In the vast world of video games, there are sure to be tons of hits. Y strange. You have iconic titles that were always destined for greatness, forgettable at both ends of the spectrum, and outright bombshells that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
In that messy and glorious pot of genres, we also have amazing games that, on paper, shouldn’t have done as well as they did. These games defied the trends of their time, the meticulous algorithms, and all the fickleness that developers must deal with in order to go down in the gaming industry as definitive hits.
10 Viscera cleaning detail
Gamers often go to games as a means of escape. With that in mind, doing housework and cleaning isn’t exactly the most appealing description. However, Viscera Cleanup Detail manages to create an engaging and strangely relaxing experience while telling fascinating stories just because of the aftermath it has to deal with (and clean up).
Any story here is told by the setting and the fact that you have to turn bloody, corpse-ridden, bullet-riddled places into pristine spaces that no one would suspect were the scenes of ghastly battles, fugitive alien attacks, and homicidal monster rampages. Why risk your life as a hero when you can be a glorious sci-fi janitor?
9 goat simulator
The title speaks for itself. In this iconic game, you are a goat. As Pilgor, you are free to roam the world, lapping up everything in sight and causing as much mayhem as you want. A game that started out as a joke ended up being so successful that it spawned ports for new devices years after its release.
At the time of writing, Goat Simulator has a sequel called, of courseGoat Simulator 3. You’d think a buggy meme game about being a goat would just fade away, but it’s still an everlasting physics sandbox game that deliciously satisfies the chaos-loving goat in you.
8 super mario bros 3
Why wouldn’t a Super Mario game work? Well, at the time of Super Mario Bros. 3’s release, many platformers flopped, there was a ROM shortage that delayed its release in North America, and it introduced so many new gameplay elements to the series that it risked being lost. considered “too different”. ” of its predecessors.
However, radical additions to Mario’s abilities, a new map that you can explore and use to return to previous levels, and additional secrets that you can find make Super Mario Bros. 3 an extremely fun game that remains one of the best. the best of the world. Mario’s lineup. It became one of the best-selling games during its release and is still going strong today.
7 scrawl
Scribblenauts has a concept that could have flopped if it hadn’t been executed as well as developer 5th Cell did. There are two ways this could have gone wrong: it doesn’t deliver on the big promise that you can create and edit pretty much anything, or it just ends up being boring, as you mostly just write stuff and see how these creations interact with the world.
Luckily for the game’s players and creators, Scribblenauts ended up being creative, different, and endlessly fun. The series soared to even greater heights with the release of Scribblenauts Unlimited for PC and Wii U.
6 my friend peter
A man and a sentient banana go on a killing spree – it’s a tough pitch, and yet My Friend Pedro sticks out in a wacky and genuinely funny way. In the game, you go through various sidescrolling levels, with an emphasis on doing cool flips and flips along the way. Despite the saturation of shooting games out there, this title manages to stand out and is worth playing for hours on end.
To be fair, the people you fight are the bad guys. That’s what the banana said, so it must be true. Who knew that running around with an arsenal of weapons and a floating fruit could be so effective?
5 gta online
One of the reasons Grand Theft Auto 5 works so well is because you, the player, have the ultimate ability to dictate how the game goes. Even though there are quests, narratives, and a world that moves on its own, the player ultimately decides whether to wreak havoc throughout the city or not.
Now, put that power in the hands of a myriad of players and launch them into the same city. GTA Online shouldn’t have survived the onslaught of the bereaved and hackers, and yet it remains one of the most fun multiplayer experiences out there. There is always something to do in the fictional world of San Andreas, whether you just want to drive or do the missions.
While other open world multiplayer games like Red Dead Redemption Online and, technically, Club Penguin died, GTA Online thrives. There are even role-playing game-specific servers that allow you to literally take on regular jobs just like you would in the real world.
4 Get over it with Bennet Foddy
Getting over it with Bennet Foddy is all about frustration, and all you do is move your Diogenes character’s hammer with your mouse. There is literally no other action you can take other than swinging that hammer. Also, failing means losing all your progress because there are no checkpoints.
One would think that there would be a line between a challenging game that is still fun and pure punishment for the sake of it. Somehow this game manages to dance on that line with expert grace. If you are successful, all that happens is that your character basically ascends into space. For all intents and purposes, there’s no reason this game should be this good, and yet few pleasures can match Beat It.
3 Lost
Stray places you in a lonely cyberpunk world populated by robots as you take on the role of an alley cat. It’s not surprising that he worked, considering the promising concept, but it’s surprising how well he’s done it.
As is the nature of most games published by Annapurna Interactive, Stray is all about enjoying the world around you and connecting with your protagonist. Although you can explore and meet many characters, your protagonist does not speak and much of the game is minimal. Despite that, the characterization works so that you end up feeling attached to the cat and all the people he connects with.
Stray manages to escape the monotony despite its largely laid-back gameplay and forgiving platforming elements. Plus, he manages to tug at your heartstrings with a short story and a few meows.
two Doki Doki Literature Club
In terms of horror, you really wouldn’t think a visual novel would be one of the standouts in the genre. Doki Doki Literature Club starts out like any normal high school dating visual novel, and then quickly takes a dark turn. Even when that twist happens, it manages to subvert expectations with even more unexpected events and game changes.
It’s a fast game that touches on dark themes and gets under the skin with its approach to scares, even though it initially resembles those free dating sims your friends tried to hide from their Steam history. It’s a deceptively simple game that goes out of its way to become even better.
1 under the tale
An RPG that discourages you from “leveling up”? Does it remember your actions even on a new save? Does it use very retro graphics? Do you have a skeleton that warns you about “having a very hard time”?
These are all questions that Toby Fox basically answered with a resounding “yes” when he released Undertale. Note that this is the same year that players got Bloodborne, The Witcher 3, and Rise of the Tomb Raider. With all of these factors, one would think the odds would be stacked against Undertale’s lasting power.
However, Undertale is still one of the most amazing games of recent times. The characters, writing, music, branching options, and the freedom to fight or befriend those you easily come across make this game an extraordinary experience that stays with you long after you’ve finished your first, second, or tenth game. race.
