In just two weeks, gamers who pre-ordered early enough for a PlayStation 4 will be turning on their console's for the first time. As a new era of gaming dawns, another is setting and in honor of the seventh generation, we here at Game Rant are going to get a little retrospective in the coming weeks, reminiscing about the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 era of gaming.

Not every game reaches the commercial heights of Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, FIFA, Halo and Uncharted, so in any generation there are always tons of great games never connect with an audience like they should do. We feel it is important to remember those titles before they fall into obscurity of a past generation, so each of us have taken the time out to stick up for what we feel is an under-appreciated game of this generation.

Take a trip down memory lane with us as we consider this generation's most under-appreciated titles. Oh, and be sure to let us know your own choices in the comments below!

First and foremost, gamers should really consider The Darkness as a forgotten gem of the generation. It was an early game in the console cycle and after a decent but not stellar sequel, some might be put off from journeying back into the Jackie Estacado story.

It was a game where almost every part of the play reinforced the central narrative and themes, something rarely seen in first person shooters. It gave players some of the coolest powers that you can get this gen (heart eating demon vipers and blackholes) while inviting them to reject that power. The story had you at constant odds with the Darkness (uniquely voiced by Mike Patton), thanks to the relationship between Jackie and his girlfriend Jenny. It is a narrative of love and loss, packaged in smart execution and a bleak atmosphere. It is a testament that in a game where you can rip people in half with demon powers, its most compelling scene was the player actively choosing to sit down and watch TV with Jenny.

That said, there has to be special mention of the Viva Piñata and Darksiders. Both were truly unique experiences taking place in vibrant worlds. It seemed that bad marketing, trouble behind the scenes and over-expectation strung up both series, which is a real shame. Time will tell if the franchises come off the shelf in the next-gen, but it currently looks grim for both.

Many gamers enjoyed Spider-Man 2 in the PlayStation 2/Xbox era - and many were disappointed by Spider-Man 3 when it launched on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The adaptation of the third Sam Raimi Spidey flick was not only a letdown in terms of graphics, but it also managed to botch all the exploration and excitement that made Spider-Man 2 so memorable. When Spider-Man: Web of Shadows was released just a year later, a lot of fans still hadn’t recovered from the bad taste that Spider-Man 3 left in their mouths. Once you give the game a fair shake, it’s actually a ton of fun.

Web of Shadows not only broke away from the trap of retelling the stories we had already watched in the films, but also attempted to recapture what made Spider-Man 2 so immersive: web-slinging. Hurdling between buildings while spouting tongue-in-cheek jokes nailed the core appeal of a Spidey game. In the days before Arkham Asylum, Spidey held the best comic book video game adaptation.

A less controversial pick for most underrated game is Earth Defense Force 2017. The over-the-top bad sci-fi movie motifs combined with a solid third-person shooter foundation was more than enough to sell gamers on EDF 2017. The game may not be polished enough to stand out in everyone’s minds, but we'll never forget looking forward to whatever ridiculousness there was to find in the next level.

Forget about Mass Effect’s momentous macguffin for a minute, Sleeping Dogs is this generation's true ‘Lazarus Project’. From ‘Black Lotus’ to ‘True Crime’ and back, this pooch was in and out of the development stew more often than the Korean entry to Crufts, and yet despite its many hardships, Sleeping Dogs did indeed have its day.

Set on the mean streets of contemporary Honk Kong, SD righted many of the wrongs of then-king of the sandbox title GTA IV, introducing a generous checkpoints system, slick driving mechanics and an Arkham-like fighting schema still to be topped by any of Rockstar's open-worlds.

Charting Wei Shen's rise to gangland glory, as an undercover operative with ties to the Triad, Sleeping Dogs' well-paced, well-acted narrative toyed with themes of loyalty, betrayal and kick-ass kung fu. It didn't exactly reinvent the wheel, or stray too far from its hard-boiled cinematic roots, but kudos has to be given to a game that weaves together so many well-worn tropes without inviting cliché.

With gorgeous graphics, pulsing action and an enjoyable cast of characters to call upon, cap and coerce, Sleeping Dogs deserves to be considered amongst the 7th generation's best and brightest achievements. Do yourself a favor and check in with GTA's Far Eastern cousin, before the game's next-gen sequel appears sometime in the far flung future.

As one of the last games that Rare created before becoming a Kinect-exclusive developer, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise managed to improve upon its successor — while still failing to move enough units to even put it on par with the original. Trouble in Paradise featured a wide array of new Piñata species and exotic locales, but the main appeal was the unquenchable desire for players to fill their gardens with all kinds of rare piñatas.

Once requirements had been met and a candy-filled beast joined a player's garden, focus then shifted to making it happy enough to continue residing in the area. Balancing the needs of each creature, while still attempting to obtain new additions and ward off evildoers, made this kiddy-looking game incredibly addictive.

As many know, the series didn't live up to the lofty expectations that Microsoft intended — creating a failed children's television show in the process — and the entire property was quickly shelved. Viva Piñata was easily one of the best series that made its debut on Xbox 360 and it was evidence that Rare still had a little magic left in it. It's failure, combined with the less-than-stellar reception of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, has doomed it to a life of Kinect development... for the time being, anyway.

If you wouldn't call yourself a 'die-hard Nintendo fan,' then multiplayer vehicular combat probably left your gaming vocabulary years ago. But then Blur came along.

The brainchild of Bizarre Creations may have been led to slaughter against other racing titles (and closed the studio as a result), but the game perfectly captured the spirit of Mario Kart, updated and HD-ified for modern audiences.

It may be indistinguishable from most arcade racers, but with ingenious items used to both attack and defend, and designed to draw shouts and tears from a group of friends, it manages to hit all the notes a car combat game should.

That alone makes it a singular game for this generation, and a treasured one to all who discovered it.

It is a sad fact that in all artforms, really good work is forgotten somewhere down the line. Many excellent plays, paintings, films and books have been lost in the shuffle for a variety of reasons. Bad marketing, an over-saturated market, poor planning or high expectations can kill off the chance of just about any great creative endeavor. This goes even more so for video games.

These titles are only a small selection of games that could be deemed worthy of remembering but may get lost into history. It was the same with other unfortunate titles the generation before this one and the one before that. The medium is very lucky to have incredibly expressive and innovative games at the top of its charts but an art is not built on all of its commercial blockbuster successes. The cult movie scene keeps alive movies that would be otherwise long forgotten, and without that, films that are commercial flops that then become revered later on would never get that second wind.

So as the community gets excited about opening up their fresh new hardware and forgeting more and more about the generation past, everyone should spare a thought for games of old that no one is talking about any more. It will help preserve titles that deserve a little recognition!

What games do you think need a little more recognition from this generation? Let us know in the comment.