6. Theme Hospital (1997)
Speaking of death and carnage, let's talk Theme Hospital. In the mid 90's, there was one sure-fire way to get a game publisher to throw money at you: put "Sim" or "Theme" in the title of your game. It didn't matter what the game was about. Back then, you could've pushed a game called Sim Bathroom Attendant At A High-Class Restaurant through Beta before anyone realized it was terrible idea. Theme Hospital is my personal favorite of this era. Peter Molyneux and Bullfrog Productions took a pretty established genre and made it their own. It turned the idea of a hospital - the most universally depressing place in the world besides a Wal-Mart - into a bright, cheery, and demented world, where people can die from believing they're Elvis. You'll be spending your time curing people of such comical diseases as Bloaty Head, 3rd Degree Sideburns, and The Squits. If patients die from your incompetence, a fiery pit opens beneath them and the Angel Of Death makes a personal appearance. In short, it's all good, clean fun. Theme Hospital does have its problem. It's quite ineffective at micromanaging your staff. That expensive Surgeon Psychiatrist you hired will most likely do anything but practice surgery or psychiatry unless you actively make him. Rediscovering every illness with each new level is there only to artificially lengthen the game. And its pace is relentless in later levels - another criticism of the game that is, to me, a big part of its charm. Theme Hospital is the most frustrating game on this list - but it's a game about a hospital, so that makes sense. It's funny and rewarding enough to give it a chance. You have to admire any game that expects you to respect the sanctity of life while your theme minions often do anything but.