Top 5 Games We All Forgot About

5. Viewtiful JoeKiller gameplay and massive style, Viewtiful Joe delivers on all things awesome. Released by the pioneers of crazy, Capcom‘s cartoon/movie style beat em up had gamers and critics everywhere yelling at their TV screens. You play as Joe, a guy who is simply trying to go on a movie date with his girlfriend. Then, when the movie somehow enters the real world and literally pulls Joe into the screen, it’s lights camera action! You get to fight your way through incredibly designed level after incredibly designed level. All while using cool movie powers such as the ability to speed up and slow down the film/game.

While this game definitely had it’s fair share of Capcom difficulty that we all know and love, it also had an amazing art style, extremely fun features, and a main character so cool that just the sight of him makes you say wow. Sure it’s strange that he punches people with two fingers instead of a fist. Sure it’s strange that when you speed up time it looks like the robots are humping the air. Sure it’s strange that even with sequels, spin offs, and even an appearance in Marvel VS Capcom 3, Viewtiful Joe has somehow faded into obscurity. Strange or not, he needs to come back with a brand new title. But in the mean time, the original is definitely one worth checking out.

4. Illusion of Gaia

As far as Action RPGs go, Illusion of Gaia has a lot to offer. Great visuals, great gameplay, and a very intriguing story. You play as Will, a young flute-wielding boy who lost his father and lives with his grandparents. You stumble into a Dark Space where you meet a being called Gaia. It tells you of an upcoming evil that you will have to protect the world from. Exciting stuff, right? Well it only gets better when you get the ability to transform into alter ego versions of yourself. One of which is a warrior by the name of Freedan who is more bad ass than you could ever imagine. Defeating enemies in a third of the time it takes Will and being able to reach further distances with his sword, Freedan is everything that is awesome.

However, the alter egos are not the only things that make the game great. Wonderfully designed areas, great bosses, interesting riddles, fun secrets, and an atmosphere that is simply out of this world. You really can play this game and get so wrapped up in the story that you are completely fine with sitting back and watching 16 bit sprites talk back and forth for 10 minutes. It’s immersive, it’s clever, and it’s fun. Illusion of Gaia has stood the test of time and is still a great game to this day. Which just begs the question… Where is a sequel? This game was made by Square Enix so it’s not like they don’t have the funds or talent to make it happen. Get your petition pens ready cause it’s about high time this Nintendo exclusive gets a next gen follow up.

3.  XIIIEver wanted to be a spy who blasts away enemies, solves conspiracy theories, and is voiced by Fox Mulder himself, David Duchovny?! Of course you have and with this game, that is exactly what you get. Based on the comic book series of the same name, XIII gives us an amount of style that has yet to be matched. While there are other cel-shaded games that are meant to look like comic books (Ultimate Spider-man, Telltale’s The Walking Dead) XIII still manages to blow them all out of the water as far as overall design goes. Critics and gamers have praised the game for having minute detail in every frame of every level of the game. We’re talking comic panels popping up showing the impact of that incredible headshot you were just able to pull off. It’s as fun to watch as it is to play. You play as agent XIII, waking up on a beach and having no recollection of who you are or how you got there. After being discovered by a lifeguard, you soon find out that you’re accused of assassinating the president. From that point on it’s a nonstop adventure of battling foes and discovering the truth.

The story is exciting, the style is jaw dropping, the gameplay is fun, and the voice talents of David Duchovny, Eve, and Adam West are awesome. So what went wrong? Well, after an impressive promotion campaign, the game didn’t sell quite as expected. Although, it did sell enough to warrant a sequel… 8 years later. For some reason the sequel was a mobile point-and-click adventure game instead of the first person genre where XIII belongs. Needless to say, the sequel did poorly and we were all stuck waiting for a proper sequel to debut. Unfortunately, it seems we may be waiting forever. If you’ve never played the original game then do yourself a favor and pop this sucker into your favorite gaming machine. You can thank me later.

2. Jet Grind RadioGrab your roller blades and your can of spray paint cause this blast from the past is about to get talked about yet again. In Jet Grind Radio (called Jet Set Radio everywhere but North America) you play as a member of a graffiti-spraying roller-blading gang called The GGs as they fight to gain control of Tokyo-to (a different take on modern Tokyo) all while dealing with rival gangs and police. You skate around the city and are able to jump, grind, and grab onto the back of cars Marty McFly style. Your main objective usually consists of skating and/or spray painting. The spray paint portions (in which you paint over rival gangs’ tags) can either be as simple as tapping the button while riding/grinding past the wall or as intuitive as following certain gestures with the analog stick to spray the correct symbol. Sounds simple and possibly boring but trust me and fans everywhere when we say, it is not.

This game creates an atmosphere that really gets you in the spray painting, inline skating mood. With a killer soundtrack featuring songs by artists like Jurassic 5, Future Cast, Mix Master Mike and by being one of the pioneers of the cel-shading technique that XIII perfected, you can’t help but be enticed by this gem of a game. Jet Grind Radio Really takes creativity somewhere else that most games don’t. It’s been proven time and time again with every re-release that people still love it as much as they always did and the cult following keeps growing and growing. The last sequel we got was on XBOX in 2002 and it was very well received. What fans of this game want and deserve is an open-world, rail filled, next gen, futuristic tokyo that we can all skate and spray paint in to our heart’s content. If you’ve never played this, then go get a copy and try it out. It’s been re-released (as Jet Set Radio) on XBLA, PSN, PC, GBA, PS Vita, IOS, and Android so really you have no excuse. However, if you want to be really cool, you’d dust off that Dreamcast, find a copy of this beautiful creation on ebay and get the true Jet Grind Radio experience.

1. Custom RoboWant to go through an action RPG without all that pesky turn based nonsense? Want to go through a story line set in the distant future that isn’t boring and actually makes you feel part of the world? Want to fully customize a robot with endless parts & weapons choices and then battle with it by hooking your brain up to it, à la Pacific Rim? Well then Custom Robo is the game for you! You start off as a young boy who was given a watch by his father before he suddenly disappeared. You receive a letter from your father which states his wishes are for you to become a Robo Commander. You then set off on an adventure to fulfill this wish. After receiving your Robo License, you get your very own robot to control and battle with. As the game goes on, you unlock more parts and weapons for your Robo like new body styles, legs, and guns to name a few. These parts are not just cosmetic changes either, they actually effect your Robo’s performance and abilities (for example: some guns shoot more bullets at a time than others).

As the game goes on, the battles get harder and it’s up to you to decide which parts and weapons combination makes the perfect Robo. The best part is, there are so many different combinations that no one’s Robo will ever be exactly the same as someone else’s. Now imagine this on next gen systems with the online support we take for granted that GameCube didn’t have back when this game was released in 2004. Imagine customizing your Robo with unique weapons, legs, and body styles and then battling other gamers around the world in massive Robo arenas. Just the thought of that being a possibility one day is exciting to all Custom Robo fans. The likely hood of that happening however, is practically non existent. Sadly, North America isn’t a very good place for this game and it constantly gets written off as “just another robot action RPG” by gamers here. Maybe we can change that. If more people would speak out about this game then maybe, just maybe, we could get a next gen sequel. It’s a long shot but if Angry Birds can get a movie deal, I suppose anything is possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpZ6HcKx-F8

What do you think of this list? Are there any other games we forgot about that we should remember? Tell us in the comments below!