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• There is a wide variety of weird an unsettling games, but the best use weirdness to create something special and memorable.
• Making something weird can be a great way to force players to think about things differently, or tell a story in a unique way.
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How does one judge weirdness? What makes a video game weird? Does the story explore taboo topics, are the visuals trippy or unnerving, or does it make you ask weird and uncomfortable questions about yourself? Maybe it just shrugs off industry standards about what to include in a video game and breaks down barriers between genres, or between game and reality.

As with most things, there is room for interpretation, and nobody’s ‘weird’ is going to be the same as someone else’s. Some of the weird games on this list might feel entirely normal to another person. However, there is generally a cultural consensus regarding the “feel” and impact of a particular piece when it comes to works of art. This is true of weird video games. For all the games on this list, most players who review them commonly refer to the weirdness or strangeness of their experience.

There are thousands of weird, unnerving, and downright strange games available on free gaming sites or other obscure places. We could spend weeks pouring through the shovelware and gross unlicensed games, but we won’t. Instead, for this list we’re going to focus on games that have earned a reputation for being weird or strange and have at least a little following of passionate fans. We wanted to feature games that people would actually enjoy playing, even if they have a weird experience, not just games that are weird for weirdness’ sake.

We included some well-known weird games along with some more obscure selections. Some of these you might see on other lists about weird games, and that’s for a good reason.

Why Are We Talking About This?

If you’ve become bored and jaded by the high-budget garbage pumped out by soulless studios at the behest of greedy executives, you’re not alone. Many people are longing to experience weird or unique things in their video games, and are turning to indie games or older games to satisfy that itch. We found a few of the best examples of creativity in games that resulted in weird, unsettling, or otherwise trippy experiences.

#1 Harvester

Harvester is a point-and-click horror and suspense game released in 1996. It has since earned a cult following because of its examination of violence and unnerving gameplay. According to the developer himself, Harvester was designed to be a high-concept video game that challenged the player to consider the over-the-top violence and surreal setting and imagery of the game.

Reviewers said that the game’s live-action video portions were “truly disturbing” and that it has entertaining story twists and fun adventure gameplay. While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, there is no doubt that this game is weird.

#2 Hylics

Our first game included on this list based on its visuals alone. Hylics is an RPG released in 2015 that uses entirely claymation for its graphics and gameplay. While using claymation isn’t new, by any means, the depiction of a surreal and strange world with claymation in Hylics make it a truly strange and weird experience.

A reviewer at Destructoid called Hylics “the trippiest RPG” he’d ever seen, while others compared it to surreal artwork and called it wonderful or a delight to the senses. The gameplay and story would be strange enough by themselves, but when combined with the unnerving claymation animation, it becomes a truly weird experience.

#3 LSD: Dream Emulator

This is one game you’re going to see on almost every list online about weird video games, so of course we have to include it here. LSD: Dream Emulator is an exploration game released in 1998 as an example of contemporary art that could be made on modern video game systems. There is no story and no objective in the game, but if the player touches anything in the game environment, they are immediately transported to another, equally trippy, setting. It has been called one of the most impressive experimental games ever designed.

It was pretty obscure when it released, but it has slowly gained a following in the years since due to its popularity on streaming platforms. A reviewer at Kill Screen called it “one of the most unnerving” video games they had every played and players often say it is the best example of being trapped in a dream.

#4 Seaman

Seaman was just as experimental and strange when it released as it is today. It was one of the only games that used the microphone attachment for the Sega Dreamcast when it released in 1999 and has been re-released multiple times ever since.

Seaman is a simple pet management game in which the player must feed, care for, and interact with a sea creature known as Seaman. The game operates in real time, which means the players must check on their Seaman pet every day or it might die. While pet management games are nothing new, the often-unfriendly dialogue of the mature domesticated Seaman is what earned the game widespread fame. It was one of the most successful and bizarre games released on the Dreamcast.

#5 Shower With Your Dad Simulator

If we’re going to talk about weird games, then we definitely have to include at least a couple of the strange and low-effort simulator games that took off in the last decade. Shower With Your Dad Simulator is probably among the silliest and smallest in the genre of simulator games that includes fan favorites such as Watching Grass Grow and more.

The game is cheap and is fully aware of its joke nature, but that doesn’t take away from the strangeness of controlling a character that must choose between three dads in a public shower, hopefully picking the right one in order to move on to the next level.

A waste of money? Probably. A weird and strange experience? Undoubtedly.

#6 Brief Karate Foolish

Despite its outdated graphics and gameplay, Brief Karate Foolish was only released in 2016 and pays homage to the earlier iterations in the fighting game genre like Mortal Kombat that used images of real people for its fighters.

In this case, however, the fighters are all middle-aged Japanese men in their briefs. What few fans this game has are passionate about its niche humor and gameplay mechanics, with a Very Positive rating on the Steam page.

While there are weirder fighting games and plenty of games that feature unnerving images of near-nude Japanese men (we presume), none combine them so flawlessly and weirdly with 90s-era graphics as Brief Karate Foolish.  

#7 Hatoful boyfriend

If you haven’t spent much time online in the last few years, you might be surprised that the visual novel, dating simulator genre is very popular. And as with any popular genre in any art medium, there are going to be those who take advantage of the hype and make something truly weird, unique, or groundbreaking. Enter Hatoful boyfriend.

Hatoful boyfriend is a dating game in which every character is a sentient bird except the player character who must find love among her bird classmates while investigating the mysterious conspiracies that surround the school where the game takes place.

Have a fantasy of finding the perfect pigeon boyfriend? No? Too bad. Positive reviews about the game and its interesting and branching storyline led to strong promotion through word-of-mouth on social media and spawned multiple adaptations and sequels to the game.

#8 I Am Bread

In I Am Bread you play as… well… a slice of white bread. Surprise!

Silly games like this were all the rage just a few years ago, along with the rise of simulator games. Many saw this as a natural reaction to the brain-dead, creatively empty, and unfun AAA games that were being published at the time with budgets in the millions. Others saw them as shameless cash grabs.

In I Am Bread, the player’s objective across the handful of levels is to reach the toast as cleanly as possible by manipulating the slice of bread using the keyboard. If the player touches something dirty along the way, then their “edibility” meter drops.

I Am Bread is made by the same company behind the now-famous Surgeon Simulator series, to give you an idea of the kind of shenanigans and mechanics that are involved.

#9 Goat Simulator

The king and instigator of the silly simulator game genre, Goat Simulator, was initially created as a joke, but the videos that were shared online gained huge popularity and the developer decided to turn it into a real game.

In Goat Simulator, the player is tasked with doing as much destruction and damage to the people, objects, and buildings in each level as possible while playing as a goat. There is no overarching story or objective. Later developments included small missions or side quests.

It was a buggy pile of cheap assets and simple gameplay, which helped promote its joke status and drew thousands of players. Reviewers were and remain very critical of the game, but it remains popular and a famous entry in the simulator genre, influencing many copy-cats and clones.

#10 The Stanley Parable

As with many of the best pieces of art ever created, the best way to experience The Stanley Parable is to go into it with as little information as possible.

If you want a game to help you have an existential crisis, then The Stanley Parable might be the game for you. It forces the player to consider deep questions regarding choice, predestination, and the relationship between the developer and the player. The player is accompanied by the now-famous narration of Kevan Brighting, who they can obey or disobey, leading to different game endings.

The game has been a sensation among players and critics who all praise its story, gameplay design, and especially the narration.

#11 Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk

One of the more recent games on our list, being released in 2020, even though it definitely doesn’t look like it.

The player takes on the role of the voice inside the head of the female protagonist who struggles to buy a bag of milk at the store while dealing with severe trauma and psychosis.

It has been praised as a fantastic example of storytelling with many weird and unique moments. The way it deals with mental health in such a real and healthy way is balanced by the weird story and unnerving storytelling.

#12 Mountain

The Steam page for Mountain says it is an “existential nature simulation”, which doesn’t do much to explain what it’s about, and playing the game itself doesn’t really help, either.

Reviewers have called the game an “existential nightmare”, “genuinely so uplifting”, and that “Mountain breaks the mold of video games”.

In Mountain, you ‘play’ as a mountain floating in a starry sky with no controls (other than rotating the mountain), no goals, no enemies, and no story. The game description says this: “Features: no DLC, time moves forward, things grow and things die, nature expresses itself”.

You might think that the 12,898 reviews with a Very Positive rating on Steam might hide a deeper meaning or secret behind the game’s success, but they don’t. That’s it, that’s the whole game. Weird.

#13 The Hotel

How many games ask the player to avoid an evil entity, but leave it up to the player to decide what counts as ‘evil’? Not many, that we could find.

The Hotel is a psychological first-person thriller game in which the player must survive a haunted hotel and manage their health, stress, and the consequences of each failure. Throughout the game, a third, separate entity will engage with the player, offering help and commenting on their actions.

If you enjoy media that breaks the fourth wall, then The Hotel should prove to be a very weird and entertaining time for you.

#14 Jazzpunk

If there was a game on this list that approaches what a “normal” game might feel like, then Jazzpunk would be it, but it remains a weird experience from beginning to end.

Jazzpunk is a first-person adventure game that features offbeat comedy, intricate puzzles, and exploration. It features themes and aspects of cyberpunk, film noir, and espionage novels and movies. It was well-received by players and critics, but its weird gameplay, strange graphics, and humor often kept many players at bay.

#15 Path To Mnemosyne

Want to play a game that effecitvley explores what it might be like to have amnesia? Try Path To Mnemosyne! The game’s Steam page says, “Relax, empty your mind, activate your senses and step into the hypnotic adventure of the Path to Mnemosyne in the quest for the lost memories.”

Reviewers have called it surreal, trippy, mysterious, and dreamy.

Don’t play Path To Mnemosyne if you’re looking for fast-paced action or a story that will hold your hand. This is a game full of imaginative puzzles that force you to think, relax, and sit with your thoughts as you explore the infinite zoom world of Mnemosyne.

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