Games that were so good they surprised you!

[riffraff]

Inspired by the Ever really really WANT to like a game, but can't? thread, I ask the question: What games that were so good they surprised you?

 

Super Mario Bros on the NES. I saw people dump quarters into the coin-op and I thought it was a crappy game. When I got a NES and played the port, I quickly found myself addicted to the game and became a Super Mario fan. The USA SMB2 I couldn't wait to get.. and ended up playing that quite a lot too. (still need to go play the real SMB2 to the end sometime) All the other sequals I enjoyed a lot too.

 

NES Kid Icarus: Not sure exactly why but I couldn't put this down (well I did but the password feature got me going again).

 

Genesis Target Earth: Dreamworks made this game and it is kind of obscure. Had to keep playing it. Fun stuff!

 

edit: some others...

 

Time Pilot (coin op, any port). Got addicting fast. Had a nice balance of difficulty. The game doesn't look like much but once you get into it, hard to put down.

 

Phantasy Star SMS: Ok I was psyched about this game to start with. I got stuck a couple times, and called in for hints, but for some reason Sega's support group didn't even have the game yet so they were no help. After I finished the game I videotaped the ending, wrote up a hint guide for it and mailed it to the person I had been talking to there so they could answer questions on the game if other ppl called in. In return she ended up sending me this giant list of cheats/codes for most of the SMS library. Anyways it's still a great game.

Edited April 7, 2007 by riffraff

[rjchamp3]

For it's time, Medievil, so advanced for it's time back in the 90's

[EricDeLee]

There are quite a few. Recently I finally got to play Devil's Crush on my TG-16. Great stuff.

 

For newer games, I'd say the GOW series. No other game has really made me WANT to finish the game recently. I've finished multiple games, but no game has made me want to do it all in a setting or two like GOWs Great stuff.

 

Okami is another great one. Yet... I still have not finished it.

 

I think beyond that: Metal Gear Solid for PS. I played it for the very first time on someone's modded playstation and it was in Japanese. I thought it was so cool, I had the guy mod my playstation and copy the game for me. I paid him $100 to do this. I got a few other games out of it (like 30 games)... but I played the Metal Gear game the most. I loved the story, the graphics... etc. I forgot abot the N64 at that point. Except for the Zelda games and 007.

[rjchamp3]

In fact it was the most advanced game for it's time.

 

It was in the world record books

[superjudge3]

Body Harvest: Nintendo 64

 

I bought this game in the bragain bin and thought I'd just have a little fun with it, but it ended up being my favorite N64 game of all time. The depth is absolutly amazing. So much to do, beautiful graphics, good story line and the gameplay is addictive. Over 100 drivable vehicles!

 

It was one of Rockstar's first games, their name was a little different back then however.

[Uzumaki]

Missle Defense 3D for SMS. At a glance you would think it was a disguised Duck Hunt or some other shooting game but when I tried the 3D glasses for the first time, I was blown away in virtual 3D environment.

 

Sadly I have to hang my light gun, those games don't work right with modern TV and the current NTSC CRT TV are going to be obsolete in a year.

[jboypacman]

Target Earth for the Sega Genesis was a pretty good game.Its part of the Battle Suit Linos(?) set of games from Japan.(SNES Cybernator was part of that set of games too if am right).

[Foxsolo2000]

Aracade wise it was Mr Do, Time Soldiers and Ikari Warriors with later editions being Time Crises series up to 3. Have yet to play 4 but am working on it. In the 2600 genre it was Hero and Adventure. On the PS2 Call of Duty 2

[JamesD]

The PC game 'Clive Barker's Undying'.

I paid $10 for it and 'American McGees Alice' at Walmart.

I expected both to be turkeys given the price and the fact I'd never heard of either one.

Both were good, especially Undying. Sadly it still has a couple bugs so if you ever play it, save your place regularly just to be safe.

[8th lutz]

There was a few that come to mind:

 

Pitfall 2600- I've played a lot 2600 games at the time I bought it, and it was had to believe that it was 2600 game in terms of the game for the sound and how deep the game was in gameplay.

 

Sonic for the sms. At the time, I owned a lot of sms games that were released in the states. I got sonic 1 at the Midwest gaming Classic in 2002. When I put it in my game system, the graphics were impressive for the sms. My brother had to check if I wasn't playing a genesis game, due to the graphics being so good.

 

Midnight mutants for the 7800- It was whole different type of animal for the 7800 in terms of gameplay and in graphics.

 

Shanghai for the sms. I never played Shanghai before, and I found it to be addicting.

[Trip_Cannon]

Have to go with Magic Carpet for the PC. It was so different than any other 3D game of its day. Wasn't expecting too much, but when I dropped the CD inside my pentium 60mhz, it blew me away.

[rxd]

Oddworld Strangers Wrath - I honestly don't know why this game doesn't get more love. One of the best games I've ever played IMO....

[Fighter17]

Ram It for the VCS.

 

Gun-Nac for the NES.

 

Rolling Thunder 2 for the Genesis.

 

Gundam Wing Endless Duel for the SNES.

[Student Driver]

Silent Bombers for the PS. One of those "hey, it's only a couple of bucks, so what if it sucks" games that ended up getting played a lot more than titles I paid full-price for.

 

World Court Tennis for the TG16. When Toys R Us was blowing out TG games for a few bucks a pop, I picked up a bunch of them, and had no plans to play the sports titles... but WCT was really fun, and the mini-RPG mode was a cute addition. I was addicted to this one for months. It reminded me of how much I'd loved RealSports Tennis on my Atari 8-bit (which itself was another surprise back in the day).

[riffraff]

Yeah that RPG mode in TG16 tennis is so cool! Very fun.. same thing with the racing game that they did with the same theme. I forgot about those. How bizzare you settle "encounters" by playing tennis.. lol

[liveinabin]

Pokemon Snap. Damn, that was fun.

[MetalSlime23]

Katamari Damacy...who would have thought THAT game would be fun. I remember seeing it at a friend's house and making fun of it, up until the point where he got mad and handed me the controller. Since then I decided it was a great game, especially for 20 bucks.

 

Another would be Dynasty Warriors 4. I had never played a Dynasty Warriors game before 4. I bought it for a friend's birthday, and we ended up playing it most of the night. The game sparked my long dead interest for history, and shortly after I ended up going out and buying Romance of the Three Kingdoms volumes 1 and 2. I love the books and know about all of the characters in the game. It wasn't until it reached "Greatest Hits" status that I thought about the game again and picked it up. It is still one of my favorite games.

 

For the classic world I would have to say I didn't expect Faxandu to be all that great. Back when I was a kid I could pick up loose Nintendo carts for 5 bucks each, never knowing just what I was going to get. I could list about twenty of these here, but Faxanadu sticks out in my mind. That game was amazing.

 

Oh! What about Animal Crossing? Come on.....I know you all have to admit to that one.

[super_dos_man]

gba- megaman battle network

nes- battletoads

genesis- golden axe

vcs- e.t.

ps2- kingdom hearts

ps1- final fantasy 8

gamecube- chibi robo

dreamcast- powerstone

n64- diddy kong racing

snes- contra 3: alien wars

sms- sonic the hedgehog

atari 5200- gremlins

atari 7800- ninja golf

nintendo ds- kirby squeak squad

[Kurt_Woloch]

There have been quite a few for me too, where by "surprised" I suppose it means I didn't expect the game to be that good...

 

TI-99: TI Invaders (where every other level reveals a new type of invaders, and you get one base repaired every 10000 points), Shamus (much better than the C-64 version which suffers from severe collision detection problems), Frogger (the smooth scrolling all over the screen is excellent given the TI's limitations), Popeye (having in part better background graphics than the arcade original)

Atari 2600: Sea Monster (cheapo game that plays like Astrosmash, but horizontal), Smurf: Rescue... (really good graphics on that one and even one more distinct screen than on the Colecovision), Zaxxon (not bad an effort of 3D view), Gyruss (didn't expect it to be able to be that good, even had to call a doctor because I got so excited about the music), Millipede (good conversion here, considering the 2600's limitations)

Philips G7000: Turtles (pretty good arcade conversion compared to all the other stuff Philips put out), K.C.Munchkin's Revenge

Arcade: Millipede (really pushing the fun to the next level)

C-64: Avenger (pretty dead-on conversion of Space Invaders), Q*bert (near arcade perfect aside from the animations), Rainbow Islands (pretty accurate conversion here), Street Surfer (which, although being a budget game, still has correctly looking and probably the fastest pseudo-3D graphics I've seen on the '64, and athmospheric music too), Kennedy Approach (the only game where the 64 is talking while the game goes on), Revs (which, some years before Out Run and Hard Drivin', already sported simple, but real 3D graphics, including small hills, with still a pretty good framerate for the 64), BurgerTime 1997 (finally a good conversion, although it's based on the Intellivision levels)

NES: Marble Madness (having correct physics and even smoother animation than the original)

Amstrad CPC: Commando (rather smooth animation considering the CPC's limits)

Colecovision: Matt Patrol (Prototype) (good scrolling!), Wild Western ("Prototype") (good flicker logic), Galaxian (prototype?) (good conversion)

Intellivision: Donkey Kong Jr. (good conversion in comparison to the versions Coleco usually put out)

PC: Arkanoid II (good VGA graphics and smooth animation), BurgerTime (smooth animation and even more levels than the original), Rampart (played that one until the end), Cosmic Do! (good adaptation of Cosmic Guerilla into the Mr. Do! universe), Dig Dug (very small and manages to run at the correct speed even on fast machines)

[riffraff]

PC:Burgertime. Yes, this may be the best version. Having more levels than the coin-op with smooth gameplay. Someone knew what they were doing!!

[liveinabin]

Oh! What about Animal Crossing? Come on.....I know you all have to admit to that one.

 

Oh yeah, I loved AC, but that's kinda my type of game anyway so I knew I was going to like it. Same goes for Katamari.

[Atariboy]

The Italian Job for the Playstation. I was shocked how good that game was and it ended up being my favorite game I played on that system.

[AtariJr]

Most of these games i only bought because they were dirt cheap or because people told me to buy them so many times, i just gave in even though i thought the concept would be horrid *pilotwings especially*

 

 

NES: Roadblasters (please go and buy this awesome game)

Snes: Pilotwings (i remember playing this till midnight all the time ... so addicting *and midnight was late in middle school, shut up* lol)

n64: Forsaken (really was shocked on this.. my friend told me to get it, got it new for like 12.99 at EB... really freakin fun)

Saturn: Nights (didnt think it was going to be any good... thought it was sega's sonic clone till i played it)

ps2: Ace Combat 4 (thought id play it for a couple weeks.. now its been 4 years i think)

dreamcast: Space Channel 5 (bought it only because it came with my system at gamestop... the game shocked me with how good it is, and its a shame i cant ever find a copy of the game without it causing weird graphic or sound problems... something about the games being stored in a warehouse made most copies trash.. ive gone through 6 copies trying to find a working one for all the levels)

32x: Shadow Squadron (only bought it cause it was a 32x game i didnt have yet.. didnt expect anything... wow, great game)

segacd: Soul Star (wonderful snes starfox rip off)

ps: moto racer (still remember being so addicted to the first one)

Genesis: Rocket Knight Adventure (store owner pestered me for not buying it because it was "a classic"... so i did, im glad too)

Edited April 9, 2007 by AtariJr

[kevincal]

Wave Race 64...I bought this game expecting it to be a decent racer...but boy was it awesome! The game really blew me away at the time. And it's still really good today.

[8bitgamer]

Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle and Cabbage Patch Kids Adventures in the Park for the ColecoVision are both surprisingly fun, surprisingly challenging games. Pitfall! fans can totally get into both games.

 

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