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Hyena

Weird Video Games

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Just for my own personal "research", what are some of the most bizarre video games you've played?

I'm looking for pre-N64 games, preferably not DOS or Windows games. (My theory is that games' inherent weirdness hit a peak sometime in the 80s or 90s). I have plenty of ammunition for NES (Monster Party, etc) but if anyone has played some really messed up games for old systems like Colecovision, that's a plus.

If anyone can think of anything they played as a kid which they remember being really twisted, that would help me out a lot.

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Man, have I EVER played some weird games!

* Parodius series - To give an example of how weird this game is, one of the "missions" in Sexy Parodius (arcade game) involves you flying through an Evil Penguin headquarters and free the babes that they've kidnapped. There's also the giant corn cob for a boss, and a stick figure on a paper airplane as one of the playable characters. His name is Koitsu, which translated, means "This guy".

* VS Block Breaker (Japanese title: Saru, Kani, Hamu, Zo!) - A breakout game, involving guys in hamster suits carrying paddles, bouncing hamsters around and breaking stuff. And you have to do it before the giant dog crowds you in.

* Incredible Crisis (PS1) - A series of strange minigames following the lives of ordinary people. The first segment of the game starts off as a dancing game in an office environment, then has you running from a giant iron globe, and then hammering an elevator button, tight rope, dodging traffic while riding a stretcher...okay, so it's not that weird.

* Wario Ware, nuff said.

* Space Bomber (arcade) - Piloting either a normal ship or a Tetris block, shoot down the giant dog heads, frogs, and garbage can robots.

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Hay, it's Hyena.

What about marble madness for NES? That game was kind of odd. Fun, and hard as hell even.

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Earthworm Jim and even moreso Earthworm Jim 2 on Genesis were weird in pretty much every possible way

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SimCopter, but in a really really good way.

" SimCopter one reporting heavy traffic! "
" Heavy traffic in this area; use alternate routes! "
" Move along now! "
" Move along! "
" Get moving you stupid idiot! "

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Thanks, Wild Weasel. I'll look those up. (And yes, I'm aware of Wario Ware and it is weird)

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Most of you have probably heard of this, but Gish is an odd little game. You play a ball of tar that has to rescue his girlfriend who was captured by some guys and is being held captive in some sewers(real descriptive, I know :p ). Did I mention it has physics and Gish acts just like a ball of tar should? If you haven't played it, download the demo!

The Shadow of the Beast series is also kind of wacky, not to mention sadistically hard. You can find the entire series on the Amiga, while the first two games only came out on the Genesis. The Sega Master System and the SNES both got completely new versions of the first game in the series.

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AndrewB said:

SimCopter, but in a really really good way.

" SimCopter one reporting heavy traffic! "
" Heavy traffic in this area; use alternate routes! "
" Move along now! "
" Move along! "
" Get moving you stupid idiot! "


"MOMMIE, THE MEN AT THE BEACH ARE ALL HUGGING EACHOTHER AND MAKING FUNNY SOUNDS"

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how about mario. i mean think about it.

all the mushrooms, turtle kicking, flying raccons, italian plumpers, princesses, and all the other wierd stuff in that game. fun as hell, but still wierd.

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The Neverhood (PC)<- best adventure game ever, really tripped out, need to play the legitamite copy though, ripped version blows.
Skull Monkeys (PSX)<- Imagine Donkey Kong fucked up on LSD, has the same protagonist as The Neverhood, but it's a killer side scroller
Rad Gravity (NES) <- Just play it and you will understand.

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Revolution X. I played through nearly the entire arcade game (Not one of the poor console ports) and for some reason to me shooting CD's at an evil new world order while Aerosmith cheered you on just struck me as odd. Oddly enough, the actual arcade cabinet was for sale, but a grand didn't seem like it was worth it to my dad. :P

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Cyb said:

Earthworm Jim and even moreso Earthworm Jim 2 on Genesis were weird in pretty much every possible way


Earthworm Jim, Boogerman, etc were funny games. They were purposely making it strange for your entertainment. I'm looking for something more along the lines of a game that one guy made in his basement when he was stoned one night, and it somehow managed to get on store shelves.

Psyonisis said:

Revenge of the Mutant Camels. What a hilariously fun game.

Snarboo said:

Most of you have probably heard of this, but Gish is an odd little game.


Yes, but I did say I was looking for older than N64, non DOS/Windows games.

Sephiroth said:

how about mario.


Yeah, there is something weird about that if you think about it, but I'm more looking for games where the weirdness is immediately obvious.

Examples: One of the bosses in Monster Party (a game in which you play a little kid with a baseball bat who teams up with a dragon named Bert to defeat a planet full of monsters) is a giant fried shrimp that says "Look out, Baby. Here I come."
I think that's infinitely more bizarre than eating a magic mushroom that makes you double in size.

By the way, someone definitely should have mentioned Michael Jackson's Moonwalker by now.

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Hyena said:

Examples: One of the bosses in Monster Party (a game in which you play a little kid with a baseball bat who teams up with a dragon named Bert to defeat a planet full of monsters) is a giant fried shrimp that says "Look out, Baby. Here I come."
I think that's infinitely more bizarre than eating a magic mushroom that makes you double in size.

By the way, someone definitely should have mentioned Michael Jackson's Moonwalker by now.


Bert's a gargoyle.

You forgot the bare legs sticking out of the ground :o

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Hyena said:

Yes, but I did say I was looking for older than N64, non DOS/Windows games.

I played Revenge of the Mutant Camels on my old Atari ST. The same guy who made that also made Llamatron, a bizarre Robotron clone. One of the bosses was a fractal mandelbrot that screamed at you and shot bullets. You had to run around rescuing camels, llamas and goats. The game was so psychadelic that it had to be made by someone on drugs.

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I'd say two of the more unusual games I've played are Tecmo's Deception and Fatal Frame. Tecmo's Deception is about your character who is a prince and was about to inherit the throne when your brother framed you with your father's murder so that he could usurp the power. When you're being executed, your character calls out for help from any force, good or evil to help you. Unsurprisingly, an avatar of the Devil comes to take you away in exchange for helping ressurect him by living in a castle where you lure intruders to slay them to make monsters or steal their souls. The idea is that you are looking for artifacts vital to Satan's resurrection, though there is some plot twists & complications. Good times on the PS1, heh. Fatal Frame is about your character who is looking for your brother who is missing after searching for a missing novelist friend and his crew, who had been researching a haunted mansion for their upcoming book. Apparently some weird Shinto rituals took place there and evil spirits are roaming about, though there's more to the story than that. Of course, this game was made by Tecmo too.

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I don't know about many games, let alone weird ones. I would have to say though that the weirdest game I can remember is Earthbound.

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WTF, I never played any games outside of DOS/Windows before N64 came out. Well...except for C64 games. Most of those were just arcade game remakes.

I do however remember one game called "Save New York" or something where giant birds were attacking a city and you had to save it from being dmolished with your turret on the ground. Kinda like space invaders.

Restrictions aside, I think Bad Mojo was the strangest game around though I never played it. It looked bizarre as Hell though and was an instant cult classic. Myst was pretty weird, but is probably the most boring, pointless, and overrated game ever made. Max Payne was pretty fucked up at parts. The Invasion of the Mutant Space Bats of Doom should win strangest title ever. That one Japenese fighting game series, Cho Aniki or something, is pretty strange in a very homosexual way (wait that fits within the criteria).

Hmm...stuff.

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Oh wait, I remember a game I played at my friends house a long, long time ago called Karnov where you were this fat, naked guy who shot fireballs from his armpits. Actualy, it was a pretty damn fun game. Also, he had this wrestling game that despite being made up of perfectly normal characters had a humanoid fish-monster as one of the characters. It was fucked up because everyone wanted to play as him and no one esle because he'd bite the neck of his opponents.

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I remember Save New York! Hah.

And yeah, a lot of C64 games are just translations of arcade games, but you've be surprised how many weird games it has.

The following are all C64 games:

Bruce Lee is a game where you control Bruce Lee and you guide him through a series of underground caves, fighting ninjas and green sumo wrestlers, and avoiding weird traps like conveyor belts that pull you into spikes. The final boss looks like a cross between a Japanese Demon and Donkey Kong. Instead of throwing barrels he spits bouncing rocks at you and if you run up and hit a switch on the other side of the room, he gets fried for some reason.

Creatures 2 is a game where you command a little hairy cartoony creature and you have to save other hairy cartoony creatures from evil creatures and the traps they set up. Sounds like your basic kids game except for the blatantly gratuitous violence that goes on if you fail.

Hover Bovver is a lawn mowing game. Seriously. The story is that your lawn needs mowing, so you "borrow" your neighbours mower. The objective is to finish mowing your lawn before the neighbour catches up to you. You also have a dog you can order to attack, which can buy you some time. The dog has a loyalty metre (which goes down every time you tell him to attack until he stops listening) and a tolerance metre (which goes down progressively until he finally attacks you). If you mow through the flower bed your wife runs out and joins your neighbour in trying to stop you.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Keep 'em coming if you think of any.

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Hyena said:

Hover Bovver is a lawn mowing game. Seriously. The story is that your lawn needs mowing, so you "borrow" your neighbours mower. The objective is to finish mowing your lawn before the neighbour catches up to you. You also have a dog you can order to attack, which can buy you some time. The dog has a loyalty metre (which goes down every time you tell him to attack until he stops listening) and a tolerance metre (which goes down progressively until he finally attacks you). If you mow through the flower bed your wife runs out and joins your neighbour in trying to stop you.


Doesn't sound too different to the Advanced Lawnmower Simulator

One Man and His Droid was another weird one. About rounding up weird robotic sheep with a robotic dog (actually looking at it now this game is probably what inspired Lemmings).

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AndrewB said:

SimCopter, but in a really really good way.

" SimCopter one reporting heavy traffic! "
" Heavy traffic in this area; use alternate routes! "
" Move along now! "
" Move along! "
" Get moving you stupid idiot! "

Have you ever listened to the radio in Streets of SimCity? Or even read the newspapers in SC2k?

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If you're looking for wierd games, look no further than old C64 games and/or japanese NES/SNES titles. Some examples that spring to mind:
* "Fist Of The North Star" for NES
* "Exertainment Mountainbike ..." for SNES
* This strange game for Amiga which was full 3D where you walked across small islands (like an archipelago) and really did nothing, you could just walk around for hours.

There are way too many to list, I can't even remember the name of them all. Especially from the C64 era.

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Hyena said:

I remember Save New York! Hah.

And yeah, a lot of C64 games are just translations of arcade games, but you've be surprised how many weird games it has.

The following are all C64 games:

Bruce Lee is a game where you control Bruce Lee and you guide him through a series of underground caves, fighting ninjas and green sumo wrestlers, and avoiding weird traps like conveyor belts that pull you into spikes. The final boss looks like a cross between a Japanese Demon and Donkey Kong. Instead of throwing barrels he spits bouncing rocks at you and if you run up and hit a switch on the other side of the room, he gets fried for some reason.

Creatures 2 is a game where you command a little hairy cartoony creature and you have to save other hairy cartoony creatures from evil creatures and the traps they set up. Sounds like your basic kids game except for the blatantly gratuitous violence that goes on if you fail.

Hover Bovver is a lawn mowing game. Seriously. The story is that your lawn needs mowing, so you "borrow" your neighbours mower. The objective is to finish mowing your lawn before the neighbour catches up to you. You also have a dog you can order to attack, which can buy you some time. The dog has a loyalty metre (which goes down every time you tell him to attack until he stops listening) and a tolerance metre (which goes down progressively until he finally attacks you). If you mow through the flower bed your wife runs out and joins your neighbour in trying to stop you.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Keep 'em coming if you think of any.


Don't forget the less-than-famous "KKK Adventure" and "Fuck Quest".

Also, I remember this side-scroller game for C64 where you controlled a bunch of kids who were trying to start a band or something. You walked around town looking for weird items... damn, can't remember the name. "Everyone's a Wally"?

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