The Unique Games Thread

[mr_bogus]

Which games, in the whole of great gaming history, did you find not only original & unique, but stand out ON THEIR OWN, without other games copying the idea (eg. as original as Crazy Taxi was, the idea was used in Simpsons Road Rage, GTA, etc, so doesn't qualify)? And why?

 

I'll start the ball rolling:

 

Gregory Horror Show (PS2)

The first and only 100% stealth game, with no guns, no night vision, no moss arrows, but sneaking around to follow the guests, and after stealing their souls, actually avoiding them. The graphical style was totally unique too

 

Luigi's Mansion (Cube)

The whole "walking around with a vacuum cleaner" idea was original at the time, and has not been done again.

 

Vib Ribbon (PS1)

Rhythm action games are nothing new. But playing as a line drawn rabbit, along a path that maps itself to any audio CD you put in the drive - not been done before or again.

[Shorty]

These spring to mind but I'm sure there are many more:

 

Braid - If you haven't played it, you're missing out. It's incredible. How did one guy come up with such a great idea? And then present it so wonderfully and artistically. Awesome.

 

Portal - ignoring the argument about Narbacular Drop: what an incredible game, a totally new approach to getting from A to B. Amazing.

 

Rez - just all round bizarre. Incredibly enjoyable but I had no idea why I was enjoying it.

 

Osu, Tatakae, Ouendan - Whilst the idea of a rhythm game was far from unique, this did it in a great and interesting way which kept me entertained for many hours.

 

The following games were all unique when I first played them:

Super Mario 64 - no explanation required.

 

GTA - Free roaming madness, you didn't have to follow the missions, you could just drive around blowing things up and trying to survive being chased by the police. When I first played this it was on a 350 second demo that came on a CD with PC Gamer magazine, me and 2 friends just used to play that demo over and over.

 

Pokemon - I'd never played anything like it, what a mindblowingly awesome idea. The first time I put Pokemon Red in my oldschool gameboy I was just so blown away by it. Whilst, if you break it down, it's not much different to any RPG, where a great Pokemon is like great loot, the overall presentation of the game made it really stand out.

 

Phoenix Wright - I just loved the music in the court scenes when I was onto something. Never played anything like it!

[Epic fail]

Mr Mosquito: You were a mosquito and sucked peoples blood and then get away before they squashed you dont get more original than that + it was awesome

[Daft]

flower - It's like playing a daydream.

[S.C.G]

Burning Rangers - A game where you play as an intergalactic firefighter, putting out fires with specialised guns, rescuing people from blazes - even some of the games staff - oh yeah and defeating mostly challenging and original bosses not to mention the way that you could play the game with different characters and each time you played through the game - with a password - the layout would be different.

 

NiGHTS into Dreams - Basically needs no explanation, yes it's been done again recently but it's not as special as the original.

[Eenuh]

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Though not many people seem to have played it or enjoyed it that much, I thought it was a great game and very original. I mean, beating on drums and clapping to get through the levels is something I hadn't seen before. And it all worked really well, looked nice etc.

[Gizmo]

FIFA 99-oh wait thats wrong isnt it.

[Pit-Jr]

Killer 7- If theres a similar game out there, i havent found it.

[Nolan]

Pokemon - I'd never played anything like it, what a mindblowingly awesome idea. The first time I put Pokemon Red in my oldschool gameboy I was just so blown away by it. Whilst, if you break it down, it's not much different to any RPG, where a great Pokemon is like great loot, the overall presentation of the game made it really stand out.

 

Actually, unless you break it down it's not much different. Some people go completely crazy over all the technical aspects of pokemons stats. It's how 2 pokemon of the same type and level can have drastically different stats resulting in one being more powerful.

 

Sacrifice is to my knowledge pretty unique. It's a 3rd person Action RTS, and it may even be construed as slightly RPG. It's sort of mission based...except you choose your missions from 5 different warring gods, although eventually do to many missions for a rival and they won't give you any. Bonus is that earthworm jim is basically one of the gods, and someone else is voiced by Tony Jay. The most similar game I can think of is Brutal Legend.

[Shorty]

Killer 7- If theres a similar game out there, i havent found it.

Good call! I definitely missed this off my list.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Actually, unless you break it down it's not much different. Some people go completely crazy over all the technical aspects of pokemons stats. It's how 2 pokemon of the same type and level can have drastically different stats resulting in one being more powerful.

I like how it's the most customizeable RPG out there [Caution, may be wrong], sure the plot isn't exactly the most original. But I'm yet to find a RPG with so many characters and movesets at your disposal.

 

I'm going to throw in Buck Bumble, and Beyond Good and EEVIL

[nightwolf]

Beyond good and evil is definately one of my choices, when I picked it up all those years ago I thought it was going to be boring, but its amazing.

 

Okami is one of my choices, it was the first game I'd played in that style, like playing a painting.

[S.C.G]

I'm going to throw in Buck Bumble

 

'Right about now it's time to rock with da biggedy Buck Bumble!

Bum to da bum to da boom to da base, bum to da bum to da bumble!

 

 

Legendary...

[dan-likes-trees]

I like how it's the most customizeable RPG out there [Caution, may be wrong], sure the plot isn't exactly the most original. But I'm yet to find a RPG with so many characters and movesets at your disposal.

 

I'm going to throw in Buck Bumble, and Beyond Good and EEVIL

 

Meh, Beyond Good and Evil wasn't particularly original, just taking the best of lots of genres and making one hell of a good game out of it.

 

Okami is one of my choices, it was the first game I'd played in that style, like playing a painting.

 

I wrote a little thing about Okami for the Guardian's 'readers cultural highlights of the decade' last week and they printed it!! Happy!

Shadow of the Colossus and Iko get in there, natch

[Shino]

Glad someone already posted a Buck Bumble music.

 

I don't have much to add that I can remember, just maybe these:

 

World of Goo: I view it as highly as Braid. The game mechanic is unique (at least for me, I never played many "bridge building" games) but the way its coupled to the story and the ambience is what puts it apart from most other games.

 

Civilization: I just love the entire series since the first one and I don't think there anything like it anywhere else.

 

Dwarf Fortress: I'm not really that good at it but its as unique as they come. Its kind of a city building game but with serious graphic limitations compensated by its insanely deep gameplay.

 

Pikmin: Everyone can tell why.

[Nolan]

Dwarf Fortress: I'm not really that good at it but its as unique as they come. Its kind of a city building game but with serious graphic limitations compensated by its insanely deep gameplay.

 

You sell Dorf Fort short by just calling it a city building game. It's more like you are a Dictator controlling everything that goes on. Sim City is a city building game, Dorf Fort is hardly similar.

[Shino]

You sell Dorf Fort short by just calling it a city building game. It's more like you are a Dictator controlling everything that goes on. Sim City is a city building game, Dorf Fort is hardly similar.

 

I... had not better description for it, to be honest.

[Oxigen_Waste]

SotC. Because I said so.

[Raining_again]

Day of the Tentacle.

[jayseven]

I'm going to throw in Buck Bumble, and Beyond Good and EEVIL

 

Have to say I disagree with both of those choices, neither is stand-alone and incomparable. Both quirky and ace, of course.

 

I wanna say Blast Corps, because I can't really think of a game it is similar to...

[Gentleben]

Surprised no one had mentioned two games I've not had the pleasure of playing. But both are kinda unique:

 

The Magnet based DS game released in Japan only. I forget it's name.

 

Let's Tap-the box tapping, wii mote face down game.

[Jonnas]

Several of my nominations have already been mentioned here, but...

 

I always thought WarioWare was unique.

 

I always had trouble while trying to convince others that a game featuring surgeries like Trauma Center works well.

 

Mother 3 is one of the best RPGs ever, and dares to do things that I haven't seen other games do.

 

Metroid Prime. Not only is it the only First-Person-Adventure I've seen, I haven't seen the "logbook" manner of storytelling anywhere else.

 

Pokémon Pinball gave new life to the way I see the pinball genre by actually giving us a goal.

 

Tetris! 'Nuff said...

[mcj metroid]

ok im gonna try this:

 

luigi's mansion:

very unappreciated. It's not likely to be remembered as being a classic but it had some fantastic ideas. It controlled like a dream, had great graphics and was just brilliantly original. It was probably rushed for system launch because its quite short but highly recommeded.

 

Tombi:

This is an unusual one. A lot of people remember the demo for this. It was a very generous demo giving you a good 30 minutes of gameplay but it shows the weakest part of the game.The beginning. Its like giving you a demo of metroid where you can do shit without upgrades. Tombi can't run at the start of the game and it takes a while to get this power.

 

but otherwise its actually brilliant and unlike anything ive ever played. It's one of my favourite games. There are highs and lows in the game. It gets criticised for its music sometimes but it wasn't so bad.

 

Ape escape

It was the first ever game to use dual analogue. A lot of people in those days kinda avoided analogue sticks. At least ps gamers anyway because that's not how the console pad started off.

This game forced you to use them. It had great graphics rivalling most n64 games. it had great mini games, very cheesy voice acting. It had it all really.

 

Very unique title. I never played the sequels but I doubt they are as good. I hated the graphical style of the 3rd one... also without the dual analogue i believe the remake on psp to be absolute balls.

 

animal crossing ds

I didn't like it. I never found the game to be addictive. I can understand the appeal of the gamecube game if you were to unlock nes games. That sounds amazing but someone they thought they could sneak that out and include an online service here...

 

for me It didn't work. I love the sims but this doesn't work for me. I think it's a very ugly looking game and the overworld gives me a headache.

It's very unique though, I'm disappointed to hear the wii version did nothing to improve anything which is a shame because the series has SO much more potential.

 

so many unique games i can only pick a few.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Have to say I disagree with both of those choices, neither is stand-alone and incomparable. Both quirky and ace, of course.

What's like Buck Bumble? I'm looking for something just as sexy.

[jayseven]

Any game where you fly around and shoot stuff :P Rogue squadron and the like pulled it off with much better finesse, and with better controls so you aren't spending half your time trying to face the opposite direction but in the same place.