History Main / BizarrePuzzleGame

* ''VideoGame/SuperMonkeyBall'' offers a non-Capcom example.
** ''VideoGame/MarbleMadness'' can be said to be a relative of this game, since the only gameplay difference is that you're moving the ball rather than the playing field.
*** Let's face it, it's the ''monkeys'', not the gameplay, which makes ''Super Monkey Ball'' go from "weird" to "Are the developers on drugs?"

* The ''VideoGame/{{Grow}}'' series are absurd both in how you solve the puzzles and in the worlds that are created as you do.
* ''VideoGame/{{EteRNA}}''

* The gameplay of the ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}'' series. Starts out simple and grounded enough, but quickly becomes more and more off the wall and quirky as new mechanics are introduced, including rhythm minigames, playing Hangman and endless runner segments. It's often very abstract as well, such as with the Rebuttal Showdowns where you have to physically cut through your opponent's text boxes and then strike them with a sentence containing the evidence that proves their argument wrong.

Some puzzle games, instead of simply being MatchThreeGame variants, ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' [[FallingBlocks clones]], or {{Puzzle Platformer}}s, are insanely weird, mind-defying things, where classifying a game into a genre can be as much a puzzle as the game itself. This seems to apply to {{Capcom}} puzzle games more than those by any other company.

* ''VideoGame/{{Saw}}''. While there are a couple of actual video games that fit this trope (think [[XMeetsY Professor Layton meets Hostel]]), the "games" played in the movie series will occasionally fit this bill as well.

* While ''SpinJam'' has a match-three element, that ain't how you win levels. The three matched balls provide a force (of sorts) in a straight line that runs through the center spindle, which will cause affected balls to be shot away from the center and (hopefully) into matching-colored flower petals. Filling those petals is the ultimate goal.

* ''Wetrix'' has you placing Tetris-type pieces on a field to raise and lower walls, creating lakes you then fill with water. Your goal is to collect massive amounts of water then dry it up with a meteor for points, while trying not to lose too much water through gaps in the walls/over the edges; the game is over when you fill the "drain" (meter measuring how much water you've lost). The fact that the game explains itself very very poorly makes it seem even more bizarre, especially to those expecting some sort of Tetris variant.

* ''GregoryHorrorShow'' has you creeping around a hotel spying on guests, such as anthropomorphic roulette wheels and giant pink lizard nurses with blood taking fetishes, in order to steal their souls while trying not to go insane and get trapped there forever yourself.

* ''{{Bombastic}}'' has you align dice in just the right way to make them explode.
** And ''DevilDice'', to which ''Bombastic'' is the sequel.

* ''ZackAndWiki'' has you playing a 10-year-old pirate who obsessively munches on chocolate bars, and works for a bunch of rabbits, and who seeks the body parts of a cursed pirate which have turned into solid gold things. Your best friend is a flying monkey thing who turns into a bell on command, and the ringing of the bell has the power to turn enemies into items and items into enemies. Oh, and the tutorial has you throw away your ParasolParachute while you're still falling.

* ''{{Talismania}}'' may qualify, as the player has to connect two identical coins by the longest route possible.

* ''Galapagos'' has you [[EscortMission escorting]] a [[ArtificialStupidity (suicidal) artificial intelligence]] in a little spider body named Mendel around a gigantic random collection of platforms and things by randomly clicking on stuff to clear a path by manipulating the environment. This is supposedly to save its [[InformedAbility potent AI]] from being used in a weapon.

* ''Puzzle de HarvestMoon'' is nearly impossible to classify, being a truly bizarre game that's closer to Reversi than anything. Unfortunately, the complex and arcane rules that go with this make it too complex to be engaging as a Puzzle Game.

* ''{{Saw}}''. While there are a couple of actual video games that fit this trope (think [[XMeetsY Professor Layton meets Hostel]]), the "games" played in the movie series will occasionally fit this bill as well.

* ''Wetrix'' has you placing Tetris-type pieces on a field to raise and lower walls, creating lakes you then fill with water. Your goal is to try and collect enough water for a rainbow(?) while trying not to lose too much water through gaps in the walls/over the edges; the game is over when you fill the "drain" (meter measuring how much water you've lost). The fact that the game explains itself very very poorly makes it seem even more bizarre, especially to those expecting some sort of Tetris variant.

This doesn't include games which are just weird because the developers decided that Tetris should have an ExcusePlot that involves [[TetrisWorlds evacuating a planet via Tetris powered portals to other planets]]. Framing a paddle and ball game in a trapped spaceship plot, like in ''{{Arkanoid}}'', is either an example of an unholy amount of abstraction or SeriousBusiness. Running round on giant dice trying to match numbers in order to blow them up, on the other hand, can best be described as "the hell?"

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* ''{{Lemmings}}'': Seriously, you try describing it beyond naming the title. "It's kind of like a platform game save 'em up (but not quite) where you have to save these multiple suicidal units with a time limit and other constraints put on you: warning addictive gameplay and music. Also, none of that really tells you everything. Comes with a nuke button for when you can't save them or are feeling vindictive."

* ''SuperMonkeyBall'' offers a non-Capcom example.

*** Let's face it, it's the ''monkeys'', not the gameplay, which makes Super Monkey Ball go from "weird" to "Are the developers on drugs?"
* ''ViewtifulJoe'' is technically a platformer, but may involve possibly even more puzzle solving than fighting. It shows how Capcom can make this thing apply even if the game isn't a puzzle game.

* ''IntelligentQube'' sees you setting traps on a giant grid to capture cubes that are steadily rolling at you while trying not to be crushed.
* The similarly named Q.U.B.E is a first person platformer puzzle game in which the player uses some kind of high-tech gloves to move different types of blocks with dots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iABxhj0ExA0
* ''Galapagos'' has you [[EscortMission escorting]] a (suicidal) [[ArtificialStupidity artificial intelligence]] in a little spider body named Mendel around a gigantic random collection of platforms and things by randomly clicking on stuff to clear a path by manipulating the environment. This is supposedly to save its [[InformedAbility potent AI]] from being used in a weapon.

* ''VideoGame/{{Katamari Damacy}}''. You visit Earth to roll up objects into a ball so that the whole mass can be turned into a star. In the first game alone, this is because your dad, the King of All Cosmos, accidentally destroyed all the stars while drunk.

* "VideoGame/{{EteRNA}}"
* VideoGame/{{Portal}} is technically a PuzzlePlatformer, but it is ''also'' kinda bizarre. The central game mechanic is "it's like an FPS where the gun shoots wormholes instead of bullets and only if the wormholes are correctly aligned can you solve the puzzles". WHAT?

Some puzzle games, instead of simply being MatchThreeGame variants, ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' [[FallingBlocks clones]], or {{Puzzle Platformer}}s, are insanely weird, mind-defying things, where classifying a game into a genre can be as much a puzzle as the game itself. This seems to apply to Capcom puzzle games more than those by any other company.

* The similarly named Q.U.B.E is a first person platformer puzzle game in which the player uses some kind of high-tech gloves to move different types blocks with dots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iABxhj0ExA0

This doesn't include games which are just weird because the developers decided that Tetris should have an ExcusePlot that involves [[TetrisWorlds evacuating a planet via Tetris powered portals to other planets]]. Framing a paddle and ball game in a trapped spaceship plot, like in ''{{Arkanoid}}'', is either an example of an unholy amount of abstraction or SeriousBusiness. Running round on giant dice trying to match numbers in order to blow them up on the other hand can best be described as "the hell?"

* ''GregoryHorrorShow'' has you creeping round a hotel spying on guests, such as anthropomorphic roulette wheels and giant pink lizard nurses with blood taking fetishes, in order to steal their souls while trying not to go insane and get trapped there forever yourself.

* ''VideoGame/MondoMedicals''. Go through creepy featureless gray levels, solving unintuitive puzzles to get to the exit, all while TV-headed people are yelling weird [[IntentionalEngrishForFunny Engrish]] stuff at you.

** ''VideoGame/MarbleMadness'' can be said to a relative of this game, since the only gameplay difference is that you're moving the ball rather than the playing field.
*** Let's face it, it's the ''monkeys'', not the gameplay, which make Super Monkey Ball go from "weird" to "Are the developers on drugs?"

* ''{{Lemmings}}'': Seriously, you try describing it beyond naming the title. "It's kind of like a platform game save 'em up(but not quite) where you have to save these multiple suicidal units with a time limit and other constraints put on you: warning addictive gameplay and music. Also, none of that really tells you everything. Comes with a nuke button for when you can't save them or are feeling vindictive."

* ''TodayIDie'' is one of these, and a beautiful one at that. Basically, it's playing a metaphor for returning from the brink of suicide.

* ''{{Pang}}'' has you popping balloons with a harpoon while trying to dodge them at the same time.

* {{Katamari Damacy}}.

* ''VideoGame: SplosionMan'' features a burning man who can explode due to a ''FreakLabAccident'' with various puzzle elements and 2D platformer style movement.

* VideoGame/{{Portal}} is technically a PuzzlePlatformer, but it is ''also'' kinda bizarre. I mean, the central game mechanic is "it's like an FPS where the gun shoots wormholes instead of bullets and only if the wormholes are correctly aligned can you solve the puzzles". WHAT?

*** Let's face it, it's the ''monkeys'', not the gameplay, which make Super Monkey Ball go from "weird" to "WTF?"

* Welcome to ''VideoGame/MondoMedicals''! You have applied for research! You will help us help you! Help to find the cure for cancer! First we need to verify you! A test will perform this! We hold no response for your safety!

* {{Portal}} is technically a PuzzlePlatformer, but it is ''also'' kinda bizarre. I mean, the central game mechanic is "it's like an FPS where the gun shoots wormholes instead of bullets and only if the wormholes are correctly aligned can you solve the puzzles". WHAT?