racketboy.com

Is this for an article for the site?

If so, it's probably worth it to narrow down the scope. A 4th gen or 5th gen focused list might come up with a pretty great selection, but if you're covering everything from Atari 2600 to Wii you could literally have a list of hundreds.

If we have hundreds of contenders that just means we can use a higher quality standard for picking the gems. Keep in mind these are hidden gems. So Street Fighter II, for example, probably doesn't quality. Nothing hidden about that gem. NBA Jam, also not hidden. Multiplatform should actually make it harder to find the hidden gems, since if it was multiplatform the creators suspected they had a larger audience.

It is for an article, but not to be exhaustive.

For this one, I'd like to present a good handful and then invite other suggestions in the comments and such.

Then we can keep expanding the guide every year or two

We probably also want to stick to titles where the various ports are all pretty good. So if the game is on 3 different systems, but only one version of it is any good, that's not a multiplatform gem.

marurun wrote:We probably also want to stick to titles where the various ports are all pretty good. So if the game is on 3 different systems, but only one version of it is any good, that's not a multiplatform gem.

That's a good rule of thumb. If there's mostly strong ones and one bad one, we could also just make note of it.

I nominate Fatal Fury 2. Fatal Fury Special was a better game, but 2 was still good and ported to more platforms. Also, more of the ports of 2 came to the US. Or we could say Fatal Fury 2/Special, since Special was kind of a Turbo Champion-style version of 2.

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy by Eurocom. Assumed to be shovelware or some kids license by many it's actually a sprawling Zelda style adventure with an intricately built world centred around ancient Egyptian mythology and a fairly unique twin perspective story progression where you play a main adventure based quest with one character and what would be the "dungeons" in a Zelda game are centred around the cursed Mummy character who must solve puzzles through his indestructible nature (akin to Wario in Warioland 2).

It was released on Xbox, PS2 and GC (and a mobile version) and is a legitimate hidden gem.

Betagam7 wrote:Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy by Eurocom. Assumed to be shovelware or some kids license by many it's actually a sprawling Zelda style adventure with an intricately built world centred around ancient Egyptian mythology and a fairly unique twin perspective story progression where you play a main adventure based quest with one character and what would be the "dungeons" in a Zelda game are centred around the cursed Mummy character who must solve puzzles through his indestructible nature (akin to Wario in Warioland 2).

It was released on Xbox, PS2 and GC (and a mobile version) and is a legitimate hidden gem.

It is a good game but I dunno if I would add it to that list. It's easy to run into some fatal game ending glitches that I don't think was ever fixed. No not everyone runs into it but it's also not that uncommon either. I think it had a handful of game enders.

Segata wrote:

Betagam7 wrote:Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy by Eurocom. Assumed to be shovelware or some kids license by many it's actually a sprawling Zelda style adventure with an intricately built world centred around ancient Egyptian mythology and a fairly unique twin perspective story progression where you play a main adventure based quest with one character and what would be the "dungeons" in a Zelda game are centred around the cursed Mummy character who must solve puzzles through his indestructible nature (akin to Wario in Warioland 2).

It was released on Xbox, PS2 and GC (and a mobile version) and is a legitimate hidden gem.

It is a good game but I dunno if I would add it to that list. It's easy to run into some fatal game ending glitches that I don't think was ever fixed. No not everyone runs into it but it's also not that uncommon either. I think it had a handful of game enders.

Good call on pointing this out but let's be 100% accurate. There is only one game breaking glitch in the game where saving at one particular checkpoint during the second Mummy stage and then immediately quitting the game causes the door to be locked in that one particular area when you restart. It can only occur in that exact circumstance on that exact stage and could easily be noted in the guide. No, it wasn't fixed because you couldn't release patches for consoles of that generation. It hardly detracts from the fact that this is a brilliant game and exactly the type of game that Racket asked for. All games have some flaws (If I'm not mistaken one of the recent Zelda titles had a very similar glitch) and the criteria was "hidden gems" not "flawless masterpieces".
Even to this day Sphinx barely gets the credit it deserves but one easily avoidable glitch shouldn't be the reason.

I posted on Twitter to get some input -- here's a tally of the responses

DOOM (?) -- @mlabowicz -- could be interesting to highlight certain ports that may be overlooked, but DOOM could be an article on it's own

Donkey Kong - Gameboy
Psi-Ops (PS2/XBox) -- @i_retrogamer
Warriors Orochi - @OlorinTheOtaku
Wreckless: the Yakuza Mission -- @robinhoodie "Although the Xbox version is the only version worth looking at as the GC and PS2 version are dreadful."
Toki -- @GabeMoralesVR " on the Amiga 500 is great, and way closer to the arcade game than the much more popular Genesis release."
ninja gaiden - @GabeMoralesVR on the lynx is p much the only really good port of the arcade game. Nes game obviously different.
Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion-- @GabeMoralesVR -- "Everybody remembers Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusion on the genesis, but the SMS/GG version was 10x better! The mechanics are more fleshed out. It plays more like duck takes on nes. For example, you can pick up boxes and barrels and throw them. There are also permanent upgrades, like ones that extends your life bar. The graphics style is more charming, imo, and the level design is outstanding. Instead of broken levels in chunks, the levels are huge and sprawling, some with multiple paths. Like bosses better, too"
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (PS1/Dreamcast), Bangai-O (Dreamcast/DS), Crusader of No Remorse (Saturn/PS1), Blackthorne (SNES/32X) - @RetroIcon
Splashdown, Psi-Ops, The Suffering, Extreme G3, Godzilla Unleashed, OutRun 2006, Robotech Battlecry, Snoopy Vs the Red Baron, The Warriors? - @GtoTheNextLevel
Faryland Story -@ruitunes - arcade game from Taito 1985. Only released to a console much later in PS2 Taito Legends 2 2005. JP only.

"would Contra on the MSX also count? Double the levels of the arcade game, and wildly different from the NES title. The arcade, NES, and MSX ports are all different. The NES one is missing a bunch of arcade stages, too. There is content in the MSX version not in the arcade version besides the extra levels, too. Like the shotgun weapon (not in arcade or NES)
Major changes: The MSX version has *NO LIVES* and *NO CONTINUES.* And *NO KONAMI CODE.* And *NO SPREADER.* Extremely hard.
Also, biggest change -- the MSX version does not scroll like the Arcade and NES version. It uses page flipping, ala Zelda.
Much like how the NES and MSX castlevanias were developed in tandem, the NES and MSX contras were developed in tandem, too."
- @GabeMoralesVR


@GodJinrai : Winback: Covert Operations, Vigilante 8 series, Robotech: Battlecry Also BattleTanx: Global Assault (PSX and N64)