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 trade of contract killer is presented here as an art of discretion: disguises, poisons and piano wire, anything to eliminate the target without leaving a trace. You admire the elegance of the hit, and the game even rewards you for tidy work, which amounts to handing out nice grades for paid murders without ever sensing any wrongdoing."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Conjuring a monster out of a disc feels like a magic trick, but what follows is mostly making it slog through training, scolding it and marching it into battle before it ages and dies. You play the devoted breeder while working each beast to the bone, convinced you're giving it a fine life as a duly profitable competitor."
