Post by Nester the Lark on Apr 5, 2023 14:07:08 GMT -5
As the title says, what games did you unexpectedly love? More specifically, they don't have to be games you thought you wouldn't like, but rather, just games you ended up enjoying and playing far more than you initially expected you would.
Here are six games that I unexpected loved. I've probably talked about most of these before, but they fit the category. Also, this is not a comprehensive list, so I may mention more in the future.
Gunstar Heroes
This was back in the mid '90s. Being mainly a Nintendo fan, my SNES got most of my attention. But I also had a Sega Genesis, and I decided to try exploring more of its games. I rented games regularly back then, and I came across Gunstar Heroes at the local rental store. I remembered seeing it in a couple of issues of Sega Visions magazine and I was curious about it, so I rented it on a whim. Almost immediately when I started playing it, I was blown away. I knew this game was something special.
I rented it at least a couple more times before I ended up just buying a used copy. It's still one of my favorite Genesis games.
Shenmue
Despite being a big fan of my Dreamcast, and knowing that Shenmue was a big deal for the console when it came out, I really wasn't too interested in it. It was about a year later after the Dreamcast had been discontinued and the games were selling for cheap that I decided to pick up a copy of Shenmue. Once I started playing, I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I instantly decided that I was definitely going to get the sequel that was due out in about a month.
Imagine how upset I was when just two days later, the Dreamcast version of Shenmue II was canceled in North America. A year later, it finally came out on the original Xbox, but I never owned one, and so to this day, I still have never played Shenmue II (or Shenmue III, for that matter). But I considered the original Shenmue one of my favorite games for many years.
(Come to think of it, I could just get Shenmue I & II on Steam for very cheap.)
SSX 3
My enjoyment of this game wasn't a huge surprise because I was highly anticipating it before release. Originally I was looking forward to 1080 Avalanche on the GameCube, but my attention shifted to SSX 3 simply because it looked more fun and had a lot more content. (Also, you might remember how I was embracing third-party games back then.) I got SSX 3 as a birthday present, and while I enjoyed it every bit as much as I hoped I would, I didn't expect that I would continue playing almost daily for the next year. It's still one of my favorite GameCube games, and I get hooked on it all over again whenever I revisit it.
I did rent 1080 Avalanche at one point, and while it was also fun, it didn't compare to SSX 3. I went on to play other games in the series, but SSX 3 is still my favorite.
Hyrule Warriors
I had never played a Warriors/Musou game before, but being a fan of The Legend of Zelda, I was very interested in trying this game after it was announced. At the very least, I figured I would I would play it for about a month before moving on to the next game. That's just what happened, but after I was finished with that next game (Bayonetta 2), I came right back to Hyrule Warriors, and I continued to play it regularly over the next couple of years. I even bought every last bit of DLC, as well as the Smash Link amiibo just to unlock the spinner weapon. I finally got my fill of it a few months before Breath of the Wild came out, and I haven't gone back to it seriously since then. But it was easily my most played Wii U game up to that point.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
I've talked about this plenty of times before, so I won't go into detail again. But the tl;dr version is that this was basically intended to be more like a transitional game to ease me down from the high of Breath of the Wild. Instead, I ended up loving it in about equal measure, and it solidified me as a Xenoblade fan. It's still my favorite game in the series.
R-Type Final 2
I don't think I need to say too much about this one, either. Similar to Hyrule Warriors, I expected to play this a lot for about a month, and ended up playing it regularly for the next year and a half (as well as buying most of the DLC).
I'm still waiting for the free update to Final 3, even though the "Evolved" version is already out on PS5.
Here are six games that I unexpected loved. I've probably talked about most of these before, but they fit the category. Also, this is not a comprehensive list, so I may mention more in the future.
Gunstar Heroes
This was back in the mid '90s. Being mainly a Nintendo fan, my SNES got most of my attention. But I also had a Sega Genesis, and I decided to try exploring more of its games. I rented games regularly back then, and I came across Gunstar Heroes at the local rental store. I remembered seeing it in a couple of issues of Sega Visions magazine and I was curious about it, so I rented it on a whim. Almost immediately when I started playing it, I was blown away. I knew this game was something special.
I rented it at least a couple more times before I ended up just buying a used copy. It's still one of my favorite Genesis games.
Shenmue
Despite being a big fan of my Dreamcast, and knowing that Shenmue was a big deal for the console when it came out, I really wasn't too interested in it. It was about a year later after the Dreamcast had been discontinued and the games were selling for cheap that I decided to pick up a copy of Shenmue. Once I started playing, I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I instantly decided that I was definitely going to get the sequel that was due out in about a month.
Imagine how upset I was when just two days later, the Dreamcast version of Shenmue II was canceled in North America. A year later, it finally came out on the original Xbox, but I never owned one, and so to this day, I still have never played Shenmue II (or Shenmue III, for that matter). But I considered the original Shenmue one of my favorite games for many years.
(Come to think of it, I could just get Shenmue I & II on Steam for very cheap.)
SSX 3
My enjoyment of this game wasn't a huge surprise because I was highly anticipating it before release. Originally I was looking forward to 1080 Avalanche on the GameCube, but my attention shifted to SSX 3 simply because it looked more fun and had a lot more content. (Also, you might remember how I was embracing third-party games back then.) I got SSX 3 as a birthday present, and while I enjoyed it every bit as much as I hoped I would, I didn't expect that I would continue playing almost daily for the next year. It's still one of my favorite GameCube games, and I get hooked on it all over again whenever I revisit it.
I did rent 1080 Avalanche at one point, and while it was also fun, it didn't compare to SSX 3. I went on to play other games in the series, but SSX 3 is still my favorite.
Hyrule Warriors
I had never played a Warriors/Musou game before, but being a fan of The Legend of Zelda, I was very interested in trying this game after it was announced. At the very least, I figured I would I would play it for about a month before moving on to the next game. That's just what happened, but after I was finished with that next game (Bayonetta 2), I came right back to Hyrule Warriors, and I continued to play it regularly over the next couple of years. I even bought every last bit of DLC, as well as the Smash Link amiibo just to unlock the spinner weapon. I finally got my fill of it a few months before Breath of the Wild came out, and I haven't gone back to it seriously since then. But it was easily my most played Wii U game up to that point.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
I've talked about this plenty of times before, so I won't go into detail again. But the tl;dr version is that this was basically intended to be more like a transitional game to ease me down from the high of Breath of the Wild. Instead, I ended up loving it in about equal measure, and it solidified me as a Xenoblade fan. It's still my favorite game in the series.
R-Type Final 2
I don't think I need to say too much about this one, either. Similar to Hyrule Warriors, I expected to play this a lot for about a month, and ended up playing it regularly for the next year and a half (as well as buying most of the DLC).
I'm still waiting for the free update to Final 3, even though the "Evolved" version is already out on PS5.