16 Weirdest & Strangest PS1 Games Ever Made

The PS1 was my first 3D console. I obtained the N64 shortly after, however the PlayStation’s large online game library (and entry to imported Japanese video games) saved it related for years after its launch.

One in every of my favourite issues in regards to the PS1 is how you might all the time find yourself within the online game equal of Youtube’s strange side that you simply solely attain after letting the autoplay run for hours.

In the event you weren’t cautious whereas shopping for discounted or used video games, you’d be aware about some actual bizarre stuff. In actual fact, it wasn’t even unusual within the PSX days.

And looking back, the console wouldn’t have been the identical with out these uncommon video games. We’ll be having a look at a few of the greatest.

16. Velocity Freaks (1999)

Our first entry isn’t bizarre due to its gameplay, however due to its aesthetic and artwork route.

Developed by Funcom Dublin, Velocity Freaks is the PS1’s reply to Mario Kart – or relatively, it was competing with Crash Staff Racing for the spot.

What’s so bizarre about it’s the pilots’ design, which you’ll be able to inform simply from wanting on the cowl.

They’re like the center floor between an enormous child and Rayman, which is a bit horrifying.

Fortunately you’re solely ever their backs, and it’s not so unhealthy. The gameplay is fairly good. And whereas it’s not the tightest racer, the programs are actually enjoyable to traverse.

It’s in regards to the journey relatively than the vacation spot.

15. D (1996)

Warp initially developed D for the 3DO as one of many console’s many interactive film video games. It will definitely made it to the PS1 in a fairly competent port of the unique.

On this horror recreation, you’re tasked with exploring a hospital and discovering your father, who’s barricaded himself in after a presumed killing spree.

Issues take a flip and turn out to be extra Silent Hill-y when you’re inside, although. And what was once a hospital turns right into a dank medieval citadel.

You’ll resolve puzzles to progress additional into the citadel towards one of many recreation’s a number of endings.

With psychedelic visuals, a creepy ambiance, and human fashions sitting proper in the course of the uncanny valley, this recreation has weirdness for days.

And that is a part of an odd horror trilogy with an fascinating historical past.

14. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (2000)

Some video games are bizarre not for his or her content material, however for the only real purpose of current.

In Capcom’s Mega Man franchise, Tron Bonne is the one character aside from Zero (from Mega Man X) to ever star in their very own spin-off recreation.

That is bizarre not solely as a result of Mega Man Legends was considerably obscure, however as a result of Tron Bonne is a woman – and robust feminine protagonists weren’t all that widespread again on the time aside from Lara Croft.

Fortunate for everybody, the sport is fairly good. Each stage options totally different gameplay mechanics, making it remarkably diverse. It’s obtained motion, some difficult puzzles, and the story weaves into Mega Man Legends completely.

Plus, Tron Bonne is lovable.

13. Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman (1999)

UEP System’s Rising Zan is just not solely the most effective video games on the PS1, however one of many weirdest as a result of its mixture of Western and Japanese aesthetics and motifs.

The sport follows a kind of samurai cowboy going in opposition to demon ninjas, evil robots, and plenty of different bizarre enemies with decidedly Japanese origins – all within the American Wild West, in fact.

No one mentioned you couldn’t observe the Bushido code with a revolver.

12. Pepsiman (1999) (JP)

Pepsiman was Pepsi’s superhero mascot in Japan in the course of the second half of the 90s, starring in TV commercials the place the character would ship a can of Pepsi to a thirsty bystander earlier than getting trashed in more and more ridiculous accidents.

And so they made a online game about this man.

The sport follows the identical method, besides it’s flipped round.

You’ll management a working Pepsiman as he narrowly avoids oddly inconvenient hazards in your strategy to ship a contemporary can of Pepsi. It’s the world’s most weird Temple Run clone – besides it got here out over ten years earlier than the hit app.

To no person however developer KID’s shock, the sport didn’t promote properly – however it’s nonetheless fairly entertaining, and most of the people who owned it bear in mind this wild recreation fairly fondly.

11. Baldies (2003)

Contemplating I’m a die-hard RTS fan, and most significantly a bald man, it’s shocking I’d by no means heard of Baldies earlier than testing it for this rating.

Developed by Inventive Edge Software program, the title combines battle simulation and god recreation mechanics. Your goal is to lift and lead a military of “baldies” – hairless egg-shaped individuals – as they tried to subdue the “hairies” and conquer your entire recognized world.

PS1 Baldies is a port of the PC model, although the web multiplayer is sorely missing.

The sport may be performed simply high-quality with an everyday PS1 controller, however it additionally helps using the PlayStation Mouse for an expertise nearer to the PC model.

10. Hogs of Warfare (2000)

One other whimsical wargame comes within the type of Hogs of Warfare, which took the turn-based artillery gameplay of the Worms franchise and took it to 3D.

Apart from revolutionary and fascinating gameplay, the sport shines for its interesting 3D graphics goofy humor. It consists of pigs from all world wide with silly names and foolish voices, which makes blowing them up funnier than I’d anticipated.

Whereas goofy, the sport can be fairly strategic – from customizing your pig soldier squad earlier than every battle to rigorously planning every shot to maintain the higher hand.

Get it for some improbable sofa multiplayer.

9. Bishi Bashi Particular (2000)

To not be confused with the 1998 JP-only title of the identical identify, Konami’s Bishi Bashi Particular (EU) is a compilation of the 2 first video games within the franchise to ever come out on PS1 – translated and launched for Western audiences.

The sport is fairly much like WarioWare.

It consists of a number of mini-games with easy controls defined briefly initially of every showdown. These fast-paced microgames are fairly daunting at first, as a result of it’s not all the time clear what you’re alleged to do.

It’s a part of the appeal.

The sport has attractive hand-drawn anime graphics for essentially the most half. However every subsequent microgame can have a unique artwork route than the final one. It’s hectic, diverse, and a whole lot of enjoyable.

8. Wild Arms (1997)

Very similar to Rising Zan, Wild Arms makes it onto the listing due to its uncommon mixture of the American Wild West aesthetic with one thing utterly totally different – on this case, sci-fi.

The sport takes place on Filgaia, a dying world that’s oddly much like the American Wild West – aside from the high-tech weaponry and different types of sci-fi/steampunk staples.

This title follows the Dream Chasers, a band of thrill-seekers scouring the world trying to find journey and fortunes earned by risking their lives. Now they’re about to become involved in one thing larger than themselves.

The graphics are nothing to put in writing residence about. However the improbable writing, unbelievable soundtrack, and memorable opening cinematic elevate this recreation to greatness.

7. Skullmonkeys (1998)

Developed by The Neverhood as a sequel to their eponymous 1996 recreation, Skullmonkeys units itself aside from different Motion/Platformers on the time with its uncommon and highly-detailed graphics.

The fluid animation of pseudo-3D characters and environments was achieved by way of claymation strategies, utilizing the identical fashions as these seen within the recreation’s cutscenes.

The claymation model gave rise to some weird constructs – together with a boss that’s a photorealistic human head with limbs and one other smaller head on prime.

It could be bizarre, however it’s additionally one of the artistically completed titles on the console.

6. Fluid (1998)

Once you consider making a recreation centered on music, you’d consider a rhythm recreation like Guitar Hero or the DDR sequence – however that’s not the one strategy to go about it.

Opus developed fluid as a easy interactive sound lab the place gamers may create and file their very own mixes by arranging the sport’s samples and beats.

These samples had been collected by controlling a dolphin and swimming by way of a number of environments on-rails. And these samples could be robotically added to your menu whereas creating “grooves”.

Your mixes may even be saved to the reminiscence card and performed again whereas swimming because the aforementioned dolphin. Due to the comparatively complicated and highly effective mixing instruments, you might make some strong tunes on this recreation.

5. Vib-Ribbon (1999)

In the event you desire to sit down again and take heed to music (relatively than create it) then NanaOn-Sha’s Vib Ribbon is the proper music recreation price attempting.

It’s a kind of rhythm platformer the place an anthropomorphic bunny traverses ranges based mostly on totally different songs.

Whereas the sport comes with some good tunes to check out, the concept is so that you can take out the sport’s CD from the PS1 after loading it one time, then changing it along with your favourite music CD. The sport then creates ranges based mostly in your music of alternative.

It was a wise approach of utilizing the PS1’s music-playback capabilities, and the entire course of felt fairly mystical and mysterious again once I was youthful.

4. N20: Nitrous Oxide (1998)

The Tube Shooter style has all the time been well-known for its glorious, vibrant visuals and fast-paced gameplay, however in 1998, no person was anticipating one thing like N2O.

The sport is a bit like Atari’s 1981 arcade hit Tempest, however on steroids. Or relatively, on some sturdy hallucinogenics.

In any case, the sport has you gathering shrooms and different… unusual objects, together with cash on each stage.

One of many recreation’s greatest elements is the soundtrack, which was specifically recorded by the American music duo Crystal Technique. In actual fact, the sport may very well be performed again on any common CD participant like several customary music CD.

3. LSD: Dream Emulator (1998) (JP)

One other hallucinogenic-related recreation that left a mark on our recollections is LSD: Dream Emulator.

Asmik Ace Leisure developed it as an adaptation of a Dream Journal saved by one in every of their workers on the time. Over 20 years of weird goals had been boiled all the way down to an odd, ethereal exploration recreation.

It’ll allow you to freely traverse quite a lot of surreal places stuffed with whimsical creatures that would slot in with everybody else throughout an intense LSD journey.

And get this: whilst a Japan-only title, it lastly obtained an English launch.

Effectively, fan launch however nonetheless.

This recreation is proof that the vaporwave aesthetic has been a factor for over 20 years – we simply didn’t understand it but.

2. Screaming Mad George’s ParanoiaScape (1998) (JP)

Screaming Mad George is the stage identify of Joji Tani, a Japan-born American that had made a reputation for himself within the movie business because the creator of terrifyingly sensible monster make-up and props for horror movies.

His disturbed thoughts was on the entrance of ParanoiaScape, developed by Mathilda as a fusion between pinball gameplay – within the first individual, thoughts you – and a horror ambiance much like the hellscapes conjured up by the disturbed minds of schizophrenia sufferers.

It may be a bit daunting.

However in case you can maintain on to your sanity as you maneuver your ball by way of these grotesque environments, it’s an unforgettable expertise.

1. Unimaginable Disaster (2000)

The title that merges essentially the most enjoyable and weirdness into the identical PSX package deal: Polygon Magic’s Unimaginable Disaster.

This improbable recreation follows a working-class Japanese Household as they battle to prepare for Grandma’s birthday. Sure, it is a real video game.

They’ll attempt to make it to her home in time, solely to be stalled time and again by essentially the most far-fetched conditions you possibly can consider.

The gameplay is paying homage to WarioWare, because it consists of numerous fast-paced microgames the place you’ll information our heroes previous no matter hurdle destiny throws at them.

My favourite half is that it options music from the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra – not tremendous bizarre there, however a complete win in my ebook.