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Why is it that in the wake of newly dropped industry heft like Sonic in the new Smash Bros. game or a remake of Fire Emblem 1 for the DS do I choose to talk about games that are near four years old?

Because I'm a gaming curmudgeon, goddammit, and that's what I ******** do.

Also, this discussion isn't geared towards games that are merely past their prime, but games that never had a chance at getting that prime to begin with, be it at the fault of a quirky concept, unappealing visuals or (as is often the case) lackluster promotion. You know, The Obscures.

Granted that not that many people in the social mainstream are going to really know what the hell Final Fantasy VII is about, despite the relative prominence that it enjoys within the gaming community (arguments about actual quality aside). And yeah, not even that many people within said community are going to know what the deal with something like Devil Summoner is... but people are still aware that such a game exists. Savvy?

I'm talking about stuff that falls so far off of the average (maybe even the ardent) gamer's periphery that it might as well be a bar of soap. For instance, I bet not one of you has ever heard of the greasemonkey saga of Car Battler Joe. I just won it off of an auction so I haven't played it yet (hence the absence of a proper review) but when this game was released, I don't even remember seeing it in any used piles much less occupy a space on the GBA section's retail smorgasborg.

So, for my benefit (and hopefully, the benefit of others) do you know of or own any games that flew totally below the radar of the the all-consuming mass? Imports are welcome... after all, those are essentially games that have managed to avoid the American bargain bins as a matter of simple geography as they were never released over here to begin with.

I was going to ask if you were high or something, lol. I had thought that Bubble Bobble enjoyed status as one of the line-faced legends among the gaming industry and I know that it's regarded as thus among the circle of socially criminal swine that I happen to belong to except for one guy, who is a total b*****d. In my single life, it wouldn't have been a proper month if one of my friends (who now lives in Chicago) didn't drag my a** out of the burn ward down to the local quarter bandits in another desperate attempt to try to rape me in that game, and I don't think it's bragging when I state that in Bubble Bobble, it doesn't get "broughted" any more savagely than when Vince 'n' Corey are after the same scattered grouping of pixel ice cream. The U.S. needs billions of dollars to stage unholy, colossal campaigns of blood-soaked avarice on an almost fantastic scale. Pussies. We, on the other hand, only need a few quarters.

Point is, that game is all but obscure, but in the current gamer's sphere goes totally underappreciated when you consider the many versions of Puzzle Bobble that can be easily found. Thankfully, I still have my GBA version as the DS one was supposedly buggered beyond repair. You can corroborate that if I'm in the wrong. Also, I had heard that there was a second DS attempt in the planning called Bubble Bobble Double Shot but I've not seen any mention of it in a while. Probably not going to be released in this country, if at all.

Paraworld would be a more suitable candidate, although I'm loath to admit that I'll probably never play it as I am on shaky grounds with the RTS genre as a whole. I mean, it's a kind of game that just kind of rewards a stubborn attitude, doesn't it? You stay alive for 30 seconds until your super-weapon is full, then you press the button and then BLAUGH! I'm in your base snorting your lines. The closest I ever got to playing an RTS in full was Odama, and truthfully, it's a game that I find only half-enjoyable... the pinball half.

I have taken note of that game. As a total SRPG fiend (I doubt I'll be able to even finish the ones that I own before I kick off this mortal coil), the screenshots made me curious but I avoided it at the behest of budgeter's rules. Of course, I have an actual job now, so do tell more. I got some serious overtime this pay period and I plan on ripping an unholy digital consumer hard-on over most of Lake Mary tomorrow. I probably won't be able to talk myself into buying both games but not because I hate sequels. It's just that I take forever when it comes to finishing games like that (two years on the first Fire Emblem... me feel shame) so I can't see the appeal in repeating those kinds of activities for myself, you know?

Eternal Darkness? At the time, I had a strong aversion to survival-horror because of my virgin experience with the genre, a little thing for the Playstation called Resident Evil. Pardon my acidic extremism, but I hate that game more than fart cancer and since this title was widely regarded as the foundation of survival horror, it gave me the misleading impression that all survival-horror was ever to be was horrible VO and a difficulty that was superimposed over shitty controls.

I should mention by this point (that I had played RE), which was before I was introduced to Eternal Darkness and subsequently Fatal Frame, that I was marking out hard for Silent Hill. However, I had regarded it as the exception that proved the rule and consciously ignored the idea that maybe other games like it could be made. I won't really go into why I liked it because this post is about something different, I'm just saying this because it should paint a clearer picture of how a game like Eternal Darkness not only got me to try out different survival-horror games in the future (none as good, but I still keep looking) but also convinced me to look much deeper into the idea of "video games as art".

You ever read any Lovecraft? I may have mentioned it elsewhere, but this game has a serious attachment to the cosmic horror mythos, despite never directly referencing any characters, locations, or 1,000-tentacled reality-warping hellbeasts. It has a fantastic story, one of the very few in video games where I could honestly tell myself that it stands on par with anything that I've seen on the silver screen so far. The setting and sound tech foment a feeling of tranquil unease (play this with your speakers hooked up, trust me) and the stages are designed to appeal to the curious mind. But none of that is what pushes it into innovative digital expression, because a story is just a story. What use is interacting with a game when you could just theoretically take out all the cutscenes and, cut them together and you'd have a movie that digests the events in the game? No, what makes this arguably "art" is what the game does with you.

I'll try to articulate this with the following scenario: You've just been ambushed by the minions of Unseen Horror God X and as a result, you've taken a huge hit in your sanity. The game's camera tilts, walls start bleeding and they're creeping ever closer to you. Naturally, a preferred option at this point would be to get to the nearest exit to find some resources and come back into the room, refreshed and ready to pepper some animated corpses with buckshot. So after you manage to avoid two corpses and kill two more with whatever ammo you have left remaining, you finally manage to get to the door. You open it, and... your game resets. By itself. ******** course, your game didn't actually reset. A white flash drowns your screen and fades away to reveal your character standing in the room she just tried to leave. She peals to you that "this isn't really happening", but it so absolutely is. Eternal Darkness ******** WITH YOU.

Of course, it could be construed as just a clever gimmick if the game wasn't so damned tight. There are a few criticisms that I've got, however. For starters, the visuals, while well-designed are pretty low-rent. This project was birthed as an N64 exclusive and, sadly, it shows at times. Secondly, the controls can get a bit aggravating, but unlike in a certain survival-horror game that I happen to hate more than fart cancer, pressing "left" actually means ******** "go left". The little things, you know.

It's a good game, and a ballsy one for aiming at just a bit more than giving you some shock scares. I mean, having a bunch of dogs jump at you might make for a good goose shock, but these frights just pale in contrast to a gamer's most deeply ingrained fear: faulty hardware. You'd be surprised at how far such a shallow observation can go when put in the proper context.

I demand follow-up!

I passed by the local Gamestop today and was appalled at the state of the GBA rack. It was, apparently, a tad bit more non-existent than the last time I was there.

Gone. ******** David Copperfield.

Up the street, I continued my search for the two GBA games that had been topping my list for a few months now and happened upon another Gamestop that actually did have a GBA section. On this rack, well gosh darn, here we have a copy of Super Robot Taisen: OG2. A glance in it's direction took me back over to the counter to interrogate the register jockey about the state of the GBA union. Word had been sent out from the head Gamestop gestapo that all GBA games are to be shipped off to the bigger stores and pending their sales, probably recalled by the distributor and sold digitally as "********. Nobody wrote a eulogy?

Anyway, about this game? I really dig the portable Fire Emblem not only because of the gameplay, but because of the arti direction as well. Sprites are where this industry stood in the beginning, where visual economy served as the mother of invention to a whole new artfrom and that's still where gaming visuals shine, in my opinion. On the flip side, I'm not really into Gundams... but I am into widespread wreckage and unusually or classically designed giant robots. Big O, Mazinger, Getter, those guys.

So do you still think I'd be into this thing? If so, I gotta step out of the house for a bit.

Ah, that's a hard decision to make, since they're so hard to find now and it may be possible that a DS installment would be on the coming horizon and SRPG's generally take me a while to solve, anyway. I saw the some of the animations, though... mmmmm.

And then there's the one with the robo-knockers. Why?

Anyway, I added them to my list so hopefully, if I come acorss some especially cheap ones, I'll be able to pick them up.

I'm going to pad this thread out with a mention of not only a great game (or series of games), but an entire system: Neo Geo Pocket Color. There were, according to most of the people that I've asked about it, more than an generous abundance of these handhelds available at the turn of this century but I don't recall ever seeing any at the time. This system's catalogue is unbelievably robust in quality and it's a freaking shame that Neo Geo probably won't see fit to update/collect some of the first party titles for another handheld seeing as how their last attempt at doing this resulted in a metric ton of bad fellatio.

You can find a few emulators for it, but they just don't run that smoothly and since it doesn't have a serious cult following, I doubt there even will be a decent emulator for it. However, they are on the uber-cheap auction circuit if you don't mind playing used.

I like 'em portable (legal if possible and I am NOT judging... I have a fair share of illicit data myself and to make a moral stand on such a silly issue would make not only a hypocrite out of me, but also someone who might better serve mankind in silence), so until we see that DS version I'll stick with the GBA tip. They aren't too difficult to find... yet.

Robo-knockers aren't such a hefty chore. You just have to keep them well-lubed. ENTENDRE GET!

Okay, that's what I wanted to hear! 15 hours on a rough playthrough means that I'll have a flexible margin of time spent getting through it. Since I tend to try to find every single pixel in the games that I play, it'll be nice to have the luxury.

That "death means death" s**t in Fire Emblem might make for steeper challenges, but man can it jump up my a**. A game that is already almost nail-bitingly difficult doesn't need any extra obstacles.

Magna Carta (not the document). Once you get over the random bad voice acting, as well as yes the main character is a guy and is straight (wouldn't think so by his fashion taste), the story line is pretty good. The music (not counting the first song you here) is nice. The visuals are pretty. The battle system is odd, but you get used to it fairly quick.

Tears of Blood. Kind of like Final Fantasy Tactics, but surprisingly not many have heard of it. Haven't finished it yet so not ready for a full review.

Makai Kingdom. It was some what popular for those who knew to look for it (very small percentage ;~ wink . Amusing, great voice acting and art, and has lots of extra little goodies.

Phantom Brave. Bitter sweet but good Haven't finished it though ;~;

I'll check my humble collection to get the titles of some more later. ^.^