Topic: Top 5 most underrated games of all time

@themcnoisy Beaston hasn’t posted in years. This topic came back from the grave.

@Jaz007 He posted 2 years ago.. I'm trying to think of another situation where someone went away for 2 years and came back again but I'm drawing a blank....hmmmm....

@kyleforrester87 Hahahaha. I said I was coming back and had a clear reason for leaving though. But still, fair enough.

@Jaz007 @kyleforrester87 hahaha my bad. Didnt even view the dates.

I'll do a PS1 list for now, although I'll probably add a list for DS games before long.

Dragonseeds
A unique game where you breed, train, and fight dragons in tournaments. I NEVER hear about this game, but it's one of my favorites.

Monster Rancher 2
Why do people never talk about this absolutely magical franchise anymore? I've spent hundreds of hours raising and battling the monsters found across my DVD and PS1 game collection. And I still want to cry when my babies inevitably die.

Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu
A mature turn on Pokemon with fantastic gameplay and Studio Ghibli-esque character designs!

Galerians
A really decent sci-fi themed survival horror game on the PS1; I liked this more than Dino Crisis, personally.

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
The best platformer on the PS1 (fite me!), which made early and fantastic use of the 2.5D aesthetic.

Hmmm, seems like a fun topic!

Inversion (PS3): kinda thin, gameplay-wise, but I remember really liking the story, especially the plot-twist halfway through.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel (PS3): pretty clunky game, but the campaign is surprisingly fun with a buddy, since the players each have to perform secret, illegal tasks without the other player catching them.

Rogue Warrior (PS3): extremely short and kinda rough to look at, but the non-stop swearing in it and pure campy dumbness of it all makes it worth a look.

Silent Hill Downpour & Homecoming (PS3): I once wrote a 1/5 review for Homecoming on Gamefaqs before the game even came out, only to be pleasantly surprised at how well that game (and its follow-up) ended up giving me memorable experiences. Worth the time of all horror fans.

Clive Barker's Jericho (PS3): I say there aren't enough games where the hero wears all black-latex, but that's only one reason to try this. As long as you don't try to revive your AI companions every time they die (since they'll die A LOT), you're in for a atmospheric, body-shifting horror adventure. Short game that's pretty sequel bait-y (i.e. never to be fully concluded), but like the other games I mentioned, worth a second look IMHO!

I find it very hard to make a TOP 5 MOST UNDERRATED GAMES, because I find it hard to discern whether a game was underrated or not. And in many of these cases I don't think they're better than more mainstream games. For instance, I think The Last Guardian was underrated (and easily is better than any of the below games), but it still received a lot of attention, and I can't imagine it having flown under anyone's radar.

So this is a list of five games that I really enjoyed, were underrated and didn't get the attention they deserve. I might post more later.

1. Rhythm Tengoku (GBA) One of the best rhythm games. It's a series of rhythm minigames each time, much like the WarioWare titles. The game looks great, it's very inventive and of course... it sounds great.

2. Little Big Adventure 2 (PC) This is one of my most played games as a kid. I finished it about ten times, which is really rare for me. I never replay games. Cinematic, great dialogue and a wonderful cast. You won't ever forget this one.

3. Goof Troop (SNES) I pretty much only played licensed games on the SNES, being the young one I was. And I played a lot of Disney games as well. Many will know of the Aladdin and Lion Kings games, but not everyone might know about Goof Troop. It was designed by Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil) and it is the first game in which he began to include the survival elements he is known for now.

4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (GBC) Another licensed game. This is the only good Harry Potter games, and I've played a lot of those back in the early noughties. It's quite a decent JRPG, which makes for an awesome cross-over.

5. Furi (PS4) Bullet hell, shmup, arcade, boss fights. If you love any of those, you'll love Furi. Game looks awesome, the fights are difficult, but so satisfying. I've never finished this one, but I pretty much boot this up every time a friend comes over. It's a great game for taking turns fighting the boss, it's so intense!

Actually... I'm quite happy about this list.

@smelly_jr I always wanted to play Jerico and Call of Juarez, but never played both of those due to the low review scores. In my yesteryears I would just pick up any game I could get my hands on. But with so many games coming out nowadays, I often tend to go for whatever reviews best.

Who knows if I'll ever play one of those!

@Kidfried Hah, I actually played The Chamber of Secrets on GBA. It wasn't too bad as far as I remember.

As far as underrated games go, there's another great (action-adventure) RPG on the GBA: Bomberman Tournament. I love the OST of that game!

@Octane Bomberman Tournament was great! Multiplayer from one cartridge! That's all I ever used it for.

I won't do a list. Any games I could think of have probably been mentioned already.

I would shout out to Lair and The Fight: Lights Out on PS3. Both were criminally treated by the reviewing press.

@Octane That's the other Potter game I played the most. It wasn't bad, just pretty stale (often the problem with licensed games).

@KALofKRYPTON That's true, I forgot about that! The story mode was the best bit of the game though!

@Octane I was working pubs at the time so it was a 'go to'; breaks were made up of a four-way link cable, Bomberman or Super Circuit and Marlboro Lights

Treasure Island Dizzy (C64) - This was considered the worst of the Dizzy games by a lot of people, mostly due to one utterly obnoxious design decision - you only get one life and when you're dead you're dead. I can see why it annoyed people because, like, anything and everything is a hazard in the game. Animals, traps, going in more than four inches of water, lightning if you don't take a bible with you when you go grave robbing. It's pretty annoying. But I always loved it and the music was totally awesome.

Toejam & Earl (Megadrive, or Genesis if you're in the Colonies) - I know people liked this but I LOVE it. Like ten out of ten love it. For some reason I just absolutely love this game. I don't like the second one or that rubbish one that was on Xbox. But I really love this one, and just walking around picking up presents, and then the tension that comes when you open one hoping it isn't the randomiser.

Super Paper Mario (Wii) - This is another one that I know people kinda liked, but I thought was amazing. I can see why it didn't get tens across the board or whatever because it does have flaws, but there was so much that was just right up my alley. It's a funny game, and while the story isn't award worthy or whatever it's fun and entertaining. I really liked this and I was super sad to see the series go down the toilet with subsequent games.

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) - This is one where I know that it was popular and I know it got good reviews, but people dismiss it quite readily a lot too, and it's never talked about as one of the greats in the series. And yeah, it's not Galaxy. Or Galaxy 2. But I'll be damned if anyone is going to convince me that this isn't better than Super Mario Odyssey. There's so many amazing ideas crammed into this game, and some fantastic levels that stand among the best of all time for the series. If this gets a remaster on Switch like everything else on Wii U I'll totally dust it off and play this one again.

Blues & Bullets (PS4) - I don't even know how I ended up getting this. Let's call it fate. Or more likely a hangover impulse purchase. Either way, I thought this was super interesting and was sad to see that it wasn't embraced by people more, because it looks like they might never release the rest of the episodes in the series at this rate. Elliott Ness (of Untouchables fame) has to come out of retirement for one last job in an alternate history detective game with a Sin City art style. What's not to like? Sure, the voice acting isn't stellar and the shooting sections would be better if they weren't in the game but the central premise is awesome, and it kinda tickles that Wolf Among Us itch. Or it would do if they ever get around to releasing episode 3.

@johncalmc 'colonies'!! hahaha

I loved Treasure Island on my Speccy. I always felt Spellbound was the weaker of the ones we had.

@johncalmc I'd be a little surprised if SM3DW didn't get a Switch port. With its bite sized levels and focus on local multiplayer, it seems perfect for the hybrid format.

And yeah, Toejam and Earl is wonderful. I've invested hundreds of hours into playing it with my family over the years. In my opinion, it's one of the best local mp games ever made.

@Ralizah I knew I'd be buying that PS4 Mega Drive collection the second it was announced once I saw Toejam & Earl on the list. It really is an amazing local co-op game, and I can't wait to get it on PS4 since my PS3 died before I had a chance to get all of the trophies.

@johncalmc I'll maybe get that - but I feel like I've already paid for those so many times over at this point!

Is there any detail regarding what the extras on this one might be?

@KALofKRYPTON I had Toejam & Earl on Mega Drive, then on the Mega Drive Collection on PS3, then as a standalone download on PS3, and I'll be buying it again on PS4. I've bought loads of those games three or four times. And for some reason I feel compelled to get them again. It's like when Nintendo port something and I'm like oh I don't mind if I do. It doesn't matter that I've bought Super Mario World twelve times. I'll buy it again. And nobody can stop me.

@johncalmc Just did a bit of looking about. This new collection is looking suspiciously like the one that's on Steam - if so, probably better off staying away from it - well, for £25/£30 at least. I does explain the absence of a Switch version though. The Steam collection is apparently so badly optimised it chugs along on decent spec'd PC's. PS$ and XBONE would have the chops to power it along, Switch might struggle a bit.

Which is pretty shocking.