Most Pleasant Surprise Ever!

[gaggle64]

A Link To The Past - Like Eenuh with OOT, I had never even heard of Zelda before. I originally only bought it 2nd hand because "I wanted something with swords" and it had one on the cover.

[Gizmo]

Super Monkey Ball is the one that stands out for me. I sent my mum away on release day to get me a GC, Luigis Mansion and Sonic Adventure. She came back with that along with Super Monkey Ball, because they had a bundle deal which included SMB for 3p more. Took one look at the box and thought; omg this game is bad. Thought I'd give it a try anyway and it ended up being one of my favourite games on the Cube.

[Letty]

Wierdly enough, Company of Heroes - was a pleasant supprise for me!

I randomly got it off Jordan back in the day, having never played a proper RTS (Minus LotR - Battle for Middle Earth) before.

 

Also, Peggle - Oh sweet lord.

[Monopolyman]

Blast Corps. I didn't know what to expect before I first played it, and I didn't think I would be that bothered by it, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of the N64 for me.

 

I'll second SSX Tricky. Didn't think it would be more that average, but I had a blast playing it. Couldn't be fucked with SSX3 though.

 

Oh, and Jade Empire. After a slew of critics saying it's a lesser KotOR, it still turned out to be a neat adventure game.

[Shotgun2k]

Good thread.

 

For me it has to be Kingpin: Life of Crime. It was a game my parents wished I wouldn't play when I was 12 or so (given that it was an 18 with some serious foul language). Great multiplayer in particular - played like quake 2 but had this amazing feel to it.

 

Oh and, Super Soccer on the SNES - meant to be a pretty average game, but I got soooo much play out of that.

 

Also - Mario Kart Wii...looked so poor in screenshot form, but my housemate got it and now I'm hooked.

[Cube]

Banjo-Kazooie. I didn't expect it to be so much fun.

Halo 3. I expected to hate it. It turned out to be good (but not awesome).

Kameo. People said that it was rubbish, but it's amazing.

Excite Truck. A massive amount of fun.

[D_prOdigy]

Tales of Symphonia was the best frickin impulse purchase I've made in my short life.

 

The problem now is that I spend so much of my time keeping up to date on what's worth buying and not, that I'm afraid I may never have a surprise like it again.

[EEVILMURRAY]

That I was able to beat Ganondorf on Wind Waker by pretty much, pure button bashing. I didn't have to waste as much time as I thought.

Harvest Moon on SNES (emulator I'm afraid, yes I'm a disgrace). Saw the description as a farming sim and thought it sounded so bizarre I just had to download it. To my pleasant surprise it was fantastic and mesmerising

Same here, that's how I got introduced into the series, chatted up the pink haired lass Nina from the flower shop, good times. Only dissapointment was that it ended too quickly.

[Cube]

That I was able to beat Ganondorf on Wind Waker by pretty much, pure button bashing. I didn't have to waste as much time as I thought.

 

I did it by pressing "A" three times.

[jayseven]

Blast Corps wins at everything. Beyond Good & Evil was surprising, too... can't really think of much else at the mo.

[Letty]

I did it by pressing "A" three times.

 

Parries?

[Jonnas]

The N64 was a console of surprises for me. Tetrisphere and Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon were given to me as a gift.

Plus, one day, I entered a videogame store with the intention of buying Kirby 64. It wasn't there, but OoT was. I thought to myself "Well, it's about time I tried a Zelda game". No regrets there.

 

 

Most of my Gameboy games I bought expecting something nice, mainly because my friends had similar games. Still, a few nice surprises:

 

-When I originally bought my GB, I took the game with the coolest cover. Little did I know how awesome Megaman was;

 

-Whenever my family would visit my grandmother's store, I would sometimes go to a nearby videogame store, that let clients try the games beforehand. I would occasionally play some Mega Drive or Game Gear games. One day, there was only a Gameboy, with a single game in it. Thank god it was Mole Mania. I loved it at first glance, and I still do.

 

-In Portugal, the Pokémon Anime debuted 1 or 2 weeks before my birthday. I saw the commercial for Red/Blue a few days before said birthday. Someone gave me Pokémon Blue as a gift. I was taken by the Pokémon craze in a very short time.

 

 

On the Gamecube...

-Considering I bought Wind Waker merely for the "OoT:Master Quest" extra, I was pleased to see that Wind Waker was on par with OoT;

-Skies of Arcadia and F-Zero GX were much, much better than I ever thought they could be;

-Pikmin was a nice surprise. It was the same thing that happened with OoT "It's about time I tried a Pikmin game..."

[martinist]

Harvest Moon: A Wonderfull Life; First harvest moon game i got my hands on and it took me a while to get into it because the first year seemed to go on forever. But after that i really got into it. It also convinced me to buy the DS version.

[Shorty]

Ah yeah! Some people have reminded me of some gems.

Megaman. What a game, NES version for me. I never owned it but I borrowed it and loved every moment of it.

 

Pokémon Red. So much better than I thought it would be, I never imagined a gameboy game to be so huge and immersive, even having played Zelda - Link's Awakening.

 

And another that has sprung to mind: Metal Gear Solid for the GBC. I expected a fun, decent game, but that game was amazing. Packed to the brim with stuff to do, so huge, no corners cut, every level something interesting. Moving, exciting, action packed, difficult - all in those teeny tiny pixels. Oh man, I really want to dig that out and replay it *adds it to the list of things to do this Summer*

[EEVILMURRAY]

I did it by pressing "A" three times.

I think it might've been the same. The fact is it took no effort whatsoever. But at least it mirrored the combat system of the entire game.

[The fish]

Pokemon Blue, my first ever non-PC game, and easily the second best RPG I've played, with the possible exception on the Paper Mario series. The best RPG is without doubt (for me) Pokemon Silver, but I was expecting that...

 

Halo 3 was better than expected, as was PGR3. It came with my 360, and I was amazed at how fun it was. CoD3 on the Wii was infinitely more playable than the pile of shite that was Red Steel, which was nice. I also feel a mention is deserved by Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30. I went in expecting a fairly average shooter with some squad controls in, and came out having played one of the most intense shooters ever, up there with the IW CoD's. The story was very well told, and features possibly the most saddening and memorable, yet unexpected, plot twists ever. I'm looking forward to III...

[Nintendohnut]

Second Sight was a surprise for me - even though I followed it in magazines for a long time, it was just such an impressive game, I thoroughly enjoyed it and have gone back to it several times since I bought it to throw barrels at someone's head until they die, with my mind

 

Other than that Zelda: Link To The Past is something I spent HOURS on when I got it, getting every single heart piece, doing every side quest... in fact I don't think I've even got around to beating the final boss now that I think about it, I was so busy doing other things

 

Zelda Majora's Mask was an odd game - I spent around 40 hours on OoT so I was hoping for something similar but not expecting much...but it was absolutely brilliant and I really enjoyed it.

 

Whoever said Metroid Prime I agree - it was the first Metroid game I played, and I had no idea what it was going to be, and yet I was hooked as soon as I played the first level. Simply brilliant.

[Ellmeister]

Kingdom hearts for me, bought it for £3 with MGS:Sons of Liberty included. Have barely played MGS because I'm not a fan, but WOW I love the KH games!

 

Also the pokemon games, simply because I had no idea what they were about, and I'm still hooked! (To the old games anyway )

[Emasher]

Probably Rune Factory. I Liked it more than I thought I would, but most good games I've bought I've already known were good before I bought them.

[Daft]

Enter the Matrix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They actually gave me a refund.

[chairdriver]

Rogue Galaxy

 

I bought it for a joke for £10, assuming it would be an ok RPG I'd get over in a week, but I actually love it.

 

Actually such a good game, with great graphics and battle system.

[Chris the great]

skies of arcadia, i picked it up on a whim one lazy summer day in newcastle, i got utterly hooked.

[darksnowman]

Games I didn't really know about/ expect to be great, but they were?

 

Harvest Moon on the GBC. Probably one of the worst Harvest Moon games, but I thought it was class and I poured a heck of alot of hours into it- seriously.

 

Riviera on GBA. Bought on a whim because I wanted to buy something and it didn't let me down. I completed it in a few days but it was great while it lasted. Its one of the only games I've ever made use of having multiple save files- in the game there were paths I didn't choose now and again and options in conversations I could have done differently, so I was continually paranoid I'd miss something important and be stuck.

 

SSX 3 and Splinter Cell. I bought them both together a few summers ago. It was one afternoon I got out of work early so I dropped into Game on my way through town, and they had a two for £30 deal going on Gamecube games. I picked up these two games and was extremely suprised by their quality!

 

Pop n Twinbee. I never heard of it before I got it, and what a game it is!

 

There's bound to be others but those are the ones that spring to mind. My most recent pleasant suprise of a games related variety is... yep, Toki Tori on Wiiware. :p

[Deathjam]

Hitman 2: Remember reading about how flawed the first game was, but after seeing a friend play it, I tried it myself and man, it has never been so fun messing with a game just to see how the rag doll effects will leave your helpless victims. One of the first games to do rag doll effects and man did it at so much to the experience. Didn't even complete it but got so much fun out of it.

 

Psi-Ops: A game I don't hear enough about sadly. SO awesome. Rag-doll effects used to great effect here but there was so much more in this too with the psychic powers and the imaginative ways they could be used. Popping an enemies head or pushing an enemy down somestairs or off a platform never failed to put a smile on my face.

[Iun]

Tachyon: The Fringe.

 

I had never heard of Bruce Campbell, nor did I expect this game to be so much fun. I just bought a cheap joystick for the PC and wanted a cheap game to go with it. It was funny, different and captivating.