While franchises like Super Mario Bros. and Call of Duty have remained ubiquitous parts of video game pop culture, some of the best games have slipped through time. With a wealth of games to play, some great releases are overlooked in the mainstream but gain a cult following that gives them a new lease of life.
From classic platformers like Adventure Island to underrated FPS games like Perfect Dark, the history of gaming is filled with great games that go unnoticed. While there are many to choose from, users on Reddit took to the site to name the cult classics they love the most.
River City Ransom (1989)
While games like Double Dragon are well remembered as beat ’em ups from the NES days, other games in the genre haven’t been as warmly received. User Saruin mentioned one such game when they wrote, “I’ll be the first to mention River City Ransom. Beat-em games were a big deal in the ’80s…and then there was this gem”.
Unlike its contemporaries, River City introduced Ransom RPG elements that allowed the user to improve player stats as the game progressed. To see also : Brewers games at Bally Sports Wisconsin will be available through an in-app purchase, without the need for a cable, starting Thursday. While this made the game deeper, it also made it harder to just pick up and play, which was the draw of most button presses of the era.
Gun (2005)
As can often happen in the competitive video game market, a game can be appropriated by a larger franchise that follows in its wake. User Mr_Kerchu lamented that a game was overlooked when they said “Does Gun count on PS2? It’s a western game, sort of like Red Dead Redemption before it existed… It’s pretty well received, but people are talking about it not much left”.
Gun featured an open world where the player could explore an environment in the Old West and level up through various tasks and side missions. Unfortunately for Gun, the aforementioned Red Dead Redemption came along and improved things introduced in the earlier game. On the same subject : Video game pros and cons – what parents need to know. Despite this, many players revisit Gun and are pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up today.
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1992)
While console gaming has a plethora of cult classics in its history, PC gaming is by far a more overlooked medium. User falcazoid drew on personal experience when they mentioned a game and said “Star Trek: 25th Anniversary- DOS game. This may interest you : ‘July’ free games with Amazon Prime Gaming have been unveiled. Nice point-and-click game from my childhood that’s probably fun these days”.
A quarter of a century after the franchise’s existence, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary delivered one of the greatest Trek games of all time. Played as a series of episodes from The Original Series, players navigate through stories while controlling the recognizable characters from the show. Computer gaming was still in its infancy in the early 1990s and many players missed the memorable game, even though it was partially ported to the NES.
Night Trap (1992)
The Sega CD is mostly remembered as a great failure for the video game company, but it wasn’t without its cult classics, either. User linuxllc was descriptive when talking about an underrated game, saying “Night Trap is an interactive movie video game…for the Sega CD…The game is presented mainly through the use of full motion video”.
Night Trap was a truly unique gaming experience that instructed players to observe a girl’s sleepover in a mansion infested by vampires. The game is mostly remembered for its cheesiness and gimmicky gameplay, but has nevertheless amassed a huge cult following. In its day, the game was largely overlooked because it was on a console that hardly anyone bought.
Gargoyle’s Quest (1990)
The Nintendo Game Boy revolutionized the industry and helped usher in handheld gaming in general. User huxley00 delved into the depths of the Game Boy library when writing “Gargoyle’s Quest…this was a bit of a gem when I was a kid…many of the games lacked depth and nuance. Gargoyle’s Quest was a rare gem in the middle of it all”.
Gargoyle’s Quest is set in the world of Ghosts ‘n Goblins and puts the user in control of a villain from the previous games. Mixing the gameplay with overhead street view and platforming segments, the game had more to offer than the usual Game Boy fare. While it didn’t move the needle upon release, many fans want to see the classic Game Boy title on Nintendo Switch.
The Neverhood (1996)
By the late ’90s, the point-and-click game had fallen out of favor, but a hidden gem used creativity to breathe new life into it. User kabukistar spoke of an underrated PC when they said “The Neverhood… the whole thing is claymation, and the story is more of a creation myth”.
Even in a decade of quirky games, The Neverhood still managed to stand out from the crowd. Depicted in a claymation style, the game also featured a crazy story and funny music that kept players engaged. Although several sequels emerged from it, it did not reach the same stature as some of the bigger franchises from the turn of the new millennium.
Pharaoh (1999)
City building games have come a long way over the years and many of the earliest games ran in such a way that modern games could run. User yellowpotatobus turned to the oft-forgotten genre when they said “Pharaoh, PC 1999 – It’s my favorite city builder… It’s almost always overshadowed by Sim City… It’s even overshadowed by other games in its own series” .
Although the game may be familiar to most city builder fans, the setting of ancient Egypt adds a unique twist to the gameplay. Pharaoh was full of additional challenges and was ahead of his time among his contemporaries. While it’s often considered one of the best city-building games ever, its unique premise made it too niche for most gamers at the time.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (2002)
While many films show the work of H.P. Lovecraft as a source of inspiration, it is much rarer in the video game world. User UragGroShub went in a horror direction when they said “Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem… The madness was cool, but to me it was just a really great supernatural horror story”.
While it had traditional survival horror elements, Eternal Darkness also included a feature that affected the character’s mental state while witnessing the horrors of the story. The mechanic was a revolutionary addition and made it truly unique, but the adult-oriented nature of the game made it a hard sell for the kid-friendly Nintendo Game Cube system.
Adventure Island (1986)
The Nintendo Entertainment System was such a revolutionary console that some games slipped through the cracks simply because the field was so packed with great games. User TLDR2D2 mentioned one such game when they said “Adventure Island (NES) – Loved this platformer. Strange stone ax throwing skateboarding baseball cap wearing caveman dude…I’ve played this so many times”.
While platform games were nothing new in the 8-bit era, Adventure Island combined different gameplay mechanics to keep it interesting. It was a challenging game overall, and its vastness kept players coming back for more. Through no fault of his own, Adventure Island was simply overshadowed by a wealth of great games on the NES.
Perfect Dark (2000)
The turn of the new millennium was an explosive time in gaming and it seemed like each new release was pushing boundaries. User onex7805 was thinking of an FPS game when they wrote “Perfect Dark”. My favorite first person shooter ever made. It’s Goldeneye 64 but better in every way.
Often drawing comparisons to the aforementioned Goldeneye, Perfect Dark took the world of FPS without the help of an established franchise and improved the gameplay of its predecessor. Although Rare had two hits on their hands, Perfect Dark was simply overshadowed by Goldeneye and often overlooked by gamers at the time.
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Dalton Norman
(272 articles published)
Is Star Wars a cult classic?
Dalton Norman is a senior writer at Screenrant who makes lists on a variety of topics from movies and TV to comic books and pretty much anything that catches his eye. He is an avid fan of movie history and likes to give his readers as much trivia as possible. He has also contributed several essays to various online publications related to film theory and criticism, and brings his film experience as a writer to the table for the site.
Is Star Wars Episode 3 a cult classic?
A graduate of the exclusive BFA Film Production program at the University of Central Florida, Dalton specialized in screenwriting and production for low-budget filmmaking. In his spare time, Dalton writes novels that he independently publishes online. His influences include the work of authors such as John D. MacDonald and Tom Wolfe, and he tries to channel some of their unique energy when he writes.
Is Titanic a cult classic?
Star Wars, with its large cult following in the geek subculture, has been cited as both a cult blockbuster and a cult movie.
How do you play cult following?
What is considered a cult classic? A cult film, also known as a cult classic, is a film with a cult following, obscure or unpopular with mainstream audiences, and often enjoyed revolutionary or ironically.
Even people who were too young to see Revenge of the Sith in theaters may still be fascinated by the film, as those who grew up with it have made it a cult classic online.
What is a cult video game?
In recent years, however, The Lord of the Rings, Titanic, The Dark Knight and Pirates of the Caribbean have also been claimed as cult films. Not because they were popular, or at least not just because they were huge successes.
How do you play the cult game?
What is a synonym for cult?
One of the recruits draws a question card and reads one of the questions on it to all the cult leaders. Each cult leader then answers based on how their cult would answer the question. The recruit chooses which answer they think was their favorite/best and hands the question card to the corresponding cult leader.
What is cult following? A cult following refers to a group of fans who are deeply committed to a person, idea, object, movement or work, often an artist, especially a performing artist, or a work of art in a particular medium.
What is the best synonym?
Others may be successful, critically acclaimed, but overshadowed by others in the same series or released around the same time. Unconventional elements are a common draw that will also categorize a game as “cult”. It just goes to show how much impact we as gamers make in this industry.
- sect, religious group, denomination, religious order, church, faith, community of faith, belief, belief, affiliation, movement. group, body, faction, clique.
- What is the opposite of a cult? Facing a group of people who follow a unique or specific set of beliefs or practices. agnosticism. disbelief. atheism.
- synonyms for the best
- admirable.
- excellent.
- first class.
- magnificently.
- wonderful.
What do you call someone who is in a cult?
excellent.
What does cult mean in slang?
awesome.
