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What are some games that exceed expectations?
I'd love to hear about some games that are surprisingly good, deep, or different. As in, the premise or the presentation of the game does not bode well or looks weak, but the game itself rises above those preconceptions and limitations to be greater, richer, or more interesting than you expected. Think games like: a surprisingly good movie tie-in, a really great edutainment experience, a well-executed corporate mascot platformer, etc.
What is it about the game that sets your expectations low, and how does the game overcome that low anchoring?
Didn't it start as an online flash game?
Craft the World is a 2D game about dwarves and base-building. If I were to tell you about its mechanics, it would appear to be a castrated version of Dwarf Fortress: it has much less of everything Dwarf Fortress has to offer.
And yet...
I have just shy of a hundred hours of casual play in it. It is, somehow, very entertaining to start over, and collect all the basic tools again, and build an underground base again... It is, generally speaking, a simple game that has very few mechanics that go beyond easy-to-get. Yet, somehow, it isn't perfectly easy to master – at least for a casual player like myself.
It's a very good casual game for the type of a player that enjoys base-building but can't be bothered to think things through at the moment: it's for when they want to relax, or engage themselves in a simpler game.
It's a simpler version of Minecraft where you set orders for multiple characters with an overview of what you're doing.
That is my very favorite style of gaming. Thanks for putting this on my radar!
I think I'll have to go with the One Finger Death Punch games (linked to the second one). The game's art is mostly stick-figures, and you play entirely by pushing two buttons—one to attack to your left, and one to attack to your right.
Despite being that minimal, they still managed to put a surprising amount of style and variance into the game, and it just feels great to play overall. I never expected to like it, and originally just tried the first one out as part of a high-score competition with some friends during Extra Life. I bought it immediately after and have ended up playing about 40 hours between the two games. It's not really the type of game to play in long stretches, but it's great to drop into for a few levels here and there.
Freeways.
Full walkthrough
Wikipedia article (or in this case stub)
It's essentially a traffic simulating game where you need to draw the roads to make traffic as fast and efficient as possible, but in increasingly unique scenarios which actually make the game quite challenging.