Alexey "Alexi Emerald" Proschaylo
Japanese developers have never lacked imagination. Where else could you fall in love with a bird-classmate, terrorize a family as a mosquito, or raise a sarcastic fish-man? If you’re tired of cliché games, we recommend checking out this list.
Muscle March
Image: mobygames.com
Imagine discovering that your last stash of creatine—the fuel for your biceps and other muscles—has been stolen. What to do? Of course, you gather a team of the most muscular people to break through walls, reposition your arms into the right poses, and crush the thief with a pile of bodies!
The gameplay is ridiculously simple. You swing your arms and hope your character can match the thief's pose before hitting the wall. The problem is that the game sometimes responds with a delay.
And at the end of the level, you need to shake the controller like crazy to knock out the villain, but the game may suddenly decide you didn’t try hard enough and send you back for another round. On the bright side, the levels are short—perfect because running after muscular criminals in swimsuits can wear on your psyche.
Muscle March is more of an absurd attraction where gameplay takes a backseat to madness. And the cursor here is an image of a muscular guy that grows when you bring the controller closer to the TV. There are also pop songs about muscles, banana peels, and rainbow stripes on the sides of the screen.
Katamari Damacy
Image: mobygames.com
The premise is simple. You’re the Prince of the Cosmos, and your father, the King, has dropped all the stars from the sky. Now, as the heir, it’s your task to fix this mess by rolling a sticky ball across the earth, collecting everything from paperclips to NPCs.
At first, you pick up pins and candies, but within minutes, your ball is knocking over fences, trees, and eventually entire cities. With the release of the remastered version called Reroll, the developers added gyroscope controls, making the ball-rolling even more fun.
There are no plot twists like in The Last of Us or realistic world simulations. But there is a king who looks like a cross between Santa Claus and Jabba the Hutt, a psychedelic soundtrack, and endless joy as your ball grows so large it starts collecting clouds.
Even now, Katamari Damacy looks like an indie art project rather than a game from 15 years ago. If you want something light-hearted, colorful, and insanely fun, roll into this remaster.
Tokyo Jungle
Image: siliconera.com
A game where animals are the main characters. However, instead of epic sagas about wolf clans, you get to witness a post-apocalyptic Tokyo where humans have disappeared, and poodles and deer are fighting to determine who is now at the top of the food chain.
Here, Tokyo becomes a massive arena for a race for resources. One wrong move and your dog becomes a lion’s lunch. There’s also co-op, where you and a friend can enjoy some adventurous eating time. But sooner or later, you’ll end up fighting over the last piece of meat.
You start the game controlling a fragile Pomeranian longing for its owner, and within a few hours, you’re commanding a pack of hyenas to fight off a saber-toothed tiger.
The game doesn’t shy away from depicting animal nature. There’s sniffing and even specific "courtship" scenes. If you’re not ready to explain to kids where puppies come from, it’s better to pick something simpler, like Minecraft.
Captain Rainbow
Image: giantbomb.com
Skip Ltd. is known as the rebellious studio in the gaming industry, persistently creating games that don’t fit into any genre. Captain Rainbow is a natural result of their creative work: a game where forgotten Nintendo characters gather on an island to fulfill their strange dreams.
The gameplay is a mix of puzzles, action, and social simulation, where you improve relationships with characters by helping them with their odd problems. Want to turn night into day? No problem. Need to smash a boulder with a yo-yo? Done!
It also features a time-of-day mechanic, where some quests are only available on specific days. Perfect for those who like games that remind them of a job with a schedule.
Incredible Crisis
Image: gamefabrique.com
Incredible Crisis is a series of simple yet insane mini-games. From rhythmic button presses to escaping from ant lions after the characters shrink in size. The stress meter is constantly rising, and if you mess up too much, your character will snap. But what about the story?
The ordinary Tanamatsuri family is heading to their grandmother’s birthday, but instead of a peaceful dinner, they face a day full of absurd challenges. The father, Taneo, is dancing in front of a colleague, and within a minute, he’s running away from a giant concrete ball. His wife, Etsuko, accidentally becomes an accomplice in a bank robbery, and these absurd situations happen constantly.
The game never lets you get bored. One minute you're dodging a praying mantis the size of a bus, the next you're being shocked with a defibrillator for incorrect answers in an "emergency room", and suddenly your character shrinks to the size of a mouse. In short, Incredible Crisis!
LSD: Dream Simulator
Image: blackflash.ca
If you've ever woken up in a cold sweat after a dream where a giant pig was flying into the sky with the accompaniment of screeching violins, you’ve probably played LSD: Dream Emulator.
This surreal journey into the world of dreams (or nightmares) invites you to wander through psychedelic landscapes where legs dance without bodies, and many strange things occur.
The gameplay here is based on the principle of "walk, look, get scared". Every touch of a wall, person, pig, or house-sized head is like a portal to a new level of absurdity. There’s practically no real gameplay. However, there are plenty of bugs, glitches, and a mysterious progress table.
Is it worth playing? If you have strong nerves, a love for surrealism, and still cherish your PS Vita like a holy relic—why not? This isn’t just a game; it’s a spiritual cleansing through graphical fog and wild concepts.
No One Can Stop Mr. Domino
Image: thekingofgrabs.com
No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! is one of those games that proves Japanese developers in the '90s were clearly experimenting with more than just coffee. You play as a living domino tile racing through supermarkets, scaring Japanese housewives, and causing chaos in casinos.
The gameplay is a strange hybrid of Domino Rally and an obstacle course, where even the smallest mistake can turn your perfect plan into a disaster. Mr. Domino runs forward non-stop, and if you miss the timing for placing a domino, you’ll have to start the whole run over. On top of that, he slowly "dies" over time, so there’s no room for hesitation.
No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! is pure madness in the best traditions of the PS1 era. It never aimed to be a blockbuster hit, but if you’re tired of formulaic games where everything is predictable, give it a try—if only to understand where Japanese game designers spent their budgets before Final Fantasy took over the world.
Mr. Mosquito
Image: youtube.com
What happens if you create a mosquito simulator with horror elements—for the characters, not the player? In this game, you’re not a hero, not a world savior, but an annoying insect whose sole purpose is to suck the blood out of unsuspecting Japanese people.
You’ll need to study the habits of each family member to sneak up on them at just the right moment. One wrong move, and they’ll swat you with a newspaper, forcing you to restart the level.
There are also relaxation points on the victims’ bodies. To calm down an enraged person, you’ll need to poke at their… vulnerable zones. So prepare to give this household the worst summer of their lives.
Mr. Mosquito is a bizarre artifact of the PS2 era, when Japanese developers made games the way they wanted. On one hand, it has clunky controls and constant stress from the threat of being swatted. On the other hand, there’s undeniable satisfaction in playing as a sadistic mosquito ruining a family’s peaceful life.
Hatoful Boyfriend
Image: puellaexmachina.com
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be the only human in a school full of birds, where your love interest is a quail with emotional trauma, and the athletic pigeon is obsessed with finding the perfect pudding? Hatoful Boyfriend answers that question with unsettling seriousness.
It starts as a tongue-in-cheek parody of dating sims, but soon reveals itself as a touching drama about love, loss, and... avian racism—no joke.
The game cleverly plays with your perception, sometimes showing human-like portraits of the bird characters, then reminding you that your protagonist is a complete outsider in this world. Prepare for a major narrative shift after the "cute" endings, when the game opens up into a darker story full of conspiracies and the question: "Who’s the real monster here?"
Hatoful Boyfriend constantly shifts between comedy, melodrama, and psychological thriller—without warning. So if you’re looking for a lighthearted bird-dating sim, this probably isn’t it.
Seaman
Image: reddit.com
Seaman is a simulator where you raise humanoid fish-headed creatures, feed them insects, and then they start asking your opinion on gangsta rap. Oh, and you need a microphone.
The game starts innocently enough. You adjust water temperature, watch tiny creatures hatch from eggs, and then, in horror, see them devoured by a squid. But the real surprise comes later, when your Seaman starts asking personal questions about your life, musical taste, and more.
After a couple of weeks, the game starts to feel like a talk show, hosted by a fish-man who clearly disapproves of your lifestyle. Think Nintendogs—if your pet judged your opinions on video game violence and global issues.
It’s a strange hybrid of a pet simulator and a philosophical club, where you begin to question who the real subject of the experiment is—the bizarre fish-humanoids, or you.
These games don’t have the massive budgets of AAA titles. But they offer something modern games often lack—genuine, unrestricted creativity. And while such projects have become rare today, their spirit still lives on in the indie scene.
Main image: alphacoders.com
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