What are your most underrated games?

Now some of these games may even be somewhat well-known but to you still seem to be underrated given their quality. What are some of them to you?

SNES - "Demon's Crest", this is, in my opinion, the most criminally underplayed game ever. It even had negative sales in the US during one week of it's release. It's basically a 'stage-based' metroidvania set in a demonic realm. Everything about this game breathes quality - story, gameplay, music, everything. It even has at least 3 endings. I cannot suggest people playing this enough.

PS1 - "Chrono Cross", now this game is at leasat somewhat famous and held in general high-regard, I just do not think that it is held in high *enough* regard. The characters, story, UNMATCHED music, gameplay systems, replayability, it has it all. There is a reason this was gamespot's first ever game to receive an "essential" rating. But even having attained that, I do not feel that this game gets the respect it deserves. FFVII? Whatever, Chrono Cross absolutely destroys it in every sense of the word. (imho ;) )

Tin Head (Sega Genesis)

Rocket Knight Adventures(Sega Genesis)

Skeleton Krew(Sega Genesis)

Xardion (SNES)

Marcos Magic Football (Sega Genesis)

The Incredible Machine(PC)

Bloody Roar series(PlayStation/others)

No One Can Stop Mr.Domino(PlayStation)

recently i'd say prey. reviews were quite mixed for it, i don't think sales were great (it fell to almost half price within a few weeks of going on sale here in england) and it's let down a bit by enemies that are probably more suited to a movie than a video game. but look past that and a few other niggles - lots of backtracking for one - and there's a really good, atmospheric immersive simulator in there, heavily influenced / inspired by games like bioshock / system shock, half life and dead space. i had a lot of fun with it.

psychonauts and vampire the masquerade also spring to mind

nearly everything I play

but a cult classic that is way under rated would be........No One Lives Forever

I think osu! is a pretty good game that is look down upon.

No One Lives Forever's magnificence is only spoken of in hushed tones, it was vastly far ahead of it's time.

@MarkoftheSivak: Bloody Good Time. Stupidest theme ever...the most fun LAN game possible outside OW you can type shit out to each other and the graphics actually are not half bad the arenas are fairly small which makes for some seriously intense chaos if you get enough folks on the line. Well worth the effort.

still is I think, and now an entire generation doesnt even know about the game

Ninja Gaiden on the Sega Master System. Everybody knows about the famous trilogy on the NES, but not many people know that there is a Ninja Gaiden game on the Sega Master System that is completely different than the one on the NES and is far better than all of the more famous Ninja Gaiden games on the NES.

The Gear Game version was different as well.

OT- Master Of Darkness on the MS/GG

Sega couldn't get the rights to third party developers thanks to Nintendo bullying them, so they essentially made their own Castlevania. It looks, and plays better imo.

Sleeping Dogs

Remember me

Spec ops the line

Silent Hill Shattered memories

From 2017, I'd say What Remains of Edith Finch. The narrative and the design alone is breathtaking, nevermind the cleverness in certain sequences. Will have to check out No On Lives Forever.

While I agree that very few people know about master system ninja gaiden, it is nowhere near as good as the nes games. It is far too easy, level design is lacking compared to the nes games, the control is not as tight, and the story is completely laughable with some absolutely horrific dialogue.

It is a solid game but there is a reason that it never appears on greatest games of all times list and the nes one does.

Sleeping Dogs always comes to mind for me.

The Hobbit on the PS2

That's less to do with quality and more to do with the sheer consumer size of the of NES. Outside of Europe, most Americans never owned a Master System.

the little known splinter cell double agent on the og xbox / ps2. it was a completely different game to the main 360 / pc / ps3 versions and retained the same look, feel and play style of chaos theory.

also as a stealth enthusiast i always preferred nolf 2 to nolf 1. the stealth was so much better

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

I agree that the game is easier than the NES Ninja Gaiden, but it still provides a good challenge.

I disagree about the level design and especially the control. The level design is great and more fair than the NES game and I think the controls feels much better than the NES game. The controls are tight and precise with faster movements, higher jumps, and new useful moves that make you feel more like a ninja such as the ability to hang off tree branches/ledges and a better wall jump where you can bounce off the walls instead of just sticking to it.

I'd say that the primary reason that the game is easier than the brutally difficult NES game is because the level design is more fair and the controls are better which is a good thing.

I feel like most games that I play are underrated, but I'll specifically mention the Yakuza series. They are so incredibly good, and yet they sell literally around 50,000-200,000 copies if they're lucky in the west.

prey oddworld n tasty yakuza 0 final fantasy 15 last guardian dragon age inguisition alien isolation this gen era

Advance Wars series. Underrated in a way that Nintendo already forgot that this series ever existed.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen.

Drakengard.

Sleeping Dogs.

Gladiator Begins.

Deadliest Warrior games.

Beyond Good and Evil!

There's quite a few co-op games I think are kind of underrated, Kirby Super Star, Conflict games, Alien Hominid etc.

Definitely Gravity Rush 2 and Jet Set Radio Future.

I wouldn't call these games underrated as they both reviewed pretty well, but they were both really unfairly ignored imo as they're two of the greatest games I've ever played, but neither sold particularly well at all, likely killing the chances of any sequels for the former title(especially now that Sony is shutting down its servers after only a year), and definitely killing it in the latter sadly.

@MarkoftheSivak:

Every Hyperdimension Neptunia game.

Saints Row 3

Chaka Chakan - Sega Genesis

Senran Kagura Estival Versus

Rush 2049 - Sega Dreamcast

Godzilla - PS4

Alpha Protocol: got bad reviews but it eventually, like most Obsidian games, turned into an incredible game. Think the gameplay of Mass Effect, the high-tech espionage of James Bond and Jason Bourne, and the kitsch story and voice acting of Die Hard. Incredible game, fun game, great game.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun: a fairly recent game, it hearkens to the days of Commandos, another game I cherish. It got great reviews, but I never hear anyone talk about. The game plays like Commandos, but it has the plot, setting, and voice acting of a great Akira Kurosawa movie.

Tachyon: The Fringe: a space sim made by Novalogic during their prime, and voiced by Bruce Campbell. Do I really need to say anything more? Game was great.

Sleeping Dogs: when it first came out, it was a total diamond in the rough, which is probably why a lot of people did not buy it. But at it's core and beyond the generally-superficial flaws, there was a game that rivaled just about any open-world GTA-like game out there except for GTA :P Eventually they remastered it came out with a definitive edition or whatever, and I think a lot more people saw what a great game it was. Compelling plot, great melee and gun fighting system, really nice driving and controls, and the whole Hong Kong criminal underworld was just fantastic.

Totally. Granted, it was very popular at the time, but I would say it is arguably the most forgotten game of all time. The game is simply incredible. They almost rebooted/re-released it a short time ago but there was some bullshit nonsense with WB, Monolith, and so forth. I will see if I can find the article about it, but it's like "NOLF got dropped down a well at the bottom of a mine that was underneath a mountain. It's still there, but it might as well not be" lol

I dont think the Trine series gets the love it deserves. I loved how magical it felt when playing with a friend and solving puzzles together

For me:

1.Indiana Jones and the infernal machine : An awesome Tomb Raider inspired Indiana Jones game which in my opinion captures Indiana Jones so much better than Fate Of Atlantis(Which makes you feel that you play as Guybrush in Indiana Jones skin)

2.The Evil Within : I have already discussed it to death that why this game is awesome and it's even much better than Silent Hill and Resident Evil games.

3.Resident Evil 1 Original(1996 version): Just because Remake has better graphics , people consider it better than Original while actually Original is more scarier, Harder and has much less backtracking compare to Remake.(Also that Lisa Trevor is too overrated and one of the most useless monsters that RE ever had)

4.True Crime 1 and 2: These games are much superior compare to Sleeping Dogs and yet SD has more fans because it only has better graphics compare to them.

Yeah I agree with Demon's Crest being underrated.

I really enjoyed Dante's Inferno from last gen. Some gave it horrible reviews but I enjoyed it more then God of War 3.

I also think Primal on the PS2 is underrated.

Ok, I'm gonna go for some choices that don't normally pop up on such lists:

PS1 - Threads of Fate if I'm not mistaken, this game was made by Square and is an action RPG, automatic inclusion on top game lists right? Nope! For whatever reason, it has been forgotten and the worst part is, it is a very good game. The game looks great for the time, especially as it came out towards the end of the consoles life cycle, and developers were able to push as much life as possible from it. The best part is that it has real time combat, something rarely seen in JRPGs at the time.

PS2 - The Getaway in the age of GTA and many, many clones, this game was the best of the sub GTA lot. Heck, graphically it was better than any GTA title and as a complete package, it was better than GTA 3 which aged pretty badly by that point. The depiction of London is pretty cool, with a lot of the major landmarks easy to drive to. The gun and run game play was good...although if you go back to it now it feels terrible lol I never played the sequel and there were talks for a 3rd game on the PS3, which was since cancelled. The hardware is available now to make a much more detailed and engrossing London. Could there be a new game in the series? Probably not.

PS3 - Enslaved this game has all the ingredients of a top title. It is gorgeous to look at, has a cool story and fun gameplay. I still have no idea why it isnt mentioned as one of the best PS3 exclusives at the time. I havent played it in years and I think I gave away my copy but I bet it still feels as smooth in movement, combat and platforming as it did years ago. And the gorgeous, green world with decaying tech was something else.

I'll add N64, GC, XB, XB360 and PC to the list later.

The first game that comes to mind is Nier (the one before Nier: Automata). It got quite bad review, although I really enjoyed playing it even multiple times to get all of the endings. I also immersed myself in the storyline and got emotional on some occasions, thanks to the beautiful soundtrack.

I think most people who played Automata never even heard about the first game, so that's pretty underrated in my opinion.

Also, I'm glad to see someone put Drakengard on the list.

Timesplitters Future Perfect. A lot of people say Timesplitters 2 is the best one but I always thought Future Perfect played the best. It got overshadowed by some of the other big shooters of the time but it's still the most fun I've ever had in a multiplayer FPS. Me and my cousin used to always play it in splitscreen. It's a shame Free Radical's last game, Haze on PS3, wasn't that good.

I like the Armored Cores series, wish they did more with it. I also like legends of dragoon.

Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle.

Gigantic - but it’s too dead to enjoy IMO. It had unique charter design and graphics and game style. Joy to play but like I said too dead

So, let me carry on (glad someone mentioned Future Perfect, as that had a really fun, trippy campaign):

N64 - Body Harvest, Yeah ok the game was ugly, the controls were fidgety on an already fidgety controller and its ideas were too big for the tech at the time, but it was fun. I mean, I could go from ground vehicle to helicopter...it was only years later that I learned the developers would go on to work on the GTA series. No wonder!

Xbox - Gun for most of this list, I've been trying my best to include games that are underrated and exclusive to the format, I cant keep it up with the xb tbh. Gun however, was a game I only played on the the xb and boy was it good. It was like RDR but...well before that gen of consoles and the tech available. You can ride around on horses, shoot via fp view, it was a lot of.

Xbox 360 - So, I was thinking of one or two rpgs...and had to go with Blue Dragon. A game I never actually finished but enjoyed, especially the aesthetic of it all. It looked and felt a bit like Dragon Quest and should have gained a larger following.

PC - Earthsiege 2, man I spent hours on this game as a kid, upgrading the robot, destroying enemies, being impressed by how real the fire looked lol

The modern digimon games dont get enough fanfare. They havent released a bad one in ages.