10 Amazingly Bizarre Video Games You Must Play

5. Catherine

Unlike most unusual video games, Catherine made a huge splash upon its release in 2011. This puzzle platformer plays like a madcap examination of man’s fear of sex, relationships, and commitment, with an added dash of psychological horror to boot.

Vincent Brooks is on the cusp of getting married to Katherine, his girlfriend of 5 years. But then he meets an alluring blonde name Catherine, and he starts having an affair with her. At the same time he begins having nightmares every night, and you must navigate him through them while climbing collapsing staircases and evading boss monsters.

While the story here isn’t anything new, the style and way in which it is told, often transitioning from anime to dating sim to platformer, is. The art design is particularly inspired, especially the monsters that inhabit the nightmare world, which are grotesque patchworks of Vincent’s fears, one of the more memorable being a creepy butt with a tongue!

More than anything though, what stands out most about Catherine is that it’s just as intriguingly relatable as it is baffling, which puts it in a category all its own. Given this it’s frankly no surprise that it left such a huge impression on the video game industry.