion, fine.

[Bunny Lab]

Oh, I miss playing Wario Woods on the SNES, I remember my utter frustration trying to beat the ghost, and never being able to. I just finished watching a 4-part playthrough of the game, oh, the memories.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Yeah, I have a lot of fond memories of it too. I actually beat all the opponents in vs mode.

[The Hamburglar]

Conduit 2 and Syndicate deserved their poor sales.

 

Original System Shock, NOLF, Psychonauts and BG & E are a few games I consider underrated

Wow I agree with all those choices.

 

okay Axel you seriously need to get on steam more you're really butterin' my biscuits here.