Castlevania Judgement [Castlevania Series]
It’s a Castlevania fighting game! Fighting games are pretty common for spin-offs to popular series, but there’s just something so weird about Castlevania Judgement. In a lot of ways, it’s very similar to the 3D arena brawling of games like Final Fantasy Dissidia, and even introduces a time-manipulating villain to pull characters from different eras into the same universe. Maybe it’s the absurdly gothic redesigns of all the characters — turning famous He-Man heroes like Simon Belmont into a shorts-sporting anime pretty boy.
Judgement even uses a few mechanics from the games. You can use sub-weapons in battle, throwing axes or summoning bats, depending on the character you’re playing as. You even get to play as random, faceless monsters like Golem. Dracula’s #1 guy Death is also a playable skeleton, eschewing his spooky cloaked skeleton exterior and appearing as a bizarre skull-faced hook-monster. Why does this game exist?
SegaSonic The Hedgehog [Sonic The Hedgehog Series]
Another game that never escaped Japan, SegaSonic The Hedgehog is a multiplayer arcade-only game that you play with a trackball. Don’t know what a trackball is? It’s a big round ball that you can swipe to roll. By rolling the trackball in different directions, you’d control Sonic as he ran through hectic tracks of falling debris — and dodge series villain Eggman’s many devious traps. The faster you swipe the trackball, the faster Sonic moves!
The trackball controls are judge weird, even if that control method was a staple of ’90s arcades. The game itself is pretty dang weird, which is saying a lot when we’ve got Sonic (2006) — where Sonic has multiple romantic scenes (and a kiss) opposite a human female. Then there’s Sonic Shuffle, the Sonic board game… or Sonic: The Fighters, or…
Maybe it’s just the name. SegaSonic The Hedgehog. What kind of name is that?!
Explore more weird games hidden away in popular franchises on the next page!
