Funny Games

No, this post isn't about the (incredibly disturbing) film Funny Games. I mean, actual games that are funny. See, I think that humour is something that's too often overlooked in games. In very few games is humour an actual goal. It can sometimes be a byproduct of a game's excess (like in Just Cause 2, where you can ride a propane tank by grappling onto it. Funny, but not in the traditional sense), or more often, it's due to the game's twisted worldview (I'm thinking of No More Heroes, in this case). 

Yet, somehow, last night, I ended up playing FOUR games that are intentionally hilarious: Portal, Super Paper Mario, Cave Story, and Rabbids Go Home. What struck me about all of these games is that for their humour to work, their writing has to be spot on, and all three of them (except for Rabbids, which doesn't have a lot of dialog – what is there, though, is hilariously satirical) have tons of incredibly written dialog. I was especially blown away by Super Paper Mario – I've never actually played any of the Mario RPGs (since Super Mario RPG on the SNES) and while I always knew they had stellar writing, I never knew just how awesome it was until last night. Check out this early boss battle for clarification:

Portal and Cave Story are no slouches either – they're both deadpan and deliriously well-written. I don't want to make any broad generalizations, but it seems like games that are billed as being comedic are few and far between – it's seemingly easier to make a game that's "badass" or "dark" and call it a day when it comes to writing. Now, that's not always the case of course, but maybe that's why there's so few genuinely funny games.

I'd like to do more research before delving further into this topic, so if you know of any legitimately funny games, comment below and I'll do my darndest to check it out.