Current gen hidden gems

[MrHealthy]

I wouldn't call folklore or Little Kings Story hidden. Under appreciated sure, but hidden no. I see them pop up on list all the time. Zack and Wiki is a stretch too, cause it does show up just not as much.

I want to say Shatter on PSN and PC but it ended up getting a fair bit of hype so its not really hidden either.

One that I do know is hidden is Big Bang Mini on the DS. Its a crazy little shmup which just oozes style out of its many varied and colourful graphical styles. As well it boasts a very good soundtrack which you can check out for free on http://www.bigbangmini.com/ (102 mb .zip download/.mp3's).

What I find really cool about it is that you have to juggle your time from moving your ship and firing, because you ship doesn't actually fire at all. Firing is preformed by flicking up anywhere that your ship is not and a firework will come up to attack your enemies. So you might be flicking on one half of the screen when enemy fire starts to get close to your ship and then suddenly your in a panic to move it around the stage to dodge (which is done by touching and dragging).

It also has tons of replay value with 101 Arcade levels (all of which have a secondary objectives). As well as Challenge Mode, Mission Mode, Relax Mode and Versus play. And an alarm clock for some reason.

[Octopod]

What about Raiden Fights Jet and Raiden 4? Sure they are not hidden to us but to the general gaming population? I don't know.

[Pulsar_t]

I second Big Bang Mini, but I only got it secondhand. Paying for a full-priced cart for a game that could easily have sold for peanuts on the likes of the Appstore isn't really my idea of value. According to VGChartz (utterly unreliable I know) it sold 30k, which makes it eligible for this topic.

Perhaps it could have performed better as a DSiWare title.

[MrHealthy]

It actually was never a full priced DS game. It launched at $19.99. I could see paying App store pricing for just Arcade mode, but with Mission and Challenge mode and Versus I don't see a problem with the $19.99 price tag.

In any case, I picked my copy up new for $9.99 a few months ago. Stupid stickers ripped the back of my cardboard sleeve though, may have to buy another to replace it.

[Pulsar_t]

$10 sounds reasonable. I wonder how much the cart+box+retail charges typically cost per NDS game?

[Niode]

It actually was never a full priced DS game. It launched at $19.99. I could see paying App store pricing for just Arcade mode, but with Mission and Challenge mode and Versus I don't see a problem with the $19.99 price tag.

In any case, I picked my copy up new for $9.99 a few months ago. Stupid stickers ripped the back of my cardboard sleeve though, may have to buy another to replace it.

Regarding the prices of future DS or '3DS' titles, Nintendo is going to have to rethink their strategy when it comes to competing with the iDevices from Apple. Especially now that games are getting bigger and the prices are staying very low.

Anyways sorry for off-topic.

[Hobie-wan]

Anyways, GET EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 2012. It clearly appears to be a budget looking title but don't let that fool you! It's insane fun and if you have a friend on hand the local co-op just adds to the awesome.

I've got a few copies of this game, haven't played it yet though. Swapped one of my copies for the excellent Vampire: The Masquerade though.

2017, but yeah.

Take a little bit of Robotron/Smash TV with a large arena of swarming enemies. Add a bunch of earned weapons, destructable buildings, and occasionally helpful red shirts. It isn't deep but it is definitely fun.

[Kenshiro28]

Dammit, I was gonna come back and correct that today after reading about Global Defense Force.

[pepharytheworm]

I thought I would add some cheap Wii games that people aren't giving the time of day:

Spyborgs: This is a Capcom Beat em up. Its a two player game but you can play solo and switch between the computer controlled character, theres always two. While this game is not the most indepth game it will remind you of Beat'em'ups of yore. You play as one of three cyborgs, you have a ninja girl with a katana, a blonde guy with a machine gun for a hand, and a huge gorilla shaped robot. As you progress you can up grade your character with money you obtain. One of the coolist thing about this game, I haven't seen before, is if you pick up health and it completely fills your life with extra to spare it will go to your team mate, no more fighting for health. I found it for $9.99

Ocean Commander: Think of this as cartoony version of In the Hunt. Its a bullet hell type shmups where you play as a sub. Its not the hardest shmups I have played but it is quite long with 19 levels. One of the coolest thing is you can fire in almost any direction. I got my copy for $9.99

Klonoa: Do I really need to say why this game is awesome. Its a remake of the PS platformer. Its almost identical but you get two extra hearts and can have english voice overs or the original. Graphically this is a nice looking game, it is on the short side but finding all the hidden guys can add to the challenge. I got my copy for $14.99.

Heavenly Gaurdian: This game was original going to be a Pocky & Rocky game but there were some copyright issues so they had to change the game. It plays very similiar to Pocky and Rocky but it is very hard. I won my copy but it sells for $5-$10.

The Monkey King/ Saint: Now these two games are a shallow as they come and can be beaten in one day, but it new cloud master games. MK goes for a cartoony look while saint goes for a real look. Both of these will cost you $5

Ultimate Shooting Collection: This game has 3 overlooked shmups. Only one was released in the US Chaos Field. All are bullet hell style but loads of fun. The only gripe I have is that the extras are not in this release. If you can get all three of these games on the dreamcast or gamecube it will be better but you'll be hard pressed to find them cheaper than buying this collection alone. It includes Karous, Radio Allergy and Chaos Field (my personal favorite). It cost me $12.99

[Gamerforlife]

I don't know if it's a hidden gem, but I loved The Darkness and despite good reviews it never seemed to get much attention. The game had style, good voice acting and dialogue and some particularly well thought out approaches to storytelling

There were some interesting gameplay ideas too, but this is one area of the game that could have been fleshed out a little bit more