Grotesque videogames

Everything about that is beautiful

The way the world looks as if it could fall apart at any moment, the undulation of the textures, the repeated crashing noise, the video capture cutting out as a giant snake arrives

We need to get cracking on M2 emulation to save the 5 games made for the hardware so that I can get fucked up and hurt myself with this disaster

1 Like

TimeCop (SNES)

3 Likes

Nightmare Creatures.

4 Likes

until I recently looked at the screenshots gallery on Mobygames, I had never considered the possibility that Killing Time might be significantly different between platforms, or notable as anything beyond “that weird shoddy-looking Doom clone with ghosts and old guns and I think also clowns?”

It seems the 3DO version was released first, and the subsequent computer releases were considerably revamped:

Those still scenes make the game look rather more unique then it actually is in motion, and somewhat skew the observers sense of how the density of the game (textures, architecture, enemy waves) seems to increase dramatically over time.

That said, I think actually footage still conveys some amount of character due to the design focus on a central conventional location that gradually reveals unsuspected depths and complexities. But rather than beating Realms of the Haunting to the punch by a couple years, it instead seems more like someone experienced a precognitive vision of Clive Barker’s Undying, then attempted to create their own version by grafting The 7th Guest onto a Build engine game.

1 Like

Makes me wonder if there’s a single nice looking game out there that has digitized sprites based on real actors.

It’s mostly limited to portraits, but Serpent in the Staglands does this and imo it looks really nice.

(This is not a grotesque game, in case it’s not clear.)

1 Like

god I still need to buy this game, especially since they changed to turn based combat

it’s down to like eleven bucks in the humble bundle store right now, if that’s a good incentive

1 Like

mortal kombat 3 comes close at times, I guess

does septerra core count?

2 Likes

Based on that screenshot, yeah. Actually looks comparable to some last-gen console games I’ve seen/played.

SaGa Frontier, for sure, at least during the battles. Jesus. What a wonderful mess.

4 Likes

heaven/hell indeed

I will not have anyone speaking ill of the great David Cage’s music from this game

Yes I got to play it in a J- arcade along with Planet Harriers and FZero AX about 4 years ago.

Woah. Even the video tearing stuff? That had to be pretty ahead of its time, grasping the aesthetic appeal of VHS’ limited visual quality during the 90s.

david cage did the music? oh man

4 Likes

Such commitment

What are the authentic Grotesque soundtracks

whatever that re2 special edition is with all the shitty midi stuff