Seeing Vandal Hearts reminded me that Vandal Hearts II was even more underrated, underappreciated, and undersold. It made the first VH look like a blockbuster of epic proportions, in comparison.

Critics savaged Vandal Hearts II so badly that it probably scared away a large percentage of those who owned the first. Every review ripped the 'simultaneous movement' innovation, making it sound like every turn was moving your selected guy to attack, but then having that targeted opponent move to where you originally stood to attack, thus leaving everybody swinging at air on every turn.

These impressions couldn't have been further off the mark; the rationale behind enemy movements and attacks soon became clear, and there was probably even more strategy involved. It was just a great game. Lovers of the genre would love this game.

And I never would have even picked it up if I hadn't seen it in the Meijer bargain section for just $9.99. Talk about finding a diamond in the garbage.

Edit: Checked out the most recent stats and found that VH II did indeed lose over half its audience... 111,869 copies sold of Vandal Hearts to just 47,286 of its sequel. I'm surprised VH II did even that well, but no wonder there's no talk of a Vandal Hearts 3.

Goemon's Great Adventure was a really fun game! It's the kind of game that doesn't take itself too seriously. At the surface it appears to be a game for all ages, but theres swearing and cross-dressing in it. Not to mention enemies that shoot explosives out their rear end at you (you have to see it to believe it, trust me!)...a real unusual game. Anyway the co-op was what made this game a blast, especially the ability to piggy back. There were some funny parts where my sister had trouble with the jumping areas and I had to make it across with both of us, or vice versa. The game wasn't "that" great but I still think it deserves more, it had some of the best music to be heard in gaming, and also has one of the best vocal songs in the history of gaming..."I am Impact!" . I've always been a fan of Goemon games, I wish they'd bring the PS2 one to the states but sony doesn't want us to have cool things....rats.

Never played Pitfall 2, but Im glad to see that you too like Castlevania 2. I mean hell it gave birth to one of Castlevania's secondary themes "Bloody Tears". That track is repeated in the Castlevania Chronicle title on PSX.