Were you hyped for a game like Castlevania: Judgment but put off getting it because of the reviews?  Let the reviews be debunked, because people who have actually played the game are here to save the day!

This is the plan: We’re going to give power to the average consumer by clarifying the myths surrounding games that don’t sell too well.  Whether it’s a great third party game that nobody bought (No More Heroes, Valkyria Chronicles) or a game that got a bunch of flak reviews and thus lost its chances of hitting it big (Obscure: The Aftermath, Time Hollow), give out your views of why it is you think the game you enjoy so much deserves so much more attention.  So here are the guidelines:

-Preferably the game hadn’t sold more than 1 million and probably won’t hit that number soon.  We want to make room for the less fortunate after all.

- Preferably the game is a current-gen one.  Many lost gems had their chance at receiving this help, but buying them now won’t likely generate much revenue for developers.
- Try not to pick “Fan Games.”  Games that can only be appreciated by those who liked the title prior to the game at hand, or is based on source material only diehard fans will enjoy. (Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII)
- If it’s a “bad game,” find out why the game might have gotten flak, then debunk the flaws reviewers gave it.
- If it’s a “good game,” flaunt the game as much as possible.  Call it the best exclusive out on the market or whatever you want.
- As soon as you list it, your post will be archived in alphabetical order for other viewers to see at their convenience.
- If the game has been done before, you CAN do it again.  The more opinions out there on a game, the better.

Table of Contents

A
Alone in the Dark (Slimebeast)

B

C

D

E

Endless Ocean (phisheep)

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Slimebeast)

F

G
Godzilla Unleashed (Myviewing)

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O
Obscure: The Aftermath (Myviewing)

P

Q

R

S

T

Time Hollow (Myviewing)

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Here’s my contribution to serve as an example: Obscure the Aftermath for the Wii.

Complaints made:
Grating characters with awful voice acting- The voice acting is pretty third-rate I’ll agree with that, but it’s third-rate in a good way. The voice actors are meant to be bad enough to be funny, and they do that part quite well.
Not scary- Like I said, a tribute to the current low-budget horrors of today. It’s not trying to be scary, but rather trying to be campy and funny.
Awful camera and targeting scheme leading to unavoidable deaths- The targeting system isn’t that bad. You just hold the Z button to lock on, press A to ready weapon, press B to attack, it’s not rocket science. And the camera system is kind of wonky, but it stays focused on your character most of the time. The deaths aren’t unavoidable either, most of the times you nearly die, it’s your fault for not having done something right.

Good Things Going For It:
The cheesy and funny dialogue. Stuff you can expect from any college horror film.
Co-op control. Two players can play the game at any time.
Clever puzzles. Solve your way through a variety of puzzles while using the special attributes given to them.
Moody soundtrack. Soundtrack is fitting for the setting and you’ll enjoy listening to it.
The beginning gets the plot out of the way, so you don’t NEED to play the first to know what’s going on.
The Bottom Line: If you like cheesy horror films about college students facing incredible odds of fighting a horde of monsters, this title is right up your ally.

Godzilla: Unleashed (Wii)

Complaints made:
Terrible targeting system- Here’s a little thing you should know: It’s a fighting game. It’s not supposed to have a targeting system. If you’re worried about the camera, the camera does shift from place to place every now and then, but it only does so once every blue moon or so.
Short, pointless campaign- Maybe if you play it with one monster. But if you play with several of the monsters, then you’ll get to destroy cities around the world in satisfying and different ways.
AI is inconsistent- I never encountered any problems with the AI at any point in the game, though I was a bit busy beating the enemies to death most of the time to really notice.
Awful production- So production values lower the score now? Yes the voice acting is mediocre and the story is paper-thin, but you can skip it all (skip the cutscenes at least) and it you aren’t missing out on much.

Good things going for it:
If you have friends, the multiplayer is cool.
A LOT of monsters to choose from.
The way you fight influences the outcome, leading up to many possible endings and determines how long the campaign goes.
Decent graphics maintain a solid frame rate and the camera doesn’t get in the way that much.
You get to destroy cities with your favorite monsters.
The Brawl mode is very customizable to fit what you want it to be like.
Despite some use of the Wii controls you might not like (i.e. using the nunchuck to jump), they work pretty well overall and wont through you into a tantrum anytime soon.

The Bottom Line: If you’re a Godzilla fan, or if you like the idea of senselessly destroying cities worldwide, this is something you should at least rent and see if you like.

Time Hollow (DS)

Complaints made:
Overly simple gameplay- It’s an adventure game, and your goal is to interact with everything and adventure games aren’t known for having that much variety.
Restrictively linear structure makes you go through pointless steps- Duh, it’s an adventure game. It’s supposed to be linear. And the steps are done to coincide with the story, thus they really aren’t all that pointless.
Frequent lack of direction- The game always tells you where to go and you have to remember how certain places affect another and the library is able to help you in giving an idea of where to go next. So really not the case here.

Good things going for it:
Very well done artwork
Deep engaging story.
Anime cut scenes complete with voice acting and full motion.
The ability to travel through time with the power of a pen works wonders.
You can replay any chapter you want at any time after beating the game.

The Bottom Line: If you like Adventure games, or if you like anime style stories, you’ll find a lot to like about Time Hollow. You’ll beat it in a few days, but it manages to be engaging the whole while and you can spend more on much worse.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars - got bad reviews for a lot of reasons, but IMO the game is great

Alone in the Dark - lots of complaints about flawed controls, but IMO the game is still decent/good (7.5/10), bad controls don't make or break a game IMO if it's still playable.

Endless Ocean (Wii)

This came in for a lot of flak when it was released – but my favourite game ever.

Complaints made:

Horrible camera goes crazy sometimes – actually the camera is fine. It goes crazy in only two circumstances (a) If you are chasing a fish too fast for you and it gets away and you forgot where you were pointing the Wiimote, and (b) if a large fish runs into you from behind! Both your fault.

There’s no death and no danger – look, it just isn’t that sort of game.

It is a budget title so it must be rubbish – you can’t have it both ways! You are probably the same guy said he would have bought Wii Music if it was $20. It’s fantastic value for money, that’s all – and you complain about it?

All you do is swim and look at fish – which is like saying that all you do in Mario Kart is drive round a track over and over. People pay good money to do this in real life, and this is a pretty good simulation.

There’s no challenge – just plain wrong. You try and find all the fish and treasures in less than 200 hours without help. Not easy.

It is too short/beat the game in 10 hours/saw all it had to offer in 2 hours – this is not a game to be rushed. If you do rush it you will miss a lot. Play for 10 hours and you have barely scratched the surface.

No online chat/can’t share photos/ bad graphics above water – all true and fair criticisms.

No real-time clock – remind me again why you wanted a real-time clock? Oh, yeah, it is so you can change the date on your Wii and cheat. No thanks.


What it has going for it:

Probably the most relaxing game experience ever

Obsessively realistic

Huge collectathon

Beautiful

Bottom line: if you are even vaguely tempted by the idea - dive in and give it a go. The only people who don't like it seem to be those who decided in advance they weren't going to.

Nice contributions so far.