The Empire Strikes Back is a film set in the United States. Star Wars has already given us a strange TV special about Chewbacca's Christmas, a comic book where Han Solo co-starred with a green Bugs Bunny.
Video games are no exception. There are so many great Bomberman games out there, but the series will forever be stained by the post-apocalyptic Bomberman: Act Zero remake. Even Nina Williams used to play in her own adventure. Even Donkey Kong Jr. got a random NES game that taught you math.
So many video game series have their own black sheep titles that are often only remembered by the unfortunate few. Here are fifteen of those little-known games franchises that, for better or worse, have been sent to the basement like a digital Hugo Simpson.
15.Resident Evil Gaiden
When Capcom made the odd decision to convert the series to the Game Boy Color, you'd expect it to be around the same age as the PlayStation classics. So, the designers went for a radical game design that didnt quite catch on, nevertheless, was nonetheless a noble endeavor.
Leon Kennedy and Barry Burton sail on a passenger ship filled with zombies, but when confronted with a zombie, the gameplay suddenly switches to a first-person POV where your aim and accuracy are determined by pressing the fire button at the appropriate time on a scrolling bar.
While Gaiden does have a significant cliffhanger ending where Leon is secretly replaced with a monster, Resident Evil Gaiden would eventually be considered non-canon, and the whole thing became moot. There's no wonder this one is forgotten.
14.Double Dragon for Neo Geo
The Double Dragon live-action film was deservedly criticized at the box office, but it didnt stop people from allowing Technos to develop a fighting game tie-in for Neo Geo. Rather than your usual side-scrolling beatem up, they went the fighting game route.
The games' similarities to the film are superficial at best. Five playable fighters were included in the film (Billy Lee, Jimmy Lee, Marian, Abobo, and Koga Shuko), and little references would occur here and there (like the Lee brothers' car being in the background or Abobo changing into his cinematic steroid golem appearance). The rest of the roster is composed of generic martial arts characters that have nothing to do with Double Dragon but have since disappeared.
13.Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest
Nintendo chose to hold off on the original Super Mario Bros. 2 because they feared that North American gamers would find it too difficult, but this game takes that notion to a whole new level. Despite the fact that a few Square RPGs were already available in North America by the early days of the 16-bit era, it appears that someone at the company felt Western gamers needed help understanding and appreciating the genre.
Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest was a funny name for Dummies thanks to its simplistic quest design, unreliable AI-controlled companions who completed the job for you, and overall shallow depth. It irritated most consumers and would be considered the largest waste of their time if it wasnt for the game's rich soundtrack.
12.Metal Gear Ac!d
Someone could have made a traditional Metal Gear game on the PSP, but they failed to get it. Instead, Konami chose a card-fighting strategy game that featured a few traditional Metal Gear elements.
Metal Gear Ac!d 2 is now available for mobile phones, with the exception of the Solid Eye: a cardboard attachment that would allow you to view the game and extra cutscenes in 3D. Ah, the novelty of 3D for a game that wasn't properly designed for that feature.
11.Castlevania Judgment (2008)
Simon Belmont is a regular fighter who was introduced to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but he was also introduced to a later Smash clone, DreamMix TV World Fighters, in which he was able to face Optimus Prime and Master Higgins. Back in 2008, Simon and the rest of the Castlevania all-stars even got their own fighter on the Wii.
The game had to deal with a slew of new characters from the huge Castlevania timeline (plus a new character Aeon), as well as manga artist Takeshi Obata's faults. Much of the game looks generic, and the parts that aren't generic arenotable in other ways.
Juments' gameplay seemed to be a marriage between Soul Calibur and Power Stone. Maybe next time do not do motion controls. Motion controls and fighting games go together like werewolves and silver.
10.Lara Croft Go
There were actually a few Tomb Raider franchise entries that would have suited the topic. Theres always the Game Boy Color games, which are strangely the most notable because they still featureerrbody animation despite that hardware's limitations. Instead, the nod goes to one of the most unique games in the series, Lara Croft Go.
Lara Croft Go utilized an isometric gameplay style, where a rather impatient Lara would solve puzzles using a turn-based movement system while avoiding giant snakes and dragons. Certainly, you could always try Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light instead.
9.Nintendo Arm Wrestling
This lesser-known variation of the Punch-Out!! series was developed by Nintendo R&D3, shortly after the arcade release of Super Punch-Out!!. The game features the same pre-Little Mac protagonist with the same green hair and crazed facial expression. With sound effects similar to the original Punch-Out!! games, you challenge such colorful characters as a buff cowboy, a pet robo-gorilla, and Frankensteins Monster to arm wrestling bouts.
The mystery opponent of Arm Wrestlings, Mask X, who is about to defeat him, unmasks the opponent and declares that he is not Bald Bull. He also tends to threw some headbutts while arm wrestling, which looks to be the inspiration for SNES Super Punch-Out!!s Masked Muscle fighter.
8.Silent Hill: The Arcade (2007)
If you want to capitalize on a gritty and bleak horror series based on protagonists recovering from their abstract mental agony, you should turn all of it into a first-person rail shooter. Yes, the butcher boogeyman will be permitted to moonlight as a stage boss in an unrelated story.
As you empty clip after clip at an encyclopedia of well-known Silent Hill nightmares, you also get to witness some stilted dialogue that (like the rest of this game) really shouldn't exist in 2007.
7.King of Fighters: Sky Stage
King of Fighters was born as a gigantic crossover between various SNK properties. While the series has mostly been about teams brawling in a three-on-three format, the franchises characters have appeared in other genres as well. Almost always, such a scenario would be appropriate.
Sky Stage is a shoot em up game based on the idea that various King of Fighters characters have been granted the ability to fly and spam bullets in every direction. During their journey through bullet hell, they encounter various King of Fighters villains that have also been granted the ability to fly and shoot lasers in every direction.
6.Doom RPG
The internet is strangely fascinated with the ability to make Doom work on anything these days, but in 2005, the idea of playing Doom on a cellphone was a wild dream. They could port the graphics, and they could even execute a form of 3D movement, but the actual combat required some modifications.
Doom RPG is a plot-heavy game that revolves around a modified turn-based engine, and there's even a system where you can demon-possessed dogs (assets taken from Wolfenstein 3D) and weaponize them against other enemies in a unique way.
5.Street Fighter II: The Interactive Movie
The Street Fighter video game is based on the horrorous live-action film with digitalized graphics. What isnt talked about enough is the video game's connection to Street Fighter II: The Animated Film.
While basically playing Pokemon Snap, you play as a Shadaloo cyborg who is assigned to keep an eye on the greatest fighters in the world. Taking snapshots during special moves and the like builds up your strength for later.
After the film's ending, you get to play as the cyborg in a one-on-one match against Ryu. Win and get the original ending, creating an epilogue where Bison is betrayed and destroyed.
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4.BS Zelda no Densetsu
The CD-i Zelda games may have been mentioned here, but those have risen to the level of notoriety in The Room, and they are no longer forgotten as they should be. Instead, I'll cherry pick from the absolutely bizarre experiment that was the Satellaview.
BS Zelda No Densetsu is a 16-bit remake of the original Legend of Zelda, set in the style of a third quest. It's possible that a game like that would be a bit more well-known, even if it was a Japanese-only game.
The Satellaview was one of those ideas that was both ingenious and ambitious, but that ultimately failed. It just broadcasted games like this to its users, and only allowed those users to access them during their scheduled broadcast times. However, once BS Zelda no Densetsu was finished, it was all gone. There was no cartridge or downloaded game file left on the hard drive. It's a strange experiment in video game history that remains.
3.Wily & Right no Rockboard: Thats Paradise
Capcom was releasing Mega Man games one after the other in the early 1990s. Mega Man 5 was just released, and the company was less than a year away from releasing Mega Man 6 and Mega Man X. They even had Mega Man Soccer on the horizon, with its face-meltingly beautiful theme song for the Dr. Wily Field. Thats Paradise.
This game is an oddity of the Mega Man franchise, as you cant play as Mega Man himself, but instead have to choose between Dr. Light/Right, Dr. Wily, Roll, and Mega Man 4 characters, Dr. Cossack, and Kalinka. There are also various boards that have chill remixes of classic Mega Man boss themes, as well as a fan-made English translation.
2.Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car
Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car is a very limited video game that existed inside a pretend patrol car for kids to play. The player is taken on a journey through the streets, avoids traffic, stops at red lights, and eventually hunts down a road-raging Dr. Robotnik.
The game is very short, but it does lead to a very simple boss battle against Robotnik. The only replay you may have is trying to increase your star rating. Otherwise, you'd have to wait for 1993s Sonic the Hedgehog, where Sonic and his oh-so-memorable pals run non-stop as they try to dodge Robotnik's many, many deadly traps.
1.Super Mario Bros. Special
There are so many forgotten Mario games to choose from. Whether it's teaching you to type, running a hotel, or being kidnapped in an edutainment catastrophe, Mario has never hesitated to make an unexpected outburst. For this list, though, Im going to talk about Super Mario Bros. Special, which is part of an early series of enhanced Mario games Hudson Soft would add to home computers.
Due to limitations at the time, the game lacks scrolling screens, a playable Luigi, and functional controls. To make matters worse, the visuals and the distorted music appear to be something you'd find in a Super Mario creepypasta.
The Mario Bros. crab and angry beets, as well as the Donkey Kong's invincibility hammer make an appearance here, although it's not as powerful as the raccoon suit itself.