What are your favorite games that you never see mentioned anywhere?
What are your favorite games that you never see mentioned anywhere?
What are your favorite games that you never see mentioned anywhere?
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.
Katamari Damacy
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.
Cattails (especially the sequel, Cattails: Wildwood Story)
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.
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
Cat Quest series
Lah, la-la-la-la-la-la-laaah lah la la la-la lah!
Kenshi. Ive only ever seen 1 person mention it in the year I've been on Lemmy.
It's like depressed RuneScape.
... Was I that person?
I evangelize Kenshi like the Holy Nation evangelizes Okran.
Also...!
Kenshi has so much scale and depth it's hard to explain what you "do" in the game I love it
Die.
A LOT
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.
Kenshi is one of those great war crime simulators
Escape Velocity and its open-source spiritual successor, Endless Sky.
EV Nova is what got me hooked on Star Citizen
Never played Escape Velocity, but Endless Sky was fantastic. Both the main quest lines had fantastic stories, especially the first one.
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).
Re. EV series ports - check the first link in my previous comment ;)
And I had the same experience with Endless Sky when I first found out about it some years ago. It has gotten a lot of updates since then, but I am holding out for a 1.0 release
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.
Half-Life, Thief, and the original Sims games (City, Ant, etc) were my original gaming go-tos!
Sim ant rules, you can be a spider sometimes
Disco bandit checking in! You got any meat paste?
I stack my meat like I stack the bodies of knob goblins in my wake
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 :)
Oh man they have added and changed so much since you dropped off
Board games or video games?
Or The Game?
hey f$#@ you buddy I haven't lost the game through the internet in awhile, that was a low swipe
hide the sausage?
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!
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.
Outlaws
https://store.steampowered.com/app/559620/Outlaws__A_Handful_of_Missions/
Looks like it's currently 65% off on GOG:
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.
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...
God tier game. I've never even been close to beating it.
Dark messiah of might and magic
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.
Came here to post the same! It’s fantastic!
Dark messiah of might and magic
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2100/Dark_Messiah_of_Might__Magic/
Yep that one, I've got the CD at home.
Might and Magic anything beyond Heros of Might and Magic 3 is rarely if ever talked about. Although it was an awesome series.
ton of mentions until this day
Mount & Blade. It’s not unpopular per se, but somehow I never saw anyone mentioning it around here in Lemmy.
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
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!
Freedom Fighters
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1347780/Freedom_Fighters/
That 94% score doesn't surprise me at all. Ugh, I wish I had more time to dedicate to gaming.
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.
Enderal.
I'll edit this later when I can post from my comp (mobile now) with the full pitch as 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.
Blast Corps
Oh fuck yeah
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Fight it out!
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
Ghosts and Goblins
Listen kids, this is how you spot them, this and their rubber skin. Dogs bark at them too.
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.
TIL there's an arcade version of Ghosts n Goblins
Thanks for the links!
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
Still to this day I hum Black Sabbath when I drive fast or do any fancy weaving.
luanti https://www.luanti.org/
My family (wife and multiple kids) oddly enough have access to both this and Minecraft and actually prefer Luanti most of the time.
It's Luanti* - You got the name wrong
ok I edited it
Whoah, when did they change the name?
Just recently
October
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
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 :\
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.
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
mass effect trilogy
Looks like there's currently a 90% off sale.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328670/Mass_Effect_Legendary_Edition/
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
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
I have brave fencer on ps1! Still play it sometimes. Sadly missing the ff bonus disc
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.
Is ReCore really worth the play? It was on my list when it came out, but got very mixed reviews.
I enjoyed it but I've never finished it because it gets repetitive and starts to feel like a grind.
It fits my play style because I game in fits and starts so I've been playing it in chunks.
I liked it enough to go get it for PC after playing it on Xbox GamePass years ago.
Kinda cheating, since this game (hell, entire series; linking my fave entry) has kind of a cult following in Central/Eastern Europe.
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.
The video looked cool but for the picture they had to go with the Pixar face??
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!
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.
When videogame rentals were a thing, developers often intentionally made games unreasonably hard to spur repeat rentals or purchases. My money is on that.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Even just the soundtrack is worth the price of admission.
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
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.
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.
Armadillo Run
Robot Alchemic Drive (R.A.D.)
The Saboteur
Saboteur was unexpectedly good
You are the only person I have ever seen mention Armadillo Run. I used to be obsessed with that game.
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.
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.
I always wanted to get this game when it came out but I only had a PS4 and no money...
It's such a fun game, I recommend giving it a go, it's one of those games you can play for a long time or just a quick little run through. it's on PS4 now I'm pretty sure.
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.
Cyber Empires (PC), Shadowrun (Genesis), Betrayal at Krondor (PC).
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.
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.
Betrayal at Krondor was amazing. Masterfully written, with fun riddles, and that music chef's kiss
“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.
“Whiplash!”
Apparently this was known as Fatal Racing outside North America.
Im surprised I missed this, I love this era of racing games. Gonna try to find a copy!
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
Nine parchments
https://store.steampowered.com/app/471550/Nine_Parchments/ (apparently currently 80% off)
Syndicate Wars.
The first Syndicate game is also awesome!
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.
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.
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.
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/356500/STAR_WARS_Galactic_Battlegrounds_Saga/
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
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.
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.
I think they were called PerfectSim. I only tried a few rounds with them; they were nightmare material, especially if they got ahold of any grenade launchers. As soon as I hear the shot go off, I knew I was toast.
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.
i played the shit out of that. still have the deluxe "saga" edition complete in box.
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.
The Specialist
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.
Space Station Silicone Valley
"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.
Urban Terror
When the homie busts out the Urban Terror USB stick at the LAN party
Shining Force 3. Mostly cause it's marooned on the Saturn but it's so friggin good.
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. 😍
Really wish there were more games like this.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1967430/Ghost_Trick_Phantom_Detective/
Thing Thing series
Pocket Tanks
Black Ice
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.
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.
I played a much different Echo with my partner during COVID hahaha
It's been on my wishlist for I don't even know how long
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.
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.
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.
This looks great for my wife and I, also our niblings. Thanks.
Back in the day I really enjoyed ONI.
_edit: _ some gameplay footage.
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.
Thanks for that link, it really brings back good memories.
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.
Guardian Heroes was an outstanding RPG beat 'em up on Sega Saturn. It had
Nothing has really scratched the same itch since (yes, I'm aware there's a sequel, but it's terrible).
The anime Uncle From Another World talks about Guardian Heroes a lot. It's a fun show you should chek it out.
That sounds great. The kind of game I'd've loved but never had any Sega consoles (and no one really spoke about emulating them) so missed all of it.
If you have an Xbox, by some miracle they have it available, and it's $5. I highly recommend it.
Shadowgate / Deja Vu / The Uninvited (NES)
Uniracers (SNES)
Custom Robo (GC)
Lost Kingdoms (GC)
Baiten Kaitos (GC)
Man Uniracers is so good, my friends and I would have huge tournaments. Too bad Pixar got all uppity and claimed they had a trademark on unicycles. Good grief
I kinda want to get back into programming enough to create a knockoff version... Pone dev indie games are all the rage now, lol
Epistory and Nanotales
Both fantastic games with beautiful graphics and good for typing practice.
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.
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
Butterfly made my wrists fall off. Worth it.
Star Tropics for the NES.
Balloon Fight. Amazing game with great controls.