What's your favorite game you never hear anybody talk about?

In certain circles it is well known, but Baba Is You is one of the most ingenious games for a long while and should be known even wider.
- One of the only puzzle games that made me think I'm dumb and give up. It's fantastic
- Fantastic game. If anyone is interested, you can download the original concept version of the game that the dev made for a Game Jam. It kinda acts like a free 20 min demo for the full version. You can find the download link here.
- Played it with some friends on a pass the controller night. Really fun and makes you think.
  
  Initially looks just a simple twist on Sokoban, but the game mechanic just keeps going deeper and deeper and blowing your mind.
  I could do that?
  I COULD DO THAT?!
- Every time you solve a puzzle, you feel like you're cheating and that can't be the intended solution. It's such a tough game
- I'm not a gamer but I do enjoy Real Civil Engineer's youtube channel, he's played Baba Is You a few times.
- I really want to finish it but my brain can't keep up and stops working after a while
- Truly a unique game. Super challenging for people who think they "know" puzzle games lol

Rise of Nations. It's like Civilization but as a real-time strategy game and I really enjoy it. Microsoft actually released an updated edition in 2014 which was good of them but I basically never hear anyone actually talk about it which sucks because it's such a cool game. The single-player Conquer the World campaigns are also cool, and have some elements reminiscent of the classic Risk board game.
There's also Star Trek: Bridge Commander, which is often mentioned in discussions of "what Star Trek games were good?" but not much outside of that context. It strikes a perfect balance between having starship combat that really feels like you're commanding a ship with a lot of mass behind it and actually being fun and easy for an average person to pick up and play (which is where stuff like the X Universe games fall down). There are tons of "space fighter" games out there but I've never really seen anything that captures space capital ship combat as well as Bridge Commander.
- Still have my Rise of Nations CD somewhere. I loved games like Civilization, don’t even remember how I stumbled upon RoN, a really great game.
- God, I loved RoN! It was like a better version of Empire Earth which, to me, was already like a better version of Age of Empires.
  I mostly enjoyed the era changing, my favourite being the Napoleonic era. And I remember it having a good choice of campaigns/scenarios to play.
  I thought RoN would spawn a series of titles but I think they just had Rise of Legends which was interesting but definitely not the same.
- I was a Bridge Commander fanatic, picked it up at launch, played way too much of it, modded til it broke dozens of times, participated in the forums, even wrote a GeoCities page where I put out tips for the more challenging campaign missions and did write-ups on every playable ship in the game. Good times.
  RoN is also awesome, and is on sale on Steam! Purchased!
  
  Bridge Commander's modding scene is something else. So many cool ships, graphics overhauls, and even mods that added new mechanics like saucer/multi-vector separation. Truly amazing how much you can mod that game, even if it does get pretty unstable.
  And glad you could take advantage of the Steam sale to pick up Rise of Nations: Extended Edition!
  
  I saw an ad video for bridge commander on my armada 2 cd, I wanted to play that game so badly, but by the time sales had stopped.
  Years later I "found" it online and had a blast playing it.
  Is it available anywhere now?
- Rise of Nations was one of the best games ever. I spent so many hours playing.

Return of the Obra Dinn is an amazing game that I wish I could play again for the first time. The art style is super unique and the attention to detail in every aspect of the game is incredible.
Highly recommend.

My Summer Car. It's probably still #1 for play time on Steam for me. I bought a whole-ass racing wheel setup just for that game.
- Looks like Mon Bazou - though probably with less maple syrup power ups 😂 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1520370/Mon_Bazou/
  
  It's exactly where the inspiration for Mon Bazou came from. People been asking for My Winter Car for years
- I used to watch a streamer play My Summer Car whenever I could. I love the games that are just their own thing.
- I've been to Finland back in 2000s and must say that game is 100% realistic!
- I concur, hell I am so tempted to buy a Datsun 100A irl just because of that game...
  
  If I had a legitimate opportunity to buy one I would seriously consider it

American McGee’s Alice and the much later sequel which is my favourite game of all time - Alice: Madness Returns.
The aesthetic, the puzzles, the sound design, the voice acting, the political statements underlying the narrative, Alice’s outfits, the collectibles hidden in obscure places, the different art styles for each world level. I just love it! I mean sure, the combat mechanics are not as complex as some games but they fit nicely into Alice in Wonderland lore and if you up the difficulty settings it can be more challenging.
I’m also really enjoying Inscryption at the moment. A puzzle/card game interweaved with an escape the room horror story.
- Both are great games! Inscryption was the only game I've ever bought on launch after seeing gameplay videos and I had no regrets. Hope you enjoy it too!
  
  I keep trying to upload an image but I think lemmy.world is having a bit of a brain fart atm.
  I’ll try linking it instead 😂
  https://tenor.com/bKm49.gif
- I cannot believe these games aren't talked about, madness returns was so dark and good. Loved both these games.
- Oh man Alice! I actually never played it, but I have great memories of the game. One of the first graphics cards I ever got had an Alice graphic printed super big on the box for Madness Returns release. Think it was around the GTX 500 series.

Legend of Dragoon for PS1. It has the single best timed-input RPG combat system of any game ever. Think Mario RPG but way better.
GUST OF WIND DANCE!
- FYI this game is available on PS5! Also, if you've bought it on PS3 you should be able to download it on PS5 for free!
  VOLCANO!

Among all the love Bioware gets for KotOR and Mass Effect I'm genuinely surprised more people aren't talking about Jade Empire.
It's a full fledged classic Bioware RPG set in an interesting world based on Chinese mythology, has some great characters and a fun (if simple) combat system. Voice acting is mostly good too, especially for a 2005 game and it even has John Cleese doing a part!
I loved it when it came out and am stumped as to why it never became a BioWare mainstay. Maybe releasing as an exclusive for the original Xbox just killed it, but if you enjoy this style of RPG I highly recommend checking it out!

Any love for the Monkey Island series here?

Planetside 2 - someone else already mentioned it here, but it's the only game in it's genre and nothing else really comes close to what it offers (persistent 1v1v1 +300 player battles across infantry, land, air, and sea). It's been kicking for over a decade now and I'm not sure what could replace it if or when it finally kicks it. It's truly singular, and responsible for some of my fondest memories in gaming. It's also free!

Puzzle Pirates was a MMO in the early to mid 00’s. Each task on board the ship had a puzzle mini game associated with it. Sailing was sort of like Dr. Mario, pumping out the bilge was a match 3 game, loading the canons was sort of like Chu-Chu Rocket. The thing I liked about it was that your character’s ability to preform a duty had nothing to do with what gear you had equipped or how many skill points you had in a stat (there were none), it was all about how well you, as a player, could play the particular mini game.
In battle, sailors would generate movement tokens to allow the captain to maneuver the ship, gunners would reload the canons after they’d been fired, carpenters would repair any damage you’ve taken, while the bilge pumpers would keep the ship from foundering. Once you closed in and grappled the enemy ship, everyone would participate in a Super Puzzle Fighter-like sword fighting game; defeat the enemy crew to pillage their hold.
- Absolutely incredible obscure game. Foil-duels with the great sword fighters on the docks until you learn how to perform instant kill attacks was a highlight of my childhood
- My mom loved this game back in the day. She tried to get back into it recently but sort of bounced off. If there's any game that deserves a sequel, it's Puzzle Pirates.
  It fulfills a niche that few other games (none that I know about) fills, an MMO where the primary gameplay isn't an RPG but a series of puzzle games; where most importantly, you can specialize, only needing to play the puzzles you enjoy (unless you're captaining your own ship solo, in which case you need to be able to at least adequately perform all of the puzzles necessary for keeping a ship afloat).
  I think it's wonderful for giving an audience used to shitty Facebook match-3 games a more involved and social experience of what games can be.
- You tart. Glug glug glug. Then you play poker for hours.
  10/10 experience.

Black and White, it was a god simulator on PC in 2001. You interact with your villagers and the world as a floating hand, casting spells to raise faith in villages or throwing rocks to smite as necessary. You also got a giant pet that you could train to do your bidding.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_%26_White_(video_game)

Incredible Machine, Metal Arms Glitch in the System, Wargroove, Gradius 3.
- Thank you for reminding me of The Incredible Machine! I am going to add its two sequels that most people have never heard of, TIM: Contraptions (essentially a HD re-release of the first game in a new engine.) and TIM: Even More e Contraptions (What would now be sold as DLC.)
  
  Holy crap there was an HD re-release? I am not even sure which one I actually played. I think it was just TIM 3.0 from 1995
- +1 for Metal Arms Glitch in the System. It had some great characters and gameplay. It’s a shame that they never competed the sequel.

One Must Fall 2097, an awesome robot fighting game for DOS, which is quite different from every other fighting game, because in this one you have to select both pilots and the robots, and each pilot and robot have their own specialities and back stories, so it makes for a lot more interesting gameplay compared to other games in this genre.

Crimson Skies for OG Xbox. It’s pirates in planes dogfighting, we need a remake badly.

Mine is definitely Freelancer. The game by Chris Roberts that actually got finished by firing him.
I love that game, the story is engaging and the characters are likeable.
I'm probably just seeing it with nostalgia but I like to play it until this day. I installed it on my Steam Deck and gave it a go. It was awesome.

Mine is Dark Cloud. It was a PS2 launch title (or near enough to it) that was sort of a PlayStation answer to the Zelda franchise. Along with the original Spyro trilogy, Dark Cloud was by far my most-played game back in the day. It had an absolute banger of a soundtrack and a few pieces of really interesting unique gameplay including an RPG element where the primary progression system was not in your characters, but in upgrading your weapons, and a city-builder where you have to place all the people in each village near or away from various other elements in the village to meet their needs.
I almost never hear anyone talking about Dark Cloud, but extremely randomly one of the like four Twitch streamers I actually watch (all of whom are Age of Empires streamers, because that's basically all I watch these days) happens to play its soundtrack frequently on her stream as background music. So that's been really fun.
- I played Dark Cloud and it’s sequel like crazy. I loved the fishing element. It was one of the first games I got with my PS2 and I had no idea what it would be about. This is probably first time I have seen anyone else mention it.
  
  I've just recently downloaded an emulator and started replaying it. Going quite slowly through it, but I hope eventually to actually finish it.
  As a kid I got up to the Dark Genie twice (on two separate playthroughs), but I never actually managed to beat him.
- Dark cloud! I remember buying a PS2 from my cousins in 2012 and it came with Dark Cloud. It was my first introduction to Rogue Like games. Managed to scratch the Zelda itch while having an entire identity of its own
- I played the second one before the first, I really liked the mix of action RPG and town-building. Still need to finish the first.

Hard to settle on just one. In no order:
ChuChu Rocket (Dreamcast): insanely fun and manic couch multiplayer game
A10 Tank Killer II: Silent Thunder (PC): the soundtrack alone justifies the time to play this aging flight sim
Virtual On (Arcade): this was ported to Saturn and the port is good, but the giant arcade machine is where it's really at with dual twin stick cockpits
Mario Paint (SNES): Really fun non-game from a time when non-games were uncommon on home consoles. I have hundreds of hours into this
Dungeon Keeper (PC): darkly comedic evil dungeon lord management sim. I will never forgive EA for what they did to Bullfrog and subsequently the DK franchise. There have been many attempted homages and clones but none have captured the magic.
Super Tennis (SNES): an actually fun tennis game
Super Play Action Football (SNES): football game with a unique isometric view
Hank Parker's Super Black Bass 2 (SNES): super fun fishing sim. I wish there were games like this today that took fishing more seriously and less arcadey.
Brain Age (DS): a genuine sensation in its heyday and largely forgotten now. Really showed off the potential of the DS
Cel Damage (GameCube): twisted metal with zany little cel shaded cartoon characters. Never got the respect it deserved and probably never will since they butchered the game's balance with the HD re-release

Mine would be tunic , It feels like top down old school Zelda but puzzles that will blow your mind when you get the context. If you haven't played tunic before don't watch any review just buy the game and play it.
This is a 10/10 game where I wish to forget about it to play this again.

CrossCode. It's an SNES-style action RPG with very fun combat, 2D-Zelda-like puzzles, and a genuinely charming well-written story that was made in HTML5 and JavaScript for some reason. It is genuinely my favorite game of all time. I habitually proselyte this game to friends, but check it out for the love of God

While we're on the subject of DS classics, here's an even more obscure one: Over the Hedge.
While admittedly it never quite got the time in the oven it deserved, being a release tie-in with the movie and put out alongside all the console versions, this one in particular was something special. It's a third-person over the shoulder perspective stealth game with tank controls, sneaking into the hilariously well-protected homes of humans to steal their junk food. And if that wasn't enough, it had you managing two characters in real-time by swapping back and forth between them, using their varying strengths to defeat the ridiculous laser alarm systems and traps along the way. It's slow paced and relatively simple, and I used to have a blast finding ways to completely break the game because the devs didn't have enough time to iron out all the kinks entirely, but it never quite got the attention it deserves for being such a unique labor of love.
I have to give it massive props for having so much creative heart when a tie-in for a mediocre animated movie has no right to be that good. The developers saw the opportunity to make something that put its source material to good work instead of just another hack-and-slash romp (like the console tie-ins were) or a minigame collection (like the later DS game (???) was) and their dedication to the craft of game development really shines through some of the jank involved in its presentation and sometimes wonky physics. By now, a unique take on a stealth game is nothing all that special, but at the time this was one that really grabbed me.
- Holy shit someone else had Over the Hedge on DS as a kid? This thread is making me feel so good as a kid that bought loose carts from behind the GameStop and Vintage Stock counters. I genuinely believe that Over The Hedge is one of the reasons I loved Metal Gear and Assassin's Creed so much as a kid

The legend of dragoon has to be one of my favorite jrpgs and I would love for it to get a remake/remaster. Sadly it seems like Sony doesn't care about it tho so I'm not hopeful

Golden sun and its sequel on GBA

Yoku's Island Express. The idea of a metroidvania where the entire map is a giant pinball board is beyond genius.

Mindustry. Played it on and off for years, abosultely love the game. Way too good consider the fact that it's free, and when I picked it up I expected to get a couple of hours of fun out of it. But at this point it has lasted years. And with the occasional update, I think it will last even longer.

I never see anyone talk about Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch but it's one of my favorite games of all time. The Studio Ghibli collab makes it ooze charm.

Shadowrun for the Genesis, I never hear anyone mention it and it was a great game. I've played it recently and it still holds up. EDIT: I'm adding a Sierra PC game called Shivers, it was kinda like horror Myst. I loved it so much and no one ever mentions like it was never released.

Vectorman for Sega Genesis is one of my favorite games on the console but whenever it's brought up it is almost exclusively known as just another obscure mascot platformer and it's even been declared a knockoff of DKC just because both use pre rendered graphics. The sequel is also good.
- The graphics still really stand out amongst other Genesis games. Really good-looking, cool game. Wasn't the cartridge unusually expensive? I seem to recall it being unattainable when I was a kid, though I wanted it. I only ever rented it.
  
  Blue sky, the developers behind it, where also responsible for Starflight, the best iteration of the original pc game, and the best Jurassic Park game that exists (IMO).
  And also Shadowrun! How many great, unique titles they churned, and yet were responsible for Ariel the little mermaid..
  They also are the creators of one of the few enjoyable 32x titles with Spiderman's web of fire.
  Sadly Titus interactive killed it.
  For Vectorman, the character never appealed to me, though props for those smooth 60 frames per second on a 16 bit title!
- I've tried so many times to get into both of them, but the controls and game feel are just kinda off for me, and I usually don't get far past the beginning stage. I don't think it's Vectorman's fault though. I have this problem with a lot of later Genesis releases. The difficulty and the jank of the controls or mechanics put me off playing past the few levels, which is a shame because they are stunning for 16 bit titles.

It's not that nobody talks about it, but i think it isn't talked about enough; Control.

Let's see what I can come up with (and see if I can remember the names correctly!):
NES: Back in the day, it was probably River City Ransom. Growing up, it was a game my brother and I loved to play... but no one ever knew what we were talking about at the time. Now the Kunio games are a bit more known, and with River City Girls 1/2 they're getting attention, which is great.
Gameboy: Avenging Spirits. When I was younger, a friend and I loaned each other a bunch of our games. Sadly, he ended up moving away before we managed to swap back, and he got the better end of the deal when it came to the games. However, I did get left with a copy of Avenging Spirits... the game is a bit strange but its very fun and the sprite work is just adorable.
SNES: Dragon View. It has great sprite work and a very (at the time) cool looking 3D overworld you can stumble around in... Solid gameplay and some RPG elements make it a nice little gem of a game.
GBA: River City Ransom EX. Same deal as the NES version. I worked at Toys R Us around this time, and I think I'm the only person who purchased this game from the store...
PS1: Brave Fencer Musashi. Someone else already mentioned Einhander, so I'll go with my other go-to PS1 gem from Squaresoft.
Saturn: Guardian Heroes. While I bought the console for X-men vs Street Fighter, I go it with a handful of games on the cheap at EB Games: Magic Knight Rayearth, some crappy 2D Dragon Ball Z game, X-men vs Street Fighter (and a 4in1 cart of course!) and Guardian Heroes. Its such a well made beat-em-up that really doesn't get a lot of love because most folks never played any Saturn games.
PS2: Way of the Samurai. Maybe not super unknown, but definitely a niche game back when it released in the US I think.
Dreamcast: Cannon Spike. I bought my DC for Capcom games (and SoulCalibur), and this is one of the many gems on that console that never really pops up in discussions. I bought it on the sole merit that Charlie/Nash was in it, but it was wacky and engaging enough to warrant a place in my heart.
XB360: Tenchu Z. I loved Tenchu back on the PS1/PS2, but this was probably the one that most folks didn't touch... it was a bit weird but a friend and I played the hell out of it on many a weekend back in the day.
Any other console I either didn't own (Genesis, Gamegear, PS3, etc) or just couldn't think of anything that really stood out as a hidden gem (PSP, PSV) or are more current and also don't really have anything that ranks (PS4, PS5).

All of the games in the Tribes series, my personal favorites being Tribes Ascend and Aerial Assault. Tribes had a play style similar to Halo but with a movement more like Unreal along with a touch of 'surfing' over land and some jetpacks. They're all great fun and still fun for me to play today. IIRC, the last game's official online servers are no longer active, but there is a community following for Tribes Ascend that helps keep the game alive and updated, look up TribesLauncherSharp and TAMods for more info if interested. I backed up the disc I have for Tribes Aerial Assault to an ISO and it works great in PCSX2. With 1080p/4K rendering, extra graphics options, wide-screen patches, and controller customization it's way easier to play than originally on composite CRT with a Dualshock.

Heroes of the Storm. It's not getting any updates anymore but as long as the servers are up, I'll still play it.

A really old game called Fat Princess - it was a wonderful multiplayer real time strategy kind of thing, with a beautiful community for quite a few years. Despite the name, it was one of the best games I've ever played!
If you were on there and recognise my screen name, yes it is me!

Planetside 2. Been playing for a decade. One of the best games and only one in its genre of MMOFPS. I don’t know what I will play when it dies. It’s the one and only thing I play and enjoy now. Nothing else is fun.
Starport GE. Amazing little game. Played tons of it. It’s been almost 18 years of it. Played hardcore for atleast a decade before life got in the way and winded down now. My brother manages the account and activity now. Still alive but barely. It’s a game of strategy and alliances and carefully managing a galaxy to control it all. Make friends make enemies. There’s been dozens of people that have come and gone over the years through it. Due to its small player size. We all knew each other very well and were acquainted. You don’t like someone you decide to go to war with them start taking all their colonies. The game has no alliance mechanism or war mechanism. It’s all on you to decide what to make of it.
I know everyone here got many favorite and probably wonderful games but who here has played only 2 games with more than a decade of dedication to each?

I really enjoyed Space Station Silicon Valley for the N64. It turns out there was a bug in the original game so you could never complete it 100%. A couple years ago, I purchased an Everdrive (https://krikzz.com/our-products/cartridges/ed64x7.html) so I could patch the ROM and play on original hardware. Pair this with some new wireless controllers and it's the perfect experience.

CrossCode is one of my absolute favorite games, yet I hardly see it talked about in larger circles. It's an action RPG with some zelda-like dungeons and a very fluid and satisfying combat system. Highly recommend it!

I don't see anyone talking about CrossCode, but it's such an amazing game. And it's on sale right now!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/368340/CrossCode/
Profound story, excellent sound design, amazing soundtrack, insanely well designed combat system. It's just an incredible game. It has more content, depth, and attention to detail than most AAA games these days.
If you're picking it up, get the DLC as well! It's not just DLC, it's the conclusion of the game's story!
- CrossCode is phenomenal. I love how they crammed it with tons of sidequests without ever getting bogged down in repetition, because most of those quests put brand new spins on the combat mechanics.
- I checked the game just now, I'm intrigued. What game do you think has similar vibe as this game?
  Just more info for anyone that is interested in the game; now is the perfect time to buy it on Steam because the game currently has its biggest discount yet (same with its 2 DLCs).
- @nyoom@kbin.social
  (Replying to kbin users is broken right now, so I'll try this)
  I haven't been able to find a game anything like CrossCode. Most games with a pixel art style are turn-based RPGs, and while I also love those, they aren't really comparable to CrossCode's real time action combat. I also haven't seen a recent game with writing and humor as good as CrossCode's. I might have to find some SNES/PSX era games to try out, although I've played the major ones.
  The CrossCode devs are making a new game though, codenamed "Project Terra." It's a few years out, but the gameplay style is essentially a refined version of CrossCode's. You can check out gameplay footage on their dev blog:
  https://www.radicalfishgames.com/?p=7386

Boktai. A trilogy of GBA games about a vampire hunter who uses a solar gun to fry the undead. The cartridge has a UV sensor to detect actual sunlight to charge up the gun. It's such a silly gimmick but it's used really well.
Sadly the third game never got localized, and although a translation patch does exist it's just not the same without the original hardware. There's a fourth game on DS which did get localized, but they rebranded it as Lunar Knights, excised most references to the original trilogy, and even cut a good chunk of content. It also ends on a sequel hook that will never get resolved.
It's sad to me that we'll never see games this experimental ever again.

FTL: Faster Than Light, a pixel sci fi rouge like where you manage a ship and crew jumping point to point on a mission through space. I keep coming back to it and it's always fun. There's an amazing mod community that I'll just starting to explore as well
I rarely hear people talk about it but whenever I do, it's nothing but love.

Redneck Rampage was silly and fun.

N+ it's such a good game and no one ever knows what I'm talking about.

Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future on Dreamcast

Full Spectrum Warrior.
A real time, over-the-shoulder, squad management tactical game.
Imagine Brothers In Arms style tactical command and contextual actions from AI squad members, mixed with a modern setting, mixed with pulling the player out of actually doing any shooting and putting them entirely in the role of command, and give it high lethality and a requirement to save all friendly wounded AI squad members (wounded ones have to be carried back to a medical tent).
Really unique couple of games that nobody has iterated on.

Alundra. It's basically the PS1's own Zelda title, with a bit of Terranigma DNA mixed in. I played it as a kid and remember being blown away by the plot, and unlike a lot of other games I played back then, this one mostly held up when I replayed it as an adult.

Golden Sun. They were the best RPG games I've ever played and never get the love they deserve. Don't know why, I've never played a game that struck me like those 2 games did.
The first few Advance Wars games too, Advance Wars and Golden Sun were a huge part of my childhood.

Fallen London; a text-based, story-driven ongoing browser game about an alternate-history London that was traded by Queen Victoria in exchange for her husband being spared death and literally carried by a cloud of bats to a massive underground cavern where Hell is just a train journey away.
It's a niche game in a niche genre, but damn I love the writing and setting so much. Sunless Sea is set in the same world, if anyone has played that too!

Nobody ever brings up Strife even when talking about old shooters as it is. Strife is, by far, the best Doom engine game that exists.
- That's a pretty bold statement, given how many WADs have been made. However reading about it, it sounds like you may be right. Love DOOM engine FPSs, definitely checking this out!
  
  To be fair to some of the awesome user made WADs, I only meant commercially released games. Especially for the period when it was brand new. Things like MyHouse.wad are insanely good by comparison.

Tomba! It was a really bizarre PS1 game that I was hooked on when I was 9 or 10. You play as pink-haired boy fighting some evil pigs by throwing them into their respective evil pig bags. Trippy as hell.

Not much nostalgia for Jet Force Gemini, a Rare third person shooter where you adventure through missions, each having secret routes to find using guns/keys you slowly unlock. The game had a bit too much completionist vibe to get to finish it, but was exciting as a kid.
On the 3DS, I also liked Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. Basically RE’s best arena mode expanded out with perks on a game you could play mobile, and online. I still hope to see more of that type of experience.

Loco-Roco for the PSP. As a game developer, I consider this to be the pinnacle of game development. It is completely original, uses only two buttons, super intuitive, yet your drawn into it and want to play for hours. It makes me sad that few have heard of it.
Toy Story on the sega genesis (and snes) is a close second. It is actually a bit of a hot mess, each level is a completely different style of gameplay. But it is super rewarding to fight your way through to the end. And it showcases so many different styles of gameplay.
- Loco Roco is awesome, the main song is so catchy.
- No don't get that song stuck in my head again
- Oh gods, I had a heap of fun with Loco Roco back in the day!

Awesomenauts. The coolest 2D platforming MOBA. The gameplay is super fun and has a surprising amount of depth. Unfortunetly the devs have almost abandoned it and the playerbase is small (still active tho) but it's still one of my favorite games ever.

Oh boy. I played General Chaos for the Sega Genesis religiously when I was younger.

The Secret World. Not a flawless game, but the world building is awesome

MDK. Sure, it was arguably "popular" when it launched, but is largely forgotten in videogame lore. There's not even talks of a remake.

Furi, A boss rush gamers wet dream. Trims the fat of an action hack/slash game. Simple combat to understand and hard to master. The soundtrack simply slaps too with an electronic symphony backing your carnage as you tear apart the bosses. I highly recommend checking in out as it frequently goes on sale for quite cheap.