As I could not possibly care less about the scores or reviews given by Gamespot, I'll go ahead and use a defintion of underrated that isn't made of failure. The series I have in mind hasn't even been reviewed by Gamespot. Hell, the series has 10 games plus spinoffs and only one is listed here.
Touhou is the heigth of artistic achievement in gaming. Add to that gameplay that can be referred to as nothing less than godly, and you have something deserving of worship. Which, in Japan at least, it pretty much gets.
The Touhou Project is not for those who are unwilling to be faced with a challenge. Even on the easiest difficulty, the game can be incredibly hard. And to be able to keep up with the highest difficulty, Insane, even briefly takes tremendous skill and finely honed reflexes. To excel in Touhou one must memorize the bullet patterns deployed by the enemies and be able to respond to them perfectly.
Although it has no need of a powerful PC, and has fewer graphics options than a early-90's platformer, I would not hesitate to say that Touhou 08: Imperishable Night easily has the absolute best visual effects ever presented in a game. From the backgrounds, to the character designs, to the bullet patterns, the art of Touhou is absolutely breathtaking.
Touhou deserves more than mere praise. It deserves to be made into an officially recognized religion. It deserves shrines at which village people may offer fine silks and delicious cheeses. And yet, do the ignorant masses outside of Japan acknowledge Touhou as the heavenly experience beyond experiences that it is? No! Most who call themselves "gamers" have never even heard of it! And this is an insult. Not to me, not to Touhou, not to ZUN (the All Father and sole creator of Touhou), but to modern civilization as a whole. If we as a people cannot recoginze such a rare thing of pure bliss when it is brough into this world, then the human race is still in a pitiful state from which it must be dredged up and recrafted.
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