Best Under the Radar games of 2004

[RoQuEr]

What was a great game that nobody believed would be any good?


My vote for the year is KATAMARI DAMACY (PS2)

Had someone explained that it was about rolling a ball around picking up things, and that's all it is, I would have scoffed. But after watching someone play 5 minutes I had to give it a try. A simple, but absorbing game.

[Maryang Palad]

Aside from Katamari Damacy, these games get honorable mention:

Gradius V
Alien Hominid
Scaler
Castle Shikigami
Dog's Life
Second Sight

[SteveOVig]

Don't forget Metal Slug 3 and Metal Slug Advance

[Bax53]

Beyond Good and Evil
XIII
Deus Ex Invisible War

[asianxcore]

Didn't Beyond Good and Evil come out in 2003? Either way it was my favorite game of that year and was sadly overlooked.

Vote goes to Katamary Damacy. Ball rolling, senseless fun.

[Decker]

Originally Posted by Bax53

Beyond Good and Evil
XIII
Deus Ex Invisible War

All 3 are 2003 games.

Katamari Damacy was one of the best games of 2004. However, I don't think it's really "under the radar", since it's actually pretty popular, especially among the gaming press and in the gaming community. Heck, it was even nominated for a couple of Spike awards. But the term "out of nowhere" certainly applies. What a great game it is.

My vote is for Psi-Ops. Yes, it may have sold more copies the Katamri Damacy but I consider it "under the radar" since it didn't get a lot of press or rave reviews. I think it was an innovative, fun game that opened up all sorts of new gameplay dynamics. It's hard to do much new in the over-saturated third-person action genre, and on that front Psi-Ops really succeeds.

Champions of Norrath was a very good-looking dungeon crawl with a few glitches. Still for an action-RPG it was fun and had the ability to go online which made it unique in the genre (for console games)

I'm still not sure if Taiko Drum Master is a game, but I think it's pretty fun at parties. Ditto Eyetoy : Antigrav. When that comes out without a camera included, I'll pick that one up as well.

And if 2003 games that hit the bargain bin in early 2004 count, I'll add Sphinx And The Cursed Mummy, which outside of the baffeling decision not to include voice dialog, was a clever, beautiful adventure game.

[DamingR]

Test Drive: Eve of Destruction

Really fun game. Only $29.99 new.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by Maryang Palad

Castle Shikigami

Do you mean Castle Shikigami 2? I have both Castle Shikigami 1 (released here as Mobile Light Force) and Castle Shikigami 2. Both are good, but Castle Shikigami 2 is definitely better in my eyes. It's definitely got my vote as one of the best "under the radar games" of 2004.

Besides the games mentioned above (most of which I agree with, especially Katamari Damacy and Metal Slug 3), I've gotta throw these names into the hat:

- Maximo vs. Army of Zin (PS2)
- Pure Pinball (Xbox)
- Outrun 2 (Xbox)
- Space Raiders (GC)

All are worth seeking out.

[MasterofDVD]

Not sure if Psi-Ops really fell under the radar. I would say that Second Sight did since everyone thought it was a Psi-Ops clone.

Away Psi-Ops was a really great game. Ages ago I traded in a ton of old XBOX games. Later on I went looking for Psi-Ops and thought I had traded it by mistake. I was pretty bummed. About 2 months later a buddy of mine came home from college on a break and returned my copy of Psi-Ops that I had forget he borrowed. I'm so anal about my DVDs that I can't believe I forgot I let him borrow this game.

Sadly I didn't play much in the way of non-mainstream games because so many big titles were release. I got burned by most of these games letting me down so this year I'll be trying more underdog games.