It's jokingly said: comedy games for a fun evening

Humor in games often turns out to be the best when the creators and scriptwriters don't try to make forced jokes. But what about games that deliberately try to be funny? Some projects manage to cope with this task and do it brilliantly. Izvestia has compiled a selection of six modern hits with a great and diverse sense of humor.

Meowgenics

When it was released: 2026
Genre: Strategy
What to play on: PC

A new project by Edmund McMillen, author of Binding of Isaac. No one expected this, but it became an instant hit. Everyone liked Mewgenics not because it invented a new tactical formula, but because it radically rethought the very motivation of the player. At a basic level, this is a familiar turn-based strategy with sorties, leveling up, and a roguelike structure: you assemble a squad of four cats, assign them roles, and fight in compact arenas. The main trick is how the game interprets the theme of "cute pets". Mewgenics deliberately breaks the usual attitude towards cats as an object of affection. Here they are not pets, but a biomaterial for breeding and the basis of the local gloomy survival system. The weak have to be culled, the wounded have to be exchanged for useful upgrades, and the best have to be crossed for more successful offspring. It is this cynical, grotesque approach with a huge amount of black humor that creates the very effect that makes so much talk about the game: Mewgenics is both repulsive and addictive.

Promise Mascot Agency

When it was released: 2025
Genre: management sim
What to play on: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

The player assumes the role of former Yakuza Mitya, nicknamed the Cleaner, who fails the task and loses all the money. To pay off his debts, he agrees to go to Kyushu, rural Japan, where he will have to revive the agency of mascots and breathe life into the local village before the collectors get to him. The gameplay consists of completing various tasks in an open world and recruiting new mascots to your agency. The player will find a confusing, sometimes phantasmagorical and funny plot in which kittens working in the railway administration and mascots crying in a bookstore are just the tip of the iceberg.

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Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery

When it was released: 2022
Genre: quest, detective
What to play on: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

This trilogy of first-person detective games resembles the classic point-and-click adventures from Lucas Arts in structure. You need to play as a frog detective who has to solve three cases and face mysterious "ghosts", disasters and corruption. Formally, this is a traditional detective story with conversations with suspicious characters, collecting evidence, searching for objects and finally exposing the culprit. However, the game quickly moves away from serious noir towards absurd and intentionally naive humor. The main feature of the series is its tone. This is a comedic adventure in the spirit of a strange mix of Twin Peaks and a children's cartoon. The world of Frog Detective is inhabited by eccentric characters: koala scientist, rhino extortionist, sloth bandit and many others. Dialogues are often based on the absurdity of the situation, while the hero himself takes his work absolutely seriously, which only enhances the comic effect.

South Park: The Stick Of Truth

When it was released: 2014
Genre: RPG
What to play on: PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

To say that the creators of the South Park comedy series Matt Stone and Trey Parker like to test the boundaries of taste and decency is like saying that the sky is blue. In South Park: The Stick of Truth has whole scenes that are impossible to describe and still keep a straight face. Stone and Parker were actively involved in the development of the game along with the true RPG experts from Obsidian Studio. Therefore, South Park is a good quality RPG, and not an overblown episode of the series, to which several gameplay moments were attached. The Stick of Truth brings every joke to the point of absurdity and turns many of them into full-fledged game mechanics. The humor in the game, though often infantile or toiletry, is flawlessly calibrated.

The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe

When it was released: 2022
Genre: Adventure
What to play on: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

How many fans can there be in a game where the hero just walks through an empty world and only chooses where to turn? As it turned out, it was enough for an expanded edition of Ultra Deluxe to be released almost a decade later. This is a kind of reinterpretation and continuation of the original game, the "walking simulator" from the first person, where the main character is an office worker Stanley, for whom the narrator's voice makes decisions. However, the key feature of the project is that it is not necessary to obey this voice at all: the player is given the illusion of freedom, allowing him to go against the instructions and thereby form his own version of the story. The main value of the Ultra Deluxe edition lies in the expanded original concept. The game has dozens of endings (more than forty), and many of them appear precisely thanks to new scenarios added to existing ones. The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe ironically deconstructs the very concept of a video game and turns a walk around the office into a witty and multi-layered statement about freedom of choice, author's control and the nature of interactive storytelling.

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West of Loathing

When it was released: 2017
Genre: Adventure
What to play on: PC, Nintendo Switch

The real inhabitants of the Wild West were hardly amused by poorly controlled crime, spoiled provisions, dysentery and other joys of life. But for culture, this period became a real gold mine of comedy. A great example is West of Loathing, a black—and-white 2D side-view adventure full of jokes. Humor is everywhere here: in book titles, item descriptions, and dialogues with NPCs. The game skillfully encourages you to explore the world thoroughly and read every cover and sign. At the very beginning, while exploring your home, you may stumble upon a book that reveals a special perk — a comical gait. After that, it becomes clear: it's worth looking into every corner, because even in the most inconspicuous places, another hilarious find may be hiding.