What are your favorite underrated or lesser known classics, ps1/n64 and older?
I downloaded a rom set on my handheld so I’ve been trying games I’d never played before
New to me
- 2020 Super Baseball (neogeo) - futuristic arcade baseball
- Baseball Stars 2 (neogeo) - regular arcade baseball
- Ehrgeiz : God Bless the Ring (psx) - 3d wrestling/fighter with a single player dungeon crawling mode and a bunch of FFVII characters
- Garou: Mark of the Wolves (neogeo) - 2d fighter with nice artwork
- Rival Schools : United by Fate (psx) - 3d fighter with a voiced campaign
- Soccer Brawl (neogeo) - futuristic arcade soccer
- Tobai No. 1 (psx) - 3d fighter with a single player dungeon crawling mode
- Waku Waku 7 (neogeo) - 2d fighter with nice artwork
Still want to try
- Armored Core (psx)
- Breath of Fire IV (psx)
- Front Mission 3 (psx)
- Industrial Spy : Operation Espionage (dreamcast)
- Racing Lagoon (psx)
- Saga Frontier 2 (psx)
- Shadowrun (Genesis)
- Shadowrun (snes)
- Skies of Arcadia (dreamcast)
- Vagrant Story (psx)
Quest64 (n64) was some great open-world gameplay with a decent story.
Wave Racer (n64) fun multiplayer racing game with a fantastic soundtrack
Hunter: The Reconning (xbox 1) a little on the new side since it came out in 2002, but it was one of those WoD video game ports that managed to split the difference between modern gothic horror and Diablo-style monster grind. Lots of fun level design, boss fights, and a good mix of character classes.
Grandia II (dreamcast) underappreciated JRPG
Grandia I and II are so good. III is okay, X stinks.
Hunter: The Reconning
oh that was a great game
Legend of Dragoon - PSX
Digimon World - PSX
Armored Core - PSX
Bloody Roar - PSX
Ultima 4 - Master System
Shining Force 2 - MegaDrive
Skies of Arcadia - Gamecube VersionBreath of Fire 4 - PSX
Breath of Fire 3 - PSX
Front Mission 3 - PSXI’ll always remember Front Mission 3’s “There are no gentle bombs!”.
Ultima 4 - Master System
Ah, an Ultima Appreciator.
Phantasy Star (Sega Master System)
The Dragons Trap (Sega Master System)
Pulseman (Sega Mega Drive)
Ristar (Sega Mega Drive)
Nights into Dreams (Sega Saturn)
Panzer Dragoon (Sega Saturn)
Just put the entire Sega Saturn on the list. Such an underappreciated console.
PSX
- Jade Cocoon - Fantasy style Japanese RPG with Pokemon-esque monster battles
- Monster Rancher 2 - Another monster battling game but with a sim/management style
- Tombi/Tomba - weird platformer/rpg-lite hybrid
- Ridge Racer Type 4 - not so underrated but I feel forgotten, banger soundtrack
- Dino Crisis - Resident evil but with dinosaurs
- Kula World - Puzzle game where you play as a beach ball traversing blocks floating in the void without popping
- Nuclear Strike - Not a great game, but the cutscenes have a Red Alert style cheesiness I like a lot.
Neogeo
- Metal Slug - Platformer with Shmup characteristics.
If you can go up to PS2 then Road Trip Adventure is a Racing/RPG where you play as sentient cars. Janky controls though.
SNES/SFC
Ball Bullet Gun - Squad based tactics game about playing airsoft
Fire Emblem 4 - It’s a mainline Nintendo release, but Japan-only. My favorite in the franchise.
Sega Genesis
Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon - It’s a Sailor Moon beat-em-up. I was obsessed with the Power Rangers SNES game as a kid, so I enjoyed playing this as a ROM when I was older.
Snatcher - A Hideo Kojima game
PSX
Chocobo Racing - Kinda mid cart racer but Final Fantasy themed. I played this a lot back in the day.
Not played it but I came across a Japanese psx game Chocobo Stallion with racing and breeding apparently adapted from their horse derby games of that period
gameplay https://youtu.be/en4Y4Y_-wj8?t=233
This is like the chocobo mini game in FF7. I know that horse racing games are pretty popular in Japan, so it’s not too surprising.
Chameleon Twist
Ogre Battle 64
Still looking for a game that hits that sweet spot of real time strategy + sim/turned-based battles
“Hey, military dude. You look busy. Are you here to beat up the weak again? Huh? What are you, new!? Yo, do they teach you to beat up the weak in the academy? Hahaha. Don’t give me that look! Just calling a spade a spade!”
Had some great dialogue, that one.
As an ogre battle head Ive got to recommend the ogre battle randomizer to modify the SNES ROM
oh shit, I still gotta play the SNES vanilla one
Many people shit on Parasite Eve 2 for not being Parasite Eve 1, which is completely understandable, but it’s a completely decent survival horror game in its own right. Would recommend a playthrough
I wasn’t even aware it had a sequel
There was even a third game just called 3rd Birthday on the PSP, presumably because of licensing issues- Parasite Eve was a Japanese novel to which the first game was actually a sequel of sorts.
3rd Birthday was awful by all accounts
Mischief Makers on n64 slaps!
My faves for the PS1 are:
- Klonoa (platformer/puzzle)
- Grandia (rpg, great fighting system)
- Legend of Lagaia (rpg, another good fighting system) (note: there’s a glitch pretty far into this game that you have to look up a workaround to get passed, or be really lucky)
Legend of Lagaia is so underrated. That combo system in the fights was really cool at the time.
If you like Tobai No. 1 then give Bushido Blade 1 and 2 a shot. Also published by Square, they’re weapon-based fighting games but with the unique mechanic that weapon damage is relatively realistic: a crucial blow/cut to a limb means the opponent can’t use it anymore, and instakills are possible by direct strikes to the chest or head.
I know its GBA, but Kao the Kangaroo is pretty fun.
I really liked Breath of Fire 3 and 4 growing up. 4 has an especially beautiful art style.
JET SET RADIOOOOOOOO
Great post! Here are some that come to mind:
Aggressors of Dark Kombat (Neo Geo): It’s not an Mortal Kombat clone, nor is it an Street Fighter one, it’s an mix of a fighting game, an beat em up and a wrestling game with a potentially hilarious counter-grapple mechanic.
Bank Panic (Arcade): An amusing western-themed “FPS” with many goofy elements.
Boogie Wings (Arcade): An 1920-theme side scrolling shooter with many unique mechanics, including a grappler hook and many vehicles.
Guerrilla War (Arcade / NES): An top-down shooter starring Ernesto Guevara and Fidel Castro. Yes, really! The NES version is quite different and slightly better than the arcade one.
Hebereke no Popoon (Arcade): Versus-puzzle-game with match three mechanics, special attacks and probably the best voice acting in the video game world.
Violent Storm (Arcade): A quick-paced beat em up with great aesthetics and various vocal songs.
Guerrilla War (Arcade / NES): An top-down shooter starring Ernesto Guevara and Fidel Castro. Yes, really! The NES version is quite different and slightly better than the arcade one.
The Japanese version is just called Guevara
