I see lists like these all the time and it seems like every time someone reccomends a game to me saying it was underappreciated or misunderstood I find more often than not that I just don't enjoy playing it. This was the case when I got Okami, Killer 7, and Space Giraffe just off the top of my head. Sometimes I wonder if some of these games aren't under-appreciated so much as just not as well liked as their fans would hope.

Heh, someone mentioned Perfect Dark Zero. I worked on that game as a QA tester and I liked the multiplayer, but I understand why that game was so hated. At the same time it seems like everyone who has an XBox 360 has played it, so you can hardly call it ignored. Let me tell you though, you haven't seen that game at it's best unless you've played a 16-32 player game of Eradicaton or Infection on system link with no split-screen players. I've never played anything quite like that either before or since.

What exactly do you mean by "wrongly ignored"? As in ignored by the press, tossed to the bottom of the barrel by consumers, or blatently put off by developers who only realized later on that they had a hit on their hands, but let it fall on its ass and never get up until it was too late?

Anyhow, just for kicks, let me toss a few wrenches in here for y'all. I've played all of these, by the way, and am not just suggesting them:

Parasite Eve 1 & 2
The Magic School Bus in Outer Space (yes, I loved this game when I was younger...)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
Bloodrayne series (the games that inspired Uwe Boll to fuck it up)
Breath of Fire III (remade in Japan only... and i have it on my PSP XD)
The Bard's Tale
(dot)hack *the first series*
Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 3... never released outside of Japan, but they should >.<)
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Fatal Frame/Fatal Frame 2 (some of the best pants-wetting horror that you can get, except its kinda hard to find anymore. although there's a fanbase, not enough people appreciate these games)

And many more of which I can't quite remember right now... A few of these got fairly good, even excellent, review scores across the board, but were completely ignored by the masses because they didn't have "Square-Enix" or "Bungie" tacked onto their respective boxes, or they just didn't make due with the publishers who saw low sales as bad figures. I'm still waiting on a sequel for The Bard's Tale, and probably will be for a long time, if it ever comes around...

And I'm pretty sure if I say "Persona", there'll be like one other person who'll respond to that saying "Hey, I remember that!"... I have the original (w/ case but no manual >.<), and both Persona 3 & P3 FES (sorta the expansion, but with the original game too). Still, I say that Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is the best out of all of them... although they should have released Innocent Sin in the US also >.> *long story*

BTW I wouldn't consider most of the games posted in here "wrongly ignored". For example, System Shock 2 has a HUGE fanbase following, Grim Fandango was only ignored by LucasArts, and many others follow likewise. And yes, I own a Sega Saturn ^-^. It sits next to my Dreamcast, but needs a little more game love >.> Ebay is the only place to find them anymore, and that's so freaking expensive more often than not...

OuroborosChoked:
Aside from that, can we all agree that after a game gets mentioned over four times on here that it wasn't actually ignored?

I wouldn't exactly say that... just because 4-5 people mentioned the game means that it had a minimum of a whole 5 sales... that's not exactly a chart-topper or most recognized if you ask me. It just means it was a good game that a few people liked and thought it was worth mentioning. A few people have to buy it to have it be discovered at all, you know...

I'd say the whole Mother series. While very popular in Japan, Mother was never released outside of it, and when the sequal, Mother 2 was released as Earthbound, it wasn't very popular. It has since gained a cult following, to the extent that Ness was a playable character in Smash Bros, but despite this, Mother 3 was also never released outside Japan, much to the dismay of the Earthbound community.
In 2003, Mother 1+2, a port of the first two Mother games, was released for the GBA in Japan.
Despite it's poor start in the Western sphere, Earthbound is a fantastic game and has a very large following in the West. But despite all this, the other two games in the series are not being allowed outside Japan. Despite being the number one most wanted Virtual Console game, Earthbound has not yet been released there either. The extent to which Western fans of the series are snubbed is ridiculous.

Major lack of Shadow of Destiny in here... :(

Rathy:
Major lack of Shadow of Destiny in here... :(

Probably because the game had voice acting that made Resident Evil look like Shakespeare.

Shadow of the Colossus and ICO were two of the best and most beautiful games. And the general public seemed to ignore them.

Crackdown. Funny as hell. I'm gonna play it now.

Some people seem to be getting ignored confused with critically acclaimed.
I forgot Shadow of Memories. Anyone who has played that will know what I mean. A genuinely different gaming experience.

I didn't read alla this because my lunch is cooking, but I'm gonig to take a guess and say... I SECOND BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL

Any of the Tales of series, and Any Harvest Moon series... Whats wrong with a farming sim????

Rusman:
Any of the Tales of series, and Any Harvest Moon series... Whats wrong with a farming sim????

I don't know that HM is ignored as much as niche gaming.I had the Rune Factory game for the DS and could lose hours in it and my partner has the Harvest Moon game for the PS2. I'm more a Burnout / FPS kind of gamer but these had a strange grip on me I cannot explain.

Robotron 64 was excellent for the N64, would be nice to see a version of it on the Xbox LIVE Arcade. It was in 3D.

Dreamfall. You know... the sequel to The Longest Journey.

Twinsen's Odyssey (also called Little Big Adventure 2 outside the US I think). I haven't read the whole thread so I'm not sure if it has been mentioned. Fantastic PC game that came out about 1996-1997 or so.

RUNE, the most awesome hard core game i've ever played

Preslor:

OuroborosChoked:
Aside from that, can we all agree that after a game gets mentioned over four times on here that it wasn't actually ignored?

I wouldn't exactly say that... just because 4-5 people mentioned the game means that it had a minimum of a whole 5 sales... that's not exactly a chart-topper or most recognized if you ask me. It just means it was a good game that a few people liked and thought it was worth mentioning. A few people have to buy it to have it be discovered at all, you know...

Ever heard the term representative sample? And just because something wasn't a chart topper, doesn't mean it was ignored (see Okami, Beyond Good and Evil, Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, etc. etc.). Did those games deserve to be chart toppers? Probably. That doesn't mean they were ignored, though.

swytchblayd:
Fatal Frame/Fatal Frame 2 (some of the best pants-wetting horror that you can get, except its kinda hard to find anymore. although there's a fanbase, not enough people appreciate these games)

You know there's a third game in the series, right?

Oh, and a fourth on the Wii... but that's not out in the US yet...

Yatzee would disagree with me, but I think Tabula Rasa didnt get the praise it deserved. its so rare you get a massive online experience like that.

Shadow of the colossus and Pikmin 1 & 2. Loved them both and no one seems to know what they are or has herd of them.

I'd say the Tak series. Although I didn't much care for the third one, I thought the games were pretty fun and it definitely had some original ideas, like the Chicken Suit, and it was funny to boot. Though I have to say, the Chicken Temple will make you hate chickens, eggs, and all things related therewith forever. F***ing chicken sentries.

Tombi? Is that not the game where the character eats items then sicks them up to give to people (sorta). And the guy has purple hair. If thats the game I'm thinking of, its ace!!

NiceGurl_14:
Final Fantasy VIII definately.

Wikipedia:
Within two days of its North American release on September 9, 1999, Final Fantasy VIII became the top-selling video game in the United States, a position it held for more than three weeks. Aside from grossing a total of more than US$50 million within the first 13 weeks to follow, in Japan, it sold roughly 2.5 million units within the first four days of release, and during 2006 was voted by readers of Japanese magazine Famitsu as the twenty-second best game of all time. More than six million units were sold in total by the end of 1999

Yeah... completely ignored.

Simbarc:
Shadow of the Colossus and ICO were two of the best and most beautiful games. And the general public seemed to ignore them.

ICO sold 700.000 copies worldwide. Not a huge amount, but I would hardly call it ignored. When it was first released, it didn't receive that much attention but it made up for it later. Shadow of the Colossus sold much more than that, and most gamers know it.

In comparison, Arcanum which I mentioned earlier, has to date sold 234.000 copies. It was Troika's best selling game.

Ground Control 1.
Red Faction 1 and 2.
Also alpha centauri but now when i play it again it stinks worse than smelly things.

I tried galactic civs 2 but it was so buggy... so buggy. I can't be bothered to reinstall and patch it.

poleboy:

In comparison, Arcanum which I mentioned earlier, has to date sold 234.000 copies. It was Troika's best selling game.

Weird, everyone i've ever really talked to in games knew arcanum. I'm the only one of my immediate RL friends (there are many, don't make some joke about nerds) who knew ICO

Alpha Centurai was an awesome game until you realised that the Cloning Vaults and being Green automatically won you the game.

Call of Juarez
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Thief: Deadly Shadows

Crazy Savage:
Metal Arms for the Ps2 was a fantastic game that was seriously under looked. Everyone I showed just said 'meh' and went off to Halo 2.

I had that on the Gamecube. Playing 4-players was just bliss.