Here I go!
This is one is definitely an underrated sequel-ish. It's kind of hard to classify this one, which is why it's not higher on the list, but it still deserves a spot. As a standalone game it's actually excellent, with only minor gripes here and there. Sure, the story won't win any accolades and the characters are very light in comparison to what Final Fantasy has become...but it works. Tactics Advance is actually a lot of fun and it's very well designed. The class system is excellent, often allowing for a mind boggling amount of customization of skills. The strategy involved in it is great and deep, and the overall package is just beautifully polished. It's a bit of an underrated gem for the Gameboy Advance, Final Fantasy Tactics name brand aside, often eclipsed by the fame of other excellent GBA games (like Metroid Fusion and Golden Sun). But don't let that fool you into thinking that it's anything if not excellent. If you are at all into strategy games, give this one a try; even by today's standards, its colorful graphics and art design still hold up really well and the gameplay doesn't disappoint.
Ah, Metal Gear Solid! Quite possibly the gayest franchise in video gaming history; no, really! Every character is either an out and proud bisexual or at least heavily hinted at being such. The protagonist's sexuality, for example comes into question several times through the series, even in the face of such manly and not-at-all homoerotic *cough* codename like "Solid Snake." But I digress! That is an argument for another article I'm planning! This series has been hit-or-miss for me for a long time now. The last time I tried the series it was with Metal Gear Solid 4 and the game was so atrocious that I gave up half away through. Oh yes, I said it! Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is one of the worst games ever made. But for whatever reason, whenever someone mentions "Metal Gear Solid" and "disappointment" in the same sentence you can almost guarantee that you will hear "Sons of Liberty" attached to it somewhere in there.
Here is what baffles me about this one getting a bad reputation: the issues fans and non-fans have for it are the same, identical problems that plague the entire series. You can't honestly sit there and tell me that the story in Metal Gear Solid 2 is convoluted and then turn right around and play the first, third, and fourth games like you just entered an alternate reality where I can't see you (kind of like when Sarah Palin claims she's not a moron; she knows we can hear her speeches, right?). The story of every Metal Gear Solid game is messy, with all kinds of ridiculous plot twists fit for an anime and all sorts of bizarre characters popping in left and right. It is also true that Sons of Liberty has a tendency to get heavy-handed with the actual story telling and dialogue, but that, yet again, applies to the entire series.
For what it's worth, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty actually did a lot of amazing things in the gameplay department, adding all sorts of upgrades over the original Playstation game. You may take these for granted as you play the new games in the series, but remember that Sons of Liberty had a lot of firsts, not the least being ingenious enemy A.I. that made the game a much, much better experience than the previous one. MGS 2 introduced smart enemies that would radio for help, enemies that would respond to unanswered radio calls, the ability to target different enemy body parts in first person mode, the ability to distract enemies in all kinds of ways (try blinding one of them by shooting a fire extinguisher and just watch the fun), the ability to fire from cover, the ability to hang from rails, etc.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is an excellent game, and definitely better than both the original and fourth installments in the series. Better than 3? That's up for debate, but it can at least compete. The best part is that no matter how nonsensical the plot was the game still managed to be entertaining in the story department. So what's to hate? Raiden? Meh! He's annoying, true, but nowhere near bad enough to ruin the game and he does show some level of growth. I'd argue that Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is one of the best games ever made.
Extra points for showing cartwheeling man ass:
What? We like eye candy too!
I actually really love this game and I think it gets an undeserved amount of flack. I understand why it gets lambasted: it had to follow in the footsteps of the Sands of Time series, which although I've never had the pleasure of playing, I hear is phenomenal. It's also incredibly easy, literally making it impossible for the player to die or fail in any way. Fall off a cliff because you didn't time your jump? Elika, your trusty sidekick (whom I've mentioned already as one of the best female characters of all time), will rescue your sorry ass before you hit the ground. Failed to kill a boss? It's okay, your health will regenerate. You can go to the kitchen and make a sandwich during a boss fight, come back, and find that you probably didn't miss much.
But all of those things aside, the newly rebooted title simply called "Prince of Persia" is actually an excellent game with a lot of interesting ideas and the differences between it and other games of the series seem partly superficial. In the case of the latter, you might think that having Elika save you is entirely different from the typical experience of falling into a pit of doom, but it's actually just cosmetic at best. The difference between Elika and a "Game Over" screen is that Elika doesn't take time to load and doesn't send you back a thousand miles away from where you last progressed to. More or less, Ubisoft cut out the middle-man here and added a middle-woman (Hardy! Har! Har! i c wut u did thar!). But the reasons why become really obvious as you play Prince of Persia: the game is less about combat and more about the flow of movement the player can manage in the massive and expansive levels. Case in point: several of the game's achievements you can earn deal with how quickly you can move from area of a level to the next.
That was what made this game so great. The ability to run across multiple levels, finding the fastest route to get there, and keeping the flow going without failing was pretty entertaining. The best part is how the game basically opens up its beautifully designed and grand over world to allow you to choose which way to go. Furthermore, the game is accompanied by a great story that borrows heavily from Zoroastrianism and rich, three-dimensional characters that are easy to connect with. There is something magical about this game, something that manages to combine the frantic fun of a fast pace with the relaxed atmosphere that comes from not being horribly punished when trial-and-error goes wrong.
It's a shame the game got attacked left and right because it deserves a lot of praise for doing a lot of things right. Definitely one of the most underrated sequels of all time.
I gushed about this one already in my article about my top games of this generation, but it can't be said enough: Bioshock 2 is one of the most underrated sequels ever. Sure, it didn't really serve a purpose other than to make the publishers more money from the hugely successful first game, but it still turned out to be an incredible end product. Bioshock pretty much surpasses the original in every way, making changes and minor tweaks that improve the flow of gameplay. There is only one flaw this game has and in comes down to the story not being quite as polished as in the original, but it's still damned good and worlds above what you tend to see video game writers do in this day and age (not counting Bioware). Even the multiplayer was great; pointless, but great.
Wonderful, wonderful gaming experience. Go pick it up right now; it's cheap everywhere and definitely worth the money.
Ah, Final Fantasy X-2: the often ignored, red-headed stepchild of the Final Fantasy family. This one came under serious scrutiny for many reasons, not the least being that Yuna wears short shorts that would make Richard Simmons blush. It is often treated as being a bad game or being a pointless sequel, and while the latter is true, the former is completely off of the mark. Gameplay wise, Final Fantasy X-2 mops the floor with the rest of the series almost effortlessly, bringing with it one of the best battle systems of any JRPG to date, a robust class system that was actually incredibly deep and well balanced, and a mission system that made an ever more increasingly linear series give players a taste of freedom. There is just so much that X-2 does right that I can't help but wonder how anyone can dislike this game.
Look, I get that the Charlie's Angel feel is not everyone's cup of tea, and yes, some of the characters are absolutely God awful (*Shudders at the thought of Brother*), but the gameplay in this game is flawless. Take the already mentioned battle system: it lets the players chain attacks, switch class mid-battle, stun enemies, prevent attacks, and do all kinds of things that Final Fantasy as a series has been missing forever. Seriously, not counting the Tactics games and XIII (which, for the record, was developed by the X-2 team), when was the last time you played a core Final Fantasy game that let you choose your class? Yeah, it's been a while. In X-2 you can be pretty much anything, and behind the Barbie dress-up veil there is some serious depth and strategy to be found. This all compounded further by the use of Garment Grids which reward you for changing classes appropriately and at opportune times. The mission system I briefly spoke of is also noteworthy: starting the game you pretty much have all of Spira at your fingertips to explore and the ability to choose which missions to do and when to do them was a great addition after the linearity of Final Fantasy X (which is lovingly referred to as the Crash Bandicoot of RPGs).
It is definitely superior to all the other 3D Final Fantasy games in its mechanics, and worlds above Final Fantasy X in that sense. Even the story, the most glaring problem that it had, wasn't really as awful as people make it out to be. It wasn't immensely cohesive, but no more of an offender than the likes of the entire Kingdom Hearts series. If you play the game and just take the story for what it is - a lighthearted, if shallow plot - you pretty much get the point. Final Fantasy X-2 is about fun and it's a testament to its design that even the story elements couldn't keep me away from it.
The most underrated sequel of all time. For one thing, because it's a wonderful stand alone game, and for another, because it's superior to the game that came directly before it (and then some).
- Kharlo -
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