Mine has to be Dragon Quest: Rocket Slime, a DS spin off of the Dragon Quest series that sees you playing as a slime operating a tank and rescuing the people from your town. You run around the overworld, collecting items to use as ammunition and saving money to upgrade your tank. The art and music are just as great as you’d expect from the Dragon Quest series. It made fantastic use of the DS’s dual screens. It’s also written for a younger audience, so a lot of it is just really silly and fun! Try it out for sure, I’m so sad there’s no sequel :(
In certain circles it is well known, but Baba Is You is one of the most ingenious games for a long while and should be known even wider.
One of the only puzzle games that made me think I’m dumb and give up. It’s fantastic
Played it with some friends on a pass the controller night. Really fun and makes you think.
Initially looks just a simple twist on Sokoban, but the game mechanic just keeps going deeper and deeper and blowing your mind.
I could do that?
I COULD DO THAT?!
Truly a unique game. Super challenging for people who think they “know” puzzle games lol
Return of the Obra Dinn is an amazing game that I wish I could play again for the first time. The art style is super unique and the attention to detail in every aspect of the game is incredible.
Highly recommend.
Lucas Pope is an incredible game designer. I’m very excited to see what he comes up with next
My Summer Car. It’s probably still #1 for play time on Steam for me. I bought a whole-ass racing wheel setup just for that game.
I’ve been to Finland back in 2000s and must say that game is 100% realistic!
Black and White, it was a god simulator on PC in 2001. You interact with your villagers and the world as a floating hand, casting spells to raise faith in villages or throwing rocks to smite as necessary. You also got a giant pet that you could train to do your bidding.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_%26_White_(video_game)
Noclip did a doc about it recently (https://youtu.be/GtNvEna6bxc). I remember seeing it for the first time at a buddies place growing up, but I didn’t have a strong enough computer to run it. I did though when black and white 2 came out and it was awesome! I feel the only thing comparable to it currently is the Anno series, no spells or anything but just city management and stuff.
That was a fun game! Would love to see a remake of it.
All these years later it still haunts me…
Among all the love Bioware gets for KotOR and Mass Effect I’m genuinely surprised more people aren’t talking about Jade Empire.
It’s a full fledged classic Bioware RPG set in an interesting world based on Chinese mythology, has some great characters and a fun (if simple) combat system. Voice acting is mostly good too, especially for a 2005 game and it even has John Cleese doing a part!
I loved it when it came out and am stumped as to why it never became a BioWare mainstay. Maybe releasing as an exclusive for the original Xbox just killed it, but if you enjoy this style of RPG I highly recommend checking it out!
Jade empire was legit. i’m really surprised that there haven’t been any other kung fu type rpgs since.
In parallel universe we would have had Jade Empire (series) written by Bioware at their peak with combat by Platinum games.
Or maybe some could make SF6 story mode X Jade Empire.
In parallel universe we would have had Jade Empire (series) written by Bioware at their peak with combat by Platinum games.
I hadn’t even thought about that but you’re right. What a wonderful thought.
It’s also kind of surprising no effort has been done to remaster Jade Empire since that is such a popular cash grab these days. But maybe the brand strength of the IP is just that low?
One Must Fall 2097, an awesome robot fighting game for DOS, which is quite different from every other fighting game, because in this one you have to select both pilots and the robots, and each pilot and robot have their own specialities and back stories, so it makes for a lot more interesting gameplay compared to other games in this genre.
Whoooooooa, now you’re really taking me back. I only had the Shareware version, so the full version with all the fighters was something I lusted after for ages, but never actually got. Megarace is another one from this era that stands out, though I don’t think it was a particularly great game.
I can still remember every special move and destruction. And how to select Nova outside tournament. Completed the tournament on Heavy Metal, but it’s hard only in the beginning.
There are custom tournaments and a open source remake project https://www.openomf.org/
You know that killer soundtrack right?
One day Kenny Chou was browsing the internet and randomly thought “I wonder if anyone remembers that game I did the music for?” and was surprised to find his OMF2097 music has a huge following.
To celebrate he re-constructed the main theme in modern tools here: https://youtu.be/UvlVaQl7kEk
That’s awesome! Cheers for the link! I loved the theme song so much that I made up random lyrics for it as a kid and used to sing it all the time. People used to ask me what was that song that I was singing and I’d tell them all about the game and rope them into it lol.
Heroes of the Storm. It’s not getting any updates anymore but as long as the servers are up, I’ll still play it.
Hadn’t realised they stopped updating it :(
I play a few games of hots about everyday.
There is still a player run league going strong. I’ve played in it for almost ten years. Great group of folks and new teams are often forming especially at lower MMRs.
My gf talks about that game quite often!
CrossCode. It’s an SNES-style action RPG with very fun combat, 2D-Zelda-like puzzles, and a genuinely charming well-written story that was made in HTML5 and JavaScript for some reason. It is genuinely my favorite game of all time. I habitually proselyte this game to friends, but check it out for the love of God
Actually one of my favourite games of all time. Please please please check it out if you haven’t already
Yoku’s Island Express. The idea of a metroidvania where the entire map is a giant pinball board is beyond genius.
Incredible Machine, Metal Arms Glitch in the System, Wargroove, Gradius 3.
Thank you for reminding me of The Incredible Machine! I am going to add its two sequels that most people have never heard of, TIM: Contraptions (essentially a HD re-release of the first game in a new engine.) and TIM: Even More e Contraptions (What would now be sold as DLC.)
Holy crap there was an HD re-release? I am not even sure which one I actually played. I think it was just TIM 3.0 from 1995
Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Saturn is maybe my favorite JRPG, or Grandia 2
The 7th Guest was a revolutionary game and I just love it [email protected]
Legend of Dragoon for PS1. It has the single best timed-input RPG combat system of any game ever. Think Mario RPG but way better.
GUST OF WIND DANCE!
MDK. Sure, it was arguably “popular” when it launched, but is largely forgotten in videogame lore. There’s not even talks of a remake.
May be a little off from what you’re asking but one of my favorite games period is Bookworm on the GBA. It was originally a flash game but when it came to GBA you could save your progress. The music was so cute and the sound effects were just awesome. They tried to bring it to the DS without that music and the effects and it just didn’t work. Other iterations exist as well, none as cool and enjoyable as the GBA version. I’m stuck emulating until someone rediscovers this neat little game and brings it to switch or steamdeck.
I really enjoyed Space Station Silicon Valley for the N64. It turns out there was a bug in the original game so you could never complete it 100%. A couple years ago, I purchased an Everdrive (https://krikzz.com/our-products/cartridges/ed64x7.html) so I could patch the ROM and play on original hardware. Pair this with some new wireless controllers and it’s the perfect experience.
