Biggest Suprises

[OmegaFlareX]

Shenmue. The mags generally panned it, but I'm finding the game to be very enjoyable. Paying $20 for it (brand new) helped some, too.

Strikers 1945 - PS1. I seriously thought I was going to be playing the original, but instead it's a well-done port of S1945 II! Another surprise - Where's the fucking TATE mode??? Thanks, Sony CEA.

Super Adventure Island II - SNES. A beautiful mix of classic Adventure Island and Metroid/SOTN gameplay. Easily worth the somewhat costly price tag for the used cart (I paid $40 for it a few years ago).

Dragon Warrior III (remix) - GBC. My eyes bugged out of my skull when I saw what Enix managed to do on the ancient hardware of the Game Boy. Easily the best portable RPG I've ever played.

[BioMechanic]

Lots of these, but all of the following fall under the "I thought they'd be good, but not THIS freakin good!!" category:

Vagrant Story
Burnout
Fur Fighters
Fatal Frame
Cosmic Smash
Hot Shots Golf 3
XG3
Soccer Slam
GunValkyrie

[MrKasualUltra2000]

[i]I thought it was going to suck my hairy, Jewish ass...but I can't put the damned thing down! And the art! Oh, the art!

indeed!

[Yoshi]

My most recent pleasant surprise was Midnight Club Street Racing. It was worth every penny of its new $19.99 MSRP.

[Gecco]

Mars Matrix for me. I had heard that it was a decent shooter, but I'm not a huge shooter fan. I guess paying 20 bucks for it new helped. But also all the extras and the strategy involved in each stage blew me away.

[Tsubaki]

JGR I played JSR and never got passed the boring follow the leader game... but once I bought it for $8 and started to play it for real, I realized it was one of the best games to come out over the past few years.

Sonic Adventure 2 To offset the other thread but also because I didn't like SA and was surprised at how fun the sequel could be. Bought it only because the Birthday Pack was a nice incentive.

Kita e: White Illumination Bought it only because I liked one of the voice actresses in it, but discovered that I really enjoyed the game for what it was. I normally detest love sims, but this "Travel Communication" game had a wonderful atmosphere with real life photographs and locations as its backdrop, and very cute and believable characters.

All of these are pretty recent because in older times, I didn't make my own income so I couldn't afford to buy games I don't expect to like :P

[Mzo]

Mars Matrix kicks fat ass. What a great game, and it came out at $20.00, I believe.

[Tain]

Lots of these, but all of the following fall under the "I thought they'd be good, but not THIS freakin good!!" category:

...
Cosmic Smash

Yes! That's probably the biggest one for me, recently.

[Captain Vegetable]

I'll motion for Cosmic Smash as well. I hated it the first time I played it...thought it was a waste of $33.00...but after giving it a second chance, I've fallen in love with it.

Great game!

"We love Cosmic Smash!"

[Skinny Puppy]

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

Looked asinine (and kinda girly), but I took a chance on it anyway. Glad I did, too, as it turned out to be my favorite RPG.

Some others:

Ico
Sambe de Amigo
Um Jammer Lammy