10 Video Games That Had No Right Being This Good - Commenter's Edition

Gamers can sometimes be harsh on the medium they love. When a new entry in an established, beloved IP is announced, it's often exciting simply for the big name attached to it. Should the title ultimately fail to live up to expectations, the disappointment and anger is palpable. On the opposite end of the spectrum, other new game reveals get no real limelight at all, at least at first.

Trying something new is a dangerous business, and it's easy to pass on a new game seconds into watching a first trailer. It takes an adventurous gamer to take a chance on a seemingly-silly title. The rewards for not passing over an under-celebrated experience at first glance can be great, though. The most unlikely-looking concepts can make for very good games.

Our previous list of Video Games That Had No Right Being This Good celebrated the likes of 2005's King Kong and Minority Report: Everybody Runs, and you had your own ideas for titles that should've been included. Your suggestions were so good, in fact, that you left us no recourse but to craft an entirely new list from them. From a breakfast cereal-centric Doom clone to an RPG starring a shark, here are some unlikely games that were much, much more fun than their premises suggested.

The first time players unleashed a jalapeño pepper and burned through an entire row of zombies in one swift strike, they saw what a fun and absurd experience Plants vs Zombies could really be. How, though, did the premise of defending your lawn against zombies using plants work as well as it did?

Zombies, for some years, were an overused, shambling trope that appeared in every other game, and Plants vs. Zombies seemed like a shark-jumping silly moment too far. As it was, though, there was method to PopCap’s weirdness: The finely-tuned and surprisingly tactical gameplay, not to mention the array of modes on offer, made it a fun distraction for tower defense newcomers and a challenge for genre veterans alike.

Attempting to reach higher waves in survival mode was a task that humbled many, and demonstrated the deviousness of the title’s design. Plants vs Zombies went on to be ported to a wide array of different devices, and spawned TPS spin-offs in Plants vs Zombies: Battle For Neighborville and the Garden Warfare series. They, too, are a riot of fun, and with their wide variety of character classes, offer more depth than their silly aesthetic would suggest.