games u feel no one remembers.... 🖳

[Cania]

Star Control 2 whips and the Orz have seriously informed my philosophy in ways that are, possibly, too stupid to explain. I played through that whole game with a walkthrough and that's my recommended way of doing it, as it's possible to miss most of the good stuff in the game if you go in completely blind. Absolutely phenomenal game regardless.

[lilySeafoam]

Oh yeah, that's the same approach I did honestly. It's either that or save scumming to hell and back, especially considering QuasiSpace routing and some of the later-game quests. Intrigued but also unsettled at the idea of Orz-informed philosophy though.

[RueAzure]

Star Control 2

I'm looking forward to that spiritual successor to the Star Control games, Free Stars.

[Cania]

Intrigued but also unsettled at the idea of Orz-informed philosophy though.

i love the Orz so much. my initial connection with them, I think, was that often when I communicate I struggle to find the right word to convey exactly what I mean. I also often feel like an alien when I try to explain my morality to people: they look at me like I'm speaking gibberish. This happened more in the past, and I've surrounded myself with good people now who don't think "being empathetic" is a bad or stupid thing, but it was definitely something I encountered a lot.

So having an alien that has to use suboptimal words to explain a totally bizarre "blue-orange morality" type philosophy to people is really appealing to me, especially at the time.

But it goes deeper than that.

(spoiled for talk of death)

Hidden text.

I often think about death. You would think I'd be a goth, but really I'm just too lazy to play the part. If anything, the idea of dying is a comfort to me - I get to return to the state I was before I was born, and re-enter the great dance of the planet and the galaxy and the universe as distributed atoms, particles, and molecules ready to be used in any number of brand new configurations. It also informs a lot of what I do: being an individual is temporary, and so must be enjoyed and taken advantage of while it lasts.

The Orz being extrusions of an extradimensional entity is, I think, the starting point of this philosophy to me. To see the self as part of the whole, or the idea of "self" at all as a complete illusion, is so fundamental to my happiness that I can't imagine living any other way. To see the self as merely a temporary expression of a more complete object that is so large as to be incomprehensible is...sublime is the best word for it. But it creates a feeling of utter insignificance and freedom to enjoy the life I was given by pure chance.

Of course, the Orz also don't understand individuality at all, and I think this serves as a metaphor for my seeming inability to understand the motivations of many allistic or otherwise neurotypical people, and vice versa. This isn't to say that my way of being is better by any means!! But that we speak a different language, and I'm okay with that.

But when I say things like "There is literally no difference between Me and You" or "We are merely the fruiting bodies of the universal mycelium" (yes im mixing my SC2 races here but i feel like the orz are much more fungal in nature than the mycons) I definitely get blank stares from a good percentage of people. It's comforting to think that someone else was able to write a whole species that thinks the same way I do, to some degree.

Of course, the Orz also like, destroyed an entire species and don't understand why that's a problem so, y'know. Impossible to say if it's good or bad lmao

(doing a quick reread of their wiki page, i had forgotten that their perception of time is basically vonnegut-levels of messed up, and with my memory being as bad as it is + not really believing in the concept of linear time being meaningful, i think that also contributes to my love of the Orz)

So there you go, the Orz philosophy by way of Cania. <3

[Weasel]

I was just reminded of Noctis, the original No Man's Sky from ~2001. There is a huge generated galaxy of stars and planets, and you can send your weird ship to land on any of them, and even exit to do a walkabout. Even navigation is weird, you're interacting with your ship's own interface, rather than abstracting it into a map or something.

You can even name places you've explored, upload that to the website, and people can then download that and apply it to their own copies.

It's free, made by one person and updated over many years, and it's... hm. I'm not even sure how much of a Game it is, but it's certainly fascinating. There's even a story, though it's largely told through its manual and original website.

I highly recommend looking at Mobygames' screenshots for the sort of weird, dreamy stuff you can come across.

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[Cania]

I love noctis! you play as a space cat whose people is mostly extinct, and you're exploring the galaxy partially to discover what happened to them. not that any of that is actually in the game, but the lonely vibes are immaculate.

if anything I wish NMS was a little more like noctis, ie lonely and empty and atmospheric. it is amazing but it's gotten more Full of Stuff as the updates have occurred. I much prefer the lonely feel.

[Mixi Blacksand]

Noctis IV is a cool little thing! It's been kept alive by the community over the years. There was Noctis IV Community Edition, which added features and made a Windows executable, but as time progressed it became very incompatible with modern Windows. If you want to play Noctis today, Noctis IV Plus is a backport of nice features from CE to the DOS game, which you can play on DOSBox.

[Cania]

It is sort of hilarious how DOS programs have become much easier to actually run vs. any Windows programs prior to XP. Thank you DOSBox!!

[lilySeafoam]

Omg yes, Noctis! Really technically impressive for it's times, and with such wonderful vibes. Almost has the same feel as if the planetary exploration of SC2 was it's own exploration-focused game. Wonderful to just try wandering about the galaxy and landing on planets, seeing whatever features you end up with, and even trying to come up with backstory for some of them. Didn't know about IV+! Should definitely come in handy since CE doesn't work on 64bit machines.

[LilyLopears]

Okay, whenever someone asks me "What is a niche game you obsess over?"
this, does anyone remember this masterpiece omfg.

Elebits was great! I'm still a boom blox fan when it comes to wii gimmicks. Steven Spielberg's finest work. :3

BOOM BLOX MENTIONED, IMMA EXPLODE FROM JOY
I love both the first game and the sequel, it's so bizarre how they have little to no fandom these days, even though I remember them being all the rage during the Wii era.
Even in an era where the Wii is old enough to be retro and nostalgic, somehow Boom Blox *still* almost never comes up in Wii-related conversations.

[LilyLopears]

DRAWN TO LIFE SERIES INSTANTLY POPPED INTO MY HEAD

Hidden text.

ITS REALLY FUN AND YOU GET TO DRAW STUFF AND THE STORY IS INTERESTING

ignore the newest game btw… Drawn To Life: Two Realms isn’t real and can’t hurt u… *is in denial*

Drawn to Life enjoyers too? Hell yeah.

[LilyLopears]

Dillon's Dead Heat breakers is a game I only seem to remember. part of the problem is that it was a late late 3DS title, and it was eShop only in the US.

Turns your Mii into an animal after starting a new game. Turns streetpass friends into animals, which then become NPCs you can hire and level up. The character designs are all furries and it's all really good?

Missions are a frantic maelstrom of tower defense, beat em up, and map traversal. The final stage of each level turns into racing combat.

In between missions you have a little town you can walk around in and do various things, such as
- Running a shop
- Dirtbike racing
- Pachinko parlor

each minigame is really fleshed out and could be it's own game. Dirtbike racing could be a whole game. The shopkeeper minigame could be a whole game.

The writing and music are really really charming. I regularly will snap photos of dialog or item descriptions because they're really funny or charming.

Anyway I think I'm the only person who remembers this game.

I remember the 3DS eShop pushed this one a lot, along with Pushmo and BoxBoy and all their sequels. Unfortunately my wrists do not get along with touch-screen-only games, I really wanted to enjoy it, but I was in physical pain the whole time

[LilyLopears]

SCALER, like no one I ever met knows about it and I really wish that it had more attention on it. Scaler was awesome. I should get it again and play it

This one's on my list of "obscure 2000s platformers to play", along with Blinx the Timesweeper, Klonoa, Psychonauts, and the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger games.

[Weasel]

SCALER, like no one I ever met knows about it and I really wish that it had more attention on it. Scaler was awesome. I should get it again and play it

This one's on my list of "obscure 2000s platformers to play", along with Blinx the Timesweeper, Klonoa, Psychonauts, and the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger games.

The two Klonoa games are fantastic. Really charming, well executed puzzle platformers with feels for days. I don't know if the Western marketing was responsible for dooming them, but it sure didn't help!

Hidden text.

[DrTeflon]

PS2 piracy was (and kind of still is) big in Brazil, I came across this one whilst looking for Shadow of The Colossus.

I cannot explain in words how batshit insane this game can gets in terms of customization and chaos. It has a MASSIVE ship designer which was HUGE for the PS2 era. No game ever came close outside Rule The Waves 3 (that's a spreadsheet sim)

Just.... look at this.



Glorious

[Weasel]

Some love for old Titus platformers. I loved both Prehistorik games, but probably spent the most time playing Titus the Fox, just because it's so dang hard.

The first Prehistorik game is fairly simplistic, you just move left to right and need to collect enough food by the end of the level to succeed. Can easily be finished in one sitting.



The sequel is a much more complicate affair, there's now inertia to your movement, the levels scrolls on both axes, and it seems to have collected ideas from other platformers of the time:
* if you get hit and kill the enemy that damaged you, it'll drop a bunch of bones, and collecting all of them restores the damage you took
* you can now jump on enemies, both to help you reach higher places, but also to increase the score multiplier you get for killing them
* there are lots of secrets. Lots. From hidden areas to places where whacking a piece of scenery results in a goody being dropped, I still have the locations in the first level burned into my brain



Ah, my love and nemesis. This was originally a French only game titled Lagaf: Les Aventures de Moktar where you played a boring human, but who cares about that, in the international version you're the fox that gives the company its logo!

Catchy tunes, and a lot of interactive mechanics that lend themselves to secrets (some levels have multiple ways through them, items you get include bouncy balls that can be used to reach high places, and carpets you can unfurl and use as gliders).
Everything in this game resolves around items, and how you use them. You can pick a box up and chuck it to kill an enemy, but it'll be gone forever. You could also drop it down on top of them, which will kill them and preserve the box.
Boxes stack, letting you reach higher areas.
Or, you can find a ball, which doesn't get consumed on throw, and can be used to bounce on for said higher areas!
Or you can find a skateboard, which you can ride to kill any enemy it touches.
Or a carpet, which when thrown in the air will unfurl and float. Jump on it to slowly glide downwards.

There's a lot of really fun experimentation to be had, but boy, the difficulty is really up with this one.

[Minotaur]

It's a flash game, but I never really encountered too many people talking about it. It's "Apples in the tree" by MasterMerol. Idk even how to explain it. For a rather simple flash game like this, it had a surprisingly big and positive impact on me when I was a teenager.

- - - -

[Flint]

Ahh Prehistorik! Sometimes I wonder if I fever dreamed this into existence because it's just so unspoken about, but I remember this so clearly from my childhood - one of the few games we had on floppy discs but with the actual big box (most of my floppy games were pirated ones my dad had somehow acquired[/i] for me). I never made it too far though, I remember it being very tricky - but I was also probably a dumb kid who didn't understand the basic mechanics.

Oh that video takes me back, thank you for bringing this up!

[Mefurbëtas]

Had a moment to think about it some more and, does anyone remember Meteos? It's a pretty neat puzzle game with cute little alien critters. Essentially the gameplay is that the blocks coming down are attacks from invaders, but when you match them, it doesn't get rid of them but rather starts lifting that column up, chaining more matches together causes a column to go up more and more, with different planets having different gravity and block gimmicks.

[Enbyeon]

Had a moment to think about it some more and, does anyone remember Meteos? It's a pretty neat puzzle game with cute little alien critters.

Meteos was pretty rad. One of the games I always had on my DS flash cart.

[Weasel]

Hidden text.

Ahh Prehistorik! Sometimes I wonder if I fever dreamed this into existence because it's just so unspoken about, but I remember this so clearly from my childhood - one of the few games we had on floppy discs but with the actual big box (most of my floppy games were pirated ones my dad had somehow acquired[/i] for me). I never made it too far though, I remember it being very tricky - but I was also probably a dumb kid who didn't understand the basic mechanics.

Oh that video takes me back, thank you for bringing this up!

It's entirely possible you got stuck because you didn't know you could go into the caves, and after level 2 or 3 there's not enough food outside to reach your goal!
That's what stumped me for a while, I had never seen that mechanic before. I don't remember if there's a demo you can watch that clued me into it being possible, but I do remember standing in front of a cave entrance and pushing buttons until one worked.