I had a surprising amount of fun with Sheep Dog and Wolf that I got for $5 from a bargain bin something like 20 years ago.
Not sure if this quite counts, but Catherine for the PS3/X360 was the first title that came to mind.
I just watched someone play through this on Twitch. Such a weird game.
Quite a few of the various Simple series' games on PS1 and PS2. Some of them were translated and released in Europe and the USA, but many more weren't. Not too many lost gems there, though. Most of the games that stayed in Japan aren't anything special.
The series started out as basic implementations of card and board games to be sold for a low price, then moved into fairly generic video games in established genres, but eventually the various developers started making somewhat original, low-budget games, and some of them are pretty good, especially considering their budgets.
I'm not sure how the games are connected as a series, although they definitely are, because they're numbered in order of release on the original covers. But they're made by many different developers, and even in Japan there seems to have been at least two publishers releasing them.
According to wikipedia, it was D3, a subsidiary of Bandai/Namco that began the series, just to have some budget titles, really.
Is there any that you particularly enjoyed playing? :P
paperboy was pretty epic.
Didn't it get a reboot? I remember my cousins and I discovered the original on an Asian bootleg device with 400 games or something.
The humor sensibilities really got to us
Not sure these are all low budget, but some always seemed overlooked or underrated. Some I see as imperfect gems of their time.
PS2
PS3
PSP
PS Vita
GameCube
Wii
Who Framed Roger Rabbit had one of the toughest endgame bosses i've ever fought.
Audiosurf was the first game I ever bought on Steam. That was my first introduction to indie gaming and it’s still quite a fun game. Highly recommended to anyone with a large local music library.
Growing up, I had a lot of fun playing Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster’s Hidden Treasure.
It was a 2D platformer game, probably one in a million back then, but i really enjoyed it.
As a Konami game, I don't think it could be considered low budget back then. Though I guess my question can be interpreted as "the game was cheap" :P
Ya, you’re probably right. I guess “obscure” would be more fitting. It wasn’t even my game - there was one other household in my small town that had a Genesis and we traded games.
I don't think obscure would fit better. Another poster mentioned some Cartoon Network PS2 titles, which I doubt would count as obscure, same for most other tie-ins.
Katamari Damacy. It was just $20 on release and I didn't know exactly what to expect but loved loved it.
That's a game I've only ever played somewhat recently, the unity remaster. Never expected such a banger intro, or a gameplay that's essentially dung beetle being so damn fun!
Cave story is a fun side scroller and an indie release, same with monster sanctuary & shovel knight. For older ones I think you'll find more plentiful on pc since consoles were both more expensive for an indie to develop for and less likely to print physical media games from an unknown person or team. Adventure games, fps doom and quake mods and clones, elder scrolls mods, myst/fmv clones like the journeyman project, descent clones were pretty popular too.
For older ones I think you’ll find more plentiful on pc since consoles were both more expensive for an indie to develop for and less likely to print physical media games from an unknown person or team.
PS1 and PS2 had plenty of low budget titles, the first thanks mainly to the Net Yaroze console. Sure, you still had to get the OK from Sony, but the market was also significantly larger than any PC.
That's a good point, my perspective on that is definitely colored by personal experience. Most of the console games I had were from second hand or toy stores that were mostly first party and licensed games, while pc I saw more in local computer stores that would have eclectic selections compared to corporate stores.
Thomas Was Alone is low budget and an excellent game.
Unreal was really cheap when it was released. 25 DM I think. I guess for Epic it was just a way to show off the engine. It was especially beautiful on Voodoo cards. It would be years until other games would have a skybox that could rival Unreal's. Even Unreal Tournament's looked worse.
That game was so dripping with atmosphere. That level late in the game where the lights went out and those spider things were nipping at your ankles was the first time a game genuinely scared me.
I don't know the budget, but I see a lot of mobile games in Southend Interactive's catalog, so:
Deathrow
A 4v4 fictional combat sport title. It's fun enough to play for a day or so... but if you can find 3 other people to sit on the couch and play with, that's where it can be really fun.
Our strategy was to usually have 1 person be the forward, 2 people be enforcers who stomped the enemy into the asphalt, and the goalie would try to prevent any early scores until the opposing team was knocked unconscious.
Rugrats Search for Reptar and Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase for PS1.
Every Day Shooter is another one which I think was made by one guy. Though got ported to PS3 and PSP
Cartoon Network Racing. Clearly mostly made to make money off yoing kids who like the CN shows they had included in the game. I'm talking about the PS2 version since I have zero experience with the DS version. Fun in its own way.
Similar things apply to the Ed Edd 'N Eddy Mis-Ed-Ventures gamecube port and PS2 port of Codename Kids Next Door Operation V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E. as well.
None of these games are more than tie in games with enough content to make the kids buying them not get bored quickly, but yeah, they're all fun in their own rights when doing a blind playthrough... something I wish I could do for these games again.
Parachute Joust, Amiga. I think it was free with a magazine. Very silly fun for two players. As the title suggests you fight over a parachute until it's time to pull the cord and the loser smashes through a barn roof.
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Like Just Cause, but the buildings are also destructible. Pure mayhem.
Mercenaries 1 on PS2 was also great.
I picked up Summoner for PS1 forever ago and didn’t expect much. Turns out, it was pretty amazing.
Another was Phantom Fighter for NES. The music still gets stuck in my head lol.
Summoner on PS1? I can only find images of it for the PS2
I think you mean for the PS2. Did you watch the easter egg?
Ah you’re right! Definitely PS2. I still have it somewhere packed away with a ton of other older games.
Nah uh? There’s an easter egg? (Runs to DDG)
It's on Youtube if you don't feel like digging the game out.
Woah I played Summoner on my Mac and loved it. I can't imagine how it would run on PS1 though 😅
Oh it was awful on PS1 lol. Slow and choppy and yet still fun 😅
There was a sequel, but I never got a chance to play it (couldn’t find it)
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