Developer: Kikiyama
Website:bit.ly/Kikiyama(Japanese)
This twisted freeware game from Japan tells the story of Madotsuki, a reclusive teenager who suffers from nightmares. You play through the nightmares across a series of maze-like levels to collect a string of new powers. Yume Nikki looks like a horrendous acid trip, made even more troubling by occasional flashes of something menacing – like the enormous, multicolored penis caressing a handrail. And that’s not even the strangest thing you’ll see.
Developer: Running With Scissors
Publisher: Whiptail Interactive
Website:runningwithscissors.com
Any game in which actor Gary Coleman plays a digitized version of himself is certain to raise an eyebrow. When that game is also one of the most astonishingly violent and, to some minds, gruesomely tasteless ever made, the other eyebrow heads north as well.
Postal 2 – this astoundingly brutal FPS sequel – doesn’t seem to mind if it offends people. In it, you assume the role of The Postal Dude, Jr., a trailer park-dwelling maniac who must travel around town completing a host of mundane tasks. Violence is in fact optional throughout – but you’re unlikely to meet many people who took the peaceful route. Some have called it satire, while far more have cried “Whatchoo talkin’ about?” in response. You’d think its place on a f***ed up games list would be a given.
But Running With Scissors’ CEO Vince Desi disagrees: “Our only goal is to make people laugh and be entertained,” he objects. “As for ‘f***ed up’, the only comment I have is that what’s really f***ed up is that the games industry is as corrupt as any other, including all parties, from Publishers to retailers. Just look at the bigotry the Postal brand has been subjected to. Can you tell me why other games that are more violent can get great ratings and wide distribution?” Yeah. Take that, games industry.
F***ed up moment: You can urinate on people. Honest to great goodness, you can chase people down the street while urinating on them!
Developer: Victor Gijsbers
Website:playthisthing.com/baron
Explaining why this game is messed up without hitting spoiler territory is difficult. It’s all in the ending, you see. Until then, The Baron is an average text adventure about a man battling a dragon, who eventually faces an evil baron who’s kidnapped his daughter. But the dawning realization that something’s not all that it seems, before one final sucker-punch moment which presents you with a flabbergastingly unpleasant choice, makes this game memorable for the most disturbing of reasons.
