Obscure games. Awesome games.

For other veggie games besides Spud's Adventure there's Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, which I only knew about due to Nintendo Power mentioning how weird its title was.

EDIT: According to this Spud's Adventure was just one of a few Atlus veggie-themed games, including Kwirk (who was a potato in the original release), Puzzle Boys, Spud’s Adventure, and then it all ended with Amazing Tater AKA Puzzle Boys II.

Edited by lalalei2001 on Nov 4th 2023 at 11:16:59 AM

The Protomen enhanced my life.

Gladius: A strategy game in the vein of XCOM and Fire Emblem, where you're training a school of Gladitors to become champions.

You could recruit everyone from traditional gladiators, to soldiers, to wild animals, to sorcerers, to mythological beasts. You'd buy equipment, customize their look and choose which skills they'd learn as they leveled up.

Best of all, your attacks were determined by a swing meter. Hit the sweet spot and you got a guaranteed critical hit, while flubbing it resulted in a miss. Every time you missed a strike, it was because you screwed up, not because the Random Number Gods decided they hated you that time. It was a great mechanic I wish more Turn-Based Strategy games would pick up.

Edited by Dracoblade on Nov 4th 2023 at 8:10:15 AM

Holy Potatoes should also be added to the Overly Narrow Superlative that is "Video games where you play as sentient vegetables that are good."

That game rocked. Wish it got the franchise that it felt like it was aiming for. Two different campaigns too, and it's funny how the audience goes from "High School Football Stands" to "Superbowl" over the course of the story.

I want more potato-based games now...

Edited by lalalei2001 on Nov 5th 2023 at 1:04:18 PM

The Protomen enhanced my life.

Finally settled a longstanding itch and bought the limited run reprint of Shantae for GBC to replace the old one I either lost or gave away for being too hard (little me was dumb). It's not the original, but it's WAY less expensive and the same exact game (minus the Capcom logos, who originally published the game.) Anyone who buys the original must be a huge Capcom fan XD

Edited by lalalei2001 on Nov 5th 2023 at 8:17:18 AM

The Protomen enhanced my life.

I've actually been playing that too recently, on the Switch. It's one of the few Shantae games I haven't actually beaten yet... Partially because it's pretty brutal and unintuitive compared to the more modern games. Still fun, and the "Penalty" for getting a game over is a Risky Boots image so I can't cry too hard.

As for games that are definitely obscure and definitely awesome, Assault Spy. Which doesn't even have a trope page yet. What the hell. You play as the most badass Salary Man ever. Your primary weapons are a reinforced briefcase and explosive business cards. He's an Iaijutsu Practitioner with an Umbrella. Absolute madlad.

And he's just the first guy you play as!

Edited by ShirowShirow on Nov 5th 2023 at 2:05:17 PM

Back when all we had was the Nintendo Power coverage, we had art images of Shantae, Sky, and Rottytops but no Risky, so until I got the game and read the manual I thought Risky was Rottytops.

The Protomen enhanced my life.

Actually, the fact that Capcom published the first Shantae game is pretty wild.

Usually Publishers maintain IP rights so the fact that she's still at Wayforward is pretty wild in hindsight. Imagine a world where we got Shantae in Marvel vs. Capcom or something.

Hmm. I'd ruminate more but I'll save it for the Shantae thread.

I'll highlight another Obscure Gem in the meantime: Supplice is FUCKIN' RAD and everything anyone wants out of a Boomer Shooter. Tons of bad guys, guns that feel hella satisfying to shoot, and level design that's just... MWAH! Chef's Kiss.

I dunno if it's as obscure as it used to be but I love Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and its sequels. So happy to see the second and third games released!

Edited by lalalei2001 on Nov 5th 2023 at 12:33:02 PM

The Protomen enhanced my life.

It has sequels!?

I think the only reason I know that RPG exists beyond some vague, fleeting memories of it being mentioned in issues of OPM is the brilliant Villain Song.

In this age of Widget Series not getting their own dubs Rhapsody stands strong as a musical game with dubbed singing. Such a rarity.

It does! The second game follows Cornet and Ferdinand's daughter, and the third is a series of vignettes set before, during, and after both games.

I had the DS version of the first game so sadly I didn't get the dubbed songs but at least they had subtitles.

The Protomen enhanced my life.

In more Spud's Adventure news, I discovered a cutscene that was deleted from the US version of the game where Devi's sister persuades him not to attack Spud. I wonder how many people never knew about that!

The Protomen enhanced my life.

TIL of the Dr Franken series, where you control Frankenstein's Monster to collect his girlfriend's body parts. It even got a sequel! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Franken

The Protomen enhanced my life.

If you’ve seen me around the forum games or my profile, you’ll know I’m a big fan of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. It’s a great game, thought it can feel a bit preachy. Wish it was just a bit more well known.

Basically girl Beetlejuice and a big candle, but the skins are better than they sound.

I saw a really good Let's Play of it on a YouTube channel that I follow—it did seem to be really good, with some neat ideas and engaging writing and characters! ^_^

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Mar 9th 2024 at 9:07:32 PM

My Games & Writing

TIL of Avenging Spirit, which got a limited run rerelease a couple years ago with an improved translation and restoration of the Japanese endings, according to its website.

https://retro-bit.com/avenging-spirit/

The Protomen enhanced my life.

Honestly, I never got to play CarnEvil (as I was too young when it first came out and the intro kinda terrified me) but when I came across it on YouTube about a decade later, I was like "I wanna play that" (even though it's discontinued and I frown upon me doing unofficial emulation of any kind)

If you play with fire, you're gonna get burned.

I got just the one opportunity to play that as a kid. Definitely interesting. I remember the bosses being really hard because unlike most games like this making them flinch is quite interesting and there’s even some parts where avoiding damage is literally impossible.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Mar 13th 2024 at 1:07:27 AM

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

TIL of Rolans Curse, its sequel Rolans Curse 2, and had a renewed interest in Monster Traveler (though the game's title is actually closer to Mon★Star Traveler as a pun), a Mons RPG made by Taito that was only released in Japan. It has you explore a star system alongside monsters called Cosmon (short for Cosmic Monsters) in search of the secret to how they once communicated with the ancients, while avoiding the local bad guy team Dogma Darks.

I also found a walkthrough for it! https://www.imasaragame.com/monstertraveler/

Edited by lalalei2001 on Apr 29th 2024 at 2:08:24 PM

The Protomen enhanced my life.

The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring a rts by the same creators as Battle Realms.

ParaWorld, another enjoyable rts that has dinosaurs. And Legion the Legend of Excalibur, which I bring up to share this trailer that has Don LaFontaine.

Edited by Avenger09 on Apr 29th 2024 at 10:56:13 AM

Another obscure Mons game I found is Barcode Taisen Bardigun, that revolved around scanning barcodes on specific collectible cards to power up your monsters.

The Protomen enhanced my life.