Gaming has its fair share of WTF moments. Just look at games like Katamari Damacy, Hatoful Boyfriend, Goat Simulator, and many more, which were all clearly made to get the gaming populace scratching its collective head (or even falling down laughing).
It's a wide, weird, wonderful world out there in the fringes of the gaming verse. So today we're going to round up 12 truly bizarre games that let you do everything from assembling nightmare-inducing meat monsters to taking snapshots of your co-workers while they evacuate the contents of their stomachs.
Bonus: Several of these games are completely free, or are old enough that they can be found on ROM format if you do a little digging. Have fun getting weird!
Bertram Fiddle and the Inexplicable Meat Mound
My first thought upon seeing some screenshots of this free browser game was that we were finally getting an AAAAAH! Real Monsters style dress up simulator. But I was so, so wrong. I started playing, and my whole world collapsed. Bertram Fiddle and the Inexplicable Meat Mound describes itself like this:
Pleased to meet you, meat to please you. Grab pieces of meat from the trough and arrange them to create your very own inexplicable meat friends. Go on, have a good rummage! Get stuck in.
There's something very distressing about this setup -- grabbing unidentified organs and mounds of meat to create your perfect unholy abomination.
Want your crime against god and nature to have a parasitic twin? How about a genital face? Better give it a circle of broken lamb legs to spin around on. The sound effects really draw you in...and just serve as nightmare fuel.
I seriously woke up in a cold sweat the morning after playing, with visions of meat-things still dancing across the back of my eyes. If you feel like you've got the fortitude to brave the meat grinder, go ahead and play here.
Night Trap
For this little jaunt down gaming memory lane, we're going way back to 1992 and the super futuristic technology known as CDs -- which let consoles like the Sega CD hold entire live action video segments. Developers went sort of hog wild with the whole idea for awhile there, leading to full FMV movie/games like this one.
Night Trap was almost certainly the inspiration behind Five Nights At Freddys, but don't expect any killer animatronic bears here. Instead the goal is to save girls at a slumber party from wandering bad guys by constantly switching between security cameras and closing off doors to block access points (sound familiar)?
Somehow you are part of a secret government agency that has planted numerous cameras throughout this slumber party (ummm.... what?) and you need to keep these girls safe from intruders (kinda feels like I'm the intruder here).
There are some truly unfortunate and hilarious elements at play, like the fact that S.C.A.T. is the name of your government agency. The bizarre vampire / burglar / ninja mashup enemies are hamming it up to the maximum like they know they are in a B-movie, so it's more likely you'll die of laughter than having your blood drained.
The most bizarre part of this game is that it actually led to the creation of the ESRB itself through a campaign by upset mothers and concerned politicians. The outrage was more than a little misplaced, as there's very little actual violence here and no nudity of any kind. The most objectionable scene in the game is something you could easily view in any Sears catalog or Kmart flyer: a lady in a night gown (the horror, the horror!).
Everything
In the weeks since first playing Everything, I've haven't been able to get it out of my mind. It's sort of like un-Katamari Damacy or reverse-Spore, melded with soothing New Age pseudo-science nonsense that will both make you a little sad and maybe give you some comfort about your place in the grand scheme of existence.
It's easily as weird as Goat Simulator, but is also clearly trying to be more of a serious game. You kind of just have to experience Everything to get what's going on (or check out my full review of Everything).
Tofu Hunter
You know those pointless hunting arcade games that just sit there, forever unplayed, at any given movie theater or restuarant? The ones businesses buy so they don't have to put out legitimate games with actual violence or real fun in them?
Now there's a tofu version of that, and you can get it on your mobile device! Mercilessly gun down some herds of rabid tofu, who for some reason bleed when shot. You can grab Tofu Hunter for Android on the Play Store.
Revolution X
Arcade games used to be the greatest thing ever, and some of them were truly ridiculous with the most bizarre of premises. Take Revolution X for instance, where Steve Tyler has you battling a new world order with a CD-flinging machine gun.
This game couldn't decide what it wanted to be (sometimes I destroy amps and blow up stages, and sometimes I'm protecting them?), but the end result was actually really fun in a tongue-in-cheek way. The game was ported to the SNES -- but it wasn't well-received, so the franchise crashed and burned as it was just getting started.
Perhaps most ludicrous of all was the backstory and who was chosen to be the rebel leader. Something tells me that elderly, oversexed Republicans aren't going to be the ones fighting against censorship and saving us from brutal police state dictatorships through rebellious rock 'n roll...
Cat Evolution: Alpaca Zombie!
Awww, cute, you've found an adorable cuddly kitty! Better feed him -- he looks hungry. Oh dear god, he's turned into something horrible with a dozen eyes and tentacles that sucks the blood from mice now!
Cat Evolution: Alpaca Zombie! is like a nightmare version of Tamagatchi, and all the while cutesy nursery room music is playing in the background. Get in on the unexpectedly disturbing action right here.
Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ
Is there a better concept for a game than this Nintendo DS entry? A fan service-heavy and "ready to rock" version of Little Red Riding Hood has to protect Storyland by... going on a killing spree.
There will be shell casings littering the ground and severed body parts galore in this rail shooter. God bless the developer of Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ for their contribution to society.
Stick Shift
Robert Yang strikes again. The mad genius (who I am truly and honestly concerned about because he clearly has some issues that need to be discussed at length with a therapist) behind dick pic simulator Cobra Club and gay bathroom simulator The Tearoom has released what may be his most bizarre concept yet.
I'll let Robert's description tell you everything you need to know:
"Stick Shift is an autoerotic night-driving game about pleasuring a gay car."
The car apparently has a sexual preference, and it wants to be pleasured. Is there a name for this kind of kink where you want to get an automobile off? Are some cars more inherently sexual than others?
Yang (wisely) disabled comments for the teaser trailer video. You can download your copy of the game here.
My Summer Car
And now for a totally non-sexual vehicular adventure! This one is the best and most ultimate "car owning, building, fixing, tuning, maintenance AND permadeath life survival simulator" out there.
Keep yourself alive by eating (well, mostly drinking lots of beer) and trying to build a car from scratch, while residing in Finland, in this truly odd physics-based game currently in Early Access on Steam.
My Summer Car is clearly not meant to be taken too seriously, with the developers stating that "severe car fever is required to play this properly due to it's autistic approach on car building". I mean, you wash yourself in a Sauna... now that is Finnish!
Fairytale Fights
Unlike a lot of the other games on this list, Fairytale Fights is legitimately worth playing -- and you should absolutely be co-oping this with your best friend on the couch while downing shots.
Take up the mantle of famous fairy tale characters who have to go on bloody rampages across a variety of amazing levels, killing with anything you can get your hands on. But just how messed up is this game? Well, there's an achievement for skating in the blood of your enemies for three minutes straight...
Cat President: A More Purrrfect Union
Its official: there's a visual novel more bizarre than Hatoful Boyfriend.
Instead of trying to land yourself a bird, this time you play a teen girl trying to find love while running the presidential campaign of a kitty cat. Because why not? That's Cat President: A More Purrrfect Union...
Self Control
A surprisingly innovative game developed in 48 hours for a contest, Self Control tasks you with getting your co-workers wrangled for a selfie -- but over time they become increasingly less helpful as the drinks start to flow. Download your own copy on Itch.io.
Which of these bizarre games are you going to try out first? Are there any truly WTF titles we missed that should have been covered? Let us know in the comments section!
If you need even more insane games, be sure to also check out:
Published: Apr 19, 2017 09:11 pm