Obscure games that you loved

Joined
Nov 28, 2018
Messages
14
Are there any games that were not particularly popular (meaning that the majority has probably never played or even heard of them), but you really enjoyed playing? Share the titles in this thread. :)
 
Warlords Battlecry...3? Iunno, one of them. Maybe 2. Played that for a solid year after my AOE2 addiction.
 
Anymore? "Go play outside and don't come back until the street lights are on"

Heh, it was "Come home before the street lights come on" when I was growing up.

F22 Interceptor - Sega Genesis

General Chaos

Total Carnage

Revolution X

Conquest Frontier Wars
 
200px-Battledrome.jpg


I'm not sure how obscure it was, but I never knew anyone else who played it, so...
 
Street Racing Syndicate. Loved that game. Played through the whole thing the first time in one night on the Gamecube. It came out at a time when the market was saturated with these kinds of driving games due to the popularity of F&F and NFS Underground.
View attachment 123639

I'm not sure how obscure it was, but I never knew anyone else who played it, so...
I remember every time going into Circuit City as a kid seeing these games displayed prominently on the shelves in the PC section. Never actually tried them, though.
I don't think Train Simulator or your two bonus titles meet the definition of obscure. The last two may not be very popular, but everyone knows about them and sales were strong.
 
Not sure if this first one is really all that obscure, but..

MDK by Shiny Entertainment (PC, PSX 1997)
Mdk1cover.jpg


It's a third person action shooter with each level starting out with the main character (Kurt) skydiving from low earth orbit onto gigantic alien bulldozers crawling across the Earth. He runs, parachutes, and snipes his way through each level killing aliens to destroy the alien bulldozers before they can wipe out our cities. It's hard to describe all the weird awesome little bits Shiny threw into this title, but if you've played their other titles (or just play MDK), you can get a pretty good idea. It's available on Steam and Good Old Games. There was a sequel released in 2000 (also available on Steam/GOG), allowing you to play as all three main characters: Max, Doc, and Kurt. ;)


This next one I think is quite a bit more obscure.

The Sting! by Neo Software (PC 2001)
TheSting%21VGBoxArt.jpg


It's a burglary game where you case your targets, purchase equipment (tools, getaway car, etc), hire accomplices, plan out, and finally execute burglaries in a fictitious modern steampunk'ish city. I first played it way back in 2001 and never finished it, but I started it back up a couple months ago and I've been having a blast. It's not available on Steam AFAIK and my original copy simply would not work in Win10. I was able to track down and purchase a digital copy elsewhere though that does work with Win10.
 
Last edited:
4x4 Evolution - I played on Dreamcast, it was basically Gran Turismo for off roading because it had a pretty large selection of trucks and SUVs and large amount of mods to go along with them. But it had (gasp!) cross-play with PC gamers back in the dial-up days and for a racing game it played pretty well! What was also cool was that mods and custom maps made on PC could also be downloaded and played on the DC version as well. I got a Keyboard for my DC just for that game and also for Phantasy Star Online. I was part of a racing team on there and we did Tournaments and everything.

Super Strike Eagle - SNES fighter jet game that would swap between 2D and psuedo-3D for combat when enemies got close to you. I was never able to beat it, as it seemed the further you got into the game, the faster your jet would run out of fuel for missions and I could never finish one of the last missions before running out of fuel. It was a pretty fun game though.
 
Street Racing Syndicate. Loved that game. Played through the whole thing the first time in one night on the Gamecube. It came out at a time when the market was saturated with these kinds of driving games due to the popularity of F&F and NFS Underground.

I remember every time going into Circuit City as a kid seeing these games displayed prominently on the shelves in the PC section. Never actually tried them, though.

I don't think Train Simulator or your two bonus titles meet the definition of obscure. The last two may not be very popular, but everyone knows about them and sales were strong.
Obscure doesn't necessarily mean unknown imo. Just unrecognized. At least that's how I interpreted it.
 
Which one of those is obscure?

Depending on your definition of Obscure, most of them. Not many people have heard of any of those games when I mention them, even at LAN parties, including the times that they were actively sold.
 
Depending on your definition of Obscure, most of them. Not many people have heard of any of those games when I mention them, even at LAN parties, including the times that they were actively sold.

Well, I am not familiar with Utopia and Ferion. I guess I could call those obscure. Not sure about the rest. You a nerd :}
 
Well, I am not familiar with Utopia and Ferion. I guess I could call those obscure. Not sure about the rest. You a nerd :}

Also recognize I am talking about the original Syndicate, not the remake. I don't think you could find very many people at all that have heard of Dark Reign. And most people confuse Commandos with Company of Heroes or some other game. As for Outpost 2, I was number 1 in the world in that game the entire time it was out. But that isn't hard when the most people online is 100.

EDIT: Btw, for reference more people have played both Utopia and Ferion than any of the other games I listed. In fact, people still play Utopia and Ferion...
 
Also recognize I am talking about the original Syndicate, not the remake. I don't think you could find very many people at all that have heard of Dark Reign. And most people confuse Commandos with Company of Heroes or some other game. As for Outpost 2, I was number 1 in the world in that game the entire time it was out. But that isn't hard when the most people online is 100.

EDIT: Btw, for reference more people have played both Utopia and Ferion than any of the other games I listed. In fact, people still play Utopia and Ferion...

I loved Dark Reign. Used to play a lot of 1v1 with my friend. We also played Warcraft/2, Everyone knows Commandos, mon. You must be talking to kids
 
On this site, (and no offense, because I'm here for the same reason :D ) where we build fancy machines to display beautiful complex imagery, I would say the good obscure games are the modern 2D games.

I talk about them all the time. I chime in about them all the time. Maybe some people are tired of seeing my reference to the post I'm going to link :D However, the best games I've played lately, that I would say are at least a tiny bit obscure to the [H] crowd:

https://hardforum.com/threads/good-2d-pc-game-database.1943046/
 
I remember every time going into Circuit City as a kid seeing these games displayed prominently on the shelves in the PC section. Never actually tried them, though.

Earthsiege was the more well-known one of that series, I think. Then later on, the same "universe" is what eventually became the Tribes series.
 
Not obscure at all in my circles, but maybe my circles are obscure. :D Archon and Adept are some of the most highly played games among my friends and I. Nice pick! I'd like to add M.U.L.E. as it's another excellent one. Remember when EA published good games? :D
Yes. I do remember.

Here is another EA title I had long ago....

EAContruction.PNG
 
Not sure how popular or obscure they were or are, but i enjoyed:

Great Naval Battles series by SSI. (And would love to see a remake)
World, Winter, Summer, Etc., Games by EPYX. (Another i'd like to see redone)
Midwinter (Not sure of the developer atm)
Populous
Earth Orbit Station
Powermonger
Megafortress

(Have others but these i remember fondly)
 
CnR.gif


Chi no Rondo (Castlevania Rondo of Blood) Japanese only PC Engine CD release was pretty obscure here in the US. It's an excellent game, and bridges the old and new styles of Castlevania. It was one of the first to offer alternate paths (larger scale) which lead you to completely different levels that you might not otherwise see. It's still one of my favorites, right up there with SotN and some of the GBA/DS ones.
 
Kagero%20-%20Deception%20II.jpg



This game was CRAZY badass!!!!

Basically you just set up traps that form combos to kill the crap out of people....

The third game was just as good, but I played it a lot less cuz I was burned out.
 
The Legacy of Kain games: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, and Legacy of Kain: Defiance. They still are masterpieces of storytelling (well, except maybe for Blood Omen 2 which had different writers).
 
Space Station Silicon Valley on the N64 was a good one. I don’t know many that played that one. It was excellent though.

 
Back
Top