I always appreciate when something comes out of nowhere and defies normal understanding of what gets popular. It's good proof that a game being too "niche" to get big is stupid.
I think I'll start with the obvious one. What happened in 2004 that Katamari Damacy actually became a thing? To this day, I have NO idea how that even happened.
Not all surprisingly popular games are good, just look at Minecraft, and the odd sprout of fans that was able to gather.
But I do miss Katamari, would love to play a new one today.
For you, the day LordJumpMad graced your threads, was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday. [url=http://www.backloggery.com/jumpmad]Unive...
still can't believe no one said Flappy Bird or whatever crappy mobile game is trendy right now I'm definitely not saying this just because I'm horrible at that game
goodbyes are a sad part of life but for every end there's a new beggining so one must never stop looking forward to the next dawn
now working at IBM as helpdesk analyst my Backloggery
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still can't believe no one said Flappy Bird or whatever crappy mobile game is trendy right now I'm definitely not saying this just because I'm horrible at that game
I don't think Namco, Capcom and Atlus ever dreamed that Katamari, Ace Attorney and Persona, respectively, would become anywhere near as popular (relatively speaking) outside of Japan as they've been.
Katamari Damacy's random success, in particular, is still one of my favorite gaming success stories ever. That game out of nowhere - though I suppose it didn't hurt that it was genuinely good game that retailed at a budget price.
always thought I'd change to Gyarados after I turned 20 but hey, this is more fitting I guess. (also somebody registered under the original Magikarp name and I can't get back to it anymore orz)
I originally thought a courtroom game was the most idiotic idea for a game when it first came out, so I agree with that. And Bravely Default I'm not sure if that is surprising or not. On one hand, having high sales expectations for new IPs on Nintendo isn't wise. On the other hand, this seems like the logical thing to happen with consistently "surprisingly successful" JRPGs coming out in the past 2 years.
Persona I find more surprising just because they were late PS2 titles more than anything. I would've thought Nocturne would've been the big SMT game over here tbh.
Catherine is another game that I have no idea how it became as popular as it did. I mean it wasn't a huge hit but by Atlus standards it's really big.
Harvest Moon takes the cake in my opinion.
There have been at least 20 versions of the game, and there is still a genuine fanbase for this game, still selling at least 600K with it's last game for 3DS.
Speaking of which, should I get that game?
Not sure if this one surprised me. They took a small, though acclaimed, series and made it more accessible to mainstream audiences. I would have been more surprised if it somehow managed to sell fewer units than its predecessors.
So Anakin kneels before Monster Mash and pledges his loyalty to the graveyard smash.
Not sure if this one surprised me. They took a small, though acclaimed, series and made it more accessible to mainstream audiences. I would have been more surprised if it somehow managed to sell fewer units than its predecessors.
They were about to cancel the franchise and FE games had never sold well until Awakening. If what you say is so easy then we'd see a lot more niche titles emerging and that's certainly not the case.
Four more months until Bayonetta 2.
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Not sure if this one surprised me. They took a small, though acclaimed, series and made it more accessible to mainstream audiences. I would have been more surprised if it somehow managed to sell fewer units than its predecessors.
They were about to cancel the franchise and FE games had never sold well until Awakening. If what you say is so easy then we'd see a lot more niche titles emerging and that's certainly not the case.
Niche games is frequently an excuse people make to release a game without telling anyone, which is understandable sometimes but frequently becomes a lazy excuse to put a game out to just die at retail. Which is why I'm really glad Nintendo has gone against that idea lately (their idiotic treatment of Wonderful 101 aside). That's just a theory though, but it's probably true.
the original Fire Emblem NA release I thought did pretty well before it immediately became niche. Which isn't surprising since I was paying close attention and even I barely knew Sacred Stones existed and then they decided to put the games on consoles as if that was the audience for it. So even ignoring the more casual modes added and the crazy idea to actually advertise a game (before and during its release, since Awakening before release was the first time I had even heard Nintendo say much about Fire Emblem in forever), they actually put out a Fire Emblem game people cared about for once.
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