Summary
It can be nice to enjoy something comprehensible most of the time, but so much of what makes fiction enjoyable is that distinct detachment from reality. It’s something plausible, but not quite real. Games offer plenty of that too, and maybe even a bit too much, leading to a degree of stagnation among the most highly funded games.
Indie games are seen as a treasure trove of experimental games that aren’t afraid to try new things, especially in a saturated industry that seemingly demands it of them. Yet in a sea of generic triple-a games, we can still sometimes find some truly unique and creative ones out there. These triple-a titles are weird in all the very best ways.
‘Triple-A’ is somewhat of a vague term, so for the sake of this article, it will primarily refer to games from major publishers and/or internal development teams.
Why It’s Weird
You use a ball to collect everything so you can recreate the universe because your father destroyed it by mistake.
The best way to enjoy something truly unusual is to experience it laid bare as intended, and to come away from it still not quite sure what exactly you just witnessed. Katamari Damacy is one of the most wonderfully weird games made by Bandai Namco, and a perfect example of this concept.
In it,you play as the diminutive Prince, son of the King Of All Cosmos, and you are granted a galactic ball of cosmic proportions. Or rather, it comes to be of cosmic proportions, because you must roll it over all things in existence to make an even larger, at times planet-sized, ball. This is all to fix the universe, by the way.
A retelling of the original Final Fantasy, from the perspective of a furious, Kratos-esque fighter.
Final Fantasyis not a series with any single definition. Some installments are like classic fantasy works, others present dystopian futures, and some are even styled like operatic theatre. It is a series defined only by its distinct lack of definition. Despite that unique position, though, nobody expected Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.
Enter Jack Garland, brutally and explicitly annihilating iconic series monsters. Crushing Tonberrys, pummeling Bombs, even beating up Chaos while chanting the word ‘Chaos’ endlessly. After a busy day of extermination, Jack will whip out his headphones and listen to licensed music. This brutal action title has to be experienced.
The Radiant Dialogue system leads to some utterly bizarre conversations with NPCs.
Bethesda’s games have always offered a somewhat esoteric experience, enjoyed the most by those who understand the minutiae of the various games' lore. Things can seem impenetrable without that knowledge, yet somehow the deep and engaging RPG The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion manages to take on a surrealism entirely unique to itself.
You see, Oblivion features a system called Radiant Dialogue. You may not have heard the phrase before, but you will have seen it in action. You may walk up to somebody asking for money, only for their voice to shift and talk about the emperor’s murder. Suddenly, someone else will talk to them and another voice arises, and will accuse the other of theft. It’s a weirdness that exists because of the dynamics of the dialogue.
7Brutal Legend
Jack Black is (effectively) the protagonist of a music game where you use a literal army to defeat enemies in a grim heavy-metal-album-art world.
Double Fine has always existed as a studio withthe freedom and to make more unusual gamesthat wouldn’t typically be an option for developers of their scale. They have plenty of great titles in their repertoire, fromGrim FandangotoPsychonauts, but Brutal Legend still cements itself as one of the weirdest.
Tenacious D has a song called Tribute, but in many ways, Brutal Legend feels like a tribute to Jack Black. Part of that is because he is the voice of the main character of the game, Eddie Riggs. Riggs amasses an army of literal Headbangers in order to fight back the darkness, in a genre-blending title that is actually rather more strategic than its silly premise might suggest.
It understands David Lynch’s works better than a lot of other media, and pays tribute to that by making everything deep and engaging, yet utterly inexplicable. Did we mention the prophetic cups of coffee?
Deadly Premonition, as the title suggests, takes more than a step or two into the realm of the supernatural. It’s a slowly-unfolding, gripping mystery, in the vein of something likeHeavy Rain. Where the latter maintained a grim and horrifying sense of realism, however, something rather more unusual, to say the least, is at the heart of Deadly Premonition.
There are actually quite a few video games seemingly inspired by David Lynch’s work, but Deadly Premonition is perhaps the most obvious. Set in a sleepy American city, ace detective Francis York Morgan tries to uncover the truth behind a series of murders, all the while receiving visions from his coffee and dealing with Mastermind Canines.
Utilizes its medium to blend traditional story-telling with gameplay in a way that subverts while also feeling impossible to perceive.
Yes, David Lynch has had such an unusually wide impact on video games that we have another game seemingly inspired by him (specifically his hit Twin Peaks) in Alan Wake. Titular author Alan Wake is trapped in a nightmarish world that he’s written himself, and now he needs to write himself a new ending.
Of course, everything from Remedy tends to be quite outlandish, but Alan Wake has never shied away from plot devices that exist purely to be a point of interest. The game lets you spoil yourself on the whole story by actually reading Wake’s book. It also features coffee everywhere, because anyone who drinks coffee has prophetic visions, apparently.
Mickey Mouse loudly exclaiming “That’s not Ansem, he just went around telling everybody,” about a custom Kingdom Hearts character.
Kingdom Hearts is a curious thing, because it’s one of Disney’s most successful series. Starting back in 2001, it’s only gone from strength to strength in terms of sales, and interest in the series has never really died down. It’s been, perhaps, rather more successful than you’d expect from a strange fusion of Disney and Final Fantasy characters.
Watching Sephiroth do battle with Donald Duck and his friends isn’t even the weird part though. Every game is essential to the story, and the overarching tale is one of the strangest and most complex in the industry. With worlds' hearts being revealed, people splitting into heart and body, and the most confusing time travel system you’ve ever heard of, this series is a brilliantly bizarre ride.
Reached a level of parody previously thought unreachable, by combining just about every trope into a ludicrous power fantasy of a video game.
For a game series that began as something of aGrand Theft Autocompetitor, it sure did take a leap into absurdity at a hilariously fast pace. While the original was grounded firmly in gritty reality, the games got more and more detached from that as they went on, increasingly embracing the ludicrous. This all culminated inSaints Row 4.
Your first choice in the game is to Cure Cancer or End World Hunger. This actually has an impact. Also, aliens invade. You can fly. Some very unconventional weapons are wielded, including a dubstep gun. You’re the president of America. This is all a simulation. Oh, and Jane Austen is the narrator.
2Spore
You create and evolve your own custom creatures, with results that are never predictable and always peculiar.
Giving players huge freedom to create can be a dangerous business. More often than not, they’ll utilize the tools available to develop something truly bizarre. Spore offers more of this freedom than most other titles, and the results can be predictably strange.
Spore has you create your own species and watch it evolve, in dramatic and exaggerated fashion. Are you carnivorous? Do you conquer others or blend with them? These are all choices that lead you to becoming a space-faring race. It’s a game of boundless creativity, and some of the most peculiar-looking custom critters you’re able to imagine.
A baby helps you defeat monsters that hate Norman Reedus' bodily fluids.
Hideo Kojima ofMetal Gear Solidfame seems to revel in implementing the wild and wacky into his games, regardless of how serious their underlying themes may be. WithDeath Stranding, though, he took perhaps his greatest step ever into truly peculiar territory.
On top of the fact that you are (essentially) playing as Norman Reedus, you are constantly carrying a baby with you that can reveal enemies that are trapped between life and death. When you die, a baby appears in your throat. Your urine makes an effective grenade. There are some deep and evocative themes at play here, they’re just explored in a wonderfully weird way.One of the most unusual action titles in recent memory.
