Josh H

25. The City Building Series
24. Wizardry 8
23. Blood
22. Um Jammer Lammy
21. Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis
20. Codename: Eagle Multiplayer
19. No One Lives Forever
18. Jumping Flash! I & II
17. Suikoden II
16. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
15. Persona Series
14. Rez
13. Zork Zero
12. Valkyrie Profile
11. Clive Barker's Undying
10. Wheel of Time
9. Planescape: Torment
8. Herzog Zwei
7. Grim Fandango
6. Rocket: Robot on Wheels
5. Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus
4. Alone in the Dark
3. System Shock
2. Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
1. Ico

PixyJunket

Um Jammer Lammy!!
Jumping Flash!!
Klonoa!!

This looks more like games released in the last 6 years or so.

~~ PAL ~~

System Shock 2 was just as good as the original and equally underrated.

Apollo

Herzog Zwei was a great game. Totally underrated!!! First rts I ever played. Wish they would bring this game back!!!

Josh H

Well, to be fair, gaming wasn't super mainstream and nearly as hyped as it is now, until the playstation era.

Thus it was tougher for games to be underrated.

Now there's tons of games coming out each month, many with undeserving hype, so it's a lot easier for a great game to get lost in the shuffle.

In the past, there was less advertising hype, and reviews had a bigger influence, thus it was tougher to miss out on a great game IMO.

spainlinx0

So another misnomer? Is this an underrated, or simply unheard of games? I can't remember these games garnering any bad reviews.

PixyJunket

Underrated as in, excellent games that many people have never heard of.

PixyJunket

I guess that's a good point, though I do remember my share of sleepers from the old days.

RoQuEr

sad. I consider myself a connesuer, and I've only played 4 of the games listed, and thought only 2 were really good. (system shock and torment)

PalmerJoss

I definitely agree with #1. Ico was an amazing game with some of the greatest visuals I've ever seen in any game. I also loved that there was no dialogue in it, which is a refreshing change from some of the extremely dialogue heavy games that were coming out at the time(Metal Gear Solid 2, anyone?).

Josh H

Oh I agree. I was just saying that there are many more today.

Back then games were usually sleepers, in the sense that no one heard of them until the reviews. Once they got great reviews, most of them got checked out by a decent amount of people.

Now that gaming is more mainstream, and there's so many more casual gamers, advertising matters more than reviews, thus many games that are great, but get little hype, go unplayed.

How else do you explain something like ICO that got great reviews across the board selling like crap, and Enter the Matrix which got slammed across the board selling millions?

TheMadMonk

I've played about 6 of those.

I agree, we need better adjectives. I'd call these games "underappreciated". Underrated means just that, imho.

Captain Harlock

Pretty good list. Good to see Operation Flashpoint on there. One of the few PC games that I really enjoyed. One game they didn't put on the list that I would have included somewhere would be Ape Escape for the PS1.

Superboy

Ape Escape got excellent reviews and sold more than enough copies to become a GH.

DaBargainHunta

Yep, and they even made an excellent sequel for PS2. Ape Escape may not be as high profile as, say, a Mario or Sonic, but I think it has done pretty well for itself.

Captain Harlock

Sly Cooper is also a greatest hits title.

Tuan Jim

When they say City Building series are they talking about Caesar I, II and III and the Pharaoh games or something else?

Caesar II was great and Caesar III improved things even more -- aside from the simplified combat.

DaBargainHunta

Are you saying that Sly didn't sell all that well? If that's the case, then why the hell isn't ICO a GH too? For quality alone, that game more than deserves it!

Outlaw

man, I own more than half of those games, Klonoa, Suikoden II, ICO, good times.

Captain Harlock

I'm not sure what Sony's criteria for a Greatest Hit is, but I believe it's something like 450,000 copys over one year after release.

Sly Cooper sold pretty well. It didn't set the world on fire but you're right it did sell pretty well. I know I enjoyed it immensley

Ralph Wiggum

How can VF4: Evo be "underrated" when it is almost universally praised as the greatest 3D fighter to date? Not to mention the fact that it has only been out for a couple of months...

Josh H

It's more an "underappreciated" list, rather than underated.

Gamespy just picks crappy adjectives. Just like their "overrated" list was more "overhyped."

Anyway, they probably just meant VF4 in general. It got great reviews and sold pretty crappy. VF: Evo is just a better version, and will likely sell even less, so that's probably why they listed it.

Oni$yphon

Deus Ex and Suikoden I

Hmm I played jumping flash, suikoden II, system shock, um jammer lammy, virtua fighter 4, Planescape: Torment, no one lives forever, alone in the dark, and persona...

Might still own some of them.

What's sad is that I can see the sleepers before they happen and I have no power to change it...

fab

I've played the following: Blood, Um Jammer Lammy, No One Lives Forever, Jumping Flash! I & II, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, Rez, Herzog Zwei, Grim Fandango, Rocket: Robot on Wheels, Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus, Alone in the Dark, System Shock, Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution and ICO.

I agree with most... I actually think No One Lives Forever was a tad overrated. I really played the hell out of Jumping Flash I & II in the semi-early days of the PS1. Klonoa is one of my favorite series, the GBA versions and the PS2 version rock. Interesting to note that Rocket and Sly Cooper are both Sucker Punch developed games. I liked them both a lot. Like 6 months to a year ago I had a really hard time finding a new copy of ICO and finally settled on a used copy -- now it's everywhere! Was there another run?

--
fab

Decker

I don't think Sly Cooper was underrated. It got good reviews, but the criticisms against it (too short, too easy, too much slowdown) were all valid. It got overshadowed by a better platformer (R & C) and still sold okay. I'd have put Klonoa 2 on that list which disappeared without a trace with barely a peep. Great game, doomed only by the fact that it was 2D.