“cult movie”主要指那些拍摄手法独特、题材诡异、风格异常、富有争议性，通常是低成本制作，不以市场为主导的影片。这个概念对形容“cult games”也很适用，姑且将其称为“剑走偏锋的游戏”，专指那些题材独特、不以主流玩家喜好为取向，但在一些特定用户群中极有号召力的游戏。

以下是游戏邦通过gamasutra总结出的五大独特游戏：

1.《致命预感》（Deadly Premonition，Access Game/Ignition公司作品，运行于Xbox 360及PlayStation 3平台）

Deadly Premonition

这款游戏在北美的Xbox 360版本刚刚发布，就受到了许多《游戏开发者》杂志及gamasutra读者的热捧，目前已面向全球发行（PS3版本仅限日本地区），它的游戏设计着实令这些用户痴狂。

《致命预感》的战斗设置、PS2版本的画面效果都有点笨拙，但如果再多看两眼，就会发现它是一个富有生气而光怪陆离的游戏世界，不管玩家的参与度如何，游戏中的人物该干啥就干啥，绝不会受到影响。比较恐怖的是，游戏主角开口即谈恋尸癖，而且还喝骷髅尿，完全是cult movie的诡异风格。

另外它的对白设计和游戏风格简直是天作之合，同样不走寻常路。该游戏还有一个很出色叙事框架，以便多重人格的游戏主人公用特殊手段杀生，这可是其他游戏试图实现而仍不得要领的一个设置。

如果你受得了它有点沉重的风格，就会发现这款游戏的格斗方式其实也很有意思（游戏邦注：这是针对拥有各种神秘王牌、武器、汽车等装备的玩家而言。）如果你打入了“地下城”，得到了一个全能的强大武器，就可以加快游戏进程，同时还可以重新访问之前让你胆寒的危险区域，大刀挥向敌人，然后一路狂拣敌人掉下来的道具等东西。

关于这款游戏的评论呈现了两极分化的趋势，IGN网站最初认为这款游戏令人失望，只给它打了2分；Destructiod则给予好评，给它打了10分；1up将它归入“B级”行列。IGN很可能是无法接它笨重的控制系统，所以评价偏低，而其他家网站则普遍将它视为cult games中的顶峰之作，另外需要指出的是，这款游戏数个月后登陆欧洲时，IGN UK还是给不得不它打了7.5分。

《致命预感》走到今天已经有5年的历史了，它也是一款在即将消声匿迹之时又重出江湖的经典游戏，今后很可能不会有人再开发这类作品。不过这款游戏现在已经虏获了大量粉丝，加上游戏产业一直在不断变化发展，所以还真说不准这类游戏到底会不会绝迹。

2.《游戏发展国》（Game Dev Story，Kairosoft公司作品，运行于iPhone/Android平台）

Game Dev Story

这是一款与《美女餐厅》（Diner Dash）相似的管理类游戏，但玩家任务的是招聘、培训和领导一个开发者新手团队，创造成功的游戏作品。它的玩法设置十分令人上瘾，可以让玩家产生“好，再来一款游戏”这种想法，虽然你只不过是借此过把“自己当家作主”的瘾而已。

这款游戏在开发者群体中人气极旺，这也是它备受gamasutra推崇的原因之一。它是Kairosoft版本的经营模拟游戏《Segagaga》，玩家在游戏中甚至还可以推出自己的掌上游戏机；它充满大量的游戏运营元素，比如说现实生活中的竞争对手名称，以及名为“Shigeto Minamoto”的游戏主管等。

虽然它特殊的题材并没有收获大范围的效益，但它的运营情况对开发商来说已经算不错了。相信有不少开发者在玩这款游戏时，都会毫不犹豫地将自己公司的名称输入系统中，在这个虚拟世界中实现经营游戏公司的报负。

3.《Nier》（Cavia/Square Enix公司作品，运行于Xbox 360 /PlayStation 3平台）

Nier

《Nier》是一款极富刺激性和创新性的游戏，充斥大量疯狂而复杂交织的元素。比如游戏主人公满脸伤疤、历尽沧桑，此外还设置了一个拥有双性别的主角；整个游戏极的画面效果极具视觉冲击力，对白设计粗口连篇，还有一座不知所谓的地下城。

如果真要给cult game一个明确的标准，《Nier》就是最佳范本。所以大众对这款游戏的评价也是褒贬不一，有人超级热爱，也有人极其厌恶，但只要你接触了这款游戏，都会对它难以忘怀。这款游戏的功能设置大胆迈进了一步，但在某些方面仍局限于PlayStation 2平台。

如果你还没玩过这款游戏，不妨花个20分钟试它一试。它会让你迅速为之疯狂，玩家在体验过程中很容易因短暂的成就而得意洋洋，但故事还没有结束，你很快就会发现自己又变得一无所有，只能在打猎、种地、掏鸟蛋的原始生活中等待重返神话世界的时机。总之，这真是一款狂人游戏。

4.《Cow Clicker》（由Ian Bogost开发，运行于Facebook平台）

Cow Clicker

Ian Bogost的这款社交游戏开发实验品是一个很成功的案例，尽管他对不断发展的社交游戏很感兴趣，但还是认为这些游戏缺乏“游戏性”和互动性。为了挖苦嘲讽这类游戏，他自己开发了这款让用户点击奶牛，然后静等下一次点击的Facebook游戏。为效仿大多数社交游戏的微交易系统，它还支持玩家通过赢取虚拟货币“mooney”购买道具。

有趣的是，这款极具讽刺意味的游戏却受到了一些游戏评论者、社交游戏死忠粉丝的热烈欢迎，他们甚至将它称为Bogost目前推出的最好玩、最难忘的游戏。可见Bogost的无心插柳，倒是为一些特殊玩家创造了不少乐趣。

5.《恶魔城：绝望的和声》（Castlevania: Harmony Of Despair，Konami公司作品, 运行Xbox Live Arcade平台）

Castlevania：Harmony Of Despair

由于格斗类游戏、电子射击游戏之前遗留的一些老问题，《恶魔城》的玩家数量已经呈现逐年下降的趋势。换句话说，这个游戏系列已经走向我行我素的风格，从道具的微交易管理、灵魂搜集、OCD类型的内容搜集等元素都已经可以看出这种倾向。从该系列的每一款2D游戏版本中都可以看出，Konami正在走小众市场路线。

直到Mercury Steam开发的《恶魔城：黑暗领主》（Castlevania: Lords of Shadow）发行后，Konami才重新调整了发展方向。但该公司在同一时期推出的《恶魔城》2D高清版本，却又更倾向于小众用户，这款难度极大、含时间限制、运行迟钝的2D多人模式动作类益智游戏，并不符合大众期待，用户对它的评价也是两极分化。

《恶魔城：绝望的和声》有许多关卡要求单人玩家完成多个任务才能过关，或者邀请多个友人加入战局才能得胜，玩家在不同级别中可以选择扮演不同的角色。这种设置支持玩家采用多种不同的玩法，但有时候却很让人抓狂。它的高清版本同样延袭了这种时而睿智，时而笨拙，时而令人上火的解谜风格，但不管怎么说，如果你就是喜欢视觉效果超炫的2D游戏，这款游戏倒很值得一试。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

What is a ‘cult game’ these days? The word is often used to describe ‘niche’ titles, but now that smaller JRPGs and scrolling shooters have found the right price point and a dedicated Western following, that description seems lacking.

Nowadays, I think wit’s more appropriate to borrow from the movies, and define cult games in a similar way. The “B” games that have some very interesting ideas, don’t necessarily sell like gangbusters, but which come up again and again in editors’ “best-of” lists, and which academics and theorists talk about for years to come.

These are the games that tried something interesting, and perhaps because of it didn’t find a huge mainstream audience. But they did find some dedicated fans, who are eager to see what will come next from these unique minds. It’s the idea of an “auteur” game made within a traditional structure (indie games are nearly always this way now).

Here I present to you my picks for the five best cult games from 2010.

1. Deadly Premonition (Access Games/Ignition, Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3)

This will come as absolutely no surprise to readers of Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra. The team, especially the author of this article, has been enamored with Deadly Premonition since its Xbox 360-only North American budget release. The game is now available worldwide (PS3 is only in Japan at the moment), and delighting and horrifying audiences everywhere.

The game has clumsy combat, PS2-level graphics, and maddeningly long sequences of driving from nowhere to another, slightly differently textured nowhere. But lift the curtain a bit, and you see a living, bizarre game world, where people go about their daily business regardless of player interaction. You’ll see a deeply bizarre story, with the main character (expertly voiced by Jeff Kramer) discussing necrophilia, drinking urine from skulls, and B-movie film errata in alternate breaths.

The game’s dialog is so perfectly imperfectly written that it feels as though it belongs in a category all its own. It also has one of the most intelligent narrative framing devices, allowing the main character’s multiple personality to take life in a way that other games have certainly attempted, but never succeeded (if I say more, I feel I may spoil something).

Once you get past the clunkiness of it, even the combat can become fun – but perhaps I have an odd perspective as someone who obtained every secret card, every weapon, and every automobile in the game. Subsequent fights through the game’s “dungeons” turn into speed runs once you get some all-powerful weapons, that allow you to revisit frustrating areas and simply mow through enemies and pick up collectibles that are laid out for you as though they were on a racetrack.

Reviews were perhaps the most amusingly polarizing external aspect to the game. IGN provided the first review, rating the game a dismal 2.0. Destructoid followed suit with a perfect 10 review of their own, and 1up followed with a solid “B” rating. While IGN couldn’t see past the clunky controls that they felt kicked them out of the experience, the others saw the ultimate cult classic of a game. The final laugh came when the game was released many months later in Europe – only to receive a 7.5 from IGN UK.

Deadly Premonition took 5 years and as many near-cancellations to put on shelves, and is the kind of game nobody makes anymore – and as the industry changes and shifts, who knows if they ever will again. For now though, the game has amassed a rabid following, so we can only cross our fingers and wait.

2. Game Dev Story (Kairosoft, iPhone/Android)

iOS/Android title Game Dev Story is a fresh take on the “management” genre, ala Diner Dash, in which you must hire, train, and guide a new team of developers to create great games (within the game). The mechanics are wonderfully addictive, and lend themselves well to that “well, just one more game” feeling – although in this case, you just want to make one more game within the context of the story.

Not so surprisingly, the game has been especially popular among game developers, which is part of why it warrants such a high spot on the Gamasutra list. This is Kairosoft’s version of a Segagaga, presenting an alternate history of game consoles’ past and future, even allowing you to eventually release your own game console. Game references abound, from fake consoles that have very obvious real-life counterparts, to game directors with names like “Shigeto Minamoto.”

The game’s very specific themes may have kept it from massive worldwide financial success, but it seems to have done well enough for the company, and has delayed the writing of this article several times today. What better praise can I give it than that? The question I want answered is how many of you out there entered your real company name, when you tried to make a go of it in Game Dev Story?. I know I did.

3. Nier (Cavia/Square Enix, Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3)

Nier is a bizarrely ambitious and messy amalgam of genres and ideas, alternately impressing you with its innovation and making you wonder what madman could have constructed such a game.

Take a 3D brawler, add mindless fetch quests, hunting and fishing, a post-apocalyptic/fantasy theme (the slash is quite important, as they’re not quite merged), powerleveling, 3D bullet hell shooting, boar riding, a hideously scarred and aged protagonist, and a transgender female lead, alongside intriguing graphics, painful foul-mouthed voicework, and inexplicably nonsensical dungeons, and you’ve got Nier.

If anything adds up to a cult game, that’s it. There’s something to love or hate for everyone, but once you’ve learned about it, you can’t simply ignore it. The game attracts and repels equally, making bold steps forward for games, while keeping the other foot squarely in the era of the PlayStation 2.

For those who haven’t experienced it, give the first 20 minutes a whirl. The game has you leveling up insanely quickly, becoming superpowerful within moments, lending a triumphant feeling just as the story wants you to despair. Then it takes it all away and makes you hunt sheep, plant fields, and gather eggs before you can get back to the magic. The workings of a madman, indeed.

4. Cow Clicker (Ian Bogost, Facebook)

Ian Bogost’s social game development experiment has been well-documented, but it’s worth a brief recap. Bogost was amazed and amused by the proliferation of social games, but also alarmed by their lack of “game-ness” and interactivity. So to satirize both the content and typical themes of these games, he created a game where all you do is click a cow with a time-down on it until you can click again. Various in-came items can be purchased with “mooney” that you earn, mimicking the microtransaction system most social games carry.

Ironically, the game’s satirical nature had serious uptake among game literati, critical thinkers, and just plain old social game enthusiasts, who wound up making Cow Clicker Bogost most-played and most recognized game to date. In his enthusiasm, he had accidentally made the game fun for a certain kind of person.

Being an academic, all sorts of lessons were learned about the nature of fun and the power of satire – but at the end of the day, you’re still just clicking a cow. But really, who can blame you?

5. Castlevania: Harmony Of Despair (Konami, Xbox Live Arcade)

Castlevania’s audience has been dwindling a bit over the years, as it suffered from the problem fighting games and arcade shooters in days of old. That is to say, it kept getting deeper and deeper into its own ideas, with item micromanagement, collection of souls, and OCD-style collection aplenty. But with each subsequent 2D release, Konami was just making a deeper “Metroidvania” for a smaller and smaller audience.

That changed when the company decided to make a serious go of a revamp, with Mercury Steam’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. At the same time though, they made the 2D Castlevania HD, which was even more niche than ever before. A difficult, grinding-heavy 2D multiplayer action/jumping puzzle game with a time limit is not everyone’s idea of accessible, and reviews were at times polarized, but more often simply confused.

Most levels require multiple singleplayer playthroughs or multiple friends in order to beat, and each character you can choose from levels up in a different way. This encourages different playstyles, but is also maddeningly underexplained. But thinking back to our youths, wasn’t discovering “the secret” to these games rather exciting at the time? Castlevania HD replicates that feeling of discovery with its sometimes clever, sometimes obtuse, sometimes maddening jumping/flip the switch puzzles, and deserves a second look for those who love pixel-perfect 2D gameplay.（source:gamasutra）