Forgotten Games

Not all of these are necessarily missing from online stores, but from my brain's archives too:

I've mentioned it a few times, but I thought Die Hard: Vendetta was quality when it came out, and always wanted to revisit the title to see if it really was as good as I remembered or of I only liked it because it was a Die Hard game and was the first FPS I'd owned since Duke Nukem 3D.

The Last Express is one I only have vague memories of, as is Headhunter, though I remember enjoying them both. My brother also played Shadow Man quite a bit. Seemed like a decent concept but wasn't really my cup of tea.

Mainly though, it's Commodore 64 titles that spring to mind whenever "forgotten games" comes up, because I've genuinely forgotten most of their names.

There was a light gun game that had both shooting and investigative elements to it, which I loved. Also a 007 type game (not sure if it actually was James Bond like), it had a pretty large variety of side-scrolling shooter levels. We proper got into that one. Bionic Ninja (I believe it was called) had a top atmosphere, seemed full of life, a wonderfully dangerous dystopian, almost alien setting. Was difficult as fuck though and could barely make it beyond a few steps.

One game in particular that gave me a massive headache trying to remember was a 2D football game on PC (though it used the modern day side-on/broadcast angle as opposed to the traditional top-down view) I scoured the corners of the internet and back rooms of my mind trying to rediscover its name simply to find footage and/or screenshots. Alas, it's one of many buried in the cemetery of broken memories.
 
Mittens2317 said:
Mainly though, it's Commodore 64 titles that spring to mind whenever "forgotten games" comes up, because I've genuinely forgotten most of their names.
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Had this problem lately with these games that I remember playing when I was so young but couldn't remember the name. It actually got to the stage where I had to type into google "C64" followed by a description to begin hunting them down. Fortunately I tracked down most of them, from Barbarian, CJs Elephant Antics, Seymour Goes to Holywood (nightmare to find!), Spike in Transylvania...
Funnily enough there's one I cant remember the name of right now. I thought it was Captain Insano, but looking for it is bringing up nothing. You were a little man with a cape, and had to platform your way from the bottom of the level to the teleporter. There were conveyor belts, saws, spikes.... Christ that's gonna annoy me all day now.

What a time though. Kids these days will never know the struggle, of loading a game from a cassette, taking an hour to load, just to play 1 level. Madness, yet I can remember those days so well. Even when we first got the PC, and it came with a little cartridge that went into the side, which had Flimbos Quest, Klaxx, Fiendish Freddy... some games like.
 
Still got it on my 360 hard drive. You can't buy it digitally anymore and it never had a physical release...

 
I need to check that I have Scott Pilgrim downloaded. Licensed deals are a pain, lots of them disappearing these days - Outrun 2 and Afterburner Climax from Sega, Marvel Vs Capcom 1/2, Ducktales from Capcom etc.
 
Donkey Kong Country-Games was removed from the official Ninteno-Store. There was a news about this couple of years ago. Sometimes such decisions makes no sense.
 
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Shadows of the Damned -- came and went completely un noticed by most...but I really loved it. This was a time when EA were actually trying and producing some half decent original content. This game was surprisingly fun all around but now is completely forgotten.

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Virtua Fighter -- PAINS me to say it, but it's nowhere near the juggernaut it deserves to be. Damn Tekken 7 and its popularity! (even if I do love Tekken; it still pains me that Virtua Fighter is considered niche in this day and age even among the fighting game community)....maybe not entirely forgotten...but deserves way more.
 
Been on the lookout for Shadows of the Damned for awhile now. Only casually, mind, so I haven't looked a lot.
 
@Peter Aye, loading tapes was the fucking worst. I'm surprised they were never recalled for giving people epileptic fits!

Are you sure the character had a cape btw? Sounds like Dynamite Dan to me, though they could've just been very similar games.
 
Headhunter (and its Xbox sequel) were great. I loved them, the cliffhangar plot point in the first game was brilliant, really caught me off guard. Pity it launched after the DC was dead, it deserved better.
 
Tobal No 1. The second game was Japan exclusive, and I own a copy of it. It is probably one of the most underrated fighters in history and I’m surprised Square didn’t continue with it.
 
Another game that popped into my head today - Ide Yousuke Meijin no Jissen Mahjong 2

Its was a Famicom Mahjong game released by Capcom (obviously only in Japan). Comes with its own special controller as well to make it easier to play (to quickly select tiles etc.)
What sets this one apart from other Mahjong games I've played is that it has its own dedicated story/RPG mode, where all battles are Mahjong based. Its actually a really fun game, gets pretty darn hard late in the game as the AI gets better and better (you can get items that even the odds though). Its one of Capcom's weirder titles that I ended up loving, obviously if you don't like Mahjong you'll never get anywhere in the game, but if you its well worth the import.

Sticking with Capcom, the Tenchi Wo Kurau series (both the Arcade and Famicom games) are another good shout. All the games are based on the manga of the same name - its basically yet another retelling of the 3 Kingdoms era of China (think Dynasty Warriors) told from Liu Bei's point of view, with his oath brothers Zhang Fei and Gwan Yu tagging along for fun.

The arcade games are scrolling brawlers, the first takes place entirely on horse back and is a pretty fun game, but maybe a bit too long. Port wise it also got a pretty good PC Engine port. But the sequel, while removing the dedicated horse back combat (its a powerup now) is better - more moves, better graphics while retaining a pretty tough difficulty curve, still feels a bit too long as well. Again, port wise the Saturn got a good (albeit expensive now) port.

The Famicom games though are turn based RPGs, again based around the same characters and story. What makes the battles fun though, aside from your normal attack, magic etc. attacks is the "all out" mode which is just a way to quickly have both sides fight until only one is left. Just makes those turn based battles that much faster. Otherwise they are fairly standard RPGs, reecruit more generals, beat up Lu Bu again and eventually slap some sense into Wei. Its just a strangely addictive duo of RPGs, and I'm not normally one for turn based RPGs but these just do it for me.
 
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