Virtual On was God-Tier.
Sega Saturn was my youth, and Virtual On was second only to Panzer Dragoon Saga as my favourite Saturn game.
Games you love but nobody else knows about. - Any games that you've played and like, but never heard any online discussion or met anyone who's played it?
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Sister services, email, and search will continue to be negatively effected by the attacks. I made a thread to talk about it, if you're into networking.
Sega Saturn was my youth, and Virtual On was second only to Panzer Dragoon Saga as my favourite Saturn game.
The tutorial is fairly slow but that's a given for any TBS trying to explain the goings on. I do also recall the game really softballing you for a few battles if you chose to start in Fantasy!Norseland. So I can understand that feeling at the least.
Stasi
kiwifarms.net
Think I posted about it in another thread but I've never heard anyone talk about Summoner 2 and its one of my favourite games of all time. Think it came out when everyone was sucking off Final Fantasy and jrpgs in general and everything else was overlooked, especially on consoles. A shame because Summoner is an excellent game. The world and atmosphere is fantastic, the characters are all interesting, well written and the voice acting is top notch. Gameplay is a lot of fun too and has a unique mechanic where the main character can morph into elemental beast and tear shit up.
I never gave this a thought at the time but the lead character is a well written and likeable female. Guess I just liked the character because she was likeable. This is what we had almost 20 years ago but if you listen to game journos the hobby is for sexist male racists or whatever with no female representation in current year.
Also the reason I low key hate Saints Row is that Volition poured all their resources into that cash cow and I will never get a Summoner 3.
I never gave this a thought at the time but the lead character is a well written and likeable female. Guess I just liked the character because she was likeable. This is what we had almost 20 years ago but if you listen to game journos the hobby is for sexist male racists or whatever with no female representation in current year.
Also the reason I low key hate Saints Row is that Volition poured all their resources into that cash cow and I will never get a Summoner 3.
Hybrid Heaven, An RPG made by Konami for the N64. The story is bad and the combat can get repetitive but its really cool and unique for its time. What other RPG can you queue up combos and wrestling moves on humans, monsters and aliens.
Never played it but I do remember it, didn't they re-release it on the Gamecube where they actually gave the female protagonist a sexier outfit? Imagine an American dev making a female character more sexy than they originally did instead of less.
Which version would you recommend?
It's interesting how all Volition can really do is imitate, Red Faction is their take on Half-Life, Summoner is obviously their take on Final Fantasy and Saints Row is their take on GTA, but in almost every instance they put their own spin on it to where it feels fresh and worthy and not just a lesser ripoff, just because their inspirations are obvious doesn't make them any less of a great dev and their games good.
I guess Red Faction Guerilla was pretty unique though.
Stasi
kiwifarms.net
I played the PS2 version and only briefly messed around with the GC one when setting up Dolphin. GC version is supposed to be slightly better graphically but its going to be marginal. Go with whichever version you can find, you'll have a good time with either. If emulating then prob GC because PCSX2 is a steaming turd compared to Dolphin.
In execution, yes. But on paper not really. Red Faction's whole gimmick as a franchise was environmental destruction, so Red Faction Guerilla was really just the logical next step considering the game was open world.
For me a sexier outfit for the main girl is in fact a selling point, so I'd go with GC.
But Red Faction 1 was so obviously aping Half-Life even down to similar art styles complete with people wearing metal sits, it was literally "Half-Life but it's on Mars and you can destroy the environments"
Red Faction Guerilla on the other hand was an open world action game with vehicle driving as was the style at the time, but it wasn't as specifically aping something specific, as that's a pretty broad category and being able to destroy literally any structure piece by piece was something I haven't seen anyone do since on that level, so it still stands out as more unique.
The Red Faction after that though was just a ripoff of Gears of War, that one was pretty lame and a little too obviously aping something without putting enough of a spin on it, Volition certainly hasn't batted 1000 if Agents of Mayhem was also something to go by, but like I said I like Volition's formula of aping something popular but putting a cool twist on it that makes it fresh.
Saints Row for example was GTA but even crazier, like letting you run around naked or spray people with shit, it was awesome.
Saints Row 1 wasn't just a GTA clone, it was a GTA: San Andreas clone.
Sure, one thing I liked as the series went on is it started to make fun of "gangsta" culture itself by the third game before becoming a spoof of video games as a whole with the third game.
Rusty for the PC-98 which is a damn good Castlevania clone with really good music.
Iron Jaguar
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Rumble Roses was overshadowed by the success of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden, but the funny thing about this game is that it had a unique and diversified set of female characters with different fighting styles and costumes that brings back memories of Joshi Wrestling:
Rumble Roses XX actually made it more hilarious than interesting, and it’s pretty rare to buy and get it these days.
When I was younger there was a company called GSP who released CDs with like 100 shareware games. One of my favourites was Operation: Inner Space, made by the same people who made the famous flying toaster screensaver. You control a space ship that flies through your PC's filesystem to collect icons and destroy virused icons, sometimes directories are races and there are different teams who may attack or defend you, based on both personal and team relationships. My nan gave me that because she was legit scared it was putting viruses on her computer, lol. There was another game where you're a farmer in a UFO and have to go around collecting purple space chickens, a little claw comes out of your ship, grabs it and drags it back in. Also a sort of sandbox game called Gravity Ball where you had to get a ball into a hole on like a 12x8 grid. The only of those I've found again was Inner Space.
eGames was another publisher whose games were usually found in the bargain bin advertising "MAHJONG PLUS 10 OTHER GAMES"; you'd get the game that was on the box and a trial version of all the others, I think. They had a couple of good trial games like Raptor (vertical-scrolling shmup which let you buy new weapons after each stage) and Space Miner (kind of like asteroids, but when you blew up the asteroids they could drop minerals you could sell at planets to upgrade your ship. It also had enemies who sometimes try to kill you, if you killed them they'd drop a bunch of resources but if you died, too bad, start a new game).
I think this was from the GSP CD as well, a game called Gazillionaire, it's a turn-based trading simulator set in space with all sorts of wacky characters and each of the planets you visit have a different "special event", like one planet lets you upgrade your engine speed, another one basically tells you how likely you're gonna get screwed over by a random event during your next journey and another one lets you send your staff on holiday which might reduce their wages. It's pretty fun, basically a roguelike trading simulator.
Blast-Thru was another random PC game which was basically Arkanoid, but it had a level editor built-in and a ton of extra block types and powerups/powerdowns.
All of these games are from like the XP era or earlier, I don't think Operation: Inner Space even runs on 64-bit Windows because it was a 16-bit game.
eGames was another publisher whose games were usually found in the bargain bin advertising "MAHJONG PLUS 10 OTHER GAMES"; you'd get the game that was on the box and a trial version of all the others, I think. They had a couple of good trial games like Raptor (vertical-scrolling shmup which let you buy new weapons after each stage) and Space Miner (kind of like asteroids, but when you blew up the asteroids they could drop minerals you could sell at planets to upgrade your ship. It also had enemies who sometimes try to kill you, if you killed them they'd drop a bunch of resources but if you died, too bad, start a new game).
I think this was from the GSP CD as well, a game called Gazillionaire, it's a turn-based trading simulator set in space with all sorts of wacky characters and each of the planets you visit have a different "special event", like one planet lets you upgrade your engine speed, another one basically tells you how likely you're gonna get screwed over by a random event during your next journey and another one lets you send your staff on holiday which might reduce their wages. It's pretty fun, basically a roguelike trading simulator.
Blast-Thru was another random PC game which was basically Arkanoid, but it had a level editor built-in and a ton of extra block types and powerups/powerdowns.
All of these games are from like the XP era or earlier, I don't think Operation: Inner Space even runs on 64-bit Windows because it was a 16-bit game.
Pretty much anything made by Spiderweb Software!
The Geneforge series was a huge part of my teens. I love the worldbuilding, the plot, and the gameplay. None of Spiderweb’s games will ever win an award for graphics, but you can tell when playing that the games are all made with love and care.
I own physical copies of most of the Geneforge games (I bought them back before Steam existed. I sent the devs cash and got a CD back in the mail!) and I treasure those discs to this day. IMO, Spiderweb Software is what all indie devs should aspire to be: a company that makes games and tells stories because that’s what they love to do.
I highly recommend the Geneforge series and the Avernum series for anyone who loves old school RPGs full of choices and story!
The Geneforge series was a huge part of my teens. I love the worldbuilding, the plot, and the gameplay. None of Spiderweb’s games will ever win an award for graphics, but you can tell when playing that the games are all made with love and care.
I own physical copies of most of the Geneforge games (I bought them back before Steam existed. I sent the devs cash and got a CD back in the mail!) and I treasure those discs to this day. IMO, Spiderweb Software is what all indie devs should aspire to be: a company that makes games and tells stories because that’s what they love to do.
I highly recommend the Geneforge series and the Avernum series for anyone who loves old school RPGs full of choices and story!
My toss into the pot has to be the Pocky and Rocky series, especially 2. Such an enjoyable game with traditional inspirations and music. I heard theyre doing a remake or remaster of it soon, I should check that out.
I used to play a lot of obscure RTSes back in the day, but two stood out in my mind:
Metal Fatigue. If you ever wondered what is it like to play RTS Gundam, well, this game is for you. Being from that era of post-Starcraft, it does that thing where it tries to copy the Starcraft formula of having three different factions, and abilities. It almost pulls it off; each faction has mechs with very distinct differences. The three-layer gimmick remained a gimmick, sadly, and I feel like it's extremely clunky to switch between them.
Submarine Titans. Another hidden gem I love. Again, a veritable Starcraft spinoff with minerals and vespene gas being replaced with its mineral and green equivalent respectively. Again, three factions, each with its own distinctive personality. The real kicker, however, is its gimmick: it's entirely underwater. Yes, you're playing an underwater RTS with Z-levels. While the execution isn't the best, it works well enough, and the game holds up better than Metal Fatigue.
Special mention goes to Battle Realms, the Wuxia RTS. If you played Battle for Middle Earth I, you'd recognise the system they used immediately, because BFME straight up ripped off Battle Realms for their first iteration.
Metal Fatigue. If you ever wondered what is it like to play RTS Gundam, well, this game is for you. Being from that era of post-Starcraft, it does that thing where it tries to copy the Starcraft formula of having three different factions, and abilities. It almost pulls it off; each faction has mechs with very distinct differences. The three-layer gimmick remained a gimmick, sadly, and I feel like it's extremely clunky to switch between them.
Submarine Titans. Another hidden gem I love. Again, a veritable Starcraft spinoff with minerals and vespene gas being replaced with its mineral and green equivalent respectively. Again, three factions, each with its own distinctive personality. The real kicker, however, is its gimmick: it's entirely underwater. Yes, you're playing an underwater RTS with Z-levels. While the execution isn't the best, it works well enough, and the game holds up better than Metal Fatigue.
Special mention goes to Battle Realms, the Wuxia RTS. If you played Battle for Middle Earth I, you'd recognise the system they used immediately, because BFME straight up ripped off Battle Realms for their first iteration.
Path of Exile was another shareware game I played, probably from the GSP disc. I accidentally found a hidden passage in a wall in the overworld and found a dragon hanging out in there. I think Spiderweb is two people, a husband and wife, who have a common interest in making games, which is pretty adorable.
