2011′s Oddest Games – Rated

We love a little bit of odd gaming here on Play and as such 2011 is looking like a good year for us. We’ve got strange concepts, dreamy worlds and peculiar mechanics all over the place. So, in order to better understand just how weird 2011 is going to be here are some of the top odd games on the way.

Stacking – Out this week on PSN and frankly very strange indeed. It involves playing as Russian dolls and ‘stacking’ them in order to use each of their unique special abilities. The art style has a kind of 19th Century thing going on and there’s lots of fart humour. All in all perfectly kooky, but then we expect no less from the house of strange and wonderful that is Double Fine.
Rating:  Dave Shaws In A Mexican Hat

Catherine – Playing as a rather feckless hero named Vincent you will traverse the world of the Japanese dating scene by day trying to balance your relationships with two women while at night fighting off the nightmares of rams in bars and only wearing your underwear. We still don’t entirely understand what Catherine is all about. We’d rather not know actually.
Rating:  Dave Shaws In A Mexican Hat

El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron – With the world of man under threat of destruction by God you find seven fallen angels and uncover the plot that has deceived the lord into thinking humanity is not worth saving. The game takes liberally from the Book Of Enoch, but the plot isn’t really the strange bit. What stands out is its extraordinary art style.
Rating:  Dave Shaws In A Mexican Hat

Twisted Metal – Clowns, psychopaths, monster truck drivers and homicidal maniacs… and that’s just one gang. Twisted Metal is a loosely held together excuse (but a wonderful excuse) for a bunch of beefed up cars, bikes and vans to plow into one another with mounted machine guns and explosives. It’s carnage on the strangest streets you’ve ever seen.
Rating:  Dave Shaws In A Mexican Hat

Yakuza: Of The End – Having fought your way through the Yakuza and survived three games of battling the intrigue and back-stabbing that such organisations are known for you must now face your biggest challenges on the streets of Tokyo… Zombies. We’re still having trouble getting our heads around how this has come about, but we’ll go with it.
Rating:  Dave Shaws In A Mexican Hat