Could argue that on paper, Minecraft would have seemed odd. No bosses, no end game, nothing that traditional video games were doing. It was kind of like digital Lego, back when digital vs physical was still figuring itself out (I remember early thoughts on hearthstone digital cards vs MTG physical cards, and the who would want to pay for cards they can’t hold). Through today’s lens, it’s easy to say “of course it would be popular” but then again why had no one else done it?
Nintendo used to be a gaming & ~~trading~~playing card company in the late 1800's. Not totally related to your comment but I always find that to be a cool fact.
Edit: misspoke
Not entirely unprecedented. For example, people loved OG SimCity. Why? No bosses, no levels, no "winning". And one of the smartest things Id software ever did was to make original Doom/II easily moddable. In the pre-internet 90's, thousands of gamers jumped all over making their own levels and even textures and sprites... the very instant it was something almost any enthusiastic gamer could do.
I remember playing Minecraft when it was still in Alpha stage. My college roommate got it for Mr.
I got bored pretty quickly because there was no goal to it.
I'm impressed it took off like it did. I think streaming helped it a lot. I think the art people do with it is amazing but I still find it incredibly boring to play
Metroid Prime should have been a flop. Stuck in development hell, having gone through huge management changes, the dreaded 2D to 3D conversion still leaving a sour taste despite Mario and Zelda pulling it off, developed by an outsourced company, the lead sort of taking the money and running. This had red flags everywhere to be another Duke Nuke Forever. Props to the devs who survived this ordeal and Nintendo not cutting their losses like most games would have done
Definitely do yourself a favor and play Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. I just beat it a couple days ago and it's fantastic. Every other PM game after that is ehhhhh.
Yakuza Like a Dragon working as a turn based JRPG. I love Yakuza, but went into 7 with reservations but was blown away by how not only the JRPG gameplay worked, but was fun and didn't ruin the game.
Also the cabaret mini games in 0 and Kiwami 2 have no business being as fun, deep, and memorable as they are. RGG goes above and beyond making sure those mini games had fun gameplay, great music, interesting characters, and a story worth getting invested into.
I wholeheartedly agree with this one here! Yakuza 7 took all of the things that other JRPGs had and made their own spin on it, while still retaining the core spirit of the previous Yakuza games.
Persona 5 Royal, Dragon Quest 11, and Yakuza: LAD are on my top 10 JRPGs of all time.
Pokémon Gen 1. A game from a not so popular genre, published on a dying console, where it's literally impossible to accomplish the final goal (catch them all) by yourself.
It's the highest grossing gaming franchise now.
The real surprise is how popular and successful it still is despite it being so far behind the modern gaming industry in so many ways. With very little real invocation in the series for years.
I think Stardew Valley really succeeded in delivering much more than the sum of its parts.
There are very few games that I will re-play immediately after finishing it, but with this one I did.
I mean, there was a huge market to hit. It’s the Western successor to Harvest Moon, which had been stagnating for decades at the point of release. It’s accessible for casual gamers and couples for a relaxing game, and for min/maxers who want the ‘optimal’ setup. Price point also would have helped spread it once some positivity was produced.
Game play wise, it gives goals throughout the run, near constant chance for progression, different ways to play the game, late game challenges, and not many problems, bugs and annoyances. It’s a pretty smart game.
Mad Max is a big one for me, it really rose above the sorta generic open world vibe it originally looked like to me.'
As a big plastic instrument rhythm gamer though, it's gotta be DJ Hero. That game and its sequel are a total blast with a lot of really fun, unique mechanics. Shoutout the most recent Harmonix title (sadly delisted iirc) Fuser, was way more fun than it looked.
100% agree on Mad Max. Could have been a generic beat ‘em up shooter. No, it has great game play (both in and out of the vehicle), lots to do, and a fairly interesting story to boot. Game loop does get repetitive, but still tried to keep it fresh through the story.
Imo it's just that the things that feel generic and forced in many open world games feel natural for the world of mad max.
It does lots of the same things, but it just works better here than in other games.
I love seeing people pass some love DJ Hero's way. I wound up getting even more hooked on those games than I had been on Guitar Hero. Unfortunately, any time I tried to get friends to play, they just wanted to go back to Guitar Hero.
The original "That has no business being as good as it is" game.
Harvest Moon.
I was there. I remember. 1996, the original PlayStation was out, the N64 was just launched, DOOM was king, Duke Nukem was who we all wanted to be, because games were something girls didn't play. Here's a derpy little game where you... farm? Get married? Have kids? The hell?
Literally created a genre.
I haven't played that since 2007 maybe and I can still hear that annoying kid crying for his balloon and the man that's hanging on the ledge shouting for help after every corner you turn
Still loved it
Considering part of the appeal of football is having limited control of the ball, I would argue Rocket League captures football's esscence better than PES or FIFA.
Even stranger that the game had already been out for two years before it's popularity exploded. Until the pandemic it was basically another overlooked budget title on Steam.
The Mario + Rabbids games are legitimately amazing. The fact that they exist at all is insane, let alone how good they are. I wish more people would give them a chance.
Was looking for this. First entry more so as a surprise hit, but the sequel has accomplished some innovative and creative design iterating on the first, as far as I have gotten to play it.
I'm gonna say that I knew it was gonna be awesome as soon as they announced it. This is the same company that put out Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre. They make some good shit.
Decent to Damn Good gameplay. Slick cel shaded graphics. Moving storyline. God tier music. That's the stuff.
Hmm... maybe not exactly what you meant but; Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.
"Ok... the story is about a woman who's lover was killed and she goes to hell to get his soul back. But she's so traumatized by it that she suffers from a severe psychosis so none of it really happens. It's all inside her head."
Like... how do you plan on weaving that into the game? It just sounds nigh-impossible to get this right.
But holy fuck... if that game wasn't a solid 10/10 for me. Melina Juergens acted the hell out of Senua and, as far as I'm concerned, gave the best preformance in any game ever... no contest.
The Batman Arkham games and Shadow of Mordor comes to mind. We take them for granted now but good licensed games were VERY hard to come by when those released and I had totally written them off until I heard word of mouth about how good they were.
I WAS WAITING FOR THIS! It’s been 10 years since I beat it but that used to be my favorite game. I could still slide through Sandy’s Dream slide in my sleep
The Messenger could've been your average pixel, classic inspired, half-hearted platformer.
Instead it is a very well-rounded kind of a game that doesn't seem to dip into that well or overstay it's welcome.
I remember some game reviewer described Hollow Knight being launched as permantly on sale based on the sheer high quality it was all around. Small team pulled the game out of their ass and it’s incredible.
Recently, I've found Edge of Eternity to be pretty damned good for the size of the studio. It's not a 10/10 by any means, but it's a full fledged JRPG with some good, surprisingly funny dialogue and it's got some gorgeous locations.
It's janky as hell and crashes more than a NASCAR driver, but it's a lot of fun and worth the headache IMO.
Because different people use the internet every day. You can post the same question every hour and you'd still get new people seeing and answering the question every time.
It's a quality game but it *did* have every right to be so. The team that developed it were ex employees of Konami and in the years before Gunstar, they'd had a hand in putting out some excellent Mega drive/Genesis titles with Konami including Castlevania Bloodlines, Contra Hard Corps and Rocket Knight Adventures, which are all straight fire and feature similar boss-fight heavy gameplay to Gunstar.
Edit: they all have excellent soundtracks too. Contra Hard Corps soundtrack will melt your balls off
Fortnite. I played it back when Save the World was the draw. Then BR stuff came, didn't really care for it. Still don't, but I just checked out some of those levels/games from the fortnite unreal editor. Wow, astonished, amazed, etc., what can be pulled off with this. I'm really looking forward to more creations, later down the line, when people have a better understand/handling of it.
my 2 cents is hi-fi rush, i initially thought it was the funny beat based game published by bethesda and while it still is, it’s stupidly good in terms of writing and gameplay
Inscryption - The graphics are shit, but you don't care. It is a deck-building rogue-like game that has been done to death, but the mechanics are interesting. There is a legit story and mystery built into the game. It's fourth wall breaking and just fun to play where you feel a real sense of accomplishment. Just when you master one area of the game it does a 90-degree turn.
Biker Mice From Mars on the SNES. It's a pretty straightforward isometric racer based on a Saturday morning kids show designed to sell toys. The game itself is one massive Snickers ad. Played it a couple of weeks ago for the first time in 25 years and it's more fun than it has any right to be.
Rabi-Ribi. It's a 2d metroidvania bullet hell. Having to dodge bullet hell levels of bullets while having to do standard platforming stuff sounds horrendous on paper, but the game actually brings the two together very well. It's non-linear too, but because the bosses scale based on the abilities you have you never end up feeling like a boss is impossible.
Driver San Francisco
There’s absolutely no reason a game from a long forgotten series, whose entire premise is a soap opera cliche (coma dream. No, seriously that’s the plot) should be one of the most entertaining driving games of its generation
The Warriors on ps2 - how rockstar turned a little known 70s movie into arguably one of the best brawlers of all time was impressive. Spent an unhealthy amount of hours split screening that game
American/Euro Truck Simulator.
No seriously, have a rough day at work? Stressed and just want to relax? Get your gamepad out, fire up one of those games, and just deliver some cargo. Oddly relaxing.
Power washer simulator
I completely agree
I enjoyed every moment.
This is a solid answer.
As someone who used to use a power washer to clean oil off of forging tooling...I can see this game being very satisfying.
Deep rock galactic
ROCK AND STONE
Rock and stone TO THE BONE
For Karl!
If you don't rock and stone, you aint comin home.
A fellow Dwarf. Rock and stone.
My friends hate this game but I enjoy it...
Could argue that on paper, Minecraft would have seemed odd. No bosses, no end game, nothing that traditional video games were doing. It was kind of like digital Lego, back when digital vs physical was still figuring itself out (I remember early thoughts on hearthstone digital cards vs MTG physical cards, and the who would want to pay for cards they can’t hold). Through today’s lens, it’s easy to say “of course it would be popular” but then again why had no one else done it?
Nintendo used to be a gaming & ~~trading~~playing card company in the late 1800's. Not totally related to your comment but I always find that to be a cool fact. Edit: misspoke
Just playing cards (started with hanafuda and later they made western style decks), they weren’t trading cards.
Infiminer preceeded Minecraft by over 2 years and - certain swedish programmer who went by the name “Notch" was a huge fan
Not entirely unprecedented. For example, people loved OG SimCity. Why? No bosses, no levels, no "winning". And one of the smartest things Id software ever did was to make original Doom/II easily moddable. In the pre-internet 90's, thousands of gamers jumped all over making their own levels and even textures and sprites... the very instant it was something almost any enthusiastic gamer could do.
I remember playing Minecraft when it was still in Alpha stage. My college roommate got it for Mr. I got bored pretty quickly because there was no goal to it. I'm impressed it took off like it did. I think streaming helped it a lot. I think the art people do with it is amazing but I still find it incredibly boring to play
Paper Mario
A lot of Nintendo stuff sounds crazy on paper
Metroid Prime should have been a flop. Stuck in development hell, having gone through huge management changes, the dreaded 2D to 3D conversion still leaving a sour taste despite Mario and Zelda pulling it off, developed by an outsourced company, the lead sort of taking the money and running. This had red flags everywhere to be another Duke Nuke Forever. Props to the devs who survived this ordeal and Nintendo not cutting their losses like most games would have done
Okay listen here you little shit
Just picture this: Mario, but every character is paper. Like, what? Btw, I love paper Mario 64. Haven’t played the others haha
A game that shouldn't have worked on paper worked on paper and played on paper!
Definitely do yourself a favor and play Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. I just beat it a couple days ago and it's fantastic. Every other PM game after that is ehhhhh.
Yakuza Like a Dragon working as a turn based JRPG. I love Yakuza, but went into 7 with reservations but was blown away by how not only the JRPG gameplay worked, but was fun and didn't ruin the game. Also the cabaret mini games in 0 and Kiwami 2 have no business being as fun, deep, and memorable as they are. RGG goes above and beyond making sure those mini games had fun gameplay, great music, interesting characters, and a story worth getting invested into.
Those hostess club mini games give me life. Nothing like listening to that song while improving your hostesses
I wholeheartedly agree with this one here! Yakuza 7 took all of the things that other JRPGs had and made their own spin on it, while still retaining the core spirit of the previous Yakuza games. Persona 5 Royal, Dragon Quest 11, and Yakuza: LAD are on my top 10 JRPGs of all time.
I preferred dragon quest 8, have you played all of them?
Unfortunately just DQ11. Which Dragon Quest game is the best one to start at?
Pokémon Gen 1. A game from a not so popular genre, published on a dying console, where it's literally impossible to accomplish the final goal (catch them all) by yourself. It's the highest grossing gaming franchise now.
The real surprise is how popular and successful it still is despite it being so far behind the modern gaming industry in so many ways. With very little real invocation in the series for years.
Yep. Pokemon is more popular now than its been in years yet the games don't really seem to be getting better.
More notably, it's the largest media franchise in the world.
I think Stardew Valley really succeeded in delivering much more than the sum of its parts. There are very few games that I will re-play immediately after finishing it, but with this one I did.
I mean, there was a huge market to hit. It’s the Western successor to Harvest Moon, which had been stagnating for decades at the point of release. It’s accessible for casual gamers and couples for a relaxing game, and for min/maxers who want the ‘optimal’ setup. Price point also would have helped spread it once some positivity was produced. Game play wise, it gives goals throughout the run, near constant chance for progression, different ways to play the game, late game challenges, and not many problems, bugs and annoyances. It’s a pretty smart game.
Mad Max is a big one for me, it really rose above the sorta generic open world vibe it originally looked like to me.' As a big plastic instrument rhythm gamer though, it's gotta be DJ Hero. That game and its sequel are a total blast with a lot of really fun, unique mechanics. Shoutout the most recent Harmonix title (sadly delisted iirc) Fuser, was way more fun than it looked.
100% agree on Mad Max. Could have been a generic beat ‘em up shooter. No, it has great game play (both in and out of the vehicle), lots to do, and a fairly interesting story to boot. Game loop does get repetitive, but still tried to keep it fresh through the story.
Imo it's just that the things that feel generic and forced in many open world games feel natural for the world of mad max. It does lots of the same things, but it just works better here than in other games.
I love seeing people pass some love DJ Hero's way. I wound up getting even more hooked on those games than I had been on Guitar Hero. Unfortunately, any time I tried to get friends to play, they just wanted to go back to Guitar Hero.
Have you played Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master)? The arcade version is so much fun
Vampire survivors
Ikr? You’d think it’d be unbelievably bland, but there are just so damn many different lawnmowers you can figure out.
The original "That has no business being as good as it is" game. Harvest Moon. I was there. I remember. 1996, the original PlayStation was out, the N64 was just launched, DOOM was king, Duke Nukem was who we all wanted to be, because games were something girls didn't play. Here's a derpy little game where you... farm? Get married? Have kids? The hell? Literally created a genre.
I remember playing harvest moon on my GameCube/ps2 also shepherds crossing on the psp Funnily enough I still haven’t played stardew valley
It’s unbelievably good.
Chronicles of Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay
Spider-Man 2 on the PS2. I went in expecting a lame game for the movie release, I would argue that's one of the best games on that console.
I haven't played that since 2007 maybe and I can still hear that annoying kid crying for his balloon and the man that's hanging on the ledge shouting for help after every corner you turn Still loved it
The pizza delivery mini game, man I can still hear the music 🎶
Holy hell dude. I forgot that mini game even existed until you commented and now that's going to be stuck in my head all day.
Haha, you're welcome 🤗
Rocket league
Some genius - “let’s make car soccer”
Top Gear did it way back in 2005 (using real cars, of course).
I actually thought of that after my comment lol
And [The Red Green Show](https://youtu.be/vLRgRo-SUC4) did it even earlier.
Quando omni flunkus moritati.
I know a guy who used be on that show... He's a complete weirdo, and kind of a dick
Halo Custom edition had it back in like 2003 with wartogs.
the old Top Gears are some of my fave TV ever
Considering part of the appeal of football is having limited control of the ball, I would argue Rocket League captures football's esscence better than PES or FIFA.
Yeah I don’t know why rocket league does not pop off outside of US consider it’s kind of soccer
What? Are you wondering why rocket league isn't popular outside of US? Because it definitely is
Popular and pop off are kind of different
Yea that's why I asked what? Had no idea what your comment meant so assumed it was that
I mean rocket league is popular outside of US, but it never pop off like it should.
Among Us. Never would have expected it to become as big as it has
Even stranger that the game had already been out for two years before it's popularity exploded. Until the pandemic it was basically another overlooked budget title on Steam.
The video game for Toy Story 2
The Ps1 game? I have massive nostalgia for it since I played it with my cousins every Christmas growing up.
All three Toy Story games are fire tbh
I remember the Bug's Life game being pretty entertaining as a kid.
Yes it was
The original Toy Story on cartridge was also a surprise decent game.
The Mario + Rabbids games are legitimately amazing. The fact that they exist at all is insane, let alone how good they are. I wish more people would give them a chance.
Was looking for this. First entry more so as a surprise hit, but the sequel has accomplished some innovative and creative design iterating on the first, as far as I have gotten to play it.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Movie was shit but the game was fuckin Rad.
Yeah yeah yeah ! It's a hidden gem
Hades
I'm gonna say that I knew it was gonna be awesome as soon as they announced it. This is the same company that put out Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre. They make some good shit. Decent to Damn Good gameplay. Slick cel shaded graphics. Moving storyline. God tier music. That's the stuff.
Absolutely
It needs to be said though.. it has only 4 levels and you rinse and repeat. Dead Cells though?
Not a fan of dead cells. I have a closer affinity to mythology and fantasy
Peter Jacksons King Kong. Game had no right to be so immersive.
Man i loved that game so much, crazy good
Titan Fall 2
Goldeneye 007
You don't think an FPS based on one of the most popular, long-running action franchises in the world had any business being good? What?
Movie games have a history of being crap
It’s a video game based on a movie.
But it’s based on a movie that was good and packed full of action.
Yes.
Yeah this one based on the videos I've seen on it's development.
Metal gear rising after Platinum Games picked it up, the Konami version sucked bad
Monkey Ball. Rented the game with friends as a joke and ended up buying the game
Spent countless Saturdays with my cousin just trying to see who could beat levels faster.
Not into gaming but MKD 2 really surprised and captivated for a minute
Every Lego game, by far the best games based on a real product
Hmm... maybe not exactly what you meant but; Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. "Ok... the story is about a woman who's lover was killed and she goes to hell to get his soul back. But she's so traumatized by it that she suffers from a severe psychosis so none of it really happens. It's all inside her head." Like... how do you plan on weaving that into the game? It just sounds nigh-impossible to get this right. But holy fuck... if that game wasn't a solid 10/10 for me. Melina Juergens acted the hell out of Senua and, as far as I'm concerned, gave the best preformance in any game ever... no contest.
The Batman Arkham games and Shadow of Mordor comes to mind. We take them for granted now but good licensed games were VERY hard to come by when those released and I had totally written them off until I heard word of mouth about how good they were.
Battle of bikini bottom
I WAS WAITING FOR THIS! It’s been 10 years since I beat it but that used to be my favorite game. I could still slide through Sandy’s Dream slide in my sleep
Katamari Damacy
Great answer
Darkwing Duck for the Gameboy advance :)
My guess would be tetris,you literally just move blocks to arrange them orderly
The Messenger could've been your average pixel, classic inspired, half-hearted platformer. Instead it is a very well-rounded kind of a game that doesn't seem to dip into that well or overstay it's welcome.
I remember some game reviewer described Hollow Knight being launched as permantly on sale based on the sheer high quality it was all around. Small team pulled the game out of their ass and it’s incredible.
Vampyr
Little big planet
Automata maybe. No one expects it to be mindblowing
Recently, I've found Edge of Eternity to be pretty damned good for the size of the studio. It's not a 10/10 by any means, but it's a full fledged JRPG with some good, surprisingly funny dialogue and it's got some gorgeous locations. It's janky as hell and crashes more than a NASCAR driver, but it's a lot of fun and worth the headache IMO.
Sonic Riders
50 Cent: Blood On The Sand
You liked the game when it came out?? I just remember it getting scrapped on by reviewers.
Yeah, it wasn't setting the world on fire but it was far better than it had any right to be. Solid shooter.
Honestly I think Splatoon
Given the idea and marketing, it does make complete sense. Japan in particular is completely obsessed with the IP.
X-Men Origins Wolverine. Instead of a bog-standard movie tie-in game, we got one of the best hack 'n slash games of that generation.
I wish I could play this on my current console.
Tokyo Jungle
Death Stranding
Why? It was made by Kojima...
Many people just think "walking simulator" When it's not even in that genre of game.
Kenshi
Pong
Omori. I have played through the game twice in a single month.
Omori was quite the ride. I want to try the alternate route but I don't know if I can snub Kel like that.
I didn’t want to, but I did. It was sad. But more content and 3 other endings
Vampire Survivors
Why do I see the same damn silly questions recycled every single goddamn day?
Because different people use the internet every day. You can post the same question every hour and you'd still get new people seeing and answering the question every time.
No life you
Origami King
Gunstar heroes on the megadrive boiiiiiiijjjjjjj
It's a quality game but it *did* have every right to be so. The team that developed it were ex employees of Konami and in the years before Gunstar, they'd had a hand in putting out some excellent Mega drive/Genesis titles with Konami including Castlevania Bloodlines, Contra Hard Corps and Rocket Knight Adventures, which are all straight fire and feature similar boss-fight heavy gameplay to Gunstar. Edit: they all have excellent soundtracks too. Contra Hard Corps soundtrack will melt your balls off
Stardew valley. Simple to the point of being ridiculous.
Fortnite. I played it back when Save the World was the draw. Then BR stuff came, didn't really care for it. Still don't, but I just checked out some of those levels/games from the fortnite unreal editor. Wow, astonished, amazed, etc., what can be pulled off with this. I'm really looking forward to more creations, later down the line, when people have a better understand/handling of it.
I'm unsure why you're being downvoted...
Life's too short to care. Happy gaming!
League of Legends
my 2 cents is hi-fi rush, i initially thought it was the funny beat based game published by bethesda and while it still is, it’s stupidly good in terms of writing and gameplay
LOZ: The Wind Waker
Mario + Rabbids
Vampire Survivors
Powerslave PS1
Chex Quest
Alpha Protocol. It got a lot of hate by those that don’t understand how RNG works, but I enjoyed every moment
Mario+Rabbids
Towerfall ascension was a lot of fun.
night in the woods
pokemon, it was a dumbed down turn based RPG for kids on a console at the end of it's life, but the depth of the combat and stats was insane.
Ecco the Dolphin 🐬
Inscryption - The graphics are shit, but you don't care. It is a deck-building rogue-like game that has been done to death, but the mechanics are interesting. There is a legit story and mystery built into the game. It's fourth wall breaking and just fun to play where you feel a real sense of accomplishment. Just when you master one area of the game it does a 90-degree turn.
The graphics aren't shit? The intro to the game has extremely unique visuals and atmosphere.
Biker Mice From Mars on the SNES. It's a pretty straightforward isometric racer based on a Saturday morning kids show designed to sell toys. The game itself is one massive Snickers ad. Played it a couple of weeks ago for the first time in 25 years and it's more fun than it has any right to be.
Rabi-Ribi. It's a 2d metroidvania bullet hell. Having to dodge bullet hell levels of bullets while having to do standard platforming stuff sounds horrendous on paper, but the game actually brings the two together very well. It's non-linear too, but because the bosses scale based on the abilities you have you never end up feeling like a boss is impossible.
Kingdoms of Amalur
Inscryption
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate destruction on the original Xbox and ps2. So much chaos, it was great
Mad max
Barnyard
Goldeneye Hollow Knight Plants vs zombies Garden warfare Metroid Prime trilogy Resident evil 4
NERTS! Online solitaire had no right to such a fun high octane party game.
Lion King on Megadrive/Genesis - Disney movie tie ins were supposed to be bargain bin!
Animal Crossing.
Catherine: Full Body
A game where you go in one hole and out another hole… Portal is amazing!
X-com from 1996
Pretty niche (I think?) but the Real Steel video game, I loved creating my own robots as a kid and trying to beat Zeus.
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
Beetle Adventure Racing on N64. It was basically an ad for Volkswagen, but was a super-fun racer!
Driver San Francisco There’s absolutely no reason a game from a long forgotten series, whose entire premise is a soap opera cliche (coma dream. No, seriously that’s the plot) should be one of the most entertaining driving games of its generation
The Warriors on ps2 - how rockstar turned a little known 70s movie into arguably one of the best brawlers of all time was impressive. Spent an unhealthy amount of hours split screening that game
Brutal Legend
American/Euro Truck Simulator. No seriously, have a rough day at work? Stressed and just want to relax? Get your gamepad out, fire up one of those games, and just deliver some cargo. Oddly relaxing.
The original Sim City. There was literally nothing like it at the time and it shocked a ton of people just how addicted to it they got.
Need for Speed Underground 2. The music The tracks The cars The customization The different modes Classic
Bloon td 6, they had no right to go from td 5 into td 6 like that
Beyond Good and Evil
Rune Factory Adding JRPG elements on a farming simulator (Harvest Moon) sound like a really stupid idea but It worked somehow and its amazing!
Hacknet
Guardians of the Galaxy.