Weird Game Mechanics

[Shadowstar38]

I was sitting in class, bored, when a really bizare idea popped into my head. So now it's time to share it with all of you.

See, I had this idea, where you play a character with ADD. And in certain points of the game, your objective markers will just disappear from the map to indicate he forgot what he was doing.

After that I thought, "hey! Let's take this disorder as a game plan premise to it's logical conclusion". What if your character was diabetic, and you had to stock up on insulin before doing missions? Yeah. I have a weird mind.

But my question to you is, have you ever thought of a weird mechanic to add to a game. Or have you actually seen a game mechanic that you thought was really bizzare?

 

[sextus the crazy]

The World Ends With You's two screen combat is unique. But It doesn't work well; it's too cumbersome and the top screen combat just turns into button mashing.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

I was sitting in class, bored, when a really bizare idea popped into my head. So now it's time to share it with all of you.

See, I had this idea, where you play a character with ADD. And in certain points of the game, your objective markers will just disappear from the map to indicate he forgot what he was doing.

After that I thought, "hey! Let's take this disorder as a game plan premise to it's logical conclusion". What if your character was diabetic, and you had to stock up on insulin before doing missions? Yeah. I have a weird mind.

But my question to you is, have you ever thought of a weird mechanic to add to a game. Or have you actually seen a game mechanic that you thought was really bizzare?

Both of those would probably get deemed as "offensive" and cancelled. Game aren't allowed to tackle issues like that in their own special way, you know? Otherwise, they do sound like good mechanics for a game that tried to tackle stuff like that.

OT: I haven't really seen any weird game mechanics. Unique ones, but not really weird. Like, Super Mario Galaxy's space platforming is unique as fuck, but I wouldn't exactly call it weird.

 

[FalloutJack]

The only game that ever handled that sort of thing right - you know, like thirst and other needs - was Dark Cloud. I don't play New Vegas on Hardcore mode and I see no reason to. You only get bragging rights, really. If you're going to have a game get weird on purpose because of ADD, fine. If you're going to tell me I need medicine all the time, maybe not so fine.

 

[Zeema]

Dark Cloud 2 had a pretty cool way of doing it. you could turn into monsters, fight in a robot, upgrade your Spanner (Wrench for you americans) and Sword into really cool stuff.

 

[Domogo]

The first Kane and Lynch did this pretty well when people would randomly turn into people with pig masks and freak the fuck out of you

 

[Kopikatsu]

Mugen Souls has the 'moe kill' system, where you kill enemies in such a cute way, they revive as little bunny things and become your minions. You can do this to continents. You can turn kill masses of land, make them sentient, and then make them work for you.



There's also Zettai Hero Project, where the entire game is a single battle. Every time you fight the final boss and lose, the game 'upgrades'. Like, it starts off as a FF1-style 8bit game, then upgrades to 16bit, and keeps going up.

Aaaand Makai Kingdom, an RTS where your hero/base unit starts at level 2000 with stats to match. For reference, the final boss is level 52.

Edit: Killer 7. All of the enemies are invisible Regenerators from RE4 called 'Heaven Smiles'. Also, you're one person who can transform into seven other people with varying weapons/stats but SPLIT PERSONALITY DISORDER DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I am disturbed by the lack of Catherine in this thread. Half the game is chilling in a bar making horrible life choices by text while getting piss drunk (it gives you a movement speed buff in the next stage if I rememeber correctly) though I assume you get some random brownie points with Katherine if you don't.

The other half of the game is rushing around pushing blocks, competing against other sheep who push blocks and who ruin your own path occasionally with their shitty block pushing skills and answering questions in a Space Confessional. I swear the guy in there is voiced by the same guy with did Teddie in Persona 4... It's so weird.

Oh and dealing with nightmarish bosses that are modeled over Vincent's own fears personified. Notice you never kill the bosses. You merely escape the bosses. Y'know, it's symbolic because Vincent's a pussy? Awesome.

Unless it changes in the final level I haven't gotten round to yet.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Katamari Damacy

/thread

I mean, how much weirder can you get than having to rebuilt the stars by rolling up ever larger object with a ball and flinging them into space?

Runners up include:

The judgment ring/combo/stock system from Shadowhearts series.

Oblivion's leveling system that forces you to swim against a rock and hop around for hours etc. just so you don't end up with gimped attributes, regardless of what actual skills you use. Seriously you ended up either playing how you wanted to and having a much harder time of it because your stats are low compared to your level and skill level, and therefore enemies are waaaay stronger than you the entire game. Or you planned out EVERY skill increase for EACH level up so you could end up with maxxed stats and still get smacked around by uber goblin juggernauts when you finally BEIGIN PLAYING THE GAME 20 hours later.

 

[odBilal]

Far Cry 2 tried something like your idea with the medicine. You had to do missions to get malaria medicine for yourself. It was pretty annoying. Also Dead Rising 2 tried that but with a twist. You had to get Anti-Zombie medicine for your daughter before the timer ran out. That was also annoying as fuck.