Weekly Discussion: Cult Classic

Kris Lipscombe 58 Comments

Right now I am watching Pulp Fiction in an attempt to appease Lewis over at ScreenDemon. This has got me thinking about cult classics. Of course Pulp Fiction isn’t really a cult title, it received far too many award nominations to really be classed as that; it just feels like it could easily have been a cult hit.

So back to cult classics, lets look at games. Just as there are with movies and books there are certainly cult titles in games. I think it’s a little harder to identify in gaming sometimes, particularly given the way that until relatively recently I would say that the general perception was the whole industry had a cult status. Of course there’s a lot that’s changed after the last couple of console generations and I don’t think anyone could argue that the gaming industry is niche or cult any more.

The undisputed kings of cult in gaming are Team ICO. They’ve only produced two titles over the past 9 years, and both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus seem to be hugely loved by fans without really shifting a significant number of copies. Yes, it probably is a shame that those titles haven’t shifted the huge volume that titles like Call of Duty manage, but it doesn’t really diminish their value as games. In fact it probably increases it, as it makes those kinds of titles rarer and feel more special. If they became popular you’d just get a group of similar titles, making ICO’s titles feel more part of the gaming landscape instead of feeling pretty different from the majority of other titles.

As always when we discuss gaming in the modern era download titles should get a mention. Titles like flOw and Flower are certainly the cult hits of modern gaming, and they’re games that would almost certainly never be made if they were going to be released on physical media. With the freedom that digital releases give developers there’s the potential for more cult hits to emerge, although it may be hard for them to move beyond the initial niche market where most cult classics start off.

I know I’ve certainly missed out some pretty significant cult hits here, so lets hear your favourite cult titles. Do you think that we’ll see more of these kind of titles with the opportunities that digital distribution allows?

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58 Comments

  1. An obvious choice is EDF 2017 for the 360. It’s a brilliant yet completely unpolished game. It never shipped many copies but everyone I know that’s played it has loved it. Obviously this opens up the interest in the previous games; ‘Global Defense Force’ and ‘Monster Attack’. Even more obscure than EDF and even harder to get hold of, especially outside of Japan.

    To be honest alot of the D3 games are pretty ‘cult’. ‘Bikini Samurai Zombie Slayers’ and ‘Robot Alchemy Drive’ are all pretty hard to find games that are loved by those privileged enough to get hold of a copy.

  2. Cult Classics for me would be Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus. I have such fond memories of these two games. Just loved (and still do) the style and the humor.

  3. While I thought SoTC was great by most game standards it didn’t live up to the genius that is Ico (SoTC was too samey whilst Ico had more variety). The fact that I played that game when it first came out is one that fills me with pride though saying this there’s nothing at all wrong with jumping on the cult bandwagon.

    Was the Syphon Filter series considered cult as really enjoyed those on the PS1? Also one game that def’ fits into the cult category surely is Deadly Premonition and I really want to play this.

    @halbpro – if you want some further ‘reading’ for cult films, I can heartily recommend Primer (if you understand it after one sitting you’re far far far more intelligent than I and should probably be working for NASA) and Withnail & I which is just genius.

  4. Oddworld: Strangers Wrath one of the most beautiful games on the original Xbox and really fun to play. Though it was a failure sales wise and resulted in the end of Oddworld series.

  5. I dont know why but Im having flashbacks of a Bike racing game – off road, yellow background, on the Speccy. Motorcross type bikes, in to the screen racer.. that. That that was class.

  6. I recently sold my copy of ICO for PS2 ( still sealed, Card boxed version, immaculate ) for £86 to a chap from Sweden. That’s the HD collection plus Dead Space 2 plus half of KZ3 CE edition funded then. :-)

    Cult classics, you’ve gotta love em!

    • Did that with my special edition of SoTC with postcards but didn’t get that much. For some reason I kept the vanilla edition of Ico as couldn’t bear to part with it at the time.

      • I only sold it because the HD remake is just around the corner. Actually, I sold the Ltd Ed version of SOTC too but that only fetched £17 but it wasn’t sealed.

  7. Anyway, cult classics. Well for me, ‘Flashback’ must surely fit into that category. I preferred Flashback to ‘Another World’ because of it’s depth, size and variety.

  8. Does anyone remember a game that appeared on the Atari ST called ‘Time Bandits’, bloody brilliant game, great graphics, I often marvelled at just how great it was.

  9. Valkyrie Chronicles is pretty cult, imo.. Great game that nobody bought. And rare as rocking horse shit to get hold of now.

    • Yes! That was an amazing game. I didn’t realise it was rare now. *strokes copy and laughs evily*

      • are they, time to check to ebay me thinks.

  10. Okami

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