Forbes Corporate Warrior (1997)
Windows
Perhaps the most tongue-in-cheek game of all time, Forbes Corporate Warrior translates financial concepts and idioms into a 3D FPS environment where competitors are your enemies, cash is your ammo, and time is literally money (your cash runs down if you stand still). As you blast away enemies with weapons such as Ad Blaster, Legal Laser, and Takeover Torpedo, you are provided a real-time HUD with stats such as supply vs. demand. It’s all rather hilarious if you think about it—you cannot take this game seriously, and I doubt the developers did either.
Super Noah’s Ark 3-D (1994)
SNES, MS-DOS, Macintosh
In this Bible-inspired shooter (new genre alert), you play as Noah—of Ark fame—who has to put the smack down, Old Testament style, on his unruly animal passengers by sling-shooting food into their mouths. It’s a tricky game; in the first level, I can’t get past the goats who keep kicking me into unconsciousness. Don’t they know I’m trying to save their entire species? While also released for PCs, Super Noah’s Ark 3-D is notable for being the only unlicensed game published on the Super NES.
PO’ed (1995)
3DO, PlayStation
During the 1990s, game publishers held a secret, unspoken contest to create the most disgusting game possible. Often these titles (say, Boogerman for the Sega Genesis) involved bodily fluids or functions. PO’ed, an obscure shooter for 3DO and PlayStation, continued this proud ’90s tradition by introducing enemies who are essentially walking human butts. Naturally, these creatures attack using flatulence. To make matters even more confusing, you play as a disgruntled chef with a taste for violence. All this adds up to a must-miss title that is very bizarre indeed.
H.U.R.L. (1995)
MS-DOS
Speaking of gross games, here is one whose acronymic title (short for “Hardcore Union of Radical Litterbugs”) conveniently spells out a slang synonym for vomit. Not surprising, then, that players control “Bob the Slob,” who must avoid dirt hurled at him by various animals (what’s with FPS animals, anyway?) while simultaneously trying to wash them with soap and water balloons. Honestly, it’s a clever way to adapt Doom-like gameplay to a nonviolent theme. But it’s also bizarre.
Redneck Rampage (1997)
MS-DOS, Macintosh
Among all the titles in this slideshow, Redneck Rampage was the most commercially successful. Using the Build Engine popularized by Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, and Shadow Warrior, Redneck Rampage proudly carried the torch lit by its admittedly sophomoric predecessors. In this silly title, players navigate an extremely caricatured version of the American South while killing alien clones that imitate its inhabitants. After firing a circular saw gun at hicks in a bowling alley, players might find themselves refreshing their health with pork rinds and whiskey. Only in the 1990s.
Christmas Carnage (1994)
MS-DOS
The Christmas holiday evokes strong feelings in many people, whether positive or negative, and this very obscure title plays on the latter, nestling closely into the “disgruntled Christmas violence” theme that sometimes pops up in Western culture. In Christmas Carnage, you play as an angry Easter Bunny on a rampage at the North Pole, hacking and blasting away elves and snowmen on your way to Santa’s lair. It’s not a very good game, but it is…wait for it…bizarre.
Chex Quest (1996)
MS-DOS
And finally, we find ourselves face-to-face with the arch-bizarre FPS of the 1990s, Chex Quest, which first shipped as a cereal box giveaway in 1996 (yes, it was published with food). This interactive marketing masterpiece used the Doom engine, and it was designed to promote the crispy, lattice-like Chex brand breakfast cereal. The game features aliens called Flemoids, who are on a mission to destroy all the healthy foods on the planet Bazoik (of which Chex is presumably a member—but hey, this is only a game). The player’s goal is to zap the Flemoids using ambiguous energy weapons. This title is nothing but bizarre, and that makes it the all-time king. Enjoy your cereal, kids.
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