My pick is Toejam & Earl. It's certainly one of the most unique and clever gameplays I've ever experienced in a videogame. It's chill and stressful at the same time, and the mechanic of the gifts is so fun. Plus, a totally 90s soundtrack. And this is coming from someone who grew up with the Super Nintendo
The game that I immediately think of when I hear most unique/clever is Eternal Darkness for the GameCube. I've never seen another game break the 4th wall as well as it does. Everything from making you think there is a fly on the screen to scaring you that you're -banana- game file is corrupted/deleted.
@@The_Badseed- YES! I forgot about that! I fell for that 'put the controller on the table' and freaked out when it moved! Oh man, that was great. Instant fan of Hideo after that.
So glad you picked Radiant Silvergun. It deserves way more recognition than just from the few that have had the privilege of playing it. A 5th generation masterpiece
It's been available on Xbox as a download for a while now (via backwards compatibility) and got a Switch release more recently too (including a physical release).
@@RetroBirdGamingyup! I actually downloaded it for the Switch and then a month later, go figure, I got the notification that Limited Run was doing a physical copy… and of course I picked that up too lol. But I actually own a JP Saturn copy that I picked up awhile back before the price skyrocketed. You can never own too many copies of that game! Great video!
Youre literally the only youtuber i've ever seen that actually knows how to play NiGHTS, as well as explained the whole point of the bonus time. I've seen some of the biggest retro gaming youtubers not even realizing this, as they show gameplay of them getting nothing but C grades, and immediately starting the 2nd course after the first Capture. Bravo my friend, bravo!
I still think Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is incredibly clever given that at any given moment, you can transition from it being a 1st-person shooter to a 3D action/platformer - all with a single press of a button. And the FPS mechanics don't even focus on bullets. You have to "hunt" for your ammunition, be it skunks, wasps, bats, etc. It's such a clever and unique game and, visually speaking, it gets more and more lush the further you get into it. You start off in dusty, ramshackle towns and then eventually BAM! ... you're galloping through serene alpine waterfall vistas. Love Stranger's Wrath. Love, love, love it! Wish more folks would give it a chance.
Bionic Commando comes to mind for me. It's one of the first games I remember playing that had an over map that allowed you to travel down different paths plus the limitation of not being able to jump and needing your bionic arm to traverse the levels made it unique.
For me: Parappa the Rapper, I still remember my feelings the 1st time I started up the demo disk from PSM and seeing Master Chop Chop. Literally WTF!?!?!? Simple game but I remember having a great time playing, singing and drinking with my friends. Even the ones who "didn't like" video games. That is a mark of a GREAT game. ❤ you Fleaswallow
Just picked up Radiant Silvergun with the Limited Run release for my Switch! I love Treasure Games I'm always amazed how different & unique they all are! I hate waiting all weekend to finally watch your video, but it sure does brighten up my week when I finally get to watch it on Mondays! I liked all your picks & my Clever game would be Mercenary Force on the Game Boy. The cover looks like a weird fireman which didn't yell buy me when it came out in the 90s. But the game play is very unique & in my opinion like if Tetris was a shoot em up.
One of my favorite “unique” games is Katamari Damacy for the PS2. Such a weird premise, but incredibly satisfying to play. For something clever, I’d go to bat for Kirby Super Star. The game is designed to build on its gameplay as you go through the various included sub-games. It starts out short and sweet, but the next game ramps it up a little more, with some more involved design. The next game is a much more nonlinear one, the next tests you to see if you play the game in a scenario with a hard time limit for each screen. The final main game takes away a key part of gameplay and sees how you can adjust. It’s honestly quite brilliant.
I love NiGHTS Into Dreams, the feeling of flying you get playing it is just amazing. I'm honestly not that great at it speedwise because I have too much fun just flying around the stage, seeing the sights and performing loops and flips.
I always look forward to Fridays after work, I work 12 hour shifts and purposely stay up a bit later to watch these since I’m on the East coast haha, keep it up man, love the videos!
He really does put a lot of effort into the videos even for a single, short joke. I don't know where he draws his inspiration from because they're always different.
Great picks! Didn’t knew Mole Mania was by Miyamoto. One of my memorable unique games has to be Comix Zone for the Genesis..nothing quite like it (or at least that i’m aware of). Crazy difficult one too! 😅
@@marccaselle8108 The great thing about retro games is that you can play them with Game Genie codes, codes in the game & now Save states & rewind feature
I swear i never laugh so hard as i do when watching your videos. You could talk about manuals for 30 mins and i'd still watch till the last second 😂😂 never change RB ❤
Ghost Trick is my pick. Still one of the most unique games ive ever played and probably in my top 10 ever. The possession mechanic gave way for such amazing puzzle solving I loved that you picked Pikmin as its my favorite series ever. Miyamoto sure knows how to put a uniwue spin on a genre huh
I member playing captain tsubasa for famicom as a kid. I did not speak japanese, but somehow learned how to play and it was soo soo addictive. The other game which it was quite different for its time is Asura s wrath. The sound track and character design plus an amazing story. Playing that game for the first time it s a unique experience. Love ur content! Sheers with naners!
Nice video! I always go back to Braid on my X360 every once in awhile, it's such a unique puzzle platformer with absolutely beautiful art design and a clever twist on the "save the princess" storyline trope.
I love me some N64 so I'm going to throw Sin & Punishment into the mix here - I think there might've been a few arcade games that mixed rail shooters with targeting reticles (like Gunblade NY) but there was really nothing like it on a home console.
You're really funny dude! It's a crime you don't have more subscribers and views! One of the most unique games I ever played was In Other Waters on Switch. The graphics are minimal. You play as an AI guiding a scientist in an alien ocean. So you don't see a lot, just interfaces, but it was such a great game! I loved it. The music was nice too.
YEAH!! You playing Ogre Battle 64 Person of Lordly Caliber! That game is easily top 5 on the N64! I know how competitive that top 5 is, so, if you know, you know. And if you don't then you don't. I discovered it pretty late but fell in love with it immediately! Now I've beaten it multiple times! I have that Nights Into Dreams Bundle... I mean, the NTSC one, not the one you showed. But, I bought it for the controller. Don't really get the hype on the game. And I bought the Xmas version just for the collection.
I remember renting Ogre Battle 64 and being angry at first thinking the game sucked but got hooked after the first hour. Secret of Evermore was also unique to me, love the soundtrack and alchemy
By unique AND clever, I’m taking this to mean games that are great/fun, have a neato/clever approach, but are one-of-a-kind on their platform. For NES, River City Ransom wins this for me. A beat-em-up with RPG and open-world elements? Sign me up. Still a fun, unique game to play to this day.
LOL @ 2:28 Loved the vid, RB. If you haven't played, I highly recommend Portal (on PC with a high refresh monitor) and also its sequel. They're fantastic! Very clever and exciting first-person puzzle games. I'd say what my favorite level is on Portal 1, but I don't wanna spoil it.
I’m playing The Last Door on switch at the moment. It’s in many ways the opposite of clever or unique (gameplay wise), but it gets the job done very well in all its simplicity. The story and the music are unique and great.
Recently found channel, and so my comments are late. My first thought on seeing the title was "If a Treasure game is not on the list, it isn't valid" - then it was first one mentioned. Another unique thing about RS is that the weapons level up, and it saves their current level after you die, so if you only get a little way into the game, in addition to learning patterns you weapons slowly improve, letting you get further. It is one of my 5 favorite games of all time.
Resident evil on ps1 was very unique for its time, I still go back and use tank controls. Catherine on ps3 was definitely thinking outside the box as well.
Coming off the top of my head for unique games, I'd go with Guardian Legend for combining a vertical scrolling smhup with Zelda style, top-down exploration. The original Phantasy Star was also unique for bringing some hard scifi to a genre (RPGs) that was then-dominated by medieval fantasy worlds. Then there's Comix Zone, where the world is literally a comic book. How cool is that?
Great video, thanks. This feels like the beginning of a series. We would all love to hear your take on more examples. Games that come to mind include Chameleon twist, Snowboard Kids (all time hidden gem), Super Buster Bros, and Katamari Damacy. Like you demonstrated here, I believe its better to avoid obscurity and pick mostly from the mainstream developers. Thumbs up from me, keep it up.
Daytona USA (arcade original) deserves to be on this list, it can be played it auto like a traditional racing game but has hidden mechanics that need to be mastered in manual mode only to truly play it properly and get fast lap times. it feels as much like a puzzle game as a racing game when you understand how the gear you're in directly correlates to the max drift angle of your car before it slows down considerably.
Hot Wheels Crash is a unique PC game from the 90s. It's a puzzle game where the goal is to cause the most destruction by launching a hot wheel at the correct spot, time, and speed.
Great picks! I'd only heard of half of them My choice would be the Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan series for the DS. It is a phenomenal rhythm game series that utilizes the DS's unique hardware to great success, and on top of that the sound design in spot-on and each game oozes with charm and personality. There's also the fan-made spiritual successor Osu!, which is quite good, but the charm and gamefeel of the originals still have me going back to them more.
Also have you done a video on Toki? My mum loved that game and also Taz which was the first game i completed ❤ i play them today for nostalgia and to remember her ❤
Also, I've never played it but I watched a playthrough of outer wilds and it was so amazing. Never seen anything else even remotely close to it in design.
That montage moment of playing Mole Mania! LOL! I went from, "what are we doing here?" to coffee shooting out my nose on that last "ah". Well played, good sir! Well played. 😆
First, keep up the awesome videos! Seriously cool! I was expecting to see Shadow of the Colossus, and your list both surprised and really impressed! Go Pickman and Radiant Silvergun! After watching your video, I would consider Catherine, and possibly Alien/Devil Crush on the tg 16! Keep up the great topics Retro bird!
Great list - If I had to pick some unique games, the 4 that come to mind are: Haunting Starring Polterguy / Silhouette Mirage / Sonic Spinball / Gravity Rush
I know that this is not a hidden gem or anything, but there is nothing else like 2D Zelda. It's like a metroid vania except from a top down perspective. It has rpg elements without becoming an rpg. I wish there were more games like it. Also megaman battle network is the most creative and unique rpg ive ever played. I love rpg games that have active battle systems. You don't grow levels and it doesn't matter how strong your character is unless your skill also progresses. Timing and combos are key. The Mario and Luigi rpg series is also great in that regard.
Thanks for recommend Mole Mania, never heard of it and kind surprised since is a Nintendo game that you soon or later you would hear it in a reference or in Smash Bros (lol). I always love a good puzzle game that makes you say: "Ah!". And about unique games, there are two games not very retro-ish but I always remember in how good and unique were and are: Shadow of Destiny and Crush 3D Shadow of Destiny is an underrated PS2 (and ported later on PSP) game made by Konami, the game was a 3D story driven game that use time traveling aspects, maybe not an original idea but the execution was pretty neat since each era had different filters and each decision or puzzle solved changed the fate. Meanwhile with Crush 3D it was a pretty unique puzzle game in which combined and modified the dimensions of the game, depending of the position of the character and camera angle you can change the dimension from 3D to 2D and viceversa, the game also had an intriguing and a little dark storyline on the original PSP version, while in the remake on 3DS sadly the storyline was more family friendly and kind corny but still the game keep it essence.
I can't argue with any of these! Another one that comes to mind when thinking about unique/clever games that actually play great is the original Super Monkey Ball on Gamecube.
The little jab at Rascal... 😂 I remember that one actually gave me some kind of gaming existential crisis. It made me feel depressed, in a "am I just getting too old for video games, or something?" kind of way. Thankfully, that was absolutely not the case. It was just _bad._
Great video! Excellent list! I think the only game I haven't yet played on Retro Bird's list is Radiant Silvergun, so will have to check that out! The others I have played through and loved! For me, I'd argue the original *Super Mario Kart* was unique and clever as there never was a racing game like that before it! It invented a new game genre! Of course now it isn't unique but so many companies have copied the formula for decades! *Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg* was a really unique and clever 3D platformer where you had to roll various giant eggs around to perform certain tasks and navigate levels (and solve basic puzzles). You could even hatch eggs to get various power-ups and befriend little animal buddies. It is cute and fun! *Bust-A-Move* or *Puzzle Bobble* was a clever take on the color-matching puzzle games. You had to line up like-colored bubbles to pop them as a ceiling slowly inches down to your doom. It still is a lot of fun and unique compared to many other puzzle games. *Dokapon Kingdom* is a wild party game wrapped in RPG trimmings. It plays like a normal board game with simple RPG mechanics. You are given quests to undertake and your opponents can easily hinder your progress constantly. It is one of the most chaotic (yet enjoyable) multiplayer games I've ever played.
Have just been replaying Pikmin this week, and having an unreasonable amount of fun. Was surprised by how much it truly makes me feel 12 again 😌. The Gamecube had so many other clever and delightful games, such as Odama, a pinball strategy game with voice commands set in feudal Japan, and Chibi Robo, which I won't attempt to describe here but whose reputation is well deserved!
Radiant Silvergun is a piece of pure art. I left my 360 on overnight to get 99 lives, did not care one bit. Freaky Flyers is something I would consider unique, combining Mario Kart, dogfighting, and an extremely edgy early 2000's art style that they absolutely could not get away with nowadays.
Ultima Underworld series. Multiple solutions & ways to tackle every situation in the game. Completely different character types can offer completely different approaches to problem solving. Very satisfying.
The game that immediately comes to mind as possibly the most unique game I've ever played is Killer7 for the Gamecube & PS2. It's also one of my favorite games of all time, and I highly recommend picking it up on Steam if you have no other means of playing it on original hardware.
Kirby Bowl/ Kirby's Dream Course is one of my favourite unique games. It's also the only Isometric game I can think of that isn't hurt by the perspective, and it's over very clear about where things are. It's a must own for any super famicom/ snes collector. It's also pretty cheap.
I don't care how goofy it is, Witch & Hero will always be one of my favorite indie games ever. I get such a kick out of introducing it to people and watching them instantly get addicted and playing it for two hours straight.
SO on point about the GameBoy being perfect for puzzle games. To add to your reasons, the portability is a big factor. Also when you are on a bus it is easier to play than like a platformer cos of the bumping around.
We're going through a bit of a golden age in clever games now imo - games like Papers Please, Obra Dinn and Inscryption are all very clever and also very fun!
I really enjoyed that game as a kid. I remember playing that at the same time I was doing my best to play Metal Gear. I was TERRIBLE at both of them! Both were so far removed from the standard 2D platformer we were used to. I loved that time for video games. It seemed developers didn't know what would make a good game and just threw everything at the wall to see what stuck. Even more so before the NES arrived. They really made some WACKY games back on the old Commodore-64. The glory days of creativity, I'd say.
I recently discovered a game called Pocket Card Jockey for the 3DS. It combines solitaire & horse racing with surprisingly good results. Definitely a hidden gem, imo.
I'll throw in my two cents with two games!: A few games I think are super unique and have never been replicated I think are- 1st The ooze on sega Genesis. The game falls into no genre whatsoever but feels like a combination of many. The way you manage health vs speed vs power and so on is ingenious and the way you attack is unique and fun too. 2nd sacrifice on the pc from 1999. I know that this channel doesn't focus on old PC games, but if you truly want unique games that is the place to go. Sacrifice is an RTS game made by shiny that plays from a third person perspective. You play as a wizard that summons monsters from 5 different gods (factions) that you can join at different times to create your own personalized army of units and spells. There's a little too much to explain but the gameplay is fun and unique and the voice acting is superb with many big names in the industry bringing their talents. I can't recommend it enough.
Mole Mania is a wonderful underrated Shigeru Miyamoto game and I love It. I wonder If Night into Dreams and Christmas into dreams will ever get a modern re-release. Cool video. ^_^
Brothers: a tale of two sons gets my vote for originality. Each brother is controlled by a separate thumbstick, which is difficult to get used to at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a really enjoyable experience.
Good list, I love pikmin. I have 2 to contribute. Catherine being a little more modern but unique puzzle game. It’s so much fun to play and even the parts where he’s awake are fun too. Then Jekyll and Hyde for nes. Heavily criticized and definitely flawed but the concept is cool. Jekyll always needing to stay ahead of Mr. Hyde in the levels. It has 2 endings, 1 being the true ending which for a 1988 game is pretty neat.
Guardian Legend (NES), Actraiser (SNES), Car Battler Joe (GBA), 1 on 1 (PSX-JP), Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn). this was a hard list to make. unique is... unique. a masterpiece isn't necessarily a unique game, just a perfectly crafted one. and a unique game may not necessarily be all that great. but i stand behind these as all great games (PDZ is a masterpiece afterall). Looking at the list now, i can see i really like when genres are meshes together, especially RPG/Adventure games. but a basketball fighting game... whaaaaa??/!
I have to say that Cuphead is one of the most visually unique games I've ever played. The game play may not be anything super unique, but that 30's cartoon art style... I've never seen anything quite like it except maaaybe Mickey Mania. But finding out that the whole game was hand drawn blew my mind. I couldn't believe that hand drawn anything still happened.
Great choices RB! I'd have to give a shout out to Jeff Minter's Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time, Andrew Braybrook's Paradroid, Peter Molyneux's Populous and David Crane's Little Computer People. #OriginalAndBest
No one here is gonna talk about how easy you're making a game as tough as Radiant Silvergun look!? That's some impressive skill you got there. Also, great list! A game I would recommend as clever would probably be a criminally lesser known strategy game called "Bahamut Lagoon". It's praised among hardcore fans of strategy games and rpgs alike and REALLY needs a western release/remaster. The cool thing about it is that the battle field is VERY interactive and you can use your dragons to defeat enemy units in interesting ways. Outnumbered by an army approaching from the forest? Send your firebreather and set that entire forest ablaze! Large river forcing you to take the long way around through enemy territory? Have your icebreather create an ice bridge for you! Enemy pursuing you on said ice bridge? Send in your firebreather to melt it beneath their feet! We didn't get in the west because by the time the translation would've been complete, the next console gen would've been out. We actually missed out on a quite a few awesome games for this reason. Might make for a good list someday, wouldn't you say?
Hey. I played Pikmin 1 recently on the Pikmin 1 and 2 collection on Switch and really liked it. My only complaints is how dumb the Pikmin can be at times getting stuck under bridges or whatnot. I'd say Dragon Force is my main pick and also Raw Danger and Disaster Report. Never played anything like those two games. Really weird, but fun.
The games you picked are all definitely unique and/or clever in terms of their gameplay and even their style. Though I personally fall into the Ikaruga camp when it comes to Treasure's more unique shoot em ups, Radiant Silvergun is no slouch as an awesome shooter with a unique twist. I love them both, I just tend to lean more towards Ikaruga for some reason. On the subject of a unique and clever game I know of that also happens to be a solid shooter, I'd like to give Dimension Drive a mention to you if not a full-blown recommendation to try out. It's a shoot em up on the PS4 and Switch that has a wildly ridiculous gameplay mechanic that requires you to essentially teleport yourself from one side of the screen to the other as if you were travelling to another dimension, hence the name. To this day I have NEVER seen any other shooter do this, it's pretty insane. Its honestly hard to describe in words and is better understood when seen and played. Kind of like Nights into Dreams lol. It's almost like combining on-the-fly puzzle solving elements with traditional vertical-style survival shooting. The game can be found physically to, making it great for someone's shelf. Please give this game a try if you haven't already, at the very least check it out online to get a better idea of what it does. You won't regret it. :)
I’m going old school on this one. For the NES- Little Nemo The Dream Master, Marble Madness, Abadox, A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobalonia(you feed your blob different kinds of jellybeans and he morphs into different objects!), Bubble Bobble, Spelunker, Kickle Cubicle, Pinball Quest, Maniac Mansion,and The Adventures of Lolo, just to name a few😂 I’ll throw in a few N64 titles too, both by Rare, Blast Corps and yes, Banjo Kazooie. 😊 I feel like all of these games were very creative and stood out as different from other games.
@ Thank you!! And those are great choices as well! I need to play Snake Rattle ‘N Roll again. I own it, I’ve played it, but I think I didn’t give it enough of a chance. I have too many games, that’s why.🤷 The other one looks pretty cool, but I haven’t played it yet
Mole Mania was a game I had as a child, no one else I knew had even heard of it (small town). But it was a mainstay in my gameboy for the few years prior to Pokemon. When VC released it on 3DS it was a “shut up and take my money!” Moment
Radiant Silvergun is one of my fave games, period. Sadly I'm not a collector anymore and my copy went on Ebay years ago. But I still play on emulator frequently.
I never played any of the games you mentioned but they all look good. Two games that come to mind for me that are creative/unique are “it takes two” and “outer wilds”.
I’ll choose Toki Tori for the Game Boy Color. I’ve never played Mole Mania before (though it’s on my list), but I imagine it gives you the same kind of satisfaction that Toki Tori does. Challenging yet not too stressful, and truly a delight to play (: definitely recommended if you enjoy puzzle platformers at all.
Games played: Power Stone (0:00), Ogre Battle 64 (0:25). The rest of the games shown in the video are all named when I talk about them :)
PS2 Arcade ports? Spicy banana? 🌶️🍌 Or poop 💩 Video idea.
@@Teejay_2000Have some respect.
I wish ogre battle 64 wasn’t a gajillion bucks today 😅
Our frothing demand for Retro Bird videos *INCREASES*
-All of us
I never knew how much Bird made me froth until tonight
@@ThePirateCasey😳😳
My pick is Toejam & Earl. It's certainly one of the most unique and clever gameplays I've ever experienced in a videogame. It's chill and stressful at the same time, and the mechanic of the gifts is so fun. Plus, a totally 90s soundtrack. And this is coming from someone who grew up with the Super Nintendo
The game that I immediately think of when I hear most unique/clever is Eternal Darkness for the GameCube. I've never seen another game break the 4th wall as well as it does. Everything from making you think there is a fly on the screen to scaring you that you're -banana- game file is corrupted/deleted.
That game screwed with me almost as much as Psyco Mantis from MGS
Great game. Loves it when the main character head dropped off and you die!!! And it's hallucination
@@The_Badseed- YES! I forgot about that! I fell for that 'put the controller on the table' and freaked out when it moved! Oh man, that was great. Instant fan of Hideo after that.
I was stuck in the game and scary
I've still never played that game, but it's been on the bucket list since it came out.
That's it, I'm getting it now lol
So glad you picked Radiant Silvergun. It deserves way more recognition than just from the few that have had the privilege of playing it. A 5th generation masterpiece
It's been available on Xbox as a download for a while now (via backwards compatibility) and got a Switch release more recently too (including a physical release).
@@RetroBirdGamingyup! I actually downloaded it for the Switch and then a month later, go figure, I got the notification that Limited Run was doing a physical copy… and of course I picked that up too lol. But I actually own a JP Saturn copy that I picked up awhile back before the price skyrocketed. You can never own too many copies of that game! Great video!
I was impressed how few times he died playing!
@@pixelpoppyproductions haha truth. Game is hard as hell too!
It's on sale. 50% off on Switch right now.
Youre literally the only youtuber i've ever seen that actually knows how to play NiGHTS, as well as explained the whole point of the bonus time.
I've seen some of the biggest retro gaming youtubers not even realizing this, as they show gameplay of them getting nothing but C grades, and immediately starting the 2nd course after the first Capture.
Bravo my friend, bravo!
Retro bird is a product of a real life gamer who is good at game because banana
Just tried gunstar heroes for the first time on my miyoo mini plus. Wow that one is good!! Best retro gaming you tuber hands down
I still think Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is incredibly clever given that at any given moment, you can transition from it being a 1st-person shooter to a 3D action/platformer - all with a single press of a button.
And the FPS mechanics don't even focus on bullets. You have to "hunt" for your ammunition, be it skunks, wasps, bats, etc. It's such a clever and unique game and, visually speaking, it gets more and more lush the further you get into it. You start off in dusty, ramshackle towns and then eventually BAM! ... you're galloping through serene alpine waterfall vistas.
Love Stranger's Wrath. Love, love, love it! Wish more folks would give it a chance.
Kirby’s Dream Course on SNES is my definition of clever. Spin control, special powers and very competitive two player vs.
Kirby's Dream Course for sure! yeah its sort of like golf but not there's soo much more going on to make it stand out as unique! More like golf PVP
Bionic Commando comes to mind for me. It's one of the first games I remember playing that had an over map that allowed you to travel down different paths plus the limitation of not being able to jump and needing your bionic arm to traverse the levels made it unique.
For me: Parappa the Rapper, I still remember my feelings the 1st time I started up the demo disk from PSM and seeing Master Chop Chop. Literally WTF!?!?!? Simple game but I remember having a great time playing, singing and drinking with my friends. Even the ones who "didn't like" video games. That is a mark of a GREAT game. ❤ you Fleaswallow
Oh yeah that one. I love it. Also unique & clever.
That was the first time I'd ever played a rhythm game and I had ZERO clue what I was doing.
Just picked up Radiant Silvergun with the Limited Run release for my Switch! I love Treasure Games I'm always amazed how different & unique they all are! I hate waiting all weekend to finally watch your video, but it sure does brighten up my week when I finally get to watch it on Mondays! I liked all your picks & my Clever game would be Mercenary Force on the Game Boy. The cover looks like a weird fireman which didn't yell buy me when it came out in the 90s. But the game play is very unique & in my opinion like if Tetris was a shoot em up.
One of my favorite “unique” games is Katamari Damacy for the PS2. Such a weird premise, but incredibly satisfying to play. For something clever, I’d go to bat for Kirby Super Star. The game is designed to build on its gameplay as you go through the various included sub-games. It starts out short and sweet, but the next game ramps it up a little more, with some more involved design. The next game is a much more nonlinear one, the next tests you to see if you play the game in a scenario with a hard time limit for each screen. The final main game takes away a key part of gameplay and sees how you can adjust. It’s honestly quite brilliant.
I haven’t laughed a retro gamer video joke in quite some time. What an absolute clever and hilarious joke at 7:50.
I love NiGHTS Into Dreams, the feeling of flying you get playing it is just amazing. I'm honestly not that great at it speedwise because I have too much fun just flying around the stage, seeing the sights and performing loops and flips.
For anyone else with ant problems not as fun as Pikmin: planting mint around your house keeps the ants away and smells wonderful!
I might have to try this...
"BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS" - Radiant Silvergun.
Great video!
Actraiser is one I always go back to. It is just an odd mix of two different game types. 👍
I always look forward to Fridays after work, I work 12 hour shifts and purposely stay up a bit later to watch these since I’m on the East coast haha, keep it up man, love the videos!
Wow. I'll never take 12 hour shifts. Too much & you get tired really fast.
I appreciate it and hope it starts your weekend off right!
0:16 Should we tell him about banjo kazooie nuts and bolts on the Xbox 360? (and/or Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge for the Gameboy advance?)
Days since new Banjo poster was priceless! Well done!
th-cam.com/video/eagEnCQlNMA/w-d-xo.html
He really does put a lot of effort into the videos even for a single, short joke. I don't know where he draws his inspiration from because they're always different.
Some of the most unique or interesting games for me were:
Legend of Ligia
Baten Kiatos
Amazing island
Pikmin
Wario ware
Love your Mole Mania montage! Another gem! Thanks for the video.
Im getting into gaming so much just because It's hard not to continue watching more of these videos, such a charismatic guy!
Great picks! Didn’t knew Mole Mania was by Miyamoto. One of my memorable unique games has to be Comix Zone for the Genesis..nothing quite like it (or at least that i’m aware of). Crazy difficult one too! 😅
For sure Comix zone. So many retro games that they don't even do now.
When I first played comix zone, I couldn't beat the first few levels for many years lol
@@marccaselle8108 That's actually a really hard game.
@@tonyp9313 it is. It took me 25 years just to get to level 4 lol
@@marccaselle8108 The great thing about retro games is that you can play them with Game Genie codes, codes in the game & now Save states & rewind feature
3:25 ...... OH SNAP! the truth of it burns even harder ... love my DC.. cant wait to get a Saturn....
I swear i never laugh so hard as i do when watching your videos. You could talk about manuals for 30 mins and i'd still watch till the last second 😂😂 never change RB ❤
I like how you go about showing gameplay, very visually cozy.
Awesome to see three of my favourite games mentioned in this video and another one I now want to play. Great job, RetroBird.
Ghost Trick is my pick. Still one of the most unique games ive ever played and probably in my top 10 ever. The possession mechanic gave way for such amazing puzzle solving
I loved that you picked Pikmin as its my favorite series ever. Miyamoto sure knows how to put a uniwue spin on a genre huh
I member playing captain tsubasa for famicom as a kid. I did not speak japanese, but somehow learned how to play and it was soo soo addictive.
The other game which it was quite different for its time is Asura s wrath. The sound track and character design plus an amazing story. Playing that game for the first time it s a unique experience.
Love ur content! Sheers with naners!
Absolutely, Banjo can never get enough love.
Nice video! I always go back to Braid on my X360 every once in awhile, it's such a unique puzzle platformer with absolutely beautiful art design and a clever twist on the "save the princess" storyline trope.
I love me some N64 so I'm going to throw Sin & Punishment into the mix here - I think there might've been a few arcade games that mixed rail shooters with targeting reticles (like Gunblade NY) but there was really nothing like it on a home console.
You're really funny dude! It's a crime you don't have more subscribers and views! One of the most unique games I ever played was In Other Waters on Switch. The graphics are minimal. You play as an AI guiding a scientist in an alien ocean. So you don't see a lot, just interfaces, but it was such a great game! I loved it. The music was nice too.
Thank you!
You have an amazing channel. You put in the time and it shows, very high quality.
Thank you!
YEAH!! You playing Ogre Battle 64 Person of Lordly Caliber! That game is easily top 5 on the N64!
I know how competitive that top 5 is, so, if you know, you know. And if you don't then you don't.
I discovered it pretty late but fell in love with it immediately! Now I've beaten it multiple times!
I have that Nights Into Dreams Bundle... I mean, the NTSC one, not the one you showed. But, I bought it for the controller. Don't really get the hype on the game. And I bought the Xmas version just for the collection.
Yeah, Ogre Battle 64 is awesome!
Windjammers on the Neo Geo is my pick for a unique and clever game. It blurs the line between a sports game and a fighting game.
I remember renting Ogre Battle 64 and being angry at first thinking the game sucked but got hooked after the first hour. Secret of Evermore was also unique to me, love the soundtrack and alchemy
Why the HELL don’t you have more subs?! 😩 Let’s get those numbers up!!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
By unique AND clever, I’m taking this to mean games that are great/fun, have a neato/clever approach, but are one-of-a-kind on their platform. For NES, River City Ransom wins this for me. A beat-em-up with RPG and open-world elements? Sign me up. Still a fun, unique game to play to this day.
LOL @ 2:28
Loved the vid, RB.
If you haven't played, I highly recommend Portal (on PC with a high refresh monitor) and also its sequel. They're fantastic! Very clever and exciting first-person puzzle games. I'd say what my favorite level is on Portal 1, but I don't wanna spoil it.
I’m playing The Last Door on switch at the moment. It’s in many ways the opposite of clever or unique (gameplay wise), but it gets the job done very well in all its simplicity. The story and the music are unique and great.
Recently found channel, and so my comments are late. My first thought on seeing the title was "If a Treasure game is not on the list, it isn't valid" - then it was first one mentioned. Another unique thing about RS is that the weapons level up, and it saves their current level after you die, so if you only get a little way into the game, in addition to learning patterns you weapons slowly improve, letting you get further. It is one of my 5 favorite games of all time.
Resident evil on ps1 was very unique for its time, I still go back and use tank controls. Catherine on ps3 was definitely thinking outside the box as well.
Coming off the top of my head for unique games, I'd go with Guardian Legend for combining a vertical scrolling smhup with Zelda style, top-down exploration. The original Phantasy Star was also unique for bringing some hard scifi to a genre (RPGs) that was then-dominated by medieval fantasy worlds. Then there's Comix Zone, where the world is literally a comic book. How cool is that?
Great video, thanks. This feels like the beginning of a series. We would all love to hear your take on more examples. Games that come to mind include Chameleon twist, Snowboard Kids (all time hidden gem), Super Buster Bros, and Katamari Damacy. Like you demonstrated here, I believe its better to avoid obscurity and pick mostly from the mainstream developers. Thumbs up from me, keep it up.
My favorite unique style games are the DK Jungle Climber games on GBA and DS. Great games
Daytona USA (arcade original) deserves to be on this list, it can be played it auto like a traditional racing game but has hidden mechanics that need to be mastered in manual mode only to truly play it properly and get fast lap times. it feels as much like a puzzle game as a racing game when you understand how the gear you're in directly correlates to the max drift angle of your car before it slows down considerably.
We totally would have been friends in highschool
Hot Wheels Crash is a unique PC game from the 90s. It's a puzzle game where the goal is to cause the most destruction by launching a hot wheel at the correct spot, time, and speed.
Great picks! I'd only heard of half of them
My choice would be the Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan series for the DS. It is a phenomenal rhythm game series that utilizes the DS's unique hardware to great success, and on top of that the sound design in spot-on and each game oozes with charm and personality.
There's also the fan-made spiritual successor Osu!, which is quite good, but the charm and gamefeel of the originals still have me going back to them more.
Also have you done a video on Toki? My mum loved that game and also Taz which was the first game i completed ❤ i play them today for nostalgia and to remember her ❤
Also, I've never played it but I watched a playthrough of outer wilds and it was so amazing. Never seen anything else even remotely close to it in design.
That montage moment of playing Mole Mania! LOL! I went from, "what are we doing here?" to coffee shooting out my nose on that last "ah". Well played, good sir! Well played. 😆
First, keep up the awesome videos! Seriously cool! I was expecting to see Shadow of the Colossus, and your list both surprised and really impressed! Go Pickman and Radiant Silvergun! After watching your video, I would consider Catherine, and possibly Alien/Devil Crush on the tg 16! Keep up the great topics Retro bird!
Great list - If I had to pick some unique games, the 4 that come to mind are: Haunting Starring Polterguy / Silhouette Mirage / Sonic Spinball / Gravity Rush
"And the possibilities are endless. Except for a new Banjo-Kazooie."
"You make me sad." ~Arthur, King of the Britons
I know that this is not a hidden gem or anything, but there is nothing else like 2D Zelda. It's like a metroid vania except from a top down perspective. It has rpg elements without becoming an rpg. I wish there were more games like it. Also megaman battle network is the most creative and unique rpg ive ever played. I love rpg games that have active battle systems. You don't grow levels and it doesn't matter how strong your character is unless your skill also progresses. Timing and combos are key. The Mario and Luigi rpg series is also great in that regard.
Radiant Silvergun is fantastic, and that soundtrack. *chef's kiss
Thanks for recommend Mole Mania, never heard of it and kind surprised since is a Nintendo game that you soon or later you would hear it in a reference or in Smash Bros (lol).
I always love a good puzzle game that makes you say: "Ah!".
And about unique games, there are two games not very retro-ish but I always remember in how good and unique were and are: Shadow of Destiny and Crush 3D
Shadow of Destiny is an underrated PS2 (and ported later on PSP) game made by Konami, the game was a 3D story driven game that use time traveling aspects, maybe not an original idea but the execution was pretty neat since each era had different filters and each decision or puzzle solved changed the fate.
Meanwhile with Crush 3D it was a pretty unique puzzle game in which combined and modified the dimensions of the game, depending of the position of the character and camera angle you can change the dimension from 3D to 2D and viceversa, the game also had an intriguing and a little dark storyline on the original PSP version, while in the remake on 3DS sadly the storyline was more family friendly and kind corny but still the game keep it essence.
I can't argue with any of these! Another one that comes to mind when thinking about unique/clever games that actually play great is the original Super Monkey Ball on Gamecube.
The little jab at Rascal... 😂
I remember that one actually gave me some kind of gaming existential crisis. It made me feel depressed, in a "am I just getting too old for video games, or something?" kind of way.
Thankfully, that was absolutely not the case. It was just _bad._
Great video! Excellent list! I think the only game I haven't yet played on Retro Bird's list is Radiant Silvergun, so will have to check that out! The others I have played through and loved!
For me, I'd argue the original *Super Mario Kart* was unique and clever as there never was a racing game like that before it! It invented a new game genre! Of course now it isn't unique but so many companies have copied the formula for decades!
*Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg* was a really unique and clever 3D platformer where you had to roll various giant eggs around to perform certain tasks and navigate levels (and solve basic puzzles). You could even hatch eggs to get various power-ups and befriend little animal buddies. It is cute and fun!
*Bust-A-Move* or *Puzzle Bobble* was a clever take on the color-matching puzzle games. You had to line up like-colored bubbles to pop them as a ceiling slowly inches down to your doom. It still is a lot of fun and unique compared to many other puzzle games.
*Dokapon Kingdom* is a wild party game wrapped in RPG trimmings. It plays like a normal board game with simple RPG mechanics. You are given quests to undertake and your opponents can easily hinder your progress constantly. It is one of the most chaotic (yet enjoyable) multiplayer games I've ever played.
Great video. Thanks for making it.
I think I'll try Mole Mania.
Kinghts Into Dreams boss battles are unique, fun and cool too! ... I like your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles drawing! Awesome work! 😉
Have just been replaying Pikmin this week, and having an unreasonable amount of fun. Was surprised by how much it truly makes me feel 12 again 😌. The Gamecube had so many other clever and delightful games, such as Odama, a pinball strategy game with voice commands set in feudal Japan, and Chibi Robo, which I won't attempt to describe here but whose reputation is well deserved!
Radiant Silvergun is a piece of pure art. I left my 360 on overnight to get 99 lives, did not care one bit.
Freaky Flyers is something I would consider unique, combining Mario Kart, dogfighting, and an extremely edgy early 2000's art style that they absolutely could not get away with nowadays.
Ultima Underworld series. Multiple solutions & ways to tackle every situation in the game. Completely different character types can offer completely different approaches to problem solving. Very satisfying.
great vid, you always give me a good laugh
The game that immediately comes to mind as possibly the most unique game I've ever played is Killer7 for the Gamecube & PS2. It's also one of my favorite games of all time, and I highly recommend picking it up on Steam if you have no other means of playing it on original hardware.
Kirby Bowl/ Kirby's Dream Course is one of my favourite unique games. It's also the only Isometric game I can think of that isn't hurt by the perspective, and it's over very clear about where things are. It's a must own for any super famicom/ snes collector. It's also pretty cheap.
I don't care how goofy it is, Witch & Hero will always be one of my favorite indie games ever. I get such a kick out of introducing it to people and watching them instantly get addicted and playing it for two hours straight.
I thought you were going to say goof troop for snes
SO on point about the GameBoy being perfect for puzzle games. To add to your reasons, the portability is a big factor. Also when you are on a bus it is easier to play than like a platformer cos of the bumping around.
I love NiGHTS and Pikmin and I gasped at the thumbnail❤
Solar jet man on NES was a strange one
Solar jet man is just an update of Atari's Gravitar.
@@jackofallgamesTV Or Atari ST Oids.
We're going through a bit of a golden age in clever games now imo - games like Papers Please, Obra Dinn and Inscryption are all very clever and also very fun!
*clever indie games lol AAA not so much
Yeah, indie games are where you'll find a lot of clever ideas nowadays.
I think Bionic Commando is pretty clever and unique. It's largely a 2D platformer and your character cannot jump.
I really enjoyed that game as a kid. I remember playing that at the same time I was doing my best to play Metal Gear. I was TERRIBLE at both of them! Both were so far removed from the standard 2D platformer we were used to. I loved that time for video games. It seemed developers didn't know what would make a good game and just threw everything at the wall to see what stuck. Even more so before the NES arrived. They really made some WACKY games back on the old Commodore-64. The glory days of creativity, I'd say.
Definitely a clever game.
Great NES game from the past. Wish us Americans were able to handle the uncensored game with Hitler dying. So much cooler.
5:03 no way 😮😮😮
I recently discovered a game called Pocket Card Jockey for the 3DS. It combines solitaire & horse racing with surprisingly good results. Definitely a hidden gem, imo.
Every video you made naming the Saturn is an amazing video to me
I'll throw in my two cents with two games!:
A few games I think are super unique and have never been replicated I think are-
1st The ooze on sega Genesis. The game falls into no genre whatsoever but feels like a combination of many. The way you manage health vs speed vs power and so on is ingenious and the way you attack is unique and fun too.
2nd sacrifice on the pc from 1999. I know that this channel doesn't focus on old PC games, but if you truly want unique games that is the place to go. Sacrifice is an RTS game made by shiny that plays from a third person perspective. You play as a wizard that summons monsters from 5 different gods (factions) that you can join at different times to create your own personalized army of units and spells.
There's a little too much to explain but the gameplay is fun and unique and the voice acting is superb with many big names in the industry bringing their talents. I can't recommend it enough.
Mole Mania is a wonderful underrated Shigeru Miyamoto game and I love It. I wonder If Night into Dreams and Christmas into dreams will ever get a modern re-release. Cool video. ^_^
Brothers: a tale of two sons gets my vote for originality. Each brother is controlled by a separate thumbstick, which is difficult to get used to at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a really enjoyable experience.
Someone else said this too. I agree. Really unique game and I loved it.
Good list, I love pikmin. I have 2 to contribute. Catherine being a little more modern but unique puzzle game. It’s so much fun to play and even the parts where he’s awake are fun too. Then Jekyll and Hyde for nes. Heavily criticized and definitely flawed but the concept is cool. Jekyll always needing to stay ahead of Mr. Hyde in the levels. It has 2 endings, 1 being the true ending which for a 1988 game is pretty neat.
Guardian Legend (NES), Actraiser (SNES), Car Battler Joe (GBA), 1 on 1 (PSX-JP), Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn). this was a hard list to make. unique is... unique. a masterpiece isn't necessarily a unique game, just a perfectly crafted one. and a unique game may not necessarily be all that great. but i stand behind these as all great games (PDZ is a masterpiece afterall). Looking at the list now, i can see i really like when genres are meshes together, especially RPG/Adventure games. but a basketball fighting game... whaaaaa??/!
I have to say that Cuphead is one of the most visually unique games I've ever played. The game play may not be anything super unique, but that 30's cartoon art style... I've never seen anything quite like it except maaaybe Mickey Mania. But finding out that the whole game was hand drawn blew my mind. I couldn't believe that hand drawn anything still happened.
I agree. Cuphead is such an outstanding game.
Great choices RB! I'd have to give a shout out to Jeff Minter's Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time, Andrew Braybrook's Paradroid, Peter Molyneux's Populous and David Crane's Little Computer People. #OriginalAndBest
No one here is gonna talk about how easy you're making a game as tough as Radiant Silvergun look!? That's some impressive skill you got there. Also, great list!
A game I would recommend as clever would probably be a criminally lesser known strategy game called "Bahamut Lagoon". It's praised among hardcore fans of strategy games and rpgs alike and REALLY needs a western release/remaster. The cool thing about it is that the battle field is VERY interactive and you can use your dragons to defeat enemy units in interesting ways. Outnumbered by an army approaching from the forest? Send your firebreather and set that entire forest ablaze! Large river forcing you to take the long way around through enemy territory? Have your icebreather create an ice bridge for you! Enemy pursuing you on said ice bridge? Send in your firebreather to melt it beneath their feet!
We didn't get in the west because by the time the translation would've been complete, the next console gen would've been out. We actually missed out on a quite a few awesome games for this reason. Might make for a good list someday, wouldn't you say?
Hey. I played Pikmin 1 recently on the Pikmin 1 and 2 collection on Switch and really liked it. My only complaints is how dumb the Pikmin can be at times getting stuck under bridges or whatnot.
I'd say Dragon Force is my main pick and also Raw Danger and Disaster Report. Never played anything like those two games. Really weird, but fun.
The games you picked are all definitely unique and/or clever in terms of their gameplay and even their style. Though I personally fall into the Ikaruga camp when it comes to Treasure's more unique shoot em ups, Radiant Silvergun is no slouch as an awesome shooter with a unique twist. I love them both, I just tend to lean more towards Ikaruga for some reason.
On the subject of a unique and clever game I know of that also happens to be a solid shooter, I'd like to give Dimension Drive a mention to you if not a full-blown recommendation to try out. It's a shoot em up on the PS4 and Switch that has a wildly ridiculous gameplay mechanic that requires you to essentially teleport yourself from one side of the screen to the other as if you were travelling to another dimension, hence the name. To this day I have NEVER seen any other shooter do this, it's pretty insane. Its honestly hard to describe in words and is better understood when seen and played. Kind of like Nights into Dreams lol. It's almost like combining on-the-fly puzzle solving elements with traditional vertical-style survival shooting. The game can be found physically to, making it great for someone's shelf. Please give this game a try if you haven't already, at the very least check it out online to get a better idea of what it does. You won't regret it. :)
I’m going old school on this one. For the NES- Little Nemo The Dream Master, Marble Madness, Abadox, A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobalonia(you feed your blob different kinds of jellybeans and he morphs into different objects!), Bubble Bobble, Spelunker, Kickle Cubicle, Pinball Quest, Maniac Mansion,and The Adventures of Lolo, just to name a few😂 I’ll throw in a few N64 titles too, both by Rare, Blast Corps and yes, Banjo Kazooie. 😊 I feel like all of these games were very creative and stood out as different from other games.
YES on Boy and his blob. Well you’re whole list is good. I’d add Snake Rattle and roll and super glove ball to that list as well.
@ Thank you!! And those are great choices as well! I need to play Snake Rattle ‘N Roll again. I own it, I’ve played it, but I think I didn’t give it enough of a chance. I have too many games, that’s why.🤷 The other one looks pretty cool, but I haven’t played it yet
@@brianhatcher2799 well I will say super glove ball is by no means a fun or good game but it was just very strange and unique for its time on NES
@@tiltingatwindmills3243 Gotcha. Thanks for letting me know.
You know what I think are great? You! Keep up the great content, big guy 👍
This man gets it. That's why War God's will always have a place in my heart with all its 90s 3D jankiness 😂
Mole Mania was a game I had as a child, no one else I knew had even heard of it (small town). But it was a mainstay in my gameboy for the few years prior to Pokemon. When VC released it on 3DS it was a “shut up and take my money!” Moment
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons comes to mind for me. Brilliant storytelling through the game controls.
I loved that game too. Very cool way of having the controls tie into the story itself.
Radiant Silvergun is one of my fave games, period. Sadly I'm not a collector anymore and my copy went on Ebay years ago. But I still play on emulator frequently.
I never played any of the games you mentioned but they all look good. Two games that come to mind for me that are creative/unique are “it takes two” and “outer wilds”.
I’ll choose Toki Tori for the Game Boy Color. I’ve never played Mole Mania before (though it’s on my list), but I imagine it gives you the same kind of satisfaction that Toki Tori does. Challenging yet not too stressful, and truly a delight to play (: definitely recommended if you enjoy puzzle platformers at all.