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It is easy to find lists of good games or popular games, but I would like to know more about unique games.  These are games that are different from most other games in some way.  Please note that these games do not actually have to be any good, just unique.

I'll start (random games that popped into my head):

• Wetrix - A fluid simulation based puzzle game.  Wikipeida (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetrix), Moby Games (http://www.mobygames.com/game/n64/wetrix), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDdxAl47Hi4)
• Tetrisphere - Pseudo-spherical puzzle game.  Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrisphere), Moby Games (http://www.mobygames.com/game/tetrisphere), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o3-hl3nr0Q)
• Iggy's Reckin' Balls - Platforming racing.  Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iggy's_Reckin'_Balls), Moby Games (http://www.mobygames.com/game/n64/iggys-reckin-balls/mobyrank), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqzPxIgQEdw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL)
• Space Station Silicon Valley - 3D platformer where you can take control of the enemies.  Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Station_Silicon_Valley), Moby Games (http://www.mobygames.com/game/space-station-silicon-valley), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoyMi80moG0)
• Mohawk and Headphone Jack - Not a great game, but the rotating world is interesting.  Wikipeida (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohawk_%26_Headphone_Jack), Moby Games (http://www.mobygames.com/game/mo-hawk-headphone-jack), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnP9pLsSMV4)
• Uniracers - Side scrolling stunt racing.  Wikipeida (http://www.mobygames.com/game/uniracers), Moby Games (http://www.mobygames.com/game/uniracers), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CCmt8Q_ASI)

Noby Noby Boy

My niece gets a laugh out of the fact you can eat people and projectile-crap them out (complete with fart noise). It is a very very strange DLC "game" from the maker of Katamari Damacy.

UFO: Afterlight is the only game I know where you put in motion and observe the slow terraforming of an entire planet.

Other than that, it's a pretty standard squad-based RPG/realtime-tactics game.
Oh, hm, I guess that's not that standard.

great idea!  :gentleman:

• Snake, Ratlle 'n' Roll - pretty unique isometric platformer where you have to eat enough nibbley pibbleys and climb up magic mountains in order to reach the moon. (features also a 2 player coop mode).
  originally released for the NES... but got also ported to the sega genesis (aka mega drive).
  Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_Rattle_%27n%27_Roll), Moby Games (http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/snake-rattle-n-roll/release-info), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZd1Almdwug)

Snake, Rattle 'n' Roll was probably the closest thing to a 3D game you could play for the NES.  It would be pretty sweat if someone would make a full 3D sequel.

Cubivore
Pac-Pix
I still think the original Wario Ware is one of the most interesting and unique games ever.

The most recent one I played was Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on the Wii. I really like how they did the whole phone mechanic; that made it really unique.

As far as indie games go, Space Funeral gets the hat tip.

Well. Dwarf Fortress. 'Cause, well... obv.

Half Minute Hero a mix of WarioWare and old school JRPG, my favorite PSP game.

Time to list off some games!
Rez, Lumines, Child of Eden, Echochrome, Echochrome 2, Portal, Portal 2, Tempest 2000, Tempest 3000, LockOn, Spheres of Chaos, Typhoon 2001, and some other stuff.

Oh yeah, Space Giraffe.

(http://gamesareevil.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/katamaridamacy1.jpg)

How many games have you seen that are like Uplink? Yeah, thought so.

Work Time Fun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85blgc5JfHY&feature=related)

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41W313CR5YL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

LSD: The Dream Emulator. The world needs more exploration-based games with mild procedural generation systems that nobody understands.

Noby Noby Boy actually reminded me a lot of that game.

Unique games I have played recently:
Holy Invasion Of Privacy Badman
Nier
Deadly Premonition
Demon's Souls
King's Field series

(on an only somewhat offtopic note, did STD.bits actually have a goal or ending?)

there is no way to express my love for Mischief Makers

Half-Minute Hero. (Wiki  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poxK0X8nyrw)- Youtube  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poxK0X8nyrw))

Can you play an entire rpg... in 30 seconds?

Chulip is pretty bad and good at the same time. Actually, it's awful, but also really cool. (If you play it you will see what I mean)

Cho Aniki. (It's not that unique, but the first boss makes people pull this face: D: )

Um Jammer Lammy, but it's too famous, so probably not... (Same goes for Vib Ribbon)

Seaman... o_o;



Spheres of Chaos yes!!! (Though, it's just Asteroids... I liked that you could set it to bounce off the edges of the screen rather than wrap around.)

I 100% guarantee you that Vib Ribbon is not famous.???

I love this game. Admittedly a lot of the tracks don't have terribly distinctive design (because there are so fuckin many of them!), but I found the game really exhilarating and fun to play overall. Mischief Makers is great too, but that's to be expected from Treasure.

My mind just blanked trying to think of more. The ps1 platformer Tomba! was pretty unique from what I played, but I didn't get very far into it. I've also seen this game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOS_(video_game)) mentioned a few other places, never played it (looks interesting though).

bento_smile, a game can be both famous and unique at the same time -- it just needs to be significantly different from most other games.

A few more I thought of:

• Chibi-Robo
• Elebits

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned World of Goo yet.

Also, Katamari Damacy is also unique.

Hmmm... Lemme think of some more.

Brutal Legend

The game play is pretty standard but the way it immerses you in its theme makes it a very unique game.

blast corps

I'd have to say Team Fortress 2's play is pretty unique. The way that strategies can come together without your team ever saying a word is fantastic.

The Expelations of The Little Green Pod Man (http://omnimedium.com/blog/?p=16) was a pretty wtf little freeware gem but absolutely I love it.

(http://www.bloodlustsoftware.com/tsstor2.gif)

Time Slaughter: Cactus found this a while ago, it's a super violent shareware fighting game from 1996 (made by "Bloodlust Software" no less). It's visual style is the naive disturbed visual style that you may or may not be familiar with, and the intro is just hilarious in its gratuity. Watch the intro to see the hilarious antagonists and some eye drilling action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jxag5Q53FE

Other than that, I'd say Jazzuo's games are pretty unique. I like all of them but Hermies and Sexy Hiking are probably the best.

I think it's worth mentioning that that's a vastly expanded remake of a freeware game called 30 Second Hero.

http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/02/freeware_game_pick_30_second_h.html (http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/02/freeware_game_pick_30_second_h.html)

I had no idea. Awesome.;D

Yeah, that pretty much is the most unique game I know...

I really love games that have some kind of unique gameplay mechanics. Here are some:

Freeware games:
Chalk (http://db.tigsource.com/games/chalk)
Swarm racer (http://www.lexaloffle.com/swarm.php)
Flickerstrings (http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/03/freeware_game_pick_flickerstri.html)
Probe L (http://playthisthing.com/probe-l)
nudo (http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/08/freeware_game_pick_nudo_ben_es.html)
Toribash (http://www.toribash.com/)
lab 14 (http://www.yoyogames.com/games/30381)
Bulletsss (http://hempuli.com/Bsss/)
Wubly² (http://www.yoyogames.com/games/2994-wubly%C2%B2)

Commercial games:
Portal
Trine
Ōkami

Digital: a Love Story

I'm sure I've played another one too, but I've forgotten it's name.  It's certainly not a genre that's brimming with games though.

I can't think of a more obscure game now, but Yume Nikki is very unique.

I agree, especially the music.  What an amazing soundtrack - jazz and samba need to be in more games.  Also the art style is just hilarious.

There are a few other hacker sims as well, though their names also kinda escape me at the moment. I don't think Uplink was the first either. One of them is available on Steam (and currently in a bundle with Uplink).

Exactly- it's the kind of game that Let's Play was invented for.

Jurassic Park Trespasser was also a pretty unique and innovative game for its time.

Disaster Report and its sequel Raw Danger are both pretty unique- rather than surviving a zombie apocalypse, you're trying to stay alive during all kinds of natural disasters.

What's all that brown stuff on the floor? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Machi2qmUeo)

I thought E.V.O. The Search for Eden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.V.O.:_Search_for_Eden) was unique back when I played it as a kid.  But a bunch of games have been released since then that have followed similar principles (you're a fish and you eat other creatures to gain evolution points which you can spend to evolve your body and become stronger and move through time).  I liked the little messages about the sea cucumbers gossiping amongst one another.

Ha ha, pulling someone's innards out and using them as bagpipes is like the most creative gruesome death I've seen on a screen.

Apparently, Catherine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvzijjVhfEE&feature=player_embedded#!), the new game from the Persona Team at Atlus is a psycho-sexual survival-horror puzzle game?:droop:

Sounds good to me. The Shin Megami games have always had some sort of unique hook. Take Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha Vs. The Soulless Army- it's set in  1920s Japan and includes historical figures of the day, and your main character runs a detective agency and just so happens to be able to summon/command demons.

There are games that are unique for their gameplay and games that are unique for their graphical style, sound and thematic.

Kirby's Epic Yarn for instance has a very unique art-style but does nothing really new.. Tim Schafer games (like someone mention, Brutal Legend) usually have a very unique setting and art-style (Psychonauts and Grim Fandango).

So, let me use this thread to ask you guys: which kind of "uniqueness" is more important for you?

Oh that title reminds me of an old obscure french PC game called Isabelle
http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/Isabelle/Isabelle_Review.shtm

I heard of "CAPTAIN BLOOD" on Atari ST very recently and it has fascinated me ever since
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFrcwk5my7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ONfFBMtYuQ

I have no idea what its about
something about blowing up planets and communicating with aliens through a strange glyph-based language

(also awesome fucking music what the hell)

To me unique gameplay mechanics and design elements are more interesting.  Anybody can clone the gameplay from another game and give it a different graphics style or have it take place in a different setting.  I'm more interested in the games that have something about them that has never been (or at least rarely been) copied.

I considered having "Rocket Robot on Wheels" in the list, but then wondered if it really was unique or if it was just a really good 3D platforming game.  I decided to leave it off the list.

We should ahve cactus and increpare team up to develop a spiritual sequel to that game.

I'm a massive fan of Kongai (http://www.kongregate.com/games/Kongregate/kongai) on Kongregate. It's distilled turn-based RPG-style battling turned competitive.

 I've never seen a game that's got so much excitement with so little by way of graphics. It barely moves visually and yet it's utterly thrilling to play. I haven't seen many games that have made RPG battling competitive, other than Pokemon, but I find Kongai way more intense.

Also, that Captain Blood game looks awesome - so bizarre!

Actually, it seems much less unique now that the gameplay has been shown. The setting is still very unique, but I'm almost sure this kind of climbing puzzle has been done already, although I don't remember where right now.

Apparently it's quite good, according to a Japanese friend of mine.
The puzzle/action sequences are quite varied.

Yes, anyone can clone gameplay and put it in another setting but thinking about a unique and interesting setting and visual style can be as hard as thinking about unique gameplay mechanics.

I had Captain Blood on the Spectrum. Properly bizarre. You had to travel the universe trying to track down and re-absorb a bunch of clones made of you, which involved traversing weird vector valleys. At the end of the valleys were representatives from a whole pile of different (and deeply odd) alien races who you'd communicate with using a sort of universal heiroglyphic language. They'd be friendly or smug or hostile at you, and some of them would give you coordinates of other planets to go to in an attempt to track stuff down. There was a secret ending in which you chat up the naked purple female alien and she shows up on your ship and reclines on your wacky biomechanical spaceship dashboard, all naked and purple and female.

Captain Blood was definitely unique. 

Of the same era, I can't think of a modern equivalent of Carrier Command.

Lords of Midnight on the Speccy was unique.

These aren't the most unique I know of, because there are too many that are totally unique.  These are just some that sprang to mind.

indeed...that would be fantastic!  :)

I was trying to remember the name of that game for so long! Damn! Thanks!

2 Spicy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK5RKByKKoI) is about as unique as games come.

Games that are unique due to mechanics or aesthetics?

A few that haven't been mentioned-

Progress Quest http://progressquest.com/ (http://progressquest.com/) (If you consider it a game)
Specter Spelunker Shrinks http://gamejolt.com/online/games/platformer/specter-spelunker-shrinks/1865/ (http://gamejolt.com/online/games/platformer/specter-spelunker-shrinks/1865/)
Rom Check Fail http://www.farbs.org/games.html (http://www.farbs.org/games.html)
The Club by Sega (not so unique with Bulletstorm)
Minecraft
Love http://www.quelsolaar.com/ (http://www.quelsolaar.com/)

Picked up Senko No Ronde (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUQT8eIjkYE&feature=related) for cheap recently.

No one mentioned Scribblenauts (http://games.kidswb.com/official-site/scribblenauts/) yet?

Sexy Hiking, the best ever.

One time, I got to the top of the second level, and was one foot from the ending. The my mouse slipped, and I fell to the bottom

Ghost Trick (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l38y6Rmwhn0), from the creator of Phoenix Wright. I don't remember having played anything like it before.

Hands down a little unknown game called Quantum Minigolf (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeeXTmVGoxs). Basically you send out quantum waveform of golfballs that interact with eachother, you then observe  the waveform to collapse it into a particle and get it to go into the hole (I think, you'll forgive me if I don't understand right?).

Hands down, the most unique game concept I have ever seen in my entire life.  :coffee:

Thrustburst  (http://umlautgames.net/thrustburst/)feels pretty unique to me. I've never played a game like it before, and haven't since.

The Sentinel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentinel_%28computer_game%29) is another one:


There's also a freeware clone of The Sentinenl called Zenith (http://johnvalentine.co.uk/zenith.php), which is very fun. it starts out easy and then gets quite chaotic. and I must admit, sometimes I jump when I get spotted by the Sentinel. it's very stressful when he's got you in his gaze.

On that subject, I found Phoenix Wright to be an incredibly unique experience.  Before that, I don't even think there were really any proper lawyer games, or at least none that got the formula right.

ZPC for it's art style. My friend Aiden Hughes made this back in '95 I believe using the Marathon engine. Some said it was shit, some say it was awesome. I am the type that says it's awesome. Yes, it is flawed due to a sadistic programmer being on the team, but it's still worth checking out.

It's worth checking out just so you can say that you've played a game where you are basically Space Jesus.