Most obscure game you've played
Friday, November 16th, 2007 - 3:22pm
(I apologize if this has been done before, but I didn't see it in a quick search.)
What's the most obscure commercial game you've played? I'm not talking old=obscure, or small print run=obscure, but "I appear to be only person in the world who played it, other than the friends I loaned the disk to."
The most obscure game I've played is Wrath of the Gods (produced by Luminaria, now known as Mythweb, I think). It's a point-and-click adventure done in the style of actors in bad costumes placed on top of stock photographs. You play the abandoned son of a princess who sets off on an adventure in ancient Greece, fighting the Hydra, Medusa, etc. It's lots of fun (or was, as I was twelve) and is packed with cheesy moments.
So, what's the most obscure game you've played?
Aside from my friends, and a couple of people that had it for sale on ebay, I don't know anyone else that has played
Poy Poy, for the PS1.
Great 4 player dodgeball kind of game where you could pick up everything in the play area including logs, rocks, and the other players, and toss them at everyone.
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Orbiter. Not commercial, though. Difficult to learn, fun once you pull it off, but I stopped playing around while trying to get the hang of traveling from the Earth to the Moon. Every time I tried time acceleration to cut down on the the travel time, something got screwed up and I ended up shooting into deep space, so I had to spend three days or so leaving it running in the background during the day so nothing bad would happen.
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Seriously though, COPS 2170. Looked kind of like Syndicate Wars. But it wasn't. Oh how it wasn't. I wanted this game to be good so much...
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
Team Buddies for the PS1. It's a strategy game kinda like Worms, with a similar sense of humor, but rather than simply getting weapons, you build weapons and units by assembling crates in certain configurations. Lots of fun with 4 player MP.
Ooga Booga for the Dreamcast. One of the best multiplayer games ever.
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kaostheory wrote:
Running High- Ps1 a futuristic racing game where the runners are the vehicles. They had jet packs and all sorts of mecha crap on them. It was imported as 'Runnin Wild" with god da*n zoo animals?!
Space Griffon VF-9. Awesome FP, RPGish Mecha game taking place on a moon with zombies and what not.
http://www.panther.co.jp/contents/game/g_gri.htm
I dare you to understand. This was released for PS1 in the US and DC in Japan as a re-release.
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Hey I remember Space Griffon... barely. All I remember is playing the game and wondering what the hell the plot was and if it made any semblance of sense.
For me it was Boxer's Road for the PS1. Import Boxing RPG where you controlled every aspect of the training. You would schedule his workouts on a calender, as precise as what hour he did what. You even controlled his diet, the food options were gargantuan. The amount of management was massive.
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Who does one of the guys have a baby's butt on his chin?
Really, zombies on the moon? I think I need to get my bf to translate this page...
I bought a multitap and extra controllers specifically for that game. I even threw ah "poy poy" party at my apartment many moons ago.
Man that game kicked!
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Pipe Threader Manual wrote:
Guess it's the communities you follow, COPS 2170 isn't obscure to me, but one of the websites I visit covered it. A personal example of that would be The Fall - Last Days of Gaia, it might be considered obscure if you live in an English-speaking country, as it was never released in English (but there was a fan-translation); but it was covered in development by some RPG communities, so I never really thought of it as obscure.
Anyway, for me, anything by the French Kheops Studio (Destination Treasure Island, Voyage, and Return to Mysterious Island being some of their games), despite being the most prolific adventure-gaming studio around, they are nearly unknown in the English gaming world. I've never encountered anyone who has even heard of their games outside hardcore adventure gaming websites.
"Patriot", the land-based version of Harpoon. I had to "play" it for a review. It released, but the three other guys who bought it were disappointed too.
I will say that I played the heck out of SimCopter. Did anyone else even try it?
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I'm trying to figure out what I've got in my collection that would count as obscure. I think Vib Ribbon might be the closest.
Developed by Masaya Matsuura, of Parappa the Rapper fame, it was only released in Japan and Europe. Affectionately dubbed "The Singing Crack Rabbit" game by The Gia, it was definitely a different game.
You played Vibri, a 2D rabbit bouncing along a line to the beat of the song. Obstacles in your way could be successfully traversed but pushing the right button or combination of buttons. The game came with a very... quirky soundtrack by Laugh and Peace, but could also auto generate levels with any audio CD you put in your PSone.
Runners up: Odama, Cookie & Cream, Incredible Crisis, and Devil Dice
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Pipe Threader Manual wrote:
Trachalio, you have to rehost images from Mobygames. I believe you see them fine, as you have the image in your cache, but the rest of us only see a blank square proclaiming "MobyGames/The definitive resource for PC Games/mobygames.com"
"Legal Crime", a prohibition gangster RTS from 1998 that had the player build a crime syndicate through protection rackets, robbery, gang warfare. A great idea for a game, but a horrible implementation. Slow, ugly, hard to understand. Oddly enough, I was given a free copy of it because of amateur online reviews I was doing at the time.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Folks don't seem to recall Eric the Unready as quickly as I do. I think it's a classic.
Another one only some people choose to recognize is the NES cart Exodus: Journey to the Promised Land.
I'm fairly mainstream, I guess.
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I once played a third-party NES title called Taggin' Dragon. It was, uh...strange.
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i've played some games even i've forgotten about, but the one that comes to mind the quickest is Avernum because i played it and beat it.
this game http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Strife is another one that most people probably didn't play
Stories of Yesterday
The Home Tree
That would be "I'm Sorry", a truly bizarre Japanese arcade game. Plays a bit like Mousetrap. You control your "Hero" against the "Yakuza Boss" and his henchmen. When you punch the henchmen, your fist grows to an enormous size. When you get caught, you are shown wearing an S&M teddy for a woman bending over, and the enemy whips your ass with, well, a whip.
The write-up at coiniop.org says:
This unusual game is a parody of the plutocratic bureaucracy of Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka. He battles famous figures such as Carl Lewis and Michael Jackson.
The object of each level is to collect all the gold pieces and return it to the mansion to collect points. You can also score points by punching out the enemies. Some enemies may take more than one hit to slay. Tanaka has three minutes to collect all the gold.
As Tanaka collects gold, a thought balloon is shown above his head. That shows how many points he can earn by returning it to his mansion. The most points can be earned by collecting all the gold at once before returning, instead of a few at a time, with a maximum of 9,999 points to be had. If Tanaka completes the stage he receives 20 points for each second left on the clock. The music is, to say the LEAST, Japanese weird.
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First one of these threads I've ever liked.
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So I guess, I'm the only person who didn't get the "memo" about Killer 7?
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Are we sticking with this decade? If so, probably an original Xbox game called Scaler I got sent to review.
Duoae wrote:
Poy Poy was great. Logan, G-Buck and I played the crap out of my copy. It's the reason I bought a PSX multitap.
Poy Poy made the entire Bomberman franchise superfluous. I wish we would get more Poy Poy games instead of Bomberman remakes.
Ha, I played that. That, Corridor 7, and NAM are my obscure DOS-era FPS games.
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Hmmm....probably Cosmology of Kyoto is the strangest "game" I've ever played (and least recognizable). Kind of an edutainment-done-right adventure game set in medieval Japan. My early years (5-7, pre-nes) were also dominated by the Odyssey 2. Monkey shines was a great game, probably the first I know of with customizable levels. My first videogame fight was with my brother, over whether Quest for the Rings or Conquest of the World was a better game (I was right of course).
edit: I played strife too. I had a blast with it, it was like the next evolution of Doom, and (based on my memories, don't quote me) seemed like a precursor to Deus Ex.
nsmike wrote:
Steam
OK, my turn.
First up is In the 1st Degree, a Windows 3.x FMV court drama. It's also the reason I find the Phoenix Wright games very unfulfilling. Rather than a "follow the one path" game like Phoenix Wright, it was a single court case with multiple possible outcomes depending on how well you investigated and interviewed witnesses pre-trial, and how well you cross-examined and built your case during trial.
Then there's Life & Death, which is basically a surgery simulator (and the reason why I find the Trauma Center games very unfulfilling).
Finally, I never thought of it as obscure, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone else make reference to it: Breakthru, a Data East NES game that's basically a side-scrolling shooter with a tank that can jump.
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I'd have to say the most obscure game I've played that I really enjoyed was The Ur-Quan Masters which is a remake of Star Control 2 using Star Control 2's original source material. Basically, it just looks better then the original. If you've never played it or would like to play it again you can download it for free here
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This could go on for a long time, at least i hope so. Keep it up y'all.
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I wanted to put up Vib Ribbon and Cosmology of Kyoto, but it's already there, so let's think about something else. In the weird and obscure category I have The Dark Eye, the puppet (!) horror (!!) based on works of Edgar Allan Poe. With a poem recited by William S. Burroughs, no less. Truly fascinating game.
In the "I'm sure you have never played them" category there is just lots of stuff from these parts of the world. "The Secret of Mule Island" was never translated from Czech to other languages and you wouldn't play it anyway, because it was a very simple parody of Monkey Islands. But it was the first "commercial" adventure down here, so there. Maybe you have played Teen Agent, a Polish adventure which had an English translation as well.
And everyone should play Spellcross, one of my favorite strategies ever. It had RPG elements combined with great story and tech tree and developing units and everything back in the days when nobody else was doing such things. There were actually two versions: Czech one and English one, the latter being much easier, with a bit different missions and running under Win95. I stil have my copy of both and play them from time to time.
Which reminds me: many people probably know Ascendancy, but there was a sort of sequel called Tone Rebellion. Weird game, but addictive, as I actually finished it.
It's not Wandering Toast. Except in TF2, where it usually is.
Septerra Core
One of those games that is obscure if you don't follow RPGs I guess. It's a great story and I wish it had more success. Very fun console style RPG for the PC too.
McChuck wrote:
Oh yeah, I do have that one. can be found pretty cheaply, mine was maybe 50 cents. In a similar vein: Silver, although I do believe it was little more renowned.
It's not Wandering Toast. Except in TF2, where it usually is.
I have that on their collection CD. I was sold when someone showed me the opening defeat of the Black Knight.
I think I bought mine retail. My computer was a bit slow for it and I couldn't bring up the mini map, but it was a nice change of pace. I think I still have the CD around somewhere.
Probably more back in the day games...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Below_the_Root
Classic way before its time Adventure RPG on the Apple // platform.. Sad to say I more than likely leeched this off some BBS instead of buying it.. since lets face it.. it would have been next to impossible back then to have even found it for sale anywhere where I lived.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_%28computer_game%29
Wizard for the C64.. dunno really how obscure this was but no one I ever talked to remembers it.. most notable for its superior gameplay to Jumpman (also released around the same time and way more popular) but all the cool uber nerds played Wizard...since not only was it a better game.. it had a complete and fully featured construction kit to make your own levels.. which I wasted hours coming up with truly devious (in my head anyway) levels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizuna_Encounter
Really obscure mostly because it was so rare.. yes indeed at one point I was one of the few who actually owned the cart version of this game. Purchased via escrow agent from some dude in France for (at the time) insane price of $1,200 US.. I later sold my entire Neo Geo collection for $7,800 on Ebay. The days after my auction went up on Ebay I was extensively flamed on the various NeoGeo Forums for being a scammer and no doubt ripping some poor schmuck off since no one in their right mind would part with such a collection.
I hear these days this cartridge goes for ~$12,000 US so yeah I'm kicking myself for ever selling it.
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