I think The Good Place is one of the best things to ever happen to tv. I know it's not some secret piece of tv that nobody knows about, but it hit the right notes in my soul that I don't think people are singing its praises loud enough, even a decade on from its release.

Look I'm not saying that it isn't well rated, but too many people dismiss "Avatar: The Last Airbender" as a cartoon or a childrens show when it is in fact a masterpiece.

i simply do not hear enough people talking about Outer Wilds, i know it released in the same year as the AA game by Obsidian - Outer Worlds, the title of which is different by whole two letters, which provided a very good distraction but

AAAAA

Outer Wilds is a lighting in a bottle video game that the majority of those who have played it wish they could experience for the first time again. it's a stunning piece of art that makes you cry and you're not even sure what exactly just happened. but there's always a point where it all just hits you - and all you can do is cry

it doesn't handhold you, in fact it doesn't give you any objectives at all, you're lead through the entire game by sheer curiosity alone - and oh boy will that curiosity make you zoom across the space back and forth until you get to the bottom of it. when you utter your first "oh what's that? i'm going to check it out" it'll have you, you might not realise it yet but you're now primed for adventure

this is the only game i'm not afraid to overhype. i watched that game sit in my library, for over a year, and in that time i hyped it up in my head to unreachable levels, to the point where eventually i was close to afraid of playing it because how could it possibly meet that standard i've envisioned? and you know what? it was better than i've ever imagined. it waited for me to be ready to sit down and play it, and then it delivered and experience that i'll forever treasure

maybe it won't hit that exact sweet spot for you as it did for me, but bloody hell can i assure you you'll never forget it - even though you'll wish you did, to play it for the first time again

oh and if any of my vague praise made you interested - rule #1 of Outer Wilds Club: don't talk about Outer Wilds. don't look up anything about it, you want to experience it as blind as you possibly can, some people even go as far as buying their friends a copy so they never have to look at the steam page screenshots

Tour de Pharmacy

It's a mockumentary about the Tour de France, but everyone's been kicked out for doping.

There are only 5 competitors left, Andy Sandberg, John Cena, Daveed Diggs, Orlando Bloom, and Freddie Highmore.

They've got the actual Lance Armstrong doing a "hidden informant" bit.

Each of the racers has a wacky backstory. Hijinks ensue. It's a great time.

Not the best movie ever, but I had an absolute blast with it.

Better off Ted. I dont think it is underrated, but it definitely seems to be not well known and only got a couple of seasons. It's the first time I got mad at Netflix canceling a show I loved.

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Some of best science-fiction literature ever penned.

However, the author, while a superb writer, is an asshole.

Movie wise:

1. Logan Lucky - "Trying to reverse a family curse, brothers Jimmy and Clyde Logan set out to execute an elaborate robbery during the legendary Coca-Cola 600 race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway."

I really found myself loving this movie, which was a surprised to me. But I believe that I found myself loving the characters and how they were shown on screen. I also loved the pacing of the movie. I never felt like there was a moment that had over stayed it's stay. The story it's self was interesting enough for me to keep wanting to watch as well. And no, it's not a film, it's a fun movie. It's not trying to be the next Heat or The Sting.

1. Kubo and the Two Strings - "Kubo mesmerizes the people in his village with his magical gift for spinning wild tales with origami. When he accidentally summons an evil spirit seeking vengeance, Kubo is forced to go on a quest to solve the mystery of his fallen samurai father and his mystical weaponry, as well as discover his own magical powers."

It's a powerful film IMO. There was a lot to love from the experience and it's one of my all-time favorite stop motion films ever.

Bryan Fuller's TV opus, primarily Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, although the first two seasons of Hannibal are really excellent writing and storytelling. All his work deals with death, but each has something slightly different to say about it.

Not so much underrated as it was rated well, but mostly because it didn’t really do well in theaters. Annihilation (2018) which is based on the novel of the same name is often overlooked when talking about great scifi movies. The book is great too.

Foundation on Apple TV is a visually beautiful show and follows the books generally well with a few caveats.

Avenue 5

Cloud Atlas is my usual mention.

Favourite movie and it's usually a fairly even split between people like myself who love it and people who think it's garbage.

Not much middle ground

Better Off Ted I feel is reasonably well known and did manage to get an unexpected second season. I feel like a chunk of its potential audience had already left Television for streaming even back when it first aired.

Norsemen was a great series but I understand why people didn’t get into it or even tried it. The humor is very special and maybe takes a little time to settle. It all feels like the cast didn’t know what’s going on and was making it up on the go, which is part of the fun.

Another one: Minesweeper. I feel like most people never understood how this game even works and just clicked randomly until something exploded. It’s actually purely logical! In the classic Windows version there is unfortunately always a high chance to encounter fields that can’t be solved by logic. This is what Mineswifter solves. If you want something more complex, there is the Hexcells series. Get the last one, Infinite, as it has a puzzle generator integrated.

The Shadow (1994) is delightful. It's fun, atmospheric, and does a great job of capturing the quaint charm of old timey pulp storytelling in a more modern action movie. It's just a treat, and I honestly can't believe it bombed, and as far as I know, never even got a cult following.

The Adventures of Brisco County Jr only got one season and has mostly passed into obscurity. Which is a shame because it's fun and can be a great little time capsule from the days when people thought the future might actually be something to be optimistic about.

Cabin Boy is not what you'd call... good. BUT it is still weirdly enjoyable. It's an experience. One other people should have. Whether they want it or not.

Advent Rising was so unsuccessful it helped kill the publisher, and it got terrible reviews. And yeah, the game feels like there are glaring omissions due to it being rushed out. But I absolutely love it. The powers are cool, the story is simple but works, and it definitely left me wanting more.

Also, Babylon 5 will always be underrated because it's not possible to rate it highly enough.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, it was made by alumni of Interplay. The developers also made Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, which probably is why it gets overshadowed.

Anyways gameplay is effected by build, equipment, and even race because of course it is this is a game made by Fallout 2 devs. If that sounds interesting but not convincing go watch Mandaloregaming, Warlockracy, or Ssethtzeentach for better reasons, though if you aren't familiar with any or all of the YouTubers I mentioned I ordered it by least to most batshit.

Also if any Eastern Europeans try to say "Oh this was a big game when I was in school" yes I'm aware I know about how your bootleggers charged by the disk resulting in everyone having Fallout 1, 2, and Arcanum. Sadly the game didnt do nearly as well here in the US in my experience.

A Touch of Cloth.

What if we took a British-style police procedural and made it not just a comedy, but a full-blown parody/spoof. And also it was created by Charlie Brooker, of Black Mirror fame.

Packed with wall-to-wall sight gags, terrible puns, and blink-and-you'll-miss-it jokes.

There are three seasons, each two 45-minute episodes.

Links (for those outside the US or EU): Season 1, Season 2, Season 3.

The Protomen

They were mentioned in a post on Lemmy. Decided to take a listen and they are amazing!

They have a story spanning three albums: The Protomen, Act II: The Father of Death, and Act III: The City Made Us.

Ayreon

Found them browsing for new music and fell in love. The albums are all stories and wonderfully done.

The movie Big Trouble.

Free on YouTube

It's not that obscure, but Perfect Blue (1997) has not left my mind since I first watched it.

One of my favorite super hero movies to this day is the original kick ass. Beats the pants off any marvel movie by miles. Not exactly a flop but criminally underrated.

Pretty much everything "Weird Al" Yankovic and his band have ever done.

They've gained more recognition in recent years, but most people don't realize that his catalogue goes back to the mid-1970s. A lot of people are sleeping on his work, even today, because he's categorized as a "novelty artist".

The early stuff is rough, but from the mid-1980s on up is worth a listen even if you're not a fan.

Don't Trust The B in Apt 23

certainly not an obscure videogame, but Prey  (2017) is amazing, and for some reason it flopped. Also the DLC might be the best I’ve played, it’s a completely new kind of game

if you check the free epic games sometimes you might have it in your collection

The Quest For Glory series from Sierra. They ended up making 5 and you could import your character from the previous game with some save disks. You could pick between a fighter, a thief, or a magic user and grow from there. In the later games you could grow and be a paladin, a sorcerer (with a staff), or the lead to a thieves guild depending on your choices. In the last game you got to become a king and pick a love interest that you met from previous games. The 4th game had a hot vampire babe, so normally tried to marry her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Glory

Hypernormalisation — documentary about political theatre

Freddy Got Fingered.

It's a practical joke disguised as a movie.

Though it has found a cult following since release, I don't think it's appreciated enough for how hilarious it is.

Galavant. Two seasons on ABC in the mid 2010s.

A bawdy, over the top musical medieval themed fantasy series about a knight trying to get his wife back after she's kidnaped and forced to marry an evil king.

Fantastic main cast and Weird Al in a recurring role as as the abott of an order of singing monks.

I don't generally like musicals, but it's so damned catchy and fun.

Terriers - excellent 2010 caper-style dramedy series starring Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James, created by the screenwriter behind "Oceans Eleven". Relatable & endearing characters, compelling arcs, razor-sharp writing, wrapped in a noire detective plot set in sunny San Diego. Aired for just 13 eps on FX back in the day, only a couple of years before streaming platforms really hit big (and where it likely would have found its audience) and I've mourned "what could have been" ever since. Can't recommend it enough, despite the final ep having a bit of a "lady or the tiger" ending. I urge you to seek it out.

If you're post edu and wanting more solid structured yet casual learning, The Great Courses offer a fantastic selection of in-depth overviews. I've spent many hours in their world history, science, humanities and music courses.

Goodnight Punpun

It's a manga so if you are in the west it's already going to be obscure. It's also pretty messed up so it might not be for everyone, but if you are able to stomach it and read it, man is it amazing. It has very little anime bs that a lot of anime/manga suffer from; it's not a shonen, it's aimed at an older audience. It is very well written. The art is amazing. I could go on, but I think it's best enjoyed blind.

It's 13 volumes, but you can binge it in a day (not recommended). It has a lot of dialog so a lot more reading than most manga.

If you are not sure about the manga, read the first chapter. I think it sets the tone well for the rest of the series.

Like a lot of great things, I wish I could read the manga again for the first time.

Joe Pera Talks With You

It's a treasure and it's hard to get people to watch it. I've watched the series all the way through at least four times, by now. It's sadly short, so not too hard to do.

My favorite band of all time is Guided by Voices. Started out in the 80s recording on four track cassettes and pressing 500 copies of the record playing local dive bars. In the early 90s front man Robert Pollard was done after 7 albums and no success outside their hometown so he wrote their final album Propeller.

Of course that made a bit of splash and got them shows in NYC where they kind of took off (at least in 90s indie rock circles). After that success Pollard kept on going until 2004 with a rotating cast of characters when he disbanded GBV for good. I unfortunately only heard about them around this time and missed out on seeing them live.

Well when I say for good it only lasted until 2010 when the "classic lineup" reunited. They toured playing all the old hits for a yrar or two, then started releasing new music and haven't stopped.

Bob is utterly prolific and has over 100 albums to his name across various solo and side projects. I don't click as well with most of the newer stuff but I appreciate it non the less.

Pick any of the albums from 1990-96 for some lofi rock masterpieces, or 1997-2004 for some higher fidelity power pop. The lyrics and song titles are all fairly obsurd on any of them. Bee Thousand is their classic album but I'd recommend Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. Its a bit more polished than the cassette hiss of earlier stuff but still not a full studio sound.

Anyway thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Motherfucking

Centaurworld

Got massively slept on.

TUNIC

It looks like a cutesy Zelda clone, but it's so much more than that. It's dark with extremely atmospheric music. It is a "knowledge-based" game, with metroidvania/Zelda aspects.

The puzzles are phenomenal, and I don't think it can ever be replicated.

The Raid and The Raid 2 are, without a doubt, the most nailbiting action movies I've ever watched. I consistently overhype this movie to friends as the best action movie ever made, which is replied to with an eyeroll or something - until the first fight scene, where they look at me with a "what the fuck is THIS?!" face. By the end of the movie they are completely convinced...

And then I tell them the second movie is just as good and their heads explode.

So far I've loved every tv show Taika Waititi has been involved with, and many of them I've only found out when checking "ok, what else has he done" on wikipedia. Most recently, Reservation Dogs and Our Flag Means Death.

Also, I think there are many canadian tv shows that are really good and deserve a wider global audience: like Heated Rivalry, 19-2 (the original one in French) and Happily Married (C'est comme ça que je t'aime).

You're gonna think I'm weird, but star vs the forces of evil. It's a trip. It's so creative and different. Watched it with my youngest and my grandson.

Bone comic book series by Jeff smith.

It is the perfect balance between Tolkien and Disney, had a influence in making comic books more popular in the 90s-00s.

Its mainly aimed at kids but its very enjoyable to adults as well, it has the topic of metaphysics front and center.

https://kids.scholastic.com/...

The TV adaptation of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. The voice acting is incredible and it has the best soundtrack from any media in the last 10 years. It's a solid show that had virtually no money so they made the most with abstract backgrounds and amazing writing. The show was always under threat of being cancelled and wrapped up so fucking well at the end of season 2 that it was clear the people behind the show knew Disney was stringing them along.

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a reboot of TMNT that removes the bioscience and introduces Yokai/Yaogwai and magic. It's the best writing TMNT has ever had across any iteration and is on-par with Futurama with delivering a poignant moment in a cartoon full of solid jokes. The turtles learn about their dads and what family means - it's got family moments as strong as Stephen Universe. I cannot say enough good stuff about Rise.

Hyper Light Drifter for gaming.

Extol (Norway) for music, specifically the album "Burial".

I actually really love the average to panned 2001 romcom Kate and Leopold. It's about a average woman working in advertising and a hunky duke(?) from centuries before who fell forward in time. Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan, I think they have reasonable chemistry and there's a lot of good lines that are delivered well. It's a fun movie, and even if it's not good per se it's a good experience with fun vibes.

Hm. There is a pair of Star Trek adventure games, called 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites. They are essentially an extra season of TOS, and are quite good.

There's this indie game called The Gap. It's about a man who is trying to find the cure to Huntington's disease to save his family. He discovers that déjà vu is one's own memories from a parallel universe. He uses this knowledge to search other realities to find the cure. It's a slow burn but it's so good.

This is actually one of my favorite games and it has the third place spot after Silent Hill 2 and SOMA. This isn't a horror game just to be clear. I haven't seen anyone talk about this game which is a real shame. I highly recommend it!

https://store.steampowered.com/...

Chinese Lore Podcast, not a singular piece but worth a mention.

https://chineselore.com/

The translations aren't bad, it's incredible value for free audiobook/translations.

I had tons of fun with Battleborn! It was a FPS hero shooter/MOBA hybrid with co-op modes and Borderlands style load-outs, skill tree and gear. Unfortunately never became very popular and they shut it down after desperately trying to revive it by changing its model. The only MOBA that ever clicked for me.

1. Big Fan, a movie about an obsessive football fan, starring Patton Oswalt. I only saw it once, when it first came out (2009), but remember thinking that it was really good. A very prescient, dark comedy about a certain type of guy that is very relevant today. It made $230,000 in theaters according to Wikipedia.
2. Unreal 2, and specifically just the multiplayer. Unreal 2 was a pretty disappointing sequel, and it didn't even have multiplayer when it came out. A year after its launch, they released a multiplayer addon and it was amazing. Completely overshadowed by Unreal Tournament 2004, never really had a chance of becoming popular, but it had a dedicated fan base for a while. You can get it for free now; I want to get a group together at some point.

Tom Goes to the Mayor is a delightful series that really captures the feeling of living in forgotten small-town America and being crushingly poor.

I don't know if that's what the creators were going for but it resonated with me on that level.

Mr. Robot is one of my all-time favorites and my most recent favorite was Mr. Corman.

Very obscure 45-minute 1991 anime movie: Christmas in January. Rated extremely low (5.46 / 10) on MAL, it's absolutely one of my favorite movies. It's whimsical and melancholic and so so interesting. Reminds me a lot of the Ghibli movie Ocean Waves, which is also an underrated gem (and, while I'm at it, the Kimagure Orange Road masterpiece sequel movie from the same director as Ocean Waves).

I really love stories that are just miraculous/odd/interesting excerpts of people's lives that are otherwise inconsequential. There was nothing grand or life-changing about the events in the story, but I will never forget the delicate social interplay in the shoe store, or the only scene that actually takes place in January at the very end: just a moment of reflection.

Cable Guy . Jim Carey is very scary and the end monologué about thé internet future was spot on.

The Jesse Owens Story (1984). Really good made for TV biopic. Won a primetime emmy. But has barely 300 total ratings on IMDB and so few on Letterboxd that it doesn't have an average score. Several cast members from the Roots miniseries.

Meet the Raisins (1988). The original 30 minute made for TV claymation special. Here on YouTube (lots of music missing) It was a spinoff of a highly successful marketing campaign (a 30 second commercial where raisins sing 'heard it through the grapevine').

Akira Kurosawa's lesser known works. He's most famous for films like Seven Samurai or Yojimbo, but his other films like The Bad Sleep Well are super amazing too. It's a film noir movie with a strong anti-corporation message I bet would resonate with a lot of people here.

Man, people can't help but post stuff they like and is popular, not stuff that's almost never talked about. Anyway...

The Irresponsible Captain Tyler is an old school anime most people slept on. It's the sci-fi genera of "aliens are elves with big shoulder pads", and Tyler is a bum, he decides he wants to join the military because it's got free food and chicks dig guys in uniform, and then he accidentally starts an interstellar war with the aliens, accidentally becomes captain of a ship, and accidentally starts beating the crap out of the aliens without meaning to. The aliens think he's a strategic genius, his bosses think he's an idiot and are trying to get rid of him, and his crew can't tell if he's one or the other. The whole show has a lot of love put into it, each background character has it's own name and voice actor, and the show is hilarious right off the bat till the end.

I also feel that Thief the Dark Project doesn't get enough credit and attention. It was the first first person sneaker, has better stealth mechanics than even some modern games, and a great story and world building. I think maybe some sequels that weren't as popular as the second one kinda made people drop the series but it was fantastic.

Games: Epistory and Nanotale. Both typing games from Fishing Cactus. Absolutely beautiful games that have interesting stories and you get to practice with your typing skills. I love both of these games so much.

Tv: Sliders. It was fairly popular when it was running and got kind of weird at the end, but I love that show. It was one that my family got together to watch every episode each week when they were on broadcast. I was also part of an early online petition to save the show and move it to the SciFi channel. I was also part of the early online petition to save MST3K, back when online petitions actually worked.

Movie: Ghostbusters Answer the Call. People will disagree with me but I unapologetically DGAF. That movie is hilarious and I love putting it on when I work out. It’s a far better Ghostbusters movie than the last two garbage ones that were put out. It has everything from the original: dark adult horror comedy about scientists who save the world. The last two were not true GB movies, they are family friend teen coming of age movies with a plot that depended so heavily on nostalgia that they felt like a crappy cash grab. ATC is my second favorite GB movie behind only the original. Holtzman is my hero!

Flower (video game): https://youtu.be/0IS9sGGuvYo

Henry Kuttner's short-ish story ‘Year Day’ from 1953 predicted how advertising will be in the future that we're on track to hit. The story was published in the collection appropriately named ‘Ahead of Time’.

I am the KWING of this genre. There was a phenomenal show on PAX yes the Canadian local station called "Young Blades". It was SO good. About the three musketeers then a girl disguises herself as a boy to join them. I wish I could find it on the internet somewhere.

A tale in the desert was kind of Minecraft before Minecraft. Such a great game.

Nexus Tk kingdom of the winds was also great until they changed the system for leveling.

Tons of books or book series like Darren Shan saga and tales of ambrose. This great series by Christopher pike about vampires

My entire life has been spent in this genre 😆

Triangle is an independent movie made in 2009 - so good. First found it on YouTube for free, I believe i recently saw it on peacock

Which Zelda game could possibly be your example of underrated?

The 10th Kingdom (2000). Great miniseries that mashes up fairy tales some modern twists. I really enjoyed all the characters, and the kind-of multiverse was cool.

Tremulous (2006). A first person shooter with first person builder elements. The human team depends on electricity for their various guns and turrets, the alien team can build anywhere and walk on the walls and ceilings, but are more limited to their claw's melee range. There was no matchmaking so you just went to the same server all the time and made friends with the people there. It was cool.

Music: Salmon. It's ADHD music ... it jumps around a lot. Rock / rap from the late 90's. Great instruments.

Show: Kung Faux. Stoner comedy. Old kung fu movies re-dubbed in a gangsta style and set to hip hop beats. Edited to evoke comic books, 70's movies, and video games.

M.U.L.E. - old Commodore 64 and Atari game

Planet of the Apes - the French book that spawned all the films an shows.

How to with John Wilson is one of the best shows that has a very simple premise. He basically just finds odd things happening around NYC and gives commentary, advice, and self-reflection, and is very funny.

God, rainworld is not a flop per se, but i feel like it had so much more potential. It's just a masterpiece of game design, soundtrack, art, leveldesign, lore etc

Metalocalypse. If you like metal music, animated shows and a bit of dark humor then this is the show for you.

Runner up: Aqua Team Hunger Force - if you like short stupid storylines and crude jokes.

And bonus: Squidbillies - if you like Aqua Teen Hunger Force but you want things the get even stupider.

2 80s movies I just love:

• Head Office. Mocks corporate culture and holds up in current corporate culture. Really good cast, and plenty of good jokes and storylines.
• Robot Jox. So damn stupid, but I just can’t quit it. Cool premise, not great special effects, but good enough to still be fun.

PK. A Bollywood movie that really resonated with me.

Headbangers: Rhythm Royale. I really want to see the alternate universe where this game took off, it's a really fun rhythm based battle royale.

However when you can't find players to play with gameplay against bots feel give 0 challange, you don't really get the satisfaction out of winning.

The Big O.

The animators in Japan that did a lot of work on Batman TAS were inspired to make this weird show that's kinda like Batman, but instead of dressing up as a bat, the dude secretly has a giant robot... because Japan. Everyone in the city was mind wiped so there's philosophical questions the value of memories. It had a film noir vibe about the underlining mystery of why everyone was mind wiped. But also giant robot fights in every episode.

It aired on Cartoon Network, but wasn't picked up for a third season.

Netherbeast Incorporated is a weird but charming vampire office comedy from 2007, featuring Darrel Hammond, Dave Foley, and Steve from Blues Clues. And a small appearance by Robert Wagner as President James Garfield.

It's kind of dumb, but I love it. I have never met another person in real life who's seen it.

Within a Deep Forest Freeware, came out in 2006, by Nifflas. You're a ball.

Love the soundtrack, love the controls, love the design. It's perfect.

Man...tons but I'll just pick a few. (OK a few turned into a lot anyways)

Music:

Driveways (lots of heavy Blink 182 influence)

Shiny Toy Guns (Especially the first album)

Lauren Babic (Started with YouTube but my favorite female vocalist)

Dream State (Before CJ Gilpin left, new singer is meh for me)

Tash Sultana (Flow state was fantastic)

Like roses (Splenetic is my favorite song feel like they just need a big break to get big)

Savlonic (Started as a joke band, became really solid)

Movie/Show:

Blood Machines (Music by Carpenter Brut, whole short film is in the same style as his music videos)

Tomo-Chan is a Girl! (Cute anime romance about a tomboy girl wanting to be recognized by her boy bff)

Mushi-Shi (Very chill and intriguing stories about mysterious Mushi creatures)

The Air I Breathe (Left a lasting impression on me, has Brendan Fraser pre-hiatus and Sarah Michelle Gellar among other great cast)

H (South Korean Thriller about a psychopath and a detective, really excellent. Was hard to find a copy in the us)

Taking Chance (Excellent Kevin Bacon movie, should really hit hard on any military family)

Role Models (Not sure if it's underated but never see anyone mention it. Hilarious movie with Paul Rudd and probably Seann William Scott's best comedy work imo)

Better Off Dead (John Cusack comedy about a teen break up and eventually recovery. May have been better known at the time but hilarious movie)

Game:

Xenogears (Seems more well know now, but absolutely was a pivotal game on my youth and no one knew of it for years)

Katana Zero, Mirror's Edge, Ghostrunner, System Shock Remake, Prey, Stalker(I know I know but it always needs more fans imo lol)- (All games with mixed audience levels but still ones I feel don't have enough recognition.)

Hidden Cats, 100 Cats, X full of Cats, and Find All - (Really cute and cozy hidden object games. Most are either very cheap or free and I think more people should grab them and enjoy them.)

Books:

William Arand/Randi Darren books. There is a whole huge universe involved. They look like just harem smut on the surface, and his Randi Darren books do have a lot of smut to them, but there is an overall linking story through all of the books that is very enjoyable and intriguing. One of those "plot" books that has an even better actual plot imo. (First few books are rough on the edges but still good.)

Legends & Lattes (I'm sure it's well regarded in the "Cozy Adventure" groups, but it needs more recognition outside of that.)

band The Suborbitals. It has 130 monthly listeners on spotify and it's one the best bands I've ever heard. I specially recommend Aquanaut (the Blackout rolling version), Devil's dance card, Let's forget ir for a while, 405 and Little things.

Honestly I recommend most songs, but these are the best :D

Them on: spotify deezer youtube

An old game called Whiplash! Where you and 15 other NPCs, one of them a team mate, battle it out on track-mania style tracks.

Or if you have a ipx/spx network, or tcp/ip, you and 7 friends can battle it out at your next LAN party.

Well I don't know if underrated is valid here, but a few movies by Anders Thomas Jensen like Adam's Apples and Riders of Justice.
Common ground is it's morbid humour.

A web comic: Stand still, stay silent

https://sssscomic.com/

Tv series: MR ROBOT; Person of Interest.

Manwha: The Boxer

Book: not really obscure, but for me not enough known is the Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins series

Gomi, an early $5 iOS game that involved eating successively larger objects until an objective was reached, utilizing the tilt feature. It had so much potential to be a game with a medium to large speedrun/highscore community.

My two all-time favourite videogames, one of them kinda obscure and the other very obscure: What Remains of Edith Finch and Kentucky Route Zero respectively.

What Remains of Edith Finch is a ~2 hour story where you explore your family home as Edith Finch. The Finch family has had a lot of bad luck, and most of its members do not get old. As Edith, you explore the house room by room to see the respective person's last moments. It's not a horror game, though I should put a trigger warning for child and infant mortality for the game. Play it in a single sitting, treat it as an interactive movie. I cannot recommend it enough.

The other one, Kentucky Route Zero, is a bit harder to recommend to a general audience. The synopsis is as follows: Conway drives deliveries for an antiques shop, the last one he will ever do as the shop is closing down. On his way to his destination, he asks for directions, and is told he needs to take Kentucky highway 0, an underground highway with a hidden entrance. As the game goes on, we explore the mysterious underground world of Kentucky, with its strange inhabitants and culture, and expand our cast of characters along the way. I honestly cannot give a more accurate description of it without giving stuff away. This game has no puzzles or interesting game mechanics. You cannot alter the story much either. What it offers, though, is a glimpse into a surreal world filled with hope, longing, loss, regret, and, most of all, mystery. The game will not answer all your questions. There is no grand reveal before the curtain closes. You can puzzle things together from your exploration only.

I think that, for many people, it will be quite boring. But it pushes buttons for me that no other media I have encountered does. It is best played at night if you're tired, as the whole game kind of feels like a weird dream that you struggle to recall as you wake up. If that sounds up your alley, well, here you go.

Dilberts Desktop Games was a cooky arrangement of several different mini games that were fun for kids whilst satirical enough for adults to enjoy.

It came out as a demo on PC Shopper, back when Adams' politics was tame. The game absolutely bombed on reviews, but the music and the elevator game live rent free in my head

https://mezzacotta.net/ and all the weird little experiments in webcomics they do

My personal favourite is Comments on a Postcard, which is they uploaded (intentionally) broken image links to a "webcomic", and then assign a caption for it from a set of user submitted captions. It gives the feeling of exploring old websites that are half broken and trying piece together what they were about

Stella Glow!

I played it on the 3DS. The story is pretty good, the music is gorgeous, some of it is voice-acted, and I loved the JRPG and dating sim elements.

Apart from my spouse, I cannot find anyone else who has heard of, let alone played, the game so I can geek out with them over it. 😭

Day of the Triffids

On the surface, Cross Ange is just another fanservice mech anime. The first few episodes will filter out a lot of people before of the gore.

If you stick with it, you get one of the more aggressively feminist anime out there. And I do mean aggressive. Every character arc is a metaphor for something women either have to deal with primarily or exclusively in society. The show actively punishes the female characters who can't recognize themselves as victims and rewards the ones who do and work to fix their situations. The final villain is an incel power fantasy. I've seen next to no discussion on Cross Ange in this context online.

Steambot Chronicles for the PS2. It's my favorite game by a wide margin. I almost never replay games, but I've played that one all the way through over a dozen times. It's just chock-full of so many choices of what to do and how to do it, and the graphics and music come together to make the perfect atmosphere.

In terms of current games, I have to say Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Uses the Far Cry formula as a jumping off point for a very immersive experience that's about the beauty of Pandora. It's one of the most beautiful games I've ever played and really deepens the Avatar franchise. It's also the rare action game that is also cool to just hang out in and walk around, explore, forage for materials. It offers a kind of escape that games like Animal Crossing do in that regard (even though you're not building anything; it's just such a rich immersive world that you feel like you're actually in Pandora).

He Who Fights With Monsters litRPG adventure. Amazing book disguised as simple fun.

Little King's Story presents as a cutesy Pikmin-like on Wii and Steam (I played it on Wii. Not sure about the port.) but it's got deep, challenging gameplay and the story absolutely pushes boundaries of video game narrative. I only played it the once years-and-years ago, but it really worked its way into my psyche. It deserves a place in the conversation about video-games-as-art alongside standouts like Shadow of the Colossus and Journey.

PeopleWatching. Im acctively mad that it doesn't get a fraction of the attention it deserves.

https://youtu.be/avckLOJR8BY

Not4Sale: TV Sheriff and the Trailbuddies.

Nobody had seen it, it’s in insane audio/visual dreamscape/nightmare. It’s very difficult to find, but it’s worth it… especially going into it on acid without knowing anything about it. My friend did that to me, put it on, said nothing once we were trippin balls, and by the end I had cried laughing more than I have for any other piece of media I’ve ever seen.

I’ve seen introduced many friends to it the same way.

Zero Effect (1998 film). Charming, smart, funny Holmes update with great performances.

H-E-R-O by Will Pfeifer (DC Comics)

“Love Me, I’m a Liberal” by Phil Ochs.

Shadow of the Colossus comes to mind.