Games you DIDN'T expect to like

[Jehm Faulking]

Katamari Damacy. Thought it looked pretty meh at first, but soon found out that it's the best game ever.

[Dhsu]

Popping in again to mention Frog Fractions, which I just played on suggestion from a Penny Arcade Report article. Less than an hour of playtime, free flash game. The first 10 minutes were confusing and sort of tedious, though with some admittedly hilarious humor in the upgrades you can purchase. Then I dove underwater after I bought the dragon. Then I LOST MY MIND.

Oh God THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^

[entropicdecay]

Zoo Tycoon. Yes.

There is something certainly addictive about building Zoos, Theme Parks, etc. It's a job I would not want in real life but I happily spend endless hours figuring out where the flamingo pens and drink stands go.

I feel like Earthbound passed so many of us by when it came out. I know all I cared about in 199X was Mario, Mario, Mario. Not to mention marketing of the game was absolutely abysmal in the US. Many people I know were first exposed to Earthbound via Smash Bros. Even in 2003 I was pretty ignorant of the ridiculous cult following it had.

[Devyn]

This one is like really old news, but the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. I've been a guitarist for a long time, so when somebody asked me to try this guitar-toy game on PS2, I was like "Really man? I have real guitars." I took my head out of my ass, gave it a try and the rest is history. After Rock Band came out, we started having parties and trading out instruments. It was a blast.

I also like Assassin's Creed. Considering that I'm usually not into stealth games I really enjoy the rush you can get from just being a thieving, murderous jerk and trying to get away with it. I can't say the same for Earthbound like some of you have. I had the scented Nintendo Power and already expected it to be awesome, and it was of course.

[Red Shadow]

heh, smash bros is the reason i played earthbound for the first time too

i was aware of its existence through a friend who had an snes and a copy, but never saw much beyond the intro scene

forgot about it, then unlocked ness in ssb and i was the only one of my friends who wasnt completely in the dark about who the character was

went and downloaded the game on a whim and changed my life FO'EVA

[Zerothemaster]

There is something certainly addictive about building Zoos, Theme Parks, etc. It's a job I would not want in real life but I happily spend endless hours figuring out where the flamingo pens and drink stands go.

I prefer to breed as many damn animals as I can.

WARTHOGS. THEY'RE WORSE THAN RABBITS.

I think I had some 50+ at one point in a tiny little cage.

[psychowolf]

UEFA Euro 2000 for the ps1.

Now i hate football/soccer with a passion and being in a football obsessed family i had to put up with alot of it.

Uefa euro 2000 was the last football game my older brother had before he moved out into his own place.

And regardless of my hatred of the sport i'd play it with him and found myself enjoying it just for doing stupid stuff like customizing each player in your team, scoring with the goalie and other nonsense.

oh and misquoting the commentators.

"OH FINGER TIP WAVE, great save by the keeper."

[Disambiguity]

Popping in again to mention Frog Fractions, which I just played on suggestion from a Penny Arcade Report article. Less than an hour of playtime, free flash game. The first 10 minutes were confusing and sort of tedious, though with some admittedly hilarious humor in the upgrades you can purchase. Then I dove underwater after I bought the dragon. Then I LOST MY MIND.

At first I thought this game was really dumb. Then I started purchasing upgrades. Then I realized this game is amazing. The humor style reminds me of problem sleuth.

Which reminds me, I really need to catch up on homestuck.

[Annie Felis]

Popping in again to mention Frog Fractions, which I just played on suggestion from a Penny Arcade Report article. Less than an hour of playtime, free flash game. The first 10 minutes were confusing and sort of tedious, though with some admittedly hilarious humor in the upgrades you can purchase. Then I dove underwater after I bought the dragon. Then I LOST MY MIND.

Oh man, this. It took me a while of switching the auto-target on and off to figure what the hell I was doing, but once I was able to dive with that dragon everything got amazing. I really expected that game to have some dumb scare/shock gag, where you did something and suddenly it would flash some disgusting picture at you with a loud sound effect. I was pleasantly surprised.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Mass Effect 2.

When I first played the original Mass Effect, I couldn't get into it at all. Everything about it was clunky and awkward. The voice acting, the equipment menus, the controls, everything.

When I picked up Mass Effect 2, I found that literally ALL of these issues had been fixed. The engine, the menus, the voice acting, the body language of the characters, EVERYTHING was so much tighter and more fluid and more natural, and so I could really get into the game. I loved it so much that I went back and gave ME1 another try, and finally finished it, and even though I still don't actually like ME1, I'm glad that ME2 convinced me to give it another go and see it all the way through, if only so I could have Wrex alive in ME2 and ME3.

Also, I fucking loved ME3. Fuck the haters; a half hour of mediocre writing at the end does not in any way devalue the 20 hours of fantastic writing and gameplay that precedes it.

[Argle]

Hmm, difficult to say cuz I usually don't buy games I expect to dislike. The one I can think of is The Witcher, prior to playing the demo I had only seen a pretty dismissive review by Yahtzee so I wasn't sure what I was gonna get, turned out to be one of my favorite RPGs ever.

[Esperado]

Hmm, difficult to say cuz I usually don't buy games I expect to dislike. The one I can think of is The Witcher, prior to playing the demo I had only seen a pretty dismissive review by Yahtzee so I wasn't sure what I was gonna get, turned out to be one of my favorite RPGs ever.

my brother raved about that game ALL the time, so i finally decided to try it and i kindof like it. its a bit too complex sometimes for me though

and i just tried that frog fractions game. i can see what you all mean! this game is so strange! the underwater part reminds me of aquaria

[sphexic]

Hoorah to all the Earthbound love here!

I thought I had nothing to contribute to this thread, but then I remembered. POKEMON. I was about 6 years old, and when I saw it advertised in Nintendo Power magazine, I thought it looked dumb. I actually drew mustaches on all the characters and thought Gary was the only one who looked cool...

Then I actually played the game, realized how amazing it was, and sheepishly realized Gary was an ignoramus when I saw the cartoon show. 16 years later, my little brother's a big fan and we've got something to bond over.

[Argle]

Hoorah to all the Earthbound love here!

I thought I had nothing to contribute to this thread, but then I remembered. POKEMON. I was about 6 years old, and when I saw it advertised in Nintendo Power magazine, I thought it looked dumb. I actually drew mustaches on all the characters and thought Gary was the only one who looked cool...

Then I actually played the game, realized how amazing it was, and sheepishly realized Gary was an ignoramus when I saw the cartoon show. 16 years later, my little brother's a big fan and we've got something to bond over.

I totally agree. Played it when I was like 15, assumed it was a total kiddie game, but god damn was it addictive.

[Magnetic Ether]

Mass Effect 2.

When I first played the original Mass Effect, I couldn't get into it at all. Everything about it was clunky and awkward. The voice acting, the equipment menus, the controls, everything.

When I picked up Mass Effect 2, I found that literally ALL of these issues had been fixed. The engine, the menus, the voice acting, the body language of the characters, EVERYTHING was so much tighter and more fluid and more natural, and so I could really get into the game. I loved it so much that I went back and gave ME1 another try, and finally finished it, and even though I still don't actually like ME1, I'm glad that ME2 convinced me to give it another go and see it all the way through, if only so I could have Wrex alive in ME2 and ME3.

Also, I fucking loved ME3. Fuck the haters; a half hour of mediocre writing at the end does not in any way devalue the 20 hours of fantastic writing and gameplay that precedes it.

This makes me think of Kingdom Hearts. I didn't like the original much at all (clunky and annoying) but I liked KHII a lot more. Story and gameplay were integrated much better, the action menu didn't suck and lots of little changes made it so much more enjoyable.

[k-wix]

Civilization V.

I'm not a huge strategy game guy, and I generally prefer my enjoyment in the 'here and now' rather than the 'after you've played for a few dozen hours' ... but man, after sitting down with the game, It was surprisingly easy to learn, difficult to master, and an absolute blast to play.

For the longest time, I never really understood why people liked these games so much. Now I know.

[suzumebachi]

There's been a few games I didn't expect to like that I eventually came to love, over the years.

World of Warcraft.

As crazy and counter-productive as it sounds.

When World of Warcraft launched, a few of my IRL friends played it and told me about it. From the way they explained it to me, it did NOT sound appealing. Not in the least. The whole idea of an MMO was a massive turnoff.

Then I got into Guild Wars when it first came out. It's kind of like an MMO gateway drug. I enjoyed the hell out of it while I quickly massacred my way to level 20 on a couple of characters over the course of a month or so. But once I had done that I started to get bored, and then started thinking about World of Warcraft.

A few OCR people had started playing WoW, so I picked it up and fell in love with it almost immediately. Three realms and four mains later... I've been playing for almost 8 years now. D:

Also,

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

I did not really care for Phantom Hourglass. Or any of the handheld Zelda games since Zelda 4, really. I wasn't expecting much from Spirit Tracks when I first played it. But I fell in love with the whole trains gimmick. Yes, it is a gimmick. But gimmicks aren't necessarily bad. It's not without its issues (there's a huge inconsistency in difficulty levels, especially later on in the game) but it's one of my favorite Zelda games now.

For that matter,

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

I absolutely loved Ocarina of Time. Loved it. But for some reason, Majora's Mask... I despised its very existence. Everything about it rubbed me the wrong way. A direct sequel? Unheard of! It felt like Nintendo was just cashing in on the success of Nintendo 64. It felt forced. Even the commercials were trying too hard. I refused to play it for the longest time. Some years later, I bought a GameCube that came with the Zelda Collector's Edition disc, and after playing through Ocarina of Time yet again, decided to finally give it a try.

It didn't suck.

Last but not least,

Terranigma.

Looked like a super boring generic jRPG. Totally isn't.

Oh, and yes, as mentioned before in this thread, Frog Fractions. Brilliant.

[Thalzon]

God of War. Went it was released, I wasn't big into the hyper-violence. But playing it was a real treat thanks to Kratos's character development and the environment puzzles.

[Annie Felis]

World of Warcraft.

Oh hell yes, this one too. It was a game I promised myself I'd never play after watching my roommates play, but after trying it I loved it. I found to not judge the silly floppy ears on the night elves, because druids in WoW are hella cool.

Here's one I expected to dislike and found it to be really cool: Kirby's Epic Yarn. I took a look at it and said "that's not a Kirby game", but after playing the first level fell in love with it.

[theshaggyfreak]

Tak: The Great Juju Challenge

My mother-in-law is the queen of garage sales and she'll often pick me up a couple of games while she's out shopping. This game was one of her purchases and figured it'd be a complete bomb. I wasn't aware of the cartoon series at all and it looked pretty terrible from the box art. I tossed in in my Gamecube to give it a try and I ended up playing the whole thing over the next week or so. It was funny, entertaining and the puzzles were actually a decent challenge.

[PROTO·DOME]

Rock of Ages.

Best multiplayer fun I've had in a long time.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Ditto on World of Warcraft.

[Drachefly]

Kingdom of Loathing. A girl I knew from college recommended it to me twice before I gave it a shot. Soon I've got 45 permed skills and a complete set of brimstone gear and Hodgman's imaginary hamster, etc.

Aside from that, I generally give things - games included - a chance first. No hipster I.

[RoeTaKa]

[Chernabogue]

Rock of Ages.

Best multiplayer fun I've had in a long time.

Oh yeah, this game is a bomb.