Great Games That No One Played

[Tarvis]

Lets list off some games we really liked but really didn't get much recognition. I'll start with a couple of my favorites from SNES:

Illusion of Gaia:

Developed by Enix and published by Nintendo (outside of Japan), this is probably my favorite SNES game. An action RPG that had plenty of areas to explore and puzzles to solve all mixed in with one of the better story lines in any video game. You set out on a quest to find out what happened to your father after his trip to the Tower of Babel many years ago. Interestingly, the Nintendo published version of the game had the logo changed to the Legend of Zelda font.

SmartBall:

Developed by Game Freak (Pokemon) but published by Sony, I remember playing this sidescrolling platformer many times when I was a kid. Basically you are a prince that gets turned into a ball because your jealous brother(?) wants your woman. A fairly easy and simple game, but really fun. Apparently a sequel was planned but canceled by Sony because they were moving towards launching the PlayStation and didn't want GameFreak to release any more Nintendo titles.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

Oh man Smart Ball was sooooo good. I used to rent that all the time from my local rental shop. A few of mine from SNES era:

Troddlers:

I loved this game, it was one of the first puzzle games that I got really hooked on. You control the little Troddler dudes, and move around blocks to get the little people into their doors, in the later levels Foes are introduced, which eat the people I think. I guess its kinda like Lemmings but you have no control over the little people, but rather move blocks around to get them places.

King Arthur's World:

This is, oddly enough, another sort of puzzle game with little dudes. In this case you have more direct control over the little dudes, who are various knights, archers, etc. In this game you have to get King Arthur from the right side of the map over to the left side of the map to retrieve... the grail I think? Something like that. There are enemy knights, archers, etc that you have to kill or avoid. I played this game a ton, but never beat it and in fact never really got that far into it because it was always so hard and I would always lose the passwords I'd write down to continue my game later. But I remember watching my older brother playing really far into the game.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

Oh how could I forget Claymates! I played this a ton too:

Fairly standard platformer, but you play as a little ball of clay that can transform into different clay animals with different abilities and such.

 

[Joe]

Hmm, can't really think of too many! But I get the feeling not a huge amount of people played Jet Force Gemini on N64. I might be mistaken on that though.



Wow that doesn't look like it's aged well AT ALL. But then very few N64/PS1 games have.

 

[Joe]

3D Movie Maker, Windows 95

 

[Joe]

Arcade America

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

Oh man, I used to spend a ton of time with 3D Movie Maker, trying to get the vampire dude to walk naturally through traffic in that street scene, and other stuff that I thought was hilarious but then when I made my friend watch it, it turned out it wasn't.

 

[Joe]

I was a bit young to remember much specific stuff about it, but I remember that weird blue dude and the general jankiness of everything. Which, of course, back in '95 was amazing.

 

[Tarvis]

Solar Jetman (NES)

A god damn hard son of a bitch game I don't think I ever came close to beating. Basically you are going around space finding fuel and space ship parts to upgrade your mothership. Trying to maneuver without friction to slow you down is a test in itself. Fun game though.

Captain Skyhawk (NES)

A real unappreciated gem in the NES library. I mean if you looked at that score leaderboard with the funky 3D animation and rainbow effects in 1990 and not shit your pants, you must be a time traveler. Awesome, awesome game, but also really hard. May have beaten this at one point, but last time I tried a couple weeks ago, I got my ass kicked on the second level. Has some RPG elements as well since you can upgrade your Jet with credits you earned. If you think Sonic on the Genesis was fast, check out 20:10 in the video and witness your God.

 

[Logan]