Top 10 Best Video Games You've Probably Never Played

Some good games just don't get the attention they deserve. Maybe it's a lack of marketing or distribution, or the cover art looks stupid and nobody wants to pick it up.  Too often people will turn down a game based on something superficial and not do their research, or at the very least read the back of the box. This guide is here to help you, whether you're a seasoned gamer looking to try out something new you may have overlooked, or a skeptic who doesn't bother trying.  Here are 10 games you should try out if you ever have the chance.

#10
Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
Available on:  Wii

What is it?
Zack and Wiki is a point-and-click puzzle game, where you try and get to the treasure chest shown at the end of the level. The titular character Zack uses his magical monkey friend Wiki to turn various obstacles and enemies into tools that can be used. Say for example you need a key but theres a gap between you and it.  You use Wiki's ability on a nearby snake, and it changes it from a slithering threat into a grabber-claw that now allows you to reach the key. Use these various mechanics to complete each level.

Why should you get it?
Z&W is an excellent puzzle game with the difficulty curve you would expect, the first 1-2 levels being relatively easy, and letting you explore the mechanics of the game, and increasing in difficulty as you progress. The art style is colorful and fun, and just the overall layout of the game is enchanting and will draw you in. You can also have a friend help give you hints by using a 2nd wii remote to point at the screen. The puzzles in Zack and Wiki are easy enough to figure out but still difficult enough to give you a sense of accomplishment when you finally struggle through the more challenging ones.

#9
Psychic Force 2012
Available on: Dreamcast

What is it?
The Psychic Force franchise (there's another game for the PSX called Psychic Force 2010, the prequel to this game) is a new take on the classic fighter genre. You still fight your opponent 1-on-1 and you both have health bars and try to deplete the enemy's guage first by executing various combos and special attacks. What makes PF2012 different is instead of being on a flat, 2D plane, or even standing on ground with the ability to rotate 360 degrees around, the whole fight takes place in a large cube (or rectangular prism to be accurate) and players can move in any of the 8 basic directions. The characters each control an element or power such as water, fire, sound, lightning, even time and each character has a wide array of moves that showcases their various powers.

Why should you get it?
Psychic Force 2012 has that tried-and-true formula of "easy to learn, difficult to master" that gives so many games replay value. Basic moves are easy to pick up on, but it takes time to figure out your more complex moves and how to use them effectively. It's a fresh spin on a classic genre, and it's very rewarding to play this new style.  If you're looking for a fun fighting game that's easy to pick up, with cool characters, and a new look at how to play, this is the game for you.

#8
The Conduit
Available on: Wii

What is it?
The Conduit is a first-person shooter, set in the not-so-distant future United States. The story starts out simply enough: you're a special agent working for the government handpicked by the President to investigate a terrorist hideout. But you quickly learn as the plot begins to unfold there's more to this story than meets the eye as your character is soon caught up in a government conspiracy involving alien invasions, cover-ups, the works.

Why should you get it?
The Wii has been competing on the market against the PS3 and Xbox 360 and on the technical side of things, the Wii never stood a chance against the HD capabilities of its competitors. But The Conduit pushes the limits of what the Wii is capable of graphically, with beautiful lighting, various particle effects, and realistic scenery. This game really is beautiful and that's not even it's best selling points.  The story is fantastic and the plot twists will actually shock you. You'll find yourself wanting to move on to the next level so you can discover what's to happen next. The weapons scattered throughout the game offer a wide variety of fighting styles as you try out normal guns, secret government organization weapons, and even alien weapons. The controls have the most customization of any game I've ever seen, and that's a good thing because the game DOES use the Wii's infrared pointer to aim your weapons. The first 10 minutes or so might be awkward as you get a handle on the controls, but once you put the customization to work for you, it becomes second nature. Lastly the game supports online multiplayer with a variety of modes and options such as capture the flag, free-for-all, teams, etc. Overall, it's a solid game worth checking out. Oh, and one more thing:  one of the main characters is voiced by Kevin Sorbo, a.k.a. Hercules from the live action TV series "Hercules: The Legendary Adventures." Are you sold yet?

#7
Stubbs the Zombie in: Rebel Without A Pulse
Available on: Xbox, Xbox 360 (Arcade), PC

What is it?
Stubbs the Zombie is one hell of a fun game to play. You control a zombie (Stubbs) and your sole goal is to infect humans, eat brains and build your own undead army so you can seek revenge on the humans who killed you. Stubbs doesn't use traditional weapons like guns and swords, but rather body parts. One example is detaching his own head and rolling it like a bowling ball to take out various human targets, or throwing organs that explode on contact. Every human turned into a zombie will fight alongside you, and also possess the ability to turn other humans, exponentially increasing your army.

Why should you get it?
This game is just silly fun. It doesn't take a lot of skill to play it, but it will keep you entertained for a few hours at least. The various humorous cut scenes and random exclamations of the locals will keep you laughing as one by one they get picked off by the brain-eating hoarde. The environment of the game is set in the future as portrayed in the 1950s (think Back to the Future II) with hovercars and laser technology, but occupied by 50's style humans. The soundtrack of the game reflects this as it consists of 50s and 60s hits, covered by modern artists. The game is fairly short but extremely fun to play, especially if you have a few hours to waste on mindless (pun totally intended) humorous nonsense.

#6
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Available on: Gamecube
What is it?
Eternal Darkness is an action/horror game that uses special effects to mess with the player's mind. You play as Alex Roivas, who is exploring her grandfather's Rhode Island mansion after his gruesome, unexplained death. She discovers a book bound in human skin and bone, which shows her a vision of other people who have encountered this same book, and the fates they suffered. Each "flashback" gives the player control of the character focused on in that segment of the story, and as they progress through the game, the stories all start to become intertwined.

Why should you get it?
Two words for you: Sanity Effects. Nintendo patented a sanity meter in the game, alongside the player's health bar. As you encounter enemies, and discover horrific things, the sanity meter will drop lower and lower, and as a result, the character will start suffering from various hallucinations. As a player, you may notice strange visual effects such as random sparkling objects on the ground that you can't interact with, or blood dripping down from the walls. Audio effects like slow footsteps, moans/screams of women and children coming from everywhere and nowhere, and blades being sharpened. Some of the more extreme effects break the "fourth wall"  and present what seem to be hardware errors, such as the gamecube file being corrupted, or the volume on the tv cutting out. Sometimes the player may walk into a room, only to discover that the room is upside down and theyre on the ceiling.  Right about the time they realize what's going on, theres a flash of light, and the sanity effect is removed. If you want to get freaked out, the best way to play this game is with the lights off, and the volume up really loud. There are methods in the game that allow you to restore your sanity, thereby decreasing the effects you encounter, but let's be honest...that's no fun, right?

#5
Skies of Arcadia
Available on: Dreamcast, Gamecube

What is it?
An RPG that takes place primarily in the sky, Skies of Arcadia puts you in control of Vyse, a young air pirate who travels the world in search of treasure and adventure. He and his best friend since childhood, Aika, work together with the Blue Rogues to attack and steal from ships and crews that are bigger than them, namely the tyrannical Valuan Empire. After incidentally discovering a young mysterious girl, Vyse and Aika are swept up in an adventure to stop the Valuan Empire from summoning massive weapons that will ultimately allow them to control the world.

Why should you get it?
As with most RPGs, the main selling point of Skies of Arcadia is the story. It's full of adventure as you travel from one floating island to the next, exploring dungeons, finding treasure, and defeating enemies. The game is unique in its setting and style; pirates who sail their flying ships through the skies rather than water, and exploring various cities.  While the game DOES have the typical random battles with monsters involving turn-based combat, one of the unique features of this game is in the inclusion of air ship battles, also using the turn-based combat system. As you sail your ship, you will encounter other rival pirates and be forced to blast them out of the sky with various ship upgrades while trying to protect your own ship from too much damage. If you're not a huge fan of RPGs to begin with, this might not be the best game for you to try, because in a lot of ways, its similar to the rest of the genre.  But if you like to try out different styles and stories, this is definitely worth picking up.

#4
Psychonauts
Available on: Xbox, PS2, Xbox 360 (Arcade), PS3 (PSN), PC

What is it?
Psychonauts is an action/adventure platform game that puts you in the role of Razputin a.k.a. Raz,  a young boy who yearns to be a Psychonaut; an elite group that uses psychic powers to combat threats and save the world. Raz sneaks into a psychic training camp, and starts going through the training program to learn how to master all the different psychic abilities. As he's trying to progress, weird things start happening around camp and it's up to Raz and his new psychic powers to get to the bottom of things.

Why should you get it?
One of the best things this game has to offer is the style and humor. It's full of one-liners and offbeat humor and it keeps a light atmosphere while still keeping an intriguing story. I was already enjoying the game but one of the moments that sold me is Raz is transformed into a Godzilla-sized monster accidentally destroying a small town as he moves. One of the frightened civilians offers their love to this huge being, only to see their house smashed soon after. The civilian can be heard saying "Oh no!  It's immune to bullets....AND LOVE!" Awesome. The platforming aspects are everything you can hope for, where the first few levels won't have anything too difficult, but then as you progress things start getting tricky and you need get creative to figure out the spacing for certain jumps, or how to get through certain puzzles. So what sets this game apart from others in this category like Crash Bandicoot, or Ratchet and Clank? The psychic abilities that you can collect throughout the game. Everything from firing your pent up aggression as mind bullets, to making your enemies spontaneously combust, to rolling around on a ball of psychic energy. Progression through the game is done by entering the minds of various individuals to gather clues and information regarding the happenings of the camp, defeating enemies and nightmares along the way. It's an extemely fun game, and can provide a decent challenge to all the platform kings out there, and it will definitely keep you entertained with its cast of characters, and wild sense of humor.

#3
Geist
Available for: Gamecube

What is it?
Geist puts you in the role of a soldier who, while working with his team to perform a rescue mission, is captured and subsequently his body and soul become separated. At this point you take control of the spirit, as a poultergeist floating around. You can not directly interact with things such as opening doors or picking up guns, but you can "possess" various objects around the room, and if someone has enough fear, you can even possess humans and take control of them.

Why should you get it?
Geist is part first-person shooter, and at times, part puzzler. In order to possess a human, they must be scared. In order to scare them, you must possess various objects, sometimes in order. In the game's built-in tutorial mode for example, you warp yourself into a phone and make it ring. A guard picks it up only to hear static and weird noises. From there you move on to a trash can, and cause it to rattle and roll, making the poor guard even more nervous. Then you take control of a small explosive device and set it off, and the guy gets freaked out enough that you can take control of him.  Now you can access areas that only a guard would have access to, and you have a gun. At anytime you can dispel yourself from your current host, then move on to a new host. Progressing through parts of the game involve figuring out who you need to be controlling to get into what areas, and also how to make someone scared enough to get possessed.  It's a cool concept for a game, very original, and while the game IS fun, and the story is actually fairly difficult to progress through, the whole possession thing starts to seem more like a novelty after a while.

#2
3D Dot Game Heroes
Available for: PS3  What is it?
Have you ever seen statues created and displayed at places like LEGO World? Imagine if you will, the same art style of these creations but applied to the world of 8-bit gaming. If Super Mario Bros. was drawn in pixels, this game was sculpted in them. The game itself is like that of the original NES Legend of Zelda game. You play a warrior, equipped with sword and shield, and you traverse the land fighting enemies with your weapons in real time. Travel into dungeons, solve puzzles, fight bosses, etc.  The typical adventure type game, but in beautiful 3D 8-bit.

Why should you get it?
3DDGH is not only a fun adventure game, but it also mocks other famous video games, using various sound effects, dialogues, and just the style in general. You can even attack random chickens and have them attack you back! If you've ever played an old school action/adventure game, this is definitely a must-play title. The visual presentation of this game is absolutely breathtaking and creative, and the gameplay is 100% solid. Fighting with enemies requires a combination of timing your attacks while also blocking or evading theirs. Each dungeon you encounter grants you a new weapon and plenty of puzzles to solve in order to get to the end, followed by a challenging boss battle. Back out on the overworld, travel to villages, talk with the locals, find items, and proceed to new dungeons. A customization feature allows you to change your main characters sprite into anything your imagination can conjure, from a warrior, to a king, maybe a dragon, or just a grey cube if you so wish. You can also customize your weapons as you progress, building up your sword's size to half the screen if you want to. 3D Dot Game Heroes has a little something for everyone to enjoy, especially for old school gamers and at the very least, it's just pretty to look at. If you're an adventure seeker, you'll definitely want to give this game a shot, just remember: it's dangerous to go alone.

#1
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
Available on: DS

What is it?
999 is a text-heavy, point-and-click puzzle game with an absolutely amazing story that will keep you guessing right up to the end, then leave you staring at the screen with your mouth gaping open. Yeah, it's one of those. The game finds your character trapped on a sinking boat with eight other people. Nobody knows how they got there or why, but they discover they're all involved in a twisted game of survival where they only have nine hours to find the right path to escape or they all die. The game they're playing has a strict set of rules that must be adhered to, and the consequences of breaking those rules involve certain death, a la the Saw franchise. The game's puzzles are all point-and-click and you find various clues and objects to help you escape whatever room you're in at the time. Will you make it out alive before time is up?

Why should you get it?
If you don't like reading a lot, this is not the game for you. It is very, very text-heavy because the primary focus of the game is more in the characters and the story rather than the gameplay itself. But in that regards, the story is amazing, and you will never see the plot twists coming. The puzzles are just the right level of difficulty, and every puzzle room gives you a chance to learn a piece of one or more of the other characters' back stories. The game is kind of twisted, and it definitely earned its ESRB rating of M but it's not so over the top that it's unrealistic. 999 is one of the most overlooked games out there and as word of mouth spreads, it's finally starting to get the attention it so deserves.

And there you have it folks, my opinions on the most underrated, overlooked games of the modern day. Next time you're browsing for games, and you see a title that doesn't look like it's worth playing, do some research first.  You might be surprised what kind of gems you can find.