It seems anymore that unless a game has a huge license or tons of hype, a couple bad reviews will kill it.
Two that come to my mind are:

Quantum Redshift
ATV Quad Power Pro Racing 2

I picked these up as budget titles as they looked ok to me even though reviewers in general gave them low to average scores. I love both of these titles and although not without faults, think they are very well made.

Anybody else want to chime in with some underrated favorites?

Swing Away Golf. I spent more time with this game than half the PS2 games I have.

Slave Zero for the dreamcast, I heard nothing but bad things about it, played a demo and went out and bought it the same day.

Circus Maximus-XBOX
Bloodrayne-XBOX

Fever 2003 on LIVE. I just can't stop playing people on LIVE. Yeah the game sucks...but my opponents seem to suck more.

Serious Sam for the XBox. I love the chaos. I mean they just throw 50 enemies on screen at once to see what you will do. It is a blast.

Hmm.. poorly rated.. that's a little bit harder.. I can name plenty of unknown or belittled games I love but am not sure on thier ratings..

Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox)
Gunvalkyrie (Xbox)
Quantum Redshift (Xbox)
Gitaroo Man (PS2)
Dragon Warrior 7 (PS1)

Torneko: The Last Hope (PS1): I know this got horrible ratings across every US magazine.. yet I can say it's probably my favorite, and EASILY my most played PSX game ever, even more than Castlevania.. it's one of the most enjoyable games I've played from a gameplay standpoint.. and was very highly accepted in Japan. It kind of pisses me off that a game with such an endless depth to it's play mechanics is crapped on, and a game where you are essentially led by the machine from the beginning to the end gets high marks.

People talk about it now like it was always considered a great game, but at the time it came out, the first Legacy of Kain got pretty poor reviews (mostly 7s or 70% or 3 stars out of 5 everywhere I looked. I loved it though and played it several times (really never enjoyed any of the other games in the series, even though the soul reavers got much better reviews).

Quantum Redshift

hmm... can't think of any games I liked that got poor reviews except for every Xbox game I have... Xbox games tend to get bad reviews, but I like alot of them anyway. :/ If the question was about lesser-known games, I could come up with a bigger list.

Mafia was great.

Quantum Redshift for sure. I've also loved the NBA Jam series because they are such fun party games. Especially the NBA Showtime release on the Dreamcast. It's so easy to pick up and play.

The NBA Jam series was generally ripped because they are usually from the "been-there, done that" variety, but I'd pick up a new one in a heartbeat if Acclaim or Midway decided to release one for the next-gen systems.

Jeremy

Mario 2 maybe?

Simpsons Road Rage

I dunno if I'd go as far as saying I "loved" the game, but Lost Kingdoms on GC kept me entertained the whole way through and combines elements of card-collecting, role-playing, and adventuring very well. I'm highly anticipating the sequel. If you find this one for $25 or less, definitely give it a whirl.

Rival Schools (PS1)
Cannon Spike (DC)
Jet Set Radio Future(XB)


thats aboot it I think.

Star Wars: Episode 1 Jedi Power Battles (Psx)

The co-op mode was a blast. Two Jedi hacking through a ton of droids, what could be better than that? although the reviews said it sucked, I loved it.

WCW Vs. NWO World Tour (N64)

I remember this game getting something like a 5.0 from gamespot, but I absolutely loved this game, and then when the sequel to it came out (WCW / NWO Revenge), I played the heck out of that one too. Multiplayer was awesome.

Enclave for XBOX is fantastic --I think it got so so ratings (mostly complaints about lack of in-level save). I know Gamepro only gave it 1 star. Some of the sharpest graphics and best character models and textures I've seen.

A great game to pick up for $19.99.

Azurik xbox was cool - it got terrible reviews

also agree on
Gunvalkyrie (xbox)
Enclave xbox

Good thread. I don't think I would have even considered Enclave until now - and after checking the reviews, it doesn't seem to be that bad of a game after all.

Jeremy

Its 12.99 at Target, maybe I need to look at it one more time.

If I remember correctly, Chaos Overlords was rated poorly, but I had a blast playing it.

Many of the wrestling games that came out for N64 and PS1 and PS2.

The Aki N64 wrestling games were actually highly acclaimed, and still are thought of as some of the best wrestling titles to date. Now, if you're talking about WWF Warzone, ECW Hardcore or an equivalent... God speed.

NBA Inside Drive 2003. This is the most fun i've ever had at playing basketball on a console, especially with Rasheed Wallace being my player of the game each and every time.

I'm a big fanboy of wrestling games. If you make a wrestling game for a videogame system, I'll play it.

robotech