Summary
To whatever degree meme games comprise a proper genre, they make up a tricky one. Games likeGoat Simulatorshowed how much fun a buggy, silly experience could be, andplenty of titles have followed the path that it and other titles blazed. There’s a fine line between intentionally silly and just plain lazy, however, and there’s no shortage of offenders that have fallen more into the latter category.
The best meme games are ones that are actually well-made and engaging for what they are, offering some kind of hook that isn’t found elsewhere. Even so, it’s best not to go into a meme game expecting a masterpiece, but there can be a lot of enjoyment to be found with the right attitude.
Why It’s Goat Simulator 3 & Not Goat Simulator 2
When Goat Simulator 3 was announced as the sequel to 2014’s Goat Simulator, many were left wondering whether a Goat Simulator 2 existed.
10The Game Of Sisyphus Is Addictively Punishing
A Comically Frustrating Spectacle
Games oriented around comically Herculean tasks have proliferated in the era of Twitch streaming,as watching someone try and fail again and again tends to attract an audience. Among these,The Game of Sisyphusmight take the cake for the most ridiculous concept. Like the myth of Sisyphus, the protagonist of the game must take on the seemingly endless challenge of rolling a boulder up a hill, although there’s a little more complexity to the way the game goes about it.
The Game of Sisyphusis the kind of meme game that can be almost anti-fun, punishing mistakes with the threat of repeating long segments of rolling a boulder around obstacles. Played with some spectating friends, however, a torturous solo experience takes on a much more comical quality. It also taps into the inherent drive to reclaim progress effectively, making it hard to put down despite its frustrations.
An Absurd Yet Endearing Adventure
The floppy movement ofQWOPcan be a fun gimmick for a short session, but as far as meme games go, it doesn’t really have legs.Octodad: Dadliest Catchis a much more robust realization of ragdoll movement gameplay, taking on the absurd premise of an octopus pretending to be a normal human father. As the sequel to a freely available student project,Dadliest Catchrefines and expands theOctodadgameplay into something genuinely worth a $15 price tag.
How Jurassic Park Unintentionally Inspired Octodad & Surgeon Simulator
While one 90s Jurassic Park game failed to find its own critical success, it did manage to inspire other devs to create their own hilarious titles.
Flailing around inOctodad: Dadliest Catchis just fun, and it’s never punishing in the way that a lot of similarly physics-based games are.Things can get truly chaotic with the co-op option, which assigns different limbs to different players. The only real problem is that it’s quite short, but with plenty of room to just play around, there’s more to squeeze out of it than just the story.
8Hatoful Boyfriend Is The Most Absurd Visual Novel
Love Knows No Bounds, Especially When It Comes to Birds
There’s been an impressive number of joke dating sims over the years, from innocuously silly options to ones satirizing everything from politics to history. In terms of fundamental absurdity, however,it’s hard to topHatoful Boyfriend. Instead of the typical array of cute women or dashing men,Hatoful Boyfriendpresents a dating roster exclusively made up of birds.
It’s a fairly thin gimmick, butHatoful Boyfriendmanages to wrangle enough jokes out of the premise to prop up efficient routes for each of its characters. Where thememorable dating sim gamedeserves some real credit is in the true ending, which is a surprising turn from the rest that manages to impress in a more legitimate sense, meme game or not. Even for those who don’t stick that out, it’s hard not to get some amusement out ofHatoful Boyfriend.
7Surgeon Simulator Has Some Bloody Fun
A Experimental Twist on Medical Gaming
If the board gameOperationhas never felt bloody or experimental enough,Surgeon Simulatoris the perfect answer. Although it sounds like it could be a serious game,Surgeon Simulatoris all about tossing around organs in a way that’s definitely not medically sound.Floppy controls make breaking bones and dropping hearts all too easy, but even the worst patch jobs can sometimes do the trick if the standards are low enough.
Surgeon Simulator 2: Access All Areas Review - A Game In Rude Health
Bossa Studios’ Surgeon Simulator 2 is not a perfect game and has some notable shortcomings but the main gameplay is a huge amount of fun.
This might not be the game of choice for the easily frustrated, as mastering anything within it can involve a lot of trial and error.For the brave, however, it’s certainly an experience like no other. Anyone interested in a multiplayer variant can check outSurgeon Simulator 2, and those who want an extra dose of immersion in cartoonish operations can opt for the VR spinoffSurgeon Simulator: Experience Reality.
6DLC Quest Satirizes The Worst Game Trends
Skewering Absurd DLC Practices in Gaming
Obnoxious DLC has been the butt of many jokes for a long time now, from the infamous horse armor introduced inOblivionto the recent rash of failed attempts at live-service monetization. In 2013,DLC Questdecided to skewer the issue in a meta way, baking the concept of absurd DLC into the bones of an otherwise unremarkable action platformer. The difference, of course, is thatDLC Quest’s comical DLC doesn’t actually ever use real money.
Imbued with a very Flash game spirit,DLC Questdefinitely feels like a product of its time in some regards.The concepts it’s lampooning, however, might be more relevant now than ever. If the games industry must be centered around aggressive monetization practices, it’s nice to at least get one game that’s more endearing than maddening out of it.
5The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog Is Weirdly Great
A Surprisingly Good April Fools' Game
Released as an April Fools' game,The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehogsounds like a completely made-up title.It’s not, however, and the game that bears it is actually surprisingly good. Considering howinconsistent theSonicseries can be, it’s impressive that one of the most universally recognized hits in recent years is a joke game that can be downloaded for free.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehogis more or less a visual novel, but there’s enough going on to satiate even skeptics of the genre. Adventure game elements and even some game-within-a-game action decorate a lighthearted murder mystery plot. It shouldn’t take more than an hour or two to play through, a short but sweet construction that works perfectly for something that requires no investment. Sonic isn’t the kind of guy to take things slow, after all, even when he’s been murdered.
4Goat Simulator Defines The Meme Game Genre
The Unruly Fun of Being an Goat
Goat Simulatormight be the title that has defined the concept of the meme game more than anything else, intentionally bucking the standards of what makes a game good to make one that’s bad in all the right ways. Playing the game and breaking it are more or less synonymous, but figuring out all the ways that the game wants to be broken poses a fascinating little puzzle of sorts.The one goal that’s clear is being the worst goat possible, and pulling that off can bring a lot of joy.
Many different nonsensical simulators have followed inGoat Simulator’s wake, but it’s very much been a case of diminishing returns.When the game released over a decade ago, it was genuinely fresh, and it’s still possible to see why people got so excited when playing it today.Goat Simulatorisn’t going to change anyone’s life, but it’s capable of making an afternoon a whole lot better.
3Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Makes Warfare Fun
Enjoy the Absurdity of War
Battle simulation has been around in games for decades, serving as the core for plenty of notable franchises likeTotal War.There’s something fundamentally silly about janky little armies running around in a video game, however, andTotally Accurate Battle Simulatortaps into that humorous aspect. The battles that play out in it might never be anything close to totally accurate, but they never fail to be memorable.
Totally Accurate Battle Simulatordeveloper Landfall might have a more practiced hand at meme games than anyone else, consistently dropping releases on April Fools' Day that play around with different genres in comical ways. The horse-drifting battle royaleKnightfallmight be the actual pinnacle of the genre, but it unfortunately relies on online matches that aren’t often populated these days. Among anything easily playable, however, it’s hard to beatTotally Accurate Battle Simulator.
2Untitled Goose Game Is Actually Polished
Embrace the Chaos of Being a Mischievous Goose
Untitled Goose Gamedefinitely draws some comparisons withGoat Simulator,placing players into the role of a precocious animalcausing havoc. As far as meme game qualification goes, it can feel a bit more borderline, asit’s notably polished and well-designed in a way that most aren’t. Even so, the frequently humorous execution of an absurd concept is reason enough to mention it, and it’s certainly a game that’s worth checking out.
Untitled Goose Game Review: Wacky Waterfowl
Untitled Goose Game is an endearing and enjoyable combination of stealth, slapstick, and sandbox, but it ends before it can truly spread its wings.
Untitled Goose Gameis essentially a puzzle-oriented stealth game, tasking the goose with making their way through a variety of environments safely.What tends to be the most memorable about the gameplay, however, is harassing all the innocentsfound along the way in unique and clever ways. The life of a goose is an obstinate one, andUntitled Goose Gamefulfills that fantasy perfectly.
1Garry’s Mod Is A Treasure Trove Of Meme Games
A Playground of Creativity and Chaos
Garry’s Modis more of a sandbox set of tools than anything else, and as such, it’s perfectly capable of being a serious game.It’s also capable of being an incredibly goofy and dumb one, and the latter experience tends to be easier to find. A wide variety of community-hosted servers offer everything from social deduction games to roleplay, and despite releasing in 2006, it’s still heavily populated today.
OneGarry’s Modclassic is Prop Hunt, a game mode that lets players turn into objects that litter the map for an especially silly version of hide and seek.It’s popular enough that some standalone games have mimicked the concept in recent years, but theGarry’s Modversion is still a great way to play. It can also just be fun to load into a random map with friends and cause chaos, which makesGarry’s Modan endless source of meme game amusement.
