10 Most Bizarre Video Game Mechanics (That Actually Worked)

4. Drawing Your Weapons - The Wonderful 101

The Wonderful 101 is a 2013 action-adventure game made by PlatinumGames and directed by Hideki Kamiya. This is significant as another of Kamiya’s iconic games is Okami. Now, Okami introduced a really cool mechanic where players can draw on the screen using the Celestial Brush. This is used in combat, puzzles, and general gameplay. In the case of The Wonderful 101, this is taken a step further.

Here, players can draw shapes to create weapons for all your heroes. For example, a line forms a sword and an l-shape can form a gun.

The mechanic is a great example of something that seems absolutely unhinged in theory but the game really pulls it off. The size of your drawing also changes the size of the weapon, which in turn affects how everything functions in combat. You are also required to draw weapons for quicktime-events where you’ll be awarded points if you can guess the weapon you’ll need before combat is initiated. Much like Okami, there are also environmental puzzles you’ll solve through the drawing mechanic.

Drawing is a great way of managing the ten-or-so weapons you’ll end up with, as well as layering a fun wrinkle into the combat mechanics.