What are the most underrated 8 and 16bit games?

[Ukyo Of Atmos]

Kid Chameleon on the Sega Genesis.

 

[Cryptosporidium]

That thread that Aenia or whatever their name is was on a really obscure jrpg only playable through a rom translation patch!

Looked really good so i recommend that, think it was Tenkgai something

 

[IrishNinja]

Golden Axe Warrior for Master System. One of my favorite games along Phantasy Star.

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this is a great pick - i adore OG zelda and this really expanded on that. likewise, CV fans shouldn't sleep on Master of Darkness.

for SMS, there's a lotta gems i love but i wish Zillion got an update.

 

[i-Jest]

I'm learning so much already.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

Check out Willow for the NES.

It's a "Zelda clone", but a damn good one. However, unlike Zelda, Willow has RPG elements like leveling up. You can find and use quite the variety of spells, swords, shields,etc. Gameplay style and movement is similar to A Link to the Past. You can move in all directions unlike the original Zelda, and the character swings his sword around instead of the simple stabbing that Link did in the original.

Graphics are SUPERB for the era and platform, and the music is very catchy.

It is (VERY) loosely based on the movie by the same name. And I mean LOOSELY.

It has a pretty big world to explore, several caverns, towns and optional treasure chests to obtain upgrades.

If you like Action-RPG's and you love the Zelda style, I'm sure you will end loving this game as much as I do.

 

[YukidaruPunch]

The entire Monster World series are great action-adventure platformers which would fit into the "Metroidvania" category. Dragon's Trap is the best known of the bunch, but Wonder Boy in Monster World and Monster World IV (which is where my avatar's from!) are pretty great too.

Treasure games on Mega Drive are pretty great. Dynamite Headdy is a gem and even that McDonald's Ronald Treasure Whatever is somewhat good. And while not Treasure, Contra: The Hards Corps, also on Mega, is fantastic. Shadow Dancer is a spin-off on Shinobi. The Mega Drive is full of good, forgotten action games.

Congo's Caper on the Snes is kinda cool. Cheap bosses tho.

Dragon Quest V, on the Snes, is sublime. One of the greatest JRPGs ever made.

My weirdest recommendation, however, is a portable game: Donkey Kong '94, or simply Donkey Kong:

This is a fantastic game. It starts off pretending to be a conversion of the original arcade game, but after you finish the first set of levels the game flips upside-down and becomes a totally new thing.

The whole "acrobatic Mario" theme that got popularized in Super Mario 64 actually started with this game. Seriously, it's outstanding.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, this game probably ties with Super Mario Odyssey somewhat (haven't played it yet). The very first world after the arcade one is titled "Big City", and definitely alludes to what New Donk City is - besides having Pauline and all.

 

[Nightfall]

Definitly Donald Duck in Maui Mallard. At least it's brought up very rarely.
It's an insanely gorgeous game with fantastic animations but hard af.

 

[retroman]

This is my kind of thread :)

Keystone Kapers (Atari 2600)

Fun little game where you have to catch a thief while avoiding obstacles.

Bruce Lee (Commodore 64)

Great platformer/beat 'em up mashup. Collect lanterns while beating up a ninja and a green sumo wrestler. Brilliant two-player mode.

Trailblazer (Commodore 64)

Guide a ball through tricky levels. Prepare to fall down pits a lot. Great fun with two players!

Wonder Boy In Monster Land (Sega Master System)

Sure, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is the superior game, but that one's not so obscure nowadays due to the release of the recent remake. The previous installment in the Wonder Boy series is a fun platformer with light RPG elements and it's still worth checking out.

Mazin Wars / Mazin Saga (Sega Mega Drive)

Beat 'em up with elements of platformers and fighting games. Simple yet solid.

ESWAT: City Under Siege (Sega Mega Drive)

Cool platform shoot 'em up. Recommended if you like games like Revenge Of Shinobi.

Double Dragon Advance (Gameboy Advance)

The best Double Dragon game in existence, and one of the best beat 'em ups I've ever played. Great mashup of the first two Double Dragons, with updated graphics, new enemies and levels and great, responsive controls.

 

[Garlic]

Gimmick! for NES/Famicom

Amazingly ambitious 8-bit platformer with an incredible amount of unique assets, a high-skill ceiling physics system, and a one of a kind soundtrack using an additional sound chip.

Unfortunately, the game has never been rereleased, and a genuine cart will cost you several hundred dollars minimum on the secondhand market. Would love to play this one on real hardware someday.

Bucky O'Hare for NES. One of the most pleasant surprises in the console's library. I played it for the first time at a friend's house almost five years back and it immediately became one of my favorite NES games. It's a licensed title, based on the old cartoon, so the only way to play would be to procure a used cartridge.

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Payed $95 dollars for my copy and have no regrets. One of the best action-platformers ever made.

 

[Krathoon]

Solar Jetman for the NES.

Rygar for the NES.

Demon Sword for the NES.

Little Nemo, Gargoyle's Quest 2, and Monster Party also for the NES.

 

[RedSwirl]

Metal Warriors

Basically an unintentional American riff on Konami's Assault Suits/Target Earth/Cybernator series. I remember renting this one weekend back in the day and having an amazing time with it, including the two-player versus mode. You could even get in and out of mechs. Looking back, it's shocking how "90's anime" this game looked despite being from Lucasarts.

My weirdest recommendation, however, is a portable game: Donkey Kong '94, or simply Donkey Kong:

This is a fantastic game. It starts off pretending to be a conversion of the original arcade game, but after you finish the first set of levels the game flips upside-down and becomes a totally new thing.

The whole "acrobatic Mario" theme that got popularized in Super Mario 64 actually started with this game. Seriously, it's outstanding.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, this game probably ties with Super Mario Odyssey somewhat (haven't played it yet). The very first world after the arcade one is titled "Big City", and definitely alludes to what New Donk City is - besides having Pauline and all.

Click to shrink...

I didn't even know about this game until it came out on Virtual Console on 3DS, and it's probably one of my favorite games I have for that system. It's pretty much the true sequel to the original Donkey Kong, and it sucks Nintendo never made any more other than the Mario vs Donkey Kong spin-off games.

 

[tiesto]

I am a big follower of retro games, trying to find lost gems and such, so I have a pretty good pulse on obscurities... but one game that I recently discovered by perusing my friend's Everdrive, that I have -NEVER- heard mentioned by the retro community is Saint Sword for the Genesis.

It's by Taito, with that Conan the Barbarian art style that was all the rage in the late 80's-early 90's. A game with slightly nonlinear levels where you have to kill a specific enemy to get a key, then find the exit. You also get a few limited-time transformations, into a centaur, bird, or mermaid. The controls are solid, graphics are decent for their time, music is excellent too.

 

[spydersvenom]

Sweet Home on the Famicom (fan translation patch available) - it's basically Resident Evil on the NES.

I'm also really fond of The Goonies on the Famicom, which is more of a puzzle room level design. Almost like Vampire Killer (Castlevania) on the MSX...but actually good.

 

[natanqb]

Demon's Crest, one of the best platformes ever, yet people talk 100 times more about Super Mario World (nothing against it).

 

[Finale Fireworker]

I know this sounds a bit silly given the fame and reach of the series, but anyone who hasn't played Metal Gear 1 & 2 should make it their primary ambition in life to do so.

Metal Gear 1 is good, but Metal Gear 2 is incredible. The concepts and mechanics they pulled off with the technology they had is amazing. The game feels like a modern story-driven action game... just in pixels. Metal Gear 2 will challenge how sophisticated you believe "8 bit" games can be.

 

[ghibli99]

Yeah, Wonder Boy III is a must, and even "common" Master System games are overlooked today.

Kenseiden

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This right here. Among my circle of gaming friends, I'm literally the only person who has ever heard of or played this, and it's one of the best games on the system IMO.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

It's too bad the only re-releases of Kenseiden have been on GameTap (now gone) and the most recent AtGames Genesis (I don't trust the quality on those things).


It seems a shame to let this thread die quickly so here are some more games I didn't see mentioned yet:

Another World/Out of this World (Amiga and a ton of ports)
Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition is available on most modern systems.

GG Shinobi 1 and 2 (Game Gear)
The ninja action you would expect from Shinobi but with some Mega Man-inspired design. You acquire different characters with unique abilities. The first game is on 3DS Virtual Console. The second game is generally considered an improvement but unfortunately it hasn't been re-released.

Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns (Atari 8-bit)
The 2600 version has seen re-releases in Activision Anthology compilations but I don't think the Atari 8-bit computer version has. It was the definitive version back in the day because of having a second quest.

Demon Attack (Intellivision)

Shadow of the Beast III (Amiga)
More accessible gameplay than the first two games but unfortunately not ported elsewhere.

Moon Crystal (Famicom)

The Last Ninja 1 and 2 (Commodore 64)
The trial and error design will turn off some people but for those of us that 'get' these games, they're classic action-adventures. The first game was on Wii VC but it has since been removed. It wasn't emulated well, anyway.

Penguin Land (Master System)
Puzzle platforming plus a level editor.

Gaiares (Genesis)

Archon (Commodore 64/Atari 8-bit)
Other ports and remakes just aren't the same.

Hagane (SNES)

Sega Light Phaser games on the Master System have aged really well but you will want real hardware to properly enjoy them : Rescue Mission, Safari Hunt, Gangster Town, Missile Defense 3D, Rambo III, etc..

A bunch of TurboGrafx games are on Wii U Virtual Console. The selection isn't as good as the library for the original Wii since there aren't any CD ones. The old Wii TG16 games often had nasty vaseline filters on them, though.

Alien Crush/Devil's Crush series

Blazing Lazers

Bonk series

While not quite the same experience as the original, Bonk's Amiga port is available to download legally for free at Factor 5's site - http://www.factor5.de/downloads.shtml

Ninja Spirit

Super Star Soldier series

 

[RedSwirl]

Another World/Out of this World (Amiga and a ton of ports)
Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition is available on most modern systems.

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Another World is one of the games that inspired Ico. That's really all you need to know.

 

[FourSerioux]

E.V.O. Search for Eden

I absolutely adored this game as a kid, and having it played it again recently still loved it. Evolve through multiple geological times, progressing through a bunch of different creatures. A ton of fun that I think still holds up

 

[jblanco]

Soul Blazer for SNES is pretty fun.

It's a top-down action RPG. It's not too long either btw.

 

[Nature's finest mango]

Psycho Fox for Master System.

Great platformer.

 

[Vault]

Phantasy Star 4 is criminally underrated it can stand with any snes rpg

 

[Clickypen Champion]

most underrated? maybe Actraiser, Soul Blazer and Terranigma.

Terranigma is especially underrated. You RPG out a creation myth. There is nothing else like it.

 

[Rats]

Demon's Crest is my favorite SNES game and nobody ever talks about it. The atmosphere and world-building are incredible, especially for the time. It's a Metroidvania-style platformer with intricately designed areas, which are all connected by a big Mode-7 world map. The action is as tight as you would expect from a Capcom game.

Spoiler: Screenshots

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Exactly what I came in here to post. It blows my mind that Demon's Crest isn't talked about the same way people talk abut Mega Man, Castlevania, etc. It's an absolutely incredible game and does things that very few of its contemporaries were doing.

I just finished up a playthrough on my SNES Classic, in fact. The game still holds up.

 

[Gentlepoke]

I've got to give a shout out to Area 88 / UN Squadron on Super Nintendo:

 

[MidiPour]

Metal Storm on the NES, Phantasy Star (1, 2 and 4), Gradius 3, Soul Blazer

 

[The Almighty Tria]

Sonic 2 (Sega Master System)

It plays nothing like Sonic 2 on Genesis, it's its own adventure entirely. There are some flaws, but overall, it's a fun, vibrant game with a kickass soundtrack.

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This game is awful, and the only worse Sonic games during those days were Drift 1, Labyrinth and Sonic Blast.

 

[Gentlepoke]

Sweet Home on the Famicom (fan translation patch available) - it's basically Resident Evil on the NES.

I'm also really fond of The Goonies on the Famicom, which is more of a puzzle room level design. Almost like Vampire Killer (Castlevania) on the MSX...but actually good.

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Seconded on The Goonies (Famicom). It's just so easy to pick up and play.

 

[The Almighty Tria]

Check out Willow for the NES.

It's a "Zelda clone", but a damn good one. However, unlike Zelda, Willow has RPG elements like leveling up. You can find and use quite the variety of spells, swords, shields,etc. Gameplay style and movement is similar to A Link to the Past. You can move in all directions unlike the original Zelda, and the character swings his sword around instead of the simple stabbing that Link did in the original.

Graphics are SUPERB for the era and platform, and the music is very catchy.

It is (VERY) loosely based on the movie by the same name. And I mean LOOSELY.

It has a pretty big world to explore, several caverns, towns and optional treasure chests to obtain upgrades.

If you like Action-RPG's and you love the Zelda style, I'm sure you will end loving this game as much as I do.

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This game gave me nightmares as a kid. The music, the way the grass shook when you got into battle, the weird proportions of all the NPCs when compared to the main character, etc. Fucking terrified me, especially that goddamn scorpion thing near the beginning and the horrifying caves.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

This game gave me nightmares as a kid. The music, the way the grass shook when you got into battle, the weird proportions of all the NPCs when compared to the main character, etc. Fucking terrified me, especially that goddamn scorpion thing near the beginning and the horrifying caves.

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Honestly? Same here. I was terrified of it when I was a kid, especially when going into caves. As I grew up I began to like it more and more. :)

 

[exo]

This game is awful, and the only worse Sonic games during those days were Drift 1, Labyrinth and Sonic Blast.

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It's bad on Game Gear, and the games you listed lead me to believe that you're talking about the Game Gear version. If so, I agree with you. But in the game's defense, many of the Game Gear problems are not present in the Master System version, such as the notorious Underground Zone Act 3. The Master System has a slightly higher resolution than the Game Gear, which makes controlling Sonic a lot easier.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

It's bad on Game Gear, and the games you listed lead me to believe that you're talking about the Game Gear version. If so, I agree with you. But in the game's defense, many of the Game Gear problems are not present in the Master System version, such as the notorious Underground Zone Act 3. The Master System has a slightly higher resolution than the Game Gear, which makes controlling Sonic a lot easier.

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This is true. Being able to actually see more of the obstacles makes the SMS version much better. The GG version gives it a bad rep.

 

[Jubbe]

It's been said, but Terranigma. One of my absolute favourite games a kid. I always wondered why nobody ever seemed to acknowledge it, until I learnt a few years ago that it was never released in the US. The overworld map is actually a map of the Earth, which I thought was so cool as a kid.

 

[gcwy]

At 4 or 5 years old, I didn't know much about video games other than the arcade cabinets and ugly DOS PC games, so I was kind of amazed to see my cousins' Genesis when I visited them. All these games with beautiful visuals and incredible responsiveness. Had to ask my parents for one haha. I did get around to playing SNES games too much later.

Aero the Acrobat and its sequel.

Fun platform games with a neat art style.


NBA Jam

"BOOM Shakalaka!"

'Nuff said.


Tiny Toon Adventures

This game had some really interesting gameplay mechanics, like Sonic.

Lost Vikings

Toejam and Earl and its sequels.

Honourable mentions: Alex Kidd (someone has an avatar of this game), Tiny Toon Sports, Newzealand Story, Flicky and Pocky and Rocky (I always forget the name of this game).

Super Tennis on SNES needs more love for an excellent game.

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Yes, thank you. I've spent so many hours on this, both doubles and singles. Doubles are the most fun. One thing this game did well was when you were playing doubles and you switched sides, the AI would also appropriately switch sides. Playing the newer tennis games on the GB/GBA, this was sorely missing.