We’re all familiar with the amazing franchises we’ve come to grow and love (or hate). If you bring up big names like Super Smash Brothers, Halo, Metal Gear, Mario, or Sonic, even people who don’t play games will recognize them. However, there’s some titles out there that even many hardcore gamers go “huh?” when you mention them.

Admittedly, there’s likely plenty I’d respond in the same manner. However, I’ve played a fair share and come across ten gems that the vast majority of gamers I’ve spoken with never heard of before. It might be that I’m just talking to the wrong people and thus “phailing” at choosing the right games for this list. But I suppose you’ll need to read it first.

#10: Redline (MAC)

The first game on our list would not fit the definition of “old and obscure”, as does many games I hear about that supposedly nobody knows of. Instead, this Macintosh exclusive is just over a year old, but continues to thrive very well. Redline is a racing game with up to twelve players. The intended main attraction is the simulation mode, which follows actual driving physics with a very high level of accuracy (lack of a damage model aside).

Of course, if you prefer simpler or silly fast racing, there’s always arcade and turbo arcade modes. However, the biggest draw is the support for third party plug-ins. With the tools you need to get your stuff in the game provided. I’d be surprised if there isn’t over a hundred custom-cars to play with already (which is a bunch considering the small size of the community), ranging from the Audi Quattro, Sauber Mercedes, various F-1 vehicles, a few original vehicles that don’t exist in real life, and even more humorous vehicles such as a crayon-colored car, a Dalek, and a bulldozer. And, to go with these, are dozens of user-made tracks, usually based on actual race courses, and a few custom weather effects (ever driven in a rain of fire?) What’s more, you can use these plug-ins in online racing too! The game is shareware too, so even if you’re strapped for cash, go find the demo and give it a whirl.

#9: Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (PC)

We all know Sid Meier’s Civilization series. You can’t mention his name without the game also being brought up. However, many people seem to not realize he also made a spiritual successor to Civ 2 titled Alpha Centauri, during a period of time where the future of Civilization was uncertain due to concerns over who actually owned the franchise. Caught in the shadow of Civilization’s glory, Alpha Centauri is by no means an inferior game. Based in the future on the world Chiron after humanity flees a dieing Earth, Alpha Centauri plays very closely to its predecessors, though adds in full customization of military units and deeper economics, among many others.

Though it even tied for score in the PC Gamer magazine with Half-Life and spawned three novels, Alpha Centauri never got near the same levels of renown as Civilization. I’ve read that those involved in the Civilization community are quite familiar with the title, but I have yet to find a single person who has heard of before (or find a copy of the game or its expansion pack in stores). This might be the least obscure title on the list, but it isn’t one I’ve ever heard anyone bring up before, let alone seen play.

#8: Worms Armageddon (N64)

Apparently, relatively unknown games still do exist on consoles. Worms Armageddon is by no means any less well-known than any of the other games in the series, I choose it as it is simply my favorite of the few I’ve had the fortune to play. If I was the type to list multiple titles from the same series, you could bet Worms 3D and the original, the other two I’ve played, would be here as well.

Anyways, the Worms series is a strategic turn-based game where you control a team of worms and must eliminate the other teams (or accomplish other objectives in the Mission mode). Each team is heavily armed with deadly selection of bazookas, shotguns, banana bombs, explosive sheep, and dozens of other serious or wacky weapons. Though even with this arsenal, winning isn’t very easy as all shots must be properly aimed and all Worms must be in good cover to be effective. Plus, you have a time-limit on your turn AND you can only control one worm per turn.

These restrictions make for pretty deep strategy as well as some hilarious “Oh crap!” moments when the Highly Flammable Old Lady drops into what you thought was a clever hiding spot, especially when playing multiplayer. If I could be more certain on its level of obscurity, it’d be much higher on this list. However, as I am pretty sure a small chunk of you reading this have heard of Worms before, it goes here. Now if I had played Director’s Cut, I could have used that. It was so unknown it only sold 5,000 copies!

#7: Darwinia (PC)

Introversion Software is a small, British gaming company that’s been creating high-quality, generally unknown games in this millennium. Darwinia is their second creation and only a trio of years old. Darwinia takes place within a computer, with the player as a user who must fight off a potent computer virus and save the digital lifeforms inside known as Darwinians. Darwinia is a hybrid of action and RTS and meshes the two well together. Rather than have players construct buildings and acquire resources, instead players can create as many directly controlled units as their Task Manager level will allow within range of the control towers they have gained control of and use them to gain more control towers or fight the virus. Alternatively, they can create a huge army of Darwinians and use an Officer to direct them to engage the enemy. Both methods of play are perfectly viable and equally encouraged.

While overall short, Darwinia’s levels are quite lengthy and difficult, sometimes resulting in situations that are virtually unwinnable if bad moves are made. The game’s use a retro-style graphics mixed in with more modern ones is quite interesting and effective. The clever use is not detracting in the least bit and reminds you that this game takes place in a computer. Darwinia comes with a built-in level editor that can be used to create ones own campaigns and distribute them on the internet. The game does, however, lacks any multiplayer (probably because it’d be freakishly unbalanced), but a sequel under the codename Multiwinia will have it. You can actually find a Multiwinia alpha gameplay video on YouTube. And though this is presently exclusive to computers, console gamers will get to enjoy both games in the future as Darwinia+ on the XBox Live Arcade and possibly on the Wii Virtual Console and the PS3’s equivalent as well.

#6: SketchFighter 4000 Alpha (MAC)

Like Redline, this is a Mac exclusive that is just over a year old. As the game suggests, Sketchfighter’s graphics are unlike that of any other. They are hand-drawn. Literally. On graph paper. Seriously! If you think I’m kidding, just find the screenshots of the game, I have a few submitted on GameFAQs (the above picture is not a hoax). The game has you controlling a hand-drawn fighter across various sheets of paper in a top down-perspective. Though you are flying (as well as one can in two-dimensions), the gameplay will strongly remind one of Metroid. Rather than giving linear indications of where to go, you instead explore on your own, battling enemies and acquiring new items, which in turn give you access to new areas. And like Metroid, little story is given during the actual game and you do have that sense of isolation… albeit a different one considering the artistic direction. And the game can also be speed-ran, the fastest times are under a half-hour and, though your first run will likely be much longer, the top times are automatically logged on an online tracker. Though despite its similarities, it isn’t a Metroid clone.  I didn’t even notice until I was almost done on my first play through.

Additionally, Sketchfighter supports online multiplayer in which you compete for a higher score or cooperate to displace the top net scores. Also, the game has a built-in level editor with dozens or more already created by the small community, begging you to just try and beat them. If you’re a fan of top-down flying games (or Metroid), this is one to give a whirl. And if you’re uncertain, its shareware! You can try a small portion for free!

#5: Master of Orion II (MAC)

And now let’s turn back the clock to the last millennium, back before people had their fancy OSX and Vista operating systems and where the Nintendo 64 and Playstation were still new. During this time, Master of Orion 2 graced the world, though few realized it. There was Master of Orion before it, which I never played, and Master of Orion 3 afterwards, which is notorious for asking for fan suggestions on what it should be like and then throwing them all out the window, hence a disappointment, which is why MoO2 gets the be on the list. Master of Orion 2 is a strategy game set in space, as one would guess from the title. The player takes control of a race and focuses on building their empire in a bid to take over the galaxy, be selected as emperor of the galaxy by the council (which requires enough votes from OTHER players), or vanquishing the Antarans.

None of those objectives are remotely easy to do and requires clever strategy, careful management of your planets and systems, constant expansion and research, being diplomatic with those you intend to crush later, and, of course, waging war to obliterate all who oppose you. Due to the various exclusive technologies and customization of ships, as well as a very large number of other factors that are determined either randomly or by the player, no two rounds of MoO2 will ever play the same. And, assuming you set your galaxy to at least medium, each round could take days to play. MoO2 also has multiplayer options in the form of hot seat or through all those old options that were always a hassle back in the day, like TCP/IP connections. Unfortunately, on my Mac, MoO2 only runs in classic. Hence, it’s a major reason of why I won’t upgrade to OSX 10.5. The game is just that good. If you ever have the rare opportunity to play this game, DO IT!

#4: Avernum 3 (PC)

What Top Ten is complete without a RPG? Apparently none. However, how many of those top tens had a CRPG as opposed to a JRPG? Virtually none, which I find quite disheartening. When the term RPG comes up, people tend to think of one of four things: Final Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Elderscrolls, and, to a much lesser extent today (though quite often in the past), Diablo 2. Not necessarily those franchises to be exact, but typically those heavily generalized styles. There are, of course, a large number of others too that are worth mentioning, but you get the idea. Avernum 3 does not fall into any of those four types of RPGs, but is rather falls in the lines of a traditional CRPG. And it is an extremely good one at that.

The Avernum series is five games deep, though three is my favorite thus far. The game has a huge world which literally takes weeks of playing several hours of day to uncover every single nook and cranny. And you’re still certain to miss some things on your first play through. The game world is that big and that filled (I hesitate to use detailed as, like many traditional CRPGs, Avernum uses pretty simple graphics). You get four party members and can design them as you see fit by assigning stat points. And no, you’re not doing it within a rigidly defined class system. If you want a mage, you drop points into magic-related stats and find spells for him to learn. If you want a warrior, give him combat related stats and get him some good weapons. If you want a warrior-mage, split half in half. If you want a jack-of-all-trades, you can do that too, but it is probably a bad idea, even on the easy setting.

And, to top it all off, Avernum has an excellent storyline that’s sure to outclass that of most games out there. Except for the ending, Avernum 3 has the worst ending of the series. If you’re not certain you’d like this game, you can find a huge demo for each entry in the series on Spiderweb Software’s website. And, just to show you how big these games are, EACH demo are at least as LONG as most FULL games out there! How often do you find a demo that takes you days to complete and be told at the end you’ve only done roughly 1/5 of the full game? Minus all the side-quests? Good luck on that.

#3: EVO – The Search for Eden (SNES)

Unfortunately, it is mandatory that someone writing a top ten includes a JRPG on their list. Fortunately, EVO, despite being developed by Enix before merging with Square, is totally unlike any RPG out there. EVO is an action-RPG, which is my understanding very uncommon for the time. Forgive me if I’m wrong on that note. And yes, I do know Secret of Mana was action-RPG.

Anyways, this game is more action than it is RPG. The only things that really ties to the RPG genre are the stats that govern some of your character’s attributes, the fact numbers pop up when you hurt things, and you can get the game’s equivalent to experience when you defeat something (or really, when you eat its meat). However, there is no leveling up. Instead, what you do with your “experience”, or really evolution points, is evolve certain aspects of your character’s body. For example, making yourself bigger typically increases your health and defense, whereas evolving your jaws gives your bite more power. Additionally, any evolution you make affects you visually as well. Watch as those puny starter jaws turn into a mouth full of wicked sharp teeth.

As you play through the game, you go through different eras of evolution, starting in the age of fish and eventually ending in the age of mammals, where you’ll have the chance to evolve into a primitive human if you so choose. While the game is old and fairly short, it offers large replayability by giving you different options along the way. For example, do you complete the game as a dinosaur instead of becoming a bird or mammal? Furthermore, do you do it as a large, two-legged dinosaur, a large four-legged dinosaur, a small two-legged… you get the idea. Plus, it’s the only RPG I have ever felt compelled to play through a second time the instant I finished. It’s just that good. As for playing this game, the bad news is it was pretty rare even when it was new. The good news is there’s always emulation if you can’t find a copy and a working SNES if you don’t have one. I’m so glad mine still works almost like it’s new. And if we’re lucky, maybe Square-Enix and Nintendo will put it on the Virtual Console. That. Would. Be. Awesome. Oh! And did you know that Spore was inspired by this game? Though it never had any sequels, its legacy lives on.

#2: Escape Velocity Nova (PC)

I’ve only spoken with two people outside of the Ambrosia Software community who has heard of Escape Velocity. One didn’t knoe the original Escape Velocity had two sequels. The other likely knew because I was playing the next game with him which was published (but not developed) by the same company. The Escape Velocity series is the creation of Matt Burch and easily one of the best games and least known series ever. Though Override and Nova had different people doing the game scenarios, Burch did the scenario for the original as well as the engine work on all three.

I personally liked Override better, but I list Nova because it has had both the original and Override officially ported to its game engine as total conversion plug-ins (and for free too). Hence, you can enjoy all three games without having to boot up classic to play the latter two. Or, in the case of a Windows user, you don’t have to buy a Mac to try the first two games. Like Sketchfighter, in EVN you control a spacecraft in a top-down perspective. Those, unless you have the Sketchfighter plug-in installed, the similarities end there. Nova is open-ended, allowing you to trade, mine asteroids, raid and blow up pirates (or anyone else if you so choose), purchase or capture any ship you can find and customize its equipment however you see fit. However, anyone looking for a more linear, storyline based experience will be happy to find six full-fledged mission strings with novel quality writing… probably because the storyline writers ARE novelists. Each storyline is long and deep, and will likely take the same amount of time as most other games each to complete.The only downside is you have to completely restart to do another one… lest you use a plug-in.

Though it doesn’t come with the tools, Nova supports plug-ins and is arguably the biggest feature. Hundreds of plug-ins for the game exist, bringing new ships, weapons, outfits, missions, cheats, storylines, and, in some cases, essentially a whole new game! Yeah, that’s right, though most are in development, there are total conversion plug-ins out there that completely replace the galaxy and everything in it, kind of like the second quest in the original Legend of Zelda.

While little known overall, the game’s fans have been clamoring for a fourth installment, often also asking for full 3-D and/or multiplayer for years, despite the fact Matt Burch, who also owns the copyright to the franchise, said he’s done with it (I heard his wife would kill him if she caught him working on another game). With so many ways to play the game, one can easily enjoy it for weeks without break before even trying plug-ins. In fact, the demo version can easily be enjoyed for a week or two.

#1: Ares (MAC)

Yes, here it is, the best game that you have never heard of (and that I have heard of AND played). In my eyes this game is one of, if not the, greatest out there, and it is well deserving of it. Ares was developed by Nathan Lamont and published by Changeling Software. However, due to poor marketing, the game did not sell well. The fact that Changeling Software defrauded Nathan of his rightful income from the game’s sales did not help the situation. Three years after the initial release Nathan took the publishing rights and gave them to Ambrosia Software. Thanks to their marketing efforts, the game did extremely well for the size of the Mac gaming community at the time.

Like Sketchfighter and EVN before it, in Ares you control a ship from a top-down perspective. The similarities (minus the handing compared to EV), again, end there. Ares is an action-strategy game. While you’re controlling your ship, you also need to direct the fleet under your command in combat. Commanding your allies is much easier than you’d think, but not so much that deep strategy is even remotely near nonexistent. Ares is one of few games where you need both skill in strategy and action to win. I suppose the best way to imagine it for most of you would be to play Starcraft, except while doing all the normal Starcraft gameplay, you also control one of the units on the field in a FPS or third-person shooter type of mode, and how you control said person would have an equal impact on how well your battle was going as was your strategy.

At its time, Ares had impressive graphics (for a computer game, consoles were going 3D) at the time and an excellent soundtrack that many fans still enjoy today separately from the game. Though you weren’t getting much during the actual missions, Ares had an excellent storyline to accompany it, with detailed briefings and interludes delivering more back story and updating you on the current situation. Also in addition to the story, the music, and gameplay, Ares offered multiplayer. Initially in the clunky TCP/IP that I never could work, but eventually through Game Ranger, which would be like a sort of battle.net for Mac gamers for many games. And the last update for the game included tools for players to make their own single player and multiplayer maps, breathing new life into an old game and spawning dozens of campaigns and net levels.

Alas, even though it runs in Classic, Ares is virtually unplayable on a modern Mac that still supports Classic environment due to horrific frame rates (I’m told it’s something about changes to the many hardware and software components since OS9). And if you have an Intel Mac or have upgraded to OSX 10.5, then you can’t even open the game because neither of those support classic environment. Fans have long clamored for an Ares 2 or at least an OSX port, but I never heard word of why they weren’t happening. I didn’t become active on the internet in time. All of you out there who can play Ares still, I SERIOUSLY envy you. Unfortunately, not all great things get to be enjoyed by future generations, and it appears Ares will be one of those.

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Looking back on this list, the first thing that comes to mind is “Thats a bunch of text!”  The second is that I need to make this disclaimer. You might not agree entirely with this list and likely think I left off something that deserves to be on. However, I only included games I have PLAYED, minus entries from series already mentioned here (for those I just picked my personal favorite). I’m sure your games would be well-deserving of this list. But if I haven’t played them, I can’t make the judgement call, sadly.

But regardless, this list shows there are games out there just oozing awesomeness that very few people know of. If you have the ability to, give these games a shot. You may have never heard of them, and there might be few or no reviews out there, but you’ll find yourself pleasantly surprised at the quality. Sure, a bunch of these don’t have “teh uber grafixz!!11!!1!11!!!”, but all of them are visually appealing and the gameplay (and stories where present) will surely more than make up for it. I just wonder how many obscure, awesome games I haven’t ever heard of are out there, begging me to play and enjoy them.