Editor's note: I haven't tried all of the games on Richard's list, but I in full agreement on one game: Math Blaster! I played the heck out of that game in elementary school -- and I truly believe my math skills are better for it. -Brett
Some games just don't get enough recognition. They may be under-appreciated classics, forgotten gems from the past, or just overlooked in favor of something better. The fine folk of the Internet do a stand-up job of highlighting many of these games, but a few still slip through the cracks. Here are six classics that deserve more list love.
Lufia 2 (SNES)
Lufia draws on some of the best elements from Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Zelda. Such a thing could never exist, you exclaim! But it's true: this is exactly what you get from Lufia 2, along with a healthy dose of self-conscious humor that pokes fun at JRPG conventions. It also features one of the best soundtracks of the 16-bit era. For some unknowably baffling reason, Lufia 2 is consistently overlooked, but it deserves to stand right up there alongside the legends of the genre.
Math Blaster Plus (PC and Apple)
Learning is fun, and so are math problems. At least that's how you'd feel if you played this classic piece of "edutainment." Some people will say it sucks, but they just aren't willing to admit how much they enjoyed shooting those correct answers with their blaster. Math Blaster Plus isn't going to make you good at math, but it gives you one heck of a great excuse to be playing games.
SimFarm (PC and Mac)
Perhaps the most under-appreciated gem in the "Sim" family, SimFarm tends to get ignored by pretty much everyone. That's a shame, though, because it actually stands up very well against the better known SimCity, SimAnt, and The Sims. SimFarm is exactly what its subtitle suggests -- "SimCity's country cousin." Plow your fields, sow your seeds, harvest your crops, raise farm animals, and sell your produce at market. Sound like fun? Well it is, especially with the range of disasters and the clear impact your decisions have on the farm and nearby town.
A contender for the best game-that-isn't-really-a-game that you'll ever play (experience?), Ceremony of Innocence tells a moving story about two lovers who have never met through their extraordinary correspondence. The interaction is limited to a series of puzzles, each involving a strange looking postcard. But the presentation -- the animation and the voice acting, especially -- is some of the best around, and the superb writing and artwork are both taken directly from Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine trilogy.
Settlers 2 (PC and Mac)
The Settlers franchise has stagnated for the past ten years or so; only a strong following in its native Germany keeps it alive today. The last few entries in the series were decent games, but they failed to live up to their potential. The main problem is that the second installment was so damn good that it set an impossible standard for every Settlers game that followed. Settlers 2 is still a great game today, sporting an abundance of charm, a gentle-yet-not-too-slow pace, and a fine balance between simplicity and complexity lacking in many recent strategy/simulation games. It fits its tagline to a T: Veni, vidi, vici. (Then it all went downhill, just like in Rome.)
Tetris (Everything)
It’s the killer app for the Game Boy and a classic that has appeared on almost every system -- computer, console, or mobile -- in the past 25 years. Every man, woman, and dog has played Tetris. It should be on every “best of” list, no matter what the topic: Top 5 Puzzle Games, Top 10 Time-Wasters, Essential RPGs, Top 8 Games to Play on the Toilet, Games That F***-Up Your Vision, Top 6 Adventure Games, Games Most Likely to Get You Hit by a Bus. If it's a list that celebrates (good) video games, Tetris should be on it. End of story.
Tetris photo by Erik Johansson.
I was addicted to "Sim-..." games for a long while, and SimFarm is definitely one of favorites. Nice pick.
Lufia 2 is in my personal top 5 RPGs of the 16-32 bit era. The soundtrack was amazing, the dialogue was great and gave the characters a personality, and the battle system was much improved from the lackluster first version.
And, just to prove the soundtrack was amazing? Battle #3 (AKA Sinistral Battle) remains one of the best battle themes of all time.
The Settlers is awesome. I played it under the moniker Serf City: Life Is Feudal (haha, see what they did there?).
Tetris is pretty awesome, but I don't see how it can be on a best RPG list...
Lufia 2 was great!
@Davin: It was meant as more of a tongue-in-cheek thing to say that Tetris should be on a Best RPGs or Best Adventure Games list.
@Brett: Thanks for adding the platforms. I knew there was something I forgot to do.
Oh, yes Lufia II. Just from playing half an hour, it's one of the best JRPGs of all time.
For me, the games that need to be in more Top 5 or 10 lists:
Touhou series - excellent shmup series created by one guy including music; deserves to have its 12+ titles brought over here, localized, and given a facelift(the character art especially); has a HUGE underground fanbase.
Cave Story - the indie game that inspired many people to become indie game developers; supposedly started a trend towards retro stylings; one of the few games that stands up to Metroid and the post-Symphony Castlevania games
Quintet Heaven & Earth Quadrilogy(a.k.a. SoulBlazer "series") - includes Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, and Granstream Saga; their stories feature restoring life to the world with Action-RPG gameplay and Adventure elements.
Sin & Punishment - One of the last great N64 games that only came out recently on Virtual Console; Featured amazing setpieces way before Call Of Duty came along.
Astro Boy: Omega Factor - One of the best licensed games ever; Had one of the greatest stories of all time(according to GamesRadar); One of the best GBA games ever; Had an innovative stat-progression system where you met many characters to upgrade stats.
Conker's Bad Fur Day - One of Rare's best and most original games; Pretty much got context-sensitive gameplay right before stuff like RE4 and God Of War; the first and only Nintendo/Rare game to have South Park-inspired crude humor and adult content; A somewhat-butchered remake was put on the original Xbox with online multiplayer.
Melty Blood - One of the best indie-fighters out there; Based on the famous visual novel Tsukihime; like Touhou, it seriously deserves an Western release.
@Gregory: Totally agree about Cave Story, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma deserving more love. I haven't played Astro Boy: Omega Factor, but from what I've heard it should get a lot more attention.
There are a couple there I haven't heard of before. I'll be sure to check them out when I get a chance.
Touhou and Melty Blood are STILL relatively obscure over here. The former series got attention over here due to the memes and music remixes. The most popular memes can be found on this page: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/touhou-project-東方project
Touhou is more familiar among the 4chan crowd, but don't let the fact that I said 4chan scare you away from it. Touhou is one of those "franchises" whose most popular works come from fans. Fanart of the characters is highly prevalent due to the original creator's lack of drawing ability; The fan-remixes are mostly taking excellent songs and making them even more awesome.
And just to spam more info, this webpage has a wealth of information as well: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Touhou
As for Melty Blood. I believe it came around during the darker days of the Fighting genre before Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue turned it around. It's rather popular among the hardcore fighting crowd; the fact that it's going to be part of Fighting Tournament EVO for the first time gives the game some credibility too. Also for a fighter its story and characters are far more unorthodox, being based on a story-heavy Visual Novel of course.
Oh man, Math Blaster was the shit! I hadn't thought about that game in 20 years!
funny you mention how SimFarm is under appreciated yet it's sort of successor, Farmville, is so so popular and overrated.