Ogre Battle 64: RTS/RPG hybrid, very challenging, but also very fun and addicting. It's not big on story though. It's not cheap unless you buy the Wii Virtual Console version, though.
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer: Is it based off the prequels? Yes. Does it suck? No. Think F-Zero, but you're racing on a cool sci-fi planet. Plus, there's no Jar-Jar (well, he's in Watto's shop, but it's a crappy polygon character that you can barely notice, and he doesn't speak).
Chibi-Robo: You play as a miniature robot that goes around doing chores for the Japanese perception of a stereotypical dysfunctional American family. It's pretty funny.
That might genuinely be my best contribution to this board ever, then.
"what made DT2 not as good?"
The two most satisfying things about the original, for me, were stringing tactics together in battle (Tactics are the main way of doing major damage in battle, and if you combo'd them it made them much more potent with the added effect of making you feel like a boss), and capturing enemy generals (one of only three ways of recruiting new officers, and by far the most fun in my opinion!). They messed both of those mechanics up, by making tactics only work a certain percentage of the time, so your best-laid plans could fall at the hands of the RNG, and by making it so capturing enemy officers had a miniscule chance of recruiting them (at least for the officers worth recruiting). So basically the risk was increased and the reward decreased. On top of that, they added another layer of complexity to the (admittedly already quite awkward at times) combat system, and added more unnecessary sections to the map screens, which were already pretty fine minimalistically in the first game. About the only thing improved was the story, which is debatable anyway (they added more stories and you can play as Lu Bu as well as the main three, but the branching nature of the stories doesn't feel as original as the, uh, original. I wonder why?).
So yeah, long rambling statement over with, I'd recommend the first over the second. The second is an okay game for sure, but the first is a great game, at least in my opinion.
And if anyone does get the game they should totally do a play-through topic, even if only myself and Jeff Zero read it!
-- James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User & The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism
1._Crystalis. An action-adventure RPG for the NES. This is what I consider to be the best game of all time, and it blows a lot of Zelda games out of the water, and the only game I can think of that comes to that level of awesomeness on its own platform is Super Mario Bros. 3. I'd say it's even as amazingly structured as Zelda: A Link to the Past. I never understood why it never got the attention it deserved, considering the people who have played it also loved it.
2._Brain Lord. Another action-adventure RPG, on the SNES platform. This game was criticized for being too short and having a bad storyline, but I thought it had great dungeons with great puzzles, a cool battle system and a fairy system with really nice abilities that can really help you along the way if you use a proper strategy with them. Oh, right, and another thing: This game has the best soundtrack you'll ever hear on any SNES game you can possibly think of.
3._Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. Amazing racing game for the PS2 with an awesome music selection and a lot of really cool features. The police chases are the main gimmick of the game, and oh boy they are awesome. For Need for Speed haters or enthusiasts alike, this is the way to go.
Other great games from the top of my head: Star Wars: Demolition and 007: Nightfire. I didn't write about them because I haven't played them in a long time since I can't play them anymore.
-- SuperNiceDog waggs his tail better than your regular, standard dog. -If someone scares the hell out of you, then are you protected by God?
1. Pilotwings 64. The N64 had a wonderful launch lineup even though it was only two games. Mario 64 is my favorite game of all time, but Pilotwings 64 is high up there too. People dismiss this game a lot but it's a blast to play.
2. Streets of Rage 2. I don't know that anyone really dismisses this game or anything, but everyone should play this. It's easily the best beat em' up of all time.
3. Super Mario RPG. I see a ton of Paper Mario love but not nearly enough for the originator and king of Mario RPGs. Square and Nintendo knock it out of the park with this game. And you can play as Bowser!
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"THIS is how you make Nintendo win another generation. Good job, Sony and Microsoft, you're idiots." - Vlado
MVP Baseball 2005. It is such a well-polished game that exudes top-notch quality in essentially every important facet of the game.
Far Cry 2. Though it can get annoying sometimes getting into heavy everyone-is-an-enemy sections, this game has a powerful setting, atmosphere, and sense of camaraderie with the buddies.
Max Payne - Nothing short of a writing masterpiece. The gameplay is solid, if ordinary outside of bullet time, but Max Payne is one of the greatest video game characters ever conceived.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine - I think most people overlooked this as a Gears of War clone, but it's quite different. Melee combat is much more important and the melee hits just feel really powerful. The game got me into the 40K universe and it's got some pretty nice voice work. Mark Strong plays the main character! It's awesome. One of my top ten from last year.
Ogre Battle 64 - One of my favorite games of all time. More people need to play it.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - Weird choice, but this is a blast to play in co-op and I'd love to see more people on here play it so we could get a group together.
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Gamertag/PSN-Murphiroth "Would have liked to run tests on the seashells..."
ESPN NFL 2k5 - Pretty much the best sports game I've played to this day.
Front Mission 3 - Mentioned earlier by someone else, but I played the living hell out of FM3 between the ages of 15-18; at one point in my life, I'd have ranked this higher than FFT itself, but those days have passed. Which reminds me, I still have my copy of Front Mission 4 untouched =\
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean - Many may not get to play this now due to the Gamecube dying out, but this may have very well been one of the best RPGs on the system. Sure, the voice acting is completely awful, but in exchange for that, you get a unique (key word "unique", not "great") battle system, lush graphics, and a pretty solid plot. I need to go back and finish this up.
-- http://www.facebook.com/zerosignal My scythe is close to where my heart used to be - Manuel Calavera
Pfft, Wild Arms 2 is the go to WA for me. But really, WA series needs more love as a whole.
Anyway, other than that...
Infinite Space for the DS. Yes, I can see how the battle system can be grating, but goddammit, I love this game, flaws and all. Love the story as well. C'mon people, play it!
Hmm... 3rd spot... I'm going with the Heroes of Might and Magic series. Love this turn-based Strategy Game. Chronicles has a special place for me, but 3 in particular seems like a fan favorite.
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My Little Phineas and Ferb: Summer is Magic! Aww, I lost to SuperNiceDog, Winner of the Rivalry Rumble Guru Contest
TF2 - most people here hate FPS games and won't try it, or they tried it for a couple of hours and didn't like it (it needs about 10 hours)
Just Cause 2 - I could write a dissertation on the merits of this game
Dynasty Warriors 7 - most people have (fairly) dismissed the series, but this game is an incredibly polished and well presented (which is a first for the series) game that can really convince new people to appreciate the series
-- _foolmo_ 'Ulti is like when your parents post something on your facebook status' - Sir Cobain
God Hand - really fun third person beat em up with depth to its combat and all the charm and style expected from its outrageous plot and characters. the challenge is also perfectly hard in that it never feels cheap
Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines -vl very immersive WRPG with its eerie atmosphere, hypnotic characters, perfectly suited dialogue done with the best VA i've ever heard, intriguing storyline, and it also gives you enough freedom to approach quests while keeping the narrative focused
From: GANON1025 | #003 If you enjoy adventure/mystery games with light combat and heavy on story. DEADLY PREMONITION - oh my god the story/characters/setting of this game is absolutely amazing. 100% hands-down the best main character of any game. Tons of fun side characters and quests, PLUS the combat is decent, definitely not as bad some make it out to be.
Came in to say this. Though I wouldn't call the combat decent. At best, serviceable, but still incredibly repetitive. Also, f*** that map.
Past that, I can't think of much. There's not much obscure that I would recommend that I haven't seen people around here playing anyways.
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"One toot on this whistle will take you to a far away land." -Toad, SMB3
I second Wild Arms series as a whole, if only because as this topic shows, every single one of them has the potential of being your favorite in one way or another depending on your tastes.
Also second Infinite Space, I absolutely loved that game. Given B8's got a ton of fans of Mecha anime and Mass Effect, finding things in the setting of Infinite Space that they'd like isn't hard at all. Loads of customization, content, and great story/characters.
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I have no idea who you are, but I thank you for arousing me. - Beruga Brawl FC: 3823-8243-5663
From: Murphiroth | #058 Warhammer 40K: Space Marine - I think most people overlooked this as a Gears of War clone, but it's quite different. Melee combat is much more important and the melee hits just feel really powerful. The game got me into the 40K universe and it's got some pretty nice voice work. Mark Strong plays the main character! It's awesome. One of my top ten from last year.
:D One of us! The one think I would improve is making the voice acting louder. Captain Titus's voice was kind of hard to hear at times. The environments were glorious, though. I really felt some justice was done there.
-- Proud member of the Global Defence Force. http://img.imgcake.com/AlecTrevylan006/AceKilljoyShieldpngyp.png
Advokaiser posted... Robazoid posted... OH MAN I JUST THOUGHT OF MY THIRD ONE
The Void is the 11th best game ever and you should all go play it right now
It looks interesting, but what's it about?
It's a super atmospheric game with an equally unique gameplay mechanic and, sadly, some admittedly game-breaking glitches. If you can figure out how to draw glyphs the way the game wants you to and learn to save literally every chance you get so you can reload if it bugs out or if you make a really bad mistake, though, it's a great resource-conservation/magic casting game with an artistic quality to it as well. Plus it can be really scary at times (don't go into it thinking it's Amnesia but it had some legitimate eerie moments at times)
I'd almost recommend just using a FAQ because there's hardly a plot to spoil and getting frustrated and quitting would just rob you of the experience.
1) Final Fantasy III. Specifically the NES version. It seems a lot of people here played the terrible DS remake and consider "Final Fantasy III" to be one of the worst games in the series because of it, which is a shame since the original is pretty easily my favorite RPG on the NES and rests solidly around the middle of my personal FF rankings.
From: Robazoid | #081 Yeah I loled at people putting Chrono Trigger. I mean what
because EVERYONE needs to play is
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Not changing this sig until the Bengals, Bills, Browns and Lions win the Super Bowl (10/10/10) The most American Canadian on Board 8 - #9 Bro on Board 8
Little Big adventure 2 (PC) A great old adventure game, probably dated by today's standards, but I had a blast with this back in the day.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Megadrive) Good old fashioned side scrolling beat 'em up, quick enough for you and a friend to finish in a few hours, and pleasant cartoony animation while you do it.
Future Cop LAPD (PS1) Again another fun game to play with a friend, you play a mechanised police robot and it's your job to clean up the streets, big robots and big weapons, also has an interesting competitive multiplayer mode
Also thanks James, now I'm getting flash backs of you beating me at dynasty warriors tactics again and again :(
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Xbox Live: darkmaster 1O1 (letter 'o') Playstation Netowrok: sheo_101 ssbb fc: 3995-7937-3706
Far too late now as the servers are dead and the game removed from the internet, but I'm still bitter that no one was ever willing to try Reset Generation.
There was never any game quite like it, being some bastard fusion of Tetris and Rampart with the random gaming crossover-ness of Smash Bros. Each player (four simultaneous) had a Castle that they needed to protect while trying to raid the other players. Rounds were divided into three phases; placing random Tetris-style blocks to expand your territory (lining five or more tiles in a row would grant bonuses), launching cannons to destroy other player's tiles or Items, and then moving your character to try either grabbing an Item (like Smash Bros.), moving towards someone's castle, or attacking someone if they left themselves vulnerable. If you get into someone's Castle, you kidnap their Princess and (if you can get her back to your castle), the other player is eliminated and you get a SUPER POWER-UP to crush everyone left; anyone can steal the princess from you by attacking you. Sometimes your better off letting someone else grab a Princess, punching them in the face, then running off with her.
There were a lot of different playable characters with their own powers, all of them parodies of famous characters. Plumber (Mario), Hedgehog (Sonic), Babe Gunner (Lara Croft), Cyborg (Master Chief), and more. Not well balanced--Cyborg was broken as all hell--but COME ON. Mario/Sonic/Lara/MC deathmatch! In a completely unique gaming experience! It even had a (fairly crappy) single-player story mode!
And it was completely free to play online. And no one would bother even trying it because the game was created for the N*Gage. Never mind that you could play it on the computer, never mind that it was free/unique/funny, never mind that you could battle your friends or random strangers; everyone was too obsessed with hating the system to even look at the damn thing.
And now it's gone forever. Bah.
Chrono Cross: Just to second it. I hated the game for years, but once I stopped trying to compare it to Trigger and judge it on its own merits...wasn't bad. Not great or anything, but it gets a bit too much hate for being a "sequel" to a beloved game and having almost nothing to do with it. Not that it isn't justified, but...eh.
Fortune Street: Yes, it's just a more complicated form of Monopoly. Yes, it takes far too long and the online is implemented horribly (a crossover between Mario and Dragon Quest where you can only play as a Mii. Really? Really?), but too many people hate it for not being Mario Party which isn't really fair.
-- In this world which will someday fall to ruin... ...dreams and hopes don't matter at all.
Aquaria: It's a game that just about everyone got in one of the humble bundles, but I feel like a lot of people haven't bothered to give it a chance. It's an excellent underwater Metroidvania-style game that I really loved.
Frozen Synapse: This is such a good 1v1 tactical game. It's simple, and yet there's a whole lot of thinking involved. It's great to play a game with a friend over the course of a week (or occasionally play all the way through in one sitting).
Nimbus: I'm rather disappointed this game got almost no attention at all. The basic gist is you control a ship-thing with no means of directly propelling itself. This means you have to maintain your momentum through creative falling and use of objects in the level (bounce pads and other stuff). This may not sound interesting, but it's actually really well done, and some of the levels are very well-designed.
Street Fighter III: Third Strike. This game is the best. Everyone should love it and play it a lot.
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. I think a lot of people here have played it but no one does regularly anymore. This game is fun as s***.
Ace Combat 5. Every time I make a topic about this the same 5 or so people show up and are like "yeah dude that game is hella legit." It is so good and I think right up this board's alley.
1. Captain America: Super Soldier One of the best superhero games IMO. Arkham Asylum style combat may feel like a rip-off, but it works quite well for this game, resulting in extremely satisfying combat. Also, the game does a good job of making you feel like Captain America, with pretty well executed shield gameplay.
2. Dementium: The Ward The best horror game you'll ever find on NDS. This game is one of the most horrifying games I've ever played, which is pretty impressive for a handheld game. Unfortunately, the combat and god-awful save system turns most people off. But I think the horror and atmosphere alone make this such a great game.
3. Resident Evil Remake The best remake of anything ever made.
metaIslugg posted... From: Aecioo | #015 Planescape Torment I've given this multiple tries since I can really dig a good narrative, but it was always frustrating. I don't remember why but I spent hours in the mortuary without knowing where to go.
When I left I spent hours talking to everyone in town so I would know where to go. Then I must've followed some guy or something and ended up in a dungeon of sorts and I was killed right there on the spot.
Then I just picked something up and everyone came at me with torches and I was killed there on the spot.
...I get that non-linearity is a good thing, but I really have trouble with games like this. If I were to really play it I'd need B8 to keep telling me exactly where to go and what to do.
that's the best part about the game though :(
well, that and having the best storyline in all of gaming
