Yoku’s Island Express. Before playing it, I didn’t like pinball or search-action games (metroidvanias). I ended up loving it. I still don’t really enjoy pinball on its own, but I now have a deep love for search-action.
It’s definitely the best pinball-metroidvania postal service simulator available.
Unreal Tournament, the one that was abandoned in favor of Fortnite (eugh). Like sure it would never be a big hit like Fortnite, Arena Shooters are out of fashion after all, but Epic didn’t even give it a chance for starters, they basically just rushed it out the door with a skeleton crew, no budget whatsoever and were begging for community members to do free work on the game for them. In retrospect the game was doomed to fail from day one.
It STARTED from the work of community members. Then Epic jumped in and took over with the promise of their backing of the community team. Then once they had control over it they scuttled the ship.
Don’t know quite how underrated/forgotten this is, but I wanna see a remake of Vib-Ribbon. That, or have an open source clone of it made by someone who actually knows how to properly program (not me), if it already doesn’t exist.
Technically there is a successor to Vib-Ribbon but it’s iPhone only if I recall? “Russian Dancing Men”.
Too bad I don’t have access to any apple products I could use to try it. Gonna have to look into this.
Edit: looked it up and it looks like something similar to Vib-Ribbon in terms.of gameplay, but from what I can gather, it’s been over a decade since any updates. Also, I’d hope for a PC port of a Vib-Ribbon clone because there’s no way you’re getting me to play any more rhythm games where you have to use a small touch screen to play. No idea if that Russian Dancing Men has the ability to take local files stored on your phone and use them to generate levels, though, or where you’d go to get a legit copy of the app anymore even if you have an apple product able to play it.
Battle for Middle Earth. With the resurgence of RTS games lately, including many older ones getting remastered, I would absolutely love to see a proper remaster and release of BFME2. Unfortunately rights issues mean it’s very unlikely to happen.
Total War: LOTR would be pretty neat
Retro/Grade is a rhythm/shooter mashup where you travel backwards through time and un-fire a bunch of lasers to un-kill a bunch of ships. It was designed for a guitar hero controller if I recall? I found the visuals nauseating and the music lackluster but that premise is gold and deserves another chance.
Also PLEASE play the music backwards??? It’s a game about going back in time, c’monnnnn.
It was one of the first PC games I played as a kid. Incredibly simple mechanics: you are a marble and you roll and try to reach the finish line (sometimes you need collectibles first). But the level design was top notch. Perfect blend of challenging and rewarding.
Alley Cat for sure
Alley Cat actually got a second chance! Look up “Alley Cat: ReMeow”
Happy to see some fellow Alley Cat fans around!
Cue the tune in my head. Thank you, it’s so lovely. 😍
Would love a reboot of this game
i love destroying city :)
pure wonderful button-mashy fun with just a hint of strategy. I always look for it when I visit retro arcades
also Dr. Veronica is my waifu
aaah i see, good choice tho lol
Darkstar One. And it is just now getting rereleased, so it doesn’t count.
So instead, I’ll pick The Legend of Dragoon on PSX. Such a fun RPG that really needs revisited.
Desert Strike was so cool.
F-ZERO. Truly a devastating loss. 99 is cool, but there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see a completely new title ever again. There was no other series with the same level of snappy controls, character design, music and challenge. It really is in a league of its own.
The original Unreal. For me it was a perfect combination of beautiful graphics (back in the days of course) and a soundtrack which complemented and elevated the atmosphere of that game. And the gunplay was nice, with a collection of somewhat unconventional weapons. A relic from a time where developers were not afraid to experiment a bit.
The crazy variety of weapons and their interactions was great. Almost everything was dangerous in the right situation.
Blob gun? Charge it up! Blue laser thing? Shoot the ball form and shoot that for a huge boom! Double pistols? Max DPS in the game with no bullet curve!
The best maps too for CTF. Yeah, I loved that game, especially for in person LAN parties.
Unreal only had a single Automag though, so either you are thinking of Unreal Tournament or you played on a modded server. Some servers did have dual automags (I’ve still got a mod and mutator lying around to get them in single player as well) and dual Automags (Enforcer in Unreal Tournament) did indeed dish out major punishment.
@Aganim The original Deus Ex also. Its story was brilliant and prophetic in a lot of ways.
As an example of a game, that actually got its second chance: the original Half-Life. Black Mesa is brilliant. I wish, other old games like Unreal and Deus Ex would have got a remake like that.
Yes, how could I forget Deus Ex. Incredible story and again such a wonderful soundtrack, not surprising as it was also composed Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos, and Dan Gardopee.
As for Half-Life, that game was also something else. But part of me resents that game a bit because it overshadowed Unreal. 😋
Mass Effect Andromeda, the middle of that game dragged, but the first third was pretty good and the last third was amazing, but most people didn’t stick through the boring middle to get there. I really wish it got dlc and sequels, I wanted to see where that story went.
Sexy Parodius is a bit sketchy, yes. But, it’s easily the most-fun shmup I’ve ever played. The music is fantastic, too. I’ve managed to 1cc the game, but I’ve never beaten the bonus stage which is just so ridiculously difficult, I question whether it’s even possible without a very specific strategy or something.
Unfortunately, the best version is the arcade one, and MAME doesn’t do the best job with it. Still playable, though.
MechCommander 1 and 2
