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Your hidden gems of the generation

I'll go with,
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and

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Yup, still consider Burnout Paradise to be one of the best games i've played in years.
While a gem, it is far from hidden.
 
Yes! I can't claim much experience in the tower defense genre, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the best ever.
Definitely a solid TD game but I think 'best' is a personal term within the genre. There are so many different and successful takes on the tower defense genre that I doubt we could crown one king. My favorite from this generation would be Pixeljunk Monsters. Not sure if it's related to the OP (hidden?).
 
This. But why? A franchise that had lost its way, perhaps? Difficult to convince people it is back on track.

The premise also seemed bat-shit insane to a lot of people. I love it, though.

Maybe they should have targeted the Burnout Paradise crowd with their marketing. I bet it turned a profit, at least.
 
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Best one in the series imo. Loved adventuring on the sea. Still playing EO 4 right now but still really enjoyed 3 a bit more.
I'm actually playing and enjoying this right now, fun game. :)
And here's a picturelist, i'm sure I forgot a lot of titles.
I'm not sure Valkyria Chronicles and Eternal Sonata are really hidden though.
I hope not.

And last but not least:
Really lived up to it's name, in every single way.

Also:
Finding a copy of this game was a pain here in The Netherlands. Worth it though.

Great scott, this list is huge.
Apparently, I really like videogames.
 
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The game is simply a delight to play.

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What am I playing lol!? OMG I just ate this dude and this tree and shat out a tree-man. Wooooooooaaahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
This game is just fun as hell, and absolutely no one played it. :(

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It's not really a hidden gem. Just a game that didn't get enough love from its publisher.

To be fair, it would be one heck of a job to localise Reginleiv.
The text wouldn't be much of a problem but there's so much dialogue throughout every mission. They just won't shut up. ;)
So even more-so than the game having a CERO D rating, I think that's what held the game back from getting a western release.

Such a damn shame though. Only found out about it a couple of weeks ago and it finally arrived just in time for the weekend. So much fun...
 
To be fair, it would be one heck of a job to localise Reginleiv.
The text wouldn't be much of a problem but there's so much dialogue throughout every mission. They just won't shut up. ;)
So even more-so than the game having a CERO D rating, I think that's what held the game back from getting a western release.

Such a damn shame though. Only found out about it a couple of weeks ago and it finally arrived just in time for the weekend. So much fun...

So did you get a Japanese Wii to play it, and where did you get the game from? It seems to be really expensive everywhere.
 
So did you get a Japanese Wii to play it, and where did you get the game from? It seems to be really expensive everywhere.

No, I modded my Pal one. Actually bought a second Black Wii before the revision as a spare unit which I also modded just to play ExciteBots. :)

Got it from a seller in Japan in "decent" condition according to him, but when it arrived you could have told me it was brand new and I'd have believed it. Paid around €80 including shipping.
Seems like that game is going for around $70 right now, which isn't expensive at all I think.

I'd say that if we ever get Reginleiv 2 for the Wii U and it remains Japan only, I'm buying a Japanese Wii U as well. :D
 
Probably El-Shaddai. It has some problems for sure, but it really was, at least from an art perspective, one of my favorite games this gen.
It really seemed like it was gonna be too weird for people to forget about it so quickly, but there ya go.
 
No, I modded my Pal one. Actually bought a second Black Wii before the revision as a spare unit which I also modded just to play ExciteBots. :)

Got it from a seller in Japan in "decent" condition according to him, but when it arrived you could have told me it was brand new and I'd have believed it. Paid around €80 including shipping.
Seems like that game is going for around $70 right now, which isn't expensive at all I think.

I'd say that if we ever get Reginleiv 2 for the Wii U and it remains Japan only, I'm buying a Japanese Wii U as well. :D

Huh... €80 would make it my most expensive game ... ever. :-) And I recently got stuff like Ni no Kuni Wizard's Edition and the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Limited Edition. :-) And then I wouldn't even be able to play the game yet... the things one have to deal with sometimes when one wants to play a hidden gem. :-)
 
Huh... €80 would make it my most expensive game ... ever. :-) And I recently got stuff like Ni no Kuni Wizard's Edition and the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Limited Edition. :-) And then I wouldn't even be able to play the game yet... the things one have to deal with sometimes when one wants to play a hidden gem. :-)

Hehe. Guess I've gotten used to it. Been importing Japanese games since the Saturn days so the term expensive is quite subjective. ;)
€80 for an import game is quite normal and most of the time a good deal to me. Just thinking of all the Cave 360 games I've bought over the past year.
 
Hehe. Guess I've gotten used to it. Been importing Japanese games since the Saturn days so the term expensive is quite subjective. ;)
€80 for an import game is quite normal and most of the time a good deal to me. Just thinking of all the Cave 360 games I've bought over the past year.

I just checked my collection, and have imported 33 games myself, of which 9 were Japanese games. But never did I come close to paying €80 for any of those. But I guess if you tread deeper into true hidden gem territory you get to those amounts more easily.

Anyway, back on topic. Another game that I have and enjoyed a lot, and that I don't think all that many people played is Brave Story: New Traveler for the PSP.

 
it's no where near a 'hidden gem' here in neogaf but Vanquish. It's the kind of a game that we will very likely never see a true sequel done by Mikami. It has one of the most original and refreshing mechanics while being super fun to play, only bogged down by people's valuing a game for the play time that last less than 7 hours and their expectation of a multiplayer mode.

To me those concerns made no sense, I rather play something short and perfectly sweet rather than something long and not so sweet. And with slow motion involved in the game's core mechanic, translating it to a standard shooter multiplayer just won't work as well, even if they managed to do it, it will be a totally different game.
 
Came in here to make sure people mentioned Excitebots.

If you like SNES Mario Kart, that game is much more similar than the new MKs.
 
Nice to see so many Wii and DS games. The Wii is finally starting to shed its 'collecting dust' image.

Still, 8 pages and no Art Style games? I'll throw down for PiCTOBiTS.
Very True! Here are some of my ArtStyle favorites:

Regarding Zangeki no Reginleiv:
It's not really a hidden gem. Just a game that didn't get enough love from its publisher.

To be fair, it would be one heck of a job to localise Reginleiv.
The text wouldn't be much of a problem but there's so much dialogue throughout every mission. They just won't shut up. ;)
So even more-so than the game having a CERO D rating, I think that's what held the game back from getting a western release.

Such a damn shame though. Only found out about it a couple of weeks ago and it finally arrived just in time for the weekend. So much fun...

No, I modded my Pal one. Actually bought a second Black Wii before the revision as a spare unit which I also modded just to play ExciteBots. :)

Got it from a seller in Japan in "decent" condition according to him, but when it arrived you could have told me it was brand new and I'd have believed it. Paid around €80 including shipping.
Seems like that game is going for around $70 right now, which isn't expensive at all I think.

I'd say that if we ever get Reginleiv 2 for the Wii U and it remains Japan only, I'm buying a Japanese Wii U as well. :D

The game was actually shown at one time by Reggie under the name Dynamic Slash. Rumor has it this was actually next in line on NoA's localization list if Sin & Punishment 2 did well. But given how that turned out we have only ourselves to blame.... :(

It's kind of fitting in a way, because to me Reginleiv is this generation's equivalent of the original Sin & Punishment on N64. Hopefully that means the game will see an eShop release down the line. Even if they just translated the menus and subbed the dialogue it would be fine in my opinion, and might even add to the overall Japanese B-movie cheesiness of it all.
 
So, is Reginleiv playable when I can't understand a word in japanese?

if your Wii is modded so you can play it, you should be okay. Menu translations are available on the web, such as this one and most in game audio I never found necessary in order to figure out what's going on. The objectives for each level are always just "Kill Everything on the Map" and there are probably walkthroughs for the rare occasion you get stuck.
 
Zak & Wiki-Haven't played it since it's release, but got-damn does this game ooze charm. Really disappointed that it didn't sell well, and was hoping for more games along this vein on the wii as opposed to party/casual games. Really holds a special place in my heart.
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This! Play it, now!!!
 
The game was actually shown at one time by Reggie under the name Dynamic Slash. Rumor has it this was actually next in line on NoA's localization list if Sin & Punishment 2 did well. But given how that turned out we have only ourselves to blame.... :(
.

Eh, can't really blame anyone but nintendo when the console is so buried with waggle shitware. They dont even market their new console, how are people supposed to know about great games waiting to be localized.
 
Nier
Deadly Premonition
Metro 2077

all the other games most people know about I think so they aren't hidden, however people should play:

vanquish
 
Rhythm Thief as well. I think it's actually better than Theathrhythm Final Fantasy. Highly overlooked, undersold, and nobody cared about it. The very definition of a hidden gem.


(Still can't spell or pronounce Theathryhthm correctly!)
 
Definitely Ghost Trick for me. Puzzles + visual novel + time travel wrapped up in a great art style, engaging story, beautiful animation and a great cast of characters.

And Missile the dog should've become an instant character classic. I want to see more games featuring him!
 
Rhythm Thief as well. I think it's actually better than Theathrhythm Final Fantasy. Highly overlooked, undersold, and nobody cared about it. The very definition of a hidden gem.


(Still can't spell or pronounce Theathryhthm correctly!)

You only misplaced the first 'h' really. It's Theatrhythm. ;-)
 
I forgot to mention Blocks that Matter :

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Incredible puzzle game that nobody played. You have to build platforms to make it to the end of the levels, but you can only build them in tetris shapes. You have different materials and the ability to destroy an entire line of blocks.
I never finished this - it gets pretty damn hard as it goes along - but you need to check it out for the basic premise and execution alone. A must for puzzle game fans.
 
For me, it's The Darkness.
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It was such a unique, wonderful world to explore, and did some really interesting things story-wise.

I think it was overlooked because it's really weird - a gothy-looking main character fighting enemies with snake hands. It also scored in the 7-8 range, and I don't remember a big marketing push.


Oh yes. And to a lesser extent, the darkness 2. Its gameplay is absolutely sublime, and story is almost as good as TD1. Yet i dont see many people mention it in these kind of threads at all. Really deserved to do big numbers.

Also gonna go with

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and

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Think I've seen only one truly hidden gem in this thread: Soul Bubbles. I see a lot of what are perhaps under-rated or forgotten about games, but very few actual "hidden gems."

The DS has a lot of them, actually, but the system's kinda last-gen at this point, no?
 
Half Minute Hero.

I actually consider this game of the generation. It's kind of in a genre of its own, I guess "arcade rpg" comes closest.

Overlooked because it came out on the psp.
 
It's interesting to see what some gaffers consider to be "hidden." You couldn't read anything on any gaming site last year without Dark Souls being thrown in your face constantly, and '08 was basically the year of Burnout Paradise everywhere.


Anyway, Outrun Online Arcade. RIP, because since Sega's contract with Ferrari expired, it's impossible to download this game anywhere anymore. Yaaaay digital only releases.
 
Anyway, Outrun Online Arcade. RIP, because since Sega's contract with Ferrari expired, it's impossible to download this game anywhere anymore. Yaaaay digital only releases.

It was also only released on the ps3 in Europe.

Even outrun 2006 for Xbox, which was released in 2006, seems to be expensive on eBay.
 
Not all of you are doing it, but you should really list the name of the game you are referring to.

Especially when you are listing obscure games.

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The game is simply a delight to play.

noby_boy_esrb.jpg


What am I playing lol!? OMG I just ate this dude and this tree and shat out a tree-man. Wooooooooaaahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

This post is a really good example of what I'm talking about.

I recognize the first game, but don't remember the name, I believe its a PS3 exclusive.

And the second game...
 
Not all of you are doing it, but you should really list the name of the game you are referring to.

Especially when you are listing obscure games.



This post is a really good example of what I'm talking about.

I recognize the first game, but don't remember the name, I believe its a PS3 exclusive.

And the second game...

First game is 3D Dot Game Heroes.

Second game is Noby Noby Boy. I suggest you look it up on Youtube. It's very odd.


But yes, posting screenshots without saying what game they're from is extremely annoying. I don't understand why people still do it.
 
The Darkness II - game is fantastic, although the ending is a little of a letdown. Still the game deserved to sell more.

Alpha Protocol - yes the game is all sorts of jank but it's still fun

Mirrors Edge - why can't we get a sequel EA ?
 
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