The "So Underrated"

[Charicific]

This question popped out while I was playing one of my favorite games, Caesar III/IV . Even though I'm quite crazy about this game, I found out that it isn't really THAT popular at all, in fact, it is so underrated.

So, to develop on this idea, what do you guys think are the most underrated games? What do you really think about them and the way people throw criticism on them?

[ShinyUmbreon189]

Madden series. Yes, they have gone downhill since idk when but if you know how to play the actual game and know your plays then the game can be very fun.
Black Ops. I don't get why people have given so many bad remarks on this game, I mean it's better than MW2, it doesn't have killstreak stacks, no recoil (weapons have recoil in real life, pick up an assault rifle and tell me it doesn't have recoil!) The only flaw is that sometimes it takes WAY too many bullets to drop someone but still a fun game if you play smart.
I kind of passed the stage of older games and moved on to newer gen and that is my PS3 and that's about all I could think of ATM.

[machomuu]

Originally Posted by ShinyUmbreon189

Madden series. Yes, they have gone downhill since idk when but if you know how to play the actual game and know your plays then the game can be very fun.
Black Ops. I don't get why people have given so many bad remarks on this game, I mean it's better than MW2, it doesn't have killstreak stacks, no recoil (weapons have recoil in real life, pick up an assault rifle and tell me it doesn't have recoil!) The only flaw is that sometimes it takes WAY too many bullets to drop someone but still a fun game if you play smart.
I kind of passed the stage of older games and moved on to newer gen and that is my PS3 and that's about all I could think of ATM.

Did you seriously just call a CoD title, the most overrated franchise on the planet underrated? Let's look at those ratings that they definitely paid for:

Spoiler:

Those are for Black Ops, they're much higher than they should be. Now, if you mean overlooked, that's a the exact same story told from a different perspective. The core audience goes gaga about CoD (claiming that they're hardcore, for some reason), and Black Ops was no different.

[Kroso]

The game I-Ninja was buried in a pile of crap(with the exception of some titles) in 2003, and if it was released this generation.... Well, this generation only expectation is FPS and not something new and fresh, so yeah the poor game is underrated.

[Plasmette]

I swear to god if somebody says Gen 3 I'm gonna poke their eye out...

[Bramvdh]

Originally Posted by machomuu

Did you seriously just call a CoD title, the most overrated franchise on the planet underrated? Let's look at those ratings that they definitely paid for:

Call Of Duty 1 is actually a really nice game and underrated.

Other than that AOE II (The Conquerors)

[Seiren]

A lot of the games that are underrated are so because of weaker advertising campaigns or unjustly bad reviews (the Atelier series is an example of the former, and NieR and Resonance of Fate are examples of the latter) and have cult followings, meaning that they're only underrated in the sense that the masses who listen only to what the biased magazines tell them don't know what they're missing out on. Games aren't so much underrated these days as they are just overlooked entirely in favour of something else.

One mainstream game that I do think is quite underrated, surprisingly, is Final Fantasy XII. This is, my opinion, the only FF that actually gets it right: the battle system is involving, the storyline goes beyond the normal poorly scripted romance plot, and overall it's an extremely enjoyable game, yet it's regarded as one of the worst by the FF fandom.

[machomuu]

Originally Posted by Bramvdh

Call Of Duty 1 is actually a really nice game and underrated.

Other than that AOE II (The Conquerors)

Call of Duty 1-3 aren't underrated. They're not overrated, but they're certainly not underrated. Growing up when those games first came out, they got a lot of positive reception.

One mainstream game that I do think is quite underrated, surprisingly, is Final Fantasy XII. This is, my opinion, the only FF that actually gets it right: the battle system is involving, the storyline goes beyond the normal poorly scripted romance plot, and overall it's an extremely enjoyable game, yet it's regarded as one of the worst by the FF fandom.

Well, a mainstream game is kind of a contradiction, but there's a reason for why people think that. First:

Spoiler:

Vaan is the most annoying character in the Final Fantasy Franchise. Maybe he's tied with Tidus, but the fact that he's the main character doesn't bode well for the player.

Second, it's not:

Spoiler:

The game is actually loved by many FF fans and had incredible reception, if this game is underrated then I'm a monkey's uncle, and I'm pretty sure I'm not. Pretty sure. If anything, the most underrated game is FFXIII, which mostly gets dumped on because it's different and most people don't give it a chance...even though those same people were clamoring for something different.

[Banjora Marxvile]

Underrated games can be critically successful too, just kind of ignored by the consumers. The game I find to be underrated by consumers is the sequel to Banjo Kazooie - Banjo-Tooie. A blend of humour and serious parts make this game just fun to play.

But if we go by underrated by critics as well, I found nothing wrong with Bubsy the Bobcat. Absolutely loved it, even though people didn't really understand that it was fun and very difficult at the same time (I will be honest though, if I ever play this game straight through on my Sega Mega Drive (I refuse to call it Genesis as I am English), I don't think the console will survive the amount of rage I will collect playing it...)

[ZetaZaku]

Final Fantasy XIII is definitely underrated. It's not the best FF game, but it's far from what people make it to be. It's basically the same as the older ones, just without pointless backtracking. People call it bad because of it's linearity, but I can't see how it's different from FFX. Why does everyone want all games to be open world? FF is story driven, unlike those open world sandbox games that have a short story and various side quests. If someone wants a fantasy open world, they can play the Elder Scroll series. Post apocalyptic open world game - Fallout series. FThe only difference between XIII and the older ones are cutscenes. Older games didn't have much cutscenes, but had heavy dialogues. FFXIII just puts those dialogues into cutscenes.

I can understand if someone who doesn't like Final Fantasy dismisses the game, but I can't understand Final Fantasy fans who dismiss it.

[machomuu]

I just want to note that there is a difference between "underrated" and "overlooked". A game that isn't too well known but is still a good game would be "overlooked", "underrated" means that people say it's worse than it actually is (in the same sense, a game could be underrated by the critics and overrated or simply not underrated by the consumer, though that rarely happens, since the core and mainstream gamer usually use the words of critics as law). People often get the two words mixed up.

[Nuke]

The recent games in the PES series. To anyone who knows the PES/Fifa franchise they'll know that Fifa has been top dog for a few years now, but since 2010 the PES franchise has actually had major improvements and still gets rated just as badly. The demo for the latest game was released last week and it is a major improvement on any recent football game from either franchise, but everyone is suddenly ridiculously biased to fifa because apparently it's still terrible.

I hate to bring up Saints Row 2 again on here because I feel all of my posts in this forum involve it, but it's the most fun I've ever had in a game and yet I bet the average review is about 10% less than GTA IV which was horribly bland.

[machomuu]

Originally Posted by Nuke

The recent games in the PES series. To anyone who knows the PES/Fifa franchise they'll know that Fifa has been top dog for a few years now, but since 2010 the PES franchise has actually had major improvements and still gets rated just as badly. The demo for the latest game was released last week and it is a major improvement on any recent football game from either franchise, but everyone is suddenly ridiculously biased to fifa because apparently it's still terrible.

I hate to bring up Saints Row 2 again on here because I feel all of my posts in this forum involve it, but it's the most fun I've ever had in a game and yet I bet the average review is about 10% less than GTA IV which was horribly bland.

I disagree, GTAIV actually had quite a bit to it, there was a crapton to do and the city was detailed, filled with hundreds of personalities and lots of activity. How does that qualify as bland? I mean, I often see SR fans baw about how it's so much better than GTAIV, and I've played them both. Granted, I felt the gameplay for SR2 was stiffer than that of GTAIV, and part of the reason I lost interest so quickly (though I did play quite a bit of it), but I often thing that SR fans just crap on GTAIV because they're coerced by its popularity and simply think violent or insulting thoughts about it because they like one more than the other.

[Megaman3007]

Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers. Yes the controls are wonky but it really is one of the best Wii titles in the latter part of its lifespan. I loved the game and all the side stuff it had to offer. Zack and Wiki was fun too!

[Pokemon Trainer UV]

Easily a very underrated game and a really lengthy RPG for the DS. I'm sure that a lot of you have heard of Devil Survivor or the Persona Series, but have you heard of Strange Journey? What this game features is:

*An 80 hour plus adventure with a really epic story
Heck, I wasn't even done with all of the side quests by the time I hit 80 hours.

*3 Endings based on your Morality by the end of the game

*A Morality System based on choices you make in the story

*Recruit over 300 demons using demon negotiation

*Demon Fusion to create more powerful ones

*Classic RPG gameplay with an added flavor of Demon Co-op

*Animated and very detailed Demon Sprites

*And EPIC MUSIC

Emphasis on the epic music part, just listen to this!:




When I played this game, I found it pretty hard to believe that it was for the DS due to the awesome amount of content in it!


Another underrated game is:




Dementium 2 is a great Horror FPS for the DS. It runs at a smooth 60 FPS, and it has really great graphics!
It isn't as scary as Amnesia or other horror games, but I certainly had a scare while playing it! Give it a rent, since you'll probably finish it in 2 hours.

Another pretty underrated game is Madagascar for the Gamecube. It may be movie based, but I thought it was a marvelous platformer!

But that's for another time... anyways, I hope that you guys give these games a try, as I mentioned above, they are pretty underrated, and not exactly well known. Sorry for the flashy post...

[Sydian]

Definitely the Mother/Earthbound series. No matter how many people you hear raving about the series, Earthbound still didn't sell well in it's North American release, which is a crying shame. It was advertised really heavily too. Maybe that hurt it? idek. At least with emulators we have the ability to play Mother as well as the fan translated Mother 3, but...idk there's just nothing that compares to playing it on the console it was intended for, imo.

Also, a very good RPG movie based game is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for GBA. I actually 100%'d the game when I was 12 and it's tons of fun and has some great music. I haven't touched it in years, and maybe I should haha. It's much better than its GCN counterpart though. They're completely different and the GBA is far superior. It's a nice little gem, if you ever happen to run across a copy and you're a fan or HP or RPGs, or even both, you should pick it up.

And ummmm Viva Pinata. It probably looks childish to most people, but it's lots of fun and it's a nice and relaxing game to play. And if you want it to be violent, just make your pinatas eat your other pinatas, let them fight with each other, beat them with your shovel, or don't call the doctor when they get sick! And you can make the worms get busy like crazy, so there's your sexual thrill. lololol

[MidiMasterShiro]

I'd say the PS2 game "Gungrave." It is a third-person shooter with great story and art by Yasuhiro Naito, the one who responsible for the Trigun manga. I felt that it was a good game, though it suffered in terms of popularity. It's actually a fun and addicting game to play, despite short completion time, which people seem to complain about. I thought the length of the game was quite fitting for the story it had.

Another game series would be Mr. Driller. This series could be viewed as a sequel to the Dig Dug series. It is a fun, creative puzzle game , and it's really addictive. I feel that this series deserved more attention, as it had a good concept different from most puzzle games today.

Dragon Ball Z 2, or Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 is a bit underrated. From what I've seen, people seem to dislike the story mode of the game. I really can't see how one cannot like it if you're a fan of the Dragon Ball manga and games. In my opinion, the story mode was a lot better than the one in DBZ3/B3, where you just fly around and only get character images and speech bubbles for story. I feel that the game is much better than Budokai 1, but people seem to like it more for "nostalgic" reasons.

[machomuu]

^I've actually been replaying the DBZ 1-3 games lately and I have this to say:

I think that Dragon Ball Z Budokai has some of the best cinematic sequences on the planet. Seriously, it makes you feel as if you're actually watching the show, and more, it has a gripping narrative, great writing, and is only hindered by its length, it's age (if it had been current generation, or at least not 2001-3, it could have done a lot more) and somewhat bland gameplay (it got fleshed out in two, and further in three, but it was still fun). The cinematic and the presentation are just plain astounding, especially for the time; you could feel the anger in the characters, the power of their attacks, and you would be emotionally affected with suspense or fear when the cinematics segue into fights. It's that that makes me truly love the Story Mode in DBZ (oddly enough, when upscaled 4x+ it's revealed that it also has the greatest graphics of the three games, as well as the tenkaichi titles.

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2, I've never heard anyone knock on the story mode, but that's really what takes me back to it. It's one of the most unique and most inventive story modes in a fighting game, and it was a very bold move on their part. It turns the game into a sort of strategy game, and do to the different events, possibilities, and unlockables, it has high replay value. Then there's the gameplay. It has more moves, and some moves that were previously clones were made their own moves. Plus, the game had more characters and some non-canonical characters thrown in for fun, as well as the introduction of the fusion and absorption systems, and most importantly, button input in various moves (and cel-shaded graphics, which carried into Budokai 3). Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 will forever hold its place as one of my favorite fighting games in existence.

Budokai 3, this game completely fleshed out the fighting aspects of the Budokai series. It made it so that fighting wasn't so reliant on skills, that way you wouldn't be out of the game if you only had one or two, or no skills. It added teleportation (so to speak), Burst Mode (if that's what it's called), Power Struggles (Honestly, my favorite addition), dodging, and it dismissed most of the replica moves and made them their own. It also added some GT characters without making a GT saga (probably due to the show's low fan reception but SSJ4's high fan reception) and added a few movie characters (most notably, Broly). Sadly, it removed the "analog stick rotation" input and replaced it with a timed button input. Conversely, it was very pretty, and even if Budokai 1 had the best graphics technologically, 3 had the best looking in art style and improvements. It's Story Mode was great, from my PoV, and due to it's being so different from 2's, I don't really compare the two, I just say "play both". It was nonlinear and had a crapton of unlockables, as well as rewards for doing actions done in the show. It also had different endings and different paths, plus the addition of free-movement allowed for a lot of possibilities that they exploited and did well.

...So I guess I'm saying that I don't really think 2 was underrated, but if only because I've never heard of bad reception for it's story (I've heard mostly positive reception).

[Toujours]

I would say KH:Chain of Memories is pretty underrated by the crowd that like Kingdom Hearts games. I know that re:coded did worse ratings-wise, but when people are asked what their least favorite entry in the franchise was I most hear Chain of Memories which makes me sad because I really enjoyed it as a game, especially the card-based battle system.

Then again I also have a lot of nostalgia towards it (more than probably any other game in the franchise) so there's that, haha.

[J-Money808]

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations due to it not getting much mainstream advertising. The storymode is ok, as you get different story's, and Killer Bee's isnt really a story, just a goof around story mode. It's not the same as the other Ultimate Ninja Storm games as with boss battles, but they have alot more charecters to offer. The newest DBZ game that came out took the boss battles from UNS and put it into their game, fighting Vegeta in his monkey form was awesome.

Another game I think WAS underrated before they got franchised and popularized was the Saints Row series. The first and second one left me wanting more, and they did with The Third, giving it an entire new storyline and city to takeover.

Before that, GTA: San Andreas hands down, best GTA game created. Sure it had the gang takeover thing which is where Saints Row came off, but it also had the biggest map in any GTA series, more missions then any I could think of, and alot more other stuff that was pure genius.

Of course people could say those are overrated, but at the times of their release(SR and GTA: SA) too me they were, and the Naruto games still are, but I can't stand hearing the english dubbed voices as I'm used to the original japanese voices.

[Kurui]

Rule of Rose hands down. One of the most breathtakingly beautiful games with an intriguing plot that is perfectly woven and characters that stay with you forever, it's mixed reviews did it no justice, just because reviewers were so unintelligent that they can't fathom the concepts of the game and "get confused" at the storyline. Pffft. It isn't a game for people who cannot think, no, and that want everything spoonfed to them in the most simplistic direct way possible, but for the intelligent creation it is, it is a genuine GEM of horror games, much better than the crap pumped out today.

Deadly Premonition is another nearly flawless gem in horror games that is severely criticized despite being miles better than ANY RE and most SH installments. And all mainly because of the "dates graphics". It's execution is simply spot on for a horror crime tale, intoroducing both new elements of horror with FINALLY actual gameplay of "Oh my god, a killer is on the lose, RUN HIDE" that hasn't hardly been seen since forever because of the "lets get bombs or nuke the heck out of enemy" crap started for every scary game. It's a clever game. It's like watching a mystery unfold before your eyes. It's chilling. It's bizarre. It's deep. And what people can't "get", they rate badly.

[Shadow_Angel]

I think Kirby's Adventure for the NES and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (for gameboy) are both underrated. I love both of the games but I don't think either of them got enough recognition. I think they're amazing and should be recognized more. I might be wrong but this is just my opinion.

[machomuu]

Originally Posted by Shadow_Angel

I think Kirby's Adventure for the NES and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (for gameboy) are both underrated. I love both of the games but I don't think either of them got enough recognition. I think they're amazing and should be recognized more. I might be wrong but this is just my opinion.

I'd agree about Amazing Mirror, but Kirby's Adventure actually has incredible Critical and Consumer Reception due to its being the introduction of the staple of the Kirby franchise.

[Spinosaurus]

Gen 3

Originally Posted by Shadow_Angel

I think Kirby's Adventure for the NES and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (for gameboy) are both underrated. I love both of the games but I don't think either of them got enough recognition. I think they're amazing and should be recognized more. I might be wrong but this is just my opinion.

The former is pretty well-received and known, while the latter is just overlooked. They're not underrated at all.

Anyway, Mario Sunshine was the first to come to mind. I always thought it was a better game than Mario 64, but that game gets point for being the first 3d mario game and nostalgia, ignoring the awful level design, camera and controls. Not to say Mario Sunshine doesn't have those, but they were better than 64's. It's still a great Mario game.
Of course, Galaxy is obviously the better game.

Jak 2 and 3 are criminally underrated. I understand the criticism that 2 receives, but it's still a good game despite being the weakest. But the worst is the fact because of 2, a lot of people overlook AND underrate 3, when it fixed every problem 2 has and had a great balance of 1 and 2. If it weren't for the bad taste Jak 2 left, I wouldn't be surprised if 3 was considered the best in the series instead of 1. Also the best Jak design.

[Kimbo]

I feel I bring up Dragon Age 2 in every thread, but thats cause I don't get the negative press what so ever. The only negative I had with it is the repeated use of stupid area's. (I initially hated not being an elf, but then I was convinced I needed to be human by the story). The skill leveling thing and combat was so much better then origins, I liked the fact my characters had their own armor, cause origins characters apart from Morrigan looked rediculous in armor, and the only reason Morrigan looked okay is she has TWO exclusive Morrigan only armors. I am more inthralled by DA2's story, and Mass effect like wheel.

Viva Pinata is a great call by Sydian, such a good time filler.

Apart from that I haven't ever really left series I am comfortable with (Pokemon,Bioshock, FIFA, Football Manager, LoZ, Mario, Elder Scrolls, Fallout) untill this year. Already I have played a few of the Tales games and wondered how I never heard of them till this year, same for Kingdom Hearts , Fire Emblem and Dragon Quest. I have enjoyed them all so much and wonder how mainstream casual gamers (like I used to be) missed out on this cause the games are over looked.