For about as long as big blockbuster films have existed, so too have schlocky B-movies existed in their shadow.
Whether due to strange scripts or cheap special effects, these movies obviously don’t win awards.
The vast majority of them come out to little fanfare and fade into the annals of history.
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From the intensity of Terminator to the precision of John Wick, action movies redefine entertainment and cinematic experiences.
However, some B-movies have a very particular flavor of jankiness that makes them fun and fascinating to experience, with many cult classic B-movies still drawing audiences today.
Various games, whether intentionally or otherwise, may employ some of the quirks inherent to B-movies while still managing to be overall enjoyable to play.
A Record-Setting Number Of Curses
The Typing of the Dead: Overkill
The 60s and 70s gave rise to a film genre known as “exploitation films,” which were packed with sex and violence to capitalize on relaxed censorship standards.
Originally released in 2009 for the Nintendo Wii, The House of the Dead: Overkill is the combination ofclassic rail-shootersand exploitation films you never knew you wanted.
This game is so delightfully vulgar, it actually set a Guinness World Record for “Most Profane Game” thanks to the sheer level of cursing in the script.
In 2013, the game was rereleased as The Typing of the Dead: Overkill, a send-up to Sega’s bizarre typing tutor spin-off from the Dreamcast.
10The Deadly Tower Of Monsters
All The Rubber Monsters You Could Want
If there’s a common sight you may find in just about any schlocky horror or sci-fi movie, it’s dudes in wacky rubber monster costumes.
If cheap sci-fi effects are your jam, you’ll loveThe Deadly Tower of Monsters.
This top-down shooter is framed as the director’s commentary on a forgotten sci-fi B-movie, packed with hokey acting and gormless space aliens and robots.
The game hits on every staple of monster flick tradition, including rotoscoped creatures and stop-motion monstrosities.
9Deadly Premonition
Jank That Defies Definition
Deadly Premonition
Originally released in 2010 for the Xbox 360, Deadly Premonition is the poster child for downright bizarre low-budget games.
The story follows FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan as he investigates a series of murders in asleepy mountain town.
It’s packed full of janky design decisions, unsettling character models, and more than a few plot points ripped off from Twin Peaks.
In spite of all of this, through some mysterious magic, it coalesces into a hypnotically charming game that absolutely must be seen to be believed, not unlike the B-movie greats of history.
8Destroy All Humans!
Big-Brained Aliens Galore
Destroy All Humans!
You can’t have B-movies without a healthy dose of world-conquering alien warmongers.
Destroy All Humans is a very deliberate send-up to the alien invasion flicks of the Cold War era, right down to its setting in 1959.
Armed with his death ray and flying saucer, Cryptosporidium 137wages war on the American way, starting with the police and military before working his way up to the obligatory secret anti-alien government force.
It’s a crass and violent game that absolutely revels in its own irreverence, and a generally fun way to spend an afternoon.
7En Garde!
Who Doesn’t Love Swashbuckling?
B-movies aren’t just about horror and sci-fi; there are also a lot of fantasy and sword-fighting epics from years past.
If you love a tale of a puckish rogue with a wit as sharp as their sword, you’ll have a blast with En Garde.
This arena combat game features equal amounts of high-tension swordplay and wacky hijinks.
Enemies are defeated just as easily with a kicked-over bucket as they are with your sword skills.
There’s so much high-flying action, you’d think the characters were wearing stunt wires.
6Headlander
The Future Is The Past
Headlander
A favorite concept of old science fiction movies is the dystopian future ruled over by an overseer machine.
This would usually be accompanied by retro-futuristic vibes, including silly wide-brimmed outfits and an overabundance of plaid and orange furniture.
Headlander puts a nifty spin on that premise by casting you as the last remaining human in a society of people-turned-robots. Or rather, the disembodied head of the last remaining human.
By plugging your flying chrome dome into unoccupied robot bodies, you’re able to sneak and blast your way past the robots to dismantle this retro-futuristic nightmare.
5Hotline Miami
Things Got Weird In The 80s
Hotline Miami
B-movies aren’t just a place for silly schlock; they’re also a hotbed for occasionally disturbing experimental filmmaking.
It doesn’t get much more experimental and disturbing than Hotline Miami, wherein you play a masked vigilante brutalizing mafiosos with whatever he can get his hands on.
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The game has a deliberately off-kilter, dreamlike quality evocative of the drug-fueled experimental films of the 1980s.
It’s definitely not a game that’ll make you laugh, but it is a lot of fun if you’re looking for challenging one-hit-kill gameplay.
4Metal Wolf Chaos XD
The Most American Game To Come Out Of Japan
Metal Wolf Chaos XD
Metal Wolf Chaos has quite possibly the most gloriously schlocky premise ever conceived.
United States President Michael Wilson is driven out of the White House by a military coup d’état, forcing him to take up arms in the gigantic mech suit Metal Wolf to take the country back.
It’s a game as American as apple pie, which is ironic, because it was made by Japanese developer FromSoftware.Yes,thatFromSoftware.
The explosive mayhem and stilted action line delivery place Metal Wolf Chaos right up there with the greats of ultra-patriotic action B-movies.
3Mullet MadJack
Less B-Movie, More B-Anime OVA
Mullet Madjack
In the same vein as Western B-movies, there are a lot ofanime movies and one-off OVAsthat can feature comparable levels of sci-fi weirdness and ultraviolence.
A game that channels this particular aesthetic is Mullet MadJack.
It’s a high-speed action shooter where you have exactly ten seconds to fight your way through an army of murderous robot crooks.
There’s a bizarre premise behind it wherein humans require constant dopamine hits from violence to live, which is just the kind of weirdly specific nonsense you love to see in a sci-fi B-movie.
2Wild Bastards
A Spaghetti Western In Space
Wild Bastards
Another sub-category of B-movie isthe B-western, the genre that helped turn cowboys into a recurring character archetype.
You got cowpokes doing battle with no-good rustlers with no one to trust but their ol’ .44.
Wild Bastards takes that old west quest for vengeance and brings it to the stars.
Assemble a cast of aliens, robots, and nonspecific weirdos as you cut a swath through the universe to escape from the prejudice of the powerful and wealthy.
It’s kind of like The Magnificent Seven, except in space and with lasers.
