I'm going to say The World Ends With You.

IMO one of the best DS games and easily the best 3rd party one.  This kicks the arse of every other game Square-Enix has made this gen.  It uses the DS' touch screen really well and has fantastic 2d sprites.  Even though it was very well received, I think it is still underrated, but the biggest injustice is how almost nobody knows about it, outside circles such as this forum.

Best new IP of this gen IMO

EDIT: also this thread makes me question why the European VC never got Axelay

Vanquish:

This is a defo. TWEWY is one of the BEST games I have ever played, its so damn good.

Seriously, having a DS and not playing this game should be a crime, and you should go to jail for it and you can't get out until you play and finish this.

Another game that is very underrated is Blazblue, if you are a fighting game fan, then its a must have. Just watch this video and if you still aren't impressed, then there's something wrong with you:

u high?

edit: on topic

the yakuza games, dead spaces series, infamous, VC, fight night series.

Made by the "Phoenix Wright" Team (Now that should get the game some attention tehe)

Its very rare when a game like this comes along and just makes every other game one has played this year seem not as good,  Ghost Trick was one such game.

LBP2 amazed me in January

In February LBP2 continued to amaze me, it was surely going to remain my GOTY 2011 so far

In March Dissidia Duodecim 012 came along and amazed me almost as much as LBP2. It seemed like no game in the near future could match the awesomness of the above 2 games.

In April I saw a thread on VGChartz by some guy saying, "Phoenix Wright fans buy this game"....the game being advertised was Ghost Trick.

I got it and liked it more than LBP2 or Duodecim 012.

The game is just so awesome, one of the MAIN reasons for it being awesome is that I knew NOTHING about how the gameplay worked and the surprise of how it works was awesome itself if that makes sense.

But basically you can expect an awesome story better than the Phoenix Wright ones as this is a complete story not "cases" like some assumed by the sub title "Phantom Detective".

"JUST GAMEPLAY SPOILERS BELOW.....NOT STORY SPOILERS HOWEVER"

Basically you have died but have death amnesia (trololol) and your spirit acts as a detective (hence the sub title Ghost Detective), you can manipulate objects as this spirit and you can go back 4 minutes before the death of someone who has died that very same day.....by going back into the 4 minutes you can manipulate the event and in doing so you can save the persons life. Now string the two main gameplay elements together and you can guess how fun the game is due to hilarious and hard hitting scenarios coming into play. There are some really creative things you need to. The plot really pushes you forward in this game, the pacing is really good too.

*END OF GAMEPLAY SPOILERS*

Other great things are the funny characters, like in the Phoenix Wright games, expect over-exaggerative yet lovable and funny characters.

Unfortunately the games sold horrible in sales :(

Unfortunate if a masterpiece like this gets no sequel.

Shu Takami, thanks for my GOTY 2011 so far, and please ignore the sales and make a game with similar gameplay before going back to Phoenix Wright!

The Sequel to the LEGENDARY Poin n Click type Adventure game "The Longest Journey"

This game is sooooo overlooked its not even funny, hardly anyone knows it exists.

Quite frankly Ragnar Tornquist and his team know how to tell a well written, deep, memorable and engaging story. They also make the places, locations, the music and the graphics of the game help enhance the story they tell. In fact most reviewers call the games story one of the best EVER told in videogames. (its predecessor was also praised for its Story with some critics saying the lore was as deep as Lord Of The Rings)

The game covers a lot of metaphorical, political, and religious ground. It's a multi-threaded, complex affair that poses profound and troubling questions about the uses and misuses of faith, the limits of corporate, governmental, and religious power, and the significant difference between belief and fanaticism and knowledge and wisdom. More than that, though, it's also a rip-roaring adventure story filled with wonderful dialogue brought to life by a stellar cast of voice actors, clearly defined and supremely likeable characters, and graphic splendor that manages to make both worlds of super-science and bizarre magic incredibly believable. Those are Gamespy's words, I'm using them as they basically put my thoughts about the game into a coherent manner.

So why is the game so overlooked? I won't lie its Because its gameplay isn't that good. Its not bad, its manageable and even fun in some places, but lets not dewll on that *shudders from the memory of that combat system thingy that was thankfully only used for like 20 minutes in the game though*

Another reason why its overlooked is that it alineated THE LONGEST JOURNEY fans by not being a point n click adventure but a kind of 3D actiona adventure/click adventure game hybrid thingy. There is also very low focus on puzzles! But that gave the game those amazing 3D graphics and the art style, music etc makes the locations shine through.

Nah more like because it got zero marketing.

SEGA does horrible marketing (handing out flyers trololol), but horrible marketing is better than NO marketing. <_<

Edit: what did Capcom do BTW? I'm curious

Romance of the Three Kingdom series and Nobunaga's Ambition series [both from Tecmo Koei]. Both of them is superb strategy games. I personally love them both much more than any other similar strategy games like Civilization, Europa Universalis.

I'm playing Muramasa: The Demon Blade right now, and I think it deserves more attention.  It has a very fast, fluid fighting system that is a lot of fun.  The game is freaking gorgeous too.