Obscure Console Games

[EVILNess]

So I was going through my game collection looking for something a little more obscure to play and it got me to thinking what the most obscure games I've ever owned were. Now I'm limiting it to console games because there are far too many games for the PC with a great portion of them being obscure.

Traditional RPG wise it would probably be 7th Saga, one of the most difficult traditional RPGs I've ever played.

Platformer would probably go to Tomba!, a neat little gem with a 2d open world with so many objectives...

Action RPG would go The Magic of Scheherazade an odd hybrid game on the NES.

FPS would go to No One Lives Forever on the PS2. You look like a man who could use a nice goat.

I don't play racing or sports games, so I don't have entries for those, and I can't really think of any other ones for some of the other genres. Any others you wanna add?

[Seil]

At first I thought Quest For Glory V, but then I thought "Everyone's tried that game, at least. Same with the Leisure Suit Larry collection. I think for the PC, I'd go with Return to Zork. That was pretty rad.

For PS2, I'd go with... XIII - Killer7 a close second.

[Jagos]

I don't think anyone's played Clock Tower.

If you liked Silent Hill, Clock Tower is a predecessor in more ways than one. NO weapons, puzzles, and a scared little girl that only has a dog to protect her.

I won't play this game nor Silent Hill. :(

[Seil]

I'm interested in Clock Tower, Rule Of Rose (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te_No0dapPY) and Siren Blood Curse. I'm staying away from Condemned because I played the demo and hated it, though.

[Nikose Tyris]

Rule of Rose was an obscure game I hunted down for a friend of mine- she then sent me after Hauntings Ground. Take a look for that title too, Seil!

[Jagos]

...

Dammit, this has turned into a horror game thread...

*gets skin ripped off from behind*

[Bells]

I honestly think i can beat you all in this thread ....

Any of you ever heard of Soukaigi for the PSX?

http://jarel76.free.fr/Mu%20Sik/Blog%20GK/soukaigi.jpg

Sure, the game it self looked like Shit.... but it was one of my bastion games on my PSX, i would rent it every so often and play those 3 disks like there was no tomorrow...

Also... Awesome Intro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aklrBkUHZOY)

[Loyal]

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Falsebound Kingdom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu-Gi-Oh!_The_Falsebound_Kingdom) for the Gamecube. Notable in that I'd like to believe it was to YGO what Starfox Adventures was to Starfox; an attempt at making a different game altogether (let's call it "Kingdom," after the game-within-a-game here), with the more popular franchise label tacked on for sales purposes.

To summarize, Kingdom is a RTS/RPG game, where field movement between bases and objectives is in realtime, but battles are turn based. You command several generals (YGO characters), who themselves control three monsters in battle, to capture objectives from enemy generals. And instead of battles being 'to the death' as it were, each monster under your command had a specific number of turns it could take per engagement. Should the battle end without one side being wiped out (which was frequent... at least early-game), the winner would be decided by points, and the forces would separate, making the idea of a fighting retreat actually possible.

It was a pretty interesting game, if massively unbalanced and in need of some serious polish. And it had this kickass theme. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U29_Dq5HyKI) I'd like to see what'd happen if the developers got more funding, time, and experience and remade Kingdom anew... without the Yu-gi-oh characters and monsters tacked on.

[Niveras]

The mechanics of Falsebound Kingdom sound a lot like how Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen worked (armies moving in real time, combat being turn-based and only last a few rounds). The difference there is you form squads out of a multitude of available classes/monsters, rather than being limited by leading characters. Also, combat was immensely hands-off in Ogre Battle. I imagine that since Ogre Battle's pretty well known around here, there might be more differences if you did not draw that parallel yourself.

[bluestarultor]

The was a movie tie-in for The Fifth Element on the PS1, and it was surprisingly good. Normally, I suck at shooters, but it was largely accessible without being patronizing. The only reason I stopped is there's a Satanic timed portion once you get control of Leeloo with respawning enemies and only enough invincibility shield time to get you to where you need to go if you get it on the first try. Basically, I always came up two seconds short and eventually just gave up. Had I gotten past it, I probably would have finished the game.

[EVILNess]

Anyone remember that one game where it was Bruce Willis versus the 4 Horsemen on the PS1?

Good times.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Anyone remember that one game where it was Bruce Willis versus the 4 Horsemen on the PS1?

Good times.

Apocalypse, yeah it was pretty good. Don't think I ever actually finished it though.

As for other obscure console games, well anything can become obscure if you go back far enough. Flashback, for instance, was a really cool unknown game from the SNES (NES?) days and earlier.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Wasn't that on the Amiga? Pretty sure I played that on the computator.

[Whomper]

It wasn't too obscure, but I haven't heard too many people talk about U.N. Squadron (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPuFec02uNQ), a game that established my love for dogfighting-style games.

[Loyal]

The mechanics of Falsebound Kingdom sound a lot like how Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen worked (armies moving in real time, combat being turn-based and only last a few rounds). The difference there is you form squads out of a multitude of available classes/monsters, rather than being limited by leading characters. Also, combat was immensely hands-off in Ogre Battle. I imagine that since Ogre Battle's pretty well known around here, there might be more differences if you did not draw that parallel yourself.

Oh reeeeeeeeally? I'll have to check that out.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

You should. It is the greatest game of all time.

[Magus]

Yeah, it's not obscure in the sense that people don't know about it, but not enough people have played OB or OB 64, or those Tactics Ogre games, either.

I think I've mentioned Gemfire in an older obscure gaming thread, so I'll talk about Pool of Radiance instead. Pool of Radiance was an NES game I played for hours as a kid. Unlike every other Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game up until some of the newer ones like Baldur's Gate and so forth, it was actually an RPG game. It seemed like everything else was either a bad action game (Heroes of the Lance) or a weird mish-mash amalgamation that was so random and expansive it was nigh unplayable (Hillsfar). Pool of Radiance was turn based battles and you moved your guys around on a grid. It was pretty great fun. There was an entire trilogy on the PC but the first one was the only one that went to console, I believe.

Another game I played all the time was Journey to Silius, a good action game that no one has played, apparently.

[TARDIS]

Apocalypse, yeah it was pretty good. Don't think I ever actually finished it though.

As for other obscure console games, well anything can become obscure if you go back far enough. Flashback, for instance, was a really cool unknown game from the SNES (NES?) days and earlier.


was on the megadrive, too.
I sucked at it completely. gimme Sonic over it anyday.

[DarkDrgon]

ive never met anyone else that has heard of Unholy Wars, a combo TBS/Custom Robo arena type game. It had a Magic Vs. Tech thing going on that I loved, even if the magic side would always win

[Jagos]

Another game I played all the time was Journey to Silius, a good action game that no one has played, apparently

(*%(*% The first stage music was so friggin addicting that it's now stuck in my head! Curse you for reactivating my retroactive memory! >_<

No seriously, that was a good game.

Wasn't that on the Amiga? Pretty sure I played that on the computator.

It was. Just no one played this one nor Out of This World unless they were rich since it used the expensive 3D effects of the time.

[Red Fighter 1073]

Hell Night (also known as Dark Messiah) was a very kickass PSX survival horror game that I feel like no one's heard of even though it's an amazing game. The concept is very much like Clock Tower except that you cannot fight back against the Monster at all (who kills you in 1-2 hits) and you basically have to go from area to area solving puzzles and shit. All the while, the Monster progressively becomes faster The graphics are decent, but the gameplay is so good that I can't believe more people haven't played it, even in Japan. It seems frustrating from my summary and it kinda is, but that's in the Clocktower sense in that you're always nervous out of your fucking mind.

MikeNnemonic (http://www.youtube.com/user/MikeNnemonic#p/u/47/31SJg7Q1rUA) made a really good video Let's Play of it (and actually beat it!) in case any of you want see the Clocktower-esque game. I can't stress how underrated this game is.

[McTahr]

ive never met anyone else that has heard of Unholy Wars, a combo TBS/Custom Robo arena type game. It had a Magic Vs. Tech thing going on that I loved, even if the magic side would always win

Fucking loved that game. It was one of the very first things we had waaaay back when I was a wee one and we picked up a PSX.

[akaSM]

I've played that Yu-Gi-Oh GCN game too, maybe Inuyasha secret of the divine jewel counts as obscure, and sucky :gonk:. Also, a game called Orb 3D in the NES, it was a weird combination between a single player pong with 2 paddles and a puzzle.

[Doc ock rokc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltmnDKuqom0
wild 9. the only way to describe this is schadenfreude to the max

[mauve]

Oni, for the PS2. It was a weird little action title made by Rockstar, starring a purple-haired anime-esque heroine named Konoko. It had some of the most involved controls I've ever seen in a game-- You used the shoulder buttons, arrow keys, and both analog sticks to move around and perform punching and kicking combos, and used the triangle and circle buttons to reload, use health kits, etc. It took some getting used to, but it was a pretty fun little game. Cutscene animation was pretty horrible, and the story fluctuated between interesting, predictable, and complete wtf at different parts of the game. But it was one of my first PS2 games, so it has a special place in my heart.


Drakan, the Ancients' Gate: Another PS2 gem. I loved it because it involved a kickass female character who beat up monsters and had a dragon she could ride around and use to beat up MORE monsters. The spellcasting and archery systems kinda sucked, loading times and savefile sizes were horrendous, and every single character mispronounced the word "golem," but I liked it. It had a woman who wore something other than a bikini as armor, and a pet dragon that talked and came when you called it. That was all 16-year-old Mauve wanted.

Plus the world was massive and had plenty of secret caves and non-plot-related fortresses to explore/raid when you got bored of following the story and wanted to just fly around on the dragon and farm for gold.