Unapologetic violence, biting humour, murky moral choices: some games made provocation their signature. This Top 50 gathers the retro titles that disturbed — sometimes censored, often cult classics. RomWize breaks them down without taboo, each with its re-evaluated score, its versions, their rarity and their collector value.
"The whole universe rests on a routine you never question while playing: you catch wild creatures, lock them inside little balls, then send them to fight in your place so you can become the best. Sold as a grand tale of friendship, the adventure mostly comes down to collecting living beings and making them brawl, which raises a smile in hindsight."
"The whole universe rests on a routine you never question while playing: you catch wild creatures, lock them inside little balls, then send them to fight in your place so you can become the best. Sold as a grand tale of friendship, the adventure mostly comes down to collecting living beings and making them brawl, which raises a smile in hindsight."
"Under the pretext of climbing the criminal ladder, you borrow other people's cars, lose the police and settle every dispute with gunfire, all across open cities built for chaos. The game makes no secret of its irony, yet the thrill of total freedom makes you accept, without flinching, a daily routine of crimes chained together with a slightly guilty grin."
"An elegant witch pulverizing swarms of celestial angels with a generous helping of suggestive poses: laid out plainly, the picture is faintly startling. Mid-game, though, we soak up every ecstatic combo as pure stylish obviousness, never pausing to wonder whether Paradise's creatures deserved this. The clash between the displayed grace and the gleeful carnage is the whole charm."
"Armed with supernatural powers and a well-honed blade, you move through a corrupt city in the name of justice and revenge. Yet the game tallies your “chaos” with every throat you cut, as if to quietly remind you that the man in the shadows mostly leaves a trail of corpses behind. Saving the rightful heir by piling up murders: the contradiction is good for a smile."
"Armed with supernatural powers and a well-honed blade, you move through a corrupt city in the name of justice and revenge. Yet the game tallies your “chaos” with every throat you cut, as if to quietly remind you that the man in the shadows mostly leaves a trail of corpses behind. Saving the rightful heir by piling up murders: the contradiction is good for a smile."
"Saving the galaxy while racking up Dark Side points: that's a fairly comic moral ledger. At every dialogue the game offers noble or vile, and you catch yourself picking the cruel line just to see, or to unlock a power. Donning the virtuous hero's robe while methodically cultivating your dark half is a split the saga embraces with evident relish."
"The genre's most famous martial-arts tournament stands out above all for its closing reward: once the opponent is down, the game politely invites you to finish them off with an execution as inventive as it is bloody. It's pitched as a sporting contest, yet most of the fun lies in perfecting the choreography of the death blow, which you carry out with a light heart."
"The genre's most famous martial-arts tournament stands out above all for its closing reward: once the opponent is down, the game politely invites you to finish them off with an execution as inventive as it is bloody. It's pitched as a sporting contest, yet most of the fun lies in perfecting the choreography of the death blow, which you carry out with a light heart."
"Winning the fight isn't enough: you still have to finish the already-beaten opponent with a kill of stunningly gory inventiveness. We memorize the button combo like a compulsory figure and savor that anatomical finale without seeing a shred of cruelty in it anymore. Turning a meticulous demolition of the human body into a well-earned reward is irresistibly shameless."
"To save a ravaged world, you recruit demons through conversation, flatter them, win them over… then fuse them without a qualm to make stronger ones. Yesterday's companion becomes today's raw material, and you optimize your sacrifices like a cooking recipe. That surface tenderness toward creatures you promptly recycle invites a slightly sheepish smile."
"Playing civilians trapped in a besieged city forces choices you'd rather never make: ransacking an elderly couple's home, turning away a pleading neighbor, even stealing to survive. Cornered by hunger and cold, we rationalize each theft as necessity. The unease comes precisely from the fact that the game never rewards cruelty: it simply lets us grasp how much sheer survival can dirty one's hands."
"At the close of a won fight, the game invites you to finish off your opponent with a “fatality,” a choreographed killing of almost virtuoso gory inventiveness. You execute the button combo with care, proud to land a spectacular dismemberment, without dwelling too much on the fact that you're mostly drilling the art of theatrical murder."
"The vast playground invites you to do anything, and you fairly quickly opt to steal cars, run errands for criminals and turn traffic into chaos. The story dresses it all as a rise through the underworld, but the freedom on offer mostly works as an official permit to chain together offences, something you grant yourself with thoroughly pixelated delight."
"The stated dream fits in two words: become a Pokémon Master. In practice you trap wild animals inside little balls, hoard them by the dozen and send them to bash each other senseless to earn gym badges. The adventure is so warm-hearted that you happily overlook this knack for collecting battle-ready creatures, charmed rather than troubled."
"Surviving an English boarding school sounds like a noble cause, but the method boils down to slingshot pellets, planted firecrackers and ruling the schoolyard through brawls. Framed as a bullied kid's comeback, the daily grind amounts to becoming the school's own little terror, something you pull off with a faintly guilty grin."
"The stated dream fits in two words: become a Pokémon Master. In practice you trap wild animals inside little balls, hoard them by the dozen and send them to bash each other senseless to earn gym badges. The adventure is so warm-hearted that you happily overlook this knack for collecting battle-ready creatures, charmed rather than troubled."
"The vast playground invites you to do anything, and you fairly quickly opt to steal cars, run errands for criminals and turn traffic into chaos. The story dresses it all as a rise through the underworld, but the freedom on offer mostly works as an official permit to chain together offences, something you grant yourself with thoroughly pixelated delight."
"Under the uniform of an upright detective in postwar Los Angeles, we hunt crime in earnest… while cheerfully plowing through half the city in every chase and grilling witnesses with sometimes summary harshness. The player adopts that displayed rectitude without noticing the damage left behind. The gap between the upholder of the law and the driver mowing down sidewalks is good for a smile."
"Becoming the greatest trainer relies on a routine no one questions mid-game: bumping into wild creatures out in nature, wearing them down through fights, then sealing them in a ball to complete a collection. Sold as a grand friendly adventure, the pastime amounts to assembling a team of captured brawlers, which somehow never stops anyone from adoring it."
