What're your favorite underrated games?

[Redthic]

Not sure if they are underrated but I really like Suda51s stuff.

They are panned by every gaming magazine that gets a hold of them but the style cannot be beat.

[maximumthemokona]

Definitely Baten Kaitos. If they ever make a third game I'll weep like a baby and buy ten copies.

[PotooGryphon]

No Particular Order. These are all great fun games that everyone should play.

Psychonauts- This game was criminally underrated. Like corporal punishment should be dealt for those that haven't played. You play as Raz a kid that ran away from the circus to a psychic summer camp to learn how to become a psychic detective. 10 out of 10!

Mark Of Kri- Made by a team of Disney animators that decided to do their own personal side project and it shows!

Whiplash- You play as two dysfunctional lab animals taking down a billion dollar company. The game keeps track on how much monetary damage you cost the company! It's great and fun!

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom- A very pretty puzzle like game. Much like Ico but instead of a blind girl you have a powerful friendly nature beast. The storytelling is rich in this one.

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy- Love this game specifically for the Mummy. He's hilarious and accident prone. Sphinx was a bit dull however, this game was underrated.

Kya: Dark Lineage- You play as Kya who gets sucked into another naturery dimension of werewolves and cute ewok like creatures. You quickly become a freedom fighter with the ewok like creatures protecting them from the werewolves that want to turn them.

[cptbee]

I'm so happy to see Baten Kaitos mentioned here! In terms of nostalgia it's definitely up there on my list of favorite games!

Other favorite overlooked games would be:
1- Lili: Child of Geos - A bright, colorful and fun game that makes you want to just sit there and stare at it for hours. It's hard to think that it was once a mobile game!
2- The Last Tinker: City of Colors - Another colorful game of the 3D platformer genre. Lord knows it's one that the video gaming industry has been sorely lacking these days.
3- Costume Quest - A cute little RPG created by Double Fine set on the night of halloween where you can transform into any costume you've unlocked, INCLUDING A GIANT GOD DAMN MECHA.
4- And finally, Pokemon... RANGER - Aye, it's pokemon, but it's a spinoff that seems to never be mentioned. Why? I don't know! It's a fun game with an engaging plot and, ya know, pokemon! What's not to like?

[vocaloidno1fan]

omg pokemon ranger is awesome!

[vincentbatignole]

I totally agree, Suda51 is a genius!! His games might be clumsy to some, but to me they feel like he's trying to shrae a dream or some indescribable feelings... It's fascinating and mesmerizing <3

[carloswebcomic]

Ace Combat Assault Horizon. I'm the only person in the entire universe that had fun with that game. Also, the American McGees Alice games. Just because of the art direction.

[Jelw]

FE PoR and RD are soooo good.

[guillermojbasham]

My favorite games are:
1. Alice: Madness Returns
2. Crush
3. Overwatch Kaufen
4. Dark Sector
5. Switchball

[El_Psy_Congroo]

Oh, I won't argue that Smash isn't a fighting game that is played well by the pro's lol I've seen the pros play that game and holy fuck, they know some pretty awesome tricks and techniques that make me shit bricks lol But Smash wasn't originally intended for professional tournament play. It's definitely come to that point, but at the end of the day, it's still built as a party player game that -can- be played professionally if you put the time into it. It's a party fighter first and a competitive pro fighter second.

I hate Smash now because of it haha. I remember when it used to be a button mashing bonanza with an occasional "Oo thats a neat trick." Now I cant even beat my little brother. I miss Smash Bros when I could literally smash my bro haha....

Nier A game I had an interesting time with. I had a lot of problems with it to be sure, in some ways I felt like it was published before it was properly finished. But the music was haunting and the voice acting was great. I'm excited for Nier Automata.

Wet Now this needs a sequel. Yesterday.

Burnout The one for PSP. Great music fun game

Metroid Prime 1 and 2 Used to scare the shit out of me but I loved it

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Need for Speed Most Wanted

Extreme G That music was my childhood. I never had an N64 but my uncle did and it was my first exposure to video games (I was bad at it though haha)

Lego Racers 1 and 2 Because yes.

The fucking CLuefinders I loved these games. And lets not forget Where on earth is Carmen Sandiego?

Lego Island 2 I'm just going to go on a rant about old computer games aimed at kids - stop me now.

[zaksimmondshurn]

-Burning Rangers
-Jet Set Radio +JSR Future
-Panzer Dragoon Saga

I don't know if they're critically underrated necessarily, but they seem to get a little overlooked nowadays. I'd kill for an HD remaster or sequel to any of them!

[r0ckrabbi7]

ITT: "underrated" game titles
seriously, over half of the titles I have seen aren't underrated at all

1. The Path
2. Yume Nikki (tho it seems to have gathered at least some attention after the huge boom of RPG maker horror games)
3. Aquaria

[Reraser]

I have wildly varying reasons for the two that I thought of in this topic-

1. Lost Planet 2 - INSANE co-op fun, the levels, enemies, and bosses evoke all the best parts of your cooperative arcade experiences from being a kid. With unlocks that last an extremely long time, the replayability value is through the roof. There's almost no story to it, though it presents itself as having one, so you don't get mired down in the details of the campaign. Go check it out on Steam if you have friends to play with, it's absolute gold.

2. The Beginner's Guide - I don't know if this one is underrated, but it's seriously misunderstood by the... Less-capable thinkers of our gaming generation who take it a bit too literally. As we are all artists, especially on a site which has consistent forum posts whinging about subscriber count, I would advise everyone to check it out. It can be experienced in a single evening, and I think that's best. Go play it and then do some serious consideration of yourself.

[JessJackdaw]

Oh goodness so many games have already been said... of the ones that haven't been listed yet:

Lost Kingdoms 2 (GC): From the makers of Dark Souls came humble beginnings, but in this game you can see the spirit of a wonderful emerging company with creativity. If anything would sell you on this game:

DARK SOULS + POKEMON = Need I say more?

Really fun game I've played so many times. Really hope FromSoftware returns to it now that Dark Souls is done.

Grandia II (Dreamcast, PS2): Oh man. The other two Grandia games are garbage, but this gem is amazing. So dang campy and it knows it. There are few times JRPGs just embrace how stupid their plots can get, and Grandia 2 does this and also adds an amazing real time, turn based hybrid battle system that many indie games have lovingly adopted (Child of Light).

The battle system is so good, you actually want to grind even though the game doesn't make you. You can even be underleveled and win a fights based on skill and strategy alone!

What?! A JRPG without grinding and no random encounters?! What you can even prevent your opponents from attacking by being smart about your timed attacks? Okay, look it's amazing. Just try it for yourself. You can buy this game on Steam pretty cheap. So give it a go!

Rayman 2 (N64, Dreamcast) : Okay this might be some nostalgia talking, but this game man. Love it to death, influenced my art style a ton, and is still my favorite childhood 3D platformer. It fixed so many flaws Super Mario 64 had, and the art was so stylized that even as an N64 game the art holds up fairly well today.

If you've got a spare few dollars go pick it up on GOG.com!

[NickRowler]

-Theme Hospital
-Princess Maker 2

(I can't think of any others right now...)

[isaacfriedman]

The Spectrobes trilogy

[UrMom]

Not sure how underrated they are (can't get with the times), but:

1. Banjo-Kazooie/Banjo-Tooie
2. The Haunted Mansion
3. VexX
4. The Myst series
5. Yoshi's Island SNES
6. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
7. Eternal Darkness

[TheKawaiiGarden]

I'll try to add few (most of these probably aren't "underrated" but they don't get the praise they deserve in my opinion)

1. Fallout 1, whenever I hear of people praising the Fallout games most people I know always talk about the Fallout 2. Don't get me wrong its truly amazing and is by far the best Fallout game but Fallout 1 needs some love too.

2. The Ape Escape Series, these are games I hear nooooo one talk about and I don't know why, these were one of my favorite games growing up and it angered me to no end that there never came a fourth game.

3. Pokemon Platinum, a lot of people diss the 4th gen pokemon games and that is something I've never understood.

4. Okamiden, I've seen a few peeps say Okami here and it makes me really happy seeing the game get some lovin' but we can't forget the second one!~

5. The Monkey Island games, I loooooove these game so much and I get really sad when someone tells me that they don't know of them.

[azyzl]

The PSP Burnout was fantastic! I think it was a port (or basically a port) of the PS2 Burnout Takedown. Arguably the best out of the bunch... the later ones kinda forgot the the best part of Burnout was literally smashing your opponents off the road!

[azyzl]

Oh man CTR was my first racing-type game, and I was a master at that! I remember finding all the shortcuts in each track. Aaaah, memories...