The Hot Topic Returns

[DisturbedSwan]

12 hours ago, Sly Reflex said:

 

Persona 5 is the only one that's single player though, right?

AC Valhalla too, but yeah mostly multiplayer stuff.

[spatular]

3 hours ago, Jimbo Xiii said:

If we include mobile apps, then I've played solitaire pretty much every day for anything between 5 and 30 minutes for about 10 year now. I worked it out a few weeks ago, it was quite a lot of time.

 

that's a good point, i do similar but for drop 7, although used to play solitaire a bit too. oh and minesweeper on the pc.

[Nag]

 

Quote

Readers try to imagine a brand new fighting game featuring their favourite characters, from Overwatch to Resident Evil.

 

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Watson, who asked if you could create a fighting game featuring existing characters from another game, film, TV show, or comic what would it be and how would it work?

 

There were plenty of imaginative suggestions, with superhero crossovers being especially popular, but most admitted they were unlikely to happen – if not for licensing reasons then because the chosen developer would never be involved.

 

[Maryokutai]

I've been wanting an Avatar-themed fighting game for a while. There's a lot you could do with the elemental bending of course, but there are also quite a few interesting non-benders in those franchises that could work (thinking of Ty-Lee or Asami here for example). Not sure if team-based or not would be the best approach here, but the MvC/DBFZ setup could certainly work. Filling up the roster would be really easy as well between both shows and finding ten for TLA and another ten for Korra would make for a nice, diverse 20 character brawler.

 

To be honest I'm baffled it hasn't happened yet. Maybe because it's a western IP and most proficient fighting game developers are from Japan.

[DANGERMAN]

I suppose Berserk. I think that's better suited to an rpg of sorts really, but I'd trust Arcs to turn it in to a quality 2D fighter.

On that note, Sega need to sort their arse out and put the old Fist of the North Star fighter out on modern platforms

 

also, Doom guy in Smash, unneutered, full violence

[OCH]

53 minutes ago, DANGERMAN said:

I suppose Berserk. I think that's better suited to an rpg of sorts really, but I'd trust Arcs to turn it in to a quality 2D fighter.

Yeah, that last Musou game kind of dropped the ball.

 

There are some things I think why hasn't this happened already?

Spoiler

^This could be a good crossover game. There is a surprising lack of quality games for either.

 

Although, in the spirit of Mugen games, I'd love to see X-Men Children of the Atom 2. 

 

Put everyone in it. From Moira with her assault rifle to Mojo. From Sentinels to X-Babies. Balanced, no. Fun, yes!

[HandsomeDead]

There is already Dissadia as a Final Fantasy fighting game but I'd be pretty hyped about a 2D Vs. style fighting game featuring these characters.  And it be team based too.  Although what I've seen of Noctis in Tekken 7 a 3D game would work well too, but the former is preferred.

[Nag]

 

Quote

Readers discuss their favourite games that nobody else has ever heard of, from Rocket: Robot On Wheels to Captain Blood.

 

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Tolly, who asked how you heard of the game in question and whether you agree with its critical consensus. Was the game unusual in any way or was it simply something you’d never heard of before?

 

We had all sorts of suggestions, none of which were remotely mainstream, with many saying that discovering a hidden gem made them more interested in trying to discover more.

 

I think I'm about as mainstream as you could get, I'm struggling to think of anything I've played that I could call obscure...

[mfnick]

I had a huge collection of Japanese only Saturn games so played quite a few obscure releases. One of my favourites of these was Soukyugurentai. One of the best vertical shooters I’ve ever played even to this day. Had a great little gimmick where you have a vector style targeting area which fires homing bullets at groups of enemies, Panzer Dragoon style. Loved it. 

[OCH]

Ring of Red

Spoiler

It immediately comes to mind. An amazing SRPG no one I know of has ever heard of. To such a degree they assumed I was making a 360 joke instead of talking about a game.

No doubt there have been others. As I did go through a stage of playing lots of mid-tier RPG's, such as Guardians Crusade, towards the end of the PSOne era. But memory such as it is...

[shinymcshine]

I had Kings Field on the PS1 (which is actually KF2, as the first one didn't get EU release) and Kings Field VI on PS2, which were quite niche, and only really gained more notice in later years due to Demon Souls etc. 

 

Other reasonably niche PS1 games I played were Koudelka (JRPG style set in Wales) and Sentient (real time sci-fi adventure).

 

I've also got Kula World, PS1, which lots of people only know from the demo.

 

Otherwise I've been fortunate/unfortunate enough to own & play Freshly Picked Tingle in Rosy Rupeeland on the DS 

 

But I'm not sure many of those are so obscure not to be heard of, more just a bit rare to get hold of.

 

Otherwise it's a bit of an odd question, as post MS Arcade etc there's probably loads of obscure indie games and PC games people have played but I've stuck to more mainstream releases.

[Nag]

OK, if @OCH is having Ring of Red that's mine too...?... and it was actually a great game. Would've made a fucking brilliant Zoids game.

[spatular]

1 hour ago, mfnick said:

Soukyugurentai. 

 

that's a cool game!

 

this is going to be a shmup for me too, but i'm more into bullet hell stuff, it's a wierd one because if you're into something it's hard to know what's considered obscure, and it's odd that what i consider some of the best games ever made are probably also considered to be obscure. anyway i guess my two favorites are ketsui and mushihimesama futari 1.5 - are they obscure? more obscure but still really great - armed police batrider.

 

i guess i'd heard of them because i got into shmups, when ikaruga came out over here i gave it a go because of good reviews and really liked it, wanted to try more stuff like it (there isn't really anything like ikaruga) and that got me into playing dodonpachi on mame and that got me into bullet hell stuff.

[DANGERMAN]

15 minutes ago, spatular said:

 

armed police batrider.

 

GOTY last year iirc

 

 

I'd have said Shikigami no Shiro 2 but Spatular is on the forum, so yeah

 

 

I've talked about it a bit, along with a few of David Szymanski's games, but I loved The Music Machine. I really like The Moon Sliver he did before that too. I got in to it because I was browsing for something to cover and came across a game called Finger Bones, that was supposed to be a good little story, it was Szymanski's first game, which lead me to The Moon Sliver, then Music Machine

 

similar, Mad Father, it's an rpg maker game, kind of like if you took a snes rpg but removed the combat. Considering the cutesy visuals it's a really good horror story. Again I think I was just browsing and heard it mentioned, it's great though, I think it's on Switch now, so I fully recommend it if you see it on sale

 

and while I remembering stuff along this theme, Moirai. It's a very short thing that had about a weekend of talk about it. You start the game, get told to investigate a cave, see someone on the way in who tells you something... and I won't spoil it from there. It's on Steam and it's free, possibly the time has passed for it but it was cool

 

Nihilumbra is a game that's out on a decent amount of platforms but no one talks about. It's a platformer about nihilism, which isn't going to be for everyone granted, but I thought the story was really well told, a good night's worth of game

 

Schein, the game I've been scrolling through my Steam library to remember the name of ?  I got sent this to review and I've never heard a single other person talk about it but it's great. It's a 2d platformer that uses lights to create and hide platforms with a story about death and guilt. My review is still on the Steam page for it, and the first line of it talks about how Schein won loads of awards at indie shows, but on release no one played it. It's a shame, while it's not life changing it really should have been more popular than it was

[Maryokutai]

3 hours ago, spatular said:

mushihimesama futari 1.5

 

Still have that one as well. Felt so weird at the time to import a Japan-exclusive Xbox game. Deathsmiles comes to mind as well though I didn't like that as much.

 

It's rather difficult for me to find something for this question. I played some obscure games over the year but I didn't enjoy them to such a degree that they fit the description. For example, I don't know how many people played L.O.L. on Dreamcast but as weird as that game was, I wouldn't call it fun.

 

I think I'll just go with a recent one that I've never seen getting mentioned on any place I visit on the web and that's Super Crush K.O. It's kind of a 2D DMC with cutesy visuals and a relaxing score to contrast the action on the screen.

[shinymcshine]

Tokyo Jungle (PS3) was a pretty weird game that I don't recall that many people actually playing.

 

I never had a PS3 (was 360 for that gen) and only played it a few years ago using the free trial sub of PS Now - but it certainly felt unique.

 

If you're unaware, here's Ellie Gibson's review from Eurogamer:

It's Like GTA but with Giraffes Fighting Lions !

[AndyKurosaki]

I quite enjoyed Illbleed on Dreamcast. A fun survival horror/theme park game is the best way I’d describe it. An unusual sense of humour. And in order to get the ‘true’ ending, you had to fail to save your friends in each “attraction”. 
 

Went under the radar, but I certainly had fun with it back in the day.

[radiofloyd]

I would say a few indie games I’ve played have been relatively obscure - Ghost of a Tale, Eastshade, Rakuen, Scratches.

 

If I had to pick one, I would pick Infinite Space on the Nintendo DS, which I loved.

 

[bellow]

I don't really deep dive so much when it comes to gaming, so never really reach those levels of obscurity. I have enjoyed a couple of games that I'd certainly never heard of before they were suggested to me, the most notable being the wonderful jrpg The Alliance Alive.

[spatular]

12 hours ago, DANGERMAN said:

GOTY last year iirc

 

yeah and for the next 5 years if they keep not releasing it