Hidden Gems - Good media that is often overlooked

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[TB100]

The Wario series.

Seriously both of these series' tends to be overlooked by Nintendo, probably not to F-Zero or Metroid levels, but pretty overlooked as a whole, both of these games are pretty different as a whole, one series has you play as Wario as you explore levels to find treasures and other goodies,and the other is a series of minigame compilations, where you have to complete a series of 5 second minigames (Or mircogames as they're called.) to get the highest score possible. but both these games share two things in common, one is addicting and fun gameplay, and the other is the very colorful cast, in the Warioware picture alone, you can see many wacky and quirky character designs with everyone having a unique and memorable design, and Wario Land while it may not have nearly as many reocurring characters, also has it's share of fun and memorable characters. (Captain Syrup anyone.) but the star of the show is the main protagionist, Wario

Now in the Mario series, Wario is a goofy and somewhat disgusting character who is Mario's rival, but in the Wario series, Wario is a goofy but determined treasure hunter, who no matter what obstacles are upon him, will always try to get what he wants in the end and won't stop until doing so. (Whatever it works or not, depends on the game.) And going beyond that blasted Smash charactization, Wario is one of my favorite Mario characters. he is so prideful & greedy, but at the same time, he's very comedic and fun, and you can clearly see this in the artwork.

You can tell from these images alone that this series is rooted in fun and weirdness and it embraces those two, and that extends to Warioware as well. just watch this for instance.

Obivously this is not a series that you should take seriously, it's like a crazy cartoon/anime in video game form, and that's what makes the Wario series so wonderful and memorable. now while it's not as hidden as some of the other options here, Nintendo hardly gives these games any sort of love, aside from the ocassional nod every now & then, which is very unlike the DK and the Yoshi games which tends to get all sorts of love by Nintendo. it'll be neat to play as Ashley in Mario Tennis, or race with Captain Syrup or Mona in a Wario Land or Warioware themed course in the Mario Kart games. (Not counting the Arcade games.) but instead we get this.

Like really Nintendo? You have all of these fun, quirky and memorable characters, and you decide to make worthless babies and clones instead?

I love you to death Nintendo, but sometimes i really question your decision making.

[MightyRay]

Do you like puzzle games? Do you like challenging puzzle games that make you think?

Well, today is your lucky day! Cause this is one video game I will not stop singing praises for if ever. Kula World! (Also known as Roll Away in the U.S.A. and Kula Quest in Japan.)

This is in my opinion one of the best PS1 games ever made and a highly underrated classic with a tiny yet passionate fanbase. I used to play the crap out of the demo when I was young and hunted high and low for a used copy but never could get my mits on one. Years later I got a digital copy on the PSN store and I've enjoyed it ever since.

I'm sadly no good at this game mainly due to never being good at problem solving and having blah reflexes but I still highly recommend grabbing a copy if you have a PS3 or 4 from the store and giving it a go. Very well polished with clever level design, good graphics that have aged very well, lovely art design, cool music and and well implemented gimmicks to keep you on your toes. Sadly Kula World and Roll Away both have some features missing and a couple of odd bugs that kind of hold it back compared to Kula Quest so if you want a hard copy I'd highly advise getting Kula Quest over the other two versions of the game.   

 

[Sonic Yoda]

Kula World is an extremely good shout. There's lots of forgotten gems on the PS1. Jumping Flash, Klonoa and Tombi spring to mind. All great platformers that deserve your attention. I think Klonoa and Tombi are available as classics on PSN now

[FReaK]

oh yes i remember the tombi series and kula world. never got into jumping flash though. great games, i think in general that there were way too many psone games that simply got forgotten. i still love this console so much.

 

Also, Vigilante 8. fun little car shooter.

[Sonic Yoda]

Oh God I played so much Vigilante 8. Have you played the Star Wars Vigilante 8 game? It's called Star Wars Demolition but it's basically just Vigilante 8 with Star Wars vehicles

[FReaK]

6 hours ago, Sonic Yoda said:

Oh God I played so much Vigilante 8. Have you played the Star Wars Vigilante 8 game? It's called Star Wars Demolition but it's basically just Vigilante 8 with Star Wars vehicles

no, i actually never heard about that before. is it for psx also? if so, i will consider playing it on my raspberry pi.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

Hoo boy, sometimes it seems like I'm more interested in hidden gems than in...easily found gems, so prepare for a book.

The Adventures of Superman (live action TV show, 1952 - 1958)  - The first live-action superhero show, The Adventures of Superman is an episodic series based on the Superman comic books and radio show, featuring the adventures of Clark Kent/Superman and his friends as they fight crime and various evils. Despite being an ancient, low-budget show in which most episodes have several gaping plot holes, at its best, it's easily my favorite take on Superman and one of my favorite shows in general. A lot of this has to do with the actors and the show's take on the characters; in my opinion, it makes them "come to life" in a way I don't think any other media succeeds at doing so well, particularly Clark Kent/Superman as portrayed by George Reeves, my favorite Superman actor of all time. Even I have to admit that there are times Superman can be a stale, boring, and even inauthentic character, but Reeves averts this quite nicely, giving Clark/Supes a very nice emotional range, an incredible sense of genuineness, interesting interactions with his friends, and even subtle emotional depth. Some versions of Superman make him out to be kind of a plastic "boy scout" who wants to help the world in general but doesn't have that much emotional attachment to it; The Adventures of Superman takes an extremely different approach that makes Superman feel much more like a real, genuinely good person who cares about his friends and community and actually gets angry and frustrated at injustice.

Also worthy of note is the show's portrayal of Superman's double life, which differs significantly from the comics of the time - Clark Kent is actually a very no-nonsense guy who can be assertive sometimes, and who certainly doesn't come across as "wimpy", but at the same time, unlike many modern takes on the character that run with this idea, the idea of him being "mild-mannered" and cowardly isn't completely discarded or ignored. The show actually seems to emphasize Clark Kent more than Superman sometimes, depicting him as a capable "crime-busting" reporter who is active in investigating crimes and well-regarded for the help he gives to his community, as well as a good friend. I absolutely love this, as it shows us that Superman is so much more than the sum of his powers - he's just a great guy in general, even when his superpowers aren't involved at all. It's also a very clever way to give Superman some challenge despite the fact that most of the foes are ordinary criminals and thus no match for him directly - many of the episodes devote a lot of screen time to the characters investigating the crime rather than just Superman saving the day with his powers. Clark isn't the only one investigating, though - the show is also renowned (in my mind that is xD) for its takes on the other Daily Planet reporters and side-characters such as Inspector Henderson, and the character dynamics are pretty awesome and sometimes amusing.

Of course, the show isn't perfect; in fact, it's very flawed in some ways, and I definitely can see why it wouldn't appeal to everyone. As mentioned, multiple plot holes in every episode are the norm here, and at the end of the day, Superman usually isn't really all that challenged, though they do a slightly good job hiding it. I also have to say that I mainly focus on the first two seasons of the show, as after that, the show's quality takes a very steep dip as it seems to stop caring about appealing to adults or even "the whole family" and becomes ridiculously dumbed down for children (which just happens to coincide with the episodes beginning to be filmed in color). That's not to say the colored episodes are without value, by any means, but in general, the quality is just much noticeably lower. I haven't even watched all the colored episodes yet due to my relative lack of interest.

Believe it or not, I could go on about the Adventures of Superman for much, MUCH longer, but this post will probably already be obscenely long, so I'll spare you xD

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (live action TV show, 1993 - 1997) - Lois & Clark has a very interesting take on the story of Superman, and one of my favorite pieces of non-Golden Age Superman media. It's...well, a rom-com - sort of a rom-com mashed together with a slightly more traditional superhero show sometimes, but still. It also focuses more on the Clark Kent side of Superman even more than the Adventures of Superman does. I don't like it as much as AoS, in part because I think they really do de-emphasize the Superman side of the character a little too much, but it's still got loads of charm and a lot to offer, despite - like AoS - also coming with its share of flaws. Dean Cain's Clark is very cute (VERY cute!! xD) and charming and definitely more of a grounded and "human" character than Superman usually is, Lois and Clark's relationship is very endearing and heartfelt, and the storylines, while sometimes EXTREMELY cheesy, are also very fun. I also have to give the show massive props for expanding Lois Lane's personality and depth beyond her just being a great, tough and fearless journalist who's in love with Superman; we get to see a lot more of her emotional vulnerability, and the show neither puts her on a pedestal as some flawless person to be admired (the show isn't above lightly making fun of her weaknesses sometimes), nor treats her as little more than a damsel-in-distress. Basically, this show makes Lois more of a real, fully-fledged character more than probably the vast majority of Superman media does. It also happens to be one of the only times in Superman history that I've seen where Clark's parents are actually developed beyond their relationship with Clark. Perhaps one of the best parts are the moments when this show delves in to what it's like for characters' lives in light of Clark's powers and alien nature in a way that's intriguing and emotional.

I can see where to some the show may seem a little weird, and honestly there are times where the show can be kinda dumb, or the pacing is weird, or an ongoing plot thread is handled in a very lacking way. But overall, the charm, heart, and fun of this show, and the care taken in developing the characters, is more than enough to win me over.

Superman (Ruby-Spears cartoon, 1988) - This show, while certainly decent and worth watching if you're a Superman fan IMO, isn't anything amazing, but I wanted to put it here because it really epitomizes the "hidden" part of "hidden gems" - this thing is extremely obscure! And no surprise, I suppose, considering it ran for one season and has a whopping 13 episodes. (Apparently, the reason why is because they were being charged an obscene price for the Superman license, so it was hard to be worth it, or something like that - I don't quite remember.) This show can be quite cheesy and it certainly doesn't try to appeal to anyone older than kids, but it's fun and does a pretty good job capturing the characters, and while the animation has glitches a little too often for my liking and the character designs for original characters tend to be very mediocre at best, the art style is pretty nice-looking. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this show for me is the way it feels like a weird fusion of the Christopher Reeve films and the post-Crisis comics; you have Lex Luthor being a billionaire businessman and Clark's parents both being alive, but you also have Superman's, Clark Kent's, and Lex Luthor's personalities and mannerisms being much more inspired by the film versions than the comics of the time. The show also has "Superman family album" segments at the end of each episode which showcase Clark growing up, starting with him as a baby all the way until his first appearance as Superman, which are often quite endearing, especially when they just show the young Clark dealing with some everyday stuff and being kinda a normal kid and how this interacts with his powers (which are depicted as fully developed even when he was a baby in this version). Overall, this show isn't really that noteworthy, but it's still a fairly good rendition of Superman and good enough for me to recommend to fellow Superman fans or...people who just want to watch really obscure 80s cartoons for some reason.

Superman: Brainiac Attacks (direct-to-video cartoon movie, 2006) - This animated film follows the art style, but not the continuity, of Superman: The Animated Series, and as a result, on the relatively infrequent occasion that it's brought up, too many DCAU fanboys whine about that fact rather than appreciating the movie for what it is. I mean, there's nothing wrong with being a DCAU fanboy, but in all honesty, I'm GLAD this movie departs from Superman: TAS, because it actually IMPROVES on that series in a number of areas. Superman: TAS used to be one of my favorite versions of Superman, and certainly, I still consider it solid to this day, with tight, well-written stories. But I've come to realize that Superman: TAS fails completely when it comes to some of the aspects of Superman I care most about - namely Clark Kent, giving attention to the supporting cast (especially Daily Planet members and Clark's parents), and just giving Superman more things to care about other than just the immediate issues of saving the day. In every single one of these areas where Superman: TAS is a let-down, Brainiac Attacks is a success, and as a result, it's hard for me not to love it. In particular, Clark's quest for Lois' heart and conflicted feelings about his double life and the issues surrounding are made important issues in this movie, which I absolutely love, especially since they were all but completely neglected in S:TAS. The movie also features an extremely clever twist in the middle that I of course won't give away. I guess the fight scenes in this movie were a little long and boring, but personally I thought it was worth it for...well, everything else!

Spectacular Spider-Man (cartoon, 2008 - 2009) - OK, maybe calling this a "hidden gem" is a bit of an exaggeration. I mean, it does get a fair amount of love when it happens to come up, but it doesn't seem to "come up" all that often, at least compared to, say, many DC cartoons. All things considered, I do think this show is a very high-quality cartoon that, while not completely overlooked, is good enough to deserve a lot more attention than it already has. I actually don't really have experience with Spider-Man apart from this show, so I don't have much to compare it to, and as a result a lot of my praises will probably sound like praises of Spider-Man in general, but...hopefully that will demonstrate that this show does a great job capturing what's so great about Spider-Man, I guess? xD

Peter Parker is very likable and the kind of guy you can't help rooting for. It doesn't hurt that he has to go through a LOT. Seriously, friends not trusting him, friends turning into supervillains, not having any money, being bullied, the difficulties associated with being a superhero - the poor guy just can't catch a break. In fact, the world is so brutal to him that at first it was hard to watch. After the first few episodes, I actually felt like quitting. It's probably the show's biggest weak point for me. That being said, I'm SO glad I decided to persevere.

Peter/Spidey a great character who feels very real, is very sympathetic, and has to go through character development, and he's also very entertaining and fun to watch as a superhero. This show's fight scenes are excellent, making great use of Spider-Man's unique and fun power set combined with his cleverness. Plus, there's his overall style and his famous quipping. The dialogue in this show is quite good, and Spidey's quips are certainly no exception. As a superhero he excels, and as an overall character he does even better.

As if THAT weren't enough, he also has a pretty involved, well-developed supporting cast and some really great villains. There's a wonderful variety of mannerisms and powers in his rogues' gallery. If there's one problem with the villains, it's that many of them are a bit similar when you get down to their basic personalities and how they came to become supervillains, but there are at a few that certainly break this trend.

It really is pretty sad that this show got cut short simply due to a legal hassle caused by Disney's acquisition of Marvel, but don't let that turn you off - it's a very high-quality superhero cartoon through and through.

~~~~~~~~

Um...there are still other "hidden gems" I'd like to address, but this post is already more than 2,000 words long, SO...uh...maybe I'll make another post later. Sorry that most of them were about Superman. xD

[Sonic Yoda]

17 hours ago, FReaK said:

no, i actually never heard about that before. is it for psx also? if so, i will consider playing it on my raspberry pi.

It's on PS1 and Dreamcast