Sometimes, I think the presence behind the most commercial video games in the world can be so dominant that they have a tendency to occlude the presence of certain other video games, which I believe deserve just as much, if not more credit. I believe these video games deserve (at least) as much recognition, because... while they may not have that overall commercial polish, they do usually have a certain charm and freeness about them that I don't usually find in the more commercially-driven video games. Or to put it another way, I think the the former type of video games are not so much bound by commercial rules... which means they tend to be more faithful to one's vision.
So in regard to the above statement, here's the main question of this thread:
Which video game do you feel is the most underrated and why?
In my opinion... and to the best of my knowledge, I'd say Rez (Dreamcast) is the most underrated video game: This old-school-style shoot 'em up had a well judged difficulty curve, eye-candy visuals and awesome animation, which was clearly ahead of its time. I also believe that Rez is one of the most faithful video games in the world; that is to say it approaches the vision of the director more than most.
Here's a clip of a boss scene from Rez:
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