You'll never have 15 minutes of Fame!

To coincide with the over-rated games post, the under-rated games. Those games that have been shunned for trying something new, odd looking graphics and not meeting the general public's interest of yearly FIFA updates. (Remember this is my personal opinion).

Astro Boy: Omega Factor (GBA)
Astro Boy is developed by Treasure. Typically this means it is a gem. An odd license but still it keeps the Treasure charm of awesome graphics, fighting and ridiculously hard difficulty.It's a 2D scrolling shooter with some flying bits that still work similar. There's a punch button, kick, laser , jump and 3 special moves which in typical Treasure fashion are big and flashy. It's got a really well thought out storyline. You first play through it but then at the end, you gain the ability to time travel. This basically means a level select. It's slightly tediously without a guide as you have to inspect every nook and cranny of all the levels to unlock some cut scenes and other secret levels. Overall it's quite a large game and saved me and my brother from boredom during a holiday.

Jak 3(PS2)
I'm not actually too sure what my allure to this game is. I find most of the aspects to be borrowed and some of them quite poor. But I enjoy it immensely. I think the story is cliche' and acting is a bit crap. Apart from all that I just enjoy the environment, the free(ish) world and the driving is fun. You wonder how it went from Jak and Daxter a cute platforming game in the style of Crash Bandicoot to some weird Rachet and Clank game. The platforming is fun, guns are great and overpowered and the driving, while slightly clunky is awesome. I'd rather suggest a rent to be honest, but I think it's great.

Dead Rising(360)
Dead Rising is actually a well received and highly rated game. I think it doesn't get enough recognition. It's the sole reason I really bought an Xbox 360 and I haven't regretted it. You are a journalist trapped in a shopping mall with hordes of zombies attacking you. It's played in a 3rd person view but can switch to first person when shooting/throwing items. The thing is, you can go anywhere in the mall, do almost anything and fight the zombies any way you'd like. Throw some cooking oil at a zombie and watch how they slip on it, stick a shower head in their faces and watch as blood pours out of the shower head, shoot hockey pucks at them or even throw Frisbees at them .Whether you want to follow the story line, do the mini missions, just plainly kill zombies how you like or gain the mass amount of Xbox Achievements is up to you. It's the best 360 game around, unfortunately overshadowed by the mass hype of Gears of War.

Spider-Man 3
I've been playing this as of late on the Xbox 360 and personally I thought it was a good and solid game. Reviews and opinions have been a bit mixed with many reviews putting it down. Personally I think it's a very fun game to play, mainly on the 360, and with a large storyline and extras to do. It does have a lot of glitches and they still didn't fix, in fact they made the little missions of helping the public out even worse. But those are my only gripes with it. Otherwise it's very fun, the QTE's(Quick Time Events) make a nice change and the combat I found was better.

Runescape
Runescape is a bit of odd choice for me. For non PC gamers it's gonna be unknown and still to PC gamers it might not be heard of. I started playing Runescape with friends back in 2000 or so, it's a very basic Massively Multi player Online Role Playing Game with basic graphics and combat. But it was all very well implemented with tonnes of skills. There was mining, cooking, fighting, fishing, thieving, blacksmithing etc. It also had a special "Wilderness" for player versus player fighting. This was also very well implemented as the further you went, the different levels could attack you. Basically in the entrance of the wilderness, only someone 1-2 levels between you could attack you, at the end, someone 42 levels higher or lower can attack you. I have constantly come back to this game, not in recent times I admit, as it's so addictive. Each time I've been hacked in some way which has made me scarper but still it is an awesome game, well I personally prefer the old graphics to the long awaited new ones.

WWF No Mercy (N64)
This is a pretty old game, but one of the last at the end of the N64's life. It is the best wrestling game in my opinion. If it wasn't for the fact my N64 has died and my version is glitched... I'd be playing it a lot. They added more features from Wrestlemania 2000 and a better system. Every thing was simple but that is what made it great. It's hard to explain now that Wrestling games are really complex but It was just awesome.

Game's with Fame.

This week's article is about over rated games, in my opinion. Those games that earn the stardom but purely through prequels and hype.

Metal Gear Solid 1-2
I actually haven't played MGS3 so I can't really comment but after renting both 1 and 2 when they came out, I thought while it was moderately fun for around half an hour, I got completely sick of it. There is only so much knocking out and throwing in a locker I can take. The ridiculous amount/longevity of cut scenes also was a put off. The fact I played these at quite an early age my have been a harmful factor in the enjoyment area as I've experienced with more complex games, over the years I enjoy them more.

Gears of War
I bought Gears of War when I bought my 360 and I found it to be highly enjoyable, especially in co-op mode. People though have christened it the best FPS ever and the best 360 game. I personally rate Dead Rising as the best 360 game. Anyway, underneath the gloss of GoW is quite frankly a basic FPS game. To say the duck and cover system is ingenious and innovative is quite frankly, lying as it was introduced first in one of the Tom Clancy games. It's highly enjoyable in co-op but it's relatively basic and nothing new.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
GTA: SA is a groundbreaking, free roaming and highly violent game. Rockstar introduced many many many many many new aspects to the game making it the biggest and most intense GTA yet. Unfortunately most of the additions are novel (Working out and eating become a chore) and some practically cheating (Through gambling I gained $7m). Don't get me wrong, It's one of my favourite games and my favourite GTA but many websites and magazines went crazy and got sucked up in the hype too much and overlooked it's many problems. There is a ton of glitches in GTA:SA, the aiming is still crap and the mission structure isn't too bad until towards the end where it gets stupid trying to protect CJ's brother.


Street Fighter 2
I actually think Street Fighter 2 is one of the best beat-em-ups games of all time. I don't think that there needs to be 20 copies released each year in different compilations or on PSNetwork/Xbox Live/Virtual Console. How does this fit in then, well I think its a fine game but it doesn't need the ridiculous amount of updates etc. It seems more overused then over-rated... Get a move on and release SF4 plx!11.

Devil May Cry 3
Well to be honest, I haven't played this a great deal but so far I've been highly disappointed. Upon the first and most awesome cut scene I've ever witnessed in a video game, I unfortunately find out that I can not do half the things in there. Yes I know it's a cut scene and they can make Dante do loads of cool stuff in there that's possibly too complex to do all the time in real-time... But still I hate it when that happens. Games show ultra cool moves in the intro then you move around like as though Dante has a broken leg(compared to the opening scene). I also fail to see why the combat is apparently amazing but maybe that's because I've only just really started..

Virtua Fighter 3tb
This is actually an old game (Dreamcast) but I remember reading magazines saying it was amazing and 9/10. So on release day with Power Stone and Sonic Adventure, this arrived. Steaming pile of crap. It felt so clunky and wooden, the fighters moved about as fluidly as a McDonald's milkshake as soon as they give it you. We were happy to trade it in you can bet.

Crazy Frog Racer
I can't believe this actually received 11/10 on C4 Teletext. Surely only worth a 10/10 for it's originality and ground breaking graphics.