the underdogs thread

[Danny]

in the good nature of sharing i thought it'd be cool to start a thread were you can recommend little known games for others to check out, plus im sick of working on coursework all day first up ill start with a little known survival horror for the ps2 called ghosthunter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghosthunter this is all i could find on youtube: its a survival horror 3rd person shooter were you explore various haunted locations, ranging from a louisiana baiyou ghost town thats half sunk and haunted by ghostly victims of the local crocs, and the local colour themselves who arent to happy about you being there, to a rusty old ghost ship from WWII were the ghosts of british soldiers still fight to this day. the atmosphere and soundtrack is awesome and while the control, particularly the camera angles were a little clunky but it was a dman fine game that i can really recommend looking up if you have a ps2 and fancy playing out your ghost busting fantasies its in the uk gamestations for 4 for £20 sometimes as low as £1.99 which is well worth it for this great shooter, very obscure and underrated but very cool.

[capncnut]

Okay, mine is a little more commercial but still obscure enough to warrant inclusion in this thread. Shadow of Memories by Konami, it was on the P$2 and Xbox and is an absolute gem if you can track it down. You play a character called Eike Kusch who is mysteriously killed by and unknown assailant in a quiet little German town. The game then take Eike to the afterlife where he makes a deal with a mysterious being called The Hommunculous who offers him a second chance at life to discover who the murderer is. Eike reluctantly agrees and is given a digipad which enables him to time travel to any era that will aid him in his search for the killer. The game take Eike from the 1500's right up to the present day and offers him many choices. Kinda like Doctor Who meets Quantum Leap. For example, one of the first missions replays the murder and you discover that the killer was hiding behind a tree before you was attacked. So what do you do? Use the digipad to go back into the late 1500's and convince the town gardener not to plant the tree there. What I love about this game is the multi branching storyline. If you repeatedly get killed, the cutscenes are always different when you restart and sometimes Eike begins to develop feelings of deja vu and starts getting vocal about it. The primary objective here is cutscenes, you have to beat each chapter with a 100% cutscene unlock and that could mean playing it 10-15 times until you have taken every different storyline branch and plot twist. When Shadow Of Memories (Shadow Of Destiny in some countries) came out, the reviews gave it somewhere between a 4 and 7 out of 10 and it soon faded into obscurity. It is still widely available on the P$2 but the Xbox version, which has updated graphics, lighting effects and a tweaked engine) is much harder to come across. I have been searching for almost 2 years with no success. If you like a good whodunnit mystery with a bit of time travelling and mysticism then Shadow Of Memories should be right down your street. Just dont forget to wear a frying pan under your shirt.

[Danny]

aye shadows of memories gets Danny's seal-o-approval as well, a proper gem, think shenmue meets dr.who, yeah its obscure, not for everyones tastes but i love it too, i actually had one of them rare xbox copies but since i got a ps2 i think i may have to buy this again tomorrow. though cap'n one of the plot twists was the homunculus bit which youve just given away part of the ending by stating it

[capncnut]

Ooops. Then again, I only gave away the name so it's not too bad. And what ending is the true ending anyway? There's like seven of em.

[MinionZombie]

My underdog would either be "Outlaws" or "Grim Fandango" (both by Lucas Arts) ... yes, Grim Fandango didn't do so well when it came out, sadly, ergo, under-rated underdog. Anyway, Outlaws didn't have the flashiest graphics, even at the time it came out - particularly in the character models - but it was the overall story and attention to detail concerning the Spaghetti Western inspiration (particularly the music) that made the game just fantastic, and one that I played over and over and over again. Grim Fandango - again, superb story, good graphics (although the style of game allows for detailed backgrounds admittedly) and quite original too. Really entertaining.

[EvilNed]

MY game is an old FPS from 1996. It flopped because it was technically lagging behind, even though it had a great story and great action. The game is Strife. I think it was the first real blend of RPG and FPS. Even though it wasn't that much of an RPG, since you had a set character and you only had two skills you could increase: Accuracy and Health. The story was also set in stone, even if you would sometimes get choices on what you wanted to do. Most of the time, the wrong choice simply lead to death... Which was a bit annoying when you played it through the first time. But some of the time, the choices depended entirely on how the rest of your adventure would look. In short, if you can call the lame-ass Japanese games for RPGs, then so is this game. Even they are all just really adventure games with a good story. The game took place in a post-apocalyptic future and society had fallen back to Medieval times more or less. Technology was advanced, but the social structure of the game was more or less feudal. The world was ruled by "The Order", a group of religious fanatic mutants that saw themselves as the only worthy ones. Thus oppression and mistreatment was abundant. It was heavily hinted that unless something was done quickly, the world would come to a definite end within a near future. The women and children had all been seperated from the men, so reproduction was impossible. The player takes the role of a bandit that gets caught up in a string of events that lead to him being forced to act as a cover-operative (or as Macil puts it, "problem solver") for the rebels known as The Front. That's where the game takes off and it's a truly unique and adventerous story from thereon, with lots of twists and turns. Can be downloaded freely at a site that bears a strong resemblence to this threads name.

[Craig]

Thanks for posting that EvilNed, I love old Doom-style games.

[Danny]

i'll post another one, a gamecube favourite of mine that was pretty much overlooked, skies of arcadia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skies_Of_Arcadia it was a fantasy rpg with pirates, set in a world were people live on islands and sail between them in airships becuase going down into "deep sky" would kill them becuase of the pressure though when you do go down there to salvage theres giant monsters that you can only fight with your ship rather than the traditional hand to hand which does occur to but the ship to ship pirate batles are what really makes this stand out from the crowd, ranked in the top 10 dreamcast games ever but with a virtually ignored 'cube remake with way more locations and hidden places to "discover", using the search mode this is another i can really recommend.

[capncnut]

Okay then, you've twisted my arm. I'll post another underdog but I'm neither in the attack or defense corner with this one. This is a game that was so critically panned on release that it achieved a mighty score of 0 out of 10 in the Official Xbox Magazine. A game so despised that many gamers will hold a crucifix to it's very name. I am talking about a game that could quite possibly be one of the worst beat 'em ups ever made. I am talking about none other than Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon. You are Bruce Lee, legendary martial arts master. Your father has been kidnapped, your monastery desecrated, and the mystical Golden Relic - keeper of ancient martial arts secrets - has been stolen. Investigate the mysterious Black Lotus crime organisation and the beautiful but deadly Dragon Lady. Use your mastery of Jeet Kune Do to punch, kick, block and attack crowds of thugs and bosses. In this compelling blend of epic adventure and intense fighting action, you're Bruce Lee - how will you carry on his legacy? <sigh> The only challenge this game presents is to not smash your Xbox to pieces. So bad, it's almost laughable. You have to fight swarms of criminals and everytime you knock one out, you get Gold Tokens that enables you to build up your characters stats. The AI is relatively easy but the game itself is as hard as nails. Why? Because when you run around a corner to fight the next mob, the camera doesn't align itself correctly and you are more than often attacked before you can even see what you are doing. That's right, a game that forces you to fight enemies you can't even see. The last boss in the game is an utter joke. For weeks I had no idea how to defeat the man, his moves were too quick and the camera too frustrating to deal with. One day a friend showed me and you have to crouch, kick and dodge through three long waves of attacks. Yes, you have to crouch and kick for 10 minutes straight, talk about RSI inducing. On the brighter side, it has 30 levels where you can battle your way through London, Hong Kong, San Francisico and other locations. Has a bunch of Taky Kimura motion captured Jeet Kune Do moves and the option to use a Nunchaku for some of the battles. The game perks up a little when the Nunchaku makes an appearance but even that gets boring after two levels. The lock on feature is so inaccurate, that it's inclusion in the game is totally pointless. A true nightmare of a game. Why include this game in the underdog thread? Because this game is so brutally awful that it's almost good in a masochistic kind of way. To see Bruce's character mixing it up with modern ghetto types and gangstas is comically amusing and the voice over acting is one of the funniest things I have ever heard in my life. It makes you wonder who even allowed this game to be released in the first place? I own it for the sake of collection but Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon is a true gaming turd of epic proportions. I wholeheartedly urge you to seek it out and play it for yourself. If you dare.

[Danny]

i ****ing hate that game so bad. another one even worse is red ninja, end of hour...or something like that which is a pretty apt title, it friggin scuks balls so bad i cant even begin to reminisce about it or my bain might frazzle and dribble out my ears from my head overheating, lets just say it is THE worst game i have ever played. including carrier.

[capncnut]

another one even worse is red ninja, end of hour... or something like that which is a pretty apt title, it friggin scuks balls so bad i cant even begin to reminisce about it or my bain might frazzle and dribble out my ears from my head overheating, lets just say it is THE worst game i have ever played. I remember you talking about this title before so I scoped it out. Is it just me or did that trailer actually look pretty f**kin' good?

[Danny]

yeah i thought so too, hence buying it, it was basically if metal gear was made by the guys who made sonic heroes, yes it really is THAT ****. i dont think youd find one 10.0 review for it on gamespot from even the most aweufl tasted gamer. avoid this like the plague.