There are some games you'll have heard of, because everyone and their mother bought a copy. Other games, you'll know because you can't go five minutes without hearing it referenced as a game that influenced a developer you like. Sometimes, both are true for the same game, but that's more often the exception to the rule.

Bad games flop all the time, whether scores of cash were poured into them or not. But what's crazier, and more tragic, is that there are so many excellent games that don't get their financial due. It's only years later that they potentially accrue some semblance of sales success, or they are recognized as games that made an impact on the industry and its players.

6 Vanquish

We should be on Vanquish 5 by now.

It is a crime, in my opinion, that Vanquish never got the commercial success it really deserved back when it launched in 2010. Since its launch, it's estimated to have only sold a little over 1 million units in its lifetime. Unfortunately for Vanquish, it launched in an incredibly stacked year, but to this day you'd be hard-pressed to find a thrill-ride of a third-person shooter like it.

In this case, I'm not trying to say that Vanquish was this big and influential title, just something that deserved far better than what it got.

I understand the complaints made about it at the time, and even the ones you could make today, especially regarding its thin story, and the times when it fails to keep the action going. But when Vanquish is firing on all cylinders, there's almost nothing like it. Vanquish remains a solid third-person shooter, and one that I highly, highly recommend you try out if you've never played it before.

5 Outriders

The abilities were actually, incredibly cool.

Outriders, like Vanquish just above, is another game where the actual gameplay really had the juice. Out of the classes you can pick, each of them has genuinely cool abilities. The weapons felt good to use, and I actually really enjoyed the core gameplay loop when it launched.

Sure, the story isn't doing anything special, and its ending doesn't help in that regard. Outriders biggest blunder is that it is only playable online, and absolutely cannot be played in any capacity offline. The always-online requirement is actually what kneecapped the game at launch, starting things off on the absolutely wrong foot. And we probably will never get an offline mode, unless the servers for the game are about to be shut off.

In fact, if an offline mode is added just as the servers are to be shut off, but it doesn't get delisted, then Outriders might finally be profitable, after it's confirmed that People Can Fly have left it behind.

4 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

A cooler Cyberpunk before Cyberpunk 2077.

Following the success of the Deus Ex franchise reboot, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, developer Eidos Montreal created what many players and critics know to be a more than solid sequel in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

Despite it being critically acclaimed, and not selling poorly, sales were not enough for publisher Square Enix, and we've not gotten a new Deus Ex game since. It's also a big question as to whether or not we ever will, because Eidos Montreal is no longer with Square Enix, and is instead now with Embracer Group. That's the company that recently imploded, after acquiring far too many studios too quickly.

It's going to take years for Embracer Group, and the teams under it, to recover from the layoffs and to get new projects up-to-snuff. I hope I'm wrong on that timeline, but the fact remains that Mankind Divided did not perform well enough to make continuing the franchise an immediate priority. It is still however, a really excellent game you should play.

3 Okami

Now this one, is criminal.

Okami is the kind of game where everyone that played it when it launched, knew it was special. There was not a doubt in the minds of anyone smart enough to pick this game up on PS2 back in 2006, that this was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of game and experience. It really is that good.

Unfortunately, it arrived on PS2 just a little before the PS3 was due to arrive, and there wasn't going to be a PS3 version of the game thanks to it being exclusively available on PS2. It wasn't until more than a decade later, when Okami HD arrived on PC, Xbox One and PS4, that it would start to see some kind of financial success.

At least in the time between Okami and Okami HD, it had been rightfully recognized as one of the best games ever made. And as of last December, we know it'll actually be getting a sequel, though who knows when it'll be ready.

2 System Shock 2

System Shock 2 walked so Bioshock could run.

It's well documented that Bioshock director Ken Levine worked on System Shock 2 before going on to make Bioshock. It's also quite clear to anyone who has played both games, that Bioshock borrows nearly all of its best stuff from System Shock and System Shock 2.

Setting the standard for immersive sims before Arkane Studio was even an idea, System Shock 2 remains a strong first-person immersive sim that is worth playing today, if you want to learn about the game that influenced nearly all the best immersive sim games after it.

1 Earthbound

At least we understand how great it is now.

Lastly, Earthbound is arguably the best game on this list that didn't get its financial due at launch. Making and selling video games in the 90's was a different prospect than it is now, and it was expensive to make big cartridges, and to ship those cartridges with giant guidebooks for players to follow. Neither helped Earthbound hit its financial goals.

It would be years until players would actually look back and understand it to be one of the best RPG's of all time, as it has influenced countless other games, like Undertale, that players love today.

The best selling games aren't always the best ones you should buy

If a game is selling extraordinarily well, then it's logical to think that there's something about it that's good enough to get millions of players to spend their money on it. But you shouldn't let the top-sellers list dictate how you buy games.

These six are just some examples of games that were all very good, excellent, even, and yet, for one reason or another, failed to be financially successful at launch, or in their lifetime.