Hidden gems, niche games, and under appreciated games

What games come to mind when you think of the thread title? I'll give a couple off the top of my head. Am currently playing Tokyo Mirage Sessions for Wii U. It's a JRPG that takes elements from Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei games. I'm really liking the battle system and music (very Japanese I admit lol). Another game that comes to mind is Shadow Warrior for PC. Loved the humor and the gameplay. I have the second game but have yet to play it. I saw some of the reviews and it looks like it went in a different direction.

Ok your turn. Go!

Unfortunately it's quite dead now, but I really enjoyed Monday Night Combat

God Hand is one that immediately springs to mind. Really fun and humorous game on the PS2.

Okami is still the best zelda game ever made

You mentioned 1 of mine, op. Shin Megami Tensei games. Drakengard 1 and 2 are another, terrible gameplay but insane narrative.

Almost every good game from the Sega Saturn.

• Silent Hill Shattered memories
• Remember me
• Sleeping Dogs
• Mirror's Edge
• Spec Ops the line

God Hand. It’s secretly the best game in a genre that has Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, and Bayonetta.

Beyond that. Skullgirls might actually be the best tag fighter.

Knack 2 is the first game that comes to mind this generation.

• Alpha Protocol, it was overlooked because in typical Obsidian fashion, it was unfinished, buggy. But honestly it's probably one of the best action-spy games outside of Splinter Cell. A shame not so many people played it, and half of those wrote it off. Especially now that it is no longer available digitally.
• Grim Dawn. When it comes to action-rpg's a la Diablo, you generally here two games frequently; Diablo, and Path of Exile. You never hear about anything else, really, unless it has just come out. Grim Dawn is a game that had a long development, but incredibly well-done in that the updates were polished, content solid, and so forth. The final product was excellent, a loot-grinders paradise. But for whatever reason it just doesn't seem to have the broad appeal of Diablo or Path of Exile.
• Factorio. Has a very strong cult following but I NEVER hear anyone on here mention it. If you love micromanagement, planning, and so forth this is the game for you. Start out with a pickaxe and some basic schematics, hours later you have a sprawling factory complex that covers an infinite, procedurally-generated planet full of resources, obstacles, alien bugs, and so forth. Build automated train networks, program in controllers...it really is incredible. And FUN! It's one of those games where you go "OK, just a few more minutes" at 7 PM then suddenly it's 3 AM.
• Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. During it's release it got good reviews, but then it disappeared. As a kid, I loved the Commandos games; the tactical combat, the overwhelming odds, the frustrating but overwhelmingly rewarding trial and error...all that was lost in a genre that saw very few titles for years until Shadow Tactics came out. And it was glorious.
• Styx series. These games suffer from some questionable production values, but honestly the stealth genre is really not doing too great these past few years and Styx does the sub-genre a good service. And I don't mean the "oh this game has a stealth option" games, I am talking about the "you better hide and ambush folks because if you're spotted you're dead" kind of games. REAL stealth games.
• Crimson Skies: the semi-steam punk, alt-history WWI flight sim was pure epic fun. We need more flight sims like this game, you know, creative ones with fictitious planes and conflicts. Seems like everything these days is either historically-accurate or sci-fi futuristic.

Valkyria Chronicles 4; Seriously, buy it!!

@mrbojangles25: Crimson Skies is my favorite flight combat game of all time. Why can't anyone make a game like this again?

I just mentioned Heavy Metal: Geomatrix for Dreamcast in another forum. Like a third person arena shooter mixed with an arena brawler. That and Power Stone were the go to party games for my friends and me back in high school and college. Anarchy Reigns was sort of like a modern spiritual successor, and an underrated gem in its own right.

Wet was the game I always wished Max Payne had been.

Starlancer on pc with a flight stick is amazing!!!

£1.

Metro Trilogy is incredibly underrated and underappreciated when its one of the best SP story driven FPS series around today.

Vanquish - Short but one hell of a TPS. Very hardcore game which of course being hardcore means it sold only 1 million...

The Evil Within Series - How does the first game have a 75 meta? Very good hardcore survival horror. First sold over 3 million while the second... couldn't even reach 2 million. Just shows how people are becoming more casualized over time.

Killzone Series - KZ2 had the best online ever in a console game, monster game, 91 meta, ultra hardcore. While KZSF did not live up to the hype it still had a good online mode. They sold about 3+ million each so sales are decent, yet people hate the single player campign? Eh... people these days...

Shadow of the Colossus - A masterpiece. Many talk good about it, yet it sold only 1 million on PS2, 1 million on PS3 remaster and the remake on PS4 another 1 million. Sad.

Im really surprised how Resident Evil 2 Remake managed to break 4 million sales. Maybe the name sold the game because it was pretty good non casual game.

Antichamber, Legend of Grimrock and Legend of Grimrock 2.

Thanks for the heads up.

I want to play this, but the game is $150 or more now.

Did it release digitally?

@Star67: I know that it’s available for download on the PS3 as a PS2 Classic, not sure if you can get it on the PS4.

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy. Seriously, now with three versions on modern hardware (PC, Switch, XBOX Classic BC on XBOX ONE) AND patched of it's most crippling bug, no reason to avoid it now.

I'll have to do that then, I'm not spending hundreds of dollars on a ps2 game

Gravity Rush 1 & 2.

They're not for everyone, but everyone should try them.

Too many to mention, but mostly SEGA games and games on SEGA systems though.

I agree with these as well.

I'll try to only list games that haven't already achieved massive cult classic popularity over the years.

Retro64's Best Friends (NOT SpongeBob SquarePants - Obstacle Odyssey) for PC.

Lychnis (MS DOS)

A Hat in Time (PC/PS4/XBOX ONE/Wii-U/Switch)

Postal 2

Arx Fatalis (PC/XBOX)

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (Win95/Genesis/32x/SNES)

Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (GBA specifically)

Fuzion Frenzy (XBOX)

Rayman Raving Rabbids 1(Wii/PS2/Xbox 360/PC - Bad Rayman game, but fun party game)

Iconoclasts (PC)

Katana Zero (PC)

Kao the Kangaroo Round 2 (PC/XBOX/PS2)

Depth Hunter 2: Deep Dive (PC)

I could go on, but I think that's enough for now. Some are more popular than others, but I still tried to keep my picks unpopular enough to still be considered cult classics, and not belated hits.

Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight fantastic game. Short and sweet.

@Renegade_Fury I say almost since I don't consider Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter 2 underrated (I guess maybe now but they were ported on the 360 and PS3).

Popolocrois is a great little JRPG for the PSP. (I know it's a watered down version of the PS1 games, but it's still good.)

Kao the Kangaroo Round 2 comes to mind as well. That recently got released on Steam. I owned the physical copy for years. Another one would be....Ty The Tasmanian Tiger.

Also, Malice.

It's on the PS3 store digitally, or you could always try emulating it.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 1 and 2

My picks are men of war assault squad series, amazing games tons of depth, but company of heroes always seemed more popular.

Mad max got shat on in reviews but I rather enjoyed it.

NEO Scavenger, a brutal post apocalyptic triumph which no has heard of.

Sang Froid:Tales of Werewolves. Just an overall excellent game, again not many people have heard of it.

Good to know. Surprised the physical copy is worth so much.

PS2 is slowing becoming the NES/SNES when it comes to retro game collecting.

@mrbojangles25: Grim Dawn is a fantastic game and Crate keeps improving it. One of my favorite games of all time.

I think Populous the beginning is still fun and it is freely available.

Was just playing this the other night.....cool game.

Champions of Norrath for the PS2. It was a dungeon crawler game similar to Diablo and allowed for 4 player local co-op or online co-op

I never hear this one brought up, was one of my favorite games that gen

Alien isolation

Spec ops

Grandia 2 and 3

Get even

Necrovision

Urban Chaos riot response

Hybrid Heaven

Shadows of the dammed

I believe this was one of the first games to use a physics gun pre-dating Halflife 2.

@jeezers said:

I never hear this one brought up, was one of my favorite games that gen

- Brave Fencer Musashi (I never really hear this one mentioned but I loved it. It was humorous, had lots of content, and a really fun combat system from what I remember)

- One Piece Pirate Warriors Series (Usually scores 6's but it's definitely my favorite musou game. Has a great variety of characters and they all play differently. Any fans of the anime would love these games because you get to utilize a lot of the cool moves and transformations seen throughout the series)

- Vectorman (One of my favorite Sega games. Felt super innovate and the graphics and gameplay were really impressive back then imo)

- Heart of Darkness (Literally no one talks about this game. Does anyone even remember it lol)

Dust: An Elysian Tail

One of the best Metroivanias to come out last generation.

I remember Brave Fencer and Vectorman. Never got to play-through Vectorman though, which is another reason I'm hyped for the Sega Genesis mini. I believe I did beat Braver Fencer back in the day.

I think God Hand went from the most under rated game to the most over rated game in a relatively short time span. I've played through it and it is a fun game but it is not the masterpiece that most people see it as nowadays.

Some games that I consider Hidden Gems:

1) Mega Man Unlimited: fan made mega man game, free to play one of the best in the series. Anyone with any interest in the series needs to play it.

2) Aragami: awesome stealth game with great mechanics and a really great visual style, it got some hype at its release but I rarely hear it mentioned now

3) Aggelos: absolutely amazing homage to the wonderboy series, its on the switch and PC and I never hear anyone talk about it, fans of wonderboy or retro action adventure style games need to play it, its one of the best in its genre.

4) Ersatz: awesome platforming that focuses on speedrunning and has an amazing soundtrack, very fun to play, very unique.

5) Furi: ridiculously good boss rush game that combines hack n slash with bullet hell, and a cryptic but fairly touching story. Very difficult and very rewarding as well

I could go on with random stuff like this forever.

£4 Fallout inspired game. 30-50 hours of gameplay.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/250520/UnderRail/

Shadow Tactics
Aragami

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Series and Ys. Super underrated JRPG gems.