Hidden Gems of the Generation

[Woodfella]

The 'Generation' of consoles in nearly at an end.

This is for games that you feel slipped under the radar or maybe didn't get the scores you feel it deserved.

Maybe we will discover games we haven't heard of or played and then it'll give us all time to save up for the xbone and/or ps4.

[Woodfella]

Little King story- Amazingly charming game on the wii with amazing music, build your kingdom and recruit villagers for (terrifying) excursions to uncover surrounding areas. Its an RTS sort of like pikmin i guess, buts its medieval and you control a cute little guy

Lets tap- For the Wii which come with 2 free CARDBOARD BOXES, the wiimoteis placed on top and you do minigames by tapping. The highlight being a head to head obstacle course.

EDF 2017- Really huge bugs, big guns, explosions, yeeeaaaaaaaaaah

[ratsoalbion]

I think Let's Tap is way cool, something genuinely unique. From the man who gave us Sonic.

The new consoles are considerably cheaper at launch in real terms than almost every one of their their predecessors by the way.

[Scrustle]

Hmm. This is a good one. I think a lot of the hidden gems of this generation have gotten more attention towards the tail end though, as their cult following has gotten bigger and got them more attention. Games like Nier, Muramasa, and Mirror's Edge for example. Hardly obscure or underrated anymore. But I think there are still a few.

Mini Ninjas - I've spoken about this game a little recently because I went and got a second copy after getting cravings to go back to it. Very fun little game. Not very complex or difficult, but it has a real charm to it, and is a type of game we haven't really seen much of this generation. Perfect game to stick on if you just want to soak up the atmosphere and just want to take things easy. It's not going to set anyone's world on fire, but I've always felt like it never got the recognition it deserved.

Switchball - An early XBLA game, so no one was really paying attention to the Arcade when it was released. But it's actually a really fun little puzzle game in which you control a marble with the ability to transform, giving it different attributes. The puzzles are really well designed, and some are devilishly hard. I've never even finished the game myself. It's also gorgeous. It's got a great aesthetic, and some cool lighting effects (take a look at some of these). In one form your marble can take, it emits light out of certain parts of itself, so watching it roll around flashing lights everywhere looks great. I really suggest people try this one out if they're in to all the arty looking puzzle platformers that people have been falling in love with this generation. This one may not have the platforming or the story elements of those games, but it looks just as nice and the game design is just as good. The marble itself also controls really well too. It might take a little getting used to, but once you understand it, it has a great sense of weight and momentum to it. I've looked for other games with a similar concept, and I've never found one that gets anywhere close to controlling as well as this one does.

Amped 3 - A 360 launch title and exclusive. A snowboarding game with a brilliant sense of humour. You trot around the globe to different real world mountains to take part in events in your career to become a champion snowboarder. Each mountain is also fully modelled, so you can take literally any path down it you want. You don't have to take specific paths like the SSX games make you do. You can also place your own jumps and obstacles anywhere on any of the mountains, turning the whole game in to a kind of "make your own run" mode, if you so desire.

There is also a lot of variety in events. Apart from the usual point scoring and time trial events, there are also things like snowmobile events, and sledging events. Some of these see you sledging down the mountain in silly things like an outhouse or a bathtub. You can also use the snowmobile and sledges in free-roam mode as well if you want, although there isn't much point. Admittedly, those aspects of the game aren't that fleshed out. But there are a bunch of great comedy moments, as well as a comedic side-story that follows the main plot thread that involves an incompetent lord of evil who is trying to thwart your rise to fame. He has a zeppelin.

Controls of the game feel a little aged, but it's still a blast and well worth checking out. Especially if you've been disappointed by the lack of any quality snowboarding games this gen. This is pretty much the only one.

FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage - Perhaps this one isn't so hidden, but it's still not really that well known either. The game is basically FlatOut 2, but remade for the 360. You can also get in on PC. It doesn't feel like it's taken from a previous generation at all though. Playing it, I had no idea it was until I stumbled across the information later. This game is also the last game in the FlatOut series made by the original team, BugBear.

It's a brilliant demo derby style racing game. Absolute chaos and destruction everywhere. Amazing damage modelling on cars, and so much roadside props to crash in to. By the end of a race the track always ends up looking like a war zone, and it's glorious. There are a decent number of actual demo derbies, but it mostly focuses around normal races around a track, but it's still just as insane. It also has a bunch of crazy side-events, which the series is famous for, that usually involve launching the driver out of your car and trying to use him to score points in some kind of game. Like an enormous game of bowling, darts, or basketball. It's hilarious thanks to comedic ragdoll physics, but actually quite compelling too. Some events are pretty hard, and there is definitely a technique you need to learn for some of them. The game also has a great soundtrack from a lot of really talented, but no-name rock bands.

BugBear are also right now creating a spiritual successor to the FlatOut games, and they have a Kickstarter running for it too, so if you want to see what they're up to, check out http://www.nextcargame.com

[Woodfella]

I think Let's Tap is way cool, something genuinely unique. From the man who gave us Sonic.

The new consoles are considerably cheaper at launch in real terms than almost every one of their their predecessors by the way.

I just meant there is no way I will be able to afford one at launch, my 360 came 'free' with a phone contract and my wii fell off the back of a lorry

[ratsoalbion]

Ahhh, gotcha.

[DomsBeard]

Bulletstorm. It got a lot of average reviews but I think it's a very under appreciated gem.

[ratsoalbion]

Bulletstorm. It got a lot of average reviews but I think it's a very under appreciated gem.

Did it though? Seventy-seven positive reviews and six 'mixed' according to MC: http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/bulletstorm

I didn't enjoy it much at all despite seemingly almost every one of my friends and peers loving the heck out of it!

[DomsBeard]

Oh well most forums I populated moaned about it back then, plus it didn't sell a right lot.

[Alex79]

Yeah I loved Bulletstorm. I'm actually replaying it now. Only two nights ago I was playing it thinking 'this might actually be the purest, most perfect FPS that's ever been made'. It's not my favorite, and I think there are better, but for pure fun and perfect game mechanics I can't think of a better one.

[Todinho]

I cant think of many under apreciated games this generation I tend to be in line with most critics in that regard,I could say that Killer is Dead maybe deserved a little more credit than it got or that the first Assassins creed was the best game of the franchise by far but they're not really a big deal,the one game that really gets me when it comes to this is Fallout:New Vegas,the game was an improvement in everyway from fallout 3 the writing was miles better,the world was much more alive and fleshed out and It actually felt like a Fallout game through it's entirety unlike F3 so to have game sites saying how "superior" f3 is makes me really scrath my head.

If I can think of 2 games of the top of my head that got good reviews but people just passed by it would have to be Spec ops:the line and No More Heroes and maybe Machinarium/Botanicula I dont know how well they did but people dont seem to talk about them much

[DomsBeard]

New Vegas was a bloody mess at launch though. The bugs killed it for me a bit. The writing was better though.

[Todinho]

Yeah the technical side of the game got alot of complaints but I dont know if it was sheer luck or maybe destiny but the game never crashed on me or anything

[Scrustle]

I thought Fallout NV, Spec Ops, and No More Heroes were pretty well known and loved. And although the latter two didn't sell well, I think NV did.

[DomsBeard]

I don't think you ever hear people talk about New Vegas though. 3 is more of a reference point when people talk about NV.

Split/Second was/is a great racer and available for about £5 nowadays. The set pieces are brilliant, surprised it didn't get a sequel

[Scrustle]

I tend to hear about it quite a lot. Maybe I hear about Fallout 3 a bit more, but it seems you can't mention one without someone mentioning the other, I've found.

Split/Second certainly doesn't get talked about much though. I don't want to say "I can see why", but I don't think that game really has a whole lot of unsung value to it. It's certainly an interesting game with a gimmick that makes for some spectacular set pieces, but that gimmick is also its downfall, making the game quite frustrating at times. It has novelty value, and is worth trying out, but I wouldn't call it a "hidden gem". There are many other similar racing games that are more consistently entertaining and can keep you engaged longer. It's cool to blow up massive parts of track-side scenery, but once you've got a kick out of that, there isn't really any reason to stick with it if you have something like Burnout or PGR setting on your shelf.

A sequel was actually in development at one point though. The studio who made it were in the early stages of making it when Disney went and shut them down, which was a shame. Could have turned out to be something really cool. It would also have helped make Disney more of a force to take seriously in gaming outside of just making crappy licenced games.

[ratsoalbion]

Sadly Split/Second sold poorly and the studio (based just down the road from me) was closed, hence the proposed sequel being canned. A pity.

[Flabyo]

I think to do this topic justice I need to be clearer on what you mean by 'hidden'...

A game that reviewed well but didn't sell well isn't hidden, it's right there on the metacritic 'best games' list, and plenty of people will sing it's praises (for example, Valkyria Chronicles, which I will continue to bring up in conversation until people tell me to stop).

A game that reviewed poorly but that I think is actually pretty good then? In that case I'd probably nominate Alpha Protocol, which is ropey as all hell but still has some of the most interesting non-linear storytelling I've ever seen in a game. You can take the individual missions in any order at all once you're through the opening section of the game, and the order you do them in *makes a difference*. People refer correctly to things you've already done. Doing certain things earlier makes later missions easier (sometimes harder), opens up new tactical options, creates (and indeed ends) several character relationships that affect how later missions play out and so on... (The Witcher series does it too, but I never got on with those for some reason)

But cause it's by Obsidian it got roundly ignored as 'another buggy mess from those guys'. It deserves more.

[RoboticMonk3y]

Amped 3 - A 360 launch title and exclusive. A snowboarding game with a brilliant sense of humour.

Forsooth my whizzle! Amped 3 is amazing!
I was genuinely gutted when I lost the disc in a house move.
I would have 100% compled the game, if not for the fact that there were 2 events on the mountain I just couldn't find!
I think it was my fist go-to xbox 360 game and stayed there for ages.

[Alex79]

Mafia II should have got more love than it did I reckon. Also I think Motorstorm RC is an absolutely brilliant little game on Vita that I don't imagine sold particularly well. It's easily the best Motorstom game.