Do We Get Enough Weird Games?

[Fappy]

I'm a big fan of mind-fuckingly weird movies. Things like: Eyes Wide Shut, Gone Girl, Blue Velvet, Videodrome, Fight Club, 8mm, and Mulholland Drive. Now, you could argue that most games have some weird shit in them and I'd tend to agree, but how often do we get truly bizarre, thought provoking and provocative games; games that are so out there, yet have something profound to say about humanity hidden beneath all the crazy shit?

I am really not sure what the video game equivalent to this would be; perhaps Metal Gear Solid fits the bill? Katamari is weird, sure, but I don't think there's any underlying point to the weirdness.

What do you guys think? Do we have this in video games? Would you like more of it?

Also, what's your favorite weird-as-shit game?

 

[Fappy]

How can you mention mind-fuckery movies, and fail to mention Memento?? It's the greatest mind-fuckery movie of all time!

Anyway, games...

I'd probably say Spec Ops: The Line.
Oh! and also Far Cry 3. That definitely had some mind-fuckery moments in it.

Yes, I do wish there were more games like this.

I thought Memento, but I didn't want to make my list too long XD

 

[Blue C Jeffrey]

LSD Dream Emulator and Killer7 would like to have a word with you...

As for my personal weird-as-shit game, I'll go with OFF by Mortis Ghost.
You can download it free of charge, though you might have to look for an English translation.

The main protagonist is yourself, as the characters in the game directly address you. The character you control (guide) throughout the game is The Batter, literally looks like a baseball player, in his goal to "purify the world." Your instructor is The Judge, a cat with more teeth than the Osmond family.

After a brief tutorial you follow The Batter into stranger and stranger environments, fighting ghosts and encountering odd characters such as Zacharie, a merchant who's aware he's in a video game.

Oh, and the common townsfolk (Elsens) breathe smoke and harvest metal from cows. Plus when they become stressed their heads explode and turn into monsters.

Also there's a fucked up boss battle or two.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Ive seen a fair few over the years did not really make a point of remembering them then again based off movies and games mentioned I guess what others would call weird did not really register as such with me at least not enough to stand out as such anyway.

I remember seeing Cho Aniki and thinking wtf no idea which one I saw just tried looking for it and found that there are a few. Its definitely bizarre and provocative as for thought provoking thats really down to the individual if someone asked me whether fight club for instance was thought provoking I would say...not particularly, but was what I saw of Cho Aniki thought provoking for me? beyond wtf is this no not really maybe if I had completed it or even played it then it would have been but I doubt it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well there's everything Suda51 does. Though he's getting more and more complacent with every new game he makes.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Hotline Miami gets very trippy inbetween murder sprees. This is helped a lot by the slightly creepy retro graphics and the excellent soundtrack.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

How about Rez and/or Child of Eden?

Or the Metal Gear Solid games?

I know that these aren't the exact same kind of mindscrew that you're talking about in your movie examples, but they definitely tripped me up.

To answer your original question: No. I don't think we are getting enough weird games. We need more.

 

[Boolanger]

Tokyo Jungle most of it is just odd from fighting for survival to territory battles between your litter of cats(or whatever) an a bunch of hyenas, lions or raptors. Add in some RPG elements and finding out what happened to all the humans. Definitely a fun game that is more then the parts that make it.

No i don't really think there are enough of them, but I guess often times they are niche products by their and so can be risky to make.

 

[Irick]

The Stanley Parable is a pretty good one for thought provoking.
People have suggested Hotline Miami, OFF
Braid, Bastion... Little Inferno can get pretty up there on the thought provoking scale.

Sluggish Morss is just uh... well, it gets pretty existential. I should probably play the third one...

I think that they are around, I would like to see them be more prominent.

 

[pilouuuu]

Well, there's Deadly Premonition.

Monkey Island and Grim Fandango are great comedy games with some weirdness on them.

And what about Zeno Clash? It's full of surrealistic weirdness.

I think there's some weird games, but nowhere near enough.

 

[Elfgore]

We need more, so many more. More Conkers, more Oddworlds, more of everything weird and mind-bendy. Those games always stick with me more and are just so awesome. I miss the 'ole days sometimes.

 

[Euryalus]

how often do we get truly bizarre, thought provoking and provocative games; games that are so out there, yet have something profound to say about humanity hidden beneath all the crazy shit?

How often do we get games that really do any of those things very well?

OT: Does Kirby count? I know it's not really egregiously weird, but you're a pink blob that goes around devouring adorable creatures or at least killing them in brutal ways... Not to mention that yarn adventure one.

 

[Aeshi]

I'd say so yes. They wouldn't really be weird if they were common place now would they?

 

[Fox12]

LSD Dream Emulator would like to have a word with you...

I can't believe someone actually managed to ninja me on Dream Emulator. Oh well. *cracks knuckles* Hold on, because things are about to get weird.

Spoiler

I'm REALLY excited about a game called Omori. It's actually an upcoming game pushed through by kickstarter. It's described as a surrealist psychological horror rpg. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/omocat/omori

Spoiler

Serial Experiments Lain is always a strong contender. By the way, these aren't cut scenes from the game. This is the game. Like, all of it. Basically you just watch snipets of animation, and try to build a phsychological profile of the main character. I believe you can cycle through the scenes at will. It also has a slight stalker vibe to it, but it works. Is Lain crazy? Who are you? The police? The government? Her psychologist? A figment of her imagination? The games pretty mundane, which only makes the more disturbing scene stand out all the more. I'll add a warning for graphic content for the first video as well, I suppose. Shit gets real the further in you are.

Spoiler

Nietzsche wrote God is Dead after seeing this thing. There's no real message to this game, though. It's just weird.

Spoiler

 

[Evil Moo]

Antichamber is probably a good example of weirdness expressed directly through the mechanics of the game and the topology of the world. That said it may be a bit too abstract to really capture the mind twisting weirdness that can come from distorting recognisable reality into something unexpected. The contrast to reality isn't really captured in Antichamber.

Yume Nikki was very surreal at times. A lot of strange imagery going on in that game. It seems to verge on horror, but without resorting to the usual jump scares, gore, or even the tension of a constant threat. It was just disconcerting with almost no real danger, even if some things in the world appeared potentially hostile. This kind of surreal horror is something I would love to see more of rather than all the Outlasts and Amnesias that personally I find unpleasant to play.

The weird is definitely where my tastes lie, it would be great to see more.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Found this little ditty whilst doing the rounds on Tumblr: http://www.alexanderocias.com/loved.php

Going to quote what the first post said; "the overseeing voice talks as if it owns you, and defies your free will. if you follow its orders, you are praised, and the worldview becomes sharper and more detailed. if you don?t, you are chastised, and the world becomes more vague and difficult to navigate, but also more colourful and loud"

Certainly interesting and it's a free to play browser based game so its worth checking out. Definitely a mind fuck on some level.

That aside as another has at least said, Spec Ops the Line is probably the only other game that comes to mind when it comes to messing with your perception.

 

[Busard]

I kinda miss the Sega Saturn and mostly Dreamcast era when we had incredibly weird, colourful and varied titles: Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, NightS, Crazy Taxi, Samba de amigo. They were festive, cheery and unapologetic about their weirdness

 

[Vault101]

I do like it when games skirt the weird....like Far Cry 3 and such

Bioshock Infinite might not be considered "weird" but it does some crazy things, that's what I liked about it, fucking singing creedance as part of a civil rights riot in 1912

we need more creative shit like that!