The Japanese they’ve brought some of the world’s most iconic characters and even the well known ones are often weird. Mario; a fat plumber that attacks giant mushrooms, commanded by a fire breathing lizard? Sonic; a bright blue hedgehog that can run faster than the speed of sound and whose best friend is a flying two tailed fox? Don’t get me started on the plot of Metal Gear Solid over the course of the series I don’t have the time. Anyway the point is that weird isn’t bad and it helps push the boundaries but some games, well they just push too many boundaries too far and over the next four pages I’m going to show you some in no particular order.

 

 

 

You remember Brain Training and all the other attempts to better ourselves with the DS and Wii? Well apparently 2 out of 5 Japanese people aren’t happy with their face. Enter Train Your Face! A game that comes with its own camera and then makes you twist your face into the “correct” form. Nothing is worse than a rubbish smile.

 

 

 

 

Gitaroo-Man is a story about U-1 a small boy that is bullied and not very successful with the ladies. Cue a talking dog that teaches him to play guitar. Turns out U-1 is the last of an alien race and has to save the world or something from other aliens, all through the power of his magical guitar.

 

This game was released way back in 2001 meaning that if you wanted to pretend to be rocking out with a guitar it was either air-guitar or this.

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Mosquito sees the player control a Mosquito (oddly enough) sucking blood of the Yamada family to survive the winter. The only thing is the Yamada family aren’t very happy about that. You can only drink blood from a set area on a family members’ body. If you’re caught in the act you enter a battle mode where the mosquito must dive bomb into pressure points to relieve stress and put them back in a docile state where you can drink their blood again.

 

 

 

 

Aliens have invaded and it’s up to Space Channel 5 to report, their reporter on the ground is Ulala. The player must control Ulala making her dance to maintain high viewer ratings but that the same time defend herself from alien attack, save hostages and defeat the various other networks attempting to steal your story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (Hey! Fight! Cheer Squad) sees the Player control the titular Cheer Squad as they cheer on those in need of a little encouragement such as a student having problems studying, a potter unable to create masterpieces, police fighting killer robots and the climax of cheering the whole world to save it from an asteroid impact. Gameplay sees the player tapping the DS screen with the style on beats and dragging them across the screen at certain points too.

 

If all this sounds familiar you might be thinking of Elite Beat Agents which is its spiritual sequel.