Extremely Weird And Obscure Games

[MegaHiro91]

I like how this turned from a "wow, what a cute game I never knew about"-discussion, into a "what a horrible translation"-thread, extending to a discussion on poor anime dubs in general.

 

[qw90700]

I like how this turned from a "wow, what a cute game I never knew about"-discussion, into a "what a horrible translation"-thread, extending to a discussion on poor anime dubs in general.

And then hating Americans!!! lol

All roads lead to Rome, all discussions lead to America!!! lolol

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

View attachment 118121

Need to go back and play through with Japanese audio on this one.

Looks a lot like Kingdom Heart.

 

[resketreke]

Guys, let's not fight over silly things. This is the Internet, we're all foreigners here.

That said, the game looks cute and worth a try, I'm going to download it right now.

 

[MajesticSiN]

Shaq-Fu

 

[diet_orange]

Dreamweb, an atmospheric as hell cyberpunk point and click adventure game

The folks that created it have since made it freeware

 

[NoMoreCats_]

Ballance. One I have yet to play but I ended up seeing it on some youtube channels of custom user-made levels and the design of it was peculiar despite being so simple... Physics based puzzle games have always been an interest to me. I hear the steam/gog port has some glitching and texture issues unfortunately

 

[Turbo Kid]

Shaq-Fu

If you can get past the awful attempts at humor, the sequel was actually a decent, Konami inspired beat 'em up

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

Dreamweb, an atmospheric as hell cyberpunk point and click adventure game

The folks that created it have since made it freeware

see, if we're talking obscure pixel-art point and click games, this is another solid pick:

 

[Kamomedan]

Definitely an underrated gem. I played the hell out of the demo and got the full game for Christmas a long time ago. Wish it got a remaster

 

[Heku]

Rapsody: A Musical Adventure for PlayStation is a strange game, literally a musical within the game, but it's fun and you'll burst out laughing every now and then. Published at the time by Atlus, it was a bit of a non-starter, but it was fun. Give it a try.

 

[solnK!]

damn...hard question, I´d say:
Bulk Slash
Planet Laika
deSpiria
Zone of the Enders
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story
all the Panzer Dragoon games

 

[Heku]

What is that Planet Laika game like? What is it about?

Post automatically merged: Oct 18, 2025

Also the entire Persona series of PlayStation games: Persona Revelation series, Persona 2 Innocent Sin, and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment; Persona 2 Innocent Sin was only released in Japan, but there are English translations. All are Atlus games.

 

[Guinea]

Treasure Conflix on the SNES Satellaview is awesome, a nice little hidden gem from Square.

Hmm... The Frog For Who The Bell Tolls on the Gameboy is another great one. Remember Richard from Zelda Link's Awakening, the guy you had to find Golden Leaves for? He's from that game.

 

[Heku]

Thousand Arms for PlayStation, a hybrid RPG game with a dating simulator, a very good story, memorable characters, and a very peculiar fighting mechanic. Also an Atlus game.

Post automatically merged: Oct 18, 2025

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

I know I already said one above but alt answer: Spanish masterpiece Thunder Hoop

 

[χKai]

Got too many to pick a favorite, so here's one I've enjoyed for a long time:
Nekketsu Street Basket - Ganbare Dunk Heroes!

I know it's on the Kunio-kun Collection, but before that, nobody I'd ever met had heard of the game before me introducing it to them.
It's still one of my favorites, and one of the most fun, obscure, older games that I've ever played.

 

[Sunnyside]

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story

Ahhhh I'm ashamed at myself for forgetting this one! It was such a good game and I'm sad they never brought the third entry overseas.

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

Ahhhh I'm ashamed at myself for forgetting this one! It was such a good game and I'm sad they never brought the third entry overseas.

I didn't even realise this was that obscure!! I stumbled across this on a GBA emulation kick and it's easily one of the most playable action RPGs of the era.

 

[hazys]

I know I already said one above but alt answer: Spanish masterpiece Thunder Hoop

Gaelco was such an interesting little studio. Left some unique arcade gems behind, like Biomechanical Toy and Alligator Hunt

 

[Mopeybloke]

In my teens, one of my favourite games was Pulseman. It was available in a collection of emulated MD games my brother brought from school. I had no idea it was only available digitally outside Japan, and had faded from public consciousness. Now it's been rediscovered, but for a while nobody knew.

 

[Jdan-S]

I very rarely hear anyone talk about AbalaBurn (PS1, Japan only).

It's from the same developers as Battle Arena Toshinden. It has 1-on-1 fighting segments, but the main story mode plays like a 3D platformer. You can play through it as different characters, though the stages are all the same for them. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's an okay game.

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

A Schm'up that a couple friends of mine really enjoyed on the SNES back in the day, was Firepower 2000 (a.k.a: Super SWIV in Europe)

It was short and sweet, but almost required 2-players if you wanted to make it to the end..

 

[χKai]

My two favorite obscure retro games are either Cyberjoueur Bomberman, an online late 90s-early 2000s version of Super Bomberman 1 or 2 that automatically sets everyone at the highest speed and removes skates from the powerups. It was fun, it's how I got good at the game.

Or Young Merlin, a game I can unfortunately find nothing about anymore, anywhere. Though I did find a similar game by another name, though I think they changed the name on the site I played it on. Nevertheless, it is a different game altogether than the Young Merlin games you can probably find anything about!

It wasn't a platformer, it was a top-down 2D style arcade shmup where you would have to collect things from the swarming hordes you're blasting with magic, and collect or buy powerups, I don't remember.

 

[>pitchshifter]

Smuggler's Run 2