Randomly recommend an unknown or underrated game.

[ExedExes]

U.S. Games was halfway decent. Check out Eggomania and M.A.D. too.

[KayJay]

Madagascar for the Gamecube (and other consoles) Is a surprisingly good game. The main quest is okay, but the real fun is in the "Tiki Minigolf" Mini-game. It has 9 courses, and can be played by up to 6 people, which makes it amazing for family get-togethers.


If you see it for cheap, it's totally worth it.

[Exhuminator]

Uchuu Race: Astro Go! Go! | Super Famicom | (Released: 02/25/94)

Here's one for you Super Famicom importers out there. If you were a fan of Mode 7 racers like F-Zero or Battle Cars, you'd probably enjoy Uchuu Race: Astro Go! Go! It is a Japan-exclusive futuristic racer. Developed by KAZe and published by Meldac. An American version titled "Freeway Flyboys" was scheduled but was canceled.

Screenshots:

Western media preview coverage from years yonder:

[Sarge]

Hey, I think I have that Nintendo Power mag!

[Exhuminator]

Front Mission: Gun Hazard | Super Famicom | Released February, 23rd, 1996



It has come to my attention that a lot of folks around here aren't familiar with this game. I'm sure plenty of you are familiar with the name "Front Mission", and you know that it's a turn based strategy series where you fight giant robots against other giant robots. I realize that combating mechs in a turn based format isn't that popular of a taste. So I can only imagine people would assume that Front Mission: Gun Hazard is the same thing, a giant robot strategy game.

But it's not.

Nope, Gun Hazard is actually an action-RPG. And not just any ol' action-RPG. Gun Hazard is the single greatest most impressive action-RPG on the SNES/SFC. Now, yes, that's my personal taste. But I'm not joking when I say this game is as good in quality as any of Nintendo's own top tier works on the system. A Link to the Past? Super Metroid? Gun Hazard is right up there with them, that kind of quality is what I'm talking about. This game is freaking amazing.



Here's a detailed description from Moby Games:

The year is 2064, when the great solar power satellite, ATLAS is overshadowed by the invention of fusion power. The government alliance that had supported the building of ATLAS now find themselves facing economic crisis as the balance of power shifts. In this world of conflict and change, the Walking Panzer, or Wanzer, (a form of mecha) becomes the standard armored unit for wars and petty battles across the globe. For the small nation of Bergen, a coup d'etat is underway, staged by Colonel Ark. Seeking to establish complete control over the government and the NORAD units stationed there, Ark's first step involves the capture of President Orwen. Tipped off to the rebellion, Orwen seeks to flee from Bergen, looking for safe passage out of the seaport of Port Ertothal. A young Wanzer pilot, Albert Grabner, is assigned escort duty to the president by loyal elements of the army stationed there...

Gun Hazard is a side-scrolling shooter with strong RPG elements, and a spin-off of the Front Mission series. The player moves between different stages on an area map. Once inside a stage, the player controls Albert and his wanzer as it moves left, right across the screen. The wanzer is able to jump, and attack with a primary and a special weapon. At any time during a stage, Albert can eject from his heavily armed wanzer to explore. Although vulnerable when outside, Albert is able to reach areas the wanzer cannot, in addition to being a smaller target and being able to jetpack indefinitely.

Money and experience are earned through the completion of mission objectives as well as the kill count of enemy wanzers. Additionally, Albert can recruit other characters through the normal course of the story, some of whom can be designated to support roles. These support characters when set can provide a variety of different cover fire abilities for Albert during his missions. They too gain experience and levels. Different weapons and armor can be found or bought. Essential components include the Booster ability which allows the wanzer to hover and increase its jumps, as well as the Dash ability which allows quick left-right movement by the wanzer.

Gun Hazard has awesome graphics, a fantastic soundtrack, super fun gameplay, a plot that's actually worth reading, and plenty of surprises. It is a AAA SNES game you really, really ought to treat yourself to. That is, if you enjoy action-RPGs and mechs.

This game's Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_Mis ... Gun_Hazard

This game's HG101 page (with spoilers and opinions I don't agree with):

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/assaul ... suits3.htm

This game's shrine on FantasyAnime:

http://fantasyanime.com/squaresoft/fmgh.htm



So how do you play this if you can't read Japanese, don't own a Super Famicom, and can't import the cartridge?

Emulation. (It won't give you cooties, at least not this one time.)

So use SNES9X with a Buffalo USB SNES Gamepad and AGTP's English fan translation.
Easy as that. Don't know how to use SNES9X? No problem, read this.

More screenshots:




Anyone who's paid attention to my ramblings on this site knows I'm very critical of games and not easy to impress. There are not many I would give a 10/10 to.

Folks, this is a 10/10 game.

[laurenhiya21]

^Oh I didn't know that wasn't a strategy RPG I'm no good at strategy RPGs, so I've kind of been avoiding the Front Mission series, but this looks really good!

And I think I might recommend a game tomorrow (unless someone already recommended it). I would right now but it's 1:30AM haha

[Xeogred]

1996 SNES games looked so insane. I've been meaning to hit that one up someday... loved the bit of Front Mission 3 that I played.

[jmbarnes101]

I'm not good at this review thing but I'm going to highlight a couple of known but under the radar DS games all produced by CING.

Trace Memory is a fun point-and-click adventure game with a good story. You play as a 13 year old girl and explore an island looking for her father. It's not very long, or expensive, but it makes good use of the DS. There is a sequel on the Wii, Another Code: R- A Journey Into Lost Memoris. but it was only released in PAL and JPN unfortunately.
Hardcore Gaming 101 review: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/tracem ... ercode.htm

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a more widely known point-and-click adventure title or a visual novel that you play. This game is played sideways like a book and known as a mystery novel. You play as a salesman who's also a former detective in a hotel full of interesting characters. The art direction is very interesting like A-Ha's hit song Take on Me. Like Trace Memory this also had a sequel , on the DS though, which also like Trace Memory was only found in PAL and JPN territories - Last Window: The Secret of Cape West.
Hardcoregaming101 review:
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/hoteld ... eldusk.htm

I prefer Trace Memory myself but they are both/all worth playing.

CING made two other similar games and declared bankruptcy in 2010. I've never played these though I need to hunt down Again, it did not get good reviews though.
The Glass Rose (PS2 - JPN and PAL)
Again (NDS - US and JPN)

[Exhuminator]

^Oh I didn't know that wasn't a strategy RPG

That was the thing I realized last night, a lot of folks thought Gun Hazard was another SRPG, and thus had avoided it.

loved the bit of Front Mission 3 that I played.

Front Mission 3 is a great entry in the series. It's also the easiest and simplest entry in the series as far as the other FM strategy games go. In FM SRPGs, I've personally beaten Front Mission DS, Front Mission 3, and Front Mission 4. I think the DS one is the best of those, with FM4 next just because it's so challenging. FM3 is still fantastic though, don't get me wrong. I've never played a bad FM game, and I'm planning to do FM5 this year.

For those that don't know, Front Mission 5 is available in English:
http://frontmission.info/wiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Downloads

Jmbarnes101 you are doing it right man, all hail CiNG.

Another Code: R- A Journey Into Lost Memories.

It is such a great adventure game, I loved that one. (But I'm also a huge CiNG fan, so there's that.) I still think the cover is amazing:

For those wanting to play Another Code R, it's not too hard if you don't live in the USA. The hardest part is importing a copy of the game, which you can do easily enough off eBay.

Then you have to softmod your Wii, and that's very easy using this: http://please.hackmii.com/ Once you've done that, you just install the Homebrew Channel: http://hbc.hackmii.com/ And then you use the HBC to launch Another Code R with Tinyloader: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/TinyLoad

There may be even easier ways to do it, but that's how I did it.

I've never played these though I need to hunt down Again, it did not get good reviews though.

Again isn't up to the same high standards as Hotel Dusk or Trace Memory, but I still found it worth finishing. It's rough around the edges, but it still has a strong enough plot and unsettling atmosphere that it's worth playing. It's by far the darkest game CiNG has made.

The Glass Rose (PS2 - JPN and PAL)

For those that don't know, The Glass Rose PAL version has an NTSC selection option and has an English option.

[marlowe221]

One of the few 2600 third-party non-Activision games that doesn't suck. In fact, you'll keep playing it again and again. IMPROVED GRAPHICS!

Imagic's games were pretty good too - virtually all of them were good 3rd party 2600 games.


BUT! My recommendation for the thread is....

King of Dragon Pass

It's part 4X game, part RPG, part Choose-your-own-adventure. Your goal is to guide your clan to unite the rival clans in the Dragon Pass region and become its king (or queen).

The original PC version is available on GOG. They also remade the game for iOS and it's available on iphone and ipad. They also released the iOS version on Steam for PC recently. I think it's available on Android but I'm not sure about that.

It is a wonderful, if quirky, game from PC gaming's past that has influenced a lot of current strategy game developers. Play it!