Net Ten: The Ten Best Underground Games (page 1) Subscribe to this RSS feed

Some have already arrived. Others are waiting in the wings. Get the scoop on what you've been missing, and what you shouldn't miss.

#10 Narbacular Drop - [ PC ]

Valve Software has taken this game and run with it, after signing on the team of students who made Narbacular Drop. While ND might not have the wow factor of the Source engine under its hood, it more than makes up for this with innovative use of portaling. You can create gateways anywhere in this 3D dungeon in your quest to free the Princess and Wally from the evil grips of a demon. Check out the website for additional, user-made maps.

#10 Narbacular Drop
80% average
critic
score

#9 Cloud - [ PS2 ]

Cloud is a 3rd-person adventure game that takes flying dreams and makes an experimental game out of them. As the name implies, your mission is to collect "good" clouds and put them up against "bad" clouds, with their interaction modeled on real-world atmospheric effects. It's a pretty game with some artistic resemblance to Katamari Damacy.

#9 Cloud
76% average
critic
score

#8 Cooking Mama - [ DS ]

For those of you who hate cooking, Cooking Mama might turn you around, because it's actually kind of fun. Using the touch-sensitive capabilities of the DS, you'll chop up vegetables, handle food in a pan on a stove top, place food decoratively on a plate -- and learn how to cook real-world food using 76 real recipes. It is, literally, nutritious and delicious, and there's already word of a sequel planned for the Wii console.

#8 Cooking Mama
75% average
critic
score

#7 Dystopia - [ PC ]

This free, team-based multiplayer mod for Half-Life 2 pits the Punks against the Mercenaries in a near-future cyberpunk world that blends Neuromancer-style arenas with gritty urban war zones. You'll fight with guns, but you'll also delve into cyberspace, hacking your way through systems or defending critical data, depending on which side you choose. We recommend checking out the New Player Guide before jacking in.

#7 Dystopia
N/A average
critic
score

#6 Hot PXL - [ PSP ]

Like WarioWare, Hot PXL packs 200 mini-games into its little disc, with an emphasis on things like "street culture" and "digital lifestyle." Regardless of how its street cred pans out, Hot PXL is gearing up to be an entertainingly light and breezy time-killer, with activities like stage diving, crossing a street, riding a BMX bike, and delving into old-school videogame nostalgia.

#6 Hot PXL
N/A average
critic
score