Ask Lemmy

Rhythm Doctor.

Perfect Dark. I didn't have a sibling to play with, so I am eternally grateful to Rare for making computer-controlled bots in the multiplayer mode.

Didn't see Receiver 2 mentioned, so I'll give it a shoutout! Really interesting game, and as far as I know the only one with such deep shooting mechanics. Unfortunately the sale had ended a couple days ago, so it's back to its normal price, but even then I'd heavily recommend it!

Shadowgate / Deja Vu / The Uninvited (NES)

Uniracers (SNES)

Custom Robo (GC)

Lost Kingdoms (GC)

Baiten Kaitos (GC)

I rarely see any Ys game referenced. It's gotten a bit bigger, but still a super underrated series.

The Saboteur by Pandemic as well.

Field Commander on PSP.

The original Overlord game (with the minions).

Cyber Empires (PC), Shadowrun (Genesis), Betrayal at Krondor (PC).

GUNZ The Duel - man that was just so much fun. Online guns and swords gladiator style battles in the most neat stages. I remember an old mansion with broken staircases and balconies, a train station with freight cargo all over the place, an actual roman colosseum, a beach with a grounded ship ashore.

Some people could do this thing called K-style or butterfly style where you slash your sword against walls or other objects which made you lift off the ground, and switch between your gun to shoot as you do so - it was a neat trick which I learned but definitely did not master.

So much fun though.

Endless Sky According to wikipedia it is a space trading and combat simulation game. Its free and open source, has a lot of content (even more with plugins). You do missions to get the storyline forward and to get money, you can also mine asteroid, trade with other planets, attack other ships and plunder them. You discover new species and Outfits to make your space ship better, etc.

The Adventures of Lolo - a puzzle game on the NES. There were 1 or 2 sequels depending on how you count and they were fun too.

It’s a puzzle game with fairly simple mechanics but surprising complexity and difficulty. I beat both US versions and designed levels for a knockoff but have never met anyone in person that has heard of it.

Squarez Deluxe.

I've been on a one-man promotion spree of that game for almost 20 years

It is now freeware, it's available on DOSBox, and it is the best shape-packing game ever made - you cannot even debate me once you try it.

Outlaws. An early Spaghetti Western themed FPS from LucasArts. After Dark Forces (Retconned by Rogue One) and before DF2:Jedi Knight (the one with the amazibad FMV cut scenes and the best expansion pack ever), it leveraged the 2.5d engine for all it was worth and did a hand-animated slightly Don-Bluth-esque aesthetic that worked perfectly.

Level design was good. Multiplayer was fun, even though if you tried to LAN with an unswitched hub (it was 1998!) player 3 would lag like motherfucker and be relegated to throwing dynamite and praying. Story was straight out of a Tropes-R-Us, but well executed and with good voice acting (including John de Lancie IIRC). The coup de grace was the soundtrack, Clint Bajakian seemed to inhabit Ennio Morricone’s soul, but with leitmotifs to make John Williams proud. It absolutely elevated the game.

Patricks parabox. The ultimate sokoban IMO

Bugsnax. It's like Pokemon Snap/Legends Arceus, but the Pokemon are food items, like a sub-sandwich centipede or a lollipop dragonfly. You can feed them to people, and when you do, their body parts turn into the food they just ate. It's great!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/674140/Bugsnax/

Revenge of the Mutant Camels - highlight 1: "Ninety-foot high, neutronium shielded, laser-spitting, death camels". Hightlight 2: Almost 40 years after its first release, in 2021 Jeff Minter fixed a bug on collision detection in the Commodore 64 version.
Impossible Mission - highlight: "Another visitor. Stay a while... stay forever!"
Deuteros - highlight: the way the game world unfolded and opened up
Syndicate - highlight: abusing the Persuadertron
Shadow Hearts - highlight: the Judgement Ring

Board games or video games?

Dark messiah of might and magic

Enderal.

~~I'll edit this later when I can post from my comp (mobile now) with the full pitch~~ as promised:

Enderal

Basically an indie dev crew broke skyrim down to its most basic assets, then rebuilt a completely new game using them. AND IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD. Completely new lore / game universe (has nothing at all to do with elder scrolls, tamriel, etc), new voice acting, terrain, music, you name it.

Steers away from common story tropes to the point that there isn't really an antagonist in the traditional sense - but it uses concepts, emotions, philosophies, etc as the driving force for the main story line and some of the larger quest chains.

This game is an absolute passion project by the devs, which is something we don't see often now-a-days.

Note: link above is to the version that uses Skyrim SE's assets (the 2016 re-release). If you have the original version of skyrim, use this link instead. If you own a different version of Skyrim, there might be a compatible version of Enderal here: https://sureai.net/games/enderal/

Fair warning: the children NPC voice acting is even worse than the kids in Skyrim. The TAI (toggle AI) command can shut them up without breaking them.

Fair warning 2: they redid combat. The OP shit in Skyrim, like the sneaky archer build, will get your ass beat to a pulp in Enderal. Make a save when you get to the point where you can spend some talent points, experiment with a few styles, and go from there.

Fair warning 3: It's built on Skyrim's assets, which means it has all of Skyrim's problems. Step on a basket full of cabbage just right; get launched into low orbit. Quest items clipping through the floor. Bounty that refuses to go away. Shit like that. Save frequently, and don't be afraid to use the command console to do things like magic in a lost item or force a broken quest to progress to the next stage.

Guardian Heroes was an outstanding RPG beat 'em up on Sega Saturn. It had

• a two player co-op storyline with branching choices to get alternate endings

• unlockable characters for a 6-player arena mode

• incredibly unique characters to unlock, spellcasting with ➡️⬅️⬆️⬇️ input

• and a kick ass soundtrack.

Nothing has really scratched the same itch since (yes, I'm aware there's a sequel, but it's terrible).

The Strider reboot. I wouldn't have minded another one of them, but I guess I'll replay it again instead.

Urban Terror

Blast Corps

Freedom Fighters. Some mechanics were clunky but most were great and I really can't think of any other games with such a good mix of strategy and quick-thinking/reaction gameplay. I've played it through at least 3 times!