What Game Was The Most Pleasant Surprise For You?

Post by **racketboy** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:49 am

Are there any games that took you by surprise in terms of quality?
These would be games that you didn't expect to be very good, but somehow you tried it out and loved it...

I have one in mind that I'm working on a review for that I think many of you will enjoy....

Post by **Mozgus** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:20 am

Chrono Trigger. After years of 2D Final Fantasies, all of which I found very dull, I constantly heard these same fans sing praise for CT. For many more years, I never even tried it. I just assumed it was nothing more than FF mediocrity. I barely bothered to glance at a few screenshots, and sure enough it looked like an FF game. I think somewhere around 2001 I finally tried the ROM, and I was hooked for a week, beating it over and over. One of the best RPGs ever made.

Post by **ohayes** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:21 am

Beyond Good and Evil, wasn't really expecting much but came away pleasantly surprised.

Blue Dragon is another example, wasn't expecting much but 40 hours later walked away with my favourite RPG experience since Xenogears.

Post by **Ivo** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:39 am

Usually I inform myself before playing, so I don't have that many surprises.

In any case, I can think of a relatively recent one - Advance Wars is great fun, and although I had played a little bit of this sort of game before (amazing Blue Byte games like the Battle Isle series) my brother usually played them and I just watched.

Another one that popped into my mind as I was just looking at the collection of old game cases is James Pond 2: Robocod. After playing the first one (which is decent, but not great) I was surprised to find such an excellent platformer.

One that probably surprised a lot of people (or maybe just the reviewers that then sung it's praises) is Cool Spot. Who would have thought that a commercial mascot game would be so good?

Ivo.

Post by **Mozgus** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:48 am

Ivo wrote:One that probably surprised a lot of people (or maybe just the reviewers that then sung it's praises) is Cool Spot. Who would have thought that a commercial mascot game would be so good?

Ivo.

Which version? I remember having a lot of fun with Cool Spot Goes to Hollywood, I believe it was. I rented it twice as a kid.

Post by **racketboy** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:56 am

Mozgus wrote:
Ivo wrote:One that probably surprised a lot of people (or maybe just the reviewers that then sung it's praises) is Cool Spot. Who would have thought that a commercial mascot game would be so good?

Ivo.
Which version? I remember having a lot of fun with Cool Spot Goes to Hollywood, I believe it was. I rented it twice as a kid.

Did anyone ever play the DOS Othello-like Cool Spot game? That thing was incredible when I was a kid and I'm now thinking about digging it back up...

Post by **D.D.D.** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:10 am

Gunstar Heroes... In a good way.
I saw it in GameFan way before any other mag back in the day; they were raving about it. I still was "meh" about it no matter how many issues they put previews in.
So GH had finally come out and I had long sold my Genesis for a SNES (best decision ever!) and now I was at boarding school (lotta reasons) sans SNES that was at home.
So I was without my beloved SNES and one time on a school excursion to a mall (we were literally in the middle of no where - town population, 800 - that's punishment), I saw a Babbages and went in. I saw Gunstar and thought why not as I had nothing else to spend money on in school normally.
Gunstar Heroes was the biggest surprise of my gaming life! My friends and I were all over GH like sexy on Jessica Alba in Into the Blue. We played in the middle of the night (the only time we could play on weekdays w/o getting caught by the dorm keepers) until my Genny was taken away. (We later stole it back and played more.)
Anyone that has not played GH must! One of the greatest run'n'gun games ever!

In a bad way... Phantasy Star 2.
My friends ranted and raved about it for weeks... So I got a Genesis and was totally let down by PS2 and all the 1st/2nd gen games... (Except Strider. Strider was f'n cool.) I still can't see the fun in it~ Meh. At least I had the SNES FF's.

Post by **racketboy** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:42 am

Great Gunstar story

Post by **Mozgus** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:07 pm

D.D.D. wrote:I had long sold my Genesis for a SNES (best decision ever!)

Blasphemy.

Post by **racketboy** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:12 pm

Mozgus wrote:
D.D.D. wrote:I had long sold my Genesis for a SNES (best decision ever!)
Blasphemy.

I was gonna say that too, but it's all a matter of what games you like....