Mine is Lady Sia for GBA. It’s just a platformer but I just love it played and completed more 20 times. Will probably speedrun it in future.
Crysalis for Famicom/NES
Such an underrated masterpiece
One of my favorites was definitely Kororinpa (Wii) Yes, the Wii is now considered retro. It is now older than the NES was when the Wii first was released.
I loved playing a game called Zeliard when I was a kid. I never hear it talked about, but think it could be pretty fun even today for people willing to tolerate 30 year old PC platformers.
I haven’t played it in a long time, though, so maybe I’m forgetting some terrible aspect of it. Should try and dig that up…
my niece thinks Morrowind is retro
Morrowind is ancient lmao
Look, I was born in the 80s, I played Morrowind about the time it was released (closer to GOTY edition, but whatever), but even I have to kinda agree with your niece at this point.
Though its gameplay and world-building certainly aged better than Oblivion’s.
Even Skyrim is retro
now that’s just too far
There is less time between the release of Morrowind(2002) and Skyrim(2011) than there is between Skyrim and right now.
There are college graduates who are younger than Morrowind. Yeah, it’s fucking retro.
I’m upvoting you but I need you to know that you are wrong, sir.
M.C. Kids for the NES. It was a rock solid platformer held back by the McDonald’s theming. It was a bit too hard for the target audience, but it’s a fun romp otherwise.
Hey, I have played it.
Whiplash!
I don’t know how obscure this is. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. illusion of gaia/illusion of time was one of my favourites growing up. It had a cool story, kind of a dystopia fantasy. I don’t think I ever actually finished it. Come to think of it, that might be a good idea to put on my list for this year.
I was going to bring up Soul Blazer, which i think is an earlier game in that series. it’s a very straightforward top down action rpg but i played it a lot.
Round out the trifecta with ActRaiser 😊
The music in that game is an absolute banger:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CnP0Po665vU&pp=ygUYYWN0cmFpc2VyIGZpbGxtb3JlIHBpYW5v
Big Castlevania vibes
I love Actraiser! Too bad about the sequels…
Oh wow! I didn’t know that. Now that you mentioned it, the actual game I played was Terranigma, a later installment of the series haha.
It’s a difficult name and I always forget it.
I’m so happy and surprised to see you bring up IoG! I think the game qualifies as obscure these days since I never see it mentioned outside of SNES retro groups.
It’s my favourite story of any game on the SNES. For those who haven’t played it, it’s a coming of age story about a group of friends travelling together. What makes it so special to me is that although your character (Will) is the only one in the party who does any fighting (you’re not a typical RPG fighting party) your friends are still travelling through some dangerous situations with you. Outside of combat, your character is just another one of the group, albeit the main PoV character for the story.
I love it so much! The story was written by a woman science fiction writer, Mariko Ohara, which I think was pretty rare at the time. I didn’t learn this fact until recently and as a kid I never would’ve known but looking back at it, the game is so much the better for it. The characters just feel so much more like real people than I’m used to from games of that era. Even the Final Fantasy games of that era, as great as they are, have characters that feel more like cartoon characters than real teenagers.
Soldam immediately comes to mind as the deepest cut I can think of. You might not be too impressed the first time you put a quarter in, the singleplayer modes are nothing too special. But if you can get a second player, it has one of the most interesting versus modes I’ve seen in a puzzle game. Sadly, you do need a second player, there is no versus CPU.
This game got a modernized remake on Switch a while back, they added online play… but they still didn’t add CPUs.
Tomba 2 baybee
Some ancient PC role playing games.
The Dark Heart of Uukrul I like this one because I think your party is restricted to having a character of each class: Fighter, Paladin, Cleric and Wizard. I learned what a Paladin was from this game and fell in love with the class. Lots of exploration and tactical battles that are on a map that is the same as where you are in the dungeon were all pretty awesome features of this game. Has permadeath but you can recruit a new person to replace the old one. Always hated doing that though.
Disciples of Steel Team of 8 characters going on an adventure to save the world. The endgame actually has you setting up armies in different parts of the world to help you when the final battle comes. Pretty neat game.
3D MonsterMaze
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_'Em_Sock_'Em_Robots_Arena?wprov=sfla1
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots Arena was pretty good. A robot fighting game where you could focus damage onto specific parts of your opponent to knock them off. Not only would they be unable to use that part in that match, but then you’d have the option of swapping out your own parts between matches in the tournament mode.
I’m not particularly fond of fighting games, but the gimmick really drew me in to this one. I remember a lot of fights where I had to choose whether to prioritize just plain winning vs trying to get a specific part for a build.
