Underrated classic games

Mal-Adjusted · 31-10-2014 2:40am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The first two zelda cdi games. Get over the naff cutscenes and you are left with a slightly less obtuse zelda 2.

Christ! Next you're going to tell us Jar-Jar wasn't that bad!

johnny_ultimate · 31-10-2014 3:00am

I have played the Zelda CDi games in Retr0's company while he has tried to convince me they are not so bad. It's fair to say he is - objectively speaking - completely wrong about them :pac:

I would strongly argue they actually make Superman 64 look good in comparison.

CiDeRmAn · 31-10-2014 8:57am

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I have played the Zelda CDi games in Retr0's company while he has tried to convince me they are not so bad. It's fair to say he is - objectively speaking - completely wrong about them :pac:

I would strongly argue they actually make Superman 64 look good in comparison.

You know, it's a sickness he has.
I think an intervention is needed.

You know he actually brought Legend of Dragoon to the last Beers!

Optimalprimerib · 31-10-2014 9:21am

The two that come to mind are psi-ops and psychonauts. They were released at the time of over - saturation of the market and a tonne of money was pumped into advertising crap games so alot of genuinely good games were ignored.

Retr0gamer · 31-10-2014 9:50am

Psi ops is a strange game. It's a really awful third person shooter but the addition of the havoc physics enabled physic powers turns it into something great. Every level you walk into is just strewn with toys to play with.

CiDeRmAn · 31-10-2014 10:39am

Was Second Sight the good one?
I seem to remember both it and Psy Ops being released around the same time but the former being superior, it was by Codemasters.

Psychonauts is a stone cold classic, well reviewed everywhere. It was just that the casual gaming, Fifa playing great unwashed masses didn't buy it.

Retr0gamer · 31-10-2014 12:20pm

I preferred psi ops. Second sight was a bit more scripted, psi ops was a sandbox of fun. Second sight was by the timesplitter guys, free radical.

o1s1n · 31-10-2014 12:33pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I have played the Zelda CDi games in Retr0's company while he has tried to convince me they are not so bad. It's fair to say he is - objectively speaking - completely wrong about them :pac:

I would strongly argue they actually make Superman 64 look good in comparison.

He turns into a bit of a Zelda CDi zealot when those games are on the screen doesn't he?

Glazed look in the eyes, frothing at the mouth, it's not healthy.

I must warn The Last Bandit that the horrific images from that game are still burned into the phosphors in that CRT. I'm sure he'll awake screaming some night because of it and not know what's happening.

sweetie · 31-10-2014 12:38pm

Second sight looked better but PSi Ops played better. Never finished either, Second sight was difficult enough if I recall correctly.

Has Metal Arms A glitch in the system been mentioned yet? Wasn't very well known and was a great little action platformer on xbox, I thought.

Parawind · 01-11-2014 3:28am

Fuzion Frenzy is a criminally underrated game. A faster paced mario party style game, so 4 player is a must. It's also got a cheat that enables Welsh mode, which changes the announcers voice to that of a welsh woman.

Quantum redshift, a great wipeout style racer but did everything bigger. Not a perfect game but the great tracks and weapons mechanics kept me coming back for more.

Constructor, not sure if this one counts as underrated as it sold pretty well I believe but nobody ever talks about it anymore and other classic sim games get a lot more love. It is a game with some great humour and was terribly addictive. I guess because of its style and artwork a lot of people tended to dismiss the game.

I am sure there are plenty of others I can think if but those are the ones that come to mind atm.

gizmo · 01-11-2014 4:19am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I preferred psi ops. Second sight was a bit more scripted, psi ops was a sandbox of fun. Second sight was by the timesplitter guys, free radical.

No love for Advent Rising? Psi Ops is the best of the three obviously but AR should definitely be mentioned when discussing those titles.

CiDeRmAn · 01-11-2014 8:51am

sweetie wrote: »

Has Metal Arms A glitch in the system been mentioned yet? Wasn't very well known and was a great little action platformer on xbox, I thought.

A great great game, should have sold millions and gotten a sequel but went unbought and didn't.
Reviews were good and the game played really well, like a third person Halo.
Tons of humour and some nice concepts, like remote controlling the enemy coupled with great controls and visuals.
I played it on the Xbox and PS2 but much preferred the Xbox version for some reason, finished it there.

Quantum Redshift I tried to like, it certainly tried to ape Wipeout but to no avail, while it looked nice I don't remember having much fun with it myself.
Powerdrome was more interesting, an anti gravity racer on the PS2 that itself was an update of a 1988 Amiga and ST game , the game that inspired Wipeout. Powerdrome was delayed by nearly a year but was worth it, bloody hard though.

Retr0gamer · 01-11-2014 9:56am

gizmo wrote: »

No love for Advent Rising? Psi Ops is the best of the three obviously but AR should definitely be mentioned when discussing those titles.

I don't really get the love for that game. Thought it was generic fantasy guff dresed up as sci fi. at launch. The only standout was the soundtrack. I seem to be in the minority, although reviews of the game at the time were pretty bad.

Mal-Adjusted · 01-11-2014 1:35pm

gizmo wrote: »

No love for Advent Rising? Psi Ops is the best of the three obviously but AR should definitely be mentioned when discussing those titles.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I don't really get the love for that game. Thought it was generic fantasy guff dresed up as sci fi. at launch. The only standout was the soundtrack. I seem to be in the minority, although reviews of the game at the time were pretty bad.

It's a title that wants to be Jedi Outcast. It had pretty much everything to be a classic but it was pretty buggy at launch and that's what killed it. If anything, it was just too ambitious a title for the time

CiDeRmAn · 01-11-2014 8:40pm

I did not like the Jedi Knight games at all, the visuals were awful and look terrible now, in my opinion anyway.
Same hate goes out to Dark Forces, a controversial remark but I'll stand behind it.
Knights of the Old Republic, now that was a game, loved it, you can see where Mass Effect came from, more or less a Star Wars rpg without the licence, not to say they didn't get it right, despite that series turning into a cover based shooter.

Retr0gamer · 01-11-2014 8:50pm

I liked the first Jedi Knight. It was fantastic for its time but time has not been kind to it. The Jedi Outcast games by Raven though I never really liked that much. Found them quite dull.

As for not liking Dark Forces, you're either sick and wrong or played the smelly PS1 version of it which was muck.

01-11-2014 9:46pm

Dark Forces II too was a great game. Never played 1.

Mal-Adjusted · 01-11-2014 11:13pm

Having just played both Dark forces and Jedi Outcast, i maintain they're both fantastic games. I honestly think that JK/DF2 has aged the worst visually. to be honest, the only one I don't think was great is Jedi Academy, mainly because it added feckall new besides a bit of innovation with the lightsaber.

o1s1n · 02-11-2014 12:59am

Yeah I remember renting out the PS1 version of Dark Forces when it came out. Wasn't impressed at all.

CiDeRmAn · 02-11-2014 1:27am

I had it on the PC, thought it was a cheap Doom cash in.
I know it has its fans, but there's people out there who like getting kicking in the nads as well, just because people love something doesn't make that something great, like Streets of Rage or Golden Axe for example.....

gizmo · 02-11-2014 3:14am

While each of the games in the JK series had their problems, they were almost all extremely well received critically.

Speaking of LucasArts, I always felt Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures on the SNES never got the love it deserved. I may be slightly biased since I absolutely loved the movies as a kid (and indeed still do) but the Super Star Wars games seem to come up far more regularly than Indy's title.

Retr0gamer · 02-11-2014 11:03am

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I had it on the PC, thought it was a cheap Doom cash in.

It was way more than a doom clone. The engine was more advanced for one, supporting room over rooms, a physics engine, sloping floors and destructible walls. It also supported polygon objects. It was also one of the first if not the first FPS games with unique objectives that wasn't just collect the key cards.

Maximus Alexander · 03-11-2014 11:15am

I really enjoyed Dark Forces. I was 9 or 10 though so I can be forgiven, right?

CiDeRmAn · 04-11-2014 12:56pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It was way more than a doom clone. The engine was more advanced for one, supporting room over rooms, a physics engine, sloping floors and destructible walls. It also supported polygon objects. It was also one of the first if not the first FPS games with unique objectives that wasn't just collect the key cards.

Sorry, still don't like it at all, not even at the time of release.

Indy on the Snes is pretty amazing, built on the Super Star Wars engine and so did a great job translating the movies to the 16bit screen.
Sadly, for a poorly skilled game like myself, it also translates the difficulty level across from those games too, making the Indy game hard.

gizmo · 04-11-2014 1:14pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Sorry, still don't like it at all, not even at the time of release.

Indy on the Snes is pretty amazing, built on the Super Star Wars engine and so did a great job translating the movies to the 16bit screen.
Sadly, for a poorly skilled game like myself, it also translates the difficulty level across from those games too, making the Indy game hard.

Very much so although I found the Super Star Wars series to be considerably harder for some reason. That being said, it could have just been my complete overuse of force powers earlier in the stage which would leave me totally helpless later on, especially when it came to the boss fights, some of which were utter nails.

Speaking of difficult SNES games, was the Judge Dredd tie-in actually good? I remember it looking pretty good, enjoying it a lot but also dying even more. What I can't remember is whether it was actually well received at the time or not.

Retr0gamer · 04-11-2014 1:20pm

Thje super star wars games are some of the hardest games ever made, don't beat yourself up over it! I can't get very far in them at all.

o1s1n · 04-11-2014 1:56pm

I got the Judge Dredd game for the Megadrive when it came out and loved it. However I was always a big fan of the comic, so it was something I'd wanted for years.

If you weren't a fan then you'd probably find it a fairly generic, slow platform shooter.

CiDeRmAn · 04-11-2014 5:23pm

Afaik the Dredd and excellent Alien 3 games share an engine, at least on the Snes, which is the best place to play Alien 3 at least.
I have both games for the format, I must give them a go, once I get everything else played... Could be a while so

tok9 · 06-11-2014 12:55am

Finished God Hand there. Think I put about 12-13 hours into it.

Tough as nails but a load of fun. Would love to see some form of a sequel. Or at least some more of that level mechanic in games.

06-11-2014 10:38am

tok9 wrote: »

Finished God Hand there. Think I put about 12-13 hours into it.

Tough as nails but a load of fun. Would love to see some form of a sequel. Or at least some more of that level mechanic in games.

12 - 13...that's good going. My first play through was 20+

On what difficulty?

tok9 · 06-11-2014 1:08pm

M!Ck^ wrote: »

12 - 13...that's good going. My first play through was 20+

On what difficulty?

On normal. Maybe you left it on pause as the time keeps going even when the game is paused.

I generally found each stage took between 1-2 hours.

hellsing101 · 06-11-2014 1:45pm

The Gex games on PS1 were pretty class, pretty standard plat-former fare but good fun non the less. Haven't really heard anyone refer to them in a long while.

CiDeRmAn · 06-11-2014 2:00pm

hellsing101 wrote: »

The Gex games on PS1 were pretty class, pretty standard plat-former fare but good fun non the less. Haven't really heard anyone refer to them in a long while.

:eek:

I enjoyed the first one on it's original launch format, the 3DO, still have it.
But, compared to the likes of Sonic/2/3/Knuckles and SMB/3/W it's not qualified to be in the same room delivering the pints, it's outside, begging to be the p1ss boy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQltwDoyM5s

Xenji · 06-11-2014 6:11pm

The Summoner to me has always been very underrated, yeah it had its flaws, but it had a very solid story, interesting settings and some unconventional RPG quirks.

gaynorvader · 06-11-2014 6:30pm

Earthsiege 2. Still my favourite mech game, particularly on Elite difficulty.

RoyalCelt · 07-11-2014 5:58am

Hogs of War

07-11-2014 10:37am

tok9 wrote: »

On normal. Maybe you left it on pause as the time keeps going even when the game is paused.

I generally found each stage took between 1-2 hours.

Should have asked you has this been put back up on PSN??

I have the PS2 copy.

Fate Amenable To Change · 07-11-2014 11:21am

Xenji wrote: »

The Summoner to me has always been very underrated, yeah it had its flaws, but it had a very solid story, interesting settings and some unconventional RPG quirks.

I quite liked it as well, even 2 had its moments

tok9 · 07-11-2014 11:28am

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Should have asked you has this been put back up on PSN??

I have the PS2 copy.

I played it on PSN/PS3. It was on sale a month or two ago.

Digital Solitude · 07-11-2014 6:30pm

tok9 wrote: »

I played it on PSN/PS3. It was on sale a month or two ago.

Its still up, I bought it about 15 minutes ago :P

el pibe · 09-11-2014 8:19pm

Ooh, Piloting and pw64. I've longed for a follow up on a subsequent console. It may not have had the greatest depth of any game, but there was something intrinsically lovely, almost meditative about playing it.
So perhpas underrated by Nintendo itself?

Retr0gamer · 09-11-2014 9:01pm

There's a whole heap of love for those two games and they were very popular and the 3DS had pilot wings resort at launch so not like Nintendo has forgotten about it, although the original developer is no longer making games I believe.

el pibe · 10-11-2014 9:23am

That's a shame, especially when development 'luminaries' like Peter Molyneux keep making god (awful) games like bad populous clone Godus ad infinitum.

CiDeRmAn · 10-11-2014 4:43pm

el pibe wrote: »

That's a shame, especially when development 'luminaries' like Peter Molyneux keep making god (awful) games like bad populous clone Godus ad infinitum.

That man hasn't made a decent game in a very very long time.
Fable maybe, and that was that.

el pibe · 10-11-2014 5:55pm

in fairness the fable games _were_ quite fun in a disposable fluff sort of way, and maybe dungeon kepper. That's about it. One for the overrated thread i guess!!

CiDeRmAn · 10-11-2014 6:48pm

Myself, I thought the Fable games were overrated and supplanted in any case by Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Skyrim, which gave you character development and a sprawling map to live out your adventures in, along with a strong single player campaign.
Sure, Fable games looked good, but they felt linear with pathways confining you throughout, or have I missed something?

el pibe · 11-11-2014 12:31pm

i don't think you've missed anything, but it's probably an unfair comparison.
It's like comparing Disney's Robin Hood with A Game of Thrones

CiDeRmAn · 11-11-2014 2:18pm

el pibe wrote: »

i don't think you've missed anything, but it's probably an unfair comparison.
It's like comparing Disney's Robin Hood with A Game of Thrones

I love Disney's Robin Hood!
But it had less b00bies than GoT, though not sure the sight of a line of fox nipples would have added much to the proceedings, though they could have put Sir Hiss to the sword no problems...

Akrasia · 11-11-2014 3:50pm

el pibe wrote: »

Ooh, Piloting and pw64. I've longed for a follow up on a subsequent console. It may not have had the greatest depth of any game, but there was something intrinsically lovely, almost meditative about playing it.
So perhpas underrated by Nintendo itself?

There was a cool little game for the PS1 called RC Stunt Copter which was like a less cartoony version of Pilotwings but only with remote control choppers

surprisingly tricky to control and for a while, I literally couldn't hit a barn door with the helicopter but once you got the hang of it, you could do cool tricks and compete for high scores with your friends and siblings

o1s1n · 11-11-2014 3:52pm

Akrasia wrote: »

There was a cool little game for the PS1 called RC Stunt Copter which was like a less cartoony version of Pilotwings but only with remote control choppers

surprisingly tricky to control and for a while, I literally couldn't hit a barn door with the helicopter but once you got the hang of it, you could do cool tricks and compete for high scores with your friends and siblings

I remember that alright, it was on one of the Official UK Playstation Magazine's demo discs.

Those discs were fantastic. £7 and you had new gaming material to play every month. Even if they were only demos. I think I played the Metal Gear Solid demo nearly as much as the final game

Underrated classic games

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