What are your favorite games that you never see mentioned anywhere?
What are your favorite games that you never see mentioned anywhere?
302 comments
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Kenshi. Ive only ever seen 1 person mention it in the year I've been on Lemmy.
It's like depressed RuneScape.
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... Was I that person?
I evangelize Kenshi like the Holy Nation evangelizes Okran.
Also...!
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Kenshi has so much scale and depth it's hard to explain what you "do" in the game I love it
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Die.
A LOT
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Kenshi
https://store.steampowered.com/app/233860/Kenshi/
Ive only ever seen 1 person mention it in the year I’ve been on Lemmy.
I've brought it up a bunch as an example of a game that I like that's really a "one-game genre" -- it didn't really get cloned, like most good games do. Kind of a bummer, because if you've played all of Kenshi, there's not much more to do if you want more short of waiting for Kenshi 2 to be finished.
kagis
https://lemmy.world/post/5593904/3755382
https://lemmy.world/post/2703109/2113199
https://lemmy.world/post/7471136/4950578
https://lemmy.world/post/25365592/14990415
https://lemmy.world/post/10421126
There's also a community here for it, !kenshi@lemmy.world. Not much activity, though.
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Kenshi is one of those great war crime simulators
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Escape Velocity and its open-source spiritual successor, Endless Sky.
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EV Nova is what got me hooked on Star Citizen
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Never played Escape Velocity, but Endless Sky was fantastic. Both the main quest lines had fantastic stories, especially the first one.
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Escape Velocity also had a sequel or two done by Ambrosia Software themselves. I remember playing and enjoying them.
kagis
Escape Velocity Override and Escape Velocity Nova.
It looks like Ambrosia Software's website is now down, so I assume that one can't legally purchase it any more.
It looks like Escape Velocity was never ported to anything outside of classic MacOS, so playing it today probably entails obtaining a classic MacOS emulator and abandonware copies of the binaries.
While Endless Sky is neat and last I looked still getting expanded, it also didn't have as much story content as the Escape Velocity series either (again, at least last I looked).
The image of each planet in Escape Velocity series (not really worth keeping IMHO, as they were saved at 8-bit depth) were done with KPT Bryce, a now out-of-print terrain generation and rendering software package. Probably one of the better-suited applications for it, as it was pretty good at letting one quickly turn out alien-looking landscapes. While there are newer terrain generation software packages, I have to say that Bryce did a lot of neat stuff and I don't feel that there's something that quite fills its "exploration" role in modeling and rendering software today. For example, procedural generation of textures using slope and altitude (so, for example, you could get rocky faces where generated terain was steep, or snow at high altitude on mountains).
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The Thief series. I LOVED the first one especially, Thief the Dark Project. Medieval (low magic fantasy?) stealth shooter. The more valuable you pick up directly translates to what you can buy as a load out for the next level so you're encouraged to explore, though even the low level enemies can kick you ass so you have to be sneaky. Actually great stealth mechanics even for an old game. The world building is amazing, with it's own lore, culture and slang. The plot of the games are also great.
The Kingdom of Loathing is a game I've played almost non-stop since about 2003. Web based and free, it's based off of old text based games. But it's fun. Really fun. And hilarious. The currency is meat. The classes are goofy. Saucerer? Disco bandit? Seal Clubber? A lot of games deal with things like power creep or inflation, or how the heck to get people to actually help pay for it. This game solves problems like these elegantly. The user base is fun and friendly and corporative, there's always new stuff coming out to try, they do a holiday special every year, and all the pictures are crudely drawn stick figures.
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The Kingdom of Loathing
I can't believe that game is still around lol. It was probably 2009 or so when I logged in last. I had ascended 3 times and figured I had pretty much seen all there is to see. So cool to see they are still around and doing well. I guess I'm going to have to playthrough it at least one more time :)
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Oh man they have added and changed so much since you dropped off
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Outlaws. An early Spaghetti Western themed FPS from LucasArts. After Dark Forces (Retconned by Rogue One) and before DF2:Jedi Knight (the one with the amazibad FMV cut scenes and the best expansion pack ever), it leveraged the 2.5d engine for all it was worth and did a hand-animated slightly Don-Bluth-esque aesthetic that worked perfectly.
Level design was good. Multiplayer was fun, even though if you tried to LAN with an unswitched hub (it was 1998!) player 3 would lag like motherfucker and be relegated to throwing dynamite and praying. Story was straight out of a Tropes-R-Us, but well executed and with good voice acting (including John de Lancie IIRC). The coup de grace was the soundtrack, Clint Bajakian seemed to inhabit Ennio Morricone’s soul, but with leitmotifs to make John Williams proud. It absolutely elevated the game.
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dark forces got a community sourceport, and even a commercial one. outlaws on the other hand which is better in literally every way gets no love.
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Outlaws
https://store.steampowered.com/app/559620/Outlaws__A_Handful_of_Missions/
Looks like it's currently 65% off on GOG:
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Board games or video games?
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Why not both?
Slay the Spire - the video game based on board game mechanics
Slay the Spire the Board Game - based on the video game based on board game mechanics but in board game form!
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Dark messiah of might and magic
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I was gonna post this too... Amazing game, combat mechanics in modern games still haven't caught up. Also that ice spell makes the game.
Literally every battle mechanic in that game was top notch. Think linear single player Mordhau with spells and your character has demon strength.
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Came here to post the same! It’s fantastic!
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Dark messiah of might and magic
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2100/Dark_Messiah_of_Might__Magic/
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Yep that one, I've got the CD at home.
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Might and Magic anything beyond Heros of Might and Magic 3 is rarely if ever talked about. Although it was an awesome series.
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ton of mentions until this day
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Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
I have been playing this game my entire life on/off, and have the most hours in, but I have never beaten it. I came close 1 fucking time, and I will forever remember the one dumb mistake I made that lost it for me just on the cusp of victory.
One day...
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God tier game. I've never even been close to beating it.
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Mount & Blade. It’s not unpopular per se, but somehow I never saw anyone mentioning it around here in Lemmy.
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I was playing it on console so I didn't get to do any mods to really increase the fun but I still had a lot of fun anyway. I do think the devs need to try a bit harder. I feel like they just provide a framework for mods without making a really nice game themselves.
That being said I played hundreds of hours of both and really like them. I just wish they were a bit better
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Blast Corps
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Oh fuck yeah
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Came here to post this. What a cool weird game just doing its own thing. I'm sure there have been demolition games since then, but the random mechanics of the dump truck (among other vehicles) made it so unique and creative.
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Tactics Ogre. I see people drop Final Fantasy Tactics as the greatest tactics game of all time. Then you always see Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, and Disgaea after. People sleep on Tactics Ogre. It's a mechanically superior game to all of the mentioned. It's story is equally as good as FFT. I think the graphics are better. It's a challenging game from the start. FFT was created with the Tactics Ogre director and lead artist to be a more accessible version of TO. People see 90s golden era Final Fantasy and automatically put FFT on a pedestal. TO is like Undertaker stalking AJ Styles ready to obliterate whatever is in its way.
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I've played Tactics Ogre after I've read some accounts of it being described as FFT's spiritual successor, but I must admit I never finished it--not because of the gameplay which is suprisingly deep for its time, but because of my own perfectionism. I didn't let myself just play the game without any guides or overthinking, instead went full "I want the perfect gamesave".|
But yes! what you said is true. FFT is a more accessible successor to Tactics Ogre.
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I think this was the game I rented once as a kid and never saw again but pops up as a memory every so often and I could never remember the name.. Gonna check it out again.
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Try it. It's a fantastic game. I think the newest version that came out on Steam is the way to go but a lot of people still recommend the PSP Version if you wanna emulate it. Or you can go all the way back to the SNES version. I don't think there's a bad version of the game but there are definitely better versions of the game.
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Fight it out!
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Freedom Fighters. Some mechanics were clunky but most were great and I really can't think of any other games with such a good mix of strategy and quick-thinking/reaction gameplay. I've played it through at least 3 times!
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Freedom Fighters
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1347780/Freedom_Fighters/
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That 94% score doesn't surprise me at all. Ugh, I wish I had more time to dedicate to gaming.
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I randomly came across this game back when it came out on ps2 and I loved it. They set it up for a sequal and im still waiting 2 decades later.
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Enderal.
I'll edit this later when I can post from my comp (mobile now) with the full pitchas promised:Basically an indie dev crew broke skyrim down to its most basic assets, then rebuilt a completely new game using them. AND IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD. Completely new lore / game universe (has nothing at all to do with elder scrolls, tamriel, etc), new voice acting, terrain, music, you name it.
Steers away from common story tropes to the point that there isn't really an antagonist in the traditional sense - but it uses concepts, emotions, philosophies, etc as the driving force for the main story line and some of the larger quest chains.
This game is an absolute passion project by the devs, which is something we don't see often now-a-days.
Note: link above is to the version that uses Skyrim SE's assets (the 2016 re-release). If you have the original version of skyrim, use this link instead. If you own a different version of Skyrim, there might be a compatible version of Enderal here: https://sureai.net/games/enderal/
Fair warning: the children NPC voice acting is even worse than the kids in Skyrim. The TAI (toggle AI) command can shut them up without breaking them.
Fair warning 2: they redid combat. The OP shit in Skyrim, like the sneaky archer build, will get your ass beat to a pulp in Enderal. Make a save when you get to the point where you can spend some talent points, experiment with a few styles, and go from there.
Fair warning 3: It's built on Skyrim's assets, which means it has all of Skyrim's problems. Step on a basket full of cabbage just right; get launched into low orbit. Quest items clipping through the floor. Bounty that refuses to go away. Shit like that. Save frequently, and don't be afraid to use the command console to do things like magic in a lost item or force a broken quest to progress to the next stage.
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The original mass effect trilogy. I know they're very mainstream but no one talks about them anymore and I must have like 5k hours between the 3 games.
Perfect winter break games for just diving in and doing 20 hour long play sessions
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Same reason people don't talk about Game of Thrones anymore. The last entry, Andromeda, was so disappointing it retroactively made people like the previous ones less :\
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The combat in Andromeda was pretty sweet though even though the story sucked. I have it another shot not that long ago and once I figured out some of the profile swapping stuff the combat was really fun.
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I think they just never were that relevant, probably because the first one was too RPG and not enough action game for the average public to form a cult following around. Still amazing games that are well worth bringing and nerding over
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mass effect trilogy
Looks like there's currently a 90% off sale.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328670/Mass_Effect_Legendary_Edition/
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I do recommend the legendary edition, the graphics updates are actually good. You still need to add a few choice mods but it was a good remaster
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luanti https://www.luanti.org/
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It's Luanti* - You got the name wrong
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ok I edited it
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Whoah, when did they change the name?
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Just recently
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October
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My family (wife and multiple kids) oddly enough have access to both this and Minecraft and actually prefer Luanti most of the time.
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Earthworm Jim
Atomic Robokid (Genesis)
Tempest (Atari 2600 version)
Ghosts and Goblins (NES)
The game where it's a rich guy that sends a trained assassin out onto a island with nothing and hunts him for 24 hours, and if the assassin kills the rich guy he gets his freedom and like $20K.
Rock n Roll Racing (SNES)
Beyond All Reason/Planetary Annihilation
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Ghosts and Goblins
Listen kids, this is how you spot them, this and their rubber skin. Dogs bark at them too.
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Earthworm Jim
https://store.steampowered.com/app/901147/Earthworm_Jim/
Ghosts and Goblins (NES)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556690/Capcom_Arcade_StadiumGhosts_n_Goblins/ (arcade)
Not the same, but apparently close.
The NES & arcade versions are very similar in terms of level layout and enemy spawns. There are certainly differences, but I haven't played the arcade version enough to tell you what those specific differences are.
Beyond All Reason
https://www.beyondallreason.info/
Planetary Annihilation
https://store.steampowered.com/app/386070/Planetary_Annihilation_TITANS/
I personally enjoyed Total Annihilation, but Planetary Annihilation and some of the later games, like the Spring-based remakes never quite caught me the same way.
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Rock n Roll Racing
That was notable for having a pretty good soundtrack for the SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngua3njzHBY&list=PLXtoniNoeLvpgFcFnhfzi2SxEAI4jyIZr
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- Brave Fencer Musashi
- Limbo
- ReCore
- The Way
- Inside
- Unravel
- Cat Quest
- Death Squared
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Limbo
https://store.steampowered.com/app/48000/LIMBO/
ReCore
https://store.steampowered.com/app/537450/ReCore_Definitive_Edition/
The Way
https://store.steampowered.com/app/311010/The_Way/
Inside
https://store.steampowered.com/app/304430/INSIDE/
Unravel
Looks like it's currently 75% off on Steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1225560/Unravel/
Cat Quest
Someone else mentioned this one; I linked to it there.
Death Squared
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I have brave fencer on ps1! Still play it sometimes. Sadly missing the ff bonus disc
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I wanted to hate it because I had just read Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa and was fascinated by Miyamoto Musashi and the game is only loosely connected to him but it sucked me in.
I ended up playing it for a few weeks straight until I beat it and I've never forgotten it.
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Is ReCore really worth the play? It was on my list when it came out, but got very mixed reviews.
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Kinda cheating, since this game (hell, entire series; linking my fave entry) has kind of a cult following in Central/Eastern Europe.
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Oof, my favorite! It was too good for it's time.
Gothic 1 is one of the most difficult RPG I've ever played, in terms of quest. The sequel, I'd still play it if only it ran on my devices.
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The video looked cool but for the picture they had to go with the Pixar face??
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Legend of Legaia. It’s a JRPG from the PS1 golden era, but it had a relatively small launch and basically zero marketing. It was completely overshadowed by other games like FFVII and Legend of Dragoon. It has a sort of cult classic following now. The story starts off as a fairly basic “world is awful, kid gets a magic weapon to beat the big evil thing” type of plot, but has a surprising amount of twists and turns.
The combat system is interesting, and hasn’t really been replicated since. You string together a series of small attacks, to make larger super combos.
Fair warning, the US release is significantly harder than the JP and EU versions. For some reason, the devs multiplied all the enemy stats by 1.25, and slashed their exp/gold drop rates by 50% for the US release. So you need to grind twice as long to be properly geared/leveled, and the grinding is 25% more difficult.
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When videogame rentals were a thing, developers often intentionally made games unreasonably hard to spur repeat rentals or purchases. My money is on that.
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Even the EU version is dozens of hours long for a casual play through. The game is surprisingly long for only being one disc; They didn’t use a bunch of pre-rendered cutscenes like many of the bigger games did. Those pre-rendered cutscenes take up a lot of disc space, and are why games like Legend of Dragoon and FFVII have multiple discs.
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I got to meet Legaia's creator Hidenori Shibao. He also created Lennus ("Paladin's Quest" that I enjoyed on SNES in my youth) and its sequel.
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Bugsnax. It's like Pokemon Snap/Legends Arceus, but the Pokemon are food items, like a sub-sandwich centipede or a lollipop dragonfly. You can feed them to people, and when you do, their body parts turn into the food they just ate. It's great!
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Endless Sky According to wikipedia it is a space trading and combat simulation game. Its free and open source, has a lot of content (even more with plugins). You do missions to get the storyline forward and to get money, you can also mine asteroid, trade with other planets, attack other ships and plunder them. You discover new species and Outfits to make your space ship better, etc.
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I've been playing a single ship only save this time around and it's been a ton of fun. I allow myself to use fighters if a ship has a fighter bay, but no escorts (except mission NPCs of course).
I don't know why but I absolutely love asteroid mining. It's not like it's deep or complex, but it just feels so satisfying somehow.
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Armadillo Run
Robot Alchemic Drive (R.A.D.)
The Saboteur
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Saboteur was unexpectedly good
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You are the only person I have ever seen mention Armadillo Run. I used to be obsessed with that game.
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And you're the only person I've ever seen recognize it in turn.
Part of me wants to ask where you went to college since that's the only community I knew who played it, but I also wouldn't post that here.
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Syndicate Wars.
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The first Syndicate game is also awesome!
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I definitely enjoyed the original Syndicate. While I like the aesthetic and the music, it isn't an incredibly deep game, but I did like the thing. I could go for playing the thing in HD, 24-bit color, maybe upscaled graphics, and at a high framerate.
IIRC, Syndicate Wars didn't review as well. I can't recall whether I ever got around to trying it.
For anyone who hasn't tried Syndicate, the game is a cyberpunk, squad-based isometric-view pixel-art game where one has to perform various missions to gain control of territory; might be assassinating someone, capturing someone, clearing enemies from an area, etc. Doesn't have destructable terrain, though vehicles are destructable. Late game missions tend to have so many very-durable bionically-enhanced enemy agents charging at one's squad that one has to keep the squad pretty much bunched up and using either rocket launchers or miniguns just spewing out a ton of firepower in their direction.
In its time, Syndicate was pretty well-known, though I dunno how many people born later would be familiar with it today.
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“Whiplash!” Was an old racing sim that had crazy tracks. It had collision damage and in single player mode you could give your teammate commands.
It supported 8 players on a lan in multiplayer. All of this while running from DOS. Looking back it seemed a little ahead of its time. I’ve never encountered anyone in person that knew of this game.
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“Whiplash!”
Apparently this was known as Fatal Racing outside North America.
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Im surprised I missed this, I love this era of racing games. Gonna try to find a copy!
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it's a first person shooter dungeon crawler, the levels and enemies are procedurally generated, sometimes you can get a room with enemies that are one hit kills, then walk into a connecting room with 3 different over powers enemy types coming at you from all directions.
its face paced and fun as fuck to run around killing shit with magic wands and magical guns.
no playthrough is the same.
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The Longest Journey. It’s one of the best adventure games ever made, and has one of the best stories in interactive storytelling.
Sacrifice. An old Interplay title where you are a sorcerer in service to a god. You summon armies of creatures and cast world-altering spells using the souls of creatures you’ve sacrificed to your god.
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Nice, came here to mention Sacrifice! A remake would go so hard, but I don't think it'll ever happen.
TLJ is also solid.
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The Longest Journey
https://store.steampowered.com/app/6310/The_Longest_Journey/
Sacrifice
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Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Even just the soundtrack is worth the price of admission.
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One of the weirder concept RPGs and so very well executed. The fact that it didn't gain more traction is madness.
I really should play again with mods
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Cyber Empires (PC), Shadowrun (Genesis), Betrayal at Krondor (PC).
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Shadowrun for Genesis was amazing! Ahead of its time. The way it semi randomly generated jobs for you to do was pretty unique. Like Bethesda radiant quests, but decades earlier and better. I really enjoyed rising up from the weakest street runner to someone with enough reputation to skip the line at the expensive club.
The leveling system was also pretty advanced for Genesis.
Also the cyberspace hacking was wacky and fun.
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Oh man I haven't thought of Cyber Empires in so long. I remember tunneling through walls so my missile bots could obliterate the enemy base.
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Betrayal at Krondor was amazing. Masterfully written, with fun riddles, and that music chef's kiss
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Nine parchments! Take Diablo, strip out the loot system and plot, add friendly fire and some colors, and you have 9p. It’s not a perfect game but it’s super fun to play with a few friends
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Nine parchments
https://store.steampowered.com/app/471550/Nine_Parchments/ (apparently currently 80% off)
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Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds.
Basically AoE2 with a Star Wars skin and a few new unit/building types. I must have put thousands of hours into this game in my lifetime and I still play it occasionally.
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Yes! I so badly want this game to get the same remaster treatment that AoE II got, but as is the case with most licensed games, the IP will probably keep it from ever being updated again.
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You know what is deservedly never talked about? Star Wars Force Commander. Another RTS but this time it sucked ass.
Had a killer soundtrack though. https://youtu.be/yCU_6IFc9t0
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Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/356500/STAR_WARS_Galactic_Battlegrounds_Saga/
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The original Master of Magic for DOS. It's STILL being actively modded 32 years post release and has never quite been duplicated.
The Age of Wonders series does a fairly good job with the feel, but it's just not the same.
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During lockdown I played ECHO, which had been in my backlog for a few years after a stray recommendation I saw on MetaFilter. It was a surprisingly tight integration of beautiful and intriguing environmental/UI/sound design, gorgeous music, compelling yet minimalist storytelling (and voice acting), and a really strong gameplay loop of stealth, puzzle-solving, and the occasional panicky run-and-gun. Imagine my surprise when I read up on it after and learned it only sold a few thousand copies!
I strongly recommend playing it blind, but this trailer gives a good overview of the style and mechanics.
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It's been on my wishlist for I don't even know how long
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I played a much different Echo with my partner during COVID hahaha
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The Fatal Frame series (maybe the second one here and there) and Kunitsu-Gami. The second one surprised me since it's relatively new, but I thought it was a great surprise. I loved the hell out of that game.
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Honestly, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.
The remaster got some attention, but it still feels pretty niche for a game made by the Ace Attorney guy. I never felt like it got its "moment" in the same way as, say, Blue Prince.
And yet, from the moment the 15-year-old announcement trailer dropped, I knew it was going to be in "top 5 of all time" territory for me. 😍
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Really wish there were more games like this.
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Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1967430/Ghost_Trick_Phantom_Detective/
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Thing Thing series
Pocket Tanks
Black Ice
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One of my favorite games is a hidden gem that I never see people mention. It's called Out of Space and it's a couch co-op game similar to Overcooked with two major differences, it's less frenetic so you can play it to chill out, and it's procedurally generated so you have lots of replayability. For me and my wife it's the perfect game of "let's play a round of something", yet I never see it mentioned anywhere.
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This looks great for my wife and I, also our niblings. Thanks.
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I used to play the shit out of The Specialist, a HL1 mp mod.
Also while most were hooked on Twisted Metal my brother and I loved Vigilante 8.
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The Specialist
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I have a group of friends who still play The Specialists! It’s the only reason I can’t go full Linux—it does not work on Linux.
Been playing for almost 20 years.
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Definitely Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, an RTS in the Star Wars universe that uses the Age of Empires 2 engine and has very similar gameplay.
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i played the shit out of that. still have the deluxe "saga" edition complete in box.
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Guardian Heroes was an outstanding RPG beat 'em up on Sega Saturn. It had
- a two player co-op storyline with branching choices to get alternate endings
- unlockable characters for a 6-player arena mode
- incredibly unique characters to unlock, spellcasting with ➡️⬅️⬆️⬇️ input
- and a kick ass soundtrack.
Nothing has really scratched the same itch since (yes, I'm aware there's a sequel, but it's terrible).
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The anime Uncle From Another World talks about Guardian Heroes a lot. It's a fun show you should chek it out.
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Space Station Silicone Valley
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"Silicon" -- that's the stuff they make the transistors in chips out of. "Silicone" is what they make breast implants out of.
Doesn't look like there was ever a PC release.
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Perfect Dark. I didn't have a sibling to play with, so I am eternally grateful to Rare for making computer-controlled bots in the multiplayer mode.
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Did you ever play with the highest level bots? I can't remember what they were called. They teleported behind you regularly. I played with friends occasionally, I liked Perfect Dark better but friends liked GoldenEye. Perfect Dark is my favorite N64 game actually. Farsights only was absurd twitch multiplayer.
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Urban Terror
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When the homie busts out the Urban Terror USB stick at the LAN party
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Hi-Fi Rush deserves way more recognition! Both story and gameplay are perfect. DMC meets DDR!
Just a great time all around once you get into the flow of things.
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The Void by Ice-Pick Lodge, the makers of Pathologic.
This game taught me that actions have consequences and that I should be more humble and think twice about the environment before exploiting it like I'm playing a game.
Yes, it's that kind of game.
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Shining Force 3. Mostly cause it's marooned on the Saturn but it's so friggin good.
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Back in the day I really enjoyed ONI.
_edit: _ some gameplay footage.
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Oni had such a cool combat system! There aren't enough single-player action games with this type of combat depth IMO. This video (YouTube link) does a great job explaining it in detail.
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Thanks for that link, it really brings back good memories.
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ONI
Yeah, was one of a few such games for the Mac, which had a limited game library. I remember playing it there, had fun.
The game's title isn't capitalized, though, just Oni; "ONI" is commonly used to refer to Oxygen Not Included.
Looks like it's not available on Steam, but if you do get a copy, Steam's Proton can run it on the Steam Deck.
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Flashback.
I played it on SNES, but it was on a few consoles. I heard they are making a sequel so that's cool. It's science fiction with flavours of total recall, they live, and running man. I just really enjoyed the prince of Persia style gameplay but cyberpunk.Parasite Eve
More specifically number 2, because the first one never officially came to pal regions. It's like resident evil but SciFi/body horror. The third game was shit because they lost the rights to the novel it was originally based on. If there's any game sequel that I wish for it would be a proper PE3.-
flashback is one of my favorite games, after prince of persia and ahead of blackthorne.
i just hate the fact that 3d games fucking flooded the market just as cinematic platformers were getting really good.
instead of even more refined games with better graphics and animations, we got shit like fade to black and pop3d.
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An old game that never really took off, Orbz.
I was one of the best players in the world while it lasted.
Simple little game, you're a ball and you throw yourself at stars. The more you hit in a row without missing, the better your combo and score.
Essentially pong, but you play the ball, and it's on a landscape rather than somewhere you fall off and die.
I made a few levels for it.
Another was Triptych, which my friends and I called jelly tetris. Imagine tetris but the bits are springy and bounce a bit. It was a blast. Both were commercial games available on Linux at the time, early 2000s.
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That's it!
I'd forgotten it was a match 3.
So imagine you have two of the same color side by side with no gaps.
You have the same color on the bottom of your current piece.
You could slam that piece into the matching ones, hoping that they would bounce up and allow all three to match in a row.
It was the one linux game I had that most friends would ask to play when they came over.
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I think I'd have to say La-Mulana.
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Dysmantle.
Casual post apocalyptic survival etc game. It’s also available on consoles, switch and mobile.
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Balloon Fight. Amazing game with great controls.
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Squarez Deluxe.
I've been on a one-man promotion spree of that game for almost 20 years
It is now freeware, it's available on DOSBox, and it is the best shape-packing game ever made - you cannot even debate me once you try it.
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Holy shit, memory unlocked! I think I bought that game from Office Depot for like $2 on clearance when I was buying school supplies.
Now I'm going to have to go perform some sorcery to see if I can get it on my steam deck and baffle a couple buddies!
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Sauerbraten FOSS FPS, available in your repo. Single player racemaps are fun. Get to the podium in the quickest time.
Try these servers:
-Racing#1 2021 [rev]-
or
Racing Reloaded
--//--
0AD FLOSS RTS, also available in your repo.
Excellent theming and challenges.
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I tried this after seeing Action Retro use it a few times to see if he could make it work on older machines he was tinkering with. Love the old school/simpler FPS feel of it, and the lack of nonsense. Boot it up, play
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It's like the best bits of Q3A and UT combined.
Just be aware, some other online players will modify opponent skins to be extra hi-vis(cheating).
Good to give you an extra challenge.
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GUNZ The Duel - man that was just so much fun. Online guns and swords gladiator style battles in the most neat stages. I remember an old mansion with broken staircases and balconies, a train station with freight cargo all over the place, an actual roman colosseum, a beach with a grounded ship ashore.
Some people could do this thing called K-style or butterfly style where you slash your sword against walls or other objects which made you lift off the ground, and switch between your gun to shoot as you do so - it was a neat trick which I learned but definitely did not master.
So much fun though.
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this game was such janky fun!
wall climbing with the swords was so awesome and i loved that the devs didn't patch it they just embraced it
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Butterfly made my wrists fall off. Worth it.
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Shadowgate / Deja Vu / The Uninvited (NES)
Uniracers (SNES)
Custom Robo (GC)
Lost Kingdoms (GC)
Baiten Kaitos (GC)
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Epistory and Nanotales
Both fantastic games with beautiful graphics and good for typing practice.
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I rarely see any Ys game referenced. It's gotten a bit bigger, but still a super underrated series.
The Saboteur by Pandemic as well.
Field Commander on PSP.
The original Overlord game (with the minions).
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Rhythm Doctor.
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Some more recent ones:
- Hammerfight (2009)
- Brigador (2016)
- CrossCode (2018)
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Hammerfight
Oh, yeah, I liked that one. Pretty unusual game. Kind of a faux Middle East setting, mouse-controlled aircraft using in significant part melee weapons. Not incredibly deep, but the core gameplay loop did a good job of sucking me in.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/41100/Hammerfight/
Brigador
https://store.steampowered.com/app/274500/Brigador_UpArmored_Edition/
CrossCode
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I love crosscode so much. My #1 game
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CrossCode has such charm. The puzzles are good, but I find myself tired after playing it in a way other games don't give me. I should finish it.
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Didn't see Receiver 2 mentioned, so I'll give it a shoutout! Really interesting game, and as far as I know the only one with such deep shooting mechanics. Unfortunately the sale had ended a couple days ago, so it's back to its normal price, but even then I'd heavily recommend it!
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Fahrenheit/ Indigo Prophecy, an early David Cage/ Quantic Dream game from the same people who made Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit: Become Human
I haven't played it in forever so I'm not sure how well it holds up (if at all) and I also have a love/hate relationship with it.
It has one of the single worst/ cheap levels of any game I have ever played*, and in the very last level the story really shits the bed. On the other hand it was doing things at the time that I still haven't seen in other games. (I haven't gotten around to playing his other games so he might be doing similar things in them). In terms of attempting to evolve the way stories are told in games it was truly groundbreaking and unique for its time.
I still have fond memories of playing it despite it's flaws. I'd say it's worth playing for anyone interested in a older game that does some really interesting things from a story telling perspective and/or people who are fans of the later games and are curious to see where it started. As long as you can make it through the QTE level with your sanity intact and are prepared for the story to get stupid right at the end- it's worth a playthrough imo
*Even though I hate the level, the concept behind it is actually pretty cool. A malevolent force tries to kill the player character by throwing his apartment at him. The problem is it's a 4 1/2 minute QTE sequence that requires precise timing and you can't mess up even one time or you have to start the entire thing over from the beginning. You also have plenty of time to wonder why the force never varies it's strategy of throwing one object at a time. Good idea, terrible execution.
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Druidstone! It's a really great indie tactical RPG. Very fun and I never hear anyone talk about it.
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Finnish devs are usually bad at marketing and creating hype. I have that wishlisted, gotta check it out during next steam sale.
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Available on GOG too if anyone would prefer that. 🙂
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Sounds up my street, when I next have time to game I'll consider getting it.
Thanks.
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There's a bunch on the PS1 that got lost in the mix.
Ape Escape was really fun and novel, it was the first mandatory dual-stick release, and it did initially sell really well! It got two sequels on the PS2 but then drifted into spin-offs and party games. It's been two decades since the last proper installment.
Tomba! is delightful nonsense, a 2D adventure platformer that presented non-linear quests and tight controls. It's a cult-classic and the digital Special Edition on PS5 looks like it was done well.
Now for something truly forgotten: Running Wild. It's a kart racer but instead of karts it's a bunch of furries in a footrace. The announcer yells a lot, some of the character designs are lazy stereotypes, the graphics are muddy, but the track design is solid and it really feels fast when you get going. Very rewarding to learn the best lines and get into a clean flow.
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The Witness. It might have had its moment but it feels like it's probably pretty forgotten at this point. It's a first person puzzle game where you're on an island ... and it's not Myst, Riven, or ... that other game that was a puzzle game where you were on an island? At least as far into it as I've played, it's pretty low stakes and there's very little in the way of videos or audio narration. It's spooky but in bright daylight. There's quite a lot of game there, too.
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Also the comedic version, The Looker. I recommend it!
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I have good memories of LAN parties playing a game called DEFCON which is basically the Thermonuclear War game from the 80s movie Wargames. The game itself is fairly basic but was a blast to play with a group and I am a sucker for the retro vector atheistics.
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DEFCON
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1520/DEFCON/
I am a sucker for the retro vector atheistics.
The developer (Introversion Software) also had another game that used vector-ish graphics.
kagis
I liked that, though I don't know if I'd put it on a "best of" list. I've had a number of games, most recently Carrier Command 2, that I really enjoy that use untextured polygons. Think maybe it's that if a developer can't get distracted with fancy graphics, they're focused on gameplay, dunno.
Hmm. Looks like Introversion then made a game, Scanner Sombre, that uses points for graphics, not even lines.
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Introversion made another game I almost posted here: Uplink. Hacking-themed game that I used to love.
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Star Tropics for the NES.
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Full Throttle.
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Holy shit. I normally replay my copy through ScummVM. I knew there was a 3d remake in the works back in the day before the voice actor that played Ben died, but had no idea there was a remaster. Thanks for sharing.
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I think of two things: asphalt, and trouble.
Man, I love this game.
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Beyond Good and Evil
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Dark Fall 1 & 2 (specifically not 3)
couple of my favorite point and click adventures, and I've played a lot
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- Hacknet, it's almost like a detective game in a way
- The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, weird gary told me to add this but it's good in it's own right
- Flight (flash game), fly a paper airplane, buy upgrades, it's kinda like the Learn To Fly series
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Hacknet
https://store.steampowered.com/app/365450/Hacknet/
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1703340/The_Stanley_Parable_Ultra_Deluxe/
Flight (flash game)
Flash is pretty dead, but it looks like Kongregate is doing something to port stuff to newer Web-based platforms, and they have this running again, and it's free-to-play in a browser.
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Right at this moment it's Civilization 7. I've never seen it mentioned here, just on CivFanatics forums and mostly negatively on Reddit. It had a botched/way too early release. My personal theory is that 2K knew that GTA was getting delayed so they said no delay for Civ.
New giant patch inbound any day! I swear it's fun. Best combat in Civ so far, and I have played every mainline game for the past roughly 30 years.
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Gun. (2005) So fun.
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I love the little known MMO Dofus. Ive been playing it on and if for almost 20 years now. Lots of very different classes, gathering and manufacturing, and a very lovely art style. The combat is grid & turn based, kind-of like Final Fantasy tactics.
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Still no love for my babe Cubivore. Shit slaps
also Frolf. I miss the gamecube era :(
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https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/vczi8d/someone_donated_cubivore_one_of_the_rarest/
Someone donated Cubivore, one of the rarest Gamecube games of all time, to the thrift store I work at. I got to take it home and play it for a night.
Non-japanese copies are rare. Only about 5,000 were released to western audiences.
Huh.
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Yeah I used to rent it all the time, but never got a copy for myself which was a mistake. I doubt I'll ever afford a non-damaged copy lol
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The legend of dragoon.
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The Adventures of Lolo - a puzzle game on the NES. There were 1 or 2 sequels depending on how you count and they were fun too.
It’s a puzzle game with fairly simple mechanics but surprising complexity and difficulty. I beat both US versions and designed levels for a knockoff but have never met anyone in person that has heard of it.
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The Finals.
I love it, it's also among one of the most popular games right now.
Never see anyone talking about it.
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Patricks parabox. The ultimate sokoban IMO
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Revenge of the Mutant Camels - highlight 1: "Ninety-foot high, neutronium shielded, laser-spitting, death camels". Hightlight 2: Almost 40 years after its first release, in 2021 Jeff Minter fixed a bug on collision detection in the Commodore 64 version.
Impossible Mission - highlight: "Another visitor. Stay a while... stay forever!"
Deuteros - highlight: the way the game world unfolded and opened up
Syndicate - highlight: abusing the Persuadertron
Shadow Hearts - highlight: the Judgement Ring -
Wiz n'Liz
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It's a relatively obscure PS1 game in the horror genre.
The main thing that made it relatively unique among the horror game of the PS1 era is its lack of action mechanics. It’s essentially a horror dungeon crawler without action mechanics. You can run away or sneak past the invincible enemy, or if you gain a companion, the enemy kills your companion allowing you to run away when caught.
It is pretty different from the other horror games from the PS1 era, which made it relatively disappointing for those expecting it to be similar to the likes of Resident Evil or even Silent Hill.
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Kinetica - a racing game where the 'vehicles' are people in mechanical suits that make them look like sexy mecha, racing to old techno
Bloody Roar - a series of fighting games where you fight as people who can suddenly shift into other forms, some recognizable animals and some abstract, and with the ability in some arenas to kick people through walls or over ledges into new arenas
Forsaken - 3D hover vehicle battles
Tiny Tank - a game where you play as a sweary AI tank
Megaman Legends 1 and 2 - Megaman as a 3d adventure game with a storyline and characters
Gitaroo Man - a rhythm game I enjoyed, later imitated by some others
Shadow of the Colossus - more known but not cared for these days. A game in which there are only boss battles. A subtly told story. Part of the ICO universe.
Titan Souls - One boy, one bow, one arrow that can be magically recalled to the bow, and giant stone destroyers that he must conquer with nothing more. Kind of a 2D Shadow of the Colossus
BPM: Bullets Per Minute - everyone has the idea for a rhythm FPS. This is the only one that does a good job of it.
Receiver - a game in which you don't just hit R to reload, but have to go through the full manual of arms, dropping the clip, holstering the weapon, loading each round into the clip, drawing the weapon, seating the clip, racking the round, checking the chamber to make sure it fed correctly, aiming, firing, clearing the jam, all while worrying about killer robots.
Valley - a movement game that has such an amazing feeling of freedom in its movement
Tunnet - lovecraftian network technician game
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Did you see the GDQ run of Bullets Per Minute? That's what sold me on the game last year, such a cool game
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I did not. I'll have to check that out.
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Receiver
So good. The slight differences between weapons means that the muscle memory you've built up ends up tripping you on the next run.
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It discourages the use of muscle memory altogether. One of the things that make it so good is that it requires focus. It's not the sort of game you play while listening to music or second-screening a show. It doesn't ask much, just a bit of care and attention, but it takes all of it.
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I remember Kinetica! Loved playing it when I was younger. Still have the disc.
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It was a great concept, well executed for its time.
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Shadow Tactics Desperados III The Thaumaturge
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I prefer Commandos. I heard they're making a new one. Not sure if it's been released yet.
The was a Stargate SG-1 tactics game that came out, but it was so disappointingly terrible that I never finished it.
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Balrum
Beautiful isometric game inspired by 80's and 90's CRPGs.
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Strife - last commercial release (at least until a recent retro game using it) of the Doom Engine. Picked it up for £3.50 or something about '97.
Think Hexen but plot, charming pixel-comic art, and some potentially frustrating boss fights and rpg lite elements.
Lots of fun, and does interesting stuff. I quote the voice acting quite a lot, but no one notices. -
- Bionic Commando on Game Boy --> platform game with good graphics and good musics for a 1992 Game Boy game. It's an adaptation of the NES/Arcade game but in a futuristic world and more fluid controls (in my opinion) than the NES one.
- Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle --> really good tactical RPG with a funny universe and awesome music that was released early on the Nintendo Switch.
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Yes! BIONIC commando for the Gameboy was great! Tried the NES version once and you are right. Gameboy was superior...
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SCP:SL(SCP: Secret Laboratory Yes Steam Only
Edit:Fix Link and Grammer
::: spoiler Description/Opinion of the game a multiplayer Game uses SCP stories, and inspired by SCP:CB(SCP: Containment Breach)/SCP:CB multiplayer, you play as chaos,Mtf,scps,d-bois and scientists. in this game it takes place in SITE-02, you can set nukes, etc.
The goal is you must survive. the group that survives (Foundation,Chaos,scp) will win. it also relies on community hosted servers.(the devs also host one)
it takes place in a non-cannon site-02.
its pretty fun to play ,and very good for VC, it feels designed for it. ::: -
Dead Head Fred, that game is awesome and sadly forever locked to the PSP. That it has never gotten a console port is nothing short of criminal.
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Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. An absolute gem from Dontnod that plays like a double-A god of war with superb writing and voice performances.
Gives me the same vibes as Claire Obscure, but in a less flashy, more grounded world of early colonial America
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Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1493640/Banishers_Ghosts_of_New_Eden/
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Gotcha Force for the GameCube slaps hard and I want another one so bad. I've only met 1 person who also played it back then. Ahhh fuck just talking about it makes me wanna download it now
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Sanctum used to be really fun and has a kickass soundtrack
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Geometry Wars Retro Evolved is the best arcade style game in existence.
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Geometry Wars Retro Evolved
https://store.steampowered.com/app/8400/Geometry_Wars_Retro_Evolved/
While I wouldn't personally set it that high, I did have a lot of fun with it myself.
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Add in some Infected Mushroom and perhaps some actual mushrooms and you'll have the best time. I promise!
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Maximo! It’s a 3D hack and slash collectathon. It’s based on the Ghosts and Goblins games. There was a sequel that fell a little short of expectations (got rid of the really fun hub worlds). They were going to do a third game but Capcom canceled it.
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The Cube Escape series. Free to play escape the room puzzle games with a really creepy vibe
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The Strider reboot. I wouldn't have minded another one of them, but I guess I'll replay it again instead.
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The entire Pang series.
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“Hide and go fuck yourself.“
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Hmm. I don't know if they'd stand the test of time, but a few older games I enjoyed a lot back in the day that aren't going to show up much of anywhere due to age:
- Loony Labyrinth, a 2D video pinball game for the Mac and Windows by Little Wing Software. I've played huge numbers of tables on newer and more sophisticated engines, but that table kept me coming back for more hours of gameplay than any later ones. Not on GOG or Steam, though Little Wing sells copies directly.
- Flying Nightmares, or AV-8B Harrier Assault. Untextured polygon flight sim where you're operating off a US amphibious assault force; probably one of the few games kind of like Carrier Command 2 that I can think of in that you can also control other of your forces (though Flying Nightmares focuses on operating the Harriers, and Carrier Command 2 the amphibious assault ship). Doesn't look like GOG or Steam have them.
- Eufloria. Steam link for an HD re-release. One of those "real-time 4X" games, but using plants and seeds and minimalistic graphics.
- Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising. A spiritual successor to Carrier Command. One has an amphibious assault ship, can construct autonomous vehicles and move your ship around. Unlike Carrier Command 2, this is a single-player game. Wish that someone would make a more single-player-oriented Carrier Command 2. The graphics haven't really kept up with the time, and it tends to encourage exploiting the AI's weaknesses, but I've had a lot of fun with it.
It's not exactly unknown within its niche, but because it is niche, Rule the Waves 3, a game that simulates naval fleet command and development.
EDIT: Oh, here's an oddball, not quite as old game: Ghost Master. One acquires and upgrades different types of ghosts, then places them and uses their abilities to scare humans away from a location. Nothing else very similar to it out there that I'm aware of.
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Sprout Valley and Chicory: A Colorful Tale are two indie games I adore a bunch but don’t get much mainstream love.
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Sprout Valley
Chicory: A Colorful Tale
Looks like these are currently 70% and 50% off, respectively, on Steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1964820/Sprout_Valley/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1123450/Chicory_A_Colorful_Tale/
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Creaks. It's a puzzle platformer sort of in the style of Limbo and Inside. Beautiful hand drawn graphics. Really challenging puzzles. And the music feels like it organically evolves as you progress through the game.
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Chewy: Esc from F5
A funny little German point and click adventure about a little pink alien landing on earth and trying to get back to space, I think. I should play it again. I think by now it even has ScummVM support.
A little better known is Simon the Sorcerer. But it was kind of overshadowed by Monkey Island.
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Lost Kingdoms 2 for the GameCube
Great card battle concept that I wish was put into a modern game and improved with more transformations and monsters
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Griffon_VF-9
Wildly fun game, with a bit more than a few terrifying moments thrown in due to the PS limitations at the time. They turned it into a feature instead of a limitation, and it made the whole game more horrifying.
It was also a cool voice acted anime storyline with giant mechs on the moon as an adventure/run and gun game.
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Poo dollar
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Jump Ultimate Stars!
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Warzone 2100.
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Mars: War Logs, and Technomancer
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Sentient by Psygnosis for PC and PS1.
It is a super ambitious 1997 adventure game on a simulated space station with multiple endings. The whole crew is simulated also and there is a fairly open dialog system with which you can ask questions, give orders or just small talk.
I would give an arm and a leg for a proper remake.
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My favorite Atlus game is Digital Devil Saga 1&2 but that's not even people's third thought when I say Shin Megami Tensei PS2 era.
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Mortal Sin, a Melee - Roguellike with great visuals and a dev that cares a lot.
ΔV: Rings of Saturn, a hard-scifi 2d asteroid mining game. Great to relax to, a nice community and a great dev, linux native!
Deadlink, a Roguelike arena shooter, tight controls, pretty hard for an aging man like me, but i still like it, even if it puts me in my place regularly lol
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DayZ seems like a game that people either love or hate/have never heard of.
I'd almost claim it's up there with GTA series as the best games ever made.
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Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Has the first 2 seasons of the show. Never got a sequel :(
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Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/32510/LEGO_Star_Wars_III__The_Clone_Wars/
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302 comments
I don't see people talk about the Katamari Damacy games very much which is a shame because I think they're delightful! I also wish more people talked about Cattails (especially the sequel, Cattails: Wildwood Story), these games deserve more love imo haha
I feel it. I feel the cosmos!
This is what me and my partner say to each other when we drink good coffee.
These are apparently the remasters of the first two games for PC:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/848350/Katamari_Damacy_REROLL/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1730700/We_Love_Katamari_REROLL_Royal_Reverie/
From looking at Wikipedia and Steam, I don't think that there's a PC version of Me & My Katamari.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/634160/Cattails__Become_a_Cat/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1882500/Cattails_Wildwood_Story/
All four games are also on Switch!! That's where I played them!
The Katamari remasters are very well done as these things go. Just the right amount of graphical and compatibility boosting while not screwing with the gameplay, audiovisuals, or quirky vibes which made the originals so great.
I'm currently playing to a T, by the Katamari creator.
Not remotely similar, and hard to recommend to most people tbh... but it has the same joyful silliness that just makes me smile, somehow.
I saw an article about it!! I really want to play it but alas don't have anything that can run it, but once I can get a PS5 it's totally going on my shopping list!
One of the greatest games of all time from a design and gameplay perspective. There's a reason it's in the MoMA. The soundtrack is an all-timer as well.
Lah, la-la-la-la-la-la-laaah lah la la la-la lah!
Cattails series mentioned! I’ve replayed those two multiple times they’re so cute and the gameplay loop is so soothing and fun.
Cat Quest series (which is more dungeon-crawler, not cat sim) is also adorable and accessible but doesn’t seem to be mentioned too often.
Man I keep meaning to replay Wildwood Story but I know once I start again that's all I'm doing for the next few day lol... I love the colony layout editor so much, spent so many hours fine-tuning my colony to make it exactly the way I wanted it
https://store.steampowered.com/app/593280/Cat_Quest/