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[Judge Magister]

Many great picks here, i would add to that og demons souls back from 2009(in europe 2010), it had many concepts that would in theory be considered extremly unpopular back in the days, yet the tittle not only prevailed but was huge success (not many games can say whole genre is named after them

Demon's Souls changed everything but to be fair From Software already have been trying to get it right for years with King's Field or Otogi games.

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Resident Evil Resistance

SCP Secret Lab

 

[ShirAhava]

A game about saving SEGA the year SEGA consoles was doomed was the most meta shit ever

 

[Gambit2483]

Created an entirely new genre

 

[Thebonehead]

The sentine aka the sentry in the US on the c64 was a unique experience written by the legendary Geoff cranmond. As to why... 10,000 levels, strategy, 3d graphics albeit at like 2fps crammed into 32k (the original was on the BBC micro)



I've shamelessly ripped the following from Wikipedia as it's hard to describe.

In The Sentinel, the player takes the role of a Synthoid (called just "robot" in the US version), a telepathic robot who has to take control of a number of surreal, checkered landscapes of hills and valleys, by climbing from the lowest spot, where the hunt begins, to the highest platform, over which the Sentinel looms.

The Synthoid itself cannot move across the level; instead it can look around, accumulate energy by absorbing the objects that are scattered across the landscape, create stacks of boulders, generate inert Synthoid shells and transfer its consciousness from one of these clones to another.

 

[digimaster7]

Resonance of Fate, I've completed it last year. most unique turn based system I've ever played. Looks complex in the beginning, but once you get used to it its a very satisfying system

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

 

[Jeff Spicoli]

Electroplankton, Nintendo DS.

 

[Salmon]

 

[L*][*N*K]

The idea that you just live in a village and talk to other villagers and pick apples and whatnot and that it runs in realtime with a real schedule was such a brilliant concept for people who wanted to have a relaxing game in their library.

And if you actually look into the story on how Animal Crossing came to be it is amazing, Katsuya Eguchi used to come home late every night and felt like he was losing his connection to his kids he created this game to connect with the while they played on the same save file after school he would check out the town at night and play on the same save file, now days games are just made with the sole purpose of taking over a gap which is why we are losing so much creativity

 

[FoxMcChief]

Mischief Makers for the N64

I really hope we see that game added to the N64 NSO catalog one day.

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

Demons Souls. You can be the main player, support player, invader and even a boss for some other player.

 

[Durin]

I'll throw in one of Relic Entertainment's weirdest games: Impossible Creatures

Imagine an RTS where you can genetically splice different animal parts together to make your own units to fight in battle. You can even go through the campaign, save your creations, and then use them to play with online against others.

 

[Dacvak]

Electroplankton, Nintendo DS.

Damn, what a great answer. Nothing else was or has been like that since.

 

[Ar¢tos]

I loved it! A game where you trade stories you heard or that happened to you and those stories evolve with time as they are shared between people. The soundtrack is awesome too.

 

[Sintoid]

The Sentinel was completely original never seen anything like it since.

You know my name


Recently I find amazingly creative The Pluck Squire

 

[bad guy]

Wario Smooth Moves

 

[Bartski]

Death Stranding

 

[IDKFA]

Rez has been mentioned a few times.

I found Superhot really interesting. At face value it's a first person action game, but it's actually more of a strategy/puzzle game.

Really fun combat as well, especially when you tie up different combos and mix up guns with melee attacks.

 

[Wildebeest]

In the past five years the game I think is most creative is PowerWash simulator as it hard to have concept that sounds so simple and low-key be so well realized and satisfying.

Some games that I think are absolute unrecognized genre titans of creativity are Lords of Midnight, Strange Adventures in Infinite Space and Robinson's Requiem.

 

[Juja]

Wario Smooth Moves

I think the whole series in general. Just the idea of those 5 second micro games with increasing difficulty. I actually really liked Warioware Twisted on GBA that had the gyro sensor for motion games well before the Wii came out.

 

[Games Bookstore]

This might be an odd taken given its platform (iphone) but I found the game Sword and Sworcery to be very unique at the time.

How it got you to think about the puzzles and also tamper with the phones systems settings to get through certain sections was quite clever.

 

[Hypereides]

Possibly NeverDead.

TPS with a body shattering mechanic that adds an extra dimension to the gameplay with an almost puzzle-like element. The hybrid creates an original on-the-fly gameflow in terms of action games imo.

Resonance of Fate, I've completed it last year. most unique turn based system I've ever played. Looks complex in the beginning, but once you get used to it its a very satisfying system

This game was rad. Would be great to see Tri-Ace make a sequel and play around with the system.

 

[Vaquilla]

In the last few years, Kunitsu-gami: Path of the Goddess.

Playing it now on Switch 2 and it's a brilliant experience, from its rich sense of style to its idiosyncratic blend of action, strategy, and tower defence.

 

[Drell]

Warcraft 3's map editor.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Chants Of Sennaar

Also recommend this one. A game about learning languages and ultimately teaching others to connect cultures. It's also really good and addictive.

 

[poppabk]

Populous - the first God game

 

[mèx]

A mind bending non-Euclidean puzzle game. It's clever and esoteric, never played something quite like this before.

 

[Fbh]

Outer Wilds (and the DLC) really surprised me with its creativity.
It's hard to talk about what makes it special because figuring it out is a big part of the experience. But just the core premise itself of flying around a small solar system trying to figure out the mystery behind a 22 minutes time loop is really cool

 

[CrimsonTide]

Seaman for Dreamcast of course

Also Dark Souls *yeah I know Demon Souls would be the correct answer, but in my universe it never existed

 

[DenchDeckard]

Steel Battalion

 

[Steve Holt]

Death Stranding
Katamari Damacy
Crazy Taxi

 

[calistan]

Somebody already cited Braid, so I'll mention The Witness.

There's prior art in terms of mysterious island puzzle games, such as Myst, but The Witness has a unique purity and single-mindedness about it. The entire thing is just 'draw a line from A to B' but the way it introduces new rules and educates the player seems unique to me.

There isn't a single word of explanation, it's all stuff you learn as try out different variations on the theme. By the time you've walked around the entire island, you've become an expert in all these puzzle variations without ever being told what to do. There are more 'eureka!' moments than in probably anything else I've played.

And then you go back to the opening area and realise the ending was right there at the start, accessible within the first minute.