We make a lot of lists here at Nintendo Life, you may have noticed. Why? Because we are all people who really want a game alike another game they really like and they want some more recommendations. It’s easy to lump games together by genre to answer that question – but what about all the games that have crossed the cracks?
Some games challenge the genre in interesting ways, but that makes it hard to put them in pretty boxes (though being able to put things in pretty boxes isn’t such a great thing anyway). such great). Other games combine genres to create something entirely new – like metroidvanias, before “metroidvania” was a thing, or creepy roguelike bunkers – but that means they’re also does not fit anywhere.
So to solve this problem serious wrong, we’ve rounded up some games that we think deserve a recommendation, but aren’t suitable for Category. They are difference, Man. They do not follow for you standard. And honestly? That’s why we love them.
(Author’s Note: Some of these games, like Stanley’s Parable and Return of Obra Dinntechnically on other lists – Stanley included it Best comedy game and ROTD is on our list of Best detective game – but if we’re being completely honest, those lists were perform so we can include those specific games. So it doesn’t count.)
Publishing company: Annapurna Interactive / Developers: Angel Matrix
White neon is a game difficult to define a single genre. Part platformer, part first-person shooter, part card game, part social sim. It sounds risky to have so many chefs in the kitchen, but Neon White has put it all together perfectly to create a five-star meal.
From the excellent writing, music, and presentation to the powerful and satisfying core gameplay, Neon White is one of the most enjoyable games we’ve played all year, and it’s the one that we love. Can’t find ourselves frustrated for a long time as we try to make the best of our previous times.
Publishing company: Nintendo / Developers: HAL . Laboratory
UFO part time It may not have been made with any involvement from Nintendo at first, but HAL’s close links with the company shine through regardless and as a result, it totally feels like the kind of product. high-end that you would normally expect from one of Nintendo’s own development teams. It’s just a difficult category to classify… but maybe it doesn’t have to be. It’s great in its own terms.
Publishing company: Bandai Namco / Developers: Bandai Namco
Games are often at their best when they capture the truly weird and wonderful. Katamari Damacy is one of OG’s weird and wonderful games in which you play as a Prince tasked with rolling things to make new stars, because your terrible youkai father accidentally destroy everything. Is it a puzzle game? Is it an action game? Who cares. It is a Great game.
Publishing company: crow crow crow crow / Developers: crow crow crow crow
Stanley’s Parable It’s an extremely meta game based on about the genre regardless. You will be playing Stanley, and you will not be playing Stanley. You will make choices, and you will make choices from you. The game will end, the game will never end. Conflict after contradiction, the rules of how the game should work are broken, then broken again. You are not here to win. The Stanley parable is a game that you play.
Publishing company: Alawar Premium / Developers: Alawar Premium
Invited to join the mysterious “Prime Observer Club”, your mission in Don’t feed the monkeys is to observe the “monkeys” through a series of cameras, and to report your findings to the Club by responding to their email requests for information. Giving back accumulated knowledge gets you paid, and getting paid allows you to buy more cameras to track more “monkeys”.
It’s one of many eye-catching games, like Orwell, Hypnospace Outlawand Her story…some of which are also on this list, because they are all hard to categorize in the same way!
Publishing company: Ghost time game / Developers: Ghost time game
Tux and Fanny just wanted to play soccer but their soccer ball was deflated. In your quest to re-inflate it, you’ll play as a flea whose whole society has died, a cat that wants to eat birds, a worm that just wants to get rid of the digestive system it’s found, and Tux. genuine and Fanny. The game is everywhere, in the absolute best, with elements of point-and-click adventure told in bizarre, absurd ways. It’s a game about football, but it’s also a game about everything else.
Publishing company: Enhance the game / Developers: Resonair
Sure, Tetris is a kind of puzzle game. But Tetris effect much more – an emotional zen wonderland of shapes, sounds and colors.
Throughout the gameplay, every movement, clear line or hard drop is accompanied by some kind of sound and visual effects, and each level is set up based on an animated background and plays. great development. Some would argue that Tetris is a game that doesn’t need graphical gimmicks to be engaging and addictive, but Tetris Effect spans all the stops regardless, delivering some truly stunning visual effects. Perfect combination with equally beautiful background music.
Publishing company: 3909 / Developers: 3909
Supposedly, Return of Obra Dinn – like so many of the games on this list – are “narrative” and “walking simulation” games. But what does that really mean? It’s probably unlike anything you’ve played before and so it’s a bit difficult to start over. Like most of its other games, when it starts clicking, you’ve been sucked into the mystery and eager to explore to close this fascinating case.
Publishing company: Annapurna Interactive / Developers: Sam Barlow
Liefrom the same studio as the game despite the similar genre (but not on Switch) Her story, which allows you to review video clips of the four main characters and a variety of supporting players using different video capture devices. You only hear one side of the conversation, but you have the ability to search the fictional RETINA database (the repository of these sneaky recordings) using any word in the dialogue and Much of your detective work relies on finding the other half of the conversation, identifying that person, and listening to new leads and search terms.
On paper, searching through a large database of cell phone video clips doesn’t sound like much, but Telling Lies makes for a couple of hours of detective work thanks to its clever construction, display. Powerful performance and exceptional polish.
Publishing company: Hello games / Developers: Hello games
Some of the games on this list are here because they don’t fit neatly into one category box. No Man’s Skylaunches on Switch October 2022, here because it fits too much the boxes.
Your ride through No Man’s Sky is up to you. Will you be a warrior, chasing the weak and taking their wealth, or killing pirates for their bounty? Or a trader? Or perhaps an adventurer?
Regular, massive free updates to this game just add more options.
Publishing company: Devolver Digital / Developers: Four quarters
Loop Hero proves to be an engaging and innovative RPG, distilling the genre into its most important gameplay elements and introducing some new ideas. There’s deck building, tower defense, city management, timeloop narration, boss battles and more. It’s a role-playing game, but it’s not a role-playing game… it’s… an RPG about role-playing games? Probably????
Turn to page two for more video games that defy the label…
