Who do you think were the most underrated game developers?

[Ben]

I was just thinking about this, and why Sunsoft don't get more love, specifically their fighting games.  Waku Waku 7, Galaxy Fight and in particular Astra Super Stars (probably my all time favorite fighter, either it or KoF 97').  Team SANTACLAUS especially were underrated, and I don't see them mentioned much anymore (granted, not making games will cause that).  Hardcore Gaming has a great retrospective on these:  http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/sunsoftfighters/sunsoftfighters.htm   I'd also throw out Journey to Silius and Gimmick as very underrated Sunsoft games on the NES, especially for their soundtracks.

So with that in mind, who are some of the defunct, or just downtrodden developers/studios that you feel are worth remembering?

*Honorable mention for Atlus here, the only reason I didn't pick them is that they seem to be on the radar recently.

[SnakeEyes]

Sunsoft have done some great games in the past. Especially on NES.


For me its Data East. Love some of the stuff they did. I also like quite a few games from the likes of Technos and Jaleco.

[TL]

Hmmm, there are actually loads that I can think of but one I really want to mention to start with is Hand Made software. They were actually a new company started by all the people from Red Rat Software after they went bust, a highly regarded Atari 8-bit software house who also did stuff for the Commodore 64 and Atari ST.

They mainly made games for the Lynx, although did later dable with the Jaguar too, but it's their Lynx games that I best remember them for as every single one of them was stunning. The sports games they did in particular were amazing but they also did some other stuff like Dracula: The Undead, which was equally impressive. Their games always seemed to have so much polish and the graphics and sound were always top notch. Anyway take a look at some of the games they did:

[align=center:1u25d4nc]AWESOME GOLF - Atari Lynx Game Review

DRACULA ATARI LYNX [url=http://WWW.FANLYNX.COM.avi]http://WWW.FANLYNX.COM.avi[/url]

Jimmy Connors' Tennis USA, Europe - Atari Lynx

BATTLEZONE - Atari Lynx (1993)

Malibu Bikini Volleyball (Intro) - Atari Lynx[/align:1u25d4nc]

[TrekMD]

Agree with Laird on Hand Made Software.  Their Lynx games are excellent!

[Bobinator]

For me? Natsume. While their games weren't always very original, a lot of their games, like S.C.A.T, (Or Action in New York, if you happen to be European) Pocky & Rocky,  and Wild Guns tended to be really gablet listed stuff. They also made a couple of Power Rangers games, and I'd go as far as to say the fighting game of that license is the best non–port fighting game you'll find on the SNES.

And then they made Harvest Moon. And they went on to keep making sequel after sequel to Harvest Moon until it felt like that's all they ever made since then. True, they did other stuff more in line with their golden years, like Omega Five on the XBOX 360, but for the most part...

I fecking HATE Harvest Moon.

[TL]

Another company you barely hear get mentioned are Absolute Entertainment. They were formed in 1986 after Garry Kitchen left his his position as a video game developer and designer at Activision and joined his brother Dan Kitchen along with David "Pitfall!" Crane, Alex Demeo and John Van Ryzin at the new company. Part of the reason for the name was that it came before Activision alphabetically, which was chosen because it came before Atari alphabetically!

They produced a huge amount of great games that many people will remember fondly. You can check out their history HERE and a list of their games HERE, but here are some of my personal favourites by them:

[align=center:och3cker]My Golf for the Atari 2600

Atari 7800 - Super Skateboardin'

RC Grand Prix - Sega Master System

Title Match Pro Wrestling for the Atari 2600

Kung Fu Master - Atari 7800[/align:och3cker]