I regularly make threads that are made to create debate, but that can quickly become exausting. This is meant to be the opposite. Think of it as a nap. A debate nap. I just want to make a thread where we can all share a positive gaming experience. Let's all be happy in a thread I create for once! I'm not completely cynical.

I'm sure that many of us have played a game that has been praised up the ass only to be disappointed because, while still very very good, the game was all in all a little bit overrated.

That being said, I think I'm not alone in having played an extremely acclaimed game way after it released, but was insanely surprised by just how accurate all the praise was. The game was in serious danger of being overrated, but it actually met and even surpassed all expectations. This is the thread for those games. (See? I can make positive threads!)

My only rule is that you have to have played the game "a few years" after it's initial release. I don't want to be too specific as to how many years that means, but the point is that there was enough time for all the praise of the game to give reasonable doubt that all the hype could be "too good to be true."

Also, this is not an underrated games showcase. This is not a hidden gem showcase. This isn't a cult classic showcase.

This is also not a "that game you think is overrated totally is in fact overrated" thread and this is NOT a "I think this game is overrated" thread. Keep the focus on why you loved you game, and not why you didn't love someone elses. I'm talking mostly to myself here. Leave Uncharted 2 and Ocarina of Time alone, Spemanig. They're great games.

I'll start.

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For me, that game was Super Metroid. I didn't play it until this year. I bought it on the Wii U eshop because I just love the Prime games. I love Metroid, and I didn't feel right calling myself a fan without playing Super, but I went in expecting it to be a great game, but nothing compared to the Prime games. I expected it to be great, "for a 2D game." I went in wanting to "appeciate where it all started." (Yes, I know that Super was the third in the series)

I did not expect to love it more than Prime. Now don't get me wrong, they're mostly tied, but Super just edges it out for me. I finished the game with goosebumps. Everything people say about this game is true. Everything people say about this game is not enough, if I'm honest. I think the two biggest things I took away from finishing Super was 1) You can never understand what people mean when they say that Super Metroid "oozes atmosphere" until you actually play it, and 2) Anyone who says that Prime feels like Super Metroid is lying. They both feel authentically Metroid, yes, but the atmospere they have is completely different. That difference doesn't make one better than the other, but they do feel different. I get how Metroid comes from Alien thanks to Super. It's that atmosphere. It's just so perfect in it's game design throughout, just from the title screen alone. 

I was just so pleased and so disappointed that I didn't play it when it was newer. It quickly jumped to being on my top 5 games of all time lists, and is the only "retro" game there. It's so good. SOOOOO good! How can it really be that good? How can it really not at least a little bit overrated?

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So what highly rated game did you play years later, only to find that the game was actually better than everybody said it was, rather than being overrated?

Super Mario Galaxy

Persona 4 Golden. I played it for the first time in December and god damn that game is everything everyone has said and more. It's one of my favorite games all-time. I still haven't completed yet, but I know for sure that I'm going to go through a second playthrough.

The original Bayonetta. I went in expecting just a crazy, off-the-wall action game. I expected to fully enjoy it. I did not think I would love it as much as I do though; every good thing that has been said about it is true. Thankfully, the sequel was even better.

Schoolmate and Mario Galaxy 2

I do wonder if people will get banned time around since the last "overrated" thread didn't go so well

Tearaway.

Final Fantasy VI.

I grew up as a Nintendo kid and my real first console was the N64, and the only RPG I played on that was Paper Mario (that's probably the only good RPG on the N64 anyway), it wasn't until the Gamecube that I slowly started playing the genre and at the beginning of the 7th gen was when I was truly into RPGs. I had a PC where I couldn't play anything so the only thing I could do was emulate old games, so I started playing RPG from the NES, SNES and handheld. I always heard online that FF VI was like perfection when it comes to RPGs (alongside Chrono Trigger, and FF VII), I thought that maybe people were exaggerating but I decided to play and holy hell did I love that game, it became my second favorite game of all time (my favorite is Ocarina of Time), and Kefka is by far the best villain in any video game. Funny enough I don't like FF VII all that much, VI is a far supirior game imo.

Metal Gear Solid 2, the story is now understable living in 2015

Portal 2

GTA4........lol