I can think of a handful of games that, despite being games that I’ve enjoyed, never really became part of a “genre”. Do you have any like this, and if so, which?

Are they games that you’d like to see another entrant to the genre to? Would you recommend the original game as one to keep playing?

  • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
    5·
    5 months ago

    Yeah, I agree with most of those. Some of my favorite mentions from that thread:

    • SUPERHOT
    • Return of the Obra Dinn
    • Baba is You
    • Pony Island - and by extension Inscryption (haven’t played The Hex)
    • Katamari Damacy

    I’ll add:

    • Perspective
    • Manifold Garden
    • The Bridge

    And kind of the opposite, but I’ll list a couple of abstract genre games:

    • 140 - platformer
    • THOTH - twin stick shooter
    • tal@lemmy.todayOPEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      I’m not familiar with Pony Island, but I’d say that Inscryption – which I quite liked – has got other games like it, as it’s a (good) deckbuilder. If I understand aright from skimming the description, what’s in common is really thematic – simple game with an “upgrade game” aspect tied to a horror theme. The plot gets gradually unfolded as you upgrade and has fourth-wall-breaking aspects, like the game starts to act differently, pretend to malfunction, etc.

      Yeah, Katamari Damacy is definitely a “I wouldn’t have played it from the description” game that I found to be a lot of fun. One runs around pushing a growing sticky ball that keeps having objects attach themselves to it. The game has enormous scale change as the ball grows. Simple – almost a tech demo – but surprisingly fun, and I can’t think of anything like it other than games in the series itself.

      • sugar_in_your_teaEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        Inscryption

        Yeah, it’s technically a deck builder, and that’s the gameplay loop throughout, but it’s not a rogue like deckbuilder like Slay the Spire (well, it kind of is at first). But it plays more like a puzzle game than a deckbuilder, but it’s not quite a puzzle game either.

        But yeah, that’s the weakest of the bunch, and I only added it because Pony Island by the same dev is on there (which is technically a run-and-gun?).

        Both have a popular genre at the forefront, but the game really wants you to look past that at what’s developing behind the game. And that’s what I think makes them unique. Labeling them as “deck builder” and “run-and-gun” don’t feel appropriate, despite that being the core gameplay loop.