Ask Lemmy

Since most games are often mentioned on the internet, I'm going to reach waaaaaaaay back to my childhood and mention Cartooners:

This was a game for kids to make their own cartoons. I spend so much time making all kinds of funny and weird stories. It was very basic, but it had me giggling every time.

Le fabuleux voyage de l'oncle Ernest (the translation would be Uncle Ernest's Fabulous Journey, but I don't think it's been released outside of France)

I don't remember much of the game but I loved it as a kid, around 9-10.

The game is about the traveling journal of our adventurer uncle: Ernest. From what I remember it's like a virtual treasure hunt, trying to find clues to find our uncle. It's a lot of minigames going through Africa, Istanbul, Borneo ...

So I just invented a game.
I kinda like it a bit.
Of course, I'm not going to tell you its name or its rules, or I will have mentioned it on the internet, which will make it a paradox.

A game that’s never mentioned on the internet? Probably would have to be something that came on those shareware discs in the 90s then.

I’ll go with the Adventures of MicroMan

3D Movie Maker (1995) - Game for Windows 95

Quartile

https://simplyfun.com/products/quartile?srsltid=AfmBOop09ABddbZdM5bz8rjCiUxzoa2F35ERKOhxo6exVtLh0V3D2MCD

Closely followed by Mexican train domino

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Train

Cultures 2.

Freelancer, very fun space sim that didn't quite seem to get popular enough

Quest for Glory series. Got me into RPGs.

Battlezone 2: Combat Commander. When I started playing that, my brother and I had to face each other and use our laptops' infrared ports.

Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising. It's the only game in the Carrier Command-like subgenre of RTS that isn't part of the Carrier Command series. Shockingly well written, too, for what it is.

Challenge accepted. Does anyone recognize Llamatron: 2112? I played it on Amiga, but I think it was also on Atari and DOS.

It was an acid trip "llamas are funny" parody of Robotron: 2084, and it was a fuckin' BLAST!

So if I'm not counting close friends recommending games to me as "mentioned on the internet" probably Crystal Project, according to Steam. Otherwise, we'd need to go back to things that I was told about by family members way back in the day that I both like and haven't seen mentioned online since, which is trickier. Thief The Dark Project, possibly?

If you haven't played Thief: The Dark Project I recommend it and its sequels. Don't play Thief (no subtitle) though, it's AAA garbage.

The dark pictures anthology: man of medan.

World in Conflict is one I don't see talked about. Squad based military RTS.

Multiplayer on that was so fun. Guessing how the enemy was moving in order to time how you call ordinance on them was my favorite part

Some of my favorites that I don’t usually see mentioned would be Inmost, that game is fantastic, and Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight. Honestly the whole Momodora franchise is great, worth checking out.

Go

I never see Cultist Simulator recommended but it's one of my favorites. It really captures the idea of studying the esoteric arts, and has a surprising amount of world building given how simple the presentation is.

I don't see many people ever really talking about them at all outside of fans, but Krosmaga and One More Gate from Ankama.

Krosmaga is a deck builder autochess like game (with something like 9 or 10 different classes/dieties with different abilities to build around, alongside a bunch of non-specific cards any class could use in their deck). Place summons/spells to protect your Dofus (dragon eggs, to simplify what they are) and destroy theirs. Matchmaking is either play against computer, who randomly selects class and gets default deck, or just flatout random player. Don't think there's any selective matchmaking, sadly.

One More Gate is a short enough roguelite game where you accidentally destroy a portal and have to fix it by beating bosses in new areas, usually after multiple failed runs. Has meta progression, which I personally am not the biggest fan of.

Hammershlagen

Gameboy color dinosaur JRPG / metroidvania that seemingly no one else has ever played. Called Dinosaur'us. I had to google the name there and it turns out there is a wikipedia page so it's not totally obscure - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur%27us

I loved this game as a kid! There are surprisingly few good dinosaur games (although admittedly a lot of good dragon ones).

Edit: only ever released in the UK - that explains a lot of why it was so obscure. The ROM is on emulator sites though if you are curious.

Not a video game but a boardgame called Nightmare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_(Atmosfear_series)

Xcom 2.

A friend recommended it to me because he thought I would like it. It's my favourite game and I have 100% it.

Has gotta be either Dusk or Ultrakill. Especially Ultrakill. I'm really bad at it, but it's so good that I couldn't care less.

I haven't seen "The London Game" on the internet; that can be a lot of fun.

Most of the other stuff I like I've seen somewhere or other.

Majesty.

It's a strategy simulation game, a bit like an RTS, but you can't directly control units.

Instead all units follow general archetypes. Rogues generally won't spontaneously help you but will do most anything for money. Warriors will seek out monsters and lairs that have been discovered. Rangers will explore the map. Units will also do things like buying potions or upgraded equipment based on their class and intelligence.

As the player you choose what buildings to place and can offer rewards for exploring an area or killing something.

There was a sequel, but it's a significantly worse game than the original.