For every one single game you play each year, there is probably one hundred that you don't even know exist. This probably isn't your fault because we all know YOU love games, but big budget advertising spotlights would rather have you play Brawl, GTAIV and the next FINAL FANTASY, leaving the smaller games to be swallowed in the black hole of HELP I MADE A GAME WHY IS NOBODY PLAYING IT? The aim of this article is to point out a few of the little games that have potential to be hilarious gaming gems but are knocked out of the advertising spotlight on the basis that they are ridiculous and possibly not that good at all (but potentially great.) So prepare yourself people, we don't know what we are about to encounter and we don't know if it's going to be good or not. All we can do is speculate.

EYES TO THE HORIZON!

Flower, Sun and Rain
Maybe you played this game when it was released on the PS2 in 2001? (I know I sure didn't.) But people dig Suda 51 so the thought of a game being released by him that nobody ever heard of was the perfect oppurtunity to bring it back as a new console port. It looks like this time it is going to be for the DS which means we can all finally stop playing SIM BABY and DRESS UP DOLL SUPREME or whatever the next Nintendog clone my sister buys. (Hooray?)

Quote from: Wikipedia

Flower, Sun, and Rain (花と太陽と雨と, Hana to Taiyō to Ame to?) is a video game developed by Goichi Suda for Grasshopper Manufacture. The game was released in Japan on the PlayStation 2 system in 2001. An enhanced Nintendo DS remake entitled Flower, Sun and Rain: Unending Paradise was released in Japan on March 6, 2008, and North American release is soon to follow.[1]

Videogame Training
I don't think there is a single member of my family (excluding me) who doesn't own a copy of Brain Training. I know people who have gone out and bought a DS specifically to BUY BRAIN TRAINING and have been left with no knowledge of games save for virtual pets, brain teasers and sudoku. Somewhere, someone sat down in a board meeting at Namco and said "Well these guys are buying games, but they don't know how to play them!" and from that spawned Videogame Training. A warioware-esque adventure through 200+ mini-games in brain teaser fashion to teach the basics of videogaming to people like your grandma.

Quote from: 1-UP

Videogame Training DS is a collection of mini-games based on past Namco classics, such as Xevious, Mappy, Galaga, The Tower of Druaga, Family Stadium and Dragon Buster. Players will be tested with their gamer skills, including reflex and memorization. Additionally, the game will include 500 mini-games based on over 30 different Namco titles.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy
Whoa, Super Smash Bros is selling? How can we regurgitate old characters into a beat-em-up game to make money? Let's take Yuna and pit her against Squall and Ultimecia in an SSB clone from Square-Enix. I'm sure they already tried to do this with Ergheiz and it didn't go down too well. I'm not really sure what to say that I haven't already said other than I will personally film myself, feeding my copy of FFVII to my cat if Cloud is not in this game.

Quote from: Wikipedia

Dissidia: Final Fantasy (ディシディア ファイナルファンタジー, Dishidia Fainaru Fantajī?) is an action game currently in development by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable as part of the campaign of the Final Fantasy series 20th anniversary. Information on the game was first released during the "Square Enix Party" event of May 2007. It is unknown if the game will be released outside of Japan, although the trademark Dissidia was registered by Square Enix in North America on April 6, 2007. The game features characters from different Final Fantasy games participating in one-on-one battles.

Target: Terror
It's about time someone tried to bring back the good old ARCADE LIGHT-GUN games. Maybe I'm just missing them but it's been a long time since I tried to chug my way through Time Crisis or Virtua Cop 7 (whichever the last game they made was.) And what looks great about Target: Terror is the fact that it looks just as ugly as all the old arcade light-gun classics so that's something to look forward to!

Quote from: Wikipedia

Target: Terror (Target: Force in Japan) is a shooter arcade game developed and published in 2004 by Raw Thrills, and designed by Eugene Jarvis. The game involves using your gun controller to defeat terrorists attacking various places in the United States, including Denver Airport, the Golden Gate Bridge and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Professor Kageyama's Maths Training
In the race to create the most boring game ever I am pretty sure that PKMT is going to take a running jump towards the finish line. Cue the game that is basically a Maths revision booklet in videogame format. Remember the Times Tables grid? Well that's the extent of the excitement we'll be recieving from Professor Kageyama when the time comes to plug in.

Quote from: Wikipedia

Professor Kageyama's Maths Training: The Hundred Cell Calculation Method (DS陰山メソッド 電脳反復 正しい漢字かきとりくん, Kageyama Method - Dennou Hanpuku: Tadashii Kanji Kaki to Rikun?) , is a puzzle video game published by Nintendo and developed by Jupiter for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was first released in Japan, and was later released in Europe and Australia. The game is part of the Touch! Generations series.

I would just like to note that I would definitely condone videogames as a learning technique in schools.

The World Ends With You
Honestly I don't have a clue what this game is other than the fact it is a Square-Enix game that doesn't have the words "Final" or "Fantasy" in it. It looks like Final Fantasy Jet Set Radio the RPG Minigame and is as far as I can gather a D-Pad/Stylus hybrid control system take on the Beat-em-Up genre. My experience of Squaresoft beat-em-ups was The Bouncer so I don't hold high hopes which increases the chances of me being pleasantly surprised.

Quote from: Wikipedia

The World Ends with You, known in Japan as It's a Wonderful World (すばらしきこのせかい, Subarashiki Kono Sekai?, literally "This is a Wonderful World"), is an action RPG for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was developed by the Kingdom Hearts team, Square Enix, and Jupiter. Character designs are by Tetsuya Nomura and Gen Kobayashi. The distinctive art style is inspired by the aesthetics of Shibuya youth culture.

Oboro Muramasa Youtoden
I heard that Japanese Culture is a terrible thing but sometimes it seriously trips me out. It's a shame the screenshots for Oboro Muramasa Youtoden look strikingly like an old SNES side-scroller for the Wii. I hope it focuses more on Giant Huge Cyclops monsters than Ninjas and Samurai but we just wont know until it's released.

Wii Chess
Console Chess, Online, in Wii-Graphical Beauty. It doesn't LOOK fantastic but who cares because it is what it is. Another port of one of the most ancient games ever and this time they didn't try and spruce it up with 3D graphics and animations. The only thing that is MINDBOGGLING me is why this isn't downloadable content because the chances of anyone picking this up for full retail price looks pretty slim to me.

So that really concludes my list of games to possibly look out for in the future in case they are cheap laughs. If you are wondering whether this is going to be a series of articles then you will be glad to know that it is! But it will be monthly rather than weekly for as long as I can keep up interest and keep finding radical games.

Thanks for reading.