Hidden Gems !

[Smiley Cat]

There is a game called Rocks N Gems on a PS1 demo disc that i consider a hidden gem
its not an official game or anything
i had forgotten about it for years until i found it again here:

https://cdromance.org/psx-iso/83-in-1-net-yaroze-collection/

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Not sure if you know about this or not, but that is actually a clone of a classic retro game called "Boulder Dash".
There are a ton of Boulder Dash clones across many platforms. It was really a true classic.

As a kid I played Boulder Dash 2 on the C64 quite a bit. It was a really fun game but sooo hard (at least to me as a kid). Getting crushed by rocks was my childhood.

 

[Boo Man]

Not sure if you know about this or not, but that is actually a clone of a classic retro game called "Boulder Dash".
There are a ton of Boulder Dash clones across many platforms. It was really a true classic.

As a kid I played Boulder Dash 2 on the C64 quite a bit. It was a really fun game but sooo hard (at least to me as a kid). Getting crushed by rocks was my childhood.

oh ok that makes sense, i kinda figured it was a clone or something but had no idea "Boulder Dash" is the original. ill definitely check it out thanks!
and yeah these games are super hard but funny, i laugh every time i die and i die alot on that game XD

 

[symplily]

my hidden gem would be Disruptor, pretty cool fps from psx

 

[Smiley Cat]

my hidden gem would be Disruptor, pretty cool fps from psx

Really, that's such a great game! Super cheesy cutscenes, and fun gameplay.

I mostly just remember the last level being really hard because tough enemies teleport in to your position in pairs (one in front and one behind).

But that was so long ago... Maybe nowadays I could handle it... I must try!

 

[symplily]

Really, that's such a great game! Super cheesy cutscenes, and fun gameplay.

I mostly just remember the last level being really hard because tough enemies teleport in to your position in pairs (one in front and one behind).

But that was so long ago... Maybe nowadays I could handle it... I must try!

My favorite part was how the soundtrack altered depending on the situation you were in, achieving greater immersion.

 

[stealthRUSH]

Dossun! Ganseki Battle on SFC. It plays like a precursor of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo.

 

[Waffles]

Threads of Fate on the PS1.

Absolute blast.

Super Bomberman: Panic Bomber! on the Super Famicom, too.

 

[Kacho]

Mischief Makers for N64.

It's a bit on the easy side (especially for being developed by Treasure) but it's without a doubt one of the more original platformers of its generation. They make use of the grab and shake mechanic so well and the whole game is filled to the brim with charm. I want recommend it hard enough if you're a fan of platformer.

 

[The Almighty Hamster]

Aero Blasters for the PC Engine is pretty good. Hudson Soft produced a lot of Japanese regional exclusives.

AREA-51 ! ! !

This game had so much potential, it could have been the Halo-equivalent for the PlayStation 2 but became bogged down with too many mechanics and a more linear-based story lasting 7 hours. The online mode was pretty fun. If you have some time to kill, give this a go. It's a fast-paced FPS and basically one massive piss-take out of sci-fi / conspiracy theories. It's the sequel to the arcade light-gun game of the same name.

 

[Sayo]

I just discovered 白熱! ぷよりんぴっく! (Challenge! Puyo Olympics) which is basically a Puyo/Madou Monogatari sports-themed minigame developed by Compile, it was released on a Disk and also included as a bonus with the PC version of Puyo Puyo Sun.

It has some interesting costumes

 

[spacebear]

Gamera 2000 is a 3D Shooter with a unique gimmick where you can use a kaiju for strong attacks.
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Goiken Muyou II is a pretty obscure fighting game that is as simple as virtua fighter. the mechanics are not as deep but it's still a very solid 3D fighting game.
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Gamera 2000 is so damn good man. It's also funny yet strangely fitting Gamera has so few games and his best one is one where you're not even playing as him.

 

[nonotz]

Are these counted as hidden gems ?:

• Community POM : Action RPG (think zelda) with a bit of town building aspect

• Incredible crisis: MASH em buttons!
  
  
  

 

[RetroFreax]

Outstanding HIDDEN GEM that nobody knows is:

Manpuku!! Nabe Kazoku on PlayStation​

Ultra Playable 2 Player Mayhem (even with your Wife/Girl who doesnt like to play games).

Yo!Tube! Video

 

[PKT]

Both the hidden and gem status of this game can be contested but the first 7th Dragon game on DS is pretty neat. The dev team consisted of people who worked on Phantasy Star, Etrian Odyssey and Ys. Always felt like a more Final Fantasy-like Etrian game to me. Even has an english translation (that has a few bugs on DeSmuME but seems fine on MelonDS and real hardware from my tests). I feel like the later 7th Dragon games on PSP and 3DS are more talked about, while I rarely see this game get mentioned.

 

[Karnik]

Some obscure but splendid snes jrpg games translated by the team of the legendary (and never forgotten) Gideon Zhi: Hourai High, Dark Half, Dark Law, Front Mission, Gunman's Proof, Holy Umbrella, Hero Chronicle, Hiouden, Live a Live, Madara2, Madou Monogatari , Metal Max Returns, Mystic Ark, Tactis Ogre, SMT series among the majors. Forever grateful.

 

[JustLooking123]

I'm not sure if it's hidden or not, but Roller Games from NES is certainly a gem!
One of my best childhood games ever! even after getting hand on later consoles like Sega MegaDrive, I used to play this regularly, it was so fun!
The gameplay is so nice and fluid, but challenging due to being on skate! you will surely slip, and a lot!
It has pretty nice graphic, and it's music is one of bests in whole console.
Levels have good variety and never made me bored! and bosses are fun to fight!
There's also three playable character, each with different abilities...
Screenshots won't do it justice!

 

[RetroLaw]

I'm not sure if it's hidden or not, but Roller Games from NES is certainly a gem!
One of my best childhood games ever! even after getting hand on later consoles like Sega MegaDrive, I used to play this regularly, it was so fun!
The gameplay is so nice and fluid, but challenging due to being on skate! you will surely slip, and a lot!
It has pretty nice graphic, and it's music is one of bests in whole console.
Levels have good variety and never made me bored! and bosses are fun to fight!
There's also three playable character, each with different abilities...
Screenshots won't do it justice!

Well at least you remember the title of THIS game

 

[spectresfrommercury]

Plenty of them but the one i've been really getting quite into lately is 7th dragon.

 

[chrismas]

PC has tons of these.
Azrael's Tear (1996)
FPP adventure game with some shootan and role-playing elements baked in. it's presented in polygonal 3D with free movement and everything, pretty impressive since it only came out a couple months after Quake. Shame about the control scheme (movement is tied to the mouse lol).

Dark Heart of Uukrul (1989)
This one has a little buzz now since GOG licensed it a few years back... This one's a blobber [edit: this isn't actually a blobber, the battle system is really a more primitive version of tactical-minded JRPGs like Rhapsody and Trails in the Sky] in the Wizardry clone vein (coming 2 years after Dungeon Master rewrote the book on blobber making... ouch). It sets itself apart by having some fairly sophisticated level design, lots of puzzles and the like akin to what Myst and its many clones would do a few years later. Also, the game has no sound.

I was tempted to throw Dungeon Master (1987) and the Myth (1997~2001) series on here, but those were huge when they released... not that you'd believe it nowadays. There's also plenty of games that look totally obscure but were pretty big in Europe, such as Dark Earth (1997, and did you know this was at one point going to have a sequel co-developed by Square?), the Little Big Adventure (1994~7) series, Silver (1999), Albion (1995), Silent Storm (2004), and so on and so forth. Most of GOG's retro catalogue consists of games like these, well worth mining it for the more obscure side of 80s~00s PC gaming.

Silent Bomber on PS1
Blade of Darkness on PC
Muscle March on Nintendo Wii

Blade of Darkness got a port/remaster for Switch and PC a couple years back, it's pretty sick, devs for it have even gone back now and then to update it some more.