From Plinko to Disembodied Fish: Five Obscure Online Games You Should Consider
As gamers, we’ve all been there… scrolling through a library of the best of the best, thinking: is this it? Fortnite, Star Wars, GTA V, the usual games and franchises dominating the charts are everywhere, but they’re rarely surprising.
There are some games, though, that fully embrace the weirdness to deliver gameplay that’s anything but predictable.
These digital escapades might well be mistaken for a fever dream in your Steam recommendations, but instead of hurriedly scrolling past to get to something a bit more established (read: boring), we think it’s about time you gave these weird and wonderful titles a chance.
Ready to step outside the mainstream? Then, come with us to explore some of the less-visited corners of gaming. Here are five of the most memorable and satisfyingly obscure online games to add to your library.
Why Play the Weird Stuff?
Don’t you want enrichment and variety in your gaming sessions? Playing the video game equivalent of a Hollywood blockbuster gets a bit old after a while. The same is true for those definitive browser games—RuneScape and World of Warcraft, we’re calling you out!
AAA games chase mass appeal, but the weirder the game, the more experiential it is. After all, they’re often made by indie developers who have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. Sometimes, you want to find out what would happen if a fish had an existential crisis!
Top Five Obscure Games
So, you’re done with playing safe and ready to dive into the best of the rest? Here are our top 5 picks to take you down a path less traveled.
Now, narrowing this list down was by no means an easy task—what do you mean, trawling through hundreds of hours of gameplay is easy?—but after rigorously testing each title for uniqueness and accessibility, we’ve settled on a shortlist.
How Fish Is Made (Wrong Organ, 2022)?
Your new existential horror go-to
Just how weird can a game get? You’ve obviously not come across Wrong Organ’s ‘22 release before.
This freakish indie sees you play as a disembodied sardine, having to navigate an industrial nightmare made of steel, slime, and just a dash of despair.
Along the way, you’ll come across other fish discussing the Meaning Of It All, singing parasitic worms, and a bunch of sea creatures stuck in philosophical meltdowns.
There’s no combat to win and no loot boxes to collect. What there is is choice, with a lovely Lynchian twist.
Soccer Ball Plinko (BGaming, 2025)
Slapstick physics meets a casino classic
Online slots are the most popular digital casino gaming vertical in the world, so what exactly makes this entry obscure?
Well, we’re not talking about your run-of-the-mill spinners here. No, BGaming’s slots and Plinko mash-up is firmly topping the list for one of the most innovative new online slots that we’ve played so far this year.
Plinko, if you weren’t already in the know, has its roots in the classic TV game show The Price Is Right (1983), which, in turn, was inspired by Japanese pachinko machines—think: tiny steel balls bouncing through pegs.
By fusing the simplicity of the slots with absolute chaos (plinko), BGaming have created an iGaming hybrid that is more compelling than any gambling game has a right to be!
Goat Simulator 3 (Coffee Stain North, 2022)
There is no Goat Simulator 2—that tells you everything.
Yep, rather than following the familiar franchise trend of 1, 2, 3, and so on, Coffee Stain North opted not to make a follow-up. They skipped installment number 2 simply because they could.
What can we say about Goat Simulator 3 that isn’t already covered by the title? For starters, it’s a lot more unhinged than you can prepare yourself for. Honestly, if you thought Soccer Ball Plinko was chaotic, you’re in for a surprise when you open this alternative.
Remember all those bugs that have ruined your sessions playing “serious” games? Imagine a developer saying, “What if we combined them all into one game?” And so was born Goat Simulator.
Number 3 builds on that legacy of absurdity. You’re a goat. You headbutt everything and ragdoll cars into the stratosphere. The best thing is you get to play it all in four-person co-op. It’s nonsense as a competitive sport!
Jazzpunk: Director’s Cut (Necrophone Games, 2014)
Logic? Optional
Take a retro spy comedy, fit it with a cup of glitch aesthetics, and throw in Adult Swim to come up with dialogue during an all-nighter. The result would look a lot like Jazzpunk.
Nothing in this game feels normal: minigames pop up out of nowhere, secret missions go off the rails, and, though you’ll poke around and do your level best to investigate the nonsense, it all descends into hilarious absurdity.
We can’t get enough!
Katamari Damacy REROLL (MONKEYCRAFT Co Ltd., 2018)
All joy, no filter
This isn’t a game that would even make it down on paper at Electronic Arts or Sony. “Roll a sticky ball around Earth, collecting junk to rebuild the cosmos after the King destroys the stars” is a concept that would be laughed out of the gate at those big-budget studios.
Lucky for us, then, that MONKEYCRAFT pressed on with their vision to bring Katamari Damacy to life.
REROLL updates this delightful ball of ridiculousness for modern hardware without losing the gloriously deranged heart of the original. It’s both wholesome and chaotic—a wonderful reminder that games can be both obscure and uplifting.
The only question left to ask now is: which of these brilliant games will you be loading up first?