What games do you think are overrated and which do you think are underrated and why?
For me, here are some games I think come in each category:
Underrated Games
New Super Mario Bros 2: It's not fantastic, but it really isn't that terrible either. For all the originality lacking here, it's a good game at its core, the fun Mario gameplay is still there and it should at least get 7/10 for that alone. To say otherwise is to basically prioritise the 'world content' over the actual gameplay.
New Super Mario Bros 1: People are way too harsh on this one. Heck, for all the bashing the 'New' part of the name gets, it was actually pretty new and original for the time and tried to tie the world of the newer games with the classic gameplay of the older ones. It's just that after four games, 'New' isn't really very accurate any more.
All the new Zelda games: The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword... they get way too much bashing from people who seem to have some rose tinted vision of either Ocarina of Time or the NES era games and forget that the Zelda team and Eiji Aonuma can really make great games.
Donkey Kong Country/series: It's not so underrated after Returns came out and wowed everyone, but these franchises get way too much hate for being associated with Rare or what not. That and from people who seem to think of it as their life's goal to get back at games which outdid their favourite Yoshi's Island/Super Metroid and never just consider that the first three games were some of the best platformers of all time.
Donkey Kong 64 too. How did a 6 million + seller go from a classic to a complete joke in such a short period of time?
And definitely spinoffs like Jungle Climber. Many great games, yet less than a million people bought each of them.
Wario Land: What must be one of the most underrated Nintendo series of all time bar F-Zero, the franchise has some great games on the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance (and maybe Wii if you count that). Yet while the reception has some generally great (although I still think reviews are way harsher on them than anything with 'Mario' in the title), the series has never really gained enough of a fandom to stand out. Brawl basically ignored the series apart from stickers, the amount of forums about the series currently stands at exactly zero and we don't get anywhere near enough major articles about the series as we do Yoshi's Island or Donkey Kong Country or Mario or Sonic or Kirby or whoever.
Overrated Games
Super Mario Land. Mario's a great series and the Game Boy is a great handheld, but whatever way you look at it, Super Mario Land is firmly in the 'meh' camp. With just 12 levels, so incredibly poor physics and embarassingly terrible graphics and presentation, this game has been outdone by its sequel and the Wario Land series a million times over.
Mario Kart Arcade GP. I've always hated how people seem to think these games is somehow 'better' than Nintendo's recent Mario Kart games given how boring the tracks are, how bad the item selection is and how... well, not fun much of the gameplay is. It's probably because it's seen as 'forbidden fruit' to be honest...
Yoshi's Island. What? Don't kill me, I'm not saying it's not a great game! It is... it's just not the second coming of Christ that some gaming sites like to think of it as. Seriously, it's not 'true art' in some elitist sense, it's not 'perfection in video game form' and it's not somehow the best game of all time. I also dislike how certain... 'fans' of the game seem to bash the likes of Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedghog or other similar games for being 'mainstream' or 'average at best'. They're all classic games people, no need to bash another series because it was more popular.
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (any such title). No, they don't deserve 90% review scores, they're boring and often poorly done mini game collections with way too much 'waggle' and too many tutorials.
New Super Mario Bros 2: Yes, it's possible for a game to be underrated and overrated at the same time. This game is... decent. Not fantastic, not terrible. Just decent.
Super Mario Galaxy 1: Yes, even my first or second favourite game of all time can be overrated! But yes, it's a brilliant game, has great graphics and music, some brilliant level design, a great general atmosphere... but it's again not perfect. No I don't think it's the best game of all time, I don't think it should have knocked Ocarina of Time of the best reviewed games list on Metacritic/Game Rankings, and it's got some flaws the sequel fixed (like the poorly done Rosalina story, the poorly done Grand Finale Galaxy level and some boring side areas). It's a great game and a classic, but it's not the pinnacle of the medium.
So what games and series do you think are underrated/overrated and why?
