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[Ferrio]

So the recent release and overwhelming success of Rocket League compared to it's predecessor Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars got me thinking about this topic. Both games are nearly identical in terms of game play but the original barely made a blip on the gaming scene.

In the Rocket League thread, TimeEffect asked Psyonix why the original didn't take off and this was their response:

I asked Psyonix about this in an interview, here is what they said:

"Me:
It's surprising how much bigger Rocket League has become, despite having identical gameplay to Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. Why do you think Battle-Cars didn't take off as well, and what do you think has made Rocket League so beloved by so many players?"


Jeremy:
Timing is important in just about everything in life, and the timing for the original Battle-Cars wasn't as favorable to the style of game that it was in 2008. Back then, eSports wasn't really a thing, widespread competitive multiplayer was still only limited to shooters or RTS games at that point, streamers were non-existent and YouTube was still finding its footing. PSN was still fairly early as well and the original games on the platform were often not given the sort of attention by the media that are now. Those are all important factors.

But, it should also be noted that we think Rocket League is a better game than Battle-Cars was. We have tried to improve every aspect of the game that we could -- visually, the physics, the customization, the AI, the season mode, dedicated servers, you name it."

Which pretty much boils down to that the original was before it's time, and needed the gaming community mature a bit in certain aspects before it was welcomed with open arms.

So what other games came out that were perfectly fine, but didn't take off because there was no audience?

 

[Platy]

*obrigatory Jurassic Park Tresspasser mention*

Body Harvest for the n64 was GTA3 before a console could do GTA3

Also, for consoles, I would like to mention the Ngage and the Virtual Boy, granfathers of mobile gaming, 3d gaming and VR

 

[Ferrio]

Virtual Boy wasn't VR, it's more of like a predecessor to the 3DS.

 

[SoldierIce64]

I played Outcast for the first time recently, it's really impressive for a game that came out in the late 90's.

 

[MultiJhonny]

I played Outcast for the first time recently, it's really impressive for a game that came out in the late 90's.

Same. It's incredible.

On gog for anyone wondering

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. It's a hardcore story-based RPG set in a post-apocalyptic underground world with strategic grid-based combat & a lot of roguelike elements. Came out over 10 ago and nobody knew what to think of it (especially since the first 4 Breath of Fire games are pretty traditional JRPGs). If it came out now that roguelikes are all the rage, I think it would have been a huge hit.

 

[Piston Hyundai]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CsxiqKPBVA

Look at it. Just look at it. Imagine something like that done today.

 

[TheSpoiler]

Dragon's Dogma was just a generation too early.

Edit: To better explain, the game suffered from various hardware limitations but still has, to this date, one of the most well designed gameplay attributes throughout the experience.

 

[BadWolf]

Dragon's Dogma was just a generation too early.

This.

 

[Garlador]

*obrigatory Jurassic Park Tresspasser mention*

Body Harvest for the n64 was GTA3 before a console could do GTA3

Also, for consoles, I would like to mention the Ngage and the Virtual Boy, granfathers of mobile gaming, 3d gaming and VR

I thought I was going to be really clever and mention Body Harvest.

... Should have known someone else was going to mention it.

Yeah, Body Harvest really paved the way for so much of GTA, it's ridiculous.

 

[Sakujou]

One answer:
Metal gear solid 2

 

[Otakumegane]

Megaman Battle Network Series.

Done in a world where are devices are able to connect to the internet at any given time would make so much more sense than on the GBA.

Imagine the online sharing possibilities.

 

[Nosgotham]

i will also say body harvest. also chromehounds.

 

[GrayFoxBH]

Psi-Ops. Amazing physics and gameplay. Received some great reviews, but sold poorly.

 

[Skelter]

Dragon's Dogma was just a generation too early.

Edit: To better explain, the game suffered from various hardware limitations but still has, to this date, one of the most well designed gameplay attributes throughout the experience.

I'll never understand the decision to not bring that game to PC.

 

[toythatkills]

In the Rocket League thread, TimeEffect asked Psyonix why the original didn't take off and this was their response:

Which pretty much boils down to that the original was before it's time, and needed the gaming community mature a bit in certain aspects before it was welcomed with open arms.

It could also be that Rocket League isn't a phenomenally shit name for a game, and they're giving it away for free. I doubt it's anything to do with it being "before its time" at all.

 

[Fury451]

*obrigatory Jurassic Park Tresspasser mention*

Body Harvest for the n64 was GTA3 before a console could do GTA3

I love Body Harvest. Great answer- my mind was blown at the scale of it back when I first played it- I sill enjoy it today. It really is a precursors to the 3rd person sandbox game.

I'd say Perfect Dark was, and still is. The campaign scaling objectives based on difficulty, co-op, counter op, guns with alternate fire and animated reloads, all the multiplayer modes and choices....it was a technical strain at release, but the amount of content rivals games today.

And yeah, Trespasser, but I'm not sure I would count that as "released" considering the state it was in, but that game was ambitious and a marvel in concept. Too ambitious as we would come to see of course.

 

[MultiJhonny]

Dragon's Dogma was just a generation too early.

Edit: To better explain, the game suffered from various hardware limitations but still has, to this date, one of the most well designed gameplay attributes throughout the experience.

If that gameplay was in TW3 then good god.

My only beef with DD was the lack of story and all the environments felt the same. But awesome game, get what you are saying as well

 

[Auctopus]

Rocket League is a better name and a better game. The previous games name was ridiculous and the title wasn't ahead of its time.

The game Road Trip Adventure had a car soccer minigame.

 

[Vandole]

Mother/Earthbound Beginnings. there are a lot of really amazing ideas in this game and themes in the story telling that we're never really seen on an 8 bit system before. contemporary settings and characters, a continuous overworld, virtually no boss battles and the one that they have are more focused on advancing the story than anything else. But there is no denying that the game itself really isn't that much fun, and the story barely makes sense for most of the game and needed to be much more fleshed out. Earthbound fixed a lot of that and showed how much better the ideas of the original could be with a stronger system.

 

[Three]

Rocket League is a better name and a better game. The previous games name was ridiculous and the title wasn't ahead of its time.

The game Road Trip Adventure had a car soccer minigame.

So did Street Racer on the SNES.

 

[digitalrelic]

Open world. Day/night cycles. Tons of minigames like darts & arcade machines. Could enter a ton of buildings/ open all drawers & dressers in a house, etc..

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

*obrigatory Jurassic Park Tresspasser mention*

Truly, a victim of the hardware of the time and its own ambition.

So much potential wasted.

 

[Ganondorfo]

Vagrant Story was so ahead of its time with its presentation/musical score/ graphical artstyle.

 

[tintin1029]

Silent Hill 2

One of the earliest PS2 games, yet one of the best looking ones as well

 

[Fr0stbyte]

Open world. Day/night cycles. Tons of minigames like darts & arcade machines. Could enter a ton of buildings/ open all drawers & dressers in a house, etc..

You could justify the Dreamcast came out before its time. Still I agree with Shenmue.

 

[Cidd]

Every game that needs patching...

 

[SoulUnison]

The Megaman Battle Network series released entirely on the GBA, but with its multiplayer battles, trading capabilities, and in-story focus on networking and communication, it was basically spiritually intended for the 3DS.

It's a shame they objectively ended the series and that Star Force was such an extreme downgrade.

 

[Fantomas]

Open world. Day/night cycles. Tons of minigames like darts & arcade machines. Could enter a ton of buildings/ open all drawers & dressers in a house, etc..

This was what I was going to say. Shenmue was really advanced for it's time, it's still very impressive that they managed to pull it off in 1999.

 

[Megatron]

Phantasy star online. Come on Sega! Release a new one! We're ready now!

 

[Gradon]

Resident Evil Outbreak.
Was practically made for online play which wasn't heavily used on consoles until the next generation.

 

[N30RYU]

Omikron the Nomad Soul

 

[PooBone]

Silent Hill
Blade Runner
Halo 2

 

[Tawpgun]

Chromehounds Neroimus War Mode.

Still to date the most engaging online multiplayer structure I've ever played.


You made a squad, customized your mech, and then chose an allegience to one of 3 countries.

THen you entered neroimus war mode.

here you can see Sal Kar (the green flag nation) getting absolutley fucked from both sides. This was usually the case for Sal Kar (less territory, more advanced weapons/money) But when my squad pledged allegience to Sal Kar for a season to get their gear, we ended up winning the war one of the VERY few times Sal Kar has done so.

Shown was a map of the region in REAL TIME. So the goal is for YOUR country to take over the other 2 capital cities. That is one season. You pick a battlefield (flag on the map) and fight other humans (if they were there) or AI. You get more points for beating humans. If players from your country got enough wins/occupation points they would take over that area and move to fight an adjacent area.

So you could log on, see that your country is making moves in the North and go help out. Log out. Go to sleep. Log back in, and you see that an enemy country is starting to get close to your capital from the south. Do you keep attacking and keep your progress up north or go defend?

Meanwhile you could vote to elect leaders of countries, donate to countries (when you log on it would give you lists of players by gamertag that donated a substantial amount) each country had its own style and excluisve weapons.

At the end of every season the map resets and a new war starts.



It was so cool and I still haven't seen it copied anywhere.

 

[painey]

The world (and adventure gamers graphics cards) was not ready for a fully 3D adventure game in 1998

 

[Data West]

Tony Hawk 3 had online play before they even had the adapter. One of the first console games online experiences I can remember outside of the Dreamcast.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

Final Fantasy XII was a massive and open RPG, the likes of which we crave these days, that released in 2006 before everyone realized that was what they wanted. Years later after the disappointment of FFXIII and the massive success of open-world RPGs like Skyrim, Fallout 3, and The Witcher, we can look back and realize how ahead of the curve that game was (at least on consoles).

 

[blast processed]

*obrigatory Jurassic Park Tresspasser mention*

Glad this was the first post, Gaf did not disappoint.

Also, Black & White.

 

[BennyBlanco]

This would make a great iPad game with modern voice recognition and touch controls to tap the glass.

 

[Green Yoshi]

MDK by Shiny Entertainment

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

Open world. Day/night cycles. Tons of minigames like darts & arcade machines. Could enter a ton of buildings/ open all drawers & dressers in a house, etc..

Amazed this wasn't the first post.

Also, Jet Force Gemini. Game deserved better hardware. Game would have done way better during Gen 7.

 

[Swapzism]

Rocket League is a better name and a better game. The previous games name was ridiculous and the title wasn't ahead of its time.

The game Road Trip Adventure had a car soccer minigame.

Street Racer or bust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrAhtpKSZNM

 

[Bousf]

Given how many people bashed the game in 2006 and how many people is praying for an HD Remaster now, I'd say FFXII.

 

[Solobbos]

*obrigatory Jurassic Park Tresspasser mention*

This. Oh god, how great a present day Trespasser could be.

 

[JPeeples83]

Shenmue and Jet Set spring to mind immediately.

 

[ShinMaruku]

Bloodrayne. I think it would have been better recieved in this era where they is a weakness for titles like that and the tech they could leverage.

 

[ilium]

Final Fantasy XII was a massive and open RPG, the likes of which we crave these days, that released in 2006 before everyone realized that was what they wanted. Years later after the disappointment of FFXIII and the massive success of open-world RPGs like Skyrim, Fallout 3, and The Witcher, we can look back and realize how ahead of the curve that game was (at least on consoles).

As much as I love FFXII you forget Morrowind in 2002, which was not only very successful but also on consoles. (Only Xbox tho iirc)

Anyway, my pick would go to Phantasy Star Online. (With the most hype trailer ever to be conceived by a human being.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fXDbyttP-k

 

[daevv]

Beyond Good and Evil popped into my head when I read the thread title.

 

[djplaeskool]

Missed the No Audience part.

I think some of the Dreamcast online efforts were unbelievably ambitious.
While PSO found its groove, you were far harder pressed to find people on other pretty great online enabled games like Outrigger and Alien Front Online.

 

[DuffDry]

If FFIX was a PS2 game it'd be the best thing Square has ever done. One of the only things holding that game back was the tech.