For normal people, X-Com's difficulty is based around save and reload. That is, the stakes are such that there will be situations where you can't win the mission with everyone alive (even with S&R), and so you lose a guy or two unless you're a masochist and want to completely start the mission over. But usually, just…

I better dust up on the original…

Strange Days was good but I have no desire to rewatch it when I see it's on cable. Virtuosity, on the other hand, is tons of fun. Especially seeing two future Best Actor winners hamming it up—actually, Denzel pretty much plays "cyborg cop convicted after a really unfortunate series of events" completely straight, but…

Yeah dunno if that counts as underrated. Great game though.

Minesweeper, Solitaire, Oregon Trail, NetHack/Rogue, Counterstrike, Halo, Bejeweled, Angry Birds

Pokemon Snap was (I think I can be honest here) the shit. Fuck yeah, throwing stuff at Snorlax to get him to wake up for a pic while you coast on by.

It was the first one that didn't blow monkey/donkey nuts.

My picks for likely candidates
XCOM: UFO Defense
Super Metroid
Oh wait these are big-time, super-popular-type games
um..
Mortal Kombat (meh, how about Street Fighter instead), WoW again, Sid Meier's Civilization, Goldeneye, Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero

He's like a super-handsome Willem Dafoe.

From a design perspective, starting fresh is also a good way to smooth the difficulty curve. My kid's having enough trouble jumping and shooting at the same time (let alone, shoot downward)—she doesn't need the complexity of 'hit select to switch to missles, double down for super bombs, tap in air to space jump, etc…

That shower scene…

Super Metroid only faces competition from A Link to the Past. And wins. RPGers might find that contentious but that's their bag. LttP is such a good game, too. The final credits medley is amaxing.

That's the thing about Fusion. Replaying it recently, the hand-holding is a mixed blessing. I think he's right that it's "a retreat from the series' greatest strengths"; but a couple times it really subverts your expectations in great ways. Like when you're heading up the elevator—something Metroid players have done…

I kept forgetting I could make a restore point. Every time that spider skull thing killed me it took 5 minutes running back from my ship. Finally remembered I could do that at the start of the SA-X fight.

Wouldn't expect TNG to do an Animal House nod, but there it is.

(Tries prune juice.)

Well, if you won the game, you'd never see those weird alien/human hybrids. But since this game takes place 15 years after we lost the game…

Well, more importantly, it begins with the word "XCOM", which means it has a good chance of being one of the best games ever… OR one of the most disappointing sequels ever.

Looks cool. Could be promising.

To be fair, he had to re-imagine the third book a lot, because it turned out to be too much like Axe Cop.