Awesome games you almost missed out on -- but got lucky.

Sonic Colors, mainly due to monetary issues initially preventing me from purchasing it until the first. After coming across some money at the last minute, I'm now a proud owner of this superb title.

Oblivion. I almost passed it up on the shelf, because the box art didn't look interesting to me. I'd heard some good things about it, but it had only been out a few days.

I'm so glad I got it now.

Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun, or rather its sequel. I'd probably never even have heard of it if it wasn't for this site, but then I noticed a reference to it on the Magikarp Power page and felt intrigued. I've been more or less violating history with it ever since, with playthroughs based on ludicrous concepts like a united Scandinavia that rules half of Africa and a 19th century where the British Empire doesn't exist.

edited 4th Dec '10 4:50:11 AM by MinghamSmith

I'm going to start by saying, I'm a magnet for picking up awesome games that I never would have normally, or were off the radar, or only became a cult hit later — especially when I was younger.

- Hertzog Zwei — I rented this with a buddy of mine, and they didn't give manuals with the game, but we were probably 9 or 10 at the time and had no idea how to play. We eventually worked it out, but boy, we found out later how bad we were at it. I got my mom to find it for my birthday, and it kicked off my interest in RTS's.

- Toejam And Earl — I think my dad grabbed this for me for some holiday or another. The name put me off, but it was a blast. So freaking weird and creative, you didn't care that it wasn't "cool". Games (and TV) like this probably gave me a firm rooting in interest in absurdist comedy that I enjoy today.

- Final Fantasty VII —I picked it up thinking "Awesome big-ass sword", I can't wait to wale on some mook's head with it. My first RPG. I got hooked to JRP Gs after that. Eventually sold it on Ebay for about 125 bucks, since it was in good condition and not the "greatest hits" packaging. Wishing I hadn't now...

- Ecco The Dolphin — Once again, my mom got this one for me, because she thought my other games were too violent. (I loved Street Fighter II: Turbo). Little did she know the Nightmare Fuel this game introduced to me. Brrr... I still get chills from this game.

- Castlevania Symphony Of The Night — I found this at a yardsale for 3 bucks and it was in great shape. I liked castlevania that I had on my old brick Game Boy, but I had never experienced something like this. Again, I sold it for a huge profit on Ebay... Still wishing I didn't.

- Torins Passage — It came with my first computer, an IBM Aptiva... I learned to love point-and-click adventure.

- Dungeons And Dragons — I REALLY got lucky on this one. I was brought up in a very religious conservative household. My parents were more progressive that my grandparents, but the old beliefs still held about this pen and paper game... I had an uncle who was awesome and loved playing it and he invited me to several of his game nights and would let me in on some adventures. I felt like I had to keep this a secret for years and even went as far as to hide my books... Found out later that my parents knew all along and just thought I was a dork.

I have so many others, it's not even funny.

edited 9th Dec '10 10:02:33 AM by AJesterOnly

I have a habit of attracting "cult hits" myself. I've played most of the better-known cult hits of the last generation, and even a few of the less-well-known ones (like Sphinx And The Cursed Mummy.) I really have to thank the single review of that game I ever found for bringing it to my attention, because that game is delightful even when it's totally cheesy.

The videogame adaptation of The Cat In The Hat for the PS 2. Yes, I know. It was in a bargain bin at the Best Buy. Bought it just because. Ended up finding it unusually entertaining.

Gunstar Super Heroes I found it in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. It was in the bargain bin and I got it the same year that it was released. I bought it in 2005 and it won Gamespot's best Handheld title of E3 award that year.

Vagrant Story. Had a few things going against it, starting with the title, but I got over THAT one fairly quickly. Then there was the "it's not a Final Fantasy game" thing, but compared to VII, Tactics isn't one either, so I jumped over that hurdle pretty quickly too. Then there was the kind of game it was - viewed from the rear platformer, and I had my fingers burned with that with the extremely shitty Tomb Raider, which everyone was telling me was brilliant and I utterly hated.

That took a while to get over and then I stopped caring about niggles like that. It's just awesome. You have to be able to think to play it - you can't just expect the same weapon to be able to thump everything with no worries, you have to keep reforging your items so that you can have a weapon that can do that. The story and the characters kept me playing past the first shock I had when I realized that it was going to take more effort than I usually had to expend to play a game.

BlazBlue. Fighting games don't get much coverage at all here in Australia and are almost a cult genre, but I managed to snag Calamity Trigger dirt cheap one day, sucked at it, then tried out Continuum Shift which actually had a tutorial and was completely hooked. I've put more time into BB's single player and versus AI than I have any other game on my 360 bar Fallout: New Vegas.

STALKER...seriously, I've heard quite a bit about them before, but never tried until much later...