15 Most Criminally Underrated Video Game Franchises Of All Time

By Scott Tailford /

12. Startropics

Nintendo

Where to start? Startropics

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Coming four years after the original Zelda, Nintendo attempted to make lightning strike twice, innovating on the original's top-down aesthetic with the mighty Startropics; a completely forgotten RPG that's held up pretty damn well.

Nintendo actually included it on their NES Classic Mini, presumably as a way to get more eyeballs on the thing, but as they handled that system's release about as well as can be expected, let's just say it was a bit of a failure.

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Still, thanks to its basic plot premise, inviting art style, simple controls and focus on exploration, there's a real sense of charm that - had Startropics dropped a few years earlier - would see it immortalised alongside Link and co.