Top 10 Lists: The Top 10 WEIRD Games

There are weird games and then there are WEIRD games. Dreamfall is weird because it's an accessible adventure game. Psychonauts is weird because it's a very inventive platformer. But these games here are just plain WEIRD. They defy the conventions of their genre, create new genres, or simply play like nothing else before them.

So maybe it's one of the least popular Mario titles, but it's definitely one of the weirdest. I really dig its Mario-meets-Carmen-Sandiego feel. It is far more puzzle game than platformer, and the hub idea is a nice throwback to the warp areas of the first Mario. You'll spend a lot of time trying to answer questions you'll not know the answer to, but you just might get a history lesson out of it.

A side-scrolling racing game? How does that work? With lots and lots of tricks. This SNES gem is a true innovator and something of a cult classic (as are most of these games). The game has a very refined trick system that makes the gameplay move fast and furious, just like a good racer should. As a knock to its competitors, if you input Sega or Sonic as your racer's name, the game will reject it as "not cool enough".

Every level starts with you falling from the sky. After that it just gets weird. Crazy weapons of mass destruction abound, as do enemies that defy explanation. There's a crazy sense of humor at work here that only the developers of Earthworm Jim and Wild 9 could have created. And there has probably never been so much variety in a shooter before this- flying, sneaking, sniping, blasting, and even platforming. It's all good stuff, and very pretty by PS1 standards.

It's like Conker's Bad Fur Day with guns! Actually it is. It's part platformer, part shooter, and all nasty stuffed animal on stuffed animal action. The script is hilarious and the puzzles are mind-benders, and all the animals are rotten killing machines. This is Acclaim in its element.

The spiritual sequel to Uniracers, this is the only other sidescrolling racer I've seen, and it really makes it work with a unique grappling hook mechanic. You can use your hook to grab ledges or other players for some crazy action. And with 100 levels and about a dozen characters, there is a ton of value of your dollars here.

Could this game be much weirder? The music is both happy and off-beat. The characters are rolling, squishy balls that absorb each other to become bigger. But weirdest of all are the controls, as the only way to move your characters is to tilt the screen either left or right to roll them along. It sounds simple, but there is enough deep gameplay and secrets here to keep even the hardest hardcore gamers busy for a long time.

This often feels more like an interactive movie than a regular video game. But it's a movie where you control the character interactions and relationships and can change the ending with a few simple choices. The whole experience has a film noir feeling to it, even when it tackles Matrix-like scenes. But you have a choice through it all. Who survives and how it all ends is all up to you.

This game brings weirdness to a whole new touchable level. From snorting mucous to making statues pee to playing NES classics, this game has all your fetishes covered. And it will take a lot of touching, blowing, moving, and screaming to get to the pretty much nonexistent ending. But I can guarantee, you'll never have so much fun with such a shallow experience.

It's part platformer, part shooter, part survival horror, but without all the pitfalls of each of these genres. You have infinite ammo, you can't really die, and you're the king of the underworld. Throw in some voodoo and creepy levels, a lot of classical and pop culture references, some truly unique weapons, and you have a very, very odd game. This game was largely overlooked because of the bad PS1 version, but on any system, it still has one of the best stories and voice acting of any game ever made. Just be careful though, it's a bit twisted and mature.

One of the kings of weird, Okami sets new visual standards for the PS2 . Inexplicably, it makes creating vegetation as fun a video game pasttime as pulling off a headshot. The dialogue is overly simplified and overly wordy, but contains enough humor to make it worthwhile. And at 40+ hours it overstays its welcome just a little, but I can guarantee the time you spent with it will never be forgotten.

Now wasn't that weird? You may not like them all, and you may have wanted to see a bit more Ico and Beyond Good and Evil in this list, but your choices probably weren't weird enough or I just didn't play them. But hopefully you'll give these games a chance, even if they're not in your favorite genre.

List by dragonslayer22 (08/01/2007)