Optional downloadable content for video games of all kinds has been available for players to purchase to build upon already established fun experiences in numerous interesting ways.
People could purchase DLC multiplayer maps to broaden their PVP gaming experience, short DLC campaigns in single-player games, or simple alternate cosmetics for player characters.
However, some DLCs are a bit odd compared to their more serious or dark-toned campaign and core game direction. This doesn’t make wacky DLCs explicitly bad per se, just bizarre at first glance compared to the base game features.
At the very least, wacky DLCs in serious games can help make titles stand out among the crowd or, at worst, be confusing to the game’s intended audience.
Entries are ranked by how bizarre the DLC is compared to base game offerings and how much they impact the title’s overall package.
8Injustice 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Injustice 2
Set in a world forever changed by a dictatorial Superman,Injusticeis, in my opinion, one of the best DC Comics game franchises of all time due to its interestingly dark takes on classic characters and gameplay.
Injustice 2improved uponInjustice: Gods Among Us’ story, visuals, and gameplay in nearly every way, but one group of DLC fighters is particularly bizarre to include compared to their counterparts: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a fan of the Turtles 2003TMNTanimated series, but the inclusion ofTMNTinInjusticeis a bit odd given the context ofInjustice 2’s universe.
I mean, this is a universe where Superman inadvertently killed his pregnant wife and Metropolis, murdered Billy Batson with his heat vision, and choked Lex Luthor to death.
With a world as dark and violent asInjustice, it was a slightly weird choice to include the traditionally PGLeonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo inInjustice 2as compared to the more horror-centric Hellboy.
7Dante’s Inferno
Disco Inferno
Dante’s Inferno
Dante’s Infernois a criminally underrated Visceral Games title compared to the developer’s more famousDead SpaceandSimsseries.
Based on the 14th-century poemThe Divine Comedyby Dante Alighieri,Dante’s Inferno’s gameplay is similar to the originalGod of Wartrilogy’s combo-centric combat but arguably done so in a more horrifying way.
This is due to Dante fighting his way through the nine circles of Hell filled to the brim with grotesque monsters such as the judgmental squid-like King Minos and hostile tortured souls, including conjoined hoarders/wasters, all to save the soul of his wife Beatrice, whom he cheated on during the Third Crusade.
With such a haunting narrative and visual direction, it was a bit odd when Visceral released a Disco Inferno costume inspired by the 1974 The Trammps song of the same name withDante’s Inferno’s Dark Forest DLC.
It’s the only alternate costume inDante’s Infernothat’s outwardly comedic and funky, which makes Dante’s journey of slicing and dicing Unbaptized Minions, Temptresses, and Gluttons rather jarring for me, especially compared to the more tone-appropriate default or evenDead Space’s Isaac Clarke costumes.
6Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of the Dead
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Dutytoday is infamously known for often featuring DLC cosmetics that severely clash with its modern militaristic style, such as the relatively recent inclusion of Beavis and Butt-Head andAmerican Dad’s Roger as Operator Skins in Warzone.
Long before these jarring skins became commonplace inCall of Duty, the series first dabbled with referencing modern-day pop culture inCall of Duty: Black Ops’Call of the Dead zombies mapfrom the Escalation map pack.
Here, players get to embody horror film and TV legends Danny Trejo, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund, and Michael Rooker as they struggle to fight off zombies in an abandoned Siberian outpost, all while avoiding the zombified father of zombie films himself, George A. Romero.
Call of Duty: Black Ops’ campaign and traditional zombies maps are what I believe to be some of the darkest seen across theCODfranchise, with the campaign dealing with brainwashing and zombies ending with the literal shattering of the Earth itself.
Despite this, Call of the Dead is a wacky celebration of horror in its entirety and one that I routinely play through with friends as a break from some ofCOD’s single-player solemnity.
5The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Fall of the Space Core
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Fextralife Wiki
Being a Bethesda RPG,The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrimmay not be as serious or dark as other entries on this list due to the game featuring several relaxing and comedic sequences, but its core world-ending threat of Alduin the World-Eater makes one particular add-on rather weird, to say the least.
In 2012, to celebrate the opening of the Steam Workshop forSkyrim, Bethesda and Valve collaborated to create the first officialmod ofSkyrimwith Fall of the Space Core, featuringPortal 2’s Space Core.
Here, Nolan North returns to reprise his space-addicted role of Space Core as the computer personality crashlands into Skyrim for players to rescue and have it tag along on adventures.
As someone who always got a chuckle out of the space core’s space-addicted ramblings inPortal 2, I always installed Fall of the Space Core whenever I playedSkyrimon PC to add some lighthearted sci-fi to my medieval Dragonborn journey.
While Fall of the Space Core isn’t a traditional DLC, its official development from Bethesda and Valve warrants it a spot on this list.
Dead Rising 3
It wouldn’t be a wacky DLC list without mentioningDead Rising 3’s rather ridiculously titled Super Ultra Dead Rising 3′ Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha DLC.
This DLC is a four-player co-op 90’s neon-doused mode where players can control Frank West, Chuck Greene, Katey Greene, and Nick Ramos as they compete in several classic Capcom-inspired challenges.
Along the way, players can unlock Capcom-inspired Super Moves and Costumes such asStreet Fighter’s Ryu for Ramos,Dino Crisis’ Regina for Katey, andVampire Savior’s Baby Bonnie Hood for Frank West.
Dead Risingis wholeheartedly more comedic-leaning than its sister zombie franchiseResident Evil, but the original three mainlineDead Risinggames are serious enough to make this DLC exceptionally jarring toDR3’s base campaign.
While some ofDead Rising 3’s psychopath bosses are over-the-top and some of its gameplay mechanics are rather wacky, such as the Ultimate Mecha Dragon,Dead Rising 3, at its core, is a serious story about a man striving to save his loved ones and discover the truth about himself.
3Far Cry 3
Blood Dragon
Far Cry 3is an incredibly dark and violent game centered around Jason Brody as he struggles to rescue his friends from pirates on the Rook Islands and slowly becomes a monstrous killing machine, weary of returning to society.
Save for a few crazy hallucinations and dreams,Far Cry 3’s gameplay and characters are mostly based in reality, so when Ubisoft announcedFar Cry 3: Blood Dragonin 2013, it was a pretty shocking departure from the baseFar Cry 3and the overallFar Cryfranchise.
Inspired by 1980s action and sci-fi films, Blood Dragon drops players in the boots of the military cyborg Sergeant Rex “Power” Colt, played byAliens’ Michael Biehn, as he fights zombies, soldiers, and titular Blood Dragons, all in aTron-like visual style.
While Blood Dragon is a crazy, wacky departure from the psychological torment ofFar Cry 3’s base campaign, it’s arguably one of, if not the best, iterations of aFar Crystory the series has ever seen.
More often than not, I’ll go back toFar Cry 3to play Blood Dragon rather than the baseFar Cry 3campaign, purely for its visual style and perfect 1980s reinvention ofFar Cry’s world.
2Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Jack’s 55th Birthday
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Resident Evil 7: Biohazardwas a return toResident Evil’s survival horror roots after the divisive, more action-oriented releases ofResident Evil 5and6.
Inspired byThe Evil Dead,Biohazardfollows Ethan Winters as he journeys to Dulvey, Louisiana, to find his missing wife Mia, only to discover an incredibly creepy estate filled with the monstrously mutated Bakler family, giant bugs, and zombie-like Molded.
Many others and I praisedResident Evil 7for its renewed focus on survival horror, leading Capcom to develop multiple DLCs for the game, but one DLC was quite different from the rest:Jack’s 55th Birthday.
On Jack’s 55th Birthday, players embody Mia, and must roam around various stages of the Baker estate and collect enough food to appease his appetite in short time periods.
This game mode is the most arcade-like in the game and arguably the most ridiculous, as Jack Baker is shown wearing a birthday hat and a clown nose as he eats, making his original menacing presence a bit more comedic, at least for me.
Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Redemptionis widely regarded as one of the best cowboy games of all time, thanks to its intriguing tale of redemption and betrayal of former outlaw John Marston.
However, Rockstar Games threw me and thousands of other players for a loop when they announcedUndead Nightmareas a zombie-focused story and multiplayer expansion to this early 1900s western tragedy.
While zombies and cowboys may seem like an odd mix at first, Rockstar nailed Undead Nightmare’s execution perfectly, delivering an incredibly fun and engaging horror-western twist unlike any seen before.
It’s a DLC where players can explore Marston’s character from a more heroic perspective in one aspect to roaming around on horseback slaying hordes of special infected and cryptids such as chupacabras, sasquatches, and more in another.
To me,Red Dead Redemptionfeels incomplete without Undead Nightmare, despite how odd the concept of zombies in the wild west may seem at first, as it elevates the entire game with its unique campaign and gameplay variety that DLCs should always strive to do.
