Hidden Gems

I absolutely loved Kirby Air Ride! I guess I didn't ever read the reviews of it though because I didn't even know it was panned. City Trial was amazing and honestly my friends and I just played split screen of that al the time and just messed around with each other the whole time. I don't think we understood the real objective at the time lol.

As for hidden gems I know of, Shadowrun for Xbox 360 was an incredibly fun multiplayer game that just didn't get the hype or coverage it deserved. I believe it came out the same day as Halo 3 too so they just kinda flew under the radar. It was a multiplayer game only and only had a few game types, but the gameplay was so addicting and different than the standard FPS at the time that it was just an awesome game to play with friends and the niche community that existed in it.

 

To add on the Kirby Air Ride game, the Super Smash Brothers Brawl menu was set out to be like this game, or so I have heard.

Are Video Game gems the same as Easter Eggs? If so, I have many to share, but I cannot list them all.

When I was playing Twilight Princess HD, I walked into a shop called Chudley's Emporium (soon to become the Malo Mart) - the fancy shop where everything is too expensive. Having a slight look around the shop, I saw portraits that depicted scenes from the Zelda U trailer! It looks like this:

Spoiler

(Big picture) Can you see those frames with the grass? These are scenes of Zelda U. Another one:

Well, that was great!

Kid Icarus: Uprising is perhaps the mother-load of references and breaking the fourth-wall, but is still a fantastic game nevertheless. I'll share a few!

In Kid Icarus: Uprising, there are enemies called Komaytos that are a direct reference to Metroids:



Even their description in the gallery says that "The last komaytos are not in captivity, Skyworld is not at peace" which is a reference to the description to Metroids which says "The last metroids are in captivity, the world is at peace."

There are many games that are referenced including Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Game and Watch, Nintendogs, Dr. Mario, Brain Training, Pokémon and Super Smash Brothers.

 

This might as well be a thread praising Kirby: Air Ride, because in my Gamecube years, that was my favorite Gamecube game ever, even when I also had Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Anyways, a game I don't see a whole lot of love for is Star Trek: Conquest for the PS2. If anyone here has ever played Star Wars Battlefront 2 for the Galactic Conquest, then you'll find that how you play through this game is actually quite similar, except it delves deeper into the strategy part of the game. It has 6 races, and different ones gave you different benefits. It was a REALLY fun game, but unfortunatly, had absolutely no Multiplayer. That's probably one reason it wasn't talked about much.

 

Has anyone played or heard of Brave Fencer Musashi or Tomba for the PS1? I don't see a lot of talk about those two. I knew nothing about them until my brother bought them on a whim. I didn't really play games until I got my very own GBA, so I would watch my brother play when we were kids. I had only managed to play them on my own recently on an emulator and personally I think they both have a fun gameplay, great music and a pretty good storyline.

 

Donkey Kong Country 2 "Diddy's Quest" comes to mind.
It was just such a great dk game and I remember the feels I got from it.
Not to say it wasn't challenging, compared to tropical freeze, it is a cake walk however...
Still I remember this game fondly, if not for dixie kong's addtional usage.

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mario/images/5/50/Donkey_Kong_Country_2_-_North_American_Boxart.png/revision/latest?cb=20120418233038

Sorry if this is a mainstream as hell game.
Still it was just classic, back in the day.

 

Mine goes back to the days of sega genisis. Shining Force was the best sega game I ever played. It is similar to fire emblem but for me was a lot easier to get into and had me hooked more quickly. Plus you could revive dead characters. The game plays as if your reading a story to a little elf girl and you are writing the story.

Then my favorite GBA game of all time, boktai: the sun is in your hands. A vampire game that is focused on stealth rather than confrontation. You'll be restricted to playing this during the day but man is it fun! It's a shame the 3rd game never saw an international release. also when you play this game WEAR SUNSCREEN, because you WILL go into direct sunlight.

 

Army of Two is the number one co-op game in my opinion
Every time I ask someone about it, they have no idea what i'm talking about
think 3rd person battlefield with cool customizable armor and weapons that focuses on you playing with your friend

 

I played this game a good amount on Xbox. It was an interesting take on the 3rd person shooter genre. You compared it to Battlefield but I'd honestly compare it more to Gears of War though I can see both games. I really liked the aggro system in the game, it made you think together with your partner and not just blast your way through things while one person carries the other.

 

I think I would count Pokémon Art Academy as one of the hidden gems that I've found. Maybe some may think it's just like an ordinary drawing tutorial and whatnot, but I think it's pretty decent game. I'm having great time drawing many Pokémon (including Victini, of course)! The drawing lessons in the game makes me engaged to it too.

 

I've said it before on other threads but Hotel Dusk Room 215 is an amazing game that I never hear talked about. If you love Visual Novel style games you need to check it out on DS. The game is even getting a spiritual successor on 3DS.

 

@[member="Fizzysoda"] I recall seeing a let's play of Brave Fencer Musashi (forgot the channel name)


Anyway, I feel that Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky doesn't get enough love. Everything about it is flawless. The story, the characters, the soundtrack, everything.

 

I loved Kirby Air Ride! City Trial was the best.

Let me see... I agree with Pokémon Art Academy.

Now my own, one GameCube and one PS2

I know the Harvest Moon games are pretty well-known, but I haven't seen much on Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life/Another Wonderful Life compared to the rest. It's an amazing game.

The PS2 game is Godzilla: Unleashed. Kaiju-fighting awesomeness. It's just fun to beat the crud out of Gigan or Megalon or some random monster sometimes. I rarely see anything related to Godzilla nowadays.

Anyway, those are just my opinions.

 

Rune Factory 4, for sure. Such an engaging game with a ton of things to do. Has kept me hooked multiple times and never gets old for me. Really wish more people would play it!

 

Godzilla Unleashed was so good! How could I have forgotten about that?

 

I really love Kirby Air Ride, but we never owned it. We borrowed it once a month or so from the videostore.

I really loved Endless Ocean for the Wii (which is a casual, diving exploration game, with treasure hunts and playing with dolphins)
I also loved Billy Hatcher for the Gamecube, I believe. It's this weird platformer that you can only move while running on top of an egg and making it grow. From the eggs hatch useful items or little Pokémon-like helpers. But there were also challenges not to let the egg break. The music is still the catchiest I've ever heard.

 

There's this one pleasant game I've found that's not too terribly well known. It's a bit of a casual game called From Dust. The basics of this game is that you are a spirit that has the power to control nature. You were summoned by tribe people to help them survive, thrive, and spread their people across multiple harsh terrains. I highly recommend it.

 

Has anyone played Steambot Chronicles? It's a PS2 sandbox game where you control a mecha-robot-car and has some sort of steampunk feel to it. You can either be a hero or a villain in this game and there are also quests and a coliseum where you fight other mecha-mobiles (these things are called trotmobiles ingame btw). Controls aren't too great but it's a really fun game!

Yesss I've played A Wonderful Life (the PS2 version tho) and I gotta say it's one of my favourite HM games!

 

As someone who buys JRPGs on a whim/after finding out about them through recommendations due to other JRPGs I've played, I've got quite a few.

Any game in the Dept. Heaven series: But especially Riviera: The Promised Land and Yggdra Union. Each game has familiar RPG/tactics-style gameplay, but with a twist. I'm not the best at explaining things so I can't really describe these twists, but take my word for it...! Anyway, the reason why I singled out Riviera and Yggdra Union are because they're both really awesome. Riviera is a mix of a VN (it's sort of a galge, but at the same time not really) and RPG; there's limited movement which I know can be a turnoff, but the fighting's really fun and the characters, story, art, and music are all great! Yggdra Union is somewhat similar to Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, and other tactics RPGs in that you move your characters on a grid and face off against opponents. Again, characters/story/art/music are fantastic.

As for how I found out about them, a friend of mine introduced me to Riviera, and from there I discovered it was part of a series.

The Legend of Legacy: One of the newer JRPGs I've played, it's related to the SaGa series, which...Idk how well-known that is, though it was my first time hearing of it when I found out about Legacy. Anyway, it's a lot like classic RPGs (esp. the original Final Fantasy games) in that it has a fairly simple turn-based battle system and a simple storyline. The art and music are really lovely, so I'd suggest giving it a try!

Found out about this one while looking up a guide for Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold.

Summon Night: Any game in the series, really, though Twin Age gets my pick. Though the gameplay can get a bit repetitive, it's still a lot of fun. The characters also make it worth playing, not to mention there are multiple endings!

I found Twin Age while browsing games at GameStop; later got 5 for the Vita.

Rune Factory 4: Probably one of the more popular gems on my list; RF4 is to this day the best JRPG I've played. Everything about it is fantastic; there's nothing I hate about the game at all. RF3 also gets an honorable mention because it's also really fun~

First heard about Rune Factory through Nintendo Power; couldn't stand the first game and didn't get back into it until a friend recommended RF3. It's a shame Neverland went out of business shortly after; I really hope either some or most the people who worked on it or other people bring it back :c

Etrian Odyssey: Also one of the better-known gems, the series is a lot of fun provided you love map-making (I freaking love it) and dungeon crawling...and having a difficult time playing unless you grind like hell. The more recent games have added an Easy mode, so it's no longer inaccessible to people who hate grinding/want to play for the story! Anyway, my particular faves are EO3 (which I hope will be remade for the 3DS soon...) and EO4.

Found out about the series through an LP someone was doing~