As far as I know, the term “Pile of Shame” originated on an old 1UP Yours episode, spawning a brilliant, albeit short-lived, experiment. The concept was that the Yours crew would revisit an underrated title as the community played along and participated in the discussion via the message boards.
While 1UP Yours’ brief endeavor flared out before it even got started, the Squadron of Shame took up the torch (then, just a small group of like-minded gamers in one corner of 1UP’s forums), and they still carry it proudly today.
This spark of an idea stuck with the Squad, and was eventually revived by 1UP FM, because it fills a need. Not only do we find joy in digging up the gems that slipped through the cracks, but we all have games that we never played but meant to, games we bought but left in plastic, games we put aside for one reason or another, to which we always meant to return but never did. We’ve all got a Pile of Shame.
Here’s mine.