One of the most infamous Japanese-only games ever, LSD: Dream Emulator is a surreal descent into strangeness. The game is simple: go to sleep and enter seemingly randomly generated levels constructed of mismatched set-pieces. However, while the gameplay might be boring, the level design is haunting and, after a while, profoundly disorienting.

Hoshi wo Miru Hito is an infamous Japanese RPG released for the NES. This game isn’t dark or twisted so much as it is infamously difficult. You start out with no idea what to do or where to go in the middle of nowhere. Everything can one-hit kill you, and you have no ability to retreat. Want to restore health? Too bad. Only one place anywhere can do that. Think you’re good at games? Play this.

Takeshi’s Challenge is another NES game, arguably just as hard as Hoshi wo Miru Hito. Many of you know this game thanks to the now-famous JonTron video, but this game is no joke. Takeshi’s Challenge takes you through the life of a normal Japanese man, allowing you to follow his life. Winning this game is almost impossible, though perhaps the point of this game is to show how few ways there are to win life...but nearly countless ways to fail.

Hakaioh: King of Crusher is the ultimate rage game. You play a salaryman who just had a bad day...and you want to take it out on everything around you. While it’s clear the game is actually a comedy – after all, your innocent salary man transforms into a Godzilla-esque kaiju as you go on – it’s also clear why many countries might’ve avoided importing over a game whose sole purpose is murdering everyone around you.

Cleaning Squadron Clean Keeper sounds like a fairly innocuous game at first. You just gotta clean stuff. That stuff, however, mostly involves underage girls. First released on the PS2 before being re-released more explicitly for the Wii, it’s hard to justify this game as anything more than degenerate filth. The fact it’s full of lolis, however, only serves to make it even more perverse fodder.

Aka no Prince ~Koi no Jintai Rensei~ roughly translates into Filth Prince ~Human Body Training of Love~. And yes, this game is quite filthy. In this game, you raise up a sentient pile of filth that, gradually, starts to transmute into a cat, then a cute boy. It’s essentially a Princess Maker-esque dating sim where you have to raise then transform literal garbage into a cute boy to date. If you’ve ever felt romantic inclinations toward dust bunnies, this game is for you.

Unlike many of the other games here, Night of the Sacrifice is deliberately frightening. You essentially are dared by your friends to go through a haunted area. You basically engage in a walking simulator that uses the Wii Remote as a flash light and a phone to call your friends. You’re essentially powerless. If a ghost touches you...that’s it. This title was released by Square-Enix, making its lack of import...noticeable.

Rule of Rose technically was released in the West, so we’re somewhat cheating. However, upon release, it was banned in Europe, making it still a Japanese game too intense for Western audiences. It’s a horror game for the Playstation 2 that was positively compared to Silent Hill. Why was it banned? Media outlets claimed the game featured several scenes where children are sadistically murdered. While the game does put children in horrific situations, the media heavily exaggerated the violence in-game. Rule of Rose is a criminally underrated horror game, pulled throughout Europe by conservative politicians.

The Houchi Play is a game where you play an older Japanese man who really wants to grab butts. You need to carefully plan out your technique so you can move behind a girl and grab her butt. It’s basically a pervy sex game about fondling women without consent. It’s a simple game, but it’s pretty much a surface-level experience. It’s also only recently been quietly released on Steam, so you can actually play this one easily.

Tomak: Save the Earth Love Story is a story where you have to romance a Goddess in order to save the world. However, that Goddess only was partially able to materialize on Earth. Tomak is a game where you get to romance the decapitated head of a Goddess, going on dates with a head emerging from a potted plant. The fate of the world depends on how easily you can look past the fact your love interest is a detached head.

Love Death is a game that fetishizes domestic abuse. It’s one of many ero-games out there. The premise of the game is you get to beat up women, ranging from mild slapping to forced entry. However, to absolve you of any moral guilt, all the women are really into it. If this makes you feel a little sick to your stomach, good news: even in Japan, people are uncomfortable with this game. If this sounds like your cup of tea, then...the game proved popular enough to spawn a series, so you’re not without options.

Lolita Syndrome is what happens when you cross Vladimir Nabokov’s seminal novel Lolita with Saw. As you can imagine, the game centers on children put into sexualized situations. What you probably don’t realize is that you have to play a series of games with the girls. Failure to win results in the girls being violently dismembered and carved open. Very obviously, most countries weren’t interested in importing the pedo-gore NES game.

177 is a game that even in Japan proved controversial. This exceedingly rare NES game places you as the main character, stalking a woman who increasingly becomes aware that you’re following her. As she runs, you run after her, until you pin her down to assault her. This is one of many games centered on sexual assault that exists in Japan that even in Japan was received with controversy.

Battle Raper. I don’t think I need to explain how this fighting game works, but I will. Functionally, the game works like any other fighting game. However, as the battle continues, your clothing is ripped away. The battle ends with the victor forcing themselves on the loser. It unsurprisingly also received a very limited release due to the controversy surrounding it. It fetishizes assault in a truly troubling manner.

RapeLay is yet another game about a rapist. In this one, however, you stalk an entire family and figure out ways to violently assault them. What makes RapeLay even more disturbing is that the graphics are significantly better this time around, meaning you can actually see what happens. Not to mention, most of the game is spent just...stalking. Finding the right moment to strike and hurt these characters. It forces you to meditate on your actions, which forces you to linger in the banality of your cruelty. The game is banned in multiple countries. Of all the games here, RapeLay feels the most...unsettling. Beyond the obvious disturbing content, the whole game feels voyeuristic and sick. It just leaves you feeling profoundly uncomfortable. If you want to play this game, go for it, but...why would you want to?