What if we told you that a lawyer game or one where you process papers can be exciting? Welcome, intrepid reader, to the road that is not oft tread in video gaming. Where unusual ideas take you to brave, new territory. Here’s a list of games that are unlike any you’ve played before.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series
A legend in gaming, the Phoenix Wright Ace case files are pure gaming caviar. Spanning several games, each one tells the story of the rise of an attorney Phoenix Wright, as he fights against all odds to win his cases. With a cast of colourful characters as well as worthy opponents, the cases are deviously planned with an excellent overarching story. The original trilogy is available on iOS and Android, as well as Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies. There is a latest game out — Spirit of Justice — but it’s only on the Nintendo 3DS for now. There’s even a crossover with Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, which combines two characters from two very unusual series.
Undertale
While using the same familiar garb of a classic 16-bit era top-down role-playing game format, Undertale is unusual and exciting because of its excellent characters, writing that will make you laugh in delight and monsters that will make you squeal in delight. Aping games from Dragon Quest to Final Fantasy, Undertale is just one of a kind. Now also available on Nintendo Switch.
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes
You’ve seen this before — a classic tale of heroes versus monsters. Except this has a twist in the battle system. Offering a very familiar Tetris slash Candy Crush sort of mechanic, where you match up the monsters to send waves of them against the enemy to crush their defences. A very unusual game that tells a superb story that seems to slip into obscurity. Perfect if you want a puzzle game with more oomph in it.
Danganronpa series
Leaning deep towards the darker side of Japanese storytelling, Danganronpa is a visual novel that’s in the vein of Phoenix Wright. Except that you’re a student that’s been locked in a school with other students and an evil bear. The only way one can escape is to murder and get away with it — making it an investigation and courtroom-style drama. That pairs some intense storytelling, typography and design with some truly mad characters. Also worth exploring are the somewhat similar Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, which sort of deal with the same ‘escape a hopeless situation’ through a puzzles theme.
Gone Home
A first-person shooter, where you don’t shoot at all. Gone Home is a story exploration game that’s in first person, where you play a character coming home and finding traces of what happened to her family. A magic realist tale that spans decades across a family tree, as you’re drawn into the rabbit hole of stories as to how the denizens of this deserted house lived and died.
Dark Souls
The game that kickstarted the sub-genre ‘Masocore’ is exciting on many levels. With masochistic levels of difficulty, this game will twist your perception of game difficulty. The more it punishes you, the more you come back to defeat it. Spawning several sequels as well as other ‘Masocore’ games like Nioh and Bloodborne. Yet, what it does dazzle in is a deep medieval combat system and a grisly, magical and beautiful story you have to peel like an onion, complete with tears.
Papers, Please
The most unusual of the lot, this game has you playing a border checkpoint agent in some godforsaken country. The objective is to let the right people in, except how do you know who the right people are. Sometimes the innocent and those seeking help for real look like terrorists, while the real threats look like they couldn’t hurt a fly. A masterful game that keeps flipping the proverbial table so many times, your head will spin.
This War of Mine
In a world that’s dangerously close to careening towards a war, this is an important game you need to play. Where many games focus on the glory of a conflict, This War of Mine is a survival game that lets you play as civilians just trying to get by, while all hell breaks loose around you. If you thought this game was heart wrenching, The Little Ones downloadable content will completely tear it away — focusing on a bunch of children as they survive.
