We make a lot of lists here at Nintendo Life, you may have noticed. Why? Because we’ve all been that person who really wants a game to be I like it another game they really enjoyed, and want more recommendations. It’s easy to group games by genre to answer that question, but what about all the games that get overlooked?
Some games defy the genre in interesting ways, but that makes it hard to put them in pretty boxes (although maybe putting things in pretty boxes isn’t such a great thing, anyway). Other games mix genres to create something entirely new, like metroidvanias, before “metroidvania” was a thing, or the dreaded deck-building roguelike, but that means they don’t fit anywhere either.
So to solve this enormous wrong, we’ve rounded up a handful of games that we think deserve a recommendation, but just don’t fit in your neat little categories. They are different, men. they do not conform for you rules. And honestly? That’s why we love them.
(author’s note– Some of these games, like The Stanley Parable and Return of the Obra Dinn, are technically on other lists – Stanley made it to the best comedy games and ROTD is on our best detective games list – but if we’re being totally honest, those lists were done so we could include those specific games. So it doesn’t count.)
Editor: Annapurna Interactive / Developer: matrix angel
Neon White is a difficult game to pin down to just one genre. Part platformer, part first person shooter, part card game, part social simulator. It sounds like a risk of having too many cooks in the kitchen, but Neon White has combined them perfectly to create a five-star meal.
From its excellent writing, music, and presentation to its intense and satisfying core gameplay, Neon White is one of the most exciting things we’ve played all year, and it’s a game we can’t stop making for a very long time. we try to improve our previous times.
Editor: Nintendo / Developer: HAL Laboratory
Part Time UFO may not have been created initially with any involvement from Nintendo, but HAL’s close ties to the company shine through nonetheless, and as a result, it absolutely feels like the kind of premium product you’d normally only expect from Nintendo. one of Nintendo’s own. development teams It’s a bit hard to categorize… but maybe not necessary. It’s brilliant on its own terms.
Editor: bandai namco / Developer: bandai namco
Games are often at their best when they embrace the truly weird and wonderful. Katamari Damacy is one of the weird and wonderful OG games, where you play as a Prince tasked with rolling things up to create new stars, because your terrible, amateur father accidentally destroyed them all. Is it a puzzle game? Is it an action game? Who cares. It’s a great play.
Editor: Ravens Ravens Ravens / Developer: Ravens Ravens Ravens
The Stanley Parable is an incredibly metagame that trust about the challenging genre. You will play as Stanley and you will not play as Stanley. They will make a choice, and their choices will be taken away from them. The game will end, the game will never end. Contradiction follows contradiction, the rules of how games should work are broken and then broken again. You are not here to win. The Stanley Parable is a game that plays to you.
Editor: Premium / Developer: Premium
Invited to the mysterious “Primate Observation Club”, his task in Don’t Feed the Monkeys is to observe “the monkeys” through a series of cameras, while reporting his findings to the Club by responding to their email requests for information. . By feeding back his accumulated knowledge, he gets paid, and getting paid allows him to buy more cameras to spy on more “monkeys.”
It is one of many voyeuristic games, such as OrwellOutlaw hypnospace, and His story…some of which are what’s more on this list, because they are all difficult to categorize in the same way!
Editor: ghost time games / Developer: ghost time games
Tux and Fanny just want to play soccer, but their soccer ball is deflated. In your quest to re-inflate it, you’ll play as a flea whose entire society has died, a cat who wants to eat birds, a worm who just wants to escape the digestive system it’s in, and the titular Tux and Pussy. This game is all over the place, in the best possible way, with point-and-click adventure elements told in weird and wacky ways. It’s a game about a soccer ball, but it’s also a game about everything else.
Editor: improve games / Developer: resonance
Sure, Tetris is kind of a puzzle game. But Tetris Effect is so much more: a synesthetic Zen wonderland of shapes, sounds and colors.
During gameplay, every move, lane clearance, or sharp drop is accompanied by some sort of audio and visual effect, and each level is set against a wonderfully animated and evolving backdrop. Some would say that Tetris is a game that doesn’t need graphical gimmicks to entice and addictive, but Tetris Effect goes all out regardless, delivering some truly beautiful visuals that blend perfectly with the equally beautiful soundtrack.
Editor: 3909 / Developer: 3909
Arguably, Return of the Obra Dinn, like many games on this list, is both a “narrative” game and a “walking simulator.” But what does that mean, really? It’s probably unlike anything you’ve played before, and as such it’s kind of hard to get your head around to begin with. However, like most games of its kind, when it starts to click, you are already caught up in the mystery and wanting to solve this fascinating case with enthusiasm.
Editor: Annapurna Interactive / Developer: sam barlow
Telling Lies, from the same studio as the similarly genre-defying game (but not on Switch) His story, has you review video clips of four main characters and a variety of supporting players using various video capture devices. He only hears one side of the conversation, but he has the ability to search the fictional RETINA database (the repository of these covert recordings) using any word of the dialogue, and much of his detective work relies on finding the other half. of a conversation. , identify that person and listen to new leads and search terms.
On paper, searching through a huge database of phone-shot video clips doesn’t sound too exciting, but Telling Lies delivers a thrilling few hours of detective work thanks to some clever construction, strong performances, and exceptional polish.
Editor: hello games / Developer: hello games
Some games on this list are here because they don’t fit neatly into a genre box. No Man’s Sky, which comes out on Switch in October 2022, is here because it fits in too many boxes
Your journey through No Man’s Sky is up to you. Will you be a fighter, preying on the weak and taking their riches, or taking down pirates for their bounties? Or a merchant? Or maybe an explorer?
The gigantic and frequent free updates of this game only add more options.
Editor: Return Digital / Developer: Four rooms
Loop Hero proves to be a fascinating and creative take on an RPG, distilling the genre down to its most important gameplay elements and throwing in some fresh ideas. There’s deck building, tower defense, city management, time loop narrative, boss battles, and more. It’s an RPG, but it’s not an RPG… it’s… an RPG about RPGs? Maybe????
Turn to page two for more genre-bending video games that defy labels…
