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.

[HC82]

Guardian Heros for the Saturn. I remeber seeing some negative reviews for it, yet I picked it up anyway. I have no idea why I picked it up. OH MAN, that was just like best 20 bucks I spent, EVER!!! Awesome beat em up, with a rpg flare and multiple endings/paths. It was multiplayer as well.

There really are awhole lot of "OMG, I'm surprised this game is awesome" types that I picked up. I chalk that up to shitty reviewers who probably were dazzled by "Grafickz!!!1111" over gameplay.

[Crushinator]

Hah, i wouldn't put PSO on the "surprise hit" list...I was drooling with desire ever since Sonic Team announced it.

The only one I can think of at this time is Skygunner for PS2. The only reason I bought it was because it was marked down to like $11, and it turned out to be an awesome game.

[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

[Afroforce]

I got Tomba 1 and 2 for 5 bucks at EB, Oh MAN, I was humping pigs all day for weeks., lol

[unitself]

[Afroforce]

[Alisha]

i would put megaman network transmission its possibly the best megaman game since megaman X4

[Mute]

Hmmm, this one is a tough one since I've picked up so many titles over the years. I guess one that stands out in my mind is Record of Lodoss War on Dreamcast. I had never played it before but it always caught my eye whenever I tidied up the Dreamcast games section at the gamestore I once worked at. I finally picked it up when it dropped to $19.99. I was more than happy with the game when I began to play through it. At the time, I was big time Diablo II player and the action in RoLW was very similar in style. The storyline was a bit hard to follow at first since I've never actually watched any of the anime. However, the overall gameplay gripped me enough to keep me tied to the game. One of my favorite parts was when Parn and Deedlit joined with you as NPCs. Unforunately, I never did finish the game. At the time I had a dozen other titles I was playing through and devoted less and less time to RoLW. I still have the save file though, so perhaps one day I'll pick it up again and finally finish the sucker. ;P

[unitself]

You know Mute, I have this game too. I had never played Diablo before, or anything like it, so I was new to the whole 3/4 top down thing. I really got hooked as well. I played and played... UNTIL, I got stuck on that damn fire guy. It's been forever since I havd played this game so I don't really remember who this boss was or how far along I was... I just remember getting stuck on him and putting the game down. Funny thing now is that now I understand about the whole "leveling up" thing - thanks to PSO. If you can't beat him, run around a bit more and get stronger, then come back and kick his butt!
Your post has just inpired me to break this puppy out and give it another go!

[Crushinator]

Yeah, Lodoss War is a damn fine game. I already knew it was good before I got it though, so it can't count on this list for me X(

[Alisha]

lodoss war is also a damn fine anime :o