Good games never truly die as long as one person keeps the fire burning. It doesn’t matter if they are no longer accessible or if they are 10/10 experiences; if someone loves a game for whatever reason, then that game is important on some cultural level.
When it comes to gaming in the past couple of decades, it has been hard to keep up. Sometimes there are slow periods, and other times there are too many games releasing at the same time. This can be a big reason why they get overlooked, so let’s look at some examples to get a better idea of great games that were overlooked because they released at the wrong time. They may not have gotten a lot of attention at launch, but thankfully, fans continue to keep up the good fight.
Mega Man Legends 2
Sequel Troubles
Mega Man Legends 2 was released for the PS1 on October 25, 2000, a day before the PS2 launched in North America. While the PS2 had backwards compatibility and the game looked great on the new hardware, no one cared about PS1 games this late in the console cycle, especially not the day before the next generation of consoles was about to kick off. It was all about the new hotness, which was the PS2 and its surrounding launch titles.
It’s a shame, because Mega Man Legends 2 is a great action-adventure game that improved upon the original in several ways, like including multiple islands to explore. Had it waited a month or been released a month sooner, it might be looked back upon more fondly today.
3D Dot Game Heroes
Red And Dead
3D Dot Game Heroes was released on May 11, 2010, in North America as an exclusive to the PS3, which is still true to this day. It used big 3D voxels to decorate its world and characters, making it look like a LEGO-themed Zelda clone.
It’s one of the most unique-looking games on the PS3, and it’s a good Zelda clone to boot, but it was unfortunately released a week before Red Dead Redemption. For players who only had a set amount of money for games each month, it’s a safe bet that 3D Dot Game Heroes was not what most people chose.
The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North
Going Against The Dovahkiin
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North was released for multiple systems on November 1, 2011, during one of the most cramped few weeks of gaming in 2011. It was directly competing with Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception releasing on the same day, which wasn’t the real problem, nor was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 a week later. It was The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, which released ten days later, that really put The Lord of the Rings: War in the North in its place, as both were big epic fantasy RPGs.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, of course, has remained a cultural icon for over a decade, while The Lord of the Rings: War in the North has been delisted on digital platforms, which is sad considering it is one of the best games based on The Lord of the Rings.
Binary Domain
A Massive Miss
Binary Domain, released on February 28, 2012, was set in a future where a squad of soldiers has to go in and stop a robot rebellion akin to The Terminator films. It was a squad-based third-person cover shooter that had great mechanics and a weird story thanks to its off-beat characters.
Binary Domain may have flown under the radar because a lot of RPG fans, and squad-based shooter fans to a lesser degree, were anticipating Mass Effect 3 dropping a week later. As the conclusion to a big trilogy, no other game — especially a sci-fi shooter — stood a chance against it.
Puppeteer
All Strung Out
Puppeteer was released on September 10, 2013, and it’s one of the PS3’s best platformers. As a young puppet boy, players go through levels themed around stage sets, all crafted with household materials akin to the LittleBigPlanet games, although most of it is wood-based.
This is another exclusive that never made it off of the PS3 console, and it had the misfortune of releasing just one week before Grand Theft Auto 5. On top of that, the PS4 was set to launch in November, so buying lower-budget PS3 games like Puppeteer probably didn’t seem as enticing as it may have in other years.
Read the full article on GameRant
This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
