Freaky Games

Think games are all about fragging the bad guys to smithereens or burning around the track in the fastest time? Think again! After the chart-topping success of ICO follow-up Shadow of the Colossus, Tiscali Games takes a look at the more abstract titles out there. Get your freak on!

We Love Katamari
PS2

If you've not heard of a Katamari before, you're in for a real surprise. Basically it's a ball, a Japanese-style ball that can roll around the world attaching things to it that it rolls over. This will determine how it rolls (in a Marble Madness style) and what is exactly attached will determine whether you've succeeded in appeasing the people of earth. The tasks you'll be set include rolling a sumo wrestler around to get him fat, collecting cars and cows to progress through one of the multitude of crazy levels and, for example, collecting fish so the constellation of Pisces is corrected. If this sounds like it's not making much sense then good, its all working out well. It's one of the best and most original titles we've played in ages, who would have thought that rolling stuff up could be this much fun!

Psychonauts
PC PS2 Xbox

Fancy getting into the minds of other people? Then Psychonauts may well tend to your mental needs. Rise up in rank as you collect figments of other people's imaginations, sort their emotional baggage, clear out their mental cobwebs and crack open their memory vaults on a third-person psychic odyssey through thirteen levels: three set in the real world, and ten set inside the mental worlds of misfits, monsters and madmen. These surreal mindscapes will test your jumping and leaping accuracy, have you honing your levitating skills and maintaining the sense of urgency to solve the puzzles and clues thrown at you. Along the way there's a fair amount of shooting (with standard targeting and strafing moves) and plenty of challenges to your own grey matter.

The Rub Rabbits!
Nintendo DS

From the ingenious minds behind Project Rub comes a quirky comedy adventure that does more with your DS than you could ever think of. Tap, rub, yell and even rotate the DS as you work through over 35 levels of mayhem. The game requires the player to switch between control methods, using the touch-sensitive second screen and microphone - switching between the DS stylus, screaming, and even blowing to control the actions of the character. In the first title players used the stylus to prod goldfish from a man's stomach, or rigorously rub the screen to save the mysterious 'Rub Rabbits' from disappearing beneath some quicksand. It's madder than a box of frogs and a bag of badgers combined.

Koloomn
PSP

You can't talk about freaky games without dipping into the murky puzzle genre. Taking its inspiration from granddaddy of the genre Tetris - only turning the concept literally on its head - Koloomn is a puzzle game where you use a cursor to spin groups of different coloured blocks against each other in an ever-advancing well of bricks. Rotate chunks of four different coloured blocks together until you match four or more of the same colour. Watch them pop for instant points or swiftly spin yet more blocks to match their colours in order to start a chain reaction. Playing Koloomn in VS matches transforms the action further as special attack blocks come into play. In multiplayer matches, each different coloured block cleared unleashes a special attack against your foe. Red blocks make your opponent's cursor bigger and therefore more awkward. Orange blocks make the colours of the blocks targeted in your cursor unrecognisable in your rival's well. Blues make giant blocks drop into your opponent's play area, yellows hide entire rows of blocks from your rival, and purples make chunks of blocks in your foe's well clump together. Throw in special magic blocks and eight CPU-controlled characters each with their own devastating special combo attack, and it all adds up to one of the most frantic multiplayer puzzle experiences available today. Call it a mental block, if you will.

Odama
GameCube

Here's two genres that we never thought about combining - warfare and pinball! Welcome to Odama, the first pinball game that throws you into the midst of mighty clashes between armies on boards laid out like chaotic battlefields. Fire the giant pinball known as the Odama into the fray and use the flippers to send it crashing over battalions and into troop barracks. As you collect prisoners of war they'll also fight for your side, in a frantic fast-paced experience. Your men will automatically try their best to dam rivers, liberate extra flippers and clear the way to the enemy's gate. If another player joins your game, though, they can control where the troops go and even help them dodge the Odama. Be a pinball wizard and a frontline general all in one handy package. We have but one question, who in blazes thought this one up?