Top 10 Underappreciated Game Franchises

Why "Underappreciated, you may ask. Well, none of these games are particularly underrated. In fact, all of them are rated highly. My issue is with the amount of people that know about and talk about them. henceforth, underrated! Anyway, here ya go...

10. Panzer Dragoon - On-rails Shooters in general aren't a huge market, but when the first Panzer Dragoon was announced, the video gaming world collectively shit themselves. The premise of the game is that you basically pilot an awesome laser-shooting dragon in a quest to save the world from other dragons. Dude. Holy shit! But, people are stupid. No good Sonic games meant poor sales for the Saturn, and in turn, poor sales for this game. It's a shame too, because the franchise is nothing but stellar throughout. The original is critically marveled, Panzer Dragoon Zwei  is better in every way, Panzer Dragoon Saga is an amazing RPG that could have spawned its own sub-series, and Panzer Dragoon Orta is a stellar Xbox title visually with perfect controls and an impressive story that shows the experience gained by making Saga an RPG. Alas, none of these games, three on the Saturn and one on the Xbox, sold very well at all, and Sega, understandably, canned the franchise. The only reason they're not higher is because only one game provides a lot of time allotted. They're all consider classics by the few that talk about them, which are far too few, and it doesn't help now, DOES IT?! YOU GUYS SUCK!!

9. Tomba! - Tomba! Was a (I hate saying this word but it fits too well) quirky action-platformer for the original Playstation. Growing up, and even today, I'm the only person I know that knows of it without me introducing it to them. I mean, how could anyone not love the idea of a pink-haired jungle boy chasing the evil pigs that stole his grandfather's bracelet. If that's not an earthshaking premise, what is?! Actually, now that I think about it, he actually reminds me a bit of Goku in the original Dragon Ball. In all seriousness though, both Tomba! and Tomba! 2 are excellent 2.5D platformers featuring over 130 levels each. Though not all are necessary to beating the main storyline, they're all fun and add a lot to the game as you throw pigs, beat them with maces, and fly around in a squirrel suit (yep, Tomba! did it way before Mario). The game is beautiful and highly detailed for the PS1, the gameplay is solid, the characters are awesome, and most of all, everything about it is amazing fun. Too bad you all HATE FUN!!

8. Ys - Honestly, I myself haven't known about these games for too long, but when I found out, I jumped on that shit... Hard... Like a nice, shapely, anyway, Ys is one of the longest running RPG franchises around. In its lifespan, between main releases and re-releases, Ys has appeared on 19 different consoles (20 if you count mobile phones). Yet, somehow, very few people seem to know it exists, despite almost everyone having a system to play it on. Every game in the series features great and unique combat, amazing art design, and some of the better stories in all of gaming. They've re-released every main title at least once, showing a dedication to improving and  their products to give the few fans they have the best experience possible. That kind of talent and passion, as well as the constantly putting their fans ahead of their own artistic arrogance, honestly deserves to be met with much more love and just plain a bigger audience than it currently possesses. Shame on you all!

7. Shenmue - I'm sure quite a few of you know these games exist, but I'm sure less of you have played it, and very few really appreciate what they did for gaming and what they were as not only games, but stories. I feel like Shenmue revolutionized story-telling in video games. Never had a game made a world and its characters so open (yeah, Shenmue did that, not GTA), and immersed you so richly in everything happening around you. For the first time, at least in a big budget game, you really got to live as the lead protagonist, creating a bond with him, his story, and those around him more than ever before. Of course, the actual story within was good, if it wasn't then none of this would matter. It's a heart-warming and motivating tale of tragedy, vengeance, and atonement, taking place in the biggest world video games had seen. And what did it get? The story of the original masterpiece, and especially its astounding sequel got cut short after two games due to poor sales not being able to match the tremendous budget needed to create the games. So due to poor marketing, insane expenses, making more copies of the original than there were Dreamcasts in existence, and a little bit of consumer ignorance, one of the best stories in gaming shall likely forever go without an end.

6. Gex - Ah, Gex. it's like Spyro meets James Bond, minus the shittiness of James Bond, plus awesome cliche movie and TV references. Honestly, as much as I love these games, there's not a whole lot more too them. They're based around Gex the Gecko, a couch potato obsessed with 80's movies and TV shows. He gets sucked into the television, another amusingly cliche movie homage, and must traverse through different movie-themed levels to get out. It's a 3D platformer, open world in the style of games like Spyro or Ratchet & Clank in that you're able to roam around yet there's still an established goal in order to progress past that certain level and ultimately beat the game. The controls are very tight, the humor is campy, stupid, drowned in references and cliches, but completely epic. There's not a lot more to say. Gex is a very fun, nostalgiac series for more than just its age, and isn't all that hard to find nowadays.

5. Bushido Blade - Bushido Blade may be, gameplay-wise, the most unique series on this list. Bushido Blade is a ninja fighting game unlike any other. It's slow and strategic, playing extremely similarly to how one would imagine a real sword fight (or sledgehammer or whatever you choose). Strategically placed strikes, blocks, and counters, the clashing of swords, and the looming knowledge that one well-placed hit will likely kill you. Or you might get lucky and simply lose the use of an arm or a leg, forcing you to battle with a major disadvantage, knowing you're almsot certain to fall from the next hit. It's incredibly realistic and precise, and it's probably the most intense fighter I've ever played, and one of the most intense video games in general, both the first and the second games. If you want a unique, realistic, intense fighting experience that's extremely rewarding and still very fun, PLAY IT NOW!!

4. Sparkster/Rocket Knight - The Sparkster games are elite among side-scrolling platformers. Swords, rocket jets, and mechs, perfect controlling side-scrolling through awesome environments, and the typical cheesy early 90's video game storyline, who could ask for more. Every game in the series (save the above average remake) is absolutely masterful. The first two games were Genesis/Mega Drive exclusives, and honestly, everything about these games is so amazing that I feel like if they'd marketed them like they did Sonic, or even in place of him, it could have made that console war an actual competition sales-wise. However, Sega didn't bother to buy the rights, so the third "spin-off" game made its way to the Super Nintendo and killed any hope of having another mascot to compete with Mario. As great as Konami is, they'd be gods amongst mortal game developers if this had become a long-running, console-selling series like it had the potential to be.

3. Disgaea - Disgaea is a stunningly underrated series. It has everything RPG fans look for. Awesome story, memorable characters, solid and tactical gameplay mechanics, humor, good dialogue, as well as many things that help sell games in the 21st century like Anime-style art, a huge game with tons of replayability, etc. But even with the sudden surge, at least among YouTube gamers, of the game's publisher, Atlus, this game has still gone terribly unheralded. Especially nowadays when everyone is either playing nothing but COD and Halo, or is looking for the furthest thing from those, you'd think someone famous among gamers would be like "HEY! DISGAEA! S'GOOD! S'GREAT! FFFFUCKING PLAY IT!!" Every game, and there are four main series games now, are all hilarious, intriguing, epic anime-inspired stories woven together by awesome characters, surprisingly solid English dubbing, and its own unique Strategy RPG battle system. Not to mention the expansive recruiting system that makes basically every playthrough different in terms of how you battle. This series really needs to be experienced to fully grasp what it's about, it really can't be explained in words.


2. Darkstalkers/Night Warriors (rant about Capcom's shit promotion of Resurrection) - The Darkstalkers series is a childhood favorite of mine. It was everything I love. Beautiful 2D Animation, monster movies, and fast-paces fighting games. You play as adaptations of classic characters such as The Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, sexy vampire chicks, the Sasquach, Lochness Monster, blah blah blah. Point is, it's awesome movie monsters duking it out with fast, tight controls, at the time revolutionary combo mechanics, an amazing art style, and brutal difficulty. Any fighting fan needs to pick up at least one of these games, or get Resurrection on Xbox Live or PSN. Ya know, since Capcom decided not to promote its release in the slightest so no one can buy it so they have a go-to when people bug them about a new Darkstalkers game!... Yeah, number 2, Darkstalkers.

1. Gargoyle's Quest/ - This is, by far, no question, the most underrated franchise in all of gaming. Three elite platformers, three different systems, unique gameplay still not replicated, and pure badassery throughout. The first two are 8-bit side scrolling classics with unique hovering mechanics and a dark but not too serious tone, classics, but not revolutionary. However, the third and final game, Demon's Crest, changes all that. Demon's Crest pushes the graphical capabilities of the Super Nintendo to its limit, rivaled only, in my opinion, by the likes of Castlevania: Dracula X. The gameplay is spot on, the levels are large in both length and height, making perfect use of the wall-grappling and hover mechanics, after defeating certain enemies, Firebrand gets unique forms that resemble the power-ups in Mega Man X, and the game itself is gritty, dark, awesome, and brutally difficult. Each game is among the best on their respective systems, but Demon's Crest is what pushes this series from number 7 or so to number one for me.


I know it's been a while, I've been trying really hard to figure out a way to make decent quality videos for this and find a way to record gameplay videos, both for my youtube channel. But alas, looks like that channel's sticking to rants for now. Though I'm considering a podcast-ey type format where I just tangent out the ass about a subject. Anyway, hope you liked it, follow @SycoMantis1991, youtube channel: Sycotic Soliloquies, yada yada. And leave comments/suggestions here or those places. I swear there will be more, I'm in the middle of working on three different lists, one gaming, one anime, and one music, so variety too.

Greatest Consoles by Generation

As the title states, I take a look at each video game console generation, talk a little about it, and declare the best of each proverbial bunch (excluding the current one of course).

First Generation:

The Consoles - Magnavox Odyssey, Odyssey 200, Pong, Caleco Telstar, Nintendo Color TV Game

This one's kind of hard to determine as video games were in their infancy and quite frankly, none of these are very good. Pong is famous as the first arcade game to garner mainstream popularity. The Odyssey is the very first home console, and to be honest, it shows. Every game is more or less the same thing, 2 white hovering dots. The only thing that brings diversity to these games is the overlays you put on the screen to simulate variety. Caleco Telstar basically took pong and rereleased it a few thousand times with different sports variations, ie Pong Hockey and Pong Tennis. Ok for the time but not exactly original. But after a view versions they did come out with the first shooting games (target and skeet), with a gun peripheral. Very new and innovative, but unfortunately, not very good. The Odyssey 200 is basically an updated odyssey, but with multiplayer function and scoring (of sorts). Nintendo also released their Color TV Game or CTG consoles in rare quantity in japan only. It's nothing new, jus what everyone else did with slightly better graphics.

The Verdict: Odyssey- The very first home system, insanely unique for its time, more creative than the other systems, and at $100 at the time, the best value.

2nd Generation:


The Consoles: Fairfield Channel F, Atari 2600, Magnavox Odyssey 2, Intellivision, Atari 5200

The 2nd generation, commonly knows as the "Early 8-Bit Era" started with the Fairfield Channel F. Released in 1976 under the title Video Entertainment System, it  quickly changed its name when Atari released their system. This short-sightedness and belief that there'd be no competition lead to a quick demise as only 26 games were released on a system that technologically held up to nothing else at the time. I'm sure everyone's at least heard of Atari. The kings of 8-bit gaming was the first to use cartiges, and with a flurry of classic games, and over 30 millio units sold, is one of the legendary (if that can be used for the subject matter0 consoles in gaming. The Odyssey 2 was the first system to feature built-in programs for its games (nowadays id use this to rent games, load the data up and return), and the first to feature D&D-style games (one of the best kinds), keyboard add-ons and 2 separate controllers for playing (not a good thing but it's there).  Next is the Intellivision ("Intelligent Telivision"), this console was a solid competitor to the Atari 2600 as far as graphics and game-quality, but at over 100 dollars more at the time, it was bound to lose the war. The Atari 5200 is just a big, ugly, awkward waste. Let's not waste time on it.


The Verdict: Atari 2600 - As if you had any doubts. The 2600 was the father of 8-bit gaming, hosted the biggest and est catalog, and outsold its closest competitor by 10 times as many units (30 million to Intellivision's 3 million). E.T. is a bit of a stain on the 2600, but not enough to knock it from possibly the clearest top spot on this list.

3rd Generation:


The Consoles: Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega SG-1000, Casio PV-1000, Epoch Cassette Vision, Sega Master System, Atari 7800

Well, this is barely worth my time. I'm sure we all know the NES wiped the floor with everything else here. A host of classic games such as Castlevania and Super Mario Bros, as well as being a technological marvel for its time, a flurry of add-ons, and a fairly decent price, nothing else could imagine competing at the time. The Sega Master System was the first system to feature backwards compatibility with its Japanese-only counterpart, the Sega SG-1000, but none of the other systems did anything worthwhile outside of that.


The Verdict: If I have to tell you, you're skipping my paragraphs and I don't appreciate that. Though I'd understand.

4th Generation:


The Consoles: TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, CD-i, Neo Geo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

There's no need to go into all the systems. CD-i isn't even truly a video game system. Anyway, this generation was dominated by Nintendo and Sega. Both the SNES and the Genesis boasted gorgeous 16-bit glory, a large cast of great games, and flagship franchises (Nintendo's Mario and Sega's Sonic). But the slightly smoother gameplay of the Nintendo, plus its compatibility with the Gameboy, accompanied by Sega's money-wasting accessories such as the 32x, gives Nintendo the edge here.


The Verdict: Super Nintendo. I may need to reinvest in one after all this reminiscing.

5th Generation:


The Consoles: Amiga CD32, 3DO, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, Playstation, Nintendo 64

So many consoles. Let's see, the Amiga was Commodor's first foray into gaming, and it fell flat on its 32-bit ass. The 3DO boasted graphical prowess for the time, but no one was gonna pay $700 for it, so it failed. The Jaguar was hyped as the first 64-bit console, but it really wasnt, add the fact that the games suck and its accessories failed to even work, and yea, didn't end too well. The Saturn was a decent enough followup to the great Genesis, but it only had a month of glory before the boys at Sony came out of nowhere and blew everybody out of the water. Stunning visuals, amazing games (Gran Turismo, Tekken, Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter, Final Fantasy VII-IX, Darkstalkers), the first to feature games so technically powerful and epicly long they needed multiple discs, and an assload of 3rd party titles, it clearly deserves the 102 million units sold (shattering the SNES' record of 49.10 million. Finally, a year and a half later, Nintendo gave Sony much needed competition with the Nintendo 64. The first true 64-bit console boasted a host of classic games such as Super Mario 64, Goldeneye (also the first multiplayer shooter), Super Smash Bros., and Zelda's Ocarina of Time, the N64 quickly soared over the 30 million mark, but it was just too late to the table.


The Verdict: While the N64 was a great system, the Playstation had a more consistent and much larger array of titles, as well as 2 extra years under their belt, and by far the best selling sytem to date. so... Sony wins.

6th Generation:


The Consoles: Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, Microsoft XBox

The Dreamcast is a tragic story to me. The first system to support online play, to have its own modem hookup, by far the best graphics in gaming when it was released in 1999 in North America, and a criminally underrated selection of games. It was truly ahead of its time, it was a system that was truly like having an arcade at home, with a built-in computer and the only way outside of computers to play online. The problem was when it was released. Approximately 1 year before the Playstation 2 and 2 years before the XBox and Gamecube. This would be a good thing if the market wasnt still flooded by new releases for the Playstation and N64 and even on a smaller scale, the Saturn. The system still sold over 10 million units in its lifetime before the PS2 came along and destroyed them in sales. Boasting moderately superior graphics and bigger franchise titles along with a larger collection and a familiar name. A few months later, miserably losing the war with Sony and two more consoles on the horizon, the Dreamcast was discontinued in March 2001 in North America. It had some innovative features, some amazing games, and great graphics for its time. It just came out at the worst time. Too late to corner a market that was still in love with the Playstation and had a moderately new Nintendo 64 to wait for new games on, as well as being litered with other consoles with more recognized names on the horizon. It also came too early to utilize the kind of technology that the other three later systems had. It innovated everything but it was too rushed and perfected nothing. Making it a great system too revolutionary for its time but not revolutionary enough to compete with the next wave of systems.

Ok, now that I'm done with memory lane, time for the other three systems. The Playstation 2 came out in late 2000 with graphics far superior to the Dreamcast and an all-star launch lineup consisting of Armored Core 2, Dynasty Warriors 2, MAdden NFL 2001, Tekken Tag Tournament, Ridge Racer V, TimeSplitters, SSX, Unreal Tournament and more, the PS2 quickly mopped the floor with the Dreamcast's then-record $97 million opening day profits by breaking the $250 million mark on day one. The PS2 still has the biggest library of games and is the only system of this generation still recieving new games. Franchises like Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Auto, God of War, Tekken, Final Fantasy, and Ratchet & Clank helped make the PS2 the highest selling game console of all time with over 150 million sold, and still going. Next up were the Nintendo Gamecube and the Microsoft XBox, both released 3 days apart approximately a year after the PS2. The Gamecube didn't have much of a launch lineup with mostly sports games the PS2 already had, the only noteworthy one being Star Wars Rogue Squadron II. But the namesake alone was enough to propel it to near 22 million sales. Not near Playstation, but about as close as anyone would get. Soon after release, games like Metroid Prime and Super Smash Bros. Melee helped the system keep a dedicated following. The XBox, Microsoft's first foray into gaming, came out to less than stellar numbers. But once some experts picked up Halo: Combat Evolved, that all changed. The high praise as well as stellar graphics and 10's across the board from every site and zine in existence (prectically), caused numbers to shoot upward. XBox then became the first console to support online gaming (aside from the no longer significant Dreamcast), with Halo 2 setting the standard by which multiplayer games are played. The Halo franchise along with other popular titles such as Project Gotham Racing, Jet Set Radio Future, and the beyond epic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic saw the XBox's numbers reach over 24 million in console sales by the time it was discontinued in 2006.


The Verdict: The Dreamcast did a lot of things, but its competitors did it all better. The XBox was the first console to perfect online gaming and establish it as the mainstay of gaming that it is today, as well as releasing the mega-popular Halo franchise and one of the greatest RPG's ever. Nintendo did pretty much what was expected, up the ante on their great franchises while releasing a few underrated gems. Playstation blew all sales records away, boasts the largest catalog of any system, and was the first to jump on the online bandwagon after XBox popularized it. Also, DMC, MGS, God of War. Winner: Playstation 2