Bomberman: Act Zero [Bomberman Series]
Cute little Bomberman couldn’t cut it in the modern Xbox 360 era — he needed to get hardcore. Or, that’s what publisher Namco thought when they greenlight this completely ludicrous reboot of Bomberman in 2006. The weirdest thing is, despite the sexualized, grungy new graphics, Bomberman: Act Zero is exactly like the old games. You can play from a top-down perspective, you drop bombs, and then avoid the incoming explosions.
Seriously, this is just old-school Bomberman with terrible, generic mid-2000s Unreal Engine aesthetic. The game doesn’t even have a save system, and it could be played from a 3rd Person perspective — which was completely useless for figuring out your position, and how to avoid incoming explosions.
Thankfully, publisher Namco released a much better Bomberman game, Bomberman R, as a Nintendo Switch launch title.
Doom RPG [Doom Series]
DOOM: Eternal is the latest game in that series, and it is a blur of insane violence, heavy metal, and thumb-achingly fast gameplay. What’s the opposite of that? An RPG. Doom RPG is a cellphone game — this is before smartphones — where your Doom Marine slowly progresses through levels, fighting Doom enemies in battles like an old-school dungean crawler.
Doom RPG even has a sequel, and a sort-of prequel in the form of Wolfenstein RPG. Nazi dogs are ported over from Wolfenstein RPG and become demonic Hellhounds. Clever players can even acquire a dog collar and use it to capture Hellhounds and — look, this is so bizarre. The insane brutality of the series is totally missing, but at least it is an FPS. Sort of. You can choose to shoot your gun instead of punching? Does that make this an FPS?
Explore more weird games hidden away in popular franchises on the next page!
