I have 2 picks:
PES (yeah it was big in Latin America and Asia but never truly beat FIFA popularity worldwide except in the early 2000s), if I had to pick a specific version, is either PES 2010 or 2013, 2016 was also great.
FIFA street 1: Almost 2 decades later and still think it’s the best FIFA game ever, not even the street sequels were able to surpass it. FIFA 11 and 13 were good too but those aren’t underrated in any way.
Edit: wow y’all old lol
NES - Blades of Steel
EDIT: Come to think of it, that other hockey game on NES that might be more obscure. I don’t remember the title, but basically each team had four players, and before the match you could choose how fat they were. Skinny = fast, but falls down from the slightest bump. Sometimes they even fell for no reason. Fat = Slow but sturdy. Then there was something in the middle. Pretty fun game that allowed for a variety of strategies depending on the physique of your team.
Maybe it’s underrated these days because I imagine almost no one would be playing it these days but back in the actual days of the NES, Blades of Steel was beloved, at least here in Canada.
Nhl would benefit from only losers get a penalty for fights
That was just called Ice Hockey. That’s the one I played most on NES.
When you get the chance sometime, there’s a code you can activate at the title screen of Ice Hockey that reduces the puck friction to near zero, making it pinball all around the rink every time there’s a slapshot. Super fun.