35+ Weird Video Games, Board Games, and Browser Games

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Game expert Ashton Wu shares his favorite weird games

Co-authored by Ashton Wu and Eric McClure

Last Updated: August 31, 2026 Fact Checked

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The participatory nature of games makes them the perfect venue to explore weird ideas, so it’s no mistake that some of the most bizarre pieces of media ever made happen to be games. We partnered with a game expert to help us take a look at the strangest video games, board games, and flash games that you could play right now. There’s sure to be something here for everyone, so find something that speaks to you and check it out. You won’t be let down. We promise!

The Weirdest Games You Can Play Today

Game expert Ashton Wu says that his favorite weird games are ThinkBlot and Throw Throw Burrito. Other fun, weird options include:

Video Games: Katamari Damacy, Everything, Jazzpunk, The Stanley Parable, Hyper Demon
Board Games: Mushroom Eaters, Lunch Money, The Ravens of Thri Sahashri, Antler Island
Flash Games: Baldi’s Basics, ForumWarz, Mackerelmedia Fish, Italian Animal Alchemy

Section 1 of 3:

Weird Video Games

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Katamari Damacy Katamari Damacy is a Japanese cult classic where you play a small pill-headed boy trying to rebuild the universe by rolling up random objects in the world with a sticky rubber ball. It’s a really fun, visceral game with cute design elements and weirdly addictive gameplay.
- Where to play: Steam, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
- This game is for you if: you love strange anime shows and/or love the feeling of cleaning up your room.
Meet the wikiHow Expert

Ashton Wu is a board game expert at Shelfside. He is also a YouTuber, tournament commentator, board game playthrough director, and host of the Shelfside Podcast.
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Everything In Everything, you play as everything. You can swap up or down from every being and entity you encounter to see the world from their perspective. So, you could be a bear, then go up to become a tree, cloud, or mountain. You could be a bear and go down to become a blade of grass, a beetle, or an amoeba. It’s inspired by the work of philosopher Alan Watts, and it’s a pretty trippy, interesting experience.
- Where to play: Steam, PS4, Switch
- This game is for you if: you enjoy philosophy or you want to feel what it’s like to be an electron.
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Jazzpunk Jazzpunk is a comedy adventure game. It’s an adventure game set in the Cold War where you play Polyblank, a member of an espionage agency. You’re tasked with doing spy stuff, like smuggling small birds, taking photocopies of your butt, and butchering wildlife with a guitar. Oh, and there are sentient martinis.
- Where to play: Steam, PS4
- This game is for you if: you like Soviet-era spy movies but wish they had more absurdist humor.
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The Stanley Parable It’s kind of a classic, but The Stanley Parable is too weird to not include on the list. You play Stanley, a video game character who must choose what to do in the game. What’s the game, you ask? Well, you’re a character in a video game. There’s a narrator who follows your actions and talks to you, and the game is sort of all about the nature of storytelling and video games as a genre. It’s a really funny, strange ride.
- Where to play: Steam, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, PS5
- This game is for you if: you saw the movie Stranger than Fiction and wonder what it would have been like if the movie were a video game.
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Hyper Demon Hyper Demon has no plot. You’re just a floating figure who shoots lasers out of your hand at abstract, kaleidoscopic-colored demon things. It’s a very trippy, sensory-rich experience.
- Where to play: Steam
- This game is for you if: you thought Hotline Miami would have been a fun first-person game to play while taking hallucinogens.
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Mouthwashing In Mouthwashing, you help out the crew of a spaceship that is stranded in space. It’s a nonlinear adventure and puzzle game with some truly mind-numbingly funny moments. It’s also extremely strange. The game jumps around in time, space, and even sound to create a weird story you’ll never forget.
- Where to play: Steam, Xbox X/S, Switch
- This game is for you if: you enjoy the Alien films and wonder what it would be like to be trapped in space with dangerous mind-altering entities.
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LSD: Dream Emulator Probably the most accurately-titled game on the list, this 1998 exploration game features…well…acid trips. You’ll encounter giant babies, floating rabbits, and teddy bears. You’ll float through objects and fall forever. It’s not a very “game-y” game in the sense that there isn’t much of a gameplay loop, but it’s definitely an experience you won’t forget.
- Where to play: PS1, PS3, and PSP (Note, there are several fake rip-offs of the game on Steam, but they’re not worth checking out. There is a fan-made remake on itch.io, though!)
- This game is for you if: you like to relax while having overwhelming visual experiences or you want to know what it probably felt like to be Hunter S. Thompson.
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Cruelty Squad In Cruelty Squad, you play a hitman who is sent by a strange corporation to take out various targets. The game was made in 2021, but it looks like it was programmed on MS-DOS with all the whacky neon cyan and magenta colors and two-dimensional polygons. Oh, and the main menu is made out of meat.
- Where to play: Steam
- This game is for you if: you want a fast-paced shooter that will also make you want to throw up your lunch.
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Ape Out Does the phrase “gorilla-based jazz fighting game” do anything for you? In Ape Out, you are an ape. And you want out. You try to escape from your corporate zoo-enthusiast overlords while experimental jazz plays in the background. Your movements actually impact the soundtrack, and it’s really mesmerizing when you chain attacks together to match the song playing.
- Where to play: Steam, Switch
- This game is for you if: you love hitting things and jazz music.
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An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs This is a walking sim adventure game with light puzzle elements where you’re (kind of) trying to board a flight at an airport for aliens that is currently being run by dogs. It’s all in the title, really.
- Where to play: Steam, Xbox X/S
- This game is for you if: you enjoy comedic walking sims and want to know how creatures without opposable thumbs would manage a baggage claim.
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Cultist Simulator This is a card-game solitaire-style RPG where you start off as a random everyday person and slowly lose your mind as you encounter potentially divine secrets and hidden magics. If you literally play your cards right, you can start a cult and have them perform tasks for you as you uncover more and more secret knowledge. It’s a really well-written game with some unique gameplay.
- Where to play: Steam, Android, iOS, and Switch
- This game is for you if: you like complicated board games or Magic: the Gathering and want to know how it feels to be in charge of a cult that worships moths, mirrors, or some other mundane object.
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Hylics Hylics is a beloved indie game from 2015 that feels like it was made in another universe. The character design is very abstract and unique, and the world is like nothing else you’ve ever seen. It’s a turn-based JRPG about defeating the King of the Moon. Oh, and all of the art is claymation. Seriously. It’s an absolute feast for the eyes.
- Where to play: Steam
- This game is for you if: you love arthouse indie films and want to play a game so refreshingly weird that it will challenge your ability to dream normally.
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Arctic Eggs In Arctic Eggs, you play as a prisoner on an Arctic base who is tasked with feeding the soldiers there. You do this by wandering around with a frying pan and flipping eggs. It’s a kind of dexterity-based puzzle game that’s weirdly addicting. Each “level” involves additional ingredients you have to flip with the eggs, like bacon, cigarettes, bullets, and live chickens.
- Where to play: Steam
- This game is for you if: you enjoy cooking and trying to escape fascistic Arctic prisons.
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I Am Bread I Am Bread is a game where you play a piece of bread (obviously). You dream of one day becoming toast. It’s a kind of QWOP-style physics game where you have to transverse obstacles to reach a toaster and flip yourself in and achieve your dream.
- Where to play: Steam, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, and Android
- This game is for you if: you’re looking for a simple-to-learn and hard-to-master game and you respect carbohydrates.
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Goat Simulator It’s interesting that a lot of weird games seem to tell you exactly what they are in the title, which is also the case here. Goat Simulator is a simulator-style game where you play a goat. It’s a goofy, plot-free game where you basically cause as much mayhem as you possibly can.
- Where to play: Steam, PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Switch, iOS, and Android
- This game is for you if: you’re theoretically interested in doing some livestock-based terrorism.
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Pathologic 2 Pathologic 2 is the sequel to Pathologic (which is also very good, but just kind of dated). You play as a surgeon in a bizarre-o alternate timeline where the Cold War just kind of never resolved itself and people never invented modern medicine. It’s a spooky, weird experience with stunningly deep gameplay and really fascinating themes. It’s a wild ride, and kind of mandatory playing for any fan of avant-garde video games.
- Where to play: Steam, PS4, Xbox One
- This game is for you if: you always wondered what it would be like to be a plague doctor in a Soviet satellite state with an audio-visual hallucination problem and a gun.
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Disco Elysium Disco Elysium is an isometric point-and-click adventure game RPG about an alcoholic detective whose identity has been shattered. You try to solve a murder case while battling internal thoughts, strange impulses, and strange health conditions. It’s a vibrantly funny game with some powerfully weird moments, which is probably why it won Game of the Year in 2019.^{[1]
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- Where to play: Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S
- This game is for you if: you’re looking for a viciously well-written game and often argue with voices in your head when trying to figure out what to eat for dinner.
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E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy In the RPG first-person shooter E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy, you play a member of a secretive special ops force composed of demon-fighting telekinetic robot-infused warrior monks. You could honestly pour hundreds of hours into this game and still have zero idea what’s going on, which is kind of part of its charm.
- Where to play: Steam
- This game is for you if: you like cyberpunk stuff and find it funny instead of frustrating when a movie’s plot becomes too complicated to follow.
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The Shrouded Isle The Shrouded Isle is a really brilliantly-designed text-based resource management game. You are a high priest on a remote island that’s worshipping an evil Lovecraftian God. Gameplay consists of inquisitions, deduction puzzles, and human sacrifices. It’s a really deep game with basically infinite replayability.
- Where to play: Steam, Switch
- This game is for you if: you have always wondered what it would be like to try to appease a giant sky god who wants you to sacrifice people.

Section 2 of 3:

Weird Board Games

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ThinkBlot Wu says that ThinkBlot is the weirdest board game he’s ever played. “Everyone has to guess what shapes they see from inkblots, and then try to convince other people that those shapes exist. Problem is, the other people aren’t ever incentivized to agree that they see the same shape that you do!”^{[2]
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Ashton Wu
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- Number of players: 2-6
- Where to buy: Board Game Geek
- This game is for you if: you like psychoanalyzing your friends on game nights.
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Throw Throw Burrito Wu says that Throw Throw Burrito is his favorite ‘weird’ game.”It’s a dodgeball card game, where you throw plushie burritos at one another! The card play is very similar to Spoons, as when you get certain combinations of cards, that triggers the dexterity element of people picking up the burritos in the center.”^{[3]
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Ashton Wu
Game Expert

Expert Interview}
- Number of players: 2–6 players
- Where to buy: Exploding Kittens
- This game is for you if: you want something exciting and silly—or you just really like throwing things at people.
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Mushroom Eaters In Mushroom Eaters, you and a few friends compete to see who will take over the role of Shaman for your local community. To do this, you eat magical mushrooms and try to navigate complicated obstacles. It’s a weird game for a lot of reasons, but one fun element is that you put on different layers of 3D glasses as you get more and more intoxicated, and the 3D glasses reveal weird things on the board.
- Number of players: 2-5
- Where to buy: Cave Evil
- This game is for you if: you enjoy board games with fun visual elements and always wondered what it would be like to be a shamanic guide.
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Lunch Money This competitive board game has you and your friends playing bullies who are out to steal as much lunch money from their classmates as possible. The last bully standing wins!
- Number of players: 2-4
- Where to buy: Atlas Games
- This game is for you if: you’ve always aspired to be a grade school bully but never had the physical chops or lack of empathy necessary for such an undertaking.
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The Ravens of Thri Sahashri Okay, here’s the deal with The Ravens of Thri Sahashri. One of you plays a comatose schoolgirl who is controlled by ravens while she dreams and the other player takes on the role of a psychic friend. Gameplay involves trying to help the coma patient unlock her memories by forcing her to eat the titular ravens. Weird doesn’t even begin to describe it…
- Number of players: 2
- Where to buy: It’s out of print, so eBay is your best bet.
- This game is for you if: you love cooperative games and/or David Lynch films.
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After the Holocaust: The Nuclear Devastation of America Twenty years after a thermonuclear weapon destroys the world, you and four friends take the roles of emerging countries trying to establish themselves after the apocalypse. The story is only half of the weirdness, though—you basically cannot win the game, and every turn is sort of predetermined based on how badly the world is doing. It’s kind of like if a tone poem about the end of humanity were a board game.
- Number of players: 4
- Where to buy: It’s so expensive (and hard to find) brand new, but used copies can be had for cheap on Geek Market.
- This game is for you if: you enjoy things that make you very, very sad.
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Antler Island You know those nature documentaries where it follows a bunch of deer or whatever and the males duke it out by slamming their heads into one another to impress females and mate? This is that, but in board game form. You and 2-3 friends play bucks on a Scottish island who compete to try and impress and uhhh…kiss the lady deer.
- Number of players: 3-4
- Where to buy: eBay
- This game is for you if: you love nature stuff a little bit more than you probably should.
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Betrayal at House on the Hill Betrayal at House on the Hill is a cooperative game that turns into a competitive game halfway through. You start by exploring a haunted mansion, but at some point one of the players will secretly become possessed by a demon (or something similar). Gameplay is chaotic, weird, and often confusing, but it’s a lot of fun.
- Number of players: 3-6
- Where to buy: Amazon
- This game is for you if: you always thought you’d be the last person to survive in one of those '80s slasher films.
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Fluxx It’s very hard to describe Fluxx. That’s probably because the game’s rules change randomly while you play. The goal of the game changes. The cards you can play changes. It’s genuinely a one-of-a-kind gameplay experience, and every single run is different.
- Number of players: 2-6
- Where to buy: Looney Labs
- This game is for you if: you’re looking for a social board game that will confuse and surprise everyone at the table at all times.
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Psycho Raiders Ever wondered what those grindhouse horror films would be like if the main characters were sort of just normal people who didn’t randomly stumble on powers that would help them defeat the big bad evil killer? Psycho Raiders answers this question. It is a comically unbalanced horror game where the player-victims have basically zero agency and the monster hunting them is very powerful. Oh, it’s also way more gory than any board game has the right to be.
- Number of players: 2-7
- Where to buy: Cave Evil
- This game is for you if: you’re looking for a super intense horror game that’s more intense than you’re actually imagining.
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Gloom In Gloom, you play as fate. Specifically, the fate of a family. Your job is to basically make the family you’re in charge of as depressed as humanly possible. You score points by literally bumming your characters out. It’s a weirdly engaging game with a totally unique tone, and the cards in the game are really cool—they’re transparent so you can stack abilities and features on top of one another and still see them all at once.
- Number of players: 2-5 (but 4 is best)
- Where to buy: Atlas Games
- This game is for you if: your teacher used to write “see me” on the top of your creative writing homework because it was bumming everyone out and you want a really unique, thematically rich card game.
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So, You've Been Eaten So, You’ve Been Eaten is a competitive two-player game where one player takes the role of a miner tasked with extracting precious gems from the inside of a giant creature’s stomach. The other player is the creature, and their goal is to digest the guy they just swallowed. So, yeah, it’s a game about trying to not be eaten.
- Number of players: 2 (there’s a 1 player solo mode, too)
- Where to buy: Noble Knight Games
- This game is for you if: you really have a grudge against a housemate or partner and you want to know what it would be like to eat them alive.

Section 3 of 3:

Weird Browser Games

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Baldi’s Basics Baldi is a math teacher, you are a student learning math, and this is a horror game for children. That’s right, it’s an educational horror game. Do math, flee from Baldi’s gaping maw, and try to survive the bizarre hallways of the school you attend.
- Link to play: Yandex.com
- This game is for you if: you want to brush up on math while playing a challenging horror survival game.
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ForumWarz ForumWarz is a comedic roleplaying game set in a fictional version of the internet. You do battle with people online by “pwning” them, which involves trolling them on message boards. It’s all kind of messy and strange and profoundly funny.
- Link to play: Forumwarz.com
- This game is for you if: you miss the old days of the internet where people weren’t expecting to be trolled at every single interaction.
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Mackerelmedia Fish We’re actually not really sure what Mackerelmedia Fish is, but it claims to be secretly powering the internet since 1997. It’s some kind of secret website game involving fish, loose rules, and a shaky win-condition at best. It’s just an odd experience, and we recommend at least checking it out even if you don’t plan on seriously playing it.
- Link to play: Mackerelmediafish.com
- This game is for you if: you’re a human being (or fish) who appreciates strange games and fever dreams.
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Italian Animal Alchemy Test your brainrot knowledge with this esoteric math-based game about Italian brainrot. Pro-tip: if you can’t beat our Italian Brainrot Test, you’ll probably struggle with Italian Animal Alchemy.
- Link to play: Playhop.com
- This game is for you if: you want to test your brainrot knowledge.
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Deer Cannibal: 99 Nights in the Forest This Roblox-style experience is a survival horror game where you have to survive 99 nights in a random forest. Oh, and there’s a giant cannibal deer that causes insane havoc whenever it comes out at night.
- Link to play: Playhop.com
- This game is for you if: you think Roblox needs more avant-garde survival horror options.
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The Baby in Yellow This parenthood simulator has you taking care of a baby with very disturbing eyes who wears yellow. That’s it. You take care of the baby. However, there is a dedicated button to throw the baby. Like…launch them into the air as if you’re throwing a fastball. We won’t judge if you want to press the button.
- Link to play: Playhop.com
- This game is for you if: you’ve always wondered what it feels like to be a dad or mom, but you also kind of want to throw a baby.
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Wikigacha Wikigacha is a browser-based Wikipedia trading card game. Picture Magic: The Gathering, but the cards are all Wikipedia articles. You crack packs, build decks, and battle other players.
- Link to play: Wikigacha.com
- This game is for you if: you think Magic: The Gathering isn’t nearly wordy and complicated enough.