Extremely Weird And Obscure Games

[Metroid_Hybrid]

A Laundromat from my childhood had an arcade room, an early one of which was eventually rotated out. I spent decades looking for it again, erroneously thinking it was a Neo-Geo game. It wasn't until a random YouTube video had a list that contained 'Capcom Classics Collection vol 2' did I finally find it and get to play it again:

'Three Wonders'

I really only played the first two games..
"Midnight Wanderers" was effectively a faster-paced 'Ghost & Goblins' clone.
"Chariot" was a unique Shm'up..
Both are excellent in my humble opinion... AND I'm willing to bet that YOU have never played them before either!!

 

[TinRattler]

A Laundromat from my childhood had an arcade room, an early one of which was eventually rotated out. I spent decades looking for it again, erroneously thinking it was a Neo-Geo game. It wasn't until a random YouTube video had a list that contained 'Capcom Classics Collection vol 2' did I finally find it and get to play it again:

'Three Wonders'

I really only played the first two games..
"Midnight Wanderers" was effectively a faster-paced 'Ghost & Goblins' clone.
"Chariot" was a unique Shm'up..
Both are excellent in my humble opinion... AND I'm willing to bet that YOU have never played them before either!!

Played them on Capcom classics (PS2)

A game I forgot was 64th street a detective story

 

[therabidfrog]

A World of Games: Cosmo Gang – DownStab

downstab.com

I spent 15 years fruitlessly searching the internet for the name of this thig then a Japanese streamer called SuperSiSi just dropped it at random on Twitter. I was so blown away I donated to her KoFi.

 

[FillerBunnyNinjashark]

And then hating Americans!!! lol

All roads lead to Rome, all discussions lead to America!!! lolol

More like hating the French

 

[PhaseJump]

Hate Canada. It's English, French, and American enough to deserve any pissy pants loser angst Europe can throw at it.

 

[bfinch]

Mine's gotta be Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure (2004)

Really tight, 3D-platformer-kids-game with some light RPG item progression and (this is a stretch but you'd agree) Sonic inspired combat. Rhythm elements in the PC and 3DS ports (PSP was lacking for whatever reason...) Somewhat endearing characters, as cheesy and archetypal they may be. Overall a really nice kicking-back-on-a-friday kinda game that still makes you think at some portions and is engaging! Really good!

(Same devs as Trials in the Sky, the Ys games, and The Legend of Heroes)

 

[falcownjack]

One obscure gem I love is Terranigma on SNES: amazing story, world-building and soundtrack. Totally underrated

 

[Bakuma1997]

One obscure gem I love is Terranigma on SNES: amazing story, world-building and soundtrack. Totally underrated

Absolute peak, beat it three months ago

 

[Crashbandi]

G.O.D: Mezame yo to Yobu Koe ga Kikoe (English Patched) SNES ROM – CDRomance

G.O.D: Mezame yo to Yobu Koe ga Kikoe (English Patched) SNES ROM Languages: English Patched, Japanese. For the Super NES.

retrogametalk.com

No one's said it yet but G.O.D. on the Super Famicom

It's an Earthbound clone that's very satisfying to play and is absolutely filled with its own quirks

I don't know if I'd call it an Earthbound clone, it might start that way, but gets even more crazy to me after the beginning. And there's a lot more emotional scenes then in Earthbound. I heard Mother 3 gets emotional but haven't gotten around to playing it yet.

 

[Bakuma1997]

G.O.D: Mezame yo to Yobu Koe ga Kikoe (English Patched) SNES ROM – CDRomance

G.O.D: Mezame yo to Yobu Koe ga Kikoe (English Patched) SNES ROM Languages: English Patched, Japanese. For the Super NES.

retrogametalk.com

No one's said it yet but G.O.D. on the Super Famicom

It's an Earthbound clone that's very satisfying to play and is absolutely filled with its own quirks

If you really intend to play it (Which i reccomend totally, is Terranigma tiers of underrated) you need the Easy patch, it halves the encounter rate while duplicating rewards

 

[Doomsday519]

Contender 2 for the Playstation. Cover is nondescript but the cast of characters and game itself is ridiculous. Apparently it has absolutely nothing to do with the first game either which I have not played.

 

[BjornSmallpeen]

A lot of people might point to Metroid or Zelda or something that became extremely popular and grew into itself in the next generation as the best games, but in a lot of cases I don't think that's really so. The best ones are weird random things that don't have a lasting legacy (in terms of a growing franchise) but were unexpectly gems.

Master Blaster and Crystallis are probably my favorites.

I know that very little will be obscure to the type of people that use a forum like this but you can imagine what I mean.

 

[SeventhSon]

Kickle Cubicle
Willow
The Battle of Olympus
Super Dodge Ball
Jackal

 

[Dyne]

Master Blaster and Crystallis are probably my favorites.

I know that very little will be obscure to the type of people that use a forum like this but you can imagine what I mean.

Yeah I personally don't think of Blaster Master as obscure but I guess could be considered subjective.

Kickle Cubicle
Willow
The Battle of Olympus
Super Dodge Ball
Jackal

I love Jackal!

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Little Samson and The Guardian Legend are two I really like.
Holy Diver is another, but it's difficulty might turn some people off.
Everyone knows NES Batman, but I feel like the sequel Return of the Joker deserves more love.
Maybe not the most obscure, but I think Mighty Final Fight is a super underrated Beat Em Up too.

 

[Dyne]

An obscure one I like is Conflict.
Its a turn based strategy game. We used to rent it all the time because my dad really liked it.

 

[BjornSmallpeen]

I personally don't think of Blaster Master as obscure

yeah we live in an age of post-obscurity as well, where anyone can know every detail of every niche hobby with minimal effort. But there were lots of games I didn't know about or have until I was an adult with an emulation machine, and I find that very rarely are the first entries to the most popular franchises the best games of this console is really what I meant.

 

[Tonberry]

Does Shatterhand still count?
If so I pick Shatterhand, love that shit.

 

[thumbsdown]

I don't really think they're obscure, but my favs are prolly Banana Prince and Mitsume Ga Tooru (there's way more for sure, but those are special)

Post automatically merged: Nov 7, 2025

I also love this chinese bootleg which is a backport of Link's Awakening, but not really lmao (not in the Repo, you can find it on The Archive.org): https://bootleggames.fandom.com/wiki/Feng_Yin_Dao

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

yeah we live in an age of post-obscurity as well, where anyone can know every detail of every niche hobby with minimal effort. But there were lots of games I didn't know about or have until I was an adult with an emulation machine, and I find that very rarely are the first entries to the most popular franchises the best games of this console is really what I meant.

Yeah, it's hard to list truly obscure games now that the NES and other console libraries are so well known and documented online. I take the question myself more to mean "good games that need more love"

 

[Deleted member 58254]

felix the cat

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

felix the cat

I know it's not the same game but...

HET

 

[Deleted member 58254]

I know it's not the same game but...

HET

that version is fun to speedrun

 

[Zerpina]

Monster Party...

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with it. I love how weird it actually is, even for obscure Japanese to English NES games, and I hate how cheap it is. But that's standard fare for NES games

 

[Luxfin]

I love but I suck at it.