Great games that went under the radar

[tangaloor5]

One very excellent series that I don't hear much about is the Shadow Hearts series. Unlike many series it just seems to get better with every new game.:D

What other unknown gems are out there?;)

[Koopaking]

I had this N64 game called Body Harvest, it was really cool! A sleeper hit!

[leerock89]

bomber man!!! and metal gear solid

[Koopaking]

I don't think Metal Gear Solid is considered an "unknown gem"

[leerock89]

hhmm wat about super smash brothers for gamecube

[Koopaking]

Ummm... The Super Smash Bros is way popular, man. Not really "under the radar"

But that is a most awesome game. I can't wait for Brawl to come out next week!

[leerock89]

ninja gaiden(did i spell that right?) maybe?

[Koopaking]

Ninja Gaiden is awesome but hard as HELL

[Corwin]

well let's see, Ico was kind of a sleeper hit, that game was good, as was it's successor Shadow of the Colossus which wasn't a sleeper, Shadow Man was a fun game as was it's sequel, Mark of Kri was great, and there's another for n64 that I can't think of the title right now, I'll have to pull it out later to check

[nejih94]

eureka 7 for PS2,but that wasnt that great

[Koopaking]

The original Paper Mario! I'm not sure if this game is considered under the radar, but many overlooked it due to it being released near the end of the Nintendo 64's life. It was, and still is to this day, my favorite game of all time.

[nejih94]

i no,it was kinda,but i liked it,even tho i was only like 7,my opinion matters*LOL*

[Crubion]

ihave shadow hearts 2 which is an awesome game imo. umm under the radar game.... idk how under the radar it is but i think suikoden V was a good game.

[Remni]

Phantom Dust for the XBox was totally under the radar. It's an outstanding game too. I'm a mod for the unnofficial forums for it.. although it's more like the official forums for it. Other than that, I'd say Zack & Wiki for the Wii was under the radar too and that was a great game.

[gunbound15]

i think Star Wars Empire at war: forces of corruption was freaking awesome! it has an awesome game structure and plot. the controls and battle concepts were really creative. if any of yall have that game say so, then i can steal it from you. i so freaking liked the massive super star destroyers, those thing were freaking awesome. :mad:

[quietchat]

Beyond Good And Evil

[Lord Kira]

.hack the gu series and the originals

[Haseo69]

.hack the gu series and the originals

I think those are some of the best games. The gundam seed game for the PS2 is so much fun.

[Corwin]

Shining Force Neo, the remake of the original Shining Force game was fun and addictive for me, as was Red Ninja which was just a Tenchu style game that was fun to rip ppl apart

[quietchat]

Isn't shining force a top down shooter?

[Haseo69]

The Galaxy Star Universe games were a blast.

[Corwin]

yeah Shining Force Neo was essentially a top down or 3rd person hack and slash or shooter depending on the weapon you were using, personally I liked the bow, 5-7 arrows at a time shooting out in waves, pump the weapon up, it was a great way to kill large groups, also another good game was PSO aka Phantasy Star Online, not the one that came out for Gamecube and Xbox, the one that came out for Dreamcast that helped delay it's demise a little longer, that and Shenmue, the graphics on that were great and the story was good, I really wish they had managed to get the rest of the series made on the dreamcast since it was based off a series of books that probably haven't seen the light of day in the US, but then they brought the second game to xbox which sucked b/c there was no way to transfer your data from the first one w/ your money and lvl'd up martial arts skills you had learned, that was part of the fun

[Haseo69]

Another good game and my favorite game ever, Legend of the Dragoon. I don't know if it was actully under the radar since I can't remember that far back.

[Corwin]

I think in the beginning it was under the radar b/c of Final Fantasy and Dragon Warriors or whatever that game is called, but I don't know that it would be considered a sleeper, it rapidly gained popularity to the point that there was a second game planned and several screenshots of gameplay and cut scenes were released to the web touting it for the PS2, unfortunately despite all sorts of popular support it was dropped for some unknown reason, just like the third Chrono Trigger game, and who knows if it is ever going to come back, I'm sure someone will eventually get around to a new petition for it and Square Enix will eventually pick up the previous attempt, modify and revamp it for the ps3 and release a stunning new game for us to fall in love w/, now we just need a petition w/ a couple thousand sigs on it

[quietchat]

I think in the case of Legend of Dragoon, the game was popular by fans, but unpopular by reviewers.

http://psx.ign.com/articles/163/163238p1.html

[Haseo69]

When I become a game designer I had decided to make a remake of the game with the new technology my first job but a sequal sounds good to. I just can't think of a storyline for the sequal.

[Corwin]

well it's always possible that if you look hard enough you can find the script or storyboards for the sequel that they had started making, I assume if they were far enough along to provide cutscene quality screenshots and battle screenshots, then they were far enough along to have it mostly planned out and written down w/ the exception of a few changes that might be made at last minute to make it flow better

[quietchat]

Of course you still need to have plenty of money to get the project off the ground. You need to purchase the rights to the game, a staff, the systems. If you look at the back of the case it says that it took 3 years and 100 people.

That is tame by today's standards but you also have to remember how epic it was in the first place. The backgrounds had wonderful imagery, along with the musical scores and its story. The battles were unique and different, requiring you to be a part of the action, though it made the game harder for some people. After all, almost every other game just has an imput and you stand back (Though dragoon has this too for the spells).

[Dark Zeik]

I would have to agree with the fact that Legend of Dragoon is not as popular from other RPGs. From what I have played, it was really good. Too bad my third disc is too scratched. :weep:

[Corwin]

Although there is always the possibility that if you demonstrated a certain amount of skill in programming that they could be willing to let you do a lot of the initial work w/ a dev kit on turning the ps2 sequel of Legend of the Dragoon into a ps3 game as long as they retained the rights and you took only a very small portion of the royalties or settled for honorable mention in the opening credits, and a potential job offer from that afterwards since it would prove that you were qualified to work for them, it would seem like a win win for them since they would retain the intellectual property rights, and be able to produce the game much more cheaply then, all they would have to do is debug your programming and beta test it, I say give it a shot if you think you can do it, LoD2 would make me want to buy a ps3

[quietchat]

There is another problem as well. You have to consider the install base of each console and decide on which system you would want to develope on, in order to maximize your return. In other words, you would need to develope for both the 360 and ps3 if you wanted to get the most out of the sales. This was you can get to the hardcore gamers on ps3 that buy it to keep Final Fantasy and such, as well as the gamers that go the middle way with the 360 and it's current market potential. Then again this would lead to once again, another shift for the 360 for it's better cost.

[Corwin]

That would be true in the case of a game made from scratch, but we are talking about a game whose license is held by Sony, and an intellectual copyright held by Square Enix who does their business w/ Sony primarily, and we are speaking more of the offer to take what they have already done in terms of development, recode it for the ps3, and finish up the programming, then handing it over to them for the recognition and maybe small share of the profits, as well as a potential job. It's not like we're talking about him buying the license completely from both companies and then developing it on his own for the system of his choice, that would require too much in the way of funds and manpower to get it done quickly enough to get a return on it, the way I was describing it, he could look at it in terms of a personal project w/ the potential for a future career, and if he is already in school for game design and programming, it would make a great projects for his master's degree, and I'm sure Sony would be happy w/ the end product b/c they would still have the right to tweak the gameplay and storyline w/o doing as much of the work as would be required, they would see a larger return on profits in this particular investment than they would if they reopened development on it themselves, and w/ the popular support the first game received I don't think it would take long for them to see the profit coming in

[quietchat]

I hope that if there ever is a sequal that it doesn't go to the PS3. Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy weren't enough to pull me over to it, and it's a shame that long time fans of either games have to decide between the cost of the system to deter them or the fanship of the game. It wasn't a problem in 2004 since every console was cheap, and the ps2 was backwards compatable.

[Corwin]

I thought the ps3 was backwards compatible as well? Well I guess maybe not since the blueray motor and disc laser would probably be incompatible w/ the dvd games, but I don't know, I didn't spend the time on research of the new systems that I usually do since I didn't have the money to get any of them. But let's face it, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts, and other Square Enix games, that would enough to make any fanboy fork over their hard earned money to get a ps3 and if you add a new LoD sequel, then it's going to bring a lot of ppl running, not walking, back from the clutches of microsoft and their xbox brainwashing system

[quietchat]

True. Still, you have to consider that the people that didn't buy it in the first place for final fantasy and so on, wouldn't buy it just because another rpg came out.

As for the PS3 backwards compatability, the origional 60 gig and 80 gig were. To cut down costs when they went down to a 40 gig model, the backwards compatability was cut out, and they canceled production on either the 80 gig or the 60 gig.

[Corwin]

That's just wrong, my ps2 died on me so I stole my little brother's, so if I don't get a 60 or 80 gig model I won't be able to play my ps1 and ps2 games(ps1 mysteriously disappeared years ago), as for your argument that if they didn't get it at first for Final Fantasy, well FF for ps3 wasn't out when the system launched, so what's the point of buying the system that far in advance if the games you want don't come out till 3rd or 4th quarter 2008 or later? Also they may not have bought it when it was only 1-3 games they wanted, but once more are available or at least added to the release list, they may be inclined to pick up the system, that's how I work most of the time, I waited until there were enough ps2 games out that I wanted to play to get mine, and as for xbox, when they finally had enough games released or on the release list that I wanted I looked into getting one, of course at the time I didn't have the money so I just played them all on my buddy's system, although I do plan to get the 360 which I didn't plan to originally until they came out w/ games like Lost Odyssey and Mass Effect

[quietchat]

Unless it was the Wii, everyone bought that right away. Hell, we got ours about a week after it came out.

[Corwin]

Well that system was a little bit of a different story, even ppl who weren't fans of Nintendo and ppl who had never planned on buying a game system went out and got a Wii in part b/c of the relative inexpensiveness compared to other systems and also b/c of the unique way it plays, it's kind of hard to tell your kids they can't have a system b/c they will sit around for hours not moving, when the Wii is like the video game equivalent of a home exercise gym

[quietchat]

But then you got the media reports saying that it's no where near the equivilant to a work out. But hey, moving at all is better than nothing, right? And some of those games could convince you to go out and try the real thing, like how they packaged wii sports with the system. I've played bowling, tennis, and baseball before. (The only one I didn't suck with was tennis)

[Corwin]

yeah, but frankly I don't trust the media reports saying it isn't a proper exercise, let's face it, for starters it's a lot more exercise then some ppl are getting, then you've got Wii Play, Wii Sports, and Wii Fit, all games which are designed to make you move your body around and burn calories, personally I think it's a great workout, that doesn't mean you shouldn't supplement it w/ other forms of exercise, but like you said, something is better than nothing, and that's exactly what this provides, although I'm not sure exactly what the Wii Fit game is, all I've seen is the commercials and it looks like it's trying to get you to learn yoga standing on a piece of plastic the size of a bathroom scale

[quietchat]

Well, yoga is supposed to be one of the best ways to work out. There's little strain on the muscles, low impact, anyone can learn it, and yoga works on flexability and balance as well as weight loss.

[Mugen]

Harvest Moon for Gamecube. Uhm, Sudeki for the Xbox.

[RzXzB]

It is a great game I still have the game and I still play it

[Russkie]

Its odd that a person like me would enjoy harvest moon, but I found it very relaxing tbh.

[atomicwarz]

Phantom Dust for the XBox was totally under the radar. It's an outstanding game too. I'm a mod for the unnofficial forums for it.. although it's more like the official forums for it. Other than that, I'd say Zack & Wiki for the Wii was under the radar too and that was a great game.

phantom dust was one of my favorite games ever. i hope they make a phantom dust 2 T_T so many loose strings..... klike what DID cause the dust?

and legend of dragoon was fun as well

[analogZero]

yeah, but frankly I don't trust the media reports saying it isn't a proper exercise, let's face it, for starters it's a lot more exercise then some ppl are getting, then you've got Wii Play, Wii Sports, and Wii Fit, all games which are designed to make you move your body around and burn calories, personally I think it's a great workout, that doesn't mean you shouldn't supplement it w/ other forms of exercise, but like you said, something is better than nothing, and that's exactly what this provides, although I'm not sure exactly what the Wii Fit game is, all I've seen is the commercials and it looks like it's trying to get you to learn yoga standing on a piece of plastic the size of a bathroom scale

man, just play mario for a bit, throwing your arms to the side while jumping makes him jump farther, and works out your entire body...mostly to keep you from throwing yourself across the room. Plus you can kick around and throw tantrums when he falls in the lava or eaten by a big fish. workouts abound.

anyhow, some classic gems of mine were, firstly streets of rage II for sega genesis. Played that game everyday after school when I was a kid. wonderboy in monsterland was dope too. I totally feel like I'm spamming it, but valkyrie profile was way cooler than the attention and distribution it got. I think it's worth more now than when it first came out just because there's so few copies around now. plus it's kick ass. final fantasy tactics for ps1 was a great ff title, but it's a lesser played one. the newer ds version got more swing than the original I think. I also got into legend of mana on ps1 too, it was a fun game but not too pop.

[seraphim20]

I would say that one of them would be Earthbound for the SNES. Crazy game and really good.

[partyprobe]

I never hear any body talk about dino crisis for how good it was when it came out for the ps1.

[illuma]

i never even heard of that one. I have to agree though harvest moon was some good stuff. i mean i'm gonna get it when the wii one comes out. i always loved farm games.

[quietchat]

The panzer dragoon games were pretty much ignored, but they were pretty good. I got Panzer Dragoon Orta on x-box.

[Tairash]

Crysis lol

[quietchat]

Cyrus wasn't under the radar, it was just no one had the specs to play it.

[gunbound15]

Its odd that a person like me would enjoy harvest moon, but I found it very relaxing tbh.

would someone like you play World IN Conflict, on the SOVIET side?
anyways, i like rts, first person shooter, and flight/driving/sailing games.
i wish i had the game that came out about a year back, it was called total nuclear anihilation i think. good game, in the end the only thing that survived was a cochcroach.

[conigwolf]

I thought RAD was a great game (Robotic Alchemic Drive)

[Silverleon]

I never hear any body talk about dino crisis for how good it was when it came out for the ps1.

I used to have Dino Crisis 1 & 2, good games, wish they made Dino Crisis 3

Also Perfect Dark for N64 which I never heard much of. A good First-person shooter

[shadowmaks]

What about Drakengard, Rondo of Swords, and Hoshgami?

[Russkie]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/57-Painkiller

*Mature Content*

Painkiller: never played it, but it looks cool.

[sousuke]

zone enders

[monsoon 10]

Soul reaver.

[sousuke]

the dark stalkers!

[Elegroth]

I thought Shining Tears was a really good game that I never really here about.

[sousuke]

i didnt like that game srry... also starfox adventures was great

[Elegroth]

Yeah Star Fox Adventures was a cool game too. Also, Shining Tears is best when playing with two people.

[monsoon 10]

Dark cloud 2.

[Maydraie]

Blood Omen for X-box

[Elegroth]

Dark cloud 2.

Would Dark Cloud 2 really count as "Under the Radar"? It's a really good game, but I here a lot about it.

[seraphim20]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/57-Painkiller

*Mature Content*

Painkiller: never played it, but it looks cool.

Yes, painkiller is a great game. It's basically a kill everyone kind of game, but to quote Yahtzee, "it does it so well, what more could you want?"

[Skooch13]

Ico was a good game, but no-one seemed to want to buy it.

[Fam1st]

i say onimusha those were pretty kool games

[shikamaru]

i would have to say zoids was under the radar

[Fam1st]

i didnt know zoids was a game

[shikamaru]

yeah it was,they actually have sequels to it

[Fam1st]

oh wow now i know that was under the radar becuz i never seen or heard of it

[shikamaru]

yeah,the games r ok they arent that good to talk about i just like the way the zoids are drawn,the fighting style can use a lil maintnence"dont know if i spelled it right" and they need to make it into an adventure game where ur character gets to walk around not just fight..thats why it was under the radar

[Dark Turbo]

Anyone ever playing Shining Force? its a turn based strategy that been an interesting series to me, and i find it fun to play, theres never any reviews that i've heard of tho....

[monsoon 10]

Odin Sphere for the PS2.

[Silverleon]

Another good game that i have and never heard of was Pepsiman for ps1.

[LoKiWorlD]

Front Mission 4 was a kool strategy game that a lot of people talked bad about but IMO it is excellent.

[Elegroth]

Odin Sphere for the PS2.

Yeah, that too, that's a really good game, I'm almost done with it.

[monsoon 10]

Another good game that i have and never heard of was Pepsiman for ps1.

I have this, but I have to say it's not really that great.

[Elegroth]

Well, I've never heard of that, but I'll look it up soon to see what it's about.

[quietchat]

I've never heard of pepsiman either, I only know about the cool spot game (The red dot that was on the sprite logo's).

[tralim]

Many people don't know the Valkyrie Profile series, persona and it's spin-offs,dynasty warriors franchise

[Elegroth]

Yeah, Valkyrie Profile and Persona are really good games. Dynasty Warriors isn't really "Under the Radar". Another game I never hear about that's really good is the StarOcean Series.

[monsoon 10]

Yeah, that too, that's a really good game, I'm almost done with it.

I just really love the pixel art and the story.

[Elegroth]

Yeah, the story is great. I guess I'm about half way done with it now that I looked at it. It's a pretty long game.

[puppetz]

i liked the bloodrayne series. that WAS under the radar til they made a crappy movie about it.

[SappireFox]

Anyone remember Snyder for PS One? like and old Shinobi but he was always crawling i think... and don't forget the Cool Boarders series and the knock off (but totally awesome) Johnny Mosley Skiing game. its like SSX Tricky but with Skis and totally sick

[SappireFox]

and why'd they have to stop Soul Reaver?

[sousuke]

no double posting theres a edit button u know
the ddr games (ps1 versions) the ps2 versions werent under but the ps1 versions did

[monsoon 10]

and why'd they have to stop Soul Reaver?

They had to stop making it because the man that did the voice for the Elder God died.

[sousuke]

blood will tell was a good samurai game

[LoKiWorlD]

Jade Empire

[wi_sam]

What about Drakengard, Rondo of Swords, and Hoshgami?

hoshigami , OMG i love this game...
...saga frontier for PS1 great game , i'm still playin it.
the Shin Megami series from ATLUS , very very good games for ps2
especially <3 DIGITAL DIVEL SAGA <3 its sooo fuckin cool game (U ALL HAVE TO PLAY IT) !!!
oh , an the Shadow hearts series too damn good to miss .
any1 heard about MUSASHI an adventure game from Square-Enix its very cool
the graphics r truly amazing.
AND dont forget BLOODY ROAR too .

[Mugen]

The Darkness, fun game.

[fazenda]

one game i like but don't think most people know is "lost in blue"it was fun

do any of you recognize this one?

[wi_sam]

hoshigami , OMG i love this game...
...saga frontier for PS1 great game , i'm still playin it.
the Shin Megami series from ATLUS , very very good games for ps2
especially <3 DIGITAL DIVEL SAGA <3 its sooo fuckin cool game (U ALL HAVE TO PLAY IT) !!!
oh , an the Shadow hearts series too damn good to miss .
any1 heard about MUSASHI an adventure game from Square-Enix its very cool the graphics r truly amazing.
AND dont forget BLOODY ROARtoo .


OMG curse u ppl !! how can u forget FRONT MISSION

[LoKiWorlD]

Legion: Legend of Excalibur(Xbox)

[quietchat]

Ristar for the Sega Genisis was pretty overlooked.

[LoKiWorlD]

Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders (Xbox)....intense gameplay.

[Dolly]

Beyond Good And Evil

This, absolutely.


Also, this thread is about games that went UNDER the radar. It appears some of you don't understand what that means. Looking at just the previous page, I can surely say The Darkness and Jade Empire weren't under the radar.

[Viduus]

I whole heartedly agree with Beyond Good & Evil. Can't wait till BGE2 comes out.

Psychonauts was another one that didn't get much attention.

[Dolly]

I whole heartedly agree with Beyond Good & Evil. Can't wait till BGE2 comes out.

Psychonauts was another one that didn't get much attention.

I was trying to think of that name! Yeah, definitely Psychonauts all the way, as well.

[suigintou]

Every single release of Ikaruga has been vastly overlooked, mostly just because it's a 2D scrolling shoot-em-up, and that genre isn't all that popular outside of Japan anymore. It's a shame, because Ikaruga is really an amazing game. I have the GCN port myself. It was originally on the Dreamcast and recently had an Xbox Live Arcade port.

[quietchat]

What about Majora's Mask (Legend of Zelda)

Alot of people didn't get to play it because it was a last year release before the Gamecube came out

[LoKiWorlD]

Sword of the Berserk-Dreamcast

[Dolly]

What about Majora's Mask (Legend of Zelda)

Alot of people didn't get to play it because it was a last year release before the Gamecube came out

Haha, I don't know. I bought Majora's Mask and wasn't really impressed.

[Sanehouse]

Warlord's Battlecry III is another game that went "under the radar", as you put it. When I bought it, it cost me $20. A few months later, me and a friend went to the store to try and get him a copy, and the clerk said we weren't likely to find it anywhere, as it only had a trade-in value of $1 (probably even less now).

It's a magnificent combination of RPG with RTS, and overall, a great game.

[silentdan]

dood shinigami tencea was a great game also i cant spell the name

[suigintou]

What about Majora's Mask (Legend of Zelda)

Alot of people didn't get to play it because it was a last year release before the Gamecube came out

If that slipped under the radar, it was just by a hair, because it actually did sell moderately well and is at least mostly appreciated by Zelda players, though most people don't like it as much as OoT (because we all know how fanboys/girls of that game tend to act).

[Lei-kumoj]

There was an old Playstation 1 fighting game that was developed by Yuke's. It was called Evil Zone. That was absolutely one of the best fighting games I've ever played, but I seem to be the only person I know who's even heard of it...........:oo:

[Mugen]

There was an old Playstation 1 fighting game that was developed by Yuke's. It was called Evil Zone. That was absolutely one of the best fighting games I've ever played, but I seem to be the only person I know who's even heard of it...........:oo:
Evil Zone... sounds good, but yeah, never heard of it.

[777tcat]

Crimson Skies---xbox
Blood Wake-----xbox
Phantom Crash-xbox
These Are Some Hits I Found In The Bargain Bin

[Lei-kumoj]

Evil Zone... sounds good, but yeah, never heard of it.

SEE??!!!!?!?!

[wi_sam]

There was an old Playstation 1 fighting game that was developed by Yuke's. It was called Evil Zone. That was absolutely one of the best fighting games I've ever played, but I seem to be the only person I know who's even heard of it...........:oo:


hey i rmmbr that ...... and there was girl named setsuna or somthing , rite ???

[wi_sam]

dood shinigami tencea was a great game also i cant spell the name
u mean shin megami tensei nucturne.. yeah thats vv cool one
and i'll say it again the shin megami tensei DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA 1+2 the best game ever .......... any body know it
on ps2 lok down vv

and there was a game on ps1 i used to worship it TOMBA an adventure game
it looks sily but i just love it .

oh and sorry for dbl post .

[Lei-kumoj]

hey i rmmbr that ...... and there was girl named setsuna or somthing , rite ???

YOU KNOW IT!!!!! well.....at least you remember one char......... Do you remember anything else?

[sshannon81]

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (for game cube)
Dreamfall :The longest Journey (xbox)
The entire Fatal Frame Series

Loved these games..wish they would make a sequel to the first. It was pretty creepy and had a great story line

[Kenetic]

There is a REALLY good game called Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
it was an amazing Third Person shooter that revolved around a little robot, and you could hijack other robots and everything.
It was amazing.

[wi_sam]

YOU KNOW IT!!!!! well.....at least you remember one char......... Do you remember anything else?

yeah ...uumm....there was this girl withred hair and blue shorts maybe .....
and there was a man with green hair i think ....

[shawnlord]

Goemon Mystical Ninja was a great game that went under the radar I wish it would come back.

[TheScryer]

Shadow of Destiny for PS2
Jet Force Gemini for N64
Lucky Luke for PS1
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for GC
Evergrace for PS2
Orphen: Scion of Sorcery for PS2