Author Topic: Rare gems of gaming appreciation topic. (Read 17806 times)

magnum12 · « **on:** May 02, 2007, 02:11:17 pm »

The point of this thread is simple. Every week, a new game that was awesome but real hard to come by and/or sold poorly will be discussed. Hopefully, this will inspire people to find these treasures and make them theirs.
-Game of the Week 1: Psychonauts (X-Box, PS2, PC). What can I say that hasn't already been said about this master piece? It has a wonderfully twisted sense of humor, the controls are excellent, and the worlds are all creative and imaginative. This game's failure is probably one of the most notorious examples of a great game that sells badly while lousy games sell well. Within the 1st year in all 3 platforms, Psychonauts sold less than 90,000 copies, some that really angered professional reviewers at the time. Having played this game myself, I can personally say that its worth the hype and should definately be in any gamer's collection. Note that the X-Box version is the best of the three.

Rick_242 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 02, 2007, 05:41:55 pm »

I played Psyconauts :D.

Except, the story is... confusing. Sometimes you'll be doing things that have to be done later in the game . :/

Overall it was awesome. :O

Conker T. Squirrel · « **Reply #2 on:** May 02, 2007, 05:46:31 pm »

Oh Psychonauts? Played it. It's good but I got tired of it fast. All so the story was very wierd.

eggFL · « **Reply #3 on:** May 02, 2007, 08:59:39 pm »

Funny, I just rented Psychonauts. It's probably waiting for me at the PO Box right now.

As for the topic: Mr. Driller 2, and umm.... well Nights of course.

And Daytona USA 2.

Oh here's a good one: Azure Dreams. That game is special! I hope I will come across more games like it.

magnum12 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 11, 2007, 01:36:19 pm »

It seems I'm late in my game of the week.
-Game of thew Week 2: Demon's Crest. This lovely gem was released to the SNES in late 1994 as a game in the old Gargoyle's Quest series by Capcom. The main focus of the game was collecting elemental crests (and fragments of the fire crest) that gave you special abilities which you could use to find new stuff. There were 4 endings depending on how far you went on your search before defeating the final boss. The game did have some minor control problems (but not as bad as some games we know). The story starts off with a bang, having you under attack from an undead dragon from the get go, not once, but twice. Sadly, the game got very few sales (I was one of the lucky ones). We can only hope that Capcom isn't stupid and eventually rereleases the game on the VC (everybody start pestering Capcom to do so since this game is a treat).

F-Man · « **Reply #5 on:** May 11, 2007, 05:01:00 pm »

Kinda relatedly to this topic, I shall point at my avatar. >_>

magnum12 · « **Reply #6 on:** May 16, 2007, 10:34:32 am »

I think I have that game somewhere. Perhaps Effy should take the lead next week with game of the week #3.

Rick_242 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 25, 2007, 02:14:09 am »

I want my update plz.

:rawr:

eggFL · « **Reply #8 on:** May 25, 2007, 05:26:03 am »

oh this was a once a week thing huh. I get the rules now.

hmm... very well... this is henceforth my topic.

for friday May 25th the game is Cybersled for the arcade and Playstation, most notably on arcade. Imagine if F-Zero was a tank combat game with Starfox-esque 3D polygonal graphics, complete with F-Zero-like insane anime characters associated with it. The arcade version offers a training mode and arenas with sloped surfaces, whereas the arenas in the Playstation version are all entirely flat. The Playstation game was a launch title and its very basic look (and hideous split-screen graphics) just didn't make the console look so great against the Nintendo 64. Cybersled is developed by Namco circa '94-'95.

Cyberseld is a rare gem of gaming appreciation.

magnum12 · « **Reply #9 on:** June 01, 2007, 05:02:07 pm »

Time for the next game of the week. Makai Kingdom (2005, PS2). This is yet another strategy RPG game from NIS, the creators of games such as the Disgaea series (pretty much the current "Overlord" of the SRPG genre). Wonderfully deep tactical game play, challenging battles, decent voice acting, and a light hearted yet twisted sense of humor all combine for a great time that only a graphics whore could possibly hate. This was one of the more obscure games from NIS, you'll have to find it online. It's worth a play. If you can't find it, you can always find Disgaea 2, since its still pretty easy to find (and is considered by many to have the best game play of all NIS strategy games. Here's some gameplay footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXqKagsGI0c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R5oh8AIguE&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awqWWlwUzFs&mode=related&search=

eggFL · « **Reply #10 on:** June 19, 2007, 04:04:33 pm »

Bad... spriting... such... bad... attempted humor.

No, seriously, good job on filling in for that week. Let me try to catch up though for the next week.

For June 8, the game is Air Combat for Playstation.

Now I know it's kind of repetitive to have two Namco 1995 launch titles in a row from me, but I think the game intro speaks for itself.

Air Combat is a rare gem of gaming appreciation.

eggFL · « **Reply #11 on:** June 23, 2007, 12:07:08 am »

For Friday, June 15, the game is SegaSonic The Hedgehog

It seems pointless to feature a Sonic game in a Sonic forum, but I have never actually seen the game in action before two weeks ago, and I was pretty impressed with what I saw. For those who don't know, this is an arcade game in which you control Sonic, Mighty, or Ray using a trackball.

Also, I was under the impression that the game came out alongside the original Sonic The Hedgehog, but it was actually in '92-'93, putting it right before Sonic 3. Still, it seems a bit ahead of its time, at least when you consider the ways in which it is easily better than Sonic 3D Blast as far as isometric gameplay is concerned. Also, Sonic has a good and original running animation in this game, and much like Sonic 3, he seems almost indistinguishable from the post-Dreamcast Sonic in certain frames.

A token youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic1zT0oDo3w

Segasonic the Hedgehog is a rare gem of gaming appreciation.

============

For Friday, June 22, the game is Yugioh: The Sacred Cards

Luckily I found an unedited gameplay clip of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alc23VvxmKg

Released in November 2003 for Game Boy Advance, Sacred Cards didn't try to be faithful to the physical version of the Yugioh card game. Instead, it simplified the game which allowed it to maximize its user-friendliness and game flow, being more than several times faster than most Yugioh games. It also had more story presence by writing you in the story arc of the anime as an anonymous friend of Yugi's.

One of the best parts of the game was that the gameplay was very close-up with very good card graphics. It may shock some to know that most Yugioh games on Game Boy Advance don't have any artwork on the cards (except in the full-screen portrayals) and that's the way it was even years after this game came out.

The only problems with The Sacred Cards were 1) it was simplified too much, and 2) there weren't more games like it. (it did get one direct sequel: Yugioh Reshef of Destruction.)

There problem was not the rules simplifications but that too many cards effects were removed, making the game having an overly high presence of vanilla cards. (monsters that don't have any effects, just attack/defense points) If more time was put into it, the game could have had much more variety and depth while still maintaining the terrific rapid-fire pace it has.

Yugioh: The Sacred Cards is a rare gem of gaming appreciation.

Crowbar · « **Reply #12 on:** June 23, 2007, 03:58:34 am »

Holy fuck, SegaSonic is the best fucking thing ever.

I may have said this before in the chat, but years and years ago a toy store in London called Hamley's had one in its basement, and I found it (I must've been like 10 at the time) and played it a ton (only on this one occasion, though: I naturally had no conception of how rare this was, as it must've been the only machine in Europe). Controlling it with the rollerball is hard as shit, but it's actually one of the main factors in how fun it is: since you're being chased by something in every level, having to frantically mash a rollerball to run is very fitting. There'd be little point re-releasing this game on a console since just pushing a d-pad wouldn't be the same at all (though, holy shit, a Wii or DS version might be able to pull it off).

SegaSonic is pretty much the Holy Grail of Rare Gems of Gaming Appreciation as far as I'm concerned. How you could put that in the same post as Yugioh baffles me. :(

Zeupar · « **Reply #13 on:** July 09, 2007, 08:35:47 pm »

Do you still own it? :O

Deep Fear for Sega Saturn.

Crowbar · « **Reply #14 on:** August 31, 2007, 08:00:26 am »

Lol own it?

It's an arcade game dude. Did you even read my post? :s

KnucklesSonic8 · « **Reply #15 on:** September 02, 2007, 04:13:56 pm »

I'm not even going to say Shuffle at the risk of being criticized profusely... Oh wait...

eggFL · « **Reply #16 on:** September 02, 2007, 05:38:57 pm »

This time the rare gem of gaming apprecation is...

Megamaaan 8~

This gorgeous game for Playstation and Sega Saturn is the the definitive and best looking game in the entire classic Mega Man series and stands as a testament to the profound, undeniable charm of 2D sprite-based graphics. The soundtrack is really, really sweet too.

stock Youtube footage showing the cool Wily bosses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YoBr_SDfJc

This user uploaded great vids of the game's boss fights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_aoCGEhc_0 - Classic. Also check out the original appearance of the Tornado attack from Marvel vs. Capcom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owx2h2XvRTM - not a thrilling boss, but check out the sweet cityscape and the ice statues of Megaman!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXYV4L37BnU - Clown Man I find really cool for some reason.

Game's soundtrack:
http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/945

recommended songs: intro stage, duo's theme, grenade man's theme, tengu man's theme, frost man's theme, stage select, title screen, forte's theme, robot master appears, robot master battle

Zeupar · « **Reply #17 on:** September 05, 2007, 02:58:55 am »

Quote from: Crowbar on August 31, 2007, 08:00:26 am

Lol own it?

It's an arcade game dude. Did you even read my post? :s

I misunderstood it. >_>

eggFL · « **Reply #18 on:** September 20, 2007, 07:44:57 pm »

Now a game I have never even played before and barely knew existed until this week.

Megaman Network Transmission is a very odd game. It is a Gamecube exclusive Megaman game that's set in the Megaman Battle Network universe, yet it has classic side scrolling gameplay like the original megaman. In simplistic 3D cel shaded graphics. Very odd indeed.

The game has text box dialogue aside from in-game banter and boss intros. But none of the voiced dialogue was translated and so the english game actually has all Japanese voices whether you wanted it or not.

Stock youtube footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V04FVBbluw

That vid shows a guy beating all the robot masters by using a chip that makes him invincible. The vid shows off all the robot master intros, which is apparently the best part of the entire game.

Elec Man (4:01) is awesome.

The soundtrack is actually quite alright, but to me it's mainly Sword Man's stage and Pharaoh Man's stage that are the good songs, as well as the title screen jingle. Pharaoh Man's stage music actually has part of the original Pharaoh Man song (from Megaman 4) mixed into it.

http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/5729

Aitamen · « **Reply #19 on:** November 12, 2007, 05:22:19 am »

Rare Gems? Well, aside from anything NIS made that didn't sell well (Disgaea, its sequel, Makai Kingdom, and La Pucelle), and a few others mentioned above, I'd have to give that glory to...

ALTERED BEAST!

or any number of arcade/gens games that haven't been remade in some godly status in today's gaming society... whatever happened?

I was humming the "transform" theme the other day, and stopped and thought "where IS that from?" and had to ask people if they knew... my mom was the one who remembered, and I felt bad.... I've beaten it 6 times since and have planned a 2P challenge run: how long can we go?

eggFL · « **Reply #20 on:** January 05, 2008, 03:51:32 pm »

NOW ON TO THE STORY

Rare gems of gaming appreciation topic.

The Sonic Center > Forum > The Lounge > The Flutter > Rare gems of gaming appreciation topic.

Author Topic: Rare gems of gaming appreciation topic. (Read 17806 times)