Underrated Retro Games

Here are two that I think most may have slept on.

1.) Pop n Twinbee for the SNES
This is probably my favourite Sh'mup on almost any system. Released by Konami for the SNES but only in Europe and Japan. Its fun, fast, colourful, has a wonderful variety of enemies, levels, bosses, music. It's just bright and fun, I always go back to it, so if you like those side or upward scrolling shooters, this deserves a look in, 100%
(NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH POP N TWINBEE RAINBOW BELL ADVENTURES WHICH IS A SPINOFF DIFFERENT TYPE OF GAME!)

2.) Linus Cosmic Spaceheads Crusade
Developed by Code asters and released for the NES in 92. Me and my cousin never managed to beat it. We were like 6 at the time. I'm not sure I rate the gameplay allll that highly, but it's an interesting game, it mixes a sort of point and click adventure with some platform style play and areas or situations that make you have to think outside the box to progress. It's a really interesting piece worth a look at if you like NES titles for sure, it just felt different to many of the systems other titles. Oh and I love the music!
 
One of personal favorite Snes title
Was "Skyblazer". Rented on a whim from blockbuster, and around 10 more times after that. It's been decades since I have played it, but always stands out in my mind more then other great titles from that time.

 
Crimson Sea (Xbox)


Always loved this one, but it seems like no one else has ever played it.
It was almost like a sci-fi Dynasty Warriors-lite; hordes of alien enemies to slash and shoot through, but generally in much more focused levels rather than sprawling battlefields. Much more story-intensive than DW as well, with a narrative that honestly feels a helluva lot like something you'd find in some old obscure 80s anime, but with an aesthetic much closer to something out of early-2000s Squaresoft. It's not so much that the story is amazing, but rather that there's so much personality and character in it.
It's simple, slightly goofy, space opera-y sci-fi fun. And the graphics were fecking phenomenal.
There was a sequel on PS2 (which I have yet to finish), but that was all that ever came of the series; I guess Koei considered it a failed experiment and forgot all about it. A shame. I mean, not like KoeiTecmo is lacking in variety (one of my favorite devs/publishers), but it would have been nice to see more of this. I dig the universe they set up in the games, so of course it would have been cool to explore it a bit more.
 
A fighting game I enjoyed back in the day was Tobal No 1, a fighting game by Square. Toriyama, the Dragon Ball creator, did the designs. It was a fun 3D Fighter. The second game was Japan exclusive and when I was briefly living there the second time in 2006, I bought the second game as I immensely enjoyed it
 
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Gunvalkyrie (Xbox, 2002)

This might be the most underrated Sega title ever, developed by the same people who did Jet Set Radio, as even some die hard Sega fans never heard of it. Gunvalkyrie is a third person shooter/3D platform that requires master controls from its players in order to enjoy the game properly. And when you do, you will enter in a zen like state while playing this game, looking like a profient ballet dancer. Experience wise it really feels like an evolution from the shmup genre. It's an unique game that it was never replicated again and one of the few reasons to still own the original Xbox.
 
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It was supposed to come out on the DC, IIRC; would've been much-beloved if it did, I feel.
 
One of mine has got to be Marble Madness. It's on various platforms. Its an AMAZING puzzle/strategy game which is entirely based on skill. You roll a marble throughout various courses and are required to learn the tracks secrets in order to proceed. It's a hard game at first, but easy to master. It's also GREAT to play with a friend! I recommend it.
 
cornchipz said:
Snatcher on Sega CD:

A Kojima game made by a non Kojima team for a game console that is a fucking mess. This game is surprisingly amazing, and does have a pretty amazing story. I recently got a friend to play the game by admitting that part of the game was so sad that it actually made me cry. It's kind of a visual novel style with menu prompts. The gameplay might be just be passable, but the story line more than makes up for it

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Whoa whoa wait a second. Cyberpunk? Deep story? Made by Kojima? Music like Cowboy bebop? I'm going to have a heart attack. Gotta play it right now!
 
You've never played Snatcher?!

My 6th favourite game ever, it is one of gaming's masterpieces.

The only real negative I can say, is that it borrows heavily from other texts, but in borrowing bits and pieces, it becomes a wonderful new whole, one of the best games I have ever witnessed and by far the best Visual Novel (esque) game I've ever played.
 
Mittens2317 said:
Sonic the Hedgehog (Master System)
Moving onto Alex Kidd's successor, Sonic was another obsession of mine, albeit when I was younger. I fell in love with the series since it was as plastered all over the fucking place in the 90s. Seeing family play the first two, catching brief parts of the cartoons, reading the Where's Wally-esque books (which I since bought my nephews... for them, obviously ?), these all contributed to a yearning for a Sonic game.

Though we didn't have a Mega Drive, SEGA were "kind enough" to develop an 8-bit entry to promote the Game Gear, and capitalise on the Master System's somewhat surprising success in PAL territories and South America. This became my true introduction to the series, and I have to say, it gave me a vastly different outlook on it to the kids who started off with the Mega Drive original...

Sure, you could go fast (ish), but speed was more of a part of the character's traits than the game itself. Sonic was a fast hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog didn't have fast gameplay. It was just a damn fun platformer, and that - along with Sonic the Comic - eventually helped dislodge Batman from being my favourite piece of fiction (though he'd obviously later go onto reclaim the prestigious title)

I haven't played it in years, and it's apparently a hell of a lot easier than I remember, but it's said to still be as fun. One thing I would say though, if you're gonna play it, defo get the MS version. One of either Sonic Adventure DX or the Gems Collection had the Game Gear version. It was ever so slightly different, but to the point of being a put-off. Same with all the 8-bit versions actually, but especially Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The tiny screen made boss battles nigh-on impossible!

If you've never played it though actually and are one of those people who reckon the original's one of those 100 games to play before you die, then you defo have to give it a try. It's probably an interesting look into the series as well, due to the differences being big enough to give alternative first impressions of what a Sonic game is.

Anyway, there's probably more I could talk about if my brain would allow me access to the memories, but for now these are the three that spring to mind.
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Put this in the dictionary beside the word "truth".
 

Interstate '76

Built on the MechWarrior engine, Interstate '76 is an automotive combat action sim. It takes place in an alternate 1970s timeline in which the U.S. economy has collapsed and vigilantes rule the roads in heavily armed cars and trucks. Stylistically, the game is a mixture of Mad Max, the Dukes of Hazzard, and 1970s blaxploitation action films. It's presented in the form of a television show, with an opening credits sequence presenting the main characters as being portrayed by fictitious actors. You play Groove Champion, an underachieving race car driver who was always outshone by his younger sister, Jade. When Jade is killed, Groove is reluctantly drawn into her world of automotive vigilantes. Groove is mentored by Jade's partner, Taurus, a fierce driver and a poet (there is a dedicated key you can press any time you want to request Taurus to recite one of his poems while you're driving).

The game features a robust simulation backbone and you're giving the freedom to decide on your weapons and armor loadouts and locations. I recall getting stuck on one mission that required a jump off a ramp across a deep valley - I could never make the jump no matter how fast of a start I got off to. Then I remembered that the armor affects the weight and balance of your car, and I had too much weight in the front end. I adjusted the armor placement and was able to make the jump.

The world and lore are well-designed and the voice acting is top notch. The flat-shaded polygon style has aged fairly well. The funk soundtrack is killer! Vigilante 8 was spun off from Interstate '76, but I was disappointed to find that Vigilante 8 is not only simplified to an arcade-style game, but also has very little of the beautiful cinematic design of Interstate '76. There was one mainline sequel, Interstate '82, but that too removed most of the sim elements. Unfortunately that was the end of the series but I would love to see it properly rebooted.
 
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I got bored over the weekend and decided to have a go at the NES classics on the switch which is where I stumbled upon this game that I found to be genuinely great fun. Now, it could be that people absolutely love this game and I've been sleeping on it all these years without knowing. But I absolutely loved Super Dodgeball.

I was impressed by how much strategy there was to each game, and how every match could have genuinely gone either way. The satisfaction of sending an opponent flying with one of your super shots was also intensely satisfying.

If you've got a switch as well as that nintendo classic games app thingy that's available on the switch with the nintendo online service then I would definitely recommend this as a fun way to pass an hour.

 
Not really a sequel, per se (though Earnest does appear), its more of, "title in the Earnest Evans Series," it falls into a tricky classification.

It is a wonderful and super fun game... But watch out for the last level; you think Battletoads is hard? That can at least be memorized.

El Viento cannot.
 
Well, I bought it for my brother (who is of the autism spectrum) and when it comes to challenging retro games, he can beat them. He’s like JImmy from the Wizard haha
 
Fur Fighters from Bizarre Creations. It have a Shenmue-Reference (a poster it called "Shen-Moo" and there is a cow that looks like Ryo. ^^ ) It's a funny but hard game. You must collect animal-babys they were stolen by Viggo. A Sequel was mentioned in the manual, but it never comes. :-/
 
That's only part of the game...

You forgot about:

- Token Collecting
- Defeating the mutated spouses/mother of the Fur Fighters
- Awesome dialogue
- James Bond galore

FF is one of my favourite games ever and it is truly one of the most underrated video games to ever be released. So awesome!
 
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