Most Overlooked Current Gen Games - Part Two

The Most Overlooked Games series has been around almost as long as SuperPhillip Central has-- seven years now. With each entry, we take a look at five of the most overlooked, less talked about games on various systems, past and present. However, until the inaugural edition of Most Overlooked Current Gen Games, I hadn't covered underrated games from the PlayStation 4 as well as the Xbox One. Obviously I already had a list dedicated to the Wii U.

Regardless, it's now time for part two where we look at five more under-appreciated games from the current generation of gaming.

Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below (PS4)

The first game on this list actually sold well in Japan. It's currently the second best selling game in Japan. However, Most Overlooked Current Gen Games factors in sales from other over the world, and in the case of Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below, the game in the west did not fare too well commercially. This game that allows you to slay slews of famous Dragon Quest monsters in a much quicker pace than you could a traditional turn-based Dragon Quest features a Dynasty Warriors style flow to battle. The lack of notable sales in the west certainly made Square Enix's decision to not localize recent Dragon Quest games seem understandable. Still, with a sequel launching on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and the Vita, perhaps Dragon Quest Heroes will get another chance to make an impact on the Western market.

Transformers: Devastation (PS4, XONE)

Platinum Games has an impeccable reputation as a developer of action titles. It's no doubt why Nintendo, Sega, and Konami have contacted them for work on projects in the past, and it's why Activision hand selected Platinum to create Transformers: Devastation as well as the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. The newest Transformers continues Platinum Games' stupendous tradition of terrific combat, incredible boss battles, and rank-based missions. Although the game is but five hours long, the addition of different Autobots to play as with different play styles in this 3D action game increases the replay value and longevity of Devastation greatly. It all makes Transformers: Devastation one of the best games starring the robots in disguise ever created.

LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS4)

Like Transformers: Devastation, LittleBigPlanet 3 is a cross gen release. Perhaps that's why it suffers from the most glitches and bugs out of any other LittleBigPlanet game. Not the best recommendation for the game so far, is it? Don't worry, though, as outside of the technical issues that haunt several aspects of the game, LittleBigPlanet 3 contains the same immensely open level creator, offering more options and ease of accessibility than ever before. The new characters give more variety in the types of levels available, and the single player mode, now sporting cute voice acting, is a joy to play from beginning to end. It may not be the technical marvel fans have expected, but LittleBigPlanet 3 delightfully delivers nearly everywhere else.

Rock Band 4 (PS4, XONE)

Containing a highly impressive library of over 2000 songs, most coming from past iterations of the franchise, Rock Band 4 launched on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with the reception of a missed note during the guitar solo of Freebird. Rock Band 4 was a return to form for Harmonix, who had been away from the series for a good three years. The studio and game's return to the limelight was met with great indifference. For all the goodness that is Rock Band, it seems the days of people wanting to collect a mishmash of plastic instruments and house them in their rooms are over. The game was met with critical acclaim but limited commercial success. A PC version of Rock Band 4 was on the table for development, but the campaign to get the game on there was nothing but a failed one.

Evolve (PS4, XONE)

No, in this gaming climate, having an original idea like the asymmetric multiplayer gameplay of Evolve isn't enough to guarantee sales. Whether that says something about the current state of gaming or the quality of Evolve itself is anyone's guess. The gameplay itself has four players, serving as Hunters, having a first-person perspective while the single player, the Monster, has a third-person perspective. The goal is for one side to take down the other. Certainly, the developers did themselves no favors with the grotesque number of different downloadable content available for the game. This aspect alone turned off many potential players and buyers of the game. Despite selling strong out of the gate, Evolve's sales suffered hugely in the following weeks, proving to have no sales momentum whatsoever. Perhaps the criticism from some corners of the net cut off the game's tail. Regardless, Evolve is an innovative experience like none other with highly competent gameplay and fun asymmetrical goodness.

Top Five Most Underrated Nintendo Franchises

For a company that's been in gaming for several decades now, Nintendo has amassed an insanely robust repertoire of franchises that have mostly withstood the test of time. However, for every Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Pokemon, there are franchises that are overlooked and don't receive the same kind of pomp and circumstance. These five Nintendo franchises I have selected qualify as those. While such a category of game franchises is certainly subjective, I've tried to pick the ones from Nintendo that don't get their due diligence. Once you've read my choices and reasoning for each, I'd love to hear from you your thoughts on series that you'd love to see Nintendo and fans give more attention to.

5) 1080° Snowboarding 

1080° Snowboarding (Nintendo 64)

On the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, the genre of extreme sports in gaming was made massively popular by the Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise. While that series continues on (albeit in seemingly somewhat disappointing form with Robomodo's THPS 5), 1080° Snowboarding basically fell victim of an avalanche of obscurity. The developer, NST, a Western Nintendo studio, has since been relegated to smaller downloadable titles and less core-demographic games. This is a major shame, as the duo of 1080° games, Snowboarding on the N64 and Avalanche on the GameCube, had an extreme sports taste with a Nintendo touch to them.

1080° Avalanche (GameCube)

Shredding snow as you guided your snowboarder down a luxurious and insane amount of courses against opponents, tricking your way to the top of the leaderboards, or running away from avalanches as seen in the GameCube entry delivered thrills, chills, and for bad players like me, various spills.

4) Chibi-Robo

Nintendo doesn't seem to have settled on a particular gameplay style for their Chibi-Robo franchise. While this series is actually still quite alive and relevant in the regard that Nintendo is still making games for the little household robot, Chibi-Robo is far from a household name or well regarded series by most owners of Nintendo systems. Again, another shame, as Chibi-Robo delivers abundant charm and a huge array of wackiness to players.

Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash (Nintendo 3DS)

The first game, available for the GameCube, followed the titular robot's adventures in a bizarre Japanese family's home (what else can you say when the daughter of the family dresses and ribbits like a frog?), during tasks to earn energy. Two Nintendo DS games were released, one arriving in the West, but in North America it was a Walmart exclusive, and the other stayed in Japan. A Nintendo 3DS Photo Finder downloadable game released a year or so ago, and now a full retail title is hitting the system with an accompanying amiibo figure with Chibo-Robo: Zip Lash. Will this 2D platformer finally give some deserved attention to Mr. Robo?

3) Style Savvy

I hope none of you reading this article did a spit-take reading this entry. While the three games are indeed popular in Japan, known as Girls Mode over there, Style Savvy is actually an incredibly in-depth and fulfilling game for those of us who love customization. Two games have released out West, the DS original and Style Savvy: Trendsetters on the Nintendo 3DS. The latter offered the ability to run your own clothing shop, ordering clothes from various brands, picking out the perfect combination of clothing to create satisfying outfits for your clientele, and making contacts to further your career in fashion.

Style Savvy: Trendsetters (Nintendo 3DS)

Themed fashion contests brought ways to not only spread your fashion sense to the world, but also test your abilities in coming up with a compelling and competent outfit for your model to be showcased in. As a male without a vested interest in the fashion scene, I didn't think Style Savvy would interest me whatsoever, but I was impressively addicted to the plethora of customization options, gameplay mechanics, and content both Style Savvy games released out West offer. Feel free to call it casual gamer drivel, but you'd be the one that's mistaken with that kind of statement.

2) Advance Wars

My first run-in with this extremely capable and joyful (well, as much joy as a game about war can bring) Advance Wars series was the first on the Game Boy Advance that launched a few months after the system launched in North America in 2001. Now, the series didn't start there, as many fans probably know-- it has roots all the way to the Famicom, as the series is known as Famicom Wars in Japan.

Advance Wars (Game Boy Advance)

Regardless, assuming the role of one of a colorful batch of commanding officers, each with their own special in-battle ability known as a CO Power, you use funds to build various enemy units, from base-capturing infantry to powerful tanks, all with strengths and weaknesses, to try to defeat all opposing units, capture the enemy base, or complete a miscellaneous objective. Advance Wars did well enough to see a sequel on the GBA, Black Hole Rising, and two released on the Nintendo DS, Dual Strike and the darker Days of Ruin / Dark Conflict. The latter's poor sales have put the long-running series on an indefinite hiatus with only Virtual Console releases to hold fans over. Despite fan support, the series actually doesn't have anything as close to a steady and strong fan base as something like Fire Emblem, making Advance Wars a series that is definitely overlooked, if not by Nintendo itself.

1) Wario Land

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy)

With so many underrated and overlooked Nintendo franchises to choose from-- heck, there are plenty that could make a list of more than five like Wave Race, Ice Climber, Custom Robo, and Steel Diver, for instance-- I select Wario Land as the one most deserving of praise and a new entry. Wario Land started as but a sequel to Super Mario Land 2, where Wario as a character debuted as the game's main antagonist. Not content with just taking over Mario's castle in that game, in Super Mario Land 3, Wario went ahead, shot for the stars, and took over Mario's role as the protagonist! Future games would implement a lack of death via conventional means, but still offering challenge in its puzzle design, level design, and timed exits from levels.

Wario Land: Shake It! / The Shake Dimension (Nintendo Wii)

My personal favorite of the bunch is the Wii's Wario Land: Shake It! (known as Wario Land: The Shake Dimension for my PAL pals). This game introduced traditional health to the series (as opposed to Wario getting hit and reverting to small Wario like Super Mario Bros' health system), brought awesome hand-drawn art, engagingly fun and superbly designed levels, great music, and a challenge that hadn't been seen in the series for a long while. Sadly, the game was mostly overlooked, despite being on the platformer fan's system of choice. Now, with the WarioWare series, that style of Wario is the one popularized and loved by many and not the Wario Land franchise.

Top Five Most Underrated Kart Racers

The kart racer-- a favorite game type of mine definitely. Nowadays they aren't widely made outside of the Mario Kart series. However, over the years we've seen different developers attempt to make games in the genre to varying degrees of success. Even if you create a great kart racer, there's no telling if it will turn out to be a commercial hit. Today's top five list delves into the kart racers that either sold below expectations, didn't receive much hype, or just are overlooked in general. After you've checked out the choices here, feel free to agree/disagree and share your own ideas for kart racers that need more attention.

5) MySims Racing (Wii, DS)

Of all the kart racers listed on this top five, the one that surprised me the most was MySims Racing. When I was originally given a review copy to judge the game, I did not expect something special, despite enjoying past MySims games on Nintendo's Wii. However, I quickly found myself greatly liking what I was playing. MySims Racing contains superbly designed tracks with cleverly hidden shortcuts aplenty, a fair and well rounded balance of items, smart enemy AI, tight controls, and enough content to make the game well worth owning for any Wii and kart racing fan.

4) LittleBigPlanet Karting (PS3)

Worthy of the price of admission alone thanks to its insanely robust track creator, LittleBigPlanet Karting is an above average kart racer that thanks to said track creator, opens up the possibilities for some amazing track designs. The tracks that come with the game on the disc that are played through the story mode are wonderful already, and every one was built with the same creator available to players. You can build multiple lap races, transforming tracks via some minor programming knowledge, one lap adventures, and even boss battles. While the actual item balance and unfair rubber band AI leave a lot to be desired (a reason why LittleBigPlanet Karting is only #4 on this list), the kart racing package on the whole is definitely worth checking out, especially since it can be purchased for less than $20 easily nowadays.

3) Mickey's Speedway USA (N64)

Released during the hey day of kart racers, the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 generation of home consoles, Mickey's Speedway USA was Rare's second kart racer for the N64. While it doesn't come close to outshining the masterpiece that is Diddy Kong Racing, the game starring Disney's lovable Mickey Mouse crew is one that is indeed packed with lots of positives-- nice track design with well done shortcuts, cute banter between characters, a high amount of polish (befitting of Rare), suitably catchy music, fantastic multiplayer, and a story mode that progressively gets more difficult as the game goes on. Mickey's Speedway USA is in a lesser echelon of kart racers compared to Mario Kart 64 and the previously mentioned Diddy Kong Racing, but it holds its own regardless.

2) ModNation Racers: Road Trip (Vita)

LittleBigPlanet Karting supports a much larger kit of tools for players to create their own race tracks, but not only is this much more convoluted to do compared to the PlayStation Vita launch title ModNation Racers: Road Trip, but the actual gameplay is lesser as well. The Vita version of ModNation Racers possesses a wide array of pre-made tracks for the excellent story campaign, full of side missions such as not hitting a wall, taking every shortcut, and hitting five enemies, for instance. Creating capable and highly competent tracks is a breeze, and the use of the touch screen to accurately draw track, place objects, and sculpt terrain makes for an engaging designing experience that won't make you need to watch a 50 minute series of tutorials just to have a fighting chance of building some great.

1) Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (Multi)

While its sequel, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed gets a lot of acclaim from fans and critics, the original Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing usually gets overlooked. Not here at SuperPhillip Central, where I actually consider the original Sonic & SEGA all-star karting mashup to be superior. It has a better cast of characters with a more enjoyable way of unlocking them via spending SEGA Miles, it has a more entertaining single player mode with its Mario Kart DS-style mission mode, and it has tracks that are much easier to see the twists and turns of. A lack of glitches and bugs compared to Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed makes the pick of the original Sonic & SEGA quite easy to make as the most underrated kart racer currently on the market today.

Honorable Mentions: Konami Krazy Racers (GBA), Banjo Pilot (GBA), NASCAR Kart Racing (Wii), Crash Nitro Kart (PS2, GCN, XBX)