Games with genuinely funny gameplay

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I've been playing Streets of Rogue on and off lately, and it makes me laugh a lot. It's also made me think about how humor operates in games. From my survey, games that are labeled as "funny" generally are considered so because of their writing (e.g.: Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Undertale, Papers Please). There is of course nothing wrong with strong, intelligent, and humorous writing, but it strikes me that it may be holding the medium back somewhat that it relies fairly exclusively on writing as the source of humor.

What are some examples of games with genuinely funny gameplay, even if it is only occasional (I'm not talking about buggy games or games with poorly thought out systems here)?

Some I can think of:


Streets of Rogue
Hitman series (or at least the good entries in the franchise)
Grand Theft Auto (haven't played anything past San Andreas)

 

[Metronome]

Oblivion

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Those physics games like Octodad and Surgeon Simulator?

 

[A horse of course]

Arcanum RT combat always makes me laugh. It's like watching a train crash.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Those physics games like Octodad and Surgeon Simulator?

I don't specifically know those games, so if you're trolling it went over my head, but I did mean to mention physics simulators, (which are often very funny in weird ways).

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I can't think of any that aren't open world or some game with weird physics. Er...Town with No Name or Psycho Killer maybe?

 

[Sukhāvatī]

Jazzpunk had some neat ideas.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Those physics games like Octodad and Surgeon Simulator?

I don't specifically know those games, so if you're trolling it went over my head, but I did mean to mention physics simulators, (which are often very funny in weird ways).

 

[Reality]

Worms Armageddon - yes the voices help, but chain reactions and acciendtal misfires are a big enough part of it for the gameplay to be called the source of the laughs as well.

Road Rash/ Burnout - Traffic system induced humor -

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (and maybe Titanfall 1&2 as distant runners up) ----- Some big boot action is always funny. Granted you can have too much of it but that shouldn't take away from it.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I can't think of any that aren't open world or some game with weird physics.

This is a conclusion I have come to as well, although I would love to be proven wrong. I would hazard that "open-world" is inaccurate though; I would rather say "systems-driven".

 

[Mexi]

Pro Sport Hockey for the SNES. The characters looked like monkeys, and you can like trip everyone even if they don't have the puck.

Royal Rumble and Raw on SNES. Everything about it was hilarious. IIRC, Owen Hart has a lariat for a finisher that ends up being like a twister that throws everyone out of the ring during a royal rumble match. It's fucking hilarious.

Only games off the top of my head that genuinely made me laugh just because of the gameplay.

 

[curds]

Oblivion's gameplay can be quite funny (albeit unintentionally).

 

[The_Mask]

Overlord... ? I mean, I think it's hilarious to send lil dudes to do your bidding whilst they jump and smash stuff around.

 

[DalekFlay]

I remember laughing a lot at the open world absurdity of GTA3, though it's all old hat now of course. But at the time running down a guy while he ran down an alley could make me chuckle a good bit.

Only console games I really play are Zeldas and they have these jelly enemies that kinda boing when you hit them, which can cause a chuckle.

Maybe some stuff with the Koreans in Crysis, throwing them around or hitting them with chickens. I think people forget that game was a physics showcase at the time.

 

[Nutria]

I'd say Papers Please is actually what you're looking for here. There's very little writing in it. Most of the humor comes from putting the player into an absurd situation where you can't help but laugh at what you're doing.

Saint's Row 4 does a great job of taking 3d graphics and physics and just making it fun, sometimes to the point where I've laughed out loud. Like the totally broken insurance fraud minigame where you can cartwheel halfway across the city.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Roundabout. It's so fucking dumb that it makes me laugh. The FMV sequences reinforce the dumbness well. And it's actually pretty fun to top it off.

 

[good fucking shit happen]

Postal 2

 

[Bony Hands]

Space Station 13 can take a turn for the hilarious when things start to go wrong or someone finds a fun way to screw around. Nothing says funny like a disease that makes your heart pop out of your chest, or the clown using highly explosive fuel tanks as props in his show.

 

[Butter]

Goat Simulator

 

[lightbane]

West of Loathing. Also an underrated rpg with C&C. Get it NOW! Plus the DLC/expansion.

 

[Burning Bridges]

The original Gothic games were quite funny, at least in the original language. It's afaik the foremost RPG where the characters talk like in a gangster movie. eg you read a book and get an important quest info, and if you read it a second or third time your character says "other than that there is only shit written in there"

 

[Multidirectional]

Broforce. Destruction in it made me laugh many times.