Most Universally Beloved Cult Classic Video Games of All Time, Ranked

A cult game does not necessarily mean it’s a bad game. It can be a perfect 10/10 game that just perhaps didn’t get the recognition it rightfully deserved. Beyond Good and Evil is an example of a great game that has gone underappreciated. Deadly Premonition is one of those so bad it’s good kind of games, and Mister Mosquito is hard to summarize.

These games will be ranked based on their quality and how much of an impact they have had in the gaming community, whether that means getting universal praise or good recommendations from weird perspectives. How do they fit the cult status, in other words?

10 Mister Mosquito

Buzzing Around Japan

Mister Mosquito is a bizarre PS2 game about a mosquito that visits a Japanese home. In each level, players will have to stealthily drain blood from one of the family members. If they wake up, there are ways to lull them back to sleep, but avoiding their swipes can be just as tricky as taking down the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus.

As bizarre as the game is, it was ported digitally to the PS5 in 2024. The gameplay can be challenging to learn, but as it is so unique, it deserves a look.

9 Earth Defense Force 2017

The Buggy Defense Force

Earth Defense Force 2017 was the first game released in the series in North America on the Xbox 360, and it slowly started a small following that grew with each new release as the games got better. It can best be described as an homage to B-movies of the 1950s, the ones that were about alien invasions or giant bugs.

Players will control a resistance soldier and arm them with all manner of weapons to blast back the aforementioned giant bugs. It’s not the best playing game, and the most infectious thing about it is the soldiers chanting “EDF!” while pushing back giant bug aliens, but that alone makes it charming enough to get a pass.

8 Metal Wolf Chaos

Richard!

What if the Vice President were evil, and the only way to stop him from taking over the U.S. was for the President to jump into an experimental mech suit? That’s Metal Wolf Chaos in a nutshell, and for years, this original Xbox game was trapped in Japan. However, it gained a reputation from importers who played and loved its bizarre setup that featured spoken English.

Eventually, it did get remastered and released outside of Japan, allowing more to experience the joy of saving the United States in big mech brawls. Metal Wolf Chaos is not the best mech game around, but it is entertaining.

7 No More Heroes

The Thirstiest Assassin Of All Time

No More Heroes is about a thirsty otaku, Travis Touchdown, who dreams of becoming a cool anime character and also having a hot girlfriend. Both of those things fall into his lap one day as Sylvia Christel tasks Travis with becoming an assassin. If he kills all of her targets, she will go on a date with him, and that’s reward enough to get the ball rolling.

At its core, No More Heroes is a hack-and-slash game, arming Travis with a beam katana and various wrestling moves. In-between assassination missions, players can go around doing odd jobs, like mowing lawns, so the game overall is a weird hodgepodge of ideas.

6 God Hand

Apocalyptic Beatdowns

God Hand is a brawler from the PS2 era that’s a bit forgotten in time, but some fans still adore it. Gene is a grappler who has a powerful arm possessed by the gods, which he uses to fight.

The game is a brawler, but it’s set in an old Western town, and the mechanics are serviceable, but it’s the weird cast and wacky villains that make the game stick out. The cherry on top is the theme song that plays over the credits, which is what really sets this game into cult status. Had TikTok existed in 2006, this game would have been all over it.

5 Indigo Prophecy

Framed For Murder

Indigo Prophecy is one of those games that spread by word of mouth during the PS2 era. The game starts in a diner with the protagonist, Lucas Kane, ritualistically killing someone in the bathroom. He wakes up, unsure of what he has done, and then has to clean up the crime scene and escape.

How players handle this situation will be tracked throughout the game, as perspectives shift between investigators pursuing him and Lucas trying to escape. It’s an interesting adventure game diving into literal cults, and the late-game surprises put it over the top.

4 Bulletstorm

Kicking In The Name Of

Bulletstorm is a one-off first-person shooter with some of the best gameplay of the past decade and then some. Instead of just blasting enemies like they were fish in a barrel, the game awarded players for being creative with their kills.

Armed with a lasso, players could bring enemies in and then boot them off a cliff or into a cactus, for example. Environments were often filled with hazards just waiting for players to creatively use them in their kills. While it never did get a sequel, there was a remaster in 2017, keeping Bulletstorm playable at the very least.

3 Mega Man Legends

The Halcyon Days Of Mega Man

Mega Man Legends is a Mega Man spinoff set far in the future, wherein a new Mega Man, Volnutt/Trigger, adventures around small islands with his companions looking for crystals. It can best be described as an action-adventure game akin to the 3D Zelda titles with dungeon-crawling, side quests, and light puzzle-solving.

It did get a sequel and a spinoff, but it was never the biggest Mega Man game around. Those who love it think it’s completely underrated and deserving of so much more from the Capcom overlords, thanks to the gameplay, colorful cel-shading, and goofy sky pirate villains.

2 Beyond Good And Evil

Uncovering The Conspiracy

Beyond Good and Evil is one of the best games of all time, but like Mega Man Legends, it just never reached the critical stratosphere for some reason. Set in a dystopian future, Jade is a photographer who wants to try to expose the conspiracy behind the government running everything.

There are stealth opportunities to sneak around and snap photos, but there are also action-adventure segments inside dungeons with combat and puzzles. Plus, the game is set within a small open world where players can use their hovercraft to get around. Thanks to constant remasters and ports, Beyond Good and Evil has never died, thankfully, and fans still appreciate it.

1 Deadly Premonition

The Sinner’s Sandwich Of Video Games

Deadly Premonition has to be the poster child for cult followings in terms of video games because those who love it really go to bat for it as a good/bad game. Taking place in a small town in the mountains, an FBI agent comes to town investigating a series of grisly murders.

This agent, Francis York Morgan, is not a typical investigator, as his obsession with coffee, movies, and food often gets him into sharing small tangents at the most inappropriate times, but he’s not the only quirky character, as the whole town is infected by charming weirdos. At its core, it’s a survival horror game set in an open world, but the mechanics are nothing to write home about. It’s all about hanging out with Agent Morgan and the rest of the cast; that’s what makes this game special.