The ‘90s were a decade full of weird video games and the ‘tude that fueled them. A lot of experimentation in games happened during this period, as no one really knew what the adventure game, platformer or first-person shooter genres would eventually become. The result was a creative 💙landgrab to define what the next era of video games would look like, which made for some pretty good, bizarre mechanics, as well as a couple of hybrid projects th🍸at just tried to do a little of everything.
Some games, like Oddworld, added their own pacifist take to the platformer genre that had been set in stone by the previous console generation. Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge fed off the movies-to-games trend of the time, but tried to bring the popularity of Doom in line with a LucasArts adventure games. Meanwhile, games like Pepsiman and Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong Nou were seemingly designed to see how much weird you can physically take. It was a hectic time in games, and everyꦏone was trying everything.
This article might be a trip down memory lane for some. For others, it will likely be an eye-opening experience about how strange some games could get back in the day, and how much of that creativity and desire to experiment has resurfaced today. Maybe it’ll even inspire you to dredge up a Sega Dreamcast and try your hand at raising an aquatic monster in Seaman. Or… no?
20 You'd Think That He Had Better Things To Do 𝓰
Did you know that Mega Man was once a competent soccer player? Mega Man Soccer proved as much. Released in Japan in 1994, the game sees longtime Mega Man antagonist Dr. Wiley attack a soccer field, at which point Dr. Light enlists Mega Man to clear out the robot menﷺace… by just playing soccer.
From a story perspective, the plan is a failure. The game 🉐has no story mode beyond the intro cinematic, so technically Mega Man and the robots are just playing soccer for eternity. Not a bad way to go out, but a little𒆙 anticlimactic.
Overall, the game received a lukewarm reception. It’s one weird twist on the soccer game genre was that each playable character had a way to temporarily disable an opponent. Other than that, though, it was a pretty stock standard soccer game with floaty co﷽ntrols.
19 Wait, What IS That?? 🐠 ཧ
Tongue of the Fatman isn’t quite Street Fighter. In fact, it’s nothing like Street Fighter, but it’s certainly trying to be. The game is about a very large man named Mondu who has created his own fighting tournament and filled the roster with mutants… because he wanted to. Beyond that, the plot doesn’t go much deeper. The game is notorious for i⛎ts poor controls, muddy visuals and the fact that the first thing you see in the game is a close-up of the eponymous fat man grinning and rubbing the area above his abs.
I know, right?
It isn’t a very competent fighting game to start with. Your character is able to turn away from their opponent, which is a bizarre choice for a genre all about facing your foe head-on. The fact that your healಌth carries over between matches means that the game’s shop💎 is solely for restoring lost hit points.
18 ♐ Solving The Coke Vs. Pepsi Debate Once And For All
Few realize that the eternal argument about which is better, Coke or Pepsi, was actually solved back in the ‘90s with the release of Pepsiman, a Japanese 3D platformer in which the titular character, Pepsiman, is always on the move. Pepsiman is always running because he’s got one thing to do: Deliver the message about th𓄧e refreshing taste of Pepsi to as many citizens of the world as possible.
Cutscenes play between each level, and they’re downright bizarre. Each one has an overweight American man somehow engaging with the Pepsi brand: buying a can from a vending machine, grabbing a Pepsi from a Pepsi-filled refrigerator and announcing the next stage (as he scratches himself), chugging a Pepsi and then yelling “Pepsi for TV game” as he aggressively shoves Lays potato chips in his mouth. Pepsiman might be a strange game, but it’sܫ also🧜 too good for us.
17 💮 This Game's A Little Odd
Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey was a weird game for the time. In fact, it's still an incredibly weird game. Its eccentricities may not be immediately obvious, but consider the facts. First, you can't outright kill anything in the game. Oddworld has a possession mechanic that allows the player character, Abe, to inhabit enemies a⛄nd creatures. Once something is possessed, though, you can realꦡly tear up the town.
Second, Abe is a slave in a vast food processing plant, the business heads of which are planning to turn him and his𝔍 Mudokon kin into the latest,ಌ great snack. Your goal is to guide Abe and his Mudokon buddies out of the plant without getting shot, ground up or plunged to their doom.
Finally, the game has a dedܫicated fart 🌃button, in case you were unsure it was a product of the '90s.
16 ꧒ A First Foray Into Open World ꦦ
Shenmue gets a bad rap, but, as one of the first open-world games to be released on consoles, it paved the way for m🌠uch of what games have become today. Ostensibly about Ryo Hazuki’s quest for revenge after the murder of his father, the game was more about getting 🌟immersed in a small Japanese neighborhood with the occasional bout of fisticuffs.
The gameplay itself is incredibly odd. While Ryo is supposedly a martial arts master, all of the fights he finds himself in are timed to precise button presses. There’s also at least one unforgiving stealth sections and a prolonged period wher𝐆e you have to become a forklift operator.
Despite all Shenmue’s weirdness, the game endeared itself to a legion of fans and went on to get a sequel. A third game is currently in 😼the works from series creator Yu Suzuki’s Ys Net.
15 The King Of Pop Does A Video Game 𒆙
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker might be the real hidden gem on this list. The premise ꦫsounds completely nuts–Michael Jackson must save children from the sinister Mr. Big by using an array of songs and musical acts–but the game is surprisingly good, fun and responsive. None of that changes how innately goofy it is, though.
While Moonwalker was released for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and Master System, it’s the arcade version you really want. The former versions are side-scrolling affairs respectable in their own right, but the arcade version is beat ‘em up with local multiplayer. Your ultimate ability is called Dance Magic, and when you trigger it every en💫emy on-screen starts to dance until they die.
If that doesn’t convince you, the game’s main collectable is Bubbles the chimpanzee, Jackson’s real-life pet𝓀 monkey.
14 How Is Leonard Nimoy Involved In This? ꧂ ♏
Have you ever wanted to raise a fish creature with a human face from an egg, all while Leonard Nimoy narrates your struggles? If so, Seaman is the game for you. One of the few Sega Dreamcast games to utilize the system's microphone accessory, Seaman challe♐nges the player to raise a strange fish creature without any aid.
Raising Seaman was no small task. The game had a real-time clock that could tell when the player interacted with Seaman. Ignore Seaman for a whole day 🐼– that is, don't feed him or talk to him – and he might die. If you were truly emphatic about your Seaman care, though, you could end up with a Frogman, an amphibious variation of the creature that🐎 would presumably lay more eggs and start the cycle over again. Yay?
13 This Plays Out Like A Horror Film ꦡ
The '90s was a great time for adventure games. Between the output from Sierra Entertainment and LucasArts, the genre enjoyed something of a golden age during this decade. Other games, like the FMV-focused Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh, were also released.
A Puzzle of Flesh casts the player as Curtis, an office drone who is tormented by supernatural creatures. Unfortunately, these creatures keep killing and tormenting Curtis’s co-workers. Susp𝓀icion naturally falls on Curtis, likely because he’s always acting weird. To clear his name, Curtis must venture into the bowels of his company’s expansive headquarters and uncover a dark and far-reaching conspiracy linked to an alternate dimension.
A story revolving around an adult club, gratuitous gross scenes and Hellraiser-like monsters never really comes together, and the eponymous Puzzle of the Flesh (which seemingly springs from the ether late in the game) is just as esoteric as t𝄹he plot.
12 𓂃 The Height Of Adventure Games 🔴
Harvester is perhaps one of the most notorious surrealist ‘90s adventure games. The game stars Steve, a man who finds himself thrown into the past to a town called 🐟Harvest. Steve doesn’t remember how he got there or anything about his life, so he naturally goes around asking people about Harvest. Each one of these interactions is infused with so, so much gory, jaded ‘90s attitude that the whole thing just kind of loops around to become an achievement in distilling the essence of a decade.
Steve eventually makes his way into the Lodge, the headquarters for the town’s Order of the Harvest Mo꧋on cult, in search of the woman to whom he is betrothed. Harvest’s dark n⛎ature is revealed to Steve. In an odd twist, there’s no good ending. Steve is doomed regardless of his choice. Sometimes the journey is the reward… right?
11 🌟 In Case You've Ever Wanted To Play As A Grandma
Sometimes it feels like a game’s development goes on a little too long, like there was probably a good stopping point somewhere along the way, but the developers just… kept coming up with new ideas. That’s Armed and Delirious in a nutshell. The game has a lot of seeming superfluous story in a time when long, CGI cutscenes were tough and expensive to make. Perhaps because Armed and Delirious was hording them all. More isn’𒅌t always better, though, as much of the game’s story makes absolutely zero sense.
You play as a grandma wh❀ose house gets sucked away by an evil space rabbit hellbent on stealing your cookbook. You’ve got to traipse through space to save your family (which the game takes great pains to establish as a bunch of jerks) and, more importantly, your precious re💝cipes.