<a+class='autolink'+href='https://pc.ign.com/objects/113/113227.html'>The+Binding+of+Isaac</a>

<a+class='autolink'+href='https://pc.ign.com/objects/118/118962.html'>Glitch</a>

Some game developers like to push the envelope. Others prefer to light it on fire and dance around chanting unintelligible tributes to eldritch deities. We appreciate both methods when the end result is a heaping pile of cool insanity. The usual glut of vanilla gaming offerings made an appearance, but 2011 didn't skimp on the bizarre either. In a year full of risk taking and wild experimentation, developers churned out a bold sampling of the weirdest, most unusual projects we've seen yet. From the risque and profane to the outright peculiar, here are eight of the oddest games of 2011.It would be actually more shocking for Edmund McMillen and his rotating cast of game dev cohorts to put together a game that *isn't* drenched in creepy gross freakiness. This Zelda-inspired action rogue-like is laced with warped religious undertones and unsettling imagery that's all but guaranteed to rustle folks' feathers. Venturing into the dark basement underworld is a disturbing journey filled with a hefty dose of WTF. Mutated bosses spray body parts, blood, vomit, and urine in all directions. Power-ups include classy items like a dead cat, your mother's sanitary napkin, a pile of poop, assorted drugs, and satanic texts. It's just all-around crazy, but the further you dive into the gameplay, the more it becomes clear that this is all a good thing.Add strange tasks like milking butterflies, eating live pigs, and chugging virtual beer to the standard array of traditional activities found in MMOs, and you start to get a feel for Glitch's heightened level of wackiness. Taking place inside the imaginations of cartoonish-yet-grotesque giants, this online social adventure possesses a surreal quality. There are lots of unanticipated things to do as you meander through side-scrolling environs that alternate between alien worlds and Dali paintings. The game world itself can also be changed and expanded over time through player choices. Glitch was actually un-launched a short time after it made its debut. Expect to see it make a bold return after a bit of fine tuning.

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<a+class='autolink'+href='https://ps3.ign.com/objects/083/083913.html'>Catherine</a>

<a+class='autolink'+href='https://wireless.ign.com/objects/107/107227.html'>Hector:+Badge+of+Carnage</a>

<a+class='autolink'+href='https://pc.ign.com/objects/077/077247.html'>Rock+of+Ages</a>

Few games ooze sex and weirdness quite like Catherine Atlus ' boundary-pushing game of sassy dating simulation and intense action puzzle solving stomps a daring path right through a forest of mature themes, tackling subject matter few developers have delved into before. Tasked with juggling the stress and emotional unhinging that comes from cheating on his old girlfriend with a new young vixen, the game's protagonist is routinely plunged into a nightmarish dream realm of demonic beasts while he spends waking moments navigating the precarious route to uncertain romance. It's fresh and edgy. We guarantee this game is unlike anything you've played before.Point-and-click adventure games are slowly making a comeback, and offbeat titles like the Hector: Badge of Carnage trilogy really keep the genre from devolving into a boring click fest. As a gritty, painfully flawed detective in an even grimier city, the ongoing quest to stop a terrorist plot throws you up against jaw-slackening puzzles that force you to frequently consider: "What the hell did I just do?" Reaching shoulder-deep into a bovine anus, interrogating nun-strippers, and peddling fake crack to school kids are just a few of the many charming tasks awaiting you in this crass-but-clever adventure title.Even beyond the comical cutscenes rendered in an endlessly amusing cut-and-paste Monty Python and the Holy Grail vibe, Rock of Ages is an odd duck that revels in its unusualness. Thrashing castle gates by rolling sentient boulders over, around, and through a maze-like fantasy landscape is sublimely silly. The back-and-forth flow between offensive steamrolling and laying down defensive fortifications has a nice balance to it. Plus the taste of victory is sweeter when you drink up the terrified squeals of your adversary right before you squash them to nothingness.

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<a+class='autolink'+href='https://ps3.ign.com/objects/142/14274035.html'>Shadows+of+the+Damned</a>

<a+class='autolink'+href='https://ps3.ign.com/objects/090/090809.html'>Hyperdimension+Neptunia</a>

Demon slaughter and excessive dick jokes go together a lot better than you might expect. Suda 51 is well-known for crafting games that are way out there, and Shadows of the Damned doesn't disappoint when it comes to sheer outrageousness. This over-the-top homage to grind house horror is loaded with all manner of absurdly phallic weaponry, high volumes of splattering gore, ample nudity, and more penis references than the average person even knows what to do with. Traveling through the innermost depths of hell to rescue your suicidal girlfriend from the ruler of the underworld is a wild, screwed-up ride.Picture the so-called console wars re-imagined as an effervescent JRPG set in a world where each gaming system is represented by a busty goddess who's all stirred up and ready to battle it out. Throw in a heroine with amnesia and gobs of syrupy cuteness and that's Hyperdimension Neptunia in a nutshell. Though cracking through the layers of not-so-subtle sexual innuendo, voluminous video game references, and overt fan-service reveals a game that's rather bland compared to the competition, the premise and delivery are commendably quirky.

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<a+class='autolink'+href='https://ps3.ign.com/objects/078/078163.html'>Slam+Bolt+Scrappers</a>

Yielding on of the most refreshing mash-ups in recent memory, Slam Bolt Scrappers throws a touch of Tetris, a smatter of Super Smash Bros. and a little tower defense action into a blender to create a heady concoction that looks tasty but leaves a strange taste on the palate. Battling flying dudes to gather block pieces for your tower while trying to keep it from being annihilated by your opponent's side sounds a bit insane on paper, and it's even wilder when set in motion. Tower battling, block brawling, and puzzle solving on-the-fly devolves into frenzied chaos.