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Collin’s Underrated Games of 2016 | PSNStores

Collin’s Underrated Games of 2016

Posted by on January 19th, 2017 | 2 Comments | Tags: , , , ,

I’m going to be honest, I didn’t play as many games in 2016 as I would have liked. However, that doesn’t mean there weren’t some games that stood out to me. The list that follows isn’t necessarily my “best of” list of 2016, but more of some games that I feel should have gotten more recognition. I have a good list of games that I played that I felt were unappreciated, but I’ve narrowed my list down to 5 games.

The Deadly Tower of Monsters

One of my many surprises from 2016 was ACE Team’s The Deadly Tower of Monsters. This game came out way back in January and it made a big impression on me. The B-movie premise, with the narrator offering a director’s cut to a movie that you play out, had me smiling and laughing at many turns. The enemies were one of the standouts to me, as stop-motion dinosaurs, bats on strings and other toy prop figures wasn’t something I was used to seeing in games. The goal of the game was to get to the top of the massive tower of monsters, but there were numerous secret areas. Some of these secret areas could only be accessed by free falling. You can literally reach the top of the tower and free fall all the way to the bottom. Finding all of the secrets the game offered was one of my favorite things to do in the year 2016. The game might have come out in January, but most players probably played the game when it was featured as a free PlayStation Plus title.

Day of the Tentacle Remastered

I always had a fondness for adventure games as a kid, but I never did play any of the old LucasArts ones. My first taste of the Double Fine Remastered games was Grim Fandango Remastered in 2015. This immediately got me interested in the next one, Day of the Tentacle Remastered. I didn’t have much interest in the scenario of the game before playing, but after listening to Bernard, Hoagie and Laverne trying to make sense of each situation thrown at them, I couldn’t help but smile. The best part of the game was when Hoagie goes back in time to meet the likes of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Writing random acts into law or painting berries red to make it look like a cherry tree for George to cut down made the game ingenious. The widescreen remaster of the game looked incredible and you can still jump back to the old graphics and play style. Day of the Tentacle Remastered is currently free for PlayStation Plus members for the month of January and I absolutely recommend it.

Catlateral Damage

I personally prefer dogs to cats, but I couldn’t help but love Catlateral Damage. The game has a simple premise. Jump up and down onto shelves and beds while trying to knock off everything onto the floor. You’d think this would get old after a while, but it never did for me. I loved finding new items to knock over, new cat paintings and finding all of the hidden references to other games like Super Meat Boy and Guacamelee. The game had some terrible screen tearing at times, but it never stopped me from enjoying it. The music was great as well, and the little melodies are still in my head today. The procedurally generated stages made Catlateral Damage infinitely replayable. This doesn’t seem like a game that I would enjoy, but while writing this short overview, I’m contemplating going back and playing it again.

Table Top Racing: World Tour

As the third game on this list to hit PlayStation Plus, Table Top Racing: World Tour was an underrated combat racing game. One of the most enjoyable moments of the game was playing with fellow PSNStores writer Eric and finding all of the gold, silver and bronze coins hidden throughout each track. Some of these coins were really well hidden and we had to do some platforming with our cars to reach them. In addition to the coin collecting, achieving top rank in each of the numerous challenges was addicting. The completionist in me really came out for this game, as I even obtained the platinum trophy. Racing through each of the varied environments that resembled real life countertops and running over bread rolls and pop cans was fun. Though the game didn’t have much variety in the cars, there was still enough there to make me want to collect every upgrade, skin and wheel ability. The shortcuts were also fun to mess around with, as they can turn the tide of any race if you master the shortcuts.

Klaus

Klaus was another PSN game that released last January that I really felt got overlooked. Klaus is a side scrolling platformer that stars two main characters, Klaus and K1. They both have different abilities and many times you’ll need to split up and use those abilities to progress. There is a lot of mystery to the game, and it will have you scratching your head at moments. You, the player are part of the experience as well, as Klaus will talk to you and will even disagree with you. The level design was excellent and using the touch pad to maneuver platforms and walls didn’t feel like a gimmick, it just felt natural. The glitch world was a highlight, as it took everything you thought you knew about the game and turned it on its head. What you think are spikes, might be just small obstacles you can push out of your way and it kept surprising me until its conclusion where most of the questions are answered.

So that’s my list of 5 underrated games of 2016. What games did you play in 2016 that you felt didn’t get the recognition it deserved? Let us know in the comments below.