It isn't. I mean, not really. Compare it to Brood War, also note that the competitive scene of SC2 (which I was a small part of, having played for a semi-pro team and having made a small amount of money) has been hemorrhaging players for years. Brood War was great because it was technical, exciting, and yet difficult. SC2 is also tough, or was, but with each passing patch, with their inability to balance the game properly alongside Blizzard's lack of good support for the competitive scene for too long led it to not being the Korean or world-wide phenomenon it was supposed to be.

The thread is - games you wish had been more successful. I wish SC2 had been more successful.

 

Everything Platinum/Clover has ever made.

 

the monster hunter series

 

Baten Kaitos. Beautiful game. Battle system could have been so more refined.

 

This. Badly. The cinematics were awesome (which they should of been considering most of them were ex-blizzard employees) and the game was definitely hyped up, I had to go away working for a while after release and when I came back it was already closing down. >.<

I think some asian company bought the rights and there are actually free servers now, but I can't be bothered.

And to add my game to list in a similar style to Hellgate: London, I add Diablo 3. Being a massive Diablo 2 fanboy back in the day I was disappointed when they pretty much released a single player game and had the audacity to call it Diablo 3.

 

Fable Series

 

1. Heroes of Might and Magic IV. Its low sales killed 3DO. Funny how it was decried as bad (not by all, but most) because it stepped away from the classic Heroes formula. I wonder how many of those people complained about subsequent CoD clones years later.

I still play it today.

2. Crashday. Because goddammit, that game was awesome. Multiplayer was fucking insane.

 

Mirror's Edge and Republic Commando.

Mirror's Edge tried something new and interesting with a FPS that wasn't built around crouching behind cover and mowing down endless waves of russians and arabs, and instead focused on awesome platforming. Love that feeling when you're on a kickass streak and just run through everything without stopping. Good on Dice for standing their ground and forcing a new game, because I can guarantee EA wasn't thrilled about pumping money into a "failed" IP.

Republic Commando brought some much needed Grit™ to the Star Wars gaming world, and less lightsabers, judging by the movies/games/comics you'd think jedi grew on fucking trees what with how often they pop up. 1313 looked to be headed the same way but got murdered by the Disney buy-up, fuck that. Doubtful it'll get recycled when the new trilogy hits because all the games are gonna be about whatever they cook up for that, but one can always hope..

 

Shattered Galaxy was a good game. I wonder what the player population is on it these days.

Dungeon Siege 3. This game turned out to be such a huge let-down. It played shitty compared to the first 2 in the series.

Dungeon Keeper. First one was awesome. Did not like #2 very much. I wish a good company made new ones.

 

Alpha Protocol. Most reactive story I've ever seen in a game.

 

Alpha Protocol, Mount & Blade, Alpha Centauri, and the Uncharted Waters series in the US.

 

Are you saying HOMM IV is the best game in the series? Because if you are, you are my new best friend. I love that game, the playable heroes, the 3D-rendered sprites, the music, the campaigns, every single bit of it. I bought it as soon as it came out, and I bought it again as soon as it was published on GOG to get the expansions and soundtrack.

I third Valkyria Chronicles. My only complaint is that speed counted for everything, which made snipers almost useless. I don't know if they fixed that for later games in the series, but that would be great. If a sequel came out for PS4 or XBOne, that would probably be enough to make me buy one.

Also, Jade Empire.

 

B-but Marina?
Even so, I admit that Awaken (+ Anti Armor if applicable) on Alicia, especially after she got her Valkyria potential, did result in several 1-turn mission completions just using her alone.
Interception fire? Meh. Extra boost to stats? Why not. Full heal on kill? I suppose so.

That being said, while some characters were better than others, such as Aika, Vyse, Lynn, Audrey(that Mooch!)... the game was still glorious. Thinking on it now, though, I think I still left the final encounter with Jaeger at B Rank, as the only mission I didn't complete with an A rank after several tries. Almost got back to it on my new game plus, but the PS3 crapped out, and they reformatted it when we sent it in for repairs. At least I got my one Platinum trophy, for CrossEdge, before it died. For what little that's worth(nothing).

 

I actually liked dungeon siege 3. To an extent. The camera was one of the worst I've seen in recent years, but for the most part, the gameplay was okay (if a bit generic). What I really liked the most was the fact that it is splitscreen coop, so you can actually play it with a friend on 1 TV, which is quite rare in this day and age. Of course, Diablo 3 then came out which blows this game away so hard since it is also splitscreen coop.

 

STAHP! YOU'LL MAKE ME CRY!

Btw, Sega teased a PC release soon. Fucking buy it to ram into their skulls that sequels are necessary. Proper sequels.

 

2 was... not good, exactly, but playable, and had some interesting systems. I've heard pretty good things about 3, actually, but I never played it.

 

VC2? They turned it into a forgettable highschool anime, but it was still fun. I don't think 3 was localised, I've not played it either.

 

F-Zero GX; not even the Captain Falcon memes will ever let us get a new F-Zero after such a fantastic game sold so poorly. Escpecially not with Mario Kart taking it's anti-grav shtick.

Fuck man, IV was my favourite of the lot, especially that map editor.

 

Rise of Legends
The setting was amazing and multiplayer game play great fun, but it really needed another layer of polish to really shine: the campaign was very boring and repetitive, and the voice acting terrible, and balance wasn't the best at first. Releasing during an E3 wasn't a good move either.
Some screenshots: 1 - 2 - 3

 

Rise of Nations did a lot better than Legends. I played Legends for a bit, but it was boring compared to Nations. I had a lot of fun playing Nations.