Perks & Exploitation: The 10 Best Grindhouse Games Of All Time

Ultraviolence and self-aware schlock—it's the American way!

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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When B-movies are taken to their perverse extreme, you get the cinematic delicacy known as "grindhouse." Patently offensive and always entertaining, how can we not take sick pleasure in the genre's hallmarks? Gallons of blood, obscenity lawsuits' worth of F-bombs, *cough* stripper sequences—it's like visual catnip. So imagine that if instead of merely watching all this beautiful carnage, you got to play it. That's why we're here today, after all: to commemorate the release of weird-ass Japanese action-adventure Shadows of the Damned, which (thanks to the sensibilities of No More Heroes' Suda51) promises to take us to Hell and back in a scenario worthy of the seediest of midnight double features. But until you actually get to go home and crack open the game, crack open a cold one and help us count down the 10 best grindhouse games the industry's ever seen. Killers, mutant strippers, and bug people all agree!

By Elton R. Jones

10. Postal (PC, 1997)

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9. Carmaggedon (PSOne/N64/PC, 1997)

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8. Earth Defense Force 2017 (360, 2007)

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7. Escape from Bug Island (Wii, 2007)

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6. Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad (360, 2009)

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5. Shank (360/PS3/PC, 2010)

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4. Wet (360/PS3/PC, 2009)

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3. Manhunt (PS2/XBox/PC, 2003)

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2. MadWorld (Wii, 2009)

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1. House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii, 2009)

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