I think there are a lot of side games out there that are actually pretty good. I have a top three myself:
Pokémon Snap. I have no idea how people feel about Snap because I've never seen anyone discuss it but I really enjoyed it. I thought the graphics were pretty great and it was a relaxing way to spend a few hours. I'm sad I've never found an emulated version that works properly. The independent store near me has a copy for £15 and I'm pretty tempted to go pick it up.
Crash Team Racing. CTR is just one of my favourite racing games in general, never mind a favourite side game. I never even played Crash Bandicoot much but I loved CTR. It, along with Mairo Kart, is also proof you can do a racing side game and have it be not shit.
Digimon Trading Card Game. The Pokémon Trading Card Game game also deserves an honourable mention but the Digimon one made the list because it made the game accessible to me. I thought the Digimon CCG was actually pretty good but I never had any friends who understood it, much less played it. The PSX game gave me the chance to play it and I enjoyed it, except for the last "boss" who I've never managed to defeat. Fuck that guy.
How about you?
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[–] PirateBear 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Metal Gear Rising has been mentioned, but is worth reiterating that it is really worth playing if you like action fighters like that. Platinum makes some amazing games and MGR was one of the best (really only behind Bayonetta 2 for me). The only thing holding it back for me is the parry system, which I could never master and you only could turn on auto-parry on Easy difficulty. I hate locked difficulty options, and really wish I could play on Hard with Auto Parry, even if it disabled achievements and other such things.
RE: Pokemon Snap: With the Wii/WiiU versions, you can extract the photos you take to the Wii messenger service/Miiverse (and then a PC), similar to the Blcokbuster kiosks back in the day. It's also cheaper than a cart in the US, but I don't know the price in Europe. Snap is one of the more troubling emulation games for an already troubled system, so the VC releases are the only reliable way to emulate.
[–] Dashippy [S] ago
I completely forgot it was on the VC. I should get on that. The N64 really doesn't emulate too well. Even the big games like Zelda have trouble emulating properly.