16 Bizarre Games That Deserve An Explanation

The wonderfully weird world of gaming has come a long way since Pong.

1. Mount Your Friends - Stegersaurus Software Inc

Via gamespot.com

Let’s start with a physics-based competitive climbing game complete with matching sweatbands and budgie-smugglers. The idea is simple, take it in turns to try and climb higher than your friends, all the while ignoring flailing appendages.

2. Zeno Clash - ACE Games

zenoclash.com / Via zenoclash.com

Further questionable fashion decisions can be found in Zeno Clash, a first-person brawler set in the surreal fantasy land of Zenozoik. You’ll come across all manner of odd evolutions just waiting to have some sense knocked into them.

3. Concursion - Puuba Games

gotgame.com / Via wegotthiscovered.com!bGJdhE

Danny Garfield decided one genre wasn’t enough for his team’s debut. That’s why gameplay switches from Mario to Xevious to Golden Axe in this playable multiple personality disorder.

4. Noby Noby Boy - Namco Bandai

wakeupandsmelltheashes.com

They might have set the bar with Pac-Man but Namco Bandai chose to ignore said bar in 2009 by letting players take control of an all-consuming worm whose tubular body often finds itself in knots.

5. Deadly Premonition - Access Games

relyonhorror.com

Both Japan’s oddity and obsession with western culture went overboard in this Twin Peaks inspired murder mystery starring a special agent who regularly discovers leads in his morning brew.

6. Cloud Chamber - Investigate North

onrpg.com / Via hardcoregamer.com

Despite also revolving around murder, Cloud Chamber throws physical evidence out of the window in favour of a communal acid trip featuring super science and hypnotic electronic music.

7. Stalin Vs Martians - Black Wing Foundation/Dreamlore/N-Game

lparchive.org / Via uk.ign.com

If anyone was prepared for the alien invasion, Joseph Stalin probably was. That’s why it’s hardly a surprise to see a giant robotic version of the moustached martinet punching Mechalopod-Hitler in the face.

8. Catlateral Damage - Chris Chung

lgdb.org

The domestic cat may appear harmless but the real truth is that every tabby and tomcat seeks to claw our homes to pieces. Surprisingly enough, Catlateral Damage is the first example of making this monstrosity playable and we hope there are many more.

9. Gang Beasts - Boneloaf

indiedb.com

If you’d rather cause some chaos with your friends then why not try Gang Beasts. Who knew fighting as a one of four faceless jelly babies would be so disturbingly satisfying.

10. Tug The Table - Otto Ojala

appgefahren.de

Otto Ojala’s two-player iOS title boils the classic Tug of War down to a one-button battle and then throws in modifiers like giant heads and slippery floors for maximum ludicrosity.

11. Endless Forest - Tale of Tales

tale-of-tales.com

For a relaxing time, why not go for a stroll in The Endless Forest, an MMO with the sole purpose of allowing players to gallivant through a serene wood as deer. Deer with haloes and human faces.

12. Back to Bed - Bedtime Digital

pocketgamer.co.uk / Via thegamershub.net

It seems your subconscious also shares your face, albeit on a four legged green creature. That creature is Bob’s only protection as he sleepwalks through Dali and Escher-inspired sequences, vulnerable to floor mouths and whale trains.

13. Rez - United Game Artists

gamespot.com

Why not continue to unwind with Rez, Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s abstract on-rails shooter that shipped with the unusually named Trance Vibrator designed to accompany the sounds and melodies to induce synesthesia.

14. Tiny and Big in Grandpa’s Leftovers - Black Pants Studio

mobygames.com

Tiny doesn’t possess a Trance Vibrator, instead he wields an advanced cutting/grabbing tool that he uses to chase Big, the thief now in possession of his Grandfather’s powerful pants.

15. Goat Simulator - Coffee Stain Studios

dtgre.com / Via gamespot.com

Ordinarily goats don’t explode cars, demolish buildings or possess unnaturally long, adhesive tongues, however, in Goat Simulator the broken engine makes anything possible and everything hilarious.

16. Octodad - Young Horses

giantbomb.com

Unlike some animals, Octodad just wants to be loved. Players must maintain the illusion of an ordinary family man. Sporting a three-piece suit and assorted neckties, the destruction he causes is all a result of his eight unwieldy limbs.

Honorable mention: Staggering Beauty

nicework.co.za

Not a game per se but more of an interactive website, Staggering Beauty needs to be experienced with headphones.

WARNING: Maybe avoid this last one if you’re partial to epileptic fits.