a cult classic to me is a piece of media that isnt well received at first but then people pick it up later. if something is super popular when it comes out it has given up its right to ever be a cult classic
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huh? mechwarrior 2 was extremely popular
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Little Big Adventure and Little Big Adventure 2
i was surprised when the first one got a remake (and the second is still getting one, i think). still gotta play that. LBA2 is one of my games of all time
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yeah, that’s the basic definition I’d agree with. when people hail a movie in a pre-release review as an “instant cult classic!” that’s basically an oxymoron.
like, “niche popularity” and “cult classic” aren’t actually synonymous.
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There’s got to be an initial hardcore to form the cult and spread the gospel.
Like with galleon.
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i think something critically well received can be develop into cult classic too though, as long as it kinda slipped under the radar in another way for one reason or another. several of the games people posted here above did pretty well critically in their time.
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youre right i should have said popular
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Take the A-Train III
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Dark sun: shattered lands
Clive Barker’s Undying
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One time, when I was of highschooling age, my brother found a loose disc copy of Sanitarium abandoned in our family home’s front yard.
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probably one of the more appropriately spooky games you could find in your front yard
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nevermind I did say popular
I usually think “influential but not popular”
super meat boy is a direct descendent of jumper and jumper 2 down to the red square protagonist (honestly I think it’s worse in every way) but very few people have ever heard of jumper
and Celeste is a much more direct descendant since the same person was involved and that’s massively successful, but it hasn’t really raised the awareness of its antecedent.
also the people who did play jumper 2 back in the day were super obsessed, that adds to it to me
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See this is the core of it for me
Cult classics are obscured works that inspire a lot of passion in those who played them
Arcanum is undoubtedly the most mainstream game on my list but it remains both unpopular and a game with a very vocal community of enthusiasts who will take almost any excuse to talk it up
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DID SOMEBODY SAY ARCANUM? IS SOMEONE TALKING ABOUT ONE OF THE GREATEST CRPGS OF ALL TIME IN HERE
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By that definition, Wonder Boy in Monster Land for Sega Master System is a cult classic with a cult of exactly me. Why does everyone else claim the sequels are better??
It has a series of secret doors with secret bosses that each let you trade one item for another until the last one gives you the item that lets you turn off the final boss’s impenetrable shield (if you make it to him without it, he simply slaughters you and you start over from the beginning, there’s no “normal ending”). It’s largely linear except there are some surprising alternate paths – sometimes falling in water will reveal an underwater level instead of killing you (and of course one of the secret doors is underwater). Your health refills between levels, but only by a small amount, so if you’ve played poorly last level, you will have to make up for that by playing perfectly the next level. It plays a bit like a proto spelunky except instead of mastering every possibility of procedural generation, you memorize every inch of every level.
Also there is a mysterious sphinx in a mysterious pyramid who asks you like “What is my favorite hobby?”
I looked around for modern appraisals but it’s mostly shit like this:
Skill issue. Swipe more random spots in the air while jumping off high platforms to find more secret coins. You don’t have time for that because of the level timer you say? Well memorize all the previous empty tiles you tried to swipe with no result, and swipe different empty space next run! Until you’ve swiped literally every empty space, then you will have just barely enough money to buy the Leather Boots and Light Shield.
When you do find a coin, don’t forget to immediately climb back up on the same platform, jump off and swipe the same empty space again to check if that spot has more than one secret coin!
This reviewer’s Zelda II comparison is on point though. I think the consensus has come to agree with me that Zelda II is extremely good, but the same movement hasn’t come to Wonder Boy. Probably because the series is more obscure so most people don’t try to play all of them.
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I thought we were just doing PC cult classics?
Booji, I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me for my sin. I thought again about wonderboy and my heart was filled with the rash urge to post
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