Trombone Champ and 13 More Fun Video Games to Turn Off Your Brain
I’m a big fan of “sublime” video games designed with serious intentions – think Papers, Please or This War of Mine – but sometimes I want the opposite. Sometimes I want to play a game as stupid as possible, so funny and ridiculous that it becomes literally impossible to think about anything while playing. (It’s time to dissociate!)
14 games here meet these requirements. They will not force you to change your outlook or experience an emotional catharsis. Instead, they’ll make you shake your head, snort, laugh, and maybe mutter “what the fuck ?” under your breath. This is what we all need right now: mindless distrust to distract us from everything that deserves our distrust.
Trombone Champion (2022)
The world didn’t realize how badly it needed a Guitar Hero style game of trombone playing until Trombone Champ was released. This game takes a classic comedy idea – funny sounds are funny – and builds a game around that. Luckily, the game is actually good, and when you throw in some hilarious jokes about the game itself, adorable puppet avatars, and a million puns, you’ve got a classic of mindless digital comedy.
Platform : Steam
Don’t Fuck Your Pants (2009)
From the deepest depths of the flash game era comes Don’t Shit Your Pants: A Survival Horror Game . As you would expect from the title, the goal of this text adventure puzzle game is to not get yourself dirty. Sounds easy until you try it. And you should try it. It’s fun. There are multiple endings to unlock and the game encourages thinking outside the box. (Try typing “shit in your pants” at the first prompt.)
Platform : Internet
Katamari Damasi (2004)
No list of “what the heck ?” The games would be complete without the Japanese import of Katamari Damacy . In this truly one-of-a-kind game, you are the Prince of Space trying to rebuild the solar system by rolling a sticky ball across the Earth. The ball gets bigger and bigger until you start collecting cars, buildings and mountains, collecting enough mass to create new galaxies. It’s captivating, colorful and damn fun – a true classic. (Even if you’re not playing, relax to the soundtrack .)
Platforms : PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows
Who is your daddy? (2015)
In this casual online game, players are either devoted loving fathers or angry babies. Dads are trying to protect the kids, and the kids are trying to find the deadliest thing in the house that they can touch, bathe or eat. So it’s very similar to real parenting. Who’s your Daddy is hilarious, and a welcome change from the usual fixation on shooting games for everything.
Platforms : Windows, macOS, Linux
Cho Chabudai Gaeshi (2010)
I’ve never played this game – it’s only available in slot machines and not very common in the US – but it’s so weird that I should have mentioned it. Cho Chabudai Gaeshi, or “Super Table Flip” in English, uses a table-shaped controller. You watch the scene unfold and slam the table as your character gets more and more angry. Soon, when you can’t take it anymore, you flip the table, scattering plates, cups, and everything. It’s weird that someone would turn a meme into a complicated arcade game, but if there’s anything more mindlessly fun than flipping a loaded table, I can’t think of it.
Platform : Arcade
QWOP (2008)
You have probably been walking for many years, but do you know how walking works ? The QWOP illustrates how bad it would be if you had to consciously control your leg muscles. It’s as simple as it gets: there are four buttons and the goal is to just walk/run forward 100 meters, but it’s insanely, ridiculously hard not to fall forward on your face, fall back, or otherwise fail. Maybe it’s more fun to watch other people go berserk over QWOP than it is to play it yourself.
Platform : Internet
Goat Simulator (2014)
In Goat Simulator , you are the most feared agent of chaos in the world, an angry goat, and your mission is to go crazy and destroy everything. While the creative chaos and exploration in the game is really fun, my favorite element of Goat Simulator is how buggy it is. The developer deliberately left all sorts of physical and reality-destroying “bugs” in the game, which only add to its strangeness and comedy.
Platforms : PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux.
Cow Clicker (2010)
Playing Cow Clicker isn’t funny; funny that it existed. Like the social games it parodies, you start by giving the developer your personal Facebook details in exchange for being able to play. Then you click on the virtual cow. You can only click once every six hours unless you spend real money on a “moonie” which allows you to skip the cooldown and customize your cow. Developer Jan Bogost created the game to take a hard hit at the manipulative mechanics of social games like FarmVille, but of course CowClicker really took off, with over 50,000 people clicking cows. In 2011, Bogost responded with “Cowpacolypse” during which all the players’ cows disappeared. Thus, Cow Clicker has become a game where players click on an empty space where the cow from the video game used to be. Loyal fans apparently didn’t click anything until Cow Clicker disappeared in 2019.
Platforms : Facebook
Surgeon Simulator 2013)
If you are hoping for a realistic approximation of medical procedures, you will be very disappointed in Surgeon Simulator . Instead, imagine trying to perform complex medical procedures, such as removing organs or repairing capillaries, while wearing tacks. Besides, you’re drunk. It gets overly bloody and ridiculous very, very quickly.
Platforms : PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux.
Fall of Man (2016)
In this puzzle/platformer game, up to eight people play as chubby rubber dudes who hobble around solving physics puzzles in ridiculous ways. The deliberately clunky controls guarantee plenty of bugs leading to hilarious mishaps and unexpected chaos. It’s a stupid, farcical comedy with no social value, like the digital version of The Three Stooges.
Platforms : Nintendo Switch, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, MacOS, Windows, Linux
Stealth King (2006)
You wouldn’t think a game made to advertise a fast food chain would be this great, but Sneak King is really great. It’s a stealth game where you play as the mascot of Burger King, a foppish, terrifying monarch. Your task is to sneak up on the unsuspecting commoners, give them hamburgers and entertain them with a silly dance. It’s an insanely fun game that costs a lot more than its original $3.99 price tag.
Platforms : Xbox 360, Xbox.
Job Simulator (2016)
This virtual reality game allows you to work on various virtual jobs. Unlike your real job, instead of looking at your watch, you will create insane chaos in a robot-controlled office. I know I promised that all the games listed here would be pointless, but I lied. Job Simulator ‘s abstraction from tasks and political employment makes a subtle hint at how ridiculous much of the work is, but you don’t have to think about it, I promise. In fact, it’s probably best not to think about it.
Platforms : Oculus Quest, PlayStation 4, HTC Vive, Microsoft Windows, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality
Just Die Already (2021)
If the idea of geriatrics going insane is fun for you, check out Just Die Already , where you play as an angry elder bent on destroying as many as possible while you look for a colorful way to get rid of that mortal shell. Like Goat Simulator , the interest lies in the physics, cartoonish graphics, and discovering new ways to destroy the world.
Platforms : Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
I am bread (2015)
In I Am Bread you are the bread. You float like bread as you navigate the landscape of a small house and avoid your natural enemies like water, ants and mold. Your goal is to be the toast in any way you can, from starting a fire to using a hair dryer. This physics-based game has weird controls (you’re the bread, after all) and a downright surreal premise that works together to make you forget everything else, except for the fact that you’ve already plopped yourself in the damn toaster.
Platforms : PlayStation 4, Android, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, iOS, macOS.