Obscure Games

[SilkSkull]

What are some of your favorite (or least favorite) obscure games? Any games you can bet nobody here knows? any games you want to be revived/noticed? Discuss here!

Personally I would love to see Gunz: The Duel or Lethal League to be noticed more!

[Memory]

I'm not sure how obscure either of these really are, but I definitely don't see anyone else talking about them. Luckily they're both on GOG, so others can try them out if they want

I Am Not a Monster - It's a turn-based tactics game a bit similar to XCOM, styled like a 1950s sci-fi movie. You play as people aboard a space station during an invasion by shape-shifting lizard monsters who look similar to the Gorn from Star Trek. I think it's really cool, and love the ray-punk aesthetic.

There's also an online mode where some people are humans and others are aliens in disguise, each with their own objectives. But even though it came out in 2018, there aren't many people who still play it so you'll need to get a group of friends together if you want to experience the multiplayer.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto - This is an older Interplay game that came out near the end of Interplay's glory days. The graphics were absolutely gorgeous at the time, and I think they still hold up today.

You play as three different races, each with their own play styles. It's mostly a third-person shooter, but with a little bit of real-time strategy as well.

[SilkSkull]

I'm not sure how obscure either of these really are, but I definitely don't see anyone else talking about them. Luckily they're both on GOG, so others can try them out if they want

I Am Not a Monster - It's a turn-based tactics game a bit similar to XCOM, styled like a 1950s sci-fi movie. You play as people aboard a space station during an invasion by shape-shifting lizard monsters who look similar to the Gorn from Star Trek. I think it's really cool, and love the ray-punk aesthetic.

There's also an online mode where some people are humans and others are aliens in disguise, each with their own objectives. But even though it came out in 2018, there aren't many people who still play it so you'll need to get a group of friends together if you want to experience the multiplayer.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto - This is an older Interplay game that came out near the end of Interplay's glory days. The graphics were absolutely gorgeous at the time, and I think they still hold up today.

You play as three different races, each with their own play styles. It's mostly a third-person shooter, but with a little bit of real-time strategy as well.

Great now I'm gonna get back in to my RTS obsession lol, I wanna try both because they look right down my alley. Maybe even assemble a group and play some multiplayer

[Ripupz]

YOU should try Hylics it's a really weird and obsure hell of a game
everything about it like the design,music,character,dialogue, and story is just really full of WTF stuff and WTF moment. I don't think you can play the game and understand anything in it truly obscure...

[debleb]

Rex: Another Island. It's this little open-world platformer I found on itch.io once and I really liked it. The platforming was fun, the soundtrack is great, and I love the graphics. I'd reccomend it a lot if you like platformers.

[worldwidewar]

There's an Atari ST game called Captain Blood, where your objective is to fly around space and hunt down alien clones of yourself. In order to gain information on where your clones are, you have to communicate with aliens you meet on different planets by using a hieroglyph system that has 120 symbols in it, and each alien species has their own language / dialect. It's not too crazy in terms of gameplay, but the whole concept of it is absolutely nuts. There's a sequel on Windows 9X called Commander Blood, but I haven't played it yet.

[Memory]

Personally I would love to see Gunz: The Duel or Lethal League to be noticed more!

I love Lethal League (or Lethal League Blaze more specifically)! My favorite characters to play are Latch and Dust & Ashes. :omg:k:

[Nines]

the desolate hope

[arsenicteddy]

Unsure how obscure it is but I loved love playing Stranger's Wrath as a kid! I know Abe's Odessy was mildly popular but I've never played it; only Strangers Wrath. Never finished it when I was a kid, but like, 15 years later I finally managed to last year!

[Memory]

Unsure how obscure it is but I loved love playing Stranger's Wrath as a kid! I know Abe's Odessy was mildly popular but I've never played it; only Strangers Wrath. Never finished it when I was a kid, but like, 15 years later I finally managed to last year!

Stranger's Wrath is my favourite Oddworld game. I've played them all, but it's the only one I managed to finish. The classic games are a bit too difficult for me.

I love the Oddworld art style. I wish they would finally make a movie.

[Memory]

Some of the games I used to play on GameBoy Advance and DS are super obscure simply because everyone kind of made games for these consoles, including regional and indie studios, those developing license works without a lot of advertisement or exposure, and ordinary games that simply did not sell at all for this or that reason. I am talking "you are lucky if a trailer exists and is online" level of obscure.

Gems from my childhood in this category include:

Mister Slime/Mr. Slime Jr. (NDS)

Let us start off with a game that really barely anyone ever has heard of. Mister Slime, or Mr. Slime Jr as it was known as in Europe, is a weird puzzle action-adventure where you play as Slimy, some kind of blob with four extendable, flexible arms. You can use these arms to grab on "anchors" in the world to move in this level-based side-scroller, fling yourself places, fight enemies with either your arms or your body, and solve the conflict between your nation (the Slimes) and the "enemy" (the Axons). It has varied environments, fun characters, decent puzzles and is of a respectable length. It's not a masterpiece by any stretch but it is a really underappreciated, extremely cool game with a lot of charm. The official US trailer for the game even features what looks like the developer or their friend sitting in their living room playing the game, unedited, shot on a really cheap camera! It's so bizarre. The soundtrack is also particularly charming because it apparently consists of the developer sampling his own beat boxing. Must play.

Further reading: https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/07/10/mister-slimes-ds-daddy

Barnyard (GBA)

The second game I'd like to show you is the tie-in game for the 2006 animated movie Barnyard (you know, the one with the unintentionally transmasc main character?).
It's definitely not a masterpiece either, but as a kid, this was a game I spent probably dozens to hundreds of hours in. GameSpot in the meantime names its length to beat as about three hours... oops. The game is basically an adventure where you can choose whether to progress the story/do missions, compete for the highest score in (actually really fun) mini games including minigolf, car racing, fly-through-the-rings, fence fixing, veggie harvesting, billards/pool and many many more, and customize the barn, which is the party area at night where you can socialize and vibe to the cool music. It has a time-of-day system like Stardew Valley, too. Over time, you unlock more and more areas with really cool vibes, including a black market run by a few raccoons, dangerous areas full of enemies, suburbs and so on.
As a kid, some of the areas were really spooky to me! The by far most interesting fact about this game though is that it has a genuinely very emotional story including a major character death (no spoilers!), with the entire game going black and white for a while and not a single joke being played on it. It really, really got me as a kid.

Need For Speed: Underground 2 (GBA)

'Aha!' you will say, 'but Need For Speed is anything but obscure!' And you would be right, especially about Underground 2, which is generally even considered the best in the series. But that is only true for the wildly successful PS2 version! The GameBoy Advance version is pretty obscure compared to the overwhelming success of the PS2 and XBox versions; mostly also because of the obvious difference in graphics quality, gameplay features, the lack of a multiplayer and much, much more. It is a typical example of "video game ports that really should have a different title because they are so different"; with the king of the category being the Sims console games which have almost nothing to do with the identically titled PC flagship titles.

[SilkSkull]

Need For Speed: Underground 2 (GBA)
'Aha!' you will say, 'but Need For Speed is anything but obscure!' And you would be right, especially about Underground 2, which is generally even considered the best in the series. But that is only true for the wildly successful PS2 version! The GameBoy Advance version is pretty obscure compared to the overwhelming success of the PS2 and XBox versions; mostly also because of the obvious difference in graphics quality, gameplay features, the lack of a multiplayer and much, much more. It is a typical example of "video game ports that really should have a different title because they are so different"; with the king of the category being the Sims console games which have almost nothing to do with the identically titled PC flagship titles.

I completely forgot about the weird GBA ports of popular games (The Tony Hawk ones were awesome). I'm so gonna pull up an emulator after and try this out! I love the weird trend in early 2000's games of making ports that were essentially different games.

[Memory]

I love the weird trend in early 2000's games of making ports that were essentially different games.

I just wish they'd differentiate them more. I am sure people bought Sims 2 on DS expecting the full game and got a weird RPG adventure instead.

[Inkerlink]

I'm not sure how obscure it is, but I found a neat game for PS1 called "Board Game Top Shop" that I quite enjoyed.
It's a pretty simple and somewhat shallow game, but I love the graphics and music in it. And it's fun to play with friends especially.

I just wish they'd differentiate them more. I am sure people bought Sims 2 on DS expecting the full game and got a weird RPG adventure instead.

I loved the handheld Sims titles, they we're very satisfying to play and I think a great spin on the Sims formula. You're completely correct in that I didn't expect it to be an RPG adventure game, although I'm mostly referring to the GBA ones Buston' Out and Urbz.
I love finding an amazing game completely by accident! It's like uncovering a lost treasure.

[ThySonnet190]

I guess it isn't SUPER obscure, but I can't help but mention Phoenotopia: Awakening! It was originally a flash game but was made into this current version. It is a super fun metroidvania with a cute storyline and some really good music, graphics, and overall amazing level design. I cannot shill it enough because I love it so much!