Have you ever loved something, only to realize it’s a commercial flop or just obscure? What’s something that deserves more light than it got?
Galavant. Two seasons on ABC in the mid 2010s.
A bawdy, over the top musical medieval themed fantasy series about a knight trying to get his wife back after she’s kidnaped and forced to marry an evil king.
Fantastic main cast and Weird Al in a recurring role as as the abott of an order of singing monks.
I don’t generally like musicals, but it’s so damned catchy and fun.
Metalocalypse. If you like metal music, animated shows and a bit of dark humor then this is the show for you.
Runner up: Aqua Team Hunger Force - if you like short stupid storylines and crude jokes.
And bonus: Squidbillies - if you like Aqua Teen Hunger Force but you want things the get even stupider.
Man…tons but I’ll just pick a few. (OK a few turned into a lot anyways)
Music:
Driveways (lots of heavy Blink 182 influence)
Shiny Toy Guns (Especially the first album)
Lauren Babic (Started with YouTube but my favorite female vocalist)
Dream State (Before CJ Gilpin left, new singer is men for me)
Tash Sultana (Flow state was fantastic)
Like roses (Splenetic is my favorite song feel like they just need a big break to get big)
Savlonic (Started as a joke band, became really solid)
Movie/Show:
Blood Machines (Music by Carpenter Brut, whole short film is in the same style as his music videos)
Tomo-Chan is a Girl! (Cute anime romance about a tomboy girl wanting to be recognized by her boy bff)
Mushi-Shi (Very chill and intriguing stories about mysterious Mushi creatures)
The Air I Breathe (Left a lasting impression on me, has Brendan Fraser pre-hiatus and Sarah Michelle Gellar among other great cast)
H (South Korean Thriller about a psychopath and a detective, really excellent. Was hard to find a copy in the us)
Taking Chance (Excellent Kevin Bacon movie, should really hit hard on any military family)
Role Models (Not sure if it’s underated but never see anyone mention it. Hilarious movie with Paul Rudd and probably Seann William Scott’s best comedy work imo)
Better Off Dead (John Cusack comedy about a teen break up and eventually recovery. May have been better known at the time but hilarious movie)
Game:
Xenogears (Seems more well know now, but absolutely was a pivotal game on my youth and no one knew of it for years)
Katana Zero, Mirror’s Edge, Ghostrunner, System Shock Remake, Prey, Stalker(I know I know but it always needs more fans imo lol)- (All games with mixed audience levels but still ones I feel don’t have enough recognition.)
Hidden Cats, 100 Cats, X full of Cats, and Find All - (Really cute and cozy hidden object games. Most are either very cheap or free and I think more people should grab them and enjoy them.)
Books:
William Arand/Randi Darren books. There is a whole huge universe involved. They look like just harem smut on the surface, and his Randi Darren books do have a lot of smut to them, but there is an overall linking story through all of the books that is very enjoyable and intriguing. One of those “plot” books that has an even better actual plot imo. (First few books are rough on the edges but still good.)
Legends & Lattes (I’m sure it’s well regarded in the “Cozy Adventure” groups, but it needs more recognition outside of that.)
The 10th Kingdom (2000). Great miniseries that mashes up fairy tales some modern twists. I really enjoyed all the characters, and the kind-of multiverse was cool.
Tremulous (2006). A first person shooter with first person builder elements. The human team depends on electricity for their various guns and turrets, the alien team can build anywhere and walk on the walls and ceilings, but are more limited to their claw’s melee range. There was no matchmaking so you just went to the same server all the time and made friends with the people there. It was cool.
Cable Guy . Jim Carey is very scary and the end monologué about thé internet future was spot on.
I am the KWING of this genre. There was a phenomenal show on PAX yes the Canadian local station called “Young Blades”. It was SO good. About the three musketeers then a girl disguises herself as a boy to join them. I wish I could find it on the internet somewhere.
A tale in the desert was kind of Minecraft before Minecraft. Such a great game.
Nexus Tk kingdom of the winds was also great until they changed the system for leveling.
Tons of books or book series like Darren Shan saga and tales of ambrose. This great series by Christopher pike about vampires
My entire life has been spent in this genre 😆
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, it was made by alumni of Interplay. The developers also made Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, which probably is why it gets overshadowed.
Anyways gameplay is effected by build, equipment, and even race because of course it is this is a game made by Fallout 2 devs. If that sounds interesting but not convincing go watch Mandaloregaming, Warlockracy, or Ssethtzeentach for better reasons, though if you aren’t familiar with any or all of the YouTubers I mentioned I ordered it by least to most batshit.
Also if any Eastern Europeans try to say “Oh this was a big game when I was in school” yes I’m aware I know about how your bootleggers charged by the disk resulting in everyone having Fallout 1, 2, and Arcanum. Sadly the game didnt do nearly as well here in the US in my experience.
Chinese Lore Podcast, not a singular piece but worth a mention.
The translations aren’t bad, it’s incredible value for free audiobook/translations.
Goodnight Punpun
It’s a manga so if you are in the west it’s already going to be obscure. It’s also pretty messed up so it might not be for everyone, but if you are able to stomach it and read it, man is it amazing. It has very little anime bs that a lot of anime/manga suffer from; it’s not a shonen, it’s aimed at an older audience. It is very well written. The art is amazing. I could go on, but I think it’s best enjoyed blind.
It’s 13 volumes, but you can binge it in a day (not recommended). It has a lot of dialog so a lot more reading than most manga.
If you are not sure about the manga, read the first chapter. I think it sets the tone well for the rest of the series.
Like a lot of great things, I wish I could read the manga again for the first time.
Freddy Got Fingered.
It’s a practical joke disguised as a movie.
Though it has found a cult following since release, I don’t think it’s appreciated enough for how hilarious it is.
“I don’t want jewels… I just want to suck your cock.”
Daddy would you like some sau-SAGE?
Daddy would you like some sau-sa-GES…
sau-sa-GES
sau-sa-GES
“I say Geneva, you hear Helsinki?!”
What a fun film.
FGF is the quintessential 2000s artistic expression film. It speaks to the unrepresented young middle class male psyche, the underachiever adrift in a sea of mediocrity, the futility and burden of male ego. It tells the viewer their own ordinary story in extraordinary words, speaking truth to those who so often refuse to listen. The point of the film is not to shock, disgust, or entertain, but to inquire of the audience, “I’m here. I exist. Do you?” And it refuses to relent until the answer is unequivocally “Yes!”
In this 73 page essay I will…
Ah jeez, this movie is so artfully dumb, I really love it. Was never even a Tom Green fan either, don’t think I’ve watched really anything else he’s done. I’ve seen this movie an embarrassing number of times lol.
One thing working (strongly) against it, I do think it’s one of those movies that require a few watches to really “get” the humor. I’ve struggled with how to phrase that, because the movies I find that to be true with, don’t stand out for sophistication haha.
But it’s almost like ya gotta force yourself to chew through the surface level dumb, to appreciate the true deep well of dumb that lies just beneath the surface. Gotta let your guard down and let it in.
I also just have a soft spot for (barely) lovable irreparable weirdos as characters. Great movie.
“We can live like kings. WE CAN LIVE LIKE KIIIIINGS”
Some parts of the movie are not for everyone, to be clear 😐 Many parts, for lots of different reasons.
How does it compare to “Windy City Heat”?
I’m just glad I didn’t pay anything to see it. I made it until he started working at the sausage factory, as I recall. Stopped and deleted it. I guess I didn’t get it.
Pretty much everything “Weird Al” Yankovic and his band have ever done.
They’ve gained more recognition in recent years, but most people done realize that his catalogue goes back to the mid-1970s. A lot of people are sleeping on his work, even today, because he’s categorized as a “novelty artist”.
The early stuff is rough, but from the mid-1980s on up is worth a listen even if you’re not a fan.
That Weird Al doc is funny too.
He was huge in 80s. Songs like Eat It and Like A Surgeon charted very well too.
I’ve come to appreciate that guy and how hard all of that actually is and should probably listen to more. He did a “Peter and the Wolf” back in ancient times that was seriously great, peerless listening for a kiddo I’d say.
Did you watch the silly biopic? Daniel Radcliffe? Can’t remember the name. I tried like 3 different times :( it was so over the top Weird Al that I couldn’t fault it for being flat out him AF, but I also just could not finish it lol.
My only other comment in this thread (so far) is singing the virtues of a movie called “Freddy Got Fingered”, so. Maybe it’s me lol.
I unabashedly love his first album. I Love Rocky Road, Another One Rides the Bus, Happy Birthday, Gotta Boogie: classics all!
The Quest For Glory series from Sierra. They ended up making 5 and you could import your character from the previous game with some save disks. You could pick between a fighter, a thief, or a magic user and grow from there. In the later games you could grow and be a paladin, a sorcerer (with a staff), or the lead to a thieves guild depending on your choices. In the last game you got to become a king and pick a love interest that you met from previous games. The 4th game had a hot vampire babe, so normally tried to marry her.
I played the first game a lot when I was younger, the 16 color EGA version with a command line interface. I got pretty good at typing and spelling as a kid because of that game. The version I had was “Hero’s Quest”, it’s the same game, but a board game company sued them over the name, so later releases are called “Quest for Glory”.
Yup! I loved typing in the first 2 games. The 3rd changed it to more point and click. What were those code phrases you could use for the debugging cheats? Eramus rooting tootin root beer and something about suck blue frog toad…idk it was awhile ago. Fun times.
I still remember being nervous about entering the brigands hideout the first time. That minotaur guy killed me a lot and getting through the jester was fun.
AGDI did a remake of Quest for Glory II, which was pretty good when I played it. A pity the entire series wasn’t redone like that.
Hm. There is a pair of Star Trek adventure games, called 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites. They are essentially an extra season of TOS, and are quite good.
Akira Kurosawa’s lesser known works. He’s most famous for films like Seven Samurai or Yojimbo, but his other films like The Bad Sleep Well are super amazing too. It’s a film noir movie with a strong anti-corporation message I bet would resonate with a lot of people here.
The Men Who Tread On The Tiger’s Tail is really good, especially so when you find out they were making it in the final year of WWII and a had a budget of like 50 bucks.
Even the propaganda movies like The Most Beautiful are good. You’re sort of shocked when you realize toward the end how involved you’re getting with their success.
I’ll check those out!
certainly not an obscure videogame, but Prey (2017) is amazing, and for some reason it flopped. Also the DLC might be the best I’ve played, it’s a completely new kind of game
if you check the free epic games sometimes you might have it in your collection
Love Prey. Such a fantastic piece.
Arkane studios make the best fucking games and they keep getting shafted and its not fair. At least they got their time in the sun with Dishonoured.
I came into this thread to mention Arx Fatalis but Prey is an even better game.
Different Arkane teams in different countries made Prey and Dishonored.
Prey was Arkane Austin, which was forced to make Redfall as a Live Service game to pump up the value of the companybefore being sold to Microsoft, leading over 70% of the Prey team to leave during the development.
Redfall flopped because Arkane Austin wasn’t a Live Service developer and they had zero interest in the game, and Microsoft closed the studio.
@Imhotep @Cantaloupe hmm. I have Prey in both Epic and Steam and never felt the urge to install it.
How does it actually play?
Think bioshock but less repetitive combat and more characters to engage with. Also the environment is so dynamic. I recommend turning off most of the UI hints.
It may be genuinely one of my favorite games of all time. Its one you pick up and don’t pit down till it’s done.
If you have played System Shock 2, it is along those lines.
Prey is a fun game, I recommend you give it a go.
