5 Weirdest Games That Ever Released on SNES

These days, when a game developer puts their time and energy into a new game, it’s usually going to be directed at as many people as possible, so making something that’s inherently weird isn’t ideal. Back in the day, retro games were handled a bit differently. They didn’t cost nearly as much to create, and there were a lot of weird video games produced for consoles — especially the Super Nintendo. Older games on consoles could be weird, and they often were, so we dug through the archives and found five of the weirdest ones made for the SNES, both licensed and otherwise, and arranged them in no particular order.

1) Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball

In 1990, Hudson Soft released Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball on the Super Nintendo — and it was the first basketball game released on the system. It’s set in 2031, where Bill Laimbeer is the commissioner of basketball. He’s fired all the refs and created a game with no rules, where the use of weapons is not only allowed but encouraged. It’s a violent basketball game that’s incredibly unusual, and unlike most sports games you’d find on similar systems of the period. It was also a huge stinker, earning significant criticism across its execution, including sound, graphics, and controls.

2) Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure

Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure is a 2D platformer that arrived on the SNES in 1995, though it first appeared on the Sega Genesis the year prior. It’s a gross-out game in the vein of the Garbage Pail Kids, and at the time, that style of video game was killing it. Think Earthworm Jim, but instead of worms, it was all about flicking boogers. Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure was incredibly well-received and built a decent cult following. There was an attempt to fund a sequel via Kickstarter, but the campaign raised only $40K of the requested $375,000.

3) Hong Kong 97

One of the weirdest games ever made was created as a parody in just seven days. Kowloon Kurosawa developed Hong Kong 97 over the course of a week to lampoon the video game industry, and it’s one of the strangest games ever made. It was released as an unlicensed game in Japan only for the Super Famicom, so getting a copy on an SNES in the States wasn’t possible until many years later. Regardless, the shoot-’em-up was made and received as one of the worst games ever made. It’s largely an unplayable mess, which isn’t surprising, seeing as a video game developer didn’t make it, and they only spent a week on it.

4) Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit!

Back in the 1990s, you couldn’t walk into a store and not see a crappy licensed video game. There were tons of them, and while many were weird, the one that truly stands out as the weirdest is easily Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit! The game was developed in line with Home Improvement, but it’s almost nothing like the show, and is more of a strange 2D platformer that makes absolutely no logical sense. It might have worked better had it been unlicensed with a different title, but even on its own, Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit! isn’t a great platformer.

5) Super 3D Noah’s Ark

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to jam the Bible into Wolfenstein 3D, you don’t have to imagine it because the folks at Wisdom Tree beat you to it. Super 3D Noah’s Ark is an FPS that looks and plays similarly to Wolfenstein 3D, but is presented as if the player were Noah, on the Ark, using a slingshot to shoot food at animals to put them to sleep. Basically, Noah has to run around the Ark, keeping the animals from causing trouble by making them sleep. It’s weird — especially if you played Wolfenstein 3D, but also because it’s a game where you play as Noah shooting animals with a slingshot.

What’s the weirdest game you remember playing on the SNES? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

5 Weirdest Games Ever Made