I can think of a handful of games that, despite being games that I’ve enjoyed, never really became part of a “genre”. Do you have any like this, and if so, which?
Are they games that you’d like to see another entrant to the genre to? Would you recommend the original game as one to keep playing?
I’ll give an honorable mention to Terraria–largely because I had to explain it to someone recently and it was more difficult than I anticipated.
Yeah, you can just say “2D Minecraft,” but it’s more than that. It’s almost an RPG in terms of advancements and equipment development, and it’s very combat oriented. But it’s not really a sidescroller or a metroidvania type, because the digging and building plays a huge part.
Less genre defining, and more living in the liminal space between a lot of other genres.
I’d probably put Starbound in the same genre, but yeah, those are the only games in the genre that I’m aware of. It’s pretty unusual.
Dig or Die made an attempt and went in a pretty interesting direction with simulated structural stress and water physics that even included pressure. Unfortunately development died pretty early on and the structure mechanics and combat were incredibly punishing.