Surprise hit games, any favorites? Options

[unitself]

What's a game that totally took you by surprise? One that was cheap or you knew nothing about but you took a chance and ended up having the time of your life.

For example - Soul Reaver for the DC. I picked it up for like $7 one day cause the cover looked cool and I read some article about it saying that it was kinda fun. OMG. It was the best $7 I had ever spent. I ate and drank nothing but Razael for weeks and weeks.

Another one was Shadow Man, again for the DC. Now I know this game wasn't the be-all-end-all if games, but I really really liked it. There was a stage where it literally creeped me and my wife out. There was this sound of a baby crying... over and over and over... it made you feel really bad and gave you a purpose for finding out what the hell was going on!

I guess we can all put PSO on the list too.

[Knightsword]

I would put Xenogears but I was drooling over it as about the same as Crush over PSO.

But to go way back I think it would have been the Silver Surfer game on the NES, it was an awesome shooter, with a mix of side scrolling and over head scrolling levels. The only messed up thing about the game is they used a picture of Mr. Sinister as the Beyonder