That one hidden gem that you bought blindly.

In my case, this would be 007 Nightfire on the GameCube. My older cousin was a huge Bond fan, so I wanted to impress him by buying Nightfire on my GCN since him and I would always have a blast playing GoldenEye on the N64. I believe I purchased Nightfire early 2003 (pretty much blindly, because I knew absolutely nothing of this game prior to buying it), and sadly, him and I never got around to playing it. When I bought and showed the game to him, he was just like "nice". I felt like I let him down, BUT, little did I know, I had a good friend not much later who I showed the game to, and him & I would play the hell out of that game every time we would hang out. That's pretty much when I became a full blown 007 fan. GoldenEye and Nightfire were such awesome Bond games. It's just a shame 007 games haven't been quite the same ever since... Thanks, Activision.

 

I think that mine would be Dragon Quest Swords for the Wii. It was a surprisingly good game, being a spin-off game for the Dragon Quest series. However, the motion controls were actually quite brilliant in this game (although still a bit clunky). It was a great game with so many interesting level designs that made me keep coming back to it. I would pay it again if my Wii wasn't dead and my Wii U wasn't region locked to the wrong region.

 

A lot of people are gonna wanna talk about Earthbound, Xenoblade and No More Heroes, but since these games have good publicity now I want to focus on something REALLY obscure. Besides, only the latter one was blind for most people recently. Did you know Yoshi's Story had a sequel for the DS?

Yes. Yoshi's Island DS played similarly to Yoshi's Story, but with one particularly major twist. Multiple babies. You could switch between them at certain signs and all of them had special abilities. Mario can hit M Blocks, Peach can fly on gusts of wind using her parasol (leading to some difficult scenarios late game), DK can climb vines and charge through things, Wario has a magnet for coins and special blocks and Bowser Jr can breathe fire. It had some interesting concepts and all in all was a very good game. I don't get why it doesn't have the same publicity that Yoshi's Story gets.

 

I didn't get it, but now I humbly regret it. I planned on getting the Ni No Kuni's collector's edition as it was a ghibli game, but I decided at the last minute not to. I humbly regret it. That game did amazing, and now the collectors edition goes for 400 dollars and above. I really want it~

 

Bravely Default. I had downloaded the demo and I had no idea about the gameplay, what it was about or anything! I just thought the trailer looked cool, so I downloaded the demo.
It took a bit to get familiar, but I loved it! In fact, I was saving up for it when my 3DS broke.

Pokémon Conquest to a lesser degree, I saw that it was Pokémon and a strategy game and knew my sister would love it. So my mom got it for me and I gave it to her and I was right. She loves it, and this is about her 5th time playing, if I'm recalling correctly.

 

Most of the 'hidden gems' I bought from recommendation. I had seen bits and pieces of its gameplay, but I knew naught else other than my friends liked it, and that I should give it a try. And thus those titles entered my life, one by one.

Golden Sun back in 2005.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney back in 2010.
Etrian Odyssey Untold as recently as 2014.

And I'll always remember them.

 

Well, Pokémon was one of my Hidden Gems back in 2007, but we all know Pokémon.
I'd have to say I got into the Kid Icarus series in November.
It started with Super Smash Brothers - I really liked Pit and my twin sister liked Dark Pit, since they have a kind of Anime-ish look. So we bought the game on the eShop (since it was sold out nearly everywhere in Australia) and tried it out.

Now it's one of my favourite games! Second to Pokémon, which is obviously first. But still - we really enjoyed the game and loved the characters. Now I'm actually hoping for a sequel, though I slightly doubt there would be one.

 

Anyone heard of Iggy's Wrecking Balls? Back in the N64 day, this was a pretty unique platform racing game. 2.5 D and with a focus on moving up and down through platforms, as well as environmental interactions on the way. I rented it from a Blockbuster's at some point (apparently a REALLY long time ago), and the game actually kicked a lot of butt. Pretty sure I begged my parents to buy it.

It's a shame that game never got a sequel.

 

I have this one game for the Gamecube called Amazing Island. I remember seeing it on XPlay one day. Even though they gave it a low score, I bought the game anyway and I do not regret it. It's sort of a minigame game, but it's main gimmick is the ability to create your own unique monsters. I spent hours making my own little monstrosities and collecting items and cards. I even thought some of the minigames were pretty fun to play too. Some days even I still go back and play that game. It's monster creation may seem primitive by today's standards, but back then it was a pretty cool gimmick.

 

Skate City Heroes for the Wii
I never saw it in a shop ever, or anywhere, but one day I was looking through the preowned section of my local Eb Games and saw it, It looked alright


I played it


and

It was so mUCH FUN OH MY GOSH



THE HIPPY HAS GOT THE MOVES

 

Rune Factory 2 for the DS. The box art called it "a fantasy Harvest Moon"
I like fantasy. I like Harvest Moon. What could go wrong? Nothing actually.
I played that game for several years, thoroughly enjoying it. It does have its flaws, but it's a lot of fun. I want to get my hands on Rune Factory 3 for the 3DS now, since I no longer have Rune Factory 2.

 

I got Magicka on steam along with a few of my friends and it's super fun! I struggle to understand why there's not more fan content about it.