What Are Your Hidden Gems?

[pippin]

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Lands of Lore series.

 

[Siveon]

Never saw anyone mention this. Still get an itch to play sometimes

At the very least know the game got two spiritual sequels called Gladiator Begins (PSP, Gud) and Clan of Champions (PS3, PC, doesn't seem to be as good). I really loved Gladiator Begins so I'd say Colosseum is just as good.

 

[pakoito]

Back in uni I used to play every single NDS release that was worth looking at. Several japanese games stuck with me:

• Sangokushi Taisen Ten * - great micro real time tactics game. It's my lifelong duty to remake this game for PC - Moonrunes + GameFaqs only
• Jump Ultimate Stars * - that party fighting game with all the animes you've ever wanted, then more - English Patch
• Chocobo Tales - mostly the card game inside the game, I used to be one of the top players of the Japanese release
• DQ: Rocket Slime - same as above, lacklustre story with fun combat mechanic
• Game Center CX - "faux" retro game collection made out of love and not nostalgia

 

[Gunnar]

Golden Axe Warrior (SMS)

Considered a rare game for the Sega Master System, if you liked Legend of Zelda, you might enjoy this one:

Golden Axe Warrior is an action-adventure game released on the Sega Master System in 1991 and a spin-off of the popular Golden Axe video game series. The game follows a young warrior who tries to avenge the death of his parents by exploring ten labyrinths, collecting nine missing crystals and battling with the evil tyrant Death Adder. Players must cross a large world, fight enemies, seek mysterious labyrinths, fight bosses, and obtain the crystals that are guarded by many monsters. All the playable characters from the original Golden Axe make cameo appearances.

The game has drawn comparisons to NES titles Legend of Zelda and Willow, as well as Master System titles Ys and Lord of the Sword.

I played this years ago and had fun with it, though the final boss Death Adder can be defeated easily with a silly exploit.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

I loved this game as a kid. Looking back, it was way ahead of its time. An open world game with adventure elements, and a totally mundane, down to earth, storyline (promote records by making people dance, while avoiding cops and crack heads!):



Also, this blew my mind in jounior high. It was kind of a predecessor to GTA 3 in that it was 3D, you drove around an open world city, and there were lots of off the wall missions. I haven't played it in years, so maybe it sucks, but I remember loving it at the time:



You start out in an arena, but eventually move to a city.

 

[Invictus]

Another hidden gem series that I enjoyed quite a lot would be the Freedom Force games;
Maybe the best rtwp combat with an innovative alternative to cooldowns in their fill meter system (maybe the best compromise for rtwp combat systems for having active powers instead of just waiting around)
Great Kirby looking art style
Super fun Silver age narrative and themes
Very good heroes based on some classic comic archetypes (loved The Enchantress, Diablo, Man Bot and Silver Bullet)
Superb sound effects anf soundtrack (Nuc-lear Vinter Nuc-lear Vinter)
Great voice acting (hammy as hell but very well made)
Varied comic book style missions with alternate realities, time traveling, cosmic overlords and the mysterious Energy X
All in all it was great fun, the sequel suffered a bit from beign morr of the same and surprisingly had very poor salrd which killed the franchise but still very worthy and usually dirty cheap on GOG
Definetly in my top 10 games of the 2000s

 

[Gepeu]

Cultures (by Funatics)

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Another hidden gem series that I enjoyed quite a lot would be the Freedom Force games;
Maybe the best rtwp combat with an innovative alternative to cooldowns in their fill meter system (maybe the best compromise for rtwp combat systems for having active powers instead of just waiting around)
Great Kirby looking art style
Super fun Silver age narrative and themes
Very good heroes based on some classic comic archetypes (loved The Enchantress, Diablo, Man Bot and Silver Bullet)
Superb sound effects anf soundtrack (Nuc-lear Vinter Nuc-lear Vinter)
Great voice acting (hammy as hell but very well made)
Varied comic book style missions with alternate realities, time traveling, cosmic overlords and the mysterious Energy X
All in all it was great fun, the sequel suffered a bit from beign morr of the same and surprisingly had very poor salrd which killed the franchise but still very worthy and usually dirty cheap on GOG
Definetly in my top 10 games of the 2000s

There's a mod for the game which lets you play as pulp characters- Doc Savage, etc. http://www.moddb.com/mods/pulp-adventures
Downloadan.

 

[Siveon]

There's a mod for the game which lets you play as pulp characters- Doc Savage, etc. http://www.moddb.com/mods/pulp-adventures

Holy shit this is amazing. I hope it's good.

Let me guess, you're probably a... Lone Ranger fan I take it?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

There's a mod for the game which lets you play as pulp characters- Doc Savage, etc. http://www.moddb.com/mods/pulp-adventures

Holy shit this is amazing. I hope it's good.

Let me guess, you're probably a... Lone Ranger fan I take it?

Sure, why not.
Did the Lone Ranger have books or is it just a radio show?

 

[Siveon]

Did the Lone Ranger have books or is it just a radio show?

According to google, yeah, it had pulp books too. Didn't know that, just poking fun at your Barbarian fetish.

 

[warpig]

Inferno:

It was more arcadey and with more simplistic missions than X-Wing or Tie Fighter but it had some cool stuff like missions in atmosphere or flying through the entrails of large spaceships and bases. I don't know if it's a hidden "gem" because I played it when I was a kid so it might suck ass from today's perspective. I also liked the music , I remember my younger brother hated it and was always whining like a little bitch when I was playing it xDDD

Here's a cool vid about the making of this game.


Subwar 2050:

this was a very interesting game for it's time, futuristic submarine "simulation". The dev later made Independece War games.

I already posted these in some other threads but whatever...


Micro Maniacs:

It's like Micro Machines but with shrinked people instead of vechicles. Really cool "party game" for the PSX, you could play it 5 players with the "multi tap" device that allowed pluging more than 2 gamepads. There was one cool level where your characters get sucked into an archaic console and for some time the game was in 8 bit mode xD

 

[the_shadow]

Another odd one: Gazillionaire. You're an interplanetary space trader who's trying to build their company with a starting loan, trying to reach a set gross net worth before your opponents do. The graphics and sound were somewhat minimalist for the time, but it's one of those games that's fun and you can just pick up an play. The company has given it a number of updates since it was released in 1995, and sells it as a business simulation game.

 

[Friday.13]

I enjoy this game a lot when i still in high school, too bad i lose my physical copy of it years ago.

And about hidden gem in recent years:

To put it simply, it's a better RPG and Fallout game than Fallout 4.

 

[Repulsive]

This game was fucking awesome back then. The levels were large and non-linear and there was tons of shit to do in them.

 

[the_shadow]

I am also a fan of Boppin, an independent puzzle game, where you control a triangular cartoon character to throw bouncing blocks at blocks of the same type to cancel them out and free the video game monsters contained within them. There are elevators, blocks you mustn't touch, refractors and a lot of devilish layouts. The game is huge, with 160 levels over four episodes, and a ton of tilesets. It features graphic violence (like your character blowing its brains out if they fail too many times), and Hunnybunz, a fluffy bunny end boss who wants to ban violent video games. It is great fun (a bit trial-and-error in places).

I've started playing this one after you mentioned it. The Win32 version didn't work for me (some problem with DirectDraw), but the DOS version runs flawlessly in DosBox on standard settings. It's a lot of fun for a puzzle game, and the difficulty is just right.