Under/Rated

[Neon Ignition]

With each generation it seems the number of new releases keeps rising and with that you increasingly get those games that get caught up in major release wakes or fail to hit the button at the right moment or are simply just not up to scratch but have a strange allure.

What games from any generation do you think hardly anyone played but should have?
It could be something that scored well but failed to sell or even something that didn't sell and scored awful but you found to be an enjoyable way to spend a few hours. We're not so much looking for the cult titles that keep reoccuring over time like Killer 7 or God Hand, we're talking about the ones no-one originally noticed or remembers:

Mine:

[charlesr]

I played Cold Fear as my horror game. It was really good.

[briareos_kerensky]

Yggdra Union on the GBA and Ring of Red on the PS2. Yggdra Union turned out to be one of my favourite strategy games ever and while Ring of Red hit me with its setting and interesting take on battles, though it wasn't perfect and prone to abusing.

[rmoxon]

This generation there have been quite a few I can think of off hand, but the big two for me are Dark Sector, which was a fantastic cover based shooter and more recently Singularity which was just as good.

[abigsmurf]

Wonder boy 2-5. As I've said before elsewhere, if Wonderboy 2 and 3 had been on the NES, this series would still be fondly looked upon and getting games. Master System as a whole is under rated.

World of Illusion with Mickey and Donald. The co-op elements were incredibly innovative for the time.

Azure Dreams. Great Roguelike for the PSX. Loads of stuff to do. Deserves a proper sequel (got a rubbish, barely connected spiritual sequel on the DS)

[Skull Commander]

So much I can mention, but I'll try and pic one from each generation.

This Gen: The Club (Xbox360) - So many people didn't understand this game properly, and as a result it got ignored. It's an amazing score attack title and I ploughed a lot of time into it trying to beat others scores. I still have it and intend to go back again.

Honourable Metion - Sega Rally (Xbox 360)

Last Gen: War of the Monsters (PS2) - Fantastic B movie monster fight-a-thon. Destroy cities, chuck bits of buildings at each other and featured clones of all the classic creature feature type mainstays. Still gets played in my house.

Honourable Mention - Urban Reign (PS2)

32 Bit: Daytona (Saturn) - Some people like it, but it always seems to get a raw deal from the majority of people. It isn't pretty but it plays fantastic and I personally play it more now than Sega Rally.

Honourable Mention - Shin Shinobi Den (Saturn)

16 Bit: Rushing Beat Syura (Super Famicom) - Superb Streets of Rage style game. While it never reaches the heights of SOR2, it's miles ahead of the third one, and gives the two Final Fight follow ups a run for their money.

Honourable Mention - Plok! (Snes)

[Neon Ignition]

It'd be great to grow a massive list of these, love this kinda stuff

[Neon Ignition]

Freedom Fighters:



Quantum Redshift:



This last one seems really obvious but I'm assuming no-one bought it as there's criminally never been a sequel... the best rally racer ever (yes it is!)

Rallisport Challenge 2:

[dvdx2]

Blue stinger DC

Gun Griffon Blaze ps2

Illbleed DC

Fantavision Ps2

[Family Fry]

Said it in the import thread Chulip on ps2, fantastic little game ahead of its time from when it was originally released in Japan. Its from the guy who later gave us little kings story, that really should be enough for people to seek out this quirky crazy title.

[crocky-chocky]

I'm so going to end up buying a US PS2 just for Chulip. Looks wonderful.

Couple of under appreciated gems that I recently picked up:

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. Most people seemed put off by the giant and the lead character, but once I got used to their goofy charms, I got totally swept up in the lush gameworld and unique boss battles. The puzzles were really nicely pitched in the sense that they were large in scale rather than tough to solve, which kept progress really satisfying.

Primal (PS2). Cost me all of 49 pence, and so far seems a superbly made Soul-Reaver-em-up. Quite amazing, goth-tacular graphics for a PS2 game, and the 2 main characters are nicely realised too.

[DarkSavior]

Love this thread!

This Gen: Gotta be Nier (X360) - absolutely brilliant action RPG and really really long, would never even have considered buying it but someone bought it for me as a present and I was blown away.

Previous: Red Dog (DC) unbelievably fun multiplayer but got thrown to the dogs in reviews and sold pretty bad as far as Im aware. If it wasn't for death tank, this'd probably be our most played retro multiplayer game.

[nakamura]

Haven is a really fun and visually impressive PS2 platformer. A horrible looking main character lets it down though.




Racing Battle. Never released outside of Japan due to the lack of success with the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series.

[JazzFunk]

Some really good suggestions here.

Victorious Boxers on PS2, one of the best boxing games full stop and a title that seems to get very little love:



Another would be Road Trip Adventure on PS2, I love that game:

[Guts]

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines was released the same day as Half-Life 2. Yeah, unsurprisingly it was a flop with something like 70,000 sales in the first weeks. I guess it can be called a cult classic today, but since I'm feeling rebellious I'm going to include it anyway! If any game should be called "brilliant but broken" or a "rough diamond" it's this. Troika Games, lost but not forgotten.