Hell yeah, the Army Men games are so dope. Terribly clunky, combat leaves much to be desired, mediocre map layouts but goddamn do I still find them fun. Specifically Sarge’s Heroes, would love a switch port.

Gallop Racer (psx)

It’s about racing and breeding horses.

“Newer” titles of the series (ps2) also had the element of raising/training the horses.

The collab with G1 Jockey on the PS3 also had those obstacle course racing included.

My dad loved betting on horses (he got it from his father), and loved the game.

It was simple game of racing horses with some fine details mixed in (when to gallop, correct positioning and timing, and etc.)

The best thing about the series is that the list of horses are already laid out, so you know which ones are the strong ones in a particular course except for the secret horses that you only get through winning particular races in a particular order throughout the horse’s career.

The endgame though is through breeding the horses, which is another element of euphoria when winning the genetic lottery.

Sometimes when I miss it, I just play it on my phone (through an emulator) and it’s always been a fun experience.

i feel like there are two ways to interpret this question. some games are unpopular because they’re widely known, but considered to be not good, but others are merely niche games that never got widespread recognition.

for the former, Mad Max (2015) got mixed reviews and seems to have been generally regarded as MEDIOCRE, but i still keep coming back to it every so often. for the latter, I wanna plug an old PS2 game called Steambot Chronicles, that has never gotten the recognition it deserves. Its a steampunk mech sandbox rpg, and is legit fantastic, but my partner is the only other person i’ve met that has even heard of it.

Not a series but the Saboteur is an awesome AC/GTA clone set during WW2 that I never see anyone talk about

Edit: special mention for Klonoa 2. My dad picked it up for me when I was a kid and I recently replayed it. It’s a pretty challenging 3D platformer with a story that will draw tears

Shadow Man. It was definitely shit, but I played it for so many hours. The mood and the scale of it was incredible, but the controls and gameplay were sorely lacking. Even so, I found it incredibly immersive.

Maybe not an unpopular game, but my unpopular game opinion is that I prefer Fallout 3 to Fallout New Vegas. Both are fantastic games, but I prefer the more bleak and desolate Capital Wasteland to the more lived in Mojave Wasteland. Plus I kinda liked the karma system of fo3.

The most unpopular/niche game series I’ve really liked is the Princess Maker series. Japanese games which only received official English translations recently, niche genre (life raising sim), some silly fanservicey elements… but it reminded me of playing with dolls when I was younger, and in some ways the Sims series also.

Another series I liked which is much more well known but still has a small presence in the gaming consciousness is Star Fox. Character cameos in the Super Smash Bros series don’t count.

Creeper World. It’s like an RTS/TD type game that uses fluid dynamics that is always fun to go back to. The campaign writing and UI are just terrible but the gameplay is great and there are plenty of good community made maps to try.

Shepherd’s Crossing 2, for the DS. I’ve put a truly ridiculous number of hours into it over the years, and keep coming back.

It’s not popular in the farm sims because a key part is butchering your meat animals so you can feed your dogs.

Russian Fishing 4. I’m not an IRL angler whatsoever but I love games that lean hard into real gear and simulation (as much as possible in a video game).

Rf4 just has a good chunk of content and feels good. The other fishing games out there are a joke in comparison IMO.

It’s unpopular because of grinds and the fish spawning, but I chalk it up to real life …sometimes, the day isn’t yours right?

Eternal Card Game - basically an online MTG clone. It’s always been small, and the userbase has been gradually shrinking since it started. I still think it’s a great game though.

Azure Dreams. A PS1 Konami game that mixes elements of RPGs, roguelikes, dating sims, and creature collectors.

I’ve never known anyone else IRL who’s heard of it, but it’s always been at the top of my favorite games list.

Not unpopular back in the day but it sure is now – Battlefield 1943. I play on xbox all the time, the servers are still online and you can still find full lobbies. I’ve been playing it on and off for a decade. Its just chaotic low-stress fun.

I used to log in to armorgames.com to play shitty browser flash games occasionally. There was one “mmo” game called Rise of Mythos. It was a deck building collectible card game. I would play it for a few days then forget about it for 6 months. Over time I had a cool deck from years of occasionally logging in, never spent money on it though. Then one day I logged in and it was gone. I would have paid some money to keep it around.

Dragon Age 2. Lot’s of people think it’s the weakest game in the Dragon Age series and there is a lot to not like: dungeons and outdoor areas are largely the same recycled maps with different layouts, story was a bit lackluster compared to the previous title, party controls were a step down from Dragon Age Origins. I still enjoy it for the party dynamics and the main character dialogue wheel had more varied option that didn’t along with previous Bioware titles that had the good, neutral, and evil/jerk responses.