Fun games to try (those considered hidden gems)

[DoukDouk]

I also played ZZT, Moraff's World, and Jill of the Jungle when I was younger, too.

... I should probably just turn in my youth card now, shouldn't I? >_>

I'm with you on all of the above, actually. Hell, people think I'm weird because my childhood wasn't full of stuff like Contra or Adventure Island, but rather stuff like KiloBlaster, Oil Cap, Dungeon Hack, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe.

(Not that I never played console games as a young'un - just my choices were a bit...weirder. Like Zoop, Sub-Terrania, and of all things, The Incredible Crash Dummies for Genesis.)

Did you also happen to play Megazeux? I have to say, when I first entered the Doom community, I lurked that community for a while, and seeing your name here kind of surprised me. I've always kind of toyed with the idea of remaking the adventures of Zeux in Doom. I spent so much time with ZZT and Zeux, sadly I missed ZZT's golden age and bulletin board DOS hoedown, but I caught up just in time to catch MZX's best titles.

I also grew up with very odd games compared to the rest of my peers, something I never really let go of was loving the obscure games out there. That's why I'm so thrilled there's so many indie games being made today with interesting premeses.

King's Field games are a good example, though that was the extent of my console gaming, next to SNES and NES emulators my dad downloaded for me because he didn't see any point in buying a console if he already had a PC.

Survival Crisis Z was a game I spent a lot of time on and introduced a lot of friends to. It's a bit of a pain in the butt to get working on modern systems, but I think all you need to do is download and install the Visual Basic 6 runtime and you're set for pure zombie carnage!

[Reactor]

World War Zero

Damn it...this thing was a HUGE relief and a nice breath of fresh air after the countless WWII shooters trying to surmound each other while ripping each other off simultaneously [cough]CoD WWII[/cough]. I fell in love with this WWI FPS from the very first level, and I have it since. Playing it every now and then is truly a great pleasure, so I definitively recommend you to buy it and give it a try.

World War Zero is actually an upgraded, better made version of the previous game Ironstorm, which had countless serious errors and bugs (including the impossibility of successfully installing it). The storyline, some graphics, a few weapons and gameplay mechanics are essentially the same, except IronStorm had a third-person view also, whilst World War Zero has FPS mode only. Ironstorm was bad, however, and World War Zero is pretty damn good.

The storyline is also quite unique compared to most world-warish shooters: the first World War hasn't ended, a resourceful Mongolian leader, Baron Ugenberg have killed the Bolsheviks and thus, the Russian Revolution never happened. Russia has fused together with Mongolia, forming the Russo-Mongol empire, which fights against the Western Allies (Germany was already occupied by the Russo-Mongols). The war is raging on for years now, however, there are words about the evil Russo-Mongols have invented a weapon far more lethal than anything else in that age: nuclear missiles!
The player takes the role of James Anderson, the Allies' best commando, and mightiest warrior, whose job is to sabotage the nuclear missiles, before Baron Ugenberg could launch them on Western cities. Sounds cliché, ye? Well, later, it turns out that there's much more behind the story than just nullifying the nuclear threat...

World War Zero is a pretty fluent, smooth, and intense shooter. There are several types of different enemies, evil Russo-Mongol soldiers with different uniforms and capabilities, but you can also fight helicopters, tanks, dogs with explosives strapped on them, automated turret-guns, and other enemies whom I do not wish to spoil. There's a huge selection of weapons, and you can actually upgrade your guns by picking up a better one (you begin with a Machine Pistol, which gets replaced with Assault Rifle when collecting one). Weapons are useful, and several new ones were added since IronStorm (the Flamethrower and the Minigun for instance). There are usable mounted guns as well, and you'll need to watch out for tripmines here and there. And, needless to say, there's also an apprehension stage midway thru the game, where you lose all weapons.
Saving system is different - in IronStorm, you could save your game anytime anywhere (and in 50% of the cases, the game crashed instantly after). Here, you can save your progress on portable terminals, or when finishing a level. I never found this overly disturbing.

Of course, World War Zero has its fair share of bugs and glitches. Its graphics look pretty "rusty" and outdated, and in several levels, there are wall "patches", where misaligned texture slabs were plastered onto the wall for some reason. Enemies act pretty funny when incinerated by Flamethrower, and in many cases, they fly 500 feet in the air, if you shoot them (especially with assault rifle). I also miss the cutscenes from IronStorm, which were removed from World War Zero for some reason. Once I've managed to crash the game by climbing out from the trench, and avoiding the level exit, I fell thru the floor. Of course, it was my fault, since the player wasn't really supposed to do that, but hey it was worth a chuckle!

All in all, World War Zero is a pretty yummy game. The best thing is that finally you can kill Russians and Mongols, instead of "evil Nazis". Seeing 99% of the WW-themed FPS games, this is a feature which definitively worths mentioning.

[Freaklore1]

Here's a game that i still have tough it's been awhile since i played it...

[Reactor]

Phew. I finally completed this one. Now I can evaluate a little.



Shovel Knight - Shovel of Hope

Shovel Knight is a Kickstarter project which is still on progress. It's a side-scroller platformer with a very good vintage-NES feeling, with pseudo-NES sound effects, music, graphics, features, and such. First it was a PC only, now it got released for other platforms as well. Currently it has 3 releases. Shovel of Hope, which I shall be yappin' about now, Plague of Shadows and Specter of Torment (the "Treasure Trove" release is a 3-in-1 pack AFAIK, not a distinct game). The fourth installation, "King of Cards" is still in progress, and will be ready only next year. The game itself has a medieval settling, sort of a parody or mockery of the knight's age, but in a good, funny way, so it's completely unlike Grezzo or H.U.R.L.

The story is pretty average, but also differs greatly from such cliché adventures. Our protagonist, Shovel Knight entered to the dreaded Tower of Fate with his girlfriend, Shield Knight. They found an evil talisman, which killed Shield Knight, and summoned a powerful Enchantress on the land. The Enchantress then decides that she recruits all the knights of this world, and build up an unstoppable Order of No Quarter. Shovel Knight's duty is to defeat said Order, and eventually, the evil Enchantress herself.

As the game progresses, we learn how big this land is, and how/what should we do to stand a chance against such overwhelming odds. There is no scoring system, but you can collect gold from here and there (killing enemies, digging up rubble, breaking stones), which you can spend on extra stuff and equipment to make y'self stronger. You can also find a hidden Relic in each level, which grants you a special ability, though it will use "ammunition". Alas, you also need to pay for these Relics, no freebies for ya, nanananana! Levels are very colourful and there are lots of variations - underwater, dark-evil land, hot molten lava underground level, icy stage, flying machine stage, and at the end, the Tower of Fate. There are also countless bonus or extra courses, where you can collect more gold, or use a certain Relic to pass thru the level. Some other extra courses feature extra bossfights with recurring characters, or wandering travelers who never run from a good fight. At the end of each stage, you have to beat one of the Knights to finish the level. You can re-visit the finished stages if you desire, so you can obtain some cash if you happen to be short of gold (which will happen a lot).

Controls are simple, and mostly responsive. You can use your shovel to bounce off enemies, certain hazards or object (this was probably taken from Commander Keen and his pogo), and you can use your Relic with a two-button combination, which is not so efficient. There are checkpoints on most levels, and your progress is of course saved every time you quit. Checkpoints can also be destroyed to grab more gems, however, this means you'll respawn on the previous one, so it's wise to backtrack and THEN destroy the checkpoints. Every time you die - which'll happen about a gazillion times - you lose some of your gold, and they'll float on wings, in hope you can recover them. If you can't, or you die somewhere else without collecting these lost gold, they're gone for all eternity!

Shovel Knight features several achievements - feats, as the game calls them - which you can obtain, and brag about. Needless to say, many of these are next to impossible to achieve. Such as, finish the WHOLE game without checkpoints, or dying once (this one is indeed called "impossible!"). Imagine finishing Doom 2 WITHOUT dying once, and multiply this times a thousand. Also, if you enter any cheat codes, you won't get any feats.

Now for the bad news...
First of all, the PC version is much, much, MUCH too fast. You'll need lightning quick reactions to pass thru certain hazards, or complicated rooms which require you to do 3-4 shovel jumps perfectly, while avoiding enemy projectiles from two directions, and such. I noticed on the recordings that the console versions are significantly slower, thus, many times easier to finish than the PC version.
Secondly, this game cheats, very often. It can either be a hit detection cheat, falling thru a platform, slipping off ladders, Relics refusing to work...whenever the game feels like, it breaks its own rules, and this'll most likely mean you will die. I could notice about 150-200 occassions where the game killed me unfairly. By the time you complete this game, you WILL smoke a shipload of cigarettes just to calm your nerves. Many gamers commented that they ragequitted the whole game, because it cheats. First I didn't believe them, now I realize they were right...oh God how right they were...!!!
And third, most of the compulsory areas and levels are way too difficult. I think this is what gamers usually call "Asian". You'd expect this kind of stuff on games like I wanna be the guy or Syobon Action, and here, two or three rooms are just like these games, so the completion relies heavily on trial-and-error...and this game expects you to finish the whole thing without dying once...LOL OMFG...

In conclusion, Shovel Knight - Shovel of Hope is a very well made, exciting, humorous, and extremely enjoyable game, but you'll need unlimited patience for it. Yes, unlimited, and perhaps even more. Otherwise you WILL ragequit and uninstall it. So if you're looking for a nice relaxing little adventure, this is not for you.

[0mrcynic0]

This game, I believe, can be considered fun and is an underrated game at the same time.

Realms of the Haunting, an adventure/FPS hybrid for the PC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzT27LXpoyc

[Reactor]

The second installment of the Shovel Knight series: Plague of Shadows

The success of "Shovel of Hope" incited Yacht Club Games to expand the Shovel Knight universe. The first result was this - a totally new, different campaign for one of the Knights from the Order of No Quarter, where we take the role of Plague Knight, the chemistry expert, master of all bombs and explosives!

These events take place at the same time with "Shovel of Hope". Plague Knight was accepted by the evil Enchantress as a Knight for the Order of No Quarter, but little did she know that Plague Knight had his own plans for acquiring ultimate power. Namely: defeat every other Knight, obtain their essence, and construct an Ultimate Potion, with which he can RULE THE WOOOORLD! Mwhahahahahahaaaa!!! Needless to say, the other Knights won't give up their essence without a fight...nor does the evil Enchantress! So his mission is to pass every level much like Shovel Knight did, defeat every boss, and obtain their essence with the sole exception of Black Knight.

You might think that this game is totally the same with "Shovel of Hope", only you play as a different character. Wrong! Every level has been modified to suit Plague Knight's skills and abilities, and ensure new frustrat...I mean, challenges to him. This includes the bonus levels and extra courses as well, even though key parts of the levels remained the same. You'll still need to figure out new strategies to finish them though, as Plague Knight requires a different playing style than Shovel Knight.

First of all, Plague Knight's jumping is terrible. All this bird-brain can do is a stubby little hop. If you want to make a decent jump, you have to use the bomb blast jump, which requires you to hold the "Attack" button every time, and is pretty annoying after a while. Plague Knight can also double-jump in the air, but only once, and it's also a very short little hop. So to make really good jumps, you'll have to plan each and every jump perfectly: bomb blast, then jump, then double-jump. If you mess up, that usually means you fall and die - and it'll happen a LOT, believe you me.
Luckily, Plague Knight's attacks are FAR more effective! He throws bombs - grenades, if you may - and he has quite a wide variety of different bombs he can use (he must buy them first, of course, no freebies!). Once bought, bombs can be customized almost limitlessly. You can use several different casings, such as bouncy, lob, float, orbit - these will decide how the bombs will be thrown. Different types of powders have different effects. As for fuses, you can decide how soon or late the bomb should explode. Component powder with short fuse and lob casing is the best IMHO.
You can also upgrade your bomb blast (which helps you with jumping). Floating burst is the VERY best as it'll eliminate the threat of bottomless pits, as you won't fall down but gently float to the ground...like balloons. Want a balloon? Oh you DO want! And YOU will float, too!!! This burst is the most useful amongst all.

Instead of Relics, Plague Knight uses Arcanas (these are also equipment, but with a different name). You can collect Shovel Knight's relics, and trade'em for Arcanas, this way you won't need to pay for them. Most Arcanas are just a piece of turd, but some of them are unimaginibly useful! The Vat, for instance. Having problems with spikes and bottomless pits? Just summon a platform underneath yourself, and problem solved. Like Shovel Knight, Plague Knight also has an Arcana which can give him temporary invulnerability.

To obtain new inventory items, Plague Knight has to collect Cipher Coins. With the help of those, he can unlock new explosive equipment, or gain access to areas where he couldn't enter. Plague Knight is widely hated outside the Tower of Fate, so he cannot just go into the Village or the Armor Outpost for refreshments like Shovel Knight did. The allmigthy Troupple King at the Troupple Pond also refuses to help him with ichors (though you can buy new outfits from him), and when in the Armor Outpost and the Hall of Champions, he'll be fiercely attacked by guards. Good thing Plague Knight's mana self-regenerates, you won't need to collect mana power-ups at all if you don't want to.

The levels - I kid you not - are MUCH easier to finish with Plague Knight, but you must have the right powerups (Floating burst and The Vat). Even with the extra sections of the levels, you'll suffer a lot less than with Shovel Knight. This does not mean you can take the levels lightly, but you'll most likely die less times, lose less gold, and defeat bosses easier. You must get good at jumping however. And, as I said earlier: be prepared for the game cheats! Ironically, the first level was one of the hardest, as there are no Arcanas or Floating burst yet, and the extra levels, where you're forced to utilize one damn Arcana from the beginning to the end. At least these courses are not mandatory.

In conclusion, I can say that Plague of Shadows is easier to finish than Shovel of Hope. Having a ranged attack, and useful equipment really helps out even with the most fiendish rooms and areas. The story is also very enjoyable and satisfying, and generally, it is a very good second installment. A must-have for fans of platformers, but you'll still need to have a heckuva good patience...!

[Viscra Maelstrom]

i wouldn't exactly call the Shovel Knight games as "underrated gems", considered they're incredibly popular and have received huge critical success...

[Reactor]

This is somewhat true, as they are not obscure or underrated, but they are hidden gems. Why? Simple. Most gamers still value graphics over everything else, their only concern is that the graphics must be "awsum", and who cares about the rest...you know that, I don't really need to tell...so if one of these retards witness a Shovel Knight installment, he'll start yappin' away "ZOMG LOL 8bit graphics, this game iz t3h sh1t, cod iz da best..."

[Rachael]

This is somewhat true, as they are not obscure or underrated, but they are hidden gems. Why? Simple. Most gamers still value graphics over everything else, their only concern is that the graphics must be "awsum", and who cares about the rest...you know that, I don't really need to tell...so if one of these retards witness a Shovel Knight installment, he'll start yappin' away "ZOMG LOL 8bit graphics, this game iz t3h sh1t, cod iz da best..."

This couldn't be further from the truth.

Most gamers value the "fun" aspect over everything else - and as for graphics all they care about is that it doesn't look like total arse. If it's pretty and pleasing to look at in some way, the graphics doesn't matter.

It's one reason why Quake 1 hasn't aged well, but Doom has.

[Reactor]

Are you sure about this,Eruanna? I ask since the game developers - the big big biggies - keep pumping out games having little to no values, except the graphics, and as such, extermely high number of gamers started to care less about important stuff (complex levels, secrets and Easter Eggs, great music and sounds, storyline, unpredictable enemies) within games and care more about graphics and multiplayer instead. Even if we exclude [insert actual hip title here] fanboys, a gigantic amount of gamers will simply label every game as "shit" which has no multiplayer. Minecraft could only become Number One on the list since it is massively multiplayer, regardless of its oldschool style of graphics.
AFAIK the Shovel Knight series are strictly Single Player only (though you CAN compete with other players with those collectible feats I mentioned), plus it has a pretty high difficulty - these two factors are enough to discourage today's gamers from playing it, let alone completing it. Your Average Joe gamer today can't even exist without "da Intarnetz" and anything harder than "press any key to win" will make him ragequit. Even I highlighted this on my evaluation that the Shovel Knight games are frustratingly difficult (and this was only the game completion, I didn't even dare to imagine the efforts if someone wishes to complete all Challenge levels or go for the feats), so currently it seems this series won't really make it into the mainstream.

But I certainly hope that eventually you'll be right, and gamers will come to their senses...most of them I mean...

[Rachael]

I am positive about this.

Game developers are in the wrong about this - they think they have a perspective on it that they really do not. No one asked for $1 million budget cinematics put into their games, yet they INSIST on putting them into the game anyway - thereby inflating the shelf price of the game. It's bullshit like this, plus numerous other things, that make game developers an extremely unreliable source of information for this stuff.

What really makes a game successful these days is an intense marketing campaign. Somehow, repeatedly, they hook in impulsive buyers (mostly parents with 13-year-old teenagers who don't know better), and the strength of these games really stands on said marketing campaign. It just happens to be coincidental that the graphics look "good" or "realistic" for these games - I assure you, a retro-styled game with such a campaign behind them would be just as successful, provided it had proper gameplay mechanics and balance to boot.

Moral of the story: Don't listen to people who try the same things over and over again and think that it's what people actually want. There's a reason why indie games have such a success as they do - people are tired of major game companies' bullshit. And I am not talking about the bullshit Unity store asset flips - I am talking about games that actually have considerable development time behind them.

[Scripten]

Also those games that are focused entirely on graphical achievement to the exclusion of all else get panned almost unanimously.

[Reactor]

This is true, big developer companies are entirely wrong, putting 99% emphasis on graphics, and ignoring almost everything else. Ultra-hyperrealistic graphics, 5-dimensional HD XXL cinematics, this is what they focus almost entirely about (and of course, a mulitplayer feature for the pre-teen pustules). The problem is, if they can afford professionals to create such outstandingly good graphics and in-game cutscenes, this means they also have big $$$ for marketing. So the consumeidiots will buy their game, and won't even acknowledge ones which are much less marketed, yet, their gameplay value may be a gazillion times better.
Secondary, there's the hardware lobby. If the XYZ title wouldn't require the player to spend thousands of dollars on a rig which can run their game, the poor poor hardware manufacturers would certainly go bankrupt awwww, they would sure die of starvation if they couldn't sell their overpriced shit to the stupid customers, because GTA 5 won't run, or will look like a pre-2000 garbage...
OK, aside joke, the only reason why there are so many overpriced high-tech graphics cards are is the video game industry. I'm sure the developers could optimize their game to run on inferior graphics cards as well, but where's the business in that? This follows a rather peculiar pattern: I want your MONEY!!! Buy a new graphics card! And since it requires a new motherboard, buy a new motherboard as well! Oh but your old memory modules won't work with the new motherboard. Aww, that's a shame! So you got to buy new ones. Oh, and don't forget about that the CPU must be in par with the graphics card as well. Grab a new one! How about the power supply? Can't satisfy the new system's power hunger? Buy a new one...

See how it works? It's like a domino effect. No wonder I don't feel remorse when companies whine about warez and software pirates...
Indie games are a thousand times better in this aspect, it's only they don't have that many possibilities for marketing than the big companies, who keep making and selling the awesome-looking garbage.

[wildweasel]

Can we get back on topic instead of going on conspiracy theories about the greater Gaming Industry?

I forget if I've linked it here before, but Blocksum is a very good freeware Puzzle League-like game with a mathematical twist - instead of simply matching colors/symbols/numbers, you merge numbers together to make their sums, and "matches" are made when the number of blocks with that number on them equals the number itself, i.e. two 2s, three 3s, four 4s, and so on. It's a little tricky to get into, and the difficulty curve ramps up pretty hard after a few minutes, but it's overall a pretty fun way to kill a few minutes, and it has awesome music.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

This is somewhat true, as they are not obscure or underrated, but they are hidden gems. Why? Simple. Most gamers still value graphics over everything else, their only concern is that the graphics must be "awsum", and who cares about the rest...you know that, I don't really need to tell...so if one of these retards witness a Shovel Knight installment, he'll start yappin' away "ZOMG LOL 8bit graphics, this game iz t3h sh1t, cod iz da best..."

i don't really agree with this. retro-styled indie-games have become a huge thing in recent years, and a couple of them have received huge critical acclaim.

there is the aforementioned Shovel Knight, who's become so popular it's been ported to multiple consoles and received numerous expansions.
Undertale became a gigantic cult-hit that set the internet on fire and has likely made millions in sales, been ported to Playstation and got an official Japanese translation, as well as getting a ton of different merchandise.
Minecraft became a giant empire that was so big Microsoft bought it up, alongside receiving various ports, having a huge modding community, and a slew of merchandise, including official Lego branded Minecraft merchandise.

all of these games has "dated" graphics, but have become hugely successful regardless. if you've been on the internet for at least a few years, you've probably heard of these games, even if you've never played them. i've never played Shovel Knight or Minecraft, but i'm still aware of their existence, and i doubt they're just going to fizzle out to the point people would consider them hidden gems.