Strange games but awesome

[JaxiD]

I'm not much of a gamer but I love video games that are so weird they become amazing.

So introduction to, G-Darius.

You play as either Sameluck or Lutia, pilots of the Silver Hawks which are space fighter crafts. Your enemy? Robotic space fish.

I do not kid, the entire game is set about the pemise of flying through the universe fighting robotic space fish (or the Thiima). And it is awesome!

It is a side scrolling shooting game which came out on the PS1, but something about it, the music maybe, something just makes this rediculous idea outstanding. What is even good is that you can send out capture balls that overide the robotic space fish as you fight them in order to make them fight along side you, where they'll shoot until they're destroyed, or you can detonate them to cause damage to everyone in the surounding area, or turn them into a gigantic laser beam that obliterates everything in front of you.

Link to a video of the game being played. (watch until the end it is worth it)

If any game should be remade in HD and put on the Xbox Live marketplace, it is this game. For certain.

What do you think? And does anyone else know any weird games that are so weird they become awesome?

[Turnsky]

nomad soul.


some weird french soulbuggery going on... when i first played it many moons ago, it freaked me out something chronic...

[Jairus]

Does Psychonauts count? Playing as a psychic kid run away from a circus whose task is to leap into the mental worlds of some of the most deranged and crazy people you can meet, and save the world from the plot of a madman? And one of the worlds is ripped right out of a black velvet painting, and another world is a city that you rampage through Godzilla-style? And it has telekinetic bears, secret agents who disguise themselves as dissatisfied housewives by holding a bowling pin and talking about their pies and their husband's waning sexual desires for them, tiny fish people, rabbits made of meat, Napoleon playing against his descendant for control of their shared mind, an evil critic who attacks you with his scathing notes, a dentist who harvest brains with sneezing powder, a mentor who pops out of your ear when you wave a piece of bacon next to your ear, and a bizarre conspiracy involving the Milkman and a bunch of girl scouts? Sign me up!

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Oddworld, Abe's exodus.

A kind of platformy action/adventure game where you could fight off the enemies.


With farts that become explosive after you drink their soda.

[JaxiD]

Gitaroo Man.

You play as a boy who is given a magic electric guitar and with it transforms into Gitaroo Man, a super hero who fights aliens with the power of music.

The aliens also fight back with musical instruments.

It's a rhythm game, what it great about it, besides the plot, is that when you hit the right notes you actually form the guitar riffs, getting right or wrong notes changes the pattern of the song.

Gitaroo man fights a ufo built up of a giant keyboard, that draws it's power from firing lazers at bystanders, lazers that make people dance!

[Kafzeil]

killer7.

Born from the mind of a man who can bets be described as a Japanese David Lynch Meets Quentin Taratino, with some luchador thrown in for fun, you play a group of assassins who must fight a horde of laughing monsters called the Heaven's Smile. Things only get weirder and weirder as you play more of the game, and things like Dissociated Personality DIsorder, Government Conspiracies, a cult of personality, and one of the most depraved villains to ever appear on a video game in a long time.

[Dekari]

Rez


One of the few reasons to get a Dreamcast.  Or at least it was until the ported it to the PS2.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

There was also that weird Doom mod Tapewolf made......... I can't believe I put oddworld over that.

[Janus Whitefurr]

CHO ANIKI.

Two burly musclemen in tight speedos with holes in the tops of their heads shoot down strange things and creatures with white bolts of energy.

It's a sidescrolling shooter.

From Japan.

[Teroniss]

No More Heroes - Otaku Assassin with a Beam Katana that you have to jack the WiiMote off to charge the battery to, and looks like he's got diarrhea during one level when you have to run while being shocked.

[TheDXM]

Braid is a very recent one which comes to mind.

[Tapewolf]

I've mentioned Imogen often enough, but another striking game from the same era was Head Over Heels.

This bizarre isometric game has two main characters whom you control alternatively, switching between them with the Enter key if memory serves.  They both resemble dog heads.
Head has arms and is able to jump high and glide.  Given a device resembling a watering-can, he can fire doughnuts which paralyse enemies (while they lick off the sugar, according to the manual).
Heels has no arms but can run very fast and can carry up to three objects in a bag.

They start isolated, but when you are able to get the characters to meet, it is possible to merge them into a single entity which can run fast, jump and glide.  The rooms in the game are designed such that you will need to employ specific combinations of characters in order to succeed.

There was a remake for the PC a few years ago (Win32, BeOS and a binary-only-linux port I did).

Damn, I think I'm going to have to play it again now!

[TheJimTimMan]

Hm, would Gratuitous Space Battles be welcome here?

Psychonauts

Just about any game by Tim Schafer could fall under this heading (Day of the Tentacle anyone?). Time Gentlemen, please and its prequel Ben There, Dan That are also good contenders from the adventure game side of things.

[JaxiD]

Skullmonkeys.

The intro speaks for itself.

The entire game is a platformer made entirely from claymation, the plot is also both ridiculous and hilarious.

[Lysander]

I've played Skullmonkeys; an interesting game indeed. "Here's a little bonus room where you don't have to worry... There are no monsters here, hey wait look over there... I'm a little like your dad and a little like your mom..."

I've seen my brother play Psychonauts, but never played it myself.

I love G-Darius and all of its stages, endings, music, game play. Ever hear of Darius Gaiden for Sega Saturn? It plays similarly except there's only a few monsters you can capture, when you level up a weapon or missile the level goes down when you die, the game is freaking hard (I have to use the maximum continues for player one and begin half way through as player 2). It is also very great.   

[JaxiD]

haha

The bonus room music was very funny.

Oh and I did not own a Saga Saturn so I have not heard of that. As can be guessed by the trend of video games I have spoken of, I have only ever owned a PS2 and lately an Xbox 360 though I only have 3 games that I don't play very often. x_x;

[ilpalazzo]

You guys are forgetting about the the game that started SkullMonkeys, The Neverhood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWsONM-1iVQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIsgRgmT9MA

[JaxiD]

I did not forget that game, I was actually planning on bringing that up next. XD

Remember, Don't jump into the hole.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

The Neverhood rocks. Nuff said.

I never got a copy of Skullmonkeys, although I kinda wanted it. I think it requires a system I don't have, or something.


... All sorts of things in The Neverhood. "I gave at the Hall of Records." "Hey, Klaymen, say 'knock knock'."

And, of course, the Weasel.

[Tapewolf]

Here's another obscure one: XOR

This was a puzzle game along the lines of Repton/Boulderdash, which in its original form involved the player gathering diamonds from each map while avoiding being crushed by rocks which were held up by soil or the diamonds themselves.  The player could withstand the weight of a rock being above them, but if it fell any distance they would die.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repton_%28video_game%29

....anyway.  XOR was the same idea but implemented in a strange and surreal way.  Instead of having a humanoid avatar, the player controlled two shields, which they could swap between using the return key.  Instead of gathering anything of value, you had to collect masks and rocks were replaced by fish (which fall downwards) and chickens (which 'fall' to the left).
There were also bombs of two types which could explode in a horizontal or vertical axis and dolls which could be pushed but would keep moving in that direction until they hit a wall or similar obstruction.
In addition, you had a limited number of moves.  Earlier levels would give you 3000 turns or so - more than enough to complete them - while later maps would give you only a leeway of maybe 5-10 moves.

Screenshots from the BBC and Archimedes versions can be found here:
http://www.danceswithferrets.org/xor/about.htm

[Ryudo Lee]

You guys are forgetting about the the game that started SkullMonkeys, The Neverhood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWsONM-1iVQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIsgRgmT9MA

You know what that reminds me of?  Earthworm Jim.  I wonder if any of the The Neverhood guys went over to Shiny or if the Shiny guys were influenced by The Neverhood.