15. Brütal Legend
Not necessarily a hidden gem, but possibly due to its heavy metal stylings, it wasnt as widely successful as esoteric Double Fine-genius Tim Schafer imagined it would be. However precisely because of this, is why Brutal Legend deserves your attention. Although the pre-release trailers and cutscenes belied the true real-time strategy nature of the game, instead showing off what looked to be another third-person Devil May Cry-style adventure set in a world of heavy metal artwork, the suitable fervour surrounding the game was dissipated when we realised there was a heft of Command and Conquer-esque resource-management to be done. Although the game failed to deliver a fun strategic element alongside what hack n slashery there was, as far as the art direction, characters, soundtrack and overall polish the game had on show, it delivered in spades with a righteous aplomb. Jack Black voicing a man who fells multiple waves of possessed headbangers with the sheer power of sweet guitar riffs, as a chugging soundtrack blares away behind him? Absolute bliss.