|
What were games in your collection that nobody wanted to borrow and didn’t make the cover of Nintendo Power, but got hours of play even when they weren’t the only option? North & South on NES (based on a French comic), be either the union or confederates and move your armies across America. When generals met it went into action mode and you could command your infantry, horses, and cannons. Success at high levels required swapping between them rapidly, and casualties were permanent, so a winning army could have one guy left. Cannons could knock down trees, barns, and bridges. Supply trains and forts could be infiltrated with one dude armed with throwing knives. When defending the train it was top tier to punch the guy off and watch him get left behind. Could start in 1862, 63, or 64 to impact the map. Lots of fun and challenging at higher difficulties, with an excellent two player mode. I never knew anyone else who had it, and when I hear it referenced it’s usually just “a Civil War NES game?! Bah!” Police Quest: SWAT 2 on PC, similar to Jagged Alliance or XCom, lead the LAPD on missions to rescue hostages, arrest high profile suspects, all while being held to a high standard, meaning no unnecessary gunfire and harming anyone is a big deal. More fun than it sounds, especially as you can ram down walls, rappel onto roofs, and deploy police dogs, and a perfect mission score likely meant zero shots fired. Although the voiced debriefings could be hilarious, especially when the LAPD helicopter mysteriously went down in flames. In an interesting twist there is also a campaign for a California cult battling the cops while taking recruits and loot. Their guys are much lower skilled but disposable and chaotic mission results are fine if the objective was achieved. For a series built around police procedures, surprisingly the bad guys were allowed to win and their final mission is a successful escape from LAX. Both sides had a persistent campaign where units could gain skills or get killed or maimed and be lost forever. The cult had an awesome mechanic where your starting unit pool is low skill but you can hand out pamphlets during missions and bring back potential recruits and some would end up joining. Not a defensible game on technical issues, snipers are overpowered and the AI ignores them, graphics are a mess, and rifles have unlimited ammo so selling everyone’s pistol for cash breaks the early game. Still a weirdly ambitious sim that I couldn’t get anyone else to care about.
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 18:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 18:33 |
|
|
Sine Mora A really nice looking, well designed shmup full of unusual, but well executed mechanics, a compelling and well told story. Universally hated because playing through it required a controller with autofire, a feature found only on the crummiest of third party controllers in the era the game was made.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 22:30
|
|
|
G-Nome Most likely the reason I enjoyed it was because I didn't have any Mechwarrior games, but it does have a bunch of things recommending it. It's a mech game, but one where you could eject to occupy other (unoccupied) buildings or mechs. And since, while ejected, you have a weapon that can force-eject your enemies, you could basically pick your favorite mech by what you ran into and grab that one, then use it to kill the previous pilot and get through the mission. Some of the mech designs were really cool (I especially liked the Widowmaker, a rather fragile mech that looks like a giant daddy longlegs spider) and I loved that you could go into a building, turn on its self-destruct, and then run back out. The piloting took some getting used to since the mechs all tended to handle differently, but it meant there were some additional considerations as to which mech you chose to take. It also had a fairly involved story that felt like it was a small part of a much larger whole, and you had various ways of ordering your teammates around so you could get some tactical mileage out of them (though their pathfinding AI was painful when you had to cross a bridge). I doubt it holds up now but I enjoyed it enough to play it through a couple of times. I don't think anyone else even remembers it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 00:23
|
|
|
Tetris Plus, for the PSX. It really didn't get much attention, didn't review terribly well, and most everyone I knew wasn't interesting in puzzle games by that point. But I spent a looooot of time with Puzzle Mode (Classic was just ordinary Tetris).
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 00:39
|
|
|
A $10 budget PS2 game called Road Trip. It’s a Choro Q (Penny Racers) title. I like to call it a CarPG, you travel around on an island winning races, playing mini games, and completing different objectives while upgrading your car. It takes less than 10 hours to complete I don’t know anybody else who played this, much less liked it. I’ve played through it 5 or 6 times over the years and found it pretty fun every time
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 02:14
|
|
|
Pen Pen TriIcelon for the Dreamcast. I find the tapping required in the swimming and sliding parts to be relaxing. It's about an inch deep, though. The graphics are colorful at least. I played it a lot at the Dreamcast launch. I'm pretty sure I unlocked all of the cosmetics.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 02:37
|
|
|
Star Wars Rebellion. I don't think I've ever seen anyone talking about it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 03:37
|
|
|
Monster Hunter yeaj internationally it was a huge hit, especially once it hit the psp, but the original ps2 launch was a flop in the US and was panned in every review I saw. The series has advanced a lot in follow up iterations, but the clunky charm of animations having weight, and a control scheme where you used the control sticks to attack and had to spend a decent chunk of time farming for mats to build stuff was fun to me. Cyborg Justice a Streets of Rage style beat 'em up for the genesis where you were you were a human that crash landed on a robot planet and had your brain put in a robot body and go about smashing up other robots to escape. It featured the ability to rip off parts from other robots and either steal them or throw them at other enemies. No one else had even heard of it when I was a kid. Though looking it up now I see it was made by the same folks who made Ecco the dolphin. I also really liked the soundtrack, but then again I liked the sonic spinball soundtrack which is universally hated so
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 05:00
|
|
|
I honestly really enjoyed the first two Bubsy games on the Genesis, especially the first one. Now it seems like the games are only known for being laughed at for how horrible they are but I thought the first Bubsy was a fun platformer.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 05:29
|
|
|
Elentor posted:Star Wars Rebellion. I don't think I've ever seen anyone talking about it. As a Star Wars game megafan when that came out I kinda liked it, but dang it had clunky systems. Wasn’t it impossible to lose to the computer because they wouldn’t capture your leaders? Lots of cool ideas, I liked being able to build tie defenders and dark troopers, and it was fun when a random character was force sensitive and could be trained. The space battle cutscenes were fantastic. I did like building a Death Star and destroying every planet possible, then seeing my approval rating suddenly max out because the internal spreadsheet glitched.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 05:44
|
|
|
Stars! for Windows 3.1. I was obsessed with this ancient game in High School, and played it for years. Started my love of strategy and 4x games.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 06:36
|
|
|
Bedlam for the PC. It was a ridiculous explosion fueled isometric mech shooter that for some reason had really strict ammo limits or I stunk at the game and would regularly run out of ammo and unable to fight back. Future Cop: LAPD for PS1. Isometric mech game where you could switch between modes and had full game coop. Stupidly, massively difficult.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 11:59
|
|
|
The space empires series on PC. Extremely janky and busted 4x but it had a fantastic ship customization system cool weapons and structures and a nifty balance mod.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 15:53
|
|
|
Future Cop: LAPD for PS1. Isometric mech game where you could switch between modes and had full game coop. Stupidly, massively difficult. [/quote] This had a 2 player VS mode that I always played with my friends in middle school, the game was a lot of fun. Nothing else quite like it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 16:24
|
|
|
Uniracers aka Unirally, for the SNES. 2D tracks where all the racers were unicycles, extremely zippy and fast, and you’re encouraged and rewarded for doing a lot of sick flips and stunts. The devs were a sued by Pixar (assholes) and lost because well obviously all computer generated unicycles must be the same! 
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 17:22
|
|
|
Gotta disagree about Uniracers, I enjoyed the hell out of that when it came out
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 17:38
|
|
|
Terminal Velocity: https://3drealms.com/catalog/terminal-velocity_40/ I used to play multiplayer on MPlayer.com in '98 and '99 on my 28.8 connection.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 21:35
|
|
|
I liked Terminal Velocity too, it was very impressive for its time. The game I like that nobody even knows about is Reunion, a 4x space game.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 21:55
|
|
|
ToxicToast posted:I honestly really enjoyed the first two Bubsy games on the Genesis, especially the first one. Now it seems like the games are only known for being laughed at for how horrible they are but I thought the first Bubsy was a fun platformer. I didn't find the first that fun, but my sister and I loved the second one.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 22:29
|
|
|
Peachfart posted:Stars! for Windows 3.1. I was obsessed with this ancient game in High School, and played it for years. Started my love of strategy and 4x games. Holy poo poo you are not alone. Watching the strategy FotM on Usenet shift from Tri-Immune to JoaT/AR hyperminer to CA "resource monster" was the first point in my life I got to see a meta evolve "live". In retrospect, my NES gaming was not terribly obscure, with Zanac coming the closest... but several of my friends were into it too, and it was used as a bludgeon against the developers of Tyrian to make their game actually be the game it was. Tyrian is... not obscure, and they acknowledge Zanac in their OST. A lot of DOS-era shmup players who never played Zanac would nevertheless immediately recognize bits of it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 23:01
|
|
|
Conker's Bad Fur Day (64 version) Multiplayer: It was good with 4 people I swear!
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 01:52
|
|
Cat Army
|
CliffyB's Lawbreakers was better than Overwatch. No, I did not buy it tho, I'm not that stupid.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 02:14
|
|
|
AngryRobotsInc posted:Tetris Plus, for the PSX. It really didn't get much attention, didn't review terribly well, and most everyone I knew wasn't interesting in puzzle games by that point. But I spent a looooot of time with Puzzle Mode (Classic was just ordinary Tetris). Tetris Plus is my personal favorite version of Tetris, so you're not alone 
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 07:28
|
|
|
Courier Crisis, because it came in a bundle with the Playstation I got for Christmas. A horrendous game by all accounts, it suffered from major lag and pop-up issues as well as being too drat hard but I loved the idea of being a bmx courier and doing stunts and kicking people out of the way as I sped through traffic.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 09:20
|
|
|
 Chrysanthemum, an obscure Mac shareware puzzle game that doesn't really play like anything else. I probably enjoyed it more than Columns or Tetris, and I think it could've been a big hit had it managed to find an audience. Castlequest, the game that disappointed many a child by not bearing the slightest resemblance to its awesome cover art. I liked it enough that I rented it multiple times as a kid, and it was one of maybe two or three NES games I bought used after the NES died, but before I started collecting NES games. I just really had a thing for mysterious, labyrinthine games. I didn't play Milon's Secret Castle as a kid, but I bet I would've loved that too.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 10:44
|
|
|
Run Saber I rented it a bunch of times from the Blockbuster near us and ended up buying their copy when they were selling off their SNES games. Wicked fun game with tons of off the wall boss fights and a rad soundtrack. It most closely compares to games like Strider but is way easier. I think that's it's only flaw: its super short. Only 5 levels, and even on hard it's not that difficult. I can beat it in normal in about 30 minutes and my last try on hard mode got to the last level at least. Nobody knew what the hell this game was. Nobody talked about it. It got zero hype. It's one of those games that retro nerds found out years later was super awesome and now carts are like $69.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 14:49
|
|
|
AngryRobotsInc posted:Tetris Plus, for the PSX. It really didn't get much attention, didn't review terribly well, and most everyone I knew wasn't interesting in puzzle games by that point. But I spent a looooot of time with Puzzle Mode (Classic was just ordinary Tetris). This is the one with the little explorer guy with the hat right? In the DF Retro Tetris episode John Linneman had nothing but good things to say about it and said it was one of the best iterations of Tetris ever.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 15:13
|
|
|
SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:Uniracers aka Unirally, for the SNES. 2D tracks where all the racers were unicycles, extremely zippy and fast, and you’re encouraged and rewarded for doing a lot of sick flips and stunts. The devs were a sued by Pixar (assholes) and lost because well obviously all computer generated unicycles must be the same! Uniracers is great. I don't normally go much for racing games, but the fact that doing sweet jumps and flips makes you go faster really helps.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 15:27
|
|
|
Pablo Nergigante posted:This is the one with the little explorer guy with the hat right? In the DF Retro Tetris episode John Linneman had nothing but good things to say about it and said it was one of the best iterations of Tetris ever. Yeah, that's the one. He was used in Puzzle Mode. You had to get him to the bottom as quickly as possible. He'd walk back and forth, could drop down into spaces that would fit him, and climb blocks you placed on top of him. You had to avoid a spiked ceiling, that would drop one row space every 20ish seconds.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 15:29
|
|
|
Quiet Feet posted:Run Saber This is one of the first roms I played and I thought it was really cool too, I never knew why nobody would talk about it, same with Sky Blazer.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 16:11
|
|
|
Rollersnake posted:
Have you ever played Zoop? Looks similar from the screenshot.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 16:19
|
|
|
Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord for Sega Master System. It's extremely simple, grindy, and bullshit hard at the beginning, and the final boss is locked behind an indecipherable puzzle, but I played it countless times growing up and somehow enjoyed it every time.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 16:41
|
|
|
I don't know if it's "hated" or if I'm just the only person who remembers it, but I had a pretty good time with the Star Wars: The Clone Wars game from the PS2/GC/XBOX era. Not Clone Wars like the cartoon from around that time, but it was a (mostly) vehicle combat game that I remember being pretty fun. The multiplayer in particular was dope, there was a horde mode in the arena from the end of Episode II where you got to play as an on-foot Jedi that felt really satisfying. Also being a dick in multiplayer and boosting into my opponents as the Hailfire Droid to run them over. Coolness Averted posted:Monster Hunter yeaj internationally it was a huge hit, especially once it hit the psp, but the original ps2 launch was a flop in the US and was panned in every review I saw. I vaguely recall the Game Informer review for this game and yeah they were very confused.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 18:15
|
|
|
I have a real soft spot for Virtual Bart even though it legitimately sucks. I think it's mostly because of the decent tomato/egg throwing stage but I like some of the lovely platforming stages too like baby Bart
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 18:33
|
|
|
More in the spirit of the thread AKA old, I'm probably one of the only people who knows of, played, and enjoyed the RTT game Abomination. My brother and I actually tried to play through the campaign cooperatively a couple years back but hit some unrecoverable crashing about 2/3 through.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 19:57
|
|
|
I refuse to give a synopsis for this game, I think it was released for 20 bucks later in the ps1 lifetime, and it is absolutely impossible and awful. I dont think I've gotten past the 2nd or 3rd mission but I love it. Spec ops: stealth patrol
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2019 23:39
|
|
|
Another two titles I thought of are Bust A Groove 1 and 2 for the PSX (titled Bust A Move in Japan). I have no idea how well they reviewed, or if they were popular elsewhere. No one else around me had even heard of them, let alone wanted to play them. But I was a fiend for rhythm games during that time period. I spent so, so much time on these two games. I learned how to disc swap on the PSX solely because I got my hands on a import copy of BaG 2. They're solid entries into the rhythm genre, and it's a crime they don't emulate well. The game and sound get desynced, which is death for a rhythm game. Seriously, though, check out this insanity. Best rhythm games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DL3axNz7Qo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypbW_I7OCZA
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 00:26
|
|
|
I still have a nostalgic fondness for Mickey Mousecapade even though it was on retrospect kind of a lousy game where you could cheat your way through the last boss. To be fair, it was the second NES game I owned.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 01:44
|
|
|
Holy poo poo, bust a groove. I never played the second one, but the first one rarely left my PlayStation for at least several months. I made all my friends and family play it too, several of them got their own copy the next day
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 02:14
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 18:33 |
|
|
Fox Hunt an FMV game for the Playstation 1 and it sucks out loud. However, the premise is so goofy and timecapsule that I love it in a charming, bygone era way. The protagonist brags about how much he knows by watching TV so the CIA makes him track down a terrorist who broadcasts through TV.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 02:30
|
|