Sportsball

Not sure I'd put all those games in the same bag (Monomyth for me is closer to Ultima Underworld, while something like Queen's Domain is closer to Souls), but all I can say is "praise the Steam" for existing and allowing all those indie developers to revive genres that are targeted at more niche audiences.

OneShot and Doki Doki Literature Club both use the unique aspects of the medium to tell a story in a way only possible in a video game and I've never played it but Steel Battalion was an Xbox exclusive that had its own unique complicated controller you used to pilot a mech. Also for Pikmin like games I'd recommend Tinykin, it's basically Pikmin if it was a 3D platformer as well.

Some games that come to mind:

1) Gumshoe (NES) - Platformer that uses the NES Zapper as the controller.
2) Bayou Billy (NES) - A beat em up during most levels that also has driving/Zapper levels.
3) Blaster Master (NES) - Half Metroidvania in a jumping tank with unique upgrades.  The other half is a top down shooter like Ikari Warriors.
4) Hogan's Alley (NES) - Feels like a Police Training exercise.  Back in the day I found it super fun, but I haven't played it since the 80's.
5) Bionic Commando (NES) - 2D Platformer that uses a bionic arm for movement rather than jumping.

6) Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (NES, Apple II, etc...) - The most unique RPG I've ever played.  There is no big bad.  The goal instead is to master the 8 virtues.  This is the only RPG video game where I felt I was truly roleplaying for much of the game.

5) Actraiser (SNES) - It's like a cross between Populous and Castlevania.  Yep, you just have to play it to understand it, and it's way more fun than you think it should be.
6) Earthbound (SNES) - They still don't make many RPG's set in modern day Earth, and they don't make many RPG's this wacky either.

7) Comix Zone (Genesis) - A beat em up set in a comic book, where you go from one panel to the next.

8) I.Q., Intelligent Cube (PS1) - unique puzzle game
9) Suikoden (PS1) - Assemble the 108 Stars of Destiny.  I haven't encountered another RPG series with a cast nearly this large.  It makes the game feel significantly different from other RPGs.

10) Q-Bert (Arcade, etc...) - Change the color of all the tiles.  A strange puzzle game.

Spore was made by Maxis, the same guys who made Sim City and other Sim simulation games. One of them was called Sim Life, another Sim Earth. Spore is pretty much a stealth successor to both of them.

Yeah, I know, I've played intensely Sim Life (and to lesser degree Sim Earth) back in days, and love them as management sims. SPORE has much more hands on approach and different gameplay though.

That said, it seems I've jumped the gun a bit - there is Elysian Eclipse that's pretty much trying to be unofficial successor to SPORE (haven't played it, it seems it's work in progress, so can't say how good it is).

Kula World ⚽ 💊 ❤️

Worms 3D

There's actually another game too, which I can't remember the name anymore (I rented it at the video store back in the day) which was also very similar to Spore, just in 2D. Basically it was halfway between Sim Life and Spore.