MEMBER BLOG

Misunderstood Games
Posted on Wednesday, December 5 2007 @ 03:13:13 Eastern

Most people would agree with the statement: some games are just better than others, but exactly which games are better than others is a hugely personal decision. Some games excel in the graphics department, others have riveting stories with deep, well designed characters, while other games are just down right fun to play. With these types of prerequisites needed before a game can be a success, it would seem that examples of “good” games would be the same for every gamer out there. If you have lived, then you know this is not true at all; each and every person out there has their own personal favorite game.

While a good game is usually easy to identify, a great game or the best game is what few can agree upon. For the seemingly endless types of gamers in the world, there are an equal number of games for them to tote around as #1 and love with an undying passion. Now, what if a video game seems to have many great characteristics that should surely make it a popular title, and yet no one seems to take any interest in it? Have you ever played a game and enjoyed it to the extreme and then tried to tell a friend of its excellence, only to be laughed at, contradicted, or entirely ignored? If so, then you have had a misunderstood game on your hands.

Sometimes great video games come out that never receive the publicity they deserve; people don’t realize how great they are and these games end up hovering under the radar until they are forever forgotten at the bottom of the bargain bin in some far away video game store. No matter how hard one might try to enlighten the individuals around them of this game, the advice is rarely heeded. For some reason, if a person hasn’t read about a game in a magazine or on a website, it is automatically marked as crap.

Are we witnessing some kind of bandwagon complex here? Are people unable to make decisions on their own in the absence of a professional reviewer? While these reviewers may play video games for a living, they were not born with some extra sixth sense that enables them to feel the fun of a game. The helpfulness of a reviewer comes with their ability to explain how much fun they had with the game in an easy to read and hopefully, entertaining manner. Reviews are always the reviewers opinion, take them with a grain of salt. We are all big boys and girls, capable of playing a game and formulating our own opinions. If a friend tells you that a game you have never heard of is good, why not play it for a while and see if you like it? If you don’t give it a shot, you may be missing out on a really great gaming experience.

I almost missed out on my favorite misunderstood game, God Hand. I was at the store and when I asked the clerk to get the game out of the case, he told me about all sorts of evils that this game had committed. Of course he had never actually played the game; he had heard all of these various offenses. He kept telling me not to waste my money (even though the game was on sale for $10 cheaper) until I finally left in frustration. Several weeks later, I went back and bought the game for full price and when I finally gave it a go, I loved every damn second of it. Now when I try to tell people of the fun that can be had with this game, they ignore me. So is the life of the misunderstood game and the gamer who is in love with it.
 
These great and yet undiscovered games need a place in video game history so we should give them one. Let’s hear what games you feel missed the chance they deserved. Hopefully someone here will find their new favorite game that they almost missed.