vague/strange games that you like

[Force Majeure]

I love threads such as this. Some of these might not seem too vague to some of you, but many of them depend on your age:

Space Station Silicon Valley (N64, 1998)
This is on my short list of favorite N64 games of all time, probably up close to Zelda OoT and Super Mario 64. It's that good. It's wickedly irreverent, ingenious in its premise, and actually funny. It looks cute but the premise of the story is slightly less: you are a parasitic microchip, and you have to implant yourself in dead animals and possess them to survive. Each of these animals have different traits. The sheep is the most lame, but somehow I remember it being able to fly/float or something of that nature. Bunnies could only hop, elephants were slower than molasses, etc. All tons of fun. If you have an N64 and you want to play something on it, get this. Immediately.

Pocky and Rocky (SNES, 1992)
An incredibly cute game that plays rather like SNES Zelda games. The difference is that two people can play at once. Pocky's a kid, and Rocky is some type of raccoon dog thing. They can fire a ranged weapon, or attack melee-style. It's really simple, but a lot of fun.

Okami (Wii, 2008)
This game is excellent, but sadly almost completely neglected. It's by Capcom, which usually brings up some red flags for me, but it plays very similarly to Zelda, which is a definite plus. The gist of the story is that you are Ameterasu, the Shinto goddess of the sun, and you have to save ancient Japan from ....something evil. It's done in a really cool-looking Japanese woodblock print style and the gameplay is really entertaining. As I said, almost completely neglected. The upside? I got it for $25.

Fat Princess (PS3, 2009)
It's really funny that the game I find most entertaining on PS3 is ridiculously simple. It's all team-based, online play, and the point is this: you have to rescue an obese princess from another team's castle, all the while protecting your own princess from the other team. You can feed your princess cake, which will make her harder to move by the other team. You can play as five different classes (ranger, cleric, mage, warrior, builder, I think, I usually only play as a mage) and *gasp* you have to work as a team to get the Princess back to your castle. Did I mention that it's incredibly bloody? :)

Tanks (TI-84, ???)
I wasted so many hours in my calc class playing this dumb game. It's essentially what it sounds like: you are a tank, and you blow up the other tanks. It is, however, brilliant.

Baldur's Gate II (PC, 2000)
The last great PC game of the millennium. You might be reading this and thinking that it's not obscure enough, but I've come across too many "gamers" who have never heard of it. To make a long story short, you play a Bhaalspawn, an offspring of a dead god of murder named Bhaal. The game is c. 2000 graphically, but eons ahead of many more recent games in terms of gameplay and depth of storyline. The addition, Throne of Bhaal, was decent, as well. In my opinion, the best D&D game for PC. By far. Play it; it will consume your life.

I'm sure there are others that are just slipping my mind, so I might update later.

 

[Firestorm]

Tiny Toons All-Stars (Sega Genesis) - Don't look at me like that, I really liked (and still do!) this game! It's a collection of some sports where you get to use your favorite Tiny Toons! There is basketball, soccer, bowling and some other games. In basketball and soccer you pick your team from the pool of toons, and each has their own unique "power" you can activate during the game to help you score. It could be mostly nostalgia, but it's a fun game!

YES. You will not believe how many times I rented that. I was so sad I could never find it for sale. Best fucking sports game ever. NHL 10? Pft. Mario [Blank]? Puh-leez. You my good friend, know taste. If this was on XBLA, PSN, or even VC, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[Thorns]

Baldur's Gate II (PC, 2000)
The last great PC game of the millennium. You might be reading this and thinking that it's not obscure enough, but I've come across too many "gamers" who have never heard of it. To make a long story short, you play a Bhaalspawn, an offspring of a dead god of murder named Bhaal. The game is c. 2000 graphically, but eons ahead of many more recent games in terms of gameplay and depth of storyline. The addition, Throne of Bhaal, was decent, as well. In my opinion, the best D&D game for PC. By far. Play it; it will consume your life.

thanks for spoiling the secret

hmm i played time hollow which is a ds puzzle adventure game like phoenix wright. it was pretty good if short

 

[Minwu]

The Earthbound series. I love the character design and humor =]

 

[Mastadi]

Death Rally, a pretty great racing game with top-down perspective, recently rereleased for windows for free. While it achieved a moderate success, both commercial and critical, when it was released, it wasn't really that popular but it's an awesome game, even now after 13 years have passed since it's original release.

 

[Obsessed]

Three pages and not a single mention of the Ace Attorney series?

It is by far one of my favorite series for the DS. Awesome music, lovable characters, an awesome script, and an engaging storyline.

 

[BigPDaMonsta]

Circus Maximus for Xbox.... chariot racing/fighting!

 

[Thorns]

ace attorney isn't really vague but it definitely is strange. played all four, disappointed with the replay value, but it's a great series

 

[Force Majeure]

thanks for spoiling the secret

hmm i played time hollow which is a ds puzzle adventure game like phoenix wright. it was pretty good if short

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be sarcasm: you know all of the stuff I told you storyline-wise at the beginning.

 

[Vapor Trails]

Tokyo Xtreme Racer series- PS2, Dreamcast, PSP, X360
Tokyo Xtreme Racer is a game series in which you customize cars, and race on the expressways of Japan or the mountians of Japan.
More info about this series can be found here:
http://thextremeracers.freeforums.org/

This is the only odd series I can think of that hasn't been mentioned; it wasn't accepted because of the msleading titles of the last two games.

 

[Dark Kaiser]

Digimon world 3 was great, and any monster rancher game except, 3.

 

[Mr.E]

Hmm, I got nothing new to contribute except Uniracers. >:O Great racing game where your racers are riderless unicycles and you can perform various flip and spin tricks to gain speed. Man, what a poor description. :(

On that note, I am reminded of Demolition Racer: No Exit! Heh, that's an awesome game. Its two main modes are a racing game, where your overall standing is based on the place you finish and how much you beat up on your opponent's vehicles, and a true demolition derby mode where you're in a small arena and attempt to take out the opposition. There's multiple modes for both races and demolitions, plus some other cool minigames like football (soccer) with cars.

 

[cantab]

I have the original Demolition Racer, way back on the PS1. It's alright I guess, I was never very good at it. Also there was a weird bug sometimes with the colouring, making every surface look like one of those magic eye pictures.

 

[Spike64]

Asterix and Oblix for playstaion2 was kind of weird. I enjoyed palying it though, it was fun but there was just some parts that were pretty weird/awkward lol.

 

[McGrrr]

Bookworm Adventures

If you are competent at (and enjoy) word games, I cannot recommend this casual title enough.

The idea is simple; construct words from a 4x4 grid of letter tiles to defeat mythical monsters (and save the princess!). Damage is dependent upon special tiles, items, bonus words, tile values and word length. The storyline is predictable, but endearing at the same time. Although it looks childish, the game gets challenging very quickly, and anyone who does not average 250+ at 2 player Scrabble will struggle to complete it.

 

[asim]

so there's this old gamecube game called lost kingdoms and if anyone's ever played it that would be awesome

basically you're this girl running around trying to save the world from some evil and stuff. pretty generic story but the really unique part is the battles. you fight in real time with enemies, but your character can't actually fight, so you use cards to play monsters. there are monsters which run around and fight with you, some that attack once and disappear, and some that transform your main character into a monster and attack. it's a pretty fun battle system that makes for a great game.

 

[Xia]

I played Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean for Gamecube. It's a pretty neat blend of a card game adn action and the graphics are extremely polished. Great game overall, though it can et very hard facing the final few bosses.

 

[Robo-Ky]

The Dept. Heaven series by Sting, published by Atlus - Riviera: The Promised Land, Yggdra Union (pronounced YU-dra), and Knights in the Nightmare. These are some really niche, hardcore RPGs with unique play mechanics. They may not be the most critically acclaimed titles out there, but I enjoy them a lot.

 

[Niraj]

Boktai for GBA was a pretty strange, but decent game. The game itself involves a vampire hunter, and the cartridge has a solar sensor on it. By playing in sunlight, you would charge up your weapon, a solar gun. Sunlight was basically your ammo. It was made by Hideo Kojima, and there is some stealth involved too. I'd describe it as Metal Gear Solid+Vampire hunting.

Contact is an RPG for DS. You control a boy named Terry that is trying to help this professor who crashes on Earth find cells to repower his spaceship. However, the player is also considered a character in the game, and the professor will directly address you and his concerns about Terry. It's an interesting break of the fourth wall. Terry gains stats by actually performing acts. By this, I mean that if you run around, his speed will increase, if you damage an enemy his strength will increase, and so forth. There are also different costumes you can wield, such as a fisherman and thief. These give different skills. The main issue with this game is that you must return to the ship every time you want to change costumes, which is impractical to say the least. One of the cool things was the Karma stat. You can attack any NPC in the game. Sometimes killing shopkeepers will give you items that normally would cost a ridiculous amount. However, if your Karma gets too low, people will either run away from you, or start attacking you. I believe you can also trade items over Wi-Fi, but I've never used it. One thing that people may not like is that the control over Terry is limited. You merely tap the enemy and he'll start hitting him. You can make him do his skills, but aside from that, it's pretty much automatic. There is definitely a lot of depth, so if this sounds interesting to you, maybe take a look. I believe they are also working on a sequel to it, though I'm unsure of its progress.

Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors for GBC is probably the only decent Dragon Ball Z game I've played. It covers the entirety of the series. It's essentially a turn-based RPG, but the attacks take the form of cards, so you basically make a deck for your characters to use. There are cards that anybody can use, but then there are also character specific ones, like the Spirit Bomb. It has been awhile since I've played it, but if I remember right, each card has a button combination you have to input to use. There's also strategy involved in the battles themselves, as aspects such as distance change things in the battles. If you're closer to your opponent, you do less damage, but have more time to input the button combinations, for example. There are also a lot of unlockable characters. When you beat the game, you can play through again and use anybody you have unlocked for any battle (You can use Cell to beat Frieza, if you want, for example).

Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon for DS mixes Harvest Moon and a "normal" RPG in the sense that there are dungeons and you fight monsters, etc. You can befriend the monsters in the dungeons and have them help you on the farm with watering or harvesting, or even produce stuff for you sell like milk and eggs. It's a decent game, though there are some faults. The focus on farming is pretty much gone imo, since mining for minerals is much more profitable. It also is dumb that rune points (essentially MP) doesn't increase per level. Rune points decrease every time you use a tool or use a weapon. When a crop is fully harvested, a blue circle will pop up which restores your RP, so it can be beneficial to grow crops in the dungeons. The dungeons reflect the different seasons, so once you gain access to the dungeons, you can pretty much grow any crop year round. Though there is a DS sequel, I've played both and would definitely recommend this one, as for a decent part of the second, you can't even access the full extent of the dungeons. There is also one of these for Wii, and though I have yet to play it, I've heard good things.

Killer 7 for GC/PS2 is an extremely strange, but entertaining game. The entire game is on-rails, and is basically a first person shooter, but when you run around it's in third person. I don't really want to explain too much about the story, but it's definitely an interesting game, and pretty cheap too I think.

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime for DS is a fun game. You control a slime named Rocket (surprise...) and go around trying to rescue the other slimes who have been captured. You control Rocket by moving around, but you can also stretch his body to ricochet into enemies. There are also tank battles which are ridiculously fun. You throw items into your cannons to fire at the enemy tank, and you can also enter their tank in order to sabotage them. The goal is to lower the HP of the enemy tank and then destroy their core. You also get some helpers, who can help you load your tank, or even fire themselves into the enemy tank in order to sabotage. Definitely a recommended game.

Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure for Wii is an adventure/puzzle game, and a really fun one at that. Basically you guide Zack around to different items and when there's something to use, the perspective shifts to first person and you use different actions with the Wii remote to use the items. You can also use Wiki, your transforming monkey partner, to transform enemies into items for your own use. I don't know if this one is necessarily strange, or overlooked, but if it is overlooked, it definitely shouldn't be. Top notch.

 

[Mrs.Joe Jonas]

UH I wud haf 2 sayyyy...... Moose wars, on the GBA, where you can battle with meese and eat meese too. isnt that disturbing? well, its reeeeeely fun!!

 

[Death Phenomeno]

Tyrian

A scrolling shooter for Windows 95 that I can no longer play since I run Vista now. Anyone ever heard of this game?

There are playthroughs of it in YouTube, but I haven't find a single video showing the Super Carrot. That makes me sad.

 

[Vapor Trails]

How about "Stop that Roach!" for the GBA.