Underrated games and undersold titles. These are the games which were absolute gems and apexes of great gameplay, yet they yielded low sales and sometimes heartbreak for their developers and publishers at their original release. For those who played these games when they first came out, a certain bond of unwavering love has grown for them. For those who hear about games like these years later, a new appreciation for the past begins to take root. We all know a few games that had a hard time making big cash for their developers no matter how brilliant they were, but here are our top 10 picks.
10. Crash Team Racing
Okay, Crash Team Racing actually sold well enough to be a Greatest Hits title, but I thought it needed a place on this list regardless, as it was underrated. During the time of CTR's release, it seemed like every company wanted to hop on the bandwagon and create a kart racer to compete with the ever dominating Mario Kart (Chocobo Racing anyone?), and Naughty Dog wanted to hop onto the bandwagon too. For most people, CTR would be written off as just another kart racer cash-in. Oh, faithful gamers, if you only knew how awesome CTR was… and still is. Sure, you had the same sort of elements found in every kart racing title of the time, but the added maneuvers of the slide and speed boost, as well as developing the skills to hit these combos off right, made Crash Team Racing a game that was actually worth practicing. Getting different levels of speed boosts and combing those with the jump and slide maneuvers was what made CTR unique and actually less brainless than other kart racers. A slew of modes, characters, and some killer graphics at the time made this kart racer worthy of the best kart racers. To this day, I have tons of great memories of playing this with my friends, and even today the controls are amazing and tight. Even with its decent sales, Crash Team Racing is not well remembered and talked about within the gaming community, and so it lands at the beginning spot of our list.
9. Einhander
Einhander was a Square-developed "bullet curtain" style shoot 'em up. Essentially a 2D game with a mix of 3D for aesthetics, Einhander was released in a time when anything 2D wasn't very popular. This was a time when 3D polygons were taking root, and 2D stuff was hardly even niche. However, Einhanderfought to bring 2D and 3D together. It also brought amazingly fast-paced graphics and design, great big bosses, and great music to a genre that was sorely lacking during this era. Each Einhander ship was able to fit an assortment of awesome weapons. The experience was neither too frustrating nor too easy. It was a greatly balanced game.
8. Grim Fandango
Once upon a time, Tim Schafer wrote adventure games, and many would say Grim Fandango was the peak of his work. A deeply creative and humorous game, Grim Fandango spins the tale of Manny Calavera in a world that takes inspiration from Aztecan belief systems about the afterlife (Day of the Dead stuff mostly), mixing it with a film noir style and story. It was the first adventure game rendered into 3D by LucasArts, and for those who played it, they realized that it probably was one of the best, most clever, and best conceived adventure games to date. Unfortunately, Grim Fandango's sales were, well... grim. In fact, sales were so disappointing, that LucasArts cancelled plans to do develop more adventure game titles (this was a big deal, as it had been a genre they were very strong at developing and had been doing so for years). Rival company Sierra, at the time known for producing years and years of solid adventure titles, also took note of Grim Fandango's poor sales and with adventure gaming sharply declining already, Grim Fandango seemed to put the nail in the coffin for the dying genre (later, many gamers would attribute the death of adventure gaming to Gabriel Knight 3, however).
7. ICO
ICO has a ton of artistic merit. It's stimulating, engaging, artistic, and brilliant. However, ICO had trouble getting its feet off the ground to the general western audience. Sure, we have our ICO and Shadow of the Colossus collection now, and gamers have realized the beauty of simplicity that is ICO, but ICO may have simply been a bit ahead of time. It came out before the huge indie game / art debates, where games like Flower, Journey, or Limbo have made their ways into gamers hands. Others argue that the western box art was so craptastic, it could have been another reason ICO just didn't sell (and well, if you compare the original Japanese box art to the US box art, you might agree). It's good to know, however, that ICO remains on the throne of its own kingdom, and it continues to stay relevant and strong to this day.
6. Brave Fencer Musashi
This little action role-playing game came out in a time when JRPGs seemed to coming off the conveyor belt left and right in the western world. Between the hype of Final Fantasy and all the other stuff being shoveled around, good or bad, Brave Fencer Musashi found a small audience of gamers who absolutely adored it. With its anime-ish look, its quick, fun gameplay, and slightly annoying but charming voicework at the time, those who got into it enjoyed it and love it to this day.
5. Driver: San Francisco
The Driver series was old hat. The series was surprisingly enjoyable when the first Driver game was released, but by the time Driv3r was out, hardly anybody cared, and those who did found a series which was stuck in a rut: old, and dying, and at a loss to bring any original flavor or weight to the gaming world.
Then comes an essential reboot the series: Driver: San Francisco. I have to admit, when I first heard the idea of Driver: SF, it sounded ridiculous. In the game you have the ability to leave your body, leap into the air, and then possess into other drivers / cars on the road. Whoa, hold on, that's ridiculous! Ridiculously stupid! Okay, that's what I thought, until I played it.
Driver "San Fran" took the Driver series and turned it on its head. It should have been the game that revitalized and helped the Driver series flourish into the next generation and bring the series back into relevance. This "shifting" from car to car ended up being ridiculously fun and organic-feeling. It wasn't just a different Driver game; it was a unique and fun arcade racer unlike anything that had ever come before it. With a great arcade-style driving, licensed cars, and a slew of stunts, missions, and a nice little story to go along with it, Driver: San Francisco won the hearts of those who gave it a chance. Unfortunately, that wasn't many.
4. Far Cry 2
Hardly related to the first Far Cry, this open world FPS had a hard time finding a fanbase. Far Cry 2 is a game you'll either love or hate. Here's the trouble with Far Cry 2: it is one of the most expansive, toughest, meticulous, and unique FPSs out there, but it will take you about 5-10 hours to really start to warm up to it. What!? 10 hours? How long is this game? Well, let's say that if you really want, you can stay in the world of Far Cry 2 for quite some time. For those who gave FC2 a shot and wrote it off as an impossibly obtuse, ridiculously tough game with no direction where you spend more time driving around the jungle than shooting enemies, then you've missed the point. Far Cry 2 is a world you enter, a world in which you fight, sweat, and work hard to exist and survive. Those who can get into the game know that after every session you'll have a FC2 story to tell. See, it's a game that reacts to what you do. It's a game that shapes itself not on predetermined events, or set up storylines, but on how you react to your environment and how you go about your life in the game. Every time you set out in Far Cry 2, you never know what to expect, and you'll never expect what happens.
Far Cry 2 wasn't a huge flop, nor was it a stellar hit. It is a game which has slowly garnered more and more fans since 2009, and with Far Cry 3 on its way, hopefully it will garner even more gamers with the patience to get into it.
3. Okami
Okami brought us cel-shaded environments, a story based in Japanese myths and folklore, the ability to play as Amaterasu (the sun goddess in wolf form), and gameplay which requires gamers to use a paintbrush to paint their way through the world, utilizing it to manipulate the environment and for special moves and attacks. It was a breath of fresh air both in gameplay and visuals for gamers who long sought something unique and new. Okami has its fan base, and it's huge. However, for a game that was reviewed positively and received much love and praise, it just didn't generate the financial steam as hoped. Developer Clover Studios dissolved soon afterwards (not because of Okami's poor sales, but for other reasons), and the fate of the Okami franchise seemed grim. Was Okami ahead of its time? Perhaps. We'll never really know, but at least it's well remembered with a Wii remake and even a DS sequel to boot.
2. Beyond Good and Evil
I've reserved the number one slot of this list for a very special game, but Beyond Good and Evil could be the poster child for undersold games. Beyond Good and Evil was known for being an amazing game which underperformed greatly financially, and only now it's getting the recognition it deserves. It is a game that somehow meshes together (so impressively and seamless) stealth gaming, action-adventure, role-playing, racing, and a few other genres into one package. It had a story that made gamers think, as well as characters and a world that made you want to keep coming back. However, it was riddled with problems on the sales floor. Beyond Good and Evil was a unique game that needed a unique audience. Back in the early 2000s, gamers weren't ready for anything unique (some could argue the general gaming public STILL isn't ready). Ubisoft had no idea how to market this game of a rogue photographer / martial artist and her pig friend. There was nothing out there showing gamers why Beyond Good and Evilwas any good, or why it was worth trying. It only took years for gamers to hear of this little title by word of mouth, or giving it a shot themselves, and eventually it saw a re-release on PSN and Xbox LIVE. Others attribute the low sales to a market that was oversaturated with Lara Croft clones, sex, and violence. I just think the world wasn't ready yet.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
If you want to talk about games people absolutely love but may never see anything like it again... The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was one of those games. Majora's Mask was a game like no other. It is a game that is played on a three-day cycle, using an ocarina to control time and masks to turn Link into various creatures. It was the darker and most unique of Zelda games at the time, and while Twilight Princess may be darker, Majora's Mask is still much more unique. Unlike most Zeldas, Majora's Mask took a different sort of mindset and a little bit of patience to get into and understand. Gamers needed to understand that not only that Majora's Mask wasn't like other games; it was offering something complex and new. I was working at a Funcoland (a video game retailer which was eventually bought out by GameStop in the later years) at the time when this game came out, and I remember many customers asking about it, but very few buying it. Many customers didn't realize there had even been a new Zeldagame (Ocarina of Time had just come out a year previously to tremendous sales and hype, and many were still playing and purchasing that title). When I attempted to explain to customers the concept ofMajora's Mask, they usually just seemed lost. Many thought Majora's Mask was an expansion or a rehash of Ocarina; some even thought it was just a special edition of the game.
Perhaps marketing for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was not in sync with the western audience at the time (or perhaps every customer I dealt with at the time was just dense). Anyways, regardless of my personal experience, Majora's Mask wasn't a stellar cash cow for Nintendo like Ocarina of Time had been, and that is probably why we'll never see another Zelda like it. Sad but true.
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