Top 5 Classic Video Games that You’ve Never Played

We asked Chris Unclebach from Insomnia Video Culture Shop his favorite unheard of, obscure, and undervalued classic video games. Insomnia, is a video game shop in the Houston Heights that hosts gaming tournaments and art shows in it’s retail boutique where you can find collectable toys, gamer magazines, and cutesy kawaii, video game art, and jewelry. If anyone knows about obscure games, it’s Chris! Here’s his top 5.

Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter (1986 // PC)
Space Quest was an awesome adventure game developed by Sierra. While a lot of people remember the company’s King’s Quest and Leisure Suit Larry games, Space Quest was just as badass! It could also be extremely frustrating as you used text commands that the program would often not understand. This usually led to typing curse words within the original command which also didn’t work but made you feel better.

Battle of Olympus (1989 // NES)
To say that the gameplay here is similar to Zelda II would be very generous. It’s the same action RPG/platformer hybrid except it’s all mythological, which is tight. If you go back and play this now, the music may in fact drive you crazy but I remember turning the sound down and jamming Great White or Motley Crue anyway.

Blackthorne (1994 // Super Nintendo)
Alright this platformer was out and out FUN and I remember the music being pretty cool! You could actually get information from prisoners and then shoot them afterwards… with your SHOTGUN… without even looking at them!

Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (1998 // Playstation)
This game was about as addictive as it gets. Basically, you’re a ninja and you have to creep around Feudal Japan using stealth and shadows and throwing stars and poison rice(!!) and rocks to distract guards. Getting caught was soooo frustrating, but successfully sneaking up on a guard and cutting his throat from behind = a little slice of heaven.

Fatal Frame (2001 // PS2)
Probably the most underrated and truly scary survival horror franchise game in the whole genre! You have to kill(?) ghosts armed only with a mysterious camera! The game is ALWAYS dark, you can’t run fast, the sounds effects are bone chilling and the ghosts startle the shit out of you EVERY SINGLE time! The first three games of this series are available on PSN and well worth shelling out $10 a piece for.

If you haven’t checked out Insomnia Video Game Culture shop, you should. It’s a super fun load of eye candy and have ongoing events, tournaments, and other cool reasons to stop by. There next one is Super Smash Bros. 4 for the WiiU. This takes place May 2nd and Chris says it’s by far their most popular tournament. On May 9th, they’ll have a meetup for Hearthstone, a new game that’s gaining quick popularity.

Insomnia Video Game Culture Shop
724 W 19th St. Houston 77008

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