Mine has to be Dragon Quest: Rocket Slime, a DS spin off of the Dragon Quest series that sees you playing as a slime operating a tank and rescuing the people from your town. You run around the overworld, collecting items to use as ammunition and saving money to upgrade your tank. The art and music are just as great as you’d expect from the Dragon Quest series. It made fantastic use of the DS’s dual screens. It’s also written for a younger audience, so a lot of it is just really silly and fun! Try it out for sure, I’m so sad there’s no sequel :(
Black and White, it was a god simulator on PC in 2001. You interact with your villagers and the world as a floating hand, casting spells to raise faith in villages or throwing rocks to smite as necessary. You also got a giant pet that you could train to do your bidding.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_%26_White_(video_game)
I played the second one ages ago. Nothing more creepy than being a bit of a dick to you people and have a voice whisper your name late at night.
(For those who don’t know: the game would read your username and if it was in the database of soundfiles it would play that whisper at random, but long intervals.)
Noclip did a doc about it recently (https://youtu.be/GtNvEna6bxc). I remember seeing it for the first time at a buddies place growing up, but I didn’t have a strong enough computer to run it. I did though when black and white 2 came out and it was awesome! I feel the only thing comparable to it currently is the Anno series, no spells or anything but just city management and stuff.
Thanks for the link.
That was a fun game! Would love to see a remake of it.
All these years later it still haunts me…
I used to play the shit out of that game.
In certain circles it is well known, but Baba Is You is one of the most ingenious games for a long while and should be known even wider.
One of the only puzzle games that made me think I’m dumb and give up. It’s fantastic
Fantastic game. If anyone is interested, you can download the original concept version of the game that the dev made for a Game Jam. It kinda acts like a free 20 min demo for the full version. You can find the download link here.
Every time you solve a puzzle, you feel like you’re cheating and that can’t be the intended solution. It’s such a tough game
Truly a unique game. Super challenging for people who think they “know” puzzle games lol
Played it with some friends on a pass the controller night. Really fun and makes you think.
Initially looks just a simple twist on Sokoban, but the game mechanic just keeps going deeper and deeper and blowing your mind.
I could do that?
I COULD DO THAT?!
I really want to finish it but my brain can’t keep up and stops working after a while
I’m not a gamer but I do enjoy Real Civil Engineer’s youtube channel, he’s played Baba Is You a few times.
FTL: Faster Than Light, a pixel sci fi rouge like where you manage a ship and crew jumping point to point on a mission through space. I keep coming back to it and it’s always fun. There’s an amazing mod community that I’ll just starting to explore as well
I rarely hear people talk about it but whenever I do, it’s nothing but love.
I feel that when it first came out all my podcasts that I was listening to at the time were talking about it for at least 6 months. It really got its hooks into me and I also come back to it occasionally as well.
I still see tons of people talking about it lawl. That does not fit this question.
It’s so good. Into the Breach is also fantastic
I love Into the Breach as well, but it keeps kicking my ass XD
A really great game, good call.
MDK. Sure, it was arguably “popular” when it launched, but is largely forgotten in videogame lore. There’s not even talks of a remake.
There’s been multiple talks of remakes and two remasters of MDK2. They can’t remake 1 due to the rights being in dispute.
Among all the love Bioware gets for KotOR and Mass Effect I’m genuinely surprised more people aren’t talking about Jade Empire.
It’s a full fledged classic Bioware RPG set in an interesting world based on Chinese mythology, has some great characters and a fun (if simple) combat system. Voice acting is mostly good too, especially for a 2005 game and it even has John Cleese doing a part!
I loved it when it came out and am stumped as to why it never became a BioWare mainstay. Maybe releasing as an exclusive for the original Xbox just killed it, but if you enjoy this style of RPG I highly recommend checking it out!
Jade empire was legit. i’m really surprised that there haven’t been any other kung fu type rpgs since.
In parallel universe we would have had Jade Empire (series) written by Bioware at their peak with combat by Platinum games.
Or maybe some could make SF6 story mode X Jade Empire.
In parallel universe we would have had Jade Empire (series) written by Bioware at their peak with combat by Platinum games.
I hadn’t even thought about that but you’re right. What a wonderful thought.
It’s also kind of surprising no effort has been done to remaster Jade Empire since that is such a popular cash grab these days. But maybe the brand strength of the IP is just that low?
Return of the Obra Dinn is an amazing game that I wish I could play again for the first time. The art style is super unique and the attention to detail in every aspect of the game is incredible.
Highly recommend.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else talk about Rocket Slime. I’ve never even played any mainline Dragon Quest game, and Rocket Slime is absolutely one of my favorite DS games of all time. I love everything about that game, from the team building to the way you steal items and enemies on the carts, to the hilarious slimes you gotta save. And boy, fighting other people in your tank was so much fun, although the cannon play was always kinda lackluster. Still, having an NPC man the cannons while you hop in your (incredibly overpowered) golem suit and walk over to the enemy tank, break in, destroy everything. Your NPC is wailing away on the cannons while you’re distracting their gunmen, whittling away the tank’s health, only for you to break into the heart and smash it to pieces.
I could go on, what a s(ub)lime game. Thanks for uncovering an old memory I had long forgotten, OP.
Planetside 2 - someone else already mentioned it here, but it’s the only game in it’s genre and nothing else really comes close to what it offers (persistent 1v1v1 +300 player battles across infantry, land, air, and sea). It’s been kicking for over a decade now and I’m not sure what could replace it if or when it finally kicks it. It’s truly singular, and responsible for some of my fondest memories in gaming. It’s also free!
You should check out Foxhole. It’s a pretty similar type of game though not an fps. Is more of a top down shooter type thing
Is it still played?
Yeah! It’s a relatively small player base these days, but you can always find fights during the evenings.
relatively small player base these days, but you can always find fights during the evenings.
Sounds familiar, lol.
My Summer Car. It’s probably still #1 for play time on Steam for me. I bought a whole-ass racing wheel setup just for that game.
I used to watch a streamer play My Summer Car whenever I could. I love the games that are just their own thing.
Looks like Mon Bazou - though probably with less maple syrup power ups 😂 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1520370/Mon_Bazou/
I’ve been to Finland back in 2000s and must say that game is 100% realistic!
I concur, hell I am so tempted to buy a Datsun 100A irl just because of that game…
If I had a legitimate opportunity to buy one I would seriously consider it
Mine is definitely Freelancer. The game by Chris Roberts that actually got finished by firing him.
I love that game, the story is engaging and the characters are likeable.
I’m probably just seeing it with nostalgia but I like to play it until this day. I installed it on my Steam Deck and gave it a go. It was awesome.
Wait, did they fire Chris Roberts before finishing Freelancer? I never knew.
Freelancer was the first game I clocked over 500 hours on in online play. So many fond memories.
Edit: OK, read up on it. They absolutely did. I never new Chris Roberts was such a Chris Roberts all the way back in 1999.
Yes Roberts has brilliant ideas, but terrible sense of scope.
In my honest opinion Star Citizen will never be done, and will eventually run out of money, not soon, but eventually.
I never new Chris Roberts was such a Chris Roberts all the way back in 1999.
Damn, me neither. Got a nice link for that read?
I wonder if the Discovery mod/community is still going. It was an rp focussed mod, but added a ton of shit to the game, including piloting bigger ships.
Really fun game, hasn’t quite been another game that scratches the same itch as freelancer.
You might want to look at this.
Freelancer multiplayer is still alive and kicking.
Holy shit, blast from the past. Haven’t thought about that game for ages. Where did you find it?
To be fair, I have an installation disk and just copied the installed files and some patches to the deck. You need some special fonts I think. Other than that, it has no copy protection so it runs fine without a disk.
Thanks for the info! Now where did I leave that disk…
Beetle Adventure Racing for the n64.
Specifically the battle modes. The chaos of a bunch of Volkswagen beetles launching rockets at each other is a core memory for sure.
God this game was so much fun, used to play bomb tag with my little brother for hours!
I’ve been emulating this lately as I remember renting it a lot as a kid. For as bad as it could have been, it’s actually like, decent as a game. Wild lol.
Crimson Skies for OG Xbox. It’s pirates in planes dogfighting, we need a remake badly.
The prequel that only came out on PC was really good, too. But the Xbox version was better for sure.
American McGee’s Alice and the much later sequel which is my favourite game of all time - Alice: Madness Returns.
The aesthetic, the puzzles, the sound design, the voice acting, the political statements underlying the narrative, Alice’s outfits, the collectibles hidden in obscure places, the different art styles for each world level. I just love it! I mean sure, the combat mechanics are not as complex as some games but they fit nicely into Alice in Wonderland lore and if you up the difficulty settings it can be more challenging.
I’m also really enjoying Inscryption at the moment. A puzzle/card game interweaved with an escape the room horror story.
Both are great games! Inscryption was the only game I’ve ever bought on launch after seeing gameplay videos and I had no regrets. Hope you enjoy it too!
Deeper cut—the same dev has a game called a the Hex and I can never get anyone to play it, but it’s fucking brilliant. I rate it higher than Inscryption. People see preview and nope out because of the graphics. I went in blind and the graphics are explained after like 30 minutes. It’s genius and amazing and the least appreciated game I’ve rated higher than an 8/10.
I was definitely a bit put off by the graphics from the Hex, and didn’t really get the references to it in Inscryption. I might give it a try since you’re recommending it.
Pony Island was a hell of a game, though. I remember watching the gameplay videos and being impressed at how innovative Daniel Mullins games were.
Pleeeeeeease try the hex, and go in blind. I ended up liking it MORE than Inscryption, and I LOVE Inscryption. The Hex is a fucking masterpiece and I think the “graphics” you see in previews really held back lots of people (including me) from playing it.
But Yahtzee mentioned it as one of the best games he’s played in a review and refused to elaborate, and usually when he does that it means I should just pick it up and go in blind (see: The forgotten city)
Incredible experience, if you even kinda enjoyed Pony Island… oh man, PLEASE get The Hex and if you do, please come back here and let me know how you felt at certain points. It would make me so happy, it’s soooo difficult to get anyone to experience that amazing game. And it’s like NO MONEY hahaha
I cannot believe these games aren’t talked about, madness returns was so dark and good. Loved both these games.
One Must Fall 2097, an awesome robot fighting game for DOS, which is quite different from every other fighting game, because in this one you have to select both pilots and the robots, and each pilot and robot have their own specialities and back stories, so it makes for a lot more interesting gameplay compared to other games in this genre.
Whoooooooa, now you’re really taking me back. I only had the Shareware version, so the full version with all the fighters was something I lusted after for ages, but never actually got. Megarace is another one from this era that stands out, though I don’t think it was a particularly great game.
You know that killer soundtrack right?
One day Kenny Chou was browsing the internet and randomly thought “I wonder if anyone remembers that game I did the music for?” and was surprised to find his OMF2097 music has a huge following.
To celebrate he re-constructed the main theme in modern tools here: https://youtu.be/UvlVaQl7kEk
That’s awesome! Cheers for the link! I loved the theme song so much that I made up random lyrics for it as a kid and used to sing it all the time. People used to ask me what was that song that I was singing and I’d tell them all about the game and rope them into it lol.
Terranigma - Came out at the end of the SNES era, and was never released in the US. Gameplay wise it’s kind of similar to 2D Zelda but with RPG level mechanics, spells, and jump/attacks. Where it really shines is the story though. In that area I think it holds its own against the giants of JRPGs from that era like FFVI and Chrono Trigger.
