original and/or unique games

[Vectrex]

howdy, I'm really interested in what people here think are the truly original and/or unique games. I'm not talking about graphics or such things, but more of a concept/primary game mechanic level. I'm especially interested in games that don't really have an equivalent that you could claim is a direct derivative or clone. eg Black and White might fall under that catagory. I'm SURE people could argue about this as *everything* is a derivative on some existenialist level, but lets be realistic :D
Even if they were really bad it'd still be interesting.

[Ricardo C]

I'm interested in fun games. Leave originality at home if it's going to get in the way of fun, intuitive, addictive gameplay.

[mahlzeit]

I liked Chris Crawford's experiments with "emotion" in games: Gossip and Siboot. Although these games really weren't as much fun as they could have been, mostly due (in my opinion) to a bad user interface.

[alfie]

howdy, I'm really interested in what people here think are the truly original and/or unique games.

Play this demo with four of your friends, 2 male and 2 female is the best combo:

www.redgames.net/Jiglit2004Setup.exe

It's only about a 1. 2 meg download.

[lakibuk]

Bridge Builder (freeware) by Chronic Logic, the makers of Gish.
Download it now!
http://www.bridgebuilder-game.com

[baegsi]

Every genre has its root in one or several games.

I consider something unique when you start a game the first time and don't instantly know what to do, or how to do it. You don't have a "role-model-game". Recent example: Darwinia.

[Fry Crayola]

Darwinia = Cannon Fodder with additives.

Well, lots of additives, but that influence can be seen.

Most games aren't original in their entirety but do come up with something new. Back to Darwinia, it's a style that's practically unique and there's nothing out there at the moment to match it.

Similarly Katamari Damacy - what else is there?

[PoV]

7th Cross on Dreamcast. Very unique game about evolution, but an awful as all hell game to play off the bat. You essentially start the game as a fish, and need to figure out you need to eat some plants to grow up. Then when you get to a certain size, you can begin to fight other sea life, and get on land. Eventually you gain enough points to begin researching possible evolutions of arms, legs, body, head, but it's by using this seemingly random interface of colors. Much further in the game, it actually gets cool as you get sets of parts that unlock special abilities when combined, get magic, and you fight crazy anime mecha like biological monsters and stuff.

And there's Katamari Damacy (PS2), as mentioned. That game's uniqueness is awesome.

Respectfully, you could say the above 2 games are 3D platformers, so even the most unique games are rooted in a somewhat not so unique genre. Here's some more.

Cookie and Cream (PS2) is unique, each analog stick controls a character, but it gets dry fast.

Umi Hara Kawa Se (SNES or PS1) is a cool 2D platformer with a rope that hooks on to things and bends around everything.

Stretch Panic (PS2) is another unique one where you grab on to vertices and hurt enemies like you would by stretching an elastic band (and releasing). Very unique, but a dry game.

I'll post some more later, I need to get back to work. :D

[Winterwolf]

I think the following games are rather unique:

1)The original Jezzball
2)Pipedream
3)Liero (a type of worms real-time.VERY addictive)

[papillon]

Some 'adventure' games fill their content up with bizarre and original mini-games that might not be interesting enough to make a full game out of but are fun to play for a few minutes on your way to your next goal.

I'm currently working through Missing: Since January(aka In Memoriam) and probably the most interesting minigame I've hit so far is a weird physics thing with a square that can have strings tied to each of its four corners and those strings can attach to various pegs around the screen, and you have to swing the square to a goal by connecting and disconnecting ropes while avoiding obstacles - Great fun for a few levels, wouldn't want a whole game of it unless you added a lot more to the idea.

Basically, if you're good at coming up with lots of little ideas but not at turning them into a full-length compelling casual game, slam a story around them and send it to an adventure game publisher, you might just get in! :)