As one moves into adulthood, it's possible to look back and laugh at things that once terrified you. Sure, the adult world contains more than its fair share of horrors worth recoiling from, but at least we gamers can look back at the digital scares of our youth with a satisfied smile, knowing we've conquered our childish fears. Right?
Well, mostly. We're sure the Sonic drowning countdown music will forever spark instant, sweaty panic whenever we hear it. However, in the entries below you'll find Team NL discussing some of their childhood gaming traumas — game moments that once gave them the absolute willies, but which now they can handle, no problem (for the most part, at least).
So, as we continue enjoying this long Halloween weekend, let's delve into some games and moments that made a particular impression on our young minds...
Kate Gray, Staff Writer
I know this is going to make me sound like an utter wuss, and that's totally okay, because I am, but... for me, the thing that gave me nightmares as a kid was... just the wind.
Not in a "huh, thought I heard somethin', musta bin the wind" sort of way. The actual sound of the wind, in Ocarina of Time. It's scary enough to find out that you've been catapulted into a horrible, post-apocalyptic future in your nice little adventure game, and then you find out that the town is full of zombies, and that's pretty bad too. But for whatever reason, going to Ganondorf's Castle, and standing in front of that lake of lava, surrounded by ashes and rubble — that was the scariest bit for me.
And accompanying that miserable scene was no music, no sound, only the wind blowing across a desolate, burned-down Hyrule. Now, what you have to know is that at the time, I hadn't really experienced much. I was a kid. That wind sound effect? To me, that was a sound effect, and nothing more, until I heard it in real life on a camping trip. I lived on a cul-de-sac in a village! We didn't get spooky wind noises! But when I heard the wind blowing through bare trees for the first time in real life, I did not sleep a wink.
I had a lot of nightmares related to Ocarina of Time, mostly about the Re-Deads and the horrible things Under The Well, but for some reason, it's the wind that scared me the most.
Alana Hagues, Staff Writer
Look, Banjo-Kazooie is a weird game. Even ignoring the kidnapping for vanity and experiments, the toilet humour, and some of the brutal deaths between the two N64 games, there are some other moments that are genuinely terrifying, especially to kid-me. No, I'm not talking about Snackers, but I am talking about another shark that you meet — and eventually befriend.
As a wee lass, figuring my way around the N64 controller and generally having a blast with one of the best N64 games ever, I eventually unlocked the third world of the game, Clanker's Cavern. I'd gotten used to the swimming in-game thanks to the previous level, Treasure Trove Cove, but this murky water and dank setting were a bit more unnerving. It wasn't out of character for the game, so I just carried on, diving under the water and into the main chamber... only to be greeted by teeth. Rows of sharp, metallic teeth, a rusted face, and imposing eyes. And I ran out of the room.
I only came back in after I'd heard the drowning music — which is also etched into my brain — but big ol' Clanker absolutely terrified me. When I tried to enter the level again, I did it through squinted eyes, trying to avoid looking at the muck and flesh-like markings on the garbage disposal unit.
I could barely get through the level, let alone free Clanker or go inside of him, without pausing every few minutes. And that night I couldn't sleep because all I could think about is this giant metallic shark chewing me up. But, as it turns out, he's really, really friendly. And, by the time I returned to the game a few years later, I loved him.
Mr. Patch from Banjo-Tooie still has the upper hand on me, though.
Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer
This is an easy one for me, and although I played this game on the PS1, its availability on the N64 and GameCube makes my choice valid (so there!): Resident Evil 2.
It wasn't a specific moment that gave me nightmares, it was the whole flippin' game. From the opening moments exploring a ravaged Raccoon City to evading the devastating attacks of the Tyrant (Mr. X), I was quite frankly two jump scares away from wetting myself. If push came to shove and I had to choose a specific moment from the game, however, it would be the opening encounter with Robert Kendo, the proprietor of the Kendo Gun Shop.
After a brief exchange, Leon turns to exit the room — but what's that? — you spot some tasty handgun ammo just sitting on a nearby counter, so of course you grab it. When you turn back around, however, you hear the store's window smash, triggering a cutscene in which Kendo is torn apart by zombies.
It was infinitely more visceral than anything shown in the first RE game; you can actually see Kendo's body turn red from the pouring blood. It scarred me more than I care to admit.
Granted, I was only 9 at the time. Maybe that's the issue.
Jim Norman, Staff Writer
I have always been so easily scared by video games it is frankly a wonder that I have maintained a passion for them for so long. I'd like to quickly give a shoutout to my mum, who I would regularly ask to take on a particularly scary part of a game while I left the room. She might not have necessarily beaten every task that I gave her, but her bravery in the face of my childhood fears was always the best.
As for the moment that I was most scared of, I am going to have to align with Kate here and also pick one from Ocarina of Time (weird how many people were scarred by that game growing up). Mine, however, is wayyy earlier in the story. If I was to be non-specific then I would say the entirety of Inside the Deku Tree is my all-time scariest video game location. The weight of knowing that you are onto something, the taunting Deku Shrubs, seeing Queen Gohma's eye on the ceiling for the first time — wow, that level really messed me up.
I will be more specific though, because I very easily can. The thing that scared me silly was (and still is) the clicking sound of the Skulltulas. It's a huge credit to the sound design that such a simple repetition was enough to keep me up at night, but hey, it worked.
Still to this day, hearing that sound makes me shiver.
Gavin Lane, Editor
I could have gone with something from Zelda, but let's go back a little further. This is less a scary 'moment' and more an all-encompassing feeling of dread I experienced whenever I landed in Transylvania in Quackshot. It was only the third level (well, you could visit earlier but you needed items from the previous levels in order to make progress), but I found it tough as a kid.
Looking back now, it's all so chunkily twee and non-threatening! But those bulbous bats and balls of bouncing gloop caused me grief at the time. I never really understood what the bubblegum was supposed to be, or how it apparently 'dissolved' bricks in Dracula's castle. After the bouncing brass of Duckburg, the creepy music and setting all melded together to create an alarming, unnerving mental block I struggled to overcome for years — long after I'd learned the skills necessary to beat the level. I remember going back and completing the game around a decade ago and wondering how the hell I'd built it up so much in my mind.
Then again, is there anything scarier than a vampire duck?
A small selection for you there, some sillier than others, but all enough to play on a kid's mind. What moments from video games scared you as a child? Feel free to share your scares below...
Comments 145
Final mission in Tomba 2 for PSOne. I love and avoid that game because of that last mission. You expect the jumpscare and it never comes. It is very unsettling and sends chills down my spine.
No game has ever given me nightmares. BUT, if I were a kid and I saw/heard the Regenerators from RE4… yup, nightmares. The movement, breathing and that kooky music that accompanies them, HORRIFYING.
Played Resident evil for the first time on the GameCube, the part with the sharks just creeped me out.
Friday the 13th on C64.
That moment when you entered a new screen and suddenly a high pitch noise tampered with your brain whilst a horrific picture was shown of a campist slaughtered.
what Realness said. hated those things.
This was happened when I was kid and I went to a mall with my parents. While we were walking inside, I accidentally saw something from a video games rent over there and it was a whole thing of bloody fighting game. I saw that sadistic fighting game for quite long until my parents called me to follow them and it made me really scared after what I have seen just now. As I grew up, I realized it was my huge mistake to accidentally saw that bloody fighting game. It was recorded permanently inside my brain the nightmare of seeing the sadistic of bloody fighting game. I felt really angry and since then I started to hate that game and every single rated M stuffs.
I didn't want to mention the title since it will trigger my hatred, but you can figure it out from the words I have mentioned before.
A few things for me:
1. Zelda 2 - that Game Over screen. Naturally, I wasn’t very good at Zelda 2 as a kid, so I would die a lot, but I remember seeing that screen and being absolutely terrified. For the longest time, I had to look away whenever I died, hoping that I wasn’t going to get the game over, and being super hesitant to look at the screen after it had happened out of fear of seeing Ganon’s silhouetted body against that bright red background.
2. Star Fox 64 - I was at a friend’s house and we were playing through the campaign on the easy path. Since that isn’t the true ending of the game, after the Great Fox flies off into the sunset, Andross’ face fades in, smiling in the most unsettling way, and you hear his laugh. When I saw that, I remember having to run out of the room, asking my friend to get off the screen and move on with the game.
3. Air Fortress - In this game, as you explore the Fortresses, they’re brightly lit and the music is upbeat and catchy. So it was easy for me as a kid to watch at this point. However, after you blow up the core of any given fortress, a countdown starts for you to escape, with a Game Over awaiting you if you don’t. Yeah, Metroid did this, but I’d argue this game did it to the nth degree. In this game, everything from the background to the character sprites gets darker as the lights dim and the game begins the most anxiety-ridden music. Over time, the screen will start to shake, the screen will flicker, the shaking gets worse, and finally it ends with a whiteout, indicating you weren’t fast enough. Also unlike Metroid, you can’t see the countdown timer, so for the first few times, you never truly know how much time you have left. And worse yet: you often still have to fight your way out through enemies, so you have to juggle your own fear with being able to act rationally and quickly. This part always scared me as a kid, to the point that, according to my parents, I would run out of the room while they were playing and wait for them to tell me to come back in. Even nowadays, it still gives me anxiety. To this day, I haven’t found another NES game that instills pure dread like this game does. Watch the escape sequence and find out why. (Also play the game. It’s severely underrated. And it’s made by HAL).
Right off the top of my head is the original Silent Hill (1999) on the PS1. The most interesting fact though I must mention is I technically never actually played it! Back in those days it was pretty common when hanging/staying over at my best friend's house I'd watch him play through games (if we weren't playing 2 player games on anything else). Sometimes it was just as fun to do that together. Anyways pretty much anything from that game scared the bejesus out of us. Most especially the part where you pick up a phone and you hear your daughter crying for help.
It felt like we both were going through such a nightmare scenario...even though it was just a game. Such atmosphere.
Not moments per say, but Bowser's, Ganondorf's and K. Rool's laughs used to frighten me as a kid during the N64 days, to the point I often played games with the volume muted when they appear.
Never. Nothing in video games was genuinely scary to me. Majoras mask is thoroughly creepy, but I was more curious and interested than scared
I always found the forest temple in Ocarina of Time to be a scary place. The atmosphere and sound always made me feel like I needed to get out of there as fast as I can or else something is going to get me.
The snowman / troll from Skifree when I was really young.
Resident evil for sure.
But also in ocarina of time two places, lost woods and the part where you where somewhere underground with those zombie creatures making that scary sound where you freeze i was like what the F&#€. Need more triforce of courage lol.
I dont think a video game has ever given me nightmares. Having watched the Alien movies at a young age they provided plenty of nightmare fuel for me.
Two scary video game moments do stand out to me: i was deeply unsettled in Mario 64 when Mario attempts to open a door he doesnt yet have the key for. Music plays and Bowser laughs, and I think it's the first time you experience Bowser in a tangible way in the game. And that one hallway where the picture changes to Bowser as you run down it.
This next one is gonna be a tangent, so bear with me: I rented Chrono Trigger as a youngling and had no idea what it was (let alone what RPGs were as a genre). Little did i know that I began playing someone's New Game+ save file. I went into the right teleporter pod, which transports you to the year 1999 and puts you directly in a fight with Lavos to stop the end of the world. I lost, and then you watch the world end. As a child (in probably '96 or '97) this was absolutely terrifying.
https://youtu.be/0ulfvxA11hg
Imagine being a kid and experiencing this.
No game but the dam Daleks had a good go 😂
Level 7 in The Simpsons Hit & Run was terrifying for me as a 7 year old
@Realness 100% first encounter with the regenerators was the scariest part of that game.
Scariest videogame moment for me? The mansion in the woods (or maybe the entire woods area) from Shining the Holy Ark. No me gusta that place.
From a non-Nintendo perspective, the earliest scarey scare I got was the original Alone in the Dark, because let's face it: the game did things with graphics and incidental interactive music what no other game has done before, and it did so very very effectively.
Much like the Syndicate Danger Music, the Alosne in the Dark Danger Music lives in my head rent free after all these years.
As for Nintendo platform games, I'm gonna go with... Silent Hill Shattered Memories. The Wii version was phenomenal for immersion, both in swinging the flashlight around and of course the fact that the in-game phone could speak through the WiiMote speaker, and hey, it was hands down the best (read: scariest) non-Japanese Silent Hill game. I will never be absle to hear "You Were Always On My Mind" without a shiver and goosebumps, whatever version it is.
As a really young kid, I can remember giving up on Pikmin after a couple of them walked into a river and drowned. I also got pretty stressed out by Lavender Town's music, as well as the giant wiggler and unkillable wisp enemies in Sunshine for some reason. The last time I remember just plain quitting a game because it was too scary was when I got to the desert temple in Twilight Princess, though I did get back to it eventually. I think I would have been around ten at the time.
The murderous shopkeeper in Link's Awakening and Crocomire after death in Super Metroid. As a kid I had nightmare about those two.
Ocarina of Time: when you encounter the first Deku Baba & when the Skulltula drops down. Also Floor/Wallmasters
Twilight Princess: Redead and their screams
Eternal Darkness: bath .. if you know, you know!
I saw some of the animatronics from fnaf when i was very young and formed a very large mental block against the games. These days i absolutely love the lore of the series but i still have nightmares about those freaking animatronics and hate looking at them. Wish i could play the games, I'm such a chicken.
Also i get jumpscared very easily so any horror games are out of the question haha
....you may laugh at me for this, but I found DK Junior's hair in Super Mario Kart when he did his first place animation on the podium to be scary for some reason as a kid and I still have no freaking clue why. XD It didn't give me nightmares but it's just funny to think about now.
The Eel in Jolly Roger Bay from Super Mario 64! My heart would be so fast when I would have to approach it! 😱
Lame as it sounds, the painting for Lethal Lava Land in 64 terrified me as a kid, lol
Space pirates in metroid prime! And all of resident evil on gamecube.
N64 and PS1 era graphics are all terrifying. Every character in Ocarina of Time has a dead-eyed, uncanny face. Malon from the Lon Lon Ranch watches you while you sleep.
@Dr_Luigi same but the gamecube version 😄 I still think it's the scariest one!
How could I forget! Shadow temple. That was creepy!
There’s several scary things in Super Mario 64, but for me as a kid, Bubba the fish in Tiny-Huge Island was a total threat. At least the Eel in Jolly Roger Bay didn’t chase and try to eat me! Bubba is also invincible, so I could only swim away.
There’s also the Game Over screen in Donkey Kong Country. DK and Diddy stand in darkness while they’re all bruised up and sad jungle music plays. It disturbed me as a kid and still slightly unsettles me today.
The blackout event in Luigi’s Mansion spooked me as a kid, when the entire mansion goes dark and becomes swarmed with ghosts. I see it as an interesting challenge now, but back then, I was so relieved to get to that breaker!
For something non-Nintendo, I remember being a little freaked out by Dark Passage in Spyro the Dragon, in which cute dogs and turtles turn into monsters in the dark, especially the former with the devil dogs that try to eat you!
@Crockin well that's no fun
The re-dead in ocarina of time. real, actual nightmares.
Splatterhouse 3 for sega genesis
The EEL from Mario 64 for sure. The fact that it can’t be killed made it exponentially more terrifying for some reason. I made my dad clumsily do all stars relating to that sunken ship lol
@Noelemahc yes, aitd was indeed very scary and it was one of the first horror survival games. Long before Resident Evil. I remember playing it on PC 386 and it was an uncomfortable experience. No nightmares though.. It had a great atmosphere of its age. Another game on PC that I remember that it was scary as a kid, was the adventure Colonel's Bequest.
For me it was encountering those dang Chozo ghosts for the first time in Metroid Prime.
The Baby Bowser final boss from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, and the Golbat sprite from Pokémon Red & Blue. Spooky.
It was definitely the Dead Hand enemies in Ocarina of Time. I always had to have my Dad beat them for me haha.
No nightmares but looking up the Ecco the dolphin final boss when I was in like 4th grade gave me thalassaphobia for around 6 years
Paranoid (C64) - The whole game
Nuclear Embargo (C64) - Scary sounds and I looked scary
Shadowgate (NES) - the torches that ran out
Rings of Power (MD/Gen) - Void that could show up and kill your party suddenly
Alien Trilogy (PS) - The music and atmosphere
I still feel little uneasy playing those games.
the teacher in the intro to heart of darkness for ps1
Not exactly to the point of nightmares, but the starting menu moment in NES Jurassic Park (if you know, you know) was quite unnerving for me as a kid - I honestly had to brace myself every time, even despite the cartoony graphics involved. The eerie initial music only fueled the effect.
Everything in Tomb Raider 2 and 3. The general tone of the games freaks me out to this day.
I was too young to be playing that series.
Resident Evil dogs in the hallway…. Yup, nope. Never did finish that part back then….
Movie wise it will always be Arachnophobia and Jurassic Park 1 that scared the crap outta me, cause that stuff exists/existed…. Meanwhile I could watch Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm, Poltergeist, Langoliers, IT, Predator, Aliens….no effect….
I enjoyed the macarbe & scary stuff as a kid, but there's no denying that my stress levels rose when playing Zombies Ate My Neighbours, especially on Level 4 Chainsaw Hedge Maze Mayhem.
Quite a lot of the Shadowman game was pants-wettingly terrifying to me as a sprog. Specifically the creepy-as-all-getout atmosphere in the 'Playrooms' and pretty much everything to do with 'The Home Improvement Killer'. Jeebers.
Well it wasn’t a nightmare nor was I a child but the controller part of Eternal Darkness had me going crazy for a bit ..lol
Eternal Darkness was spooky with the insanity stuff, like hearing voices. But I'd say Resident 1 was the first time a game truly scared me. I couldn't move forward sometimes.
@Ninersdad The one that always got me in Eternal Darkness was the body in the bathtub moment when you're playing as Alex. Cripes.
i had a video games magazine ~1995, possible gamesmaster, and it had a big hints and tips section about mortal kombat iii, including images of numerous fatalities, babalities, animalities etc. i never played the game or saw it in action but some of the images stuck in my head and freaked me out for years.
@Dr_Luigi when I was a child my mother gifted me that game. When I reached the room with the first zombie I just turned off the console. Up to this day I've not been able to play RE1 and I'm 30.
Some years ago I played Yume Nikki and Yume 2kki and I played them so much they gave me nightmares for months. Not as a child but whoever did these games knew what they were doing.
Dino Crisis with the T-Rex slamming it’s head through the office window. Scared the poop out of me.
I could not play through Shadow Temple in OOT as a child. I was scared of a lot in OOT, the Shadow Temple was just too much for me. Somehow I did do the well. I don't know how. lol. I had to turn down the volume because the music in the creepier dungeons was so scary for me as well.
Needless to say, I am not one for horror, not even as an adult. OOT doesn't scare me anymore, but if a new Zelda with the better technology goes back down that road I'm not going to like it. Like TP's Arbiter Grounds terrified me and still would.
A lot of water ones for me. Sonic drowning and water levels in Mario 64/BK.
One more modern one that scared me more than any horror game is the hydra in Dark Souls. It’s not really hard at all but it’s terrifying to look at and you need to get close to a bottomless water pit if you’re using melee.
that blasted piano from Super Mario 64, who trough it was a good idea to put a red coin next to a posssesed piano, i nearly fainted the day i saw this blasted piano, also the first time i saw Redead in Ocarina of Time is quite a expirences
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The bloody eel on Mario 64. I hate water levels and this was my first foray into 3d games.
Finally after all these years somebody who also was afraid of Clanker. But I wasn't even brave enough to go in the room on my first playthrough. I picked up the first few jiggies and just left de world entirely. Only years later when I was older and wanted to go for the 100% I was brave enough to face the monster only to find out he's just a sweet harmless piece of metal.
Nothing yet. I'm sure there will be
another is skyward sword + arachnophobia. wasn't bad fighting them but really hated when Link got hugged. had to pause & regain composure each time.
I never knew people were actually scared of seeing Clanker, personally I always thought it was cool, especially the first time seeing it. I freaked out more with Snackers.
Special shout outs go to Clanker and the giant pink/purple eel from Super Mario 64, but there is a clear number one for the moment that filled me with terror more than any other Nintendo game.
Star Fox 64... final level on Venom, you're already on a desolate planet with a blood red sky, scorched earth, and an all-around creepy and unwelcoming atmosphere. Then at some point, you leave your teammates behind and fly solo through dark, ominous tunnels while the final boss of the game taunts you on your radio. Up to this point, you haven't seen this guy in person, only his head in portraits and on your radio. Then you enter his pitch black chamber, and...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZh5gFHQATA
The first time I met Andross "face to face", I paused the game, got up and turned off the console and TV, and didn't touch it again for two days. I wouldn't play again until someone else was in the room with me, lol.
@Shepdawg1 That part absolutely sent chills down my spine too, but the initial meeting with Andross didn't faze you? ~_~
This is actually decently recent (2020), but a certain part in Metroid Prime really shook me. The ghost enemies that made the room dark with loud music playing really freaked me out for some reason.
Clock tower 2 lol
@gloom Yes! That underwater eel from Mario 64 was terrifying.
@burninmylight Not that I can recall. I remember it being tense, but I guess I don’t remember it well enough to be terrified by it .
For me without question it's Shadowman on the N64. That whole game is just a trip through hell from start to finish. But my worst memory is fighting Jack the Ripper. Wading through a dank subterranean labyrinth while Jack, possessed by the devil, is scuttling around like a cockroach on speed, popping up out of nowhere to attack you... And our man Shadowman is not the lightest on his feet, that's for sure.
I don't know if you'd call it a scary game, but Metroid Prime gave me recurring nightmares when I was younger.
I'd dream that I was in the Phazon Mines, and the rooms would be pitch black. Then I'd hear that dreaded music: the theme of the Space Pirates, meaning they were in the room and about to attack me.
I'd start running, trying to get into the next room, while the Space Pirates were hot on my tail. I'd get into the next room, but the Space Pirates would follow me into the room as well. At that point, I'd wake up.
Another game that is by no means a scary game, but gave me recurring nightmares, was Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
The reason behind that would be that I'd come back after a while, only to find the entire town has changed. The layout is different, there's new gameplay features, new shops popped up, while others had been torn down, and villagers moved away, with new ones having moved in. Some of my favorite villagers would have moved, too, without telling me.
Basically, it's a stress dream from not playing the game regularly, and seeing some of my favorite villagers move away without telling me (a feature I hate in the series). And admittedly, the last time I played the game was in early March, and that was only for my birthday. Maybe I'll play the game tomorrow, if I have time. I just hope my nightmare doesn't come true. I'd be very sad if it did.
The famous monster piano from Super Mario 64.
Also the Re-Deads from Ocarina of Time for me as well. Just the way the world looks as well when Link wakes up.
I was around 9 when my folks rented Ocarina of Time from Blockbuster, and I was terrified by the first dungeon. Nowadays, I think it's because the eerie atmosphere, coupled with the giant spiders scattered throughout the first room that ranged from Link's size to double, and they looked like skulls, too! Not to mention I was a bit of a scaredy cat at that age.
But I did press onward, and what luck, even more terrifying enemies waited for me! Gohma Larvae and the queen herself! Even after all that, I wanted to keep playing, and I managed to brave Hyrule Field and conquer the demons of the night while waiting for the drawbridge to let me into Castle Town. My playthrough ended in Kakariko Graveyard, when I encountered... them...
Nowadays, whenever I play Ocarina, Redeads are easy enough to take down, or avoid entirely; if you walk around them without moving fast enough to make a sound, they'll remain still; the iron boots are great for walking around them at just the right speed so as not to disturb them... but those sorrowful anguished moans still make me uneasy, and I still have nightmares of traveling through a Hyrule Field that is endlessly shrouded beneath a veil of night, but instead of goofy skeletons, Redeads would appear and start walking towards me.
Incidentally, that rental copy of OoT had a save file that was last saved in the Water Temple. I can't imagine why...
I know I just talked about a Pokemon moment in the last spooky article, but there's only one thing that comes to mind for me in regards to this question: N's Room from Pokemon Black/White.
Imagine the scenario: you're a 7-8 year old playing through your very first Pokemon game. You run around the region catching anything that piques your interest and getting through it relatively painless (save for Skyla's Gym Puzzle grumble grumble).
You make it to the Elite 4 to try and battle the Champion who's skill you had heard so much about and succeed....only to be beaten to the punch by the leader of the evil team (and your rival). From there, the castles bridges crash into the league and it's all go-go-go: Team Plasma have taken over and it's up to you and the Gym Leaders to take them down. As you storm through the castle, you move into each room you find to talk to the grunts, heal your Pokemon, all sorts of stuff, not deviating from the established European gothic aesthetic.
And then you get to N's Room.
A room completely unlike the rest, and with what can only be described as the most chilling song ever put in a Pokemon game, it tells the story of the innocence and psychological manipulation of a gifted child all in one.
AND IT GOT EVEN WORSE IN BW2.
Long story short: Pokemon can be more than just about disturbing animals. It can tell the disturbed stories of the people inhabiting the worlds as well.
For me "American McGee's Alice" still has the number one spot in the scariest games I've played. It is not just scary or gore per se, but gets disturbing and beautiful at the same time. Not to mention the OST's are amazing and give another layer of fear and madness.
E.T on the Atari.
I bought that on release and that game still gives me nightmares
Those freaky hands on the ceiling in the Forest Temple in Ocarina. First time one grabbed me I about quit video games forever.
A vast majority of silent hill 3 for me. Playing it in pitch dark at midnight or later. Especially on windy nights with the house creaking and groaning,with occasional branches from the nearby tree tapping on the window. I was freaked tf out buy somehow pushed through 😂
Another would kind of be Eternal Darkness. The game leading up to the bathroom scene was creepy and eerie,but after that scene,I was on a whole different level of being on edge waiting for the next "big" thing to happen
The eels in Mario 64 we’re properly creepy. Only Little Nightmares had matched that feeling for me since.
I really doubt those eels were meant to be creepy but their low poly face and stare just were. I suppose not entirely unlike Clanker in the article there. But I never played that as a kid sadly.
N64 baby here, so some familiar ones. In ocarina, Queen Gohma and being inside jabu jabu. But especially becoming an adult and stepping outside into the empty castle town area. I just couldn't do it. I'd never go further than that for ages.
But there was also something super creepy about Kirby 64. When the villain possesses the painter chick that creeped me out to high heaven. And that last boss! Are you kidding? So creepy.
I was hunted by the shadow monsters from Heart of Darkness.
Them from Majora's Mask (The aliens). The first time I encountered them I was playing late at night on Wii Virtual Console. Unfortunately, I hadn't talked to Ramoni the day before, meaning I had no clue what was going on. I didn't defeat them, and I had to watch as they abducted Ramoni into their flying orb. That really freaked me out. And I still don't like that side quest to this day.
Seems to be a common theme, but the anxiety provoking stuff for me (that I can think of) is mostly Zelda. OoT - I think the re-dead’s scream freezes you? And being frozen as they shamble towards you freaks me out. Also the silent realm in SS when the bad guys spot and come for you.
Not Nintendo, but the original doom - the noise the imps would make would make me super tense not knowing if I would suddenly run into one
I wish I had played Metroid prime though. A lot of people say the atmosphere in that game is terrifying
Shadowgate on the NES. Eerie as fudge. The music, the atmosphere, the death scenes… everything!
@Aneira For me, Friday the 13th on NES gave me nightmares as a kid. It was shrill audio when you accidentally stumbled into Jason with one of the good campers and then you got stuck with George and whoever else was slow and couldn’t make a jump. The game literally makes it impossible to win if you loose the good counselors early. It’s not a great game, but for someone in their single digits as an age, the whole thing is full of an overarching terror that doesn’t resolve until you finish the game. Games have come a long way, but that’s the one I remember being actually scary to me most.
Zombies Ate My Neighbors, a couple levels included in their music a sound that I think was supposed to be "anyone out there?" but it sounded like "om-you-wapwap" to me. And that om-you-wapwap sound could be heard as I drifted off to sleep, scaring me awake
Mine is the first time you encounter a zombie in the original Resident Evil. I hadn't really been exposed to any zombie media before that point, but seeing the cutscene with it eating the guy and having it meander towards me...I remember panicking and shutting the PS1 off before it could kill me, and promptly returning it to the rental store 😅. I did return weeks later to face my fears and even ended up finishing the game. But that's probably the most freaked out I've been in a game (other than the re-dead popping out of a coffin in The Wind Waker, taking me by complete surprise in an otherwise wholesome game).
The original Legend of Zelda dungeon music would give me Zelda nightmares as a kid.
The time SEGA announced they were giving up on Dreamcast and becoming a third-party developer. It still haunts me to this day.
I don't wanna talk about it.
ReDead's from Ocarina of Time(ironic since the Shadow Temple is my 2nd fav temple in the game) and the Sheegoths from Metroid Prime.
Happy to see the Mario 64 responses. Video games just were never on that scale before. Everything was just so massive that when it moved unexpectedly, it made a profound impact.
As a very little kid, I got nightmares from Smash Bros Brawl’s “game over” screen in Subspace Emissary. Something about that menacing orchestra sting combined with your lifeless character in a void scared the crap out of me.
A more conventional horror answer is that FNAF’s huge mainstream popularity happened when I was in around the ages of 11 and 12, and largely because of that franchise I now have a fear of what lurks in the dark when I’m alone. Thanks, Scott Cawthon! 😀👍
As a young kid, Phantos chasing me when I picked up the key in Mario 2. Also Judge Doom jumping up from the ground and having to be sprayed with dip in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? for NES.
New Fantasia
The only game that gave me nightmares is outlast and I was not a kid but a 40 years old grown up man .
When i was a kid, i was terrified of the intro of Little Samson . WHY? I don't know. I was a kid.
The opening of Conker's Bad Fur Day when he throws up
Man, forgot OoT was such a horror show. Dead hand, and those ReDeads screams, still can't bring myself to walk past without playing the song of light. Also bowsers laugh from super mario 64. But seriously, Metroid Fusion, for a GBA game the atmosphere was incredible. The SAX is the only thing from a video game I've ever had an actual nightmare about.
Anybody play Garfield’s Scary Scavenger Hunt on Flash? If so, you know where this is going.
You make Garfield walk around a haunted house, and click on things to make them move. You want to find the product placement snacks and avoid finding horrific things—fill up your scare meter and you lose the game. The sequel game had an infamous moment where it tells you to look carefully at a detailed painting, then hits you with a black and red screamer. Yeah, my brother and I reacted appropriately to that.
I would've been 6 or 7 at the time, and the Game Over sequence for Ninja Gaiden (Arcade) certainly took me by surprise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVz9__a8x-I
It's weird. I can't remember anything specifically, but I had an electronic handheld game (similar to those made by Tiger Electronics) that scared the crap out of me.
I can't remember what the game was about, except when you get a game over, this frightening bull (I think it was) with ghastly eyes would appear on the far right of the screen while a freaky chiptune version of Für Elise would play, and I would scream and throw it across the living room. I must have been maybe two or three at the time.
I seem to remember either The Price Is Right or Sale of the Century being on at the time, and my dad asked me to fetch him the remote from across the room, but after throwing the cursed Für Elise bull game, I was too afraid to walk across to get it (though I probably very reluctantly did).
One word. UNAGI!
Agree with ocarina of time scaring 10 year old me...also playing silent hill is still memorable even though we never got that far into it, Nothing ever gave me nightmares though...maybe metal gear solid 2 as I got older I pondered about the real world similarities as I grew up, makes me think to this day...
There are a couple for me, and I'm glad B&K's Clanker's Cavern was mentioned in this article. I don't recall it giving me nightmares but the flesh markings did give me the chills for several days.
For me I would pick the Mad Jack bossfight from dk64 en the Big octo's in Zelda WW
I played the arcade game Sinistar when I was six, and it scared the crap outta me. I still find it deeply unsettling.
The manta ray from Super Mario Sunshine also freaked me out quite a bit.
ReDeads of course, though I actually found the ones from Wind Waker scarier than Ocarina of Time.
Kingpin from Super Mario Galaxy was pretty creepy, when you land in his lair and get that cutscene where the camera is inside his mouth and you see his teeth coming at you.
Zombies Ate My Neighbors, hearing the screams of one of the victims if a monster gets to them before you can save them.
The bear chase from Crash 2.
A Hat in Time, Queen Vanessa's manor.
Chauncey in Luigi's Mansion.
Mimi when she transforms into a spider and chases you in Super Paper Mario.
Errrr... the Blooper item from Mario Kart?
(Stop laughing)
Tingle. Tingle, tingle, kooloo limpah.
Ghoma for me. I played late at night, when I wasn’t supposed to, with my brother, and when she fell from the ceiling into my head after I couldn’t see where she was… we screamed
2 games gave me nightmares
Return to the Forbidden Forest Commodore 64 awesome creepy scene setting music and the monsters are you alive in different ways when you died(lots of blood)
The other game was on PS1 and this creepy ghost girl who came in the dark and murdered you. Hiding in well lit areas thinking I’m safe only for the lights to smash then ghost girl is behind me and she kills me.
Also the Death Scene the policeman who goes to the murder house sees water coming from under the doo. Opening the door he sees your dead body fall out of the painting as water laps out of the painting filling the room. Would love to know the name of that game.
Zelda OoT ReDeads 😭 I used to mute my TV, leave the room & get a family member to run through Castle Town for me lol
Also Majora's Mask final hours, the music is soo scary and the atmosphere still terrifies me!
When you're young it's very easy to get spooked out by something not so obviously intentionally dreadful, however, it's tied to that delightful imagination as a child in which you believe games do not have boundaries and they feel so much larger and you feel perhaps the in game consequences are so much heavier. I adored (and still do) Link to the Past so much, yet I was so attached to the pure untainted Hyrule, the overworld. I used to dread the consequence of taking my three pendants to the Master Sword, I'd spend hours and hours roaming Kakariko just for the music. It's such an incredible in-game moment, yet you awaken the Dark World in which I dreaded so much. As a kid I recall just completing the first three dungeons again and again as I found the Dark World too stressful. I've since completed and played through Link to the Past many times now, (I'm now 33) it's an obvious one but it's my favourite game of all time, reminds me of so many childhood memories, and it's wrapped up in friendships and halcyon periods. I go back to it every 3 or 4 years and play it through again and can get such a clear snapshot of certain periods of my life. It's still hard to silence that instinctive 'pass the controller' fear. I digressed there a tad.
Pong. I was always afraid I would get paddled. (Sorry, couldn’t resist, but that’s all that was available when I was a kid) 😆
Final fantasy 7, the creepy piano music that plays in a couple of scenes when cloud sees a ghost of himself at the honey bee in is one example. That always gave me a chill. Also the first resident evil I watched a friend play on the ps one, then I played later on GameCube, that first cutscene of the zombie eating on a body and then turning to you, kept me awake for awhile.
Bathtub scene in eternal darkness and the piano theme of resident evil 2 always scared me as a kid.
As a kid there were a few games that freaked me out:
Alien 3 on Mega Drive - if I ran out of time without saving all the prisoners on a state I would turn off the system rather than watching the aliens burst at out of their chests.
Doom - the 2 Barons of Hell you face at the end of the first episode (which we nearly all had as free Shareware).
To be honest games never scared me much, films were much creepier. However, in terms of modern games Alien Isolation has to be one of the scariest games I’ve played and despite being a Resident Evil fan since number 2 I can’t get into RE7. Looking forward to trying the third person view on 8 though and of course the remake of 4 (please oh please let it be as good as the remake of 2!!!)
I was 10 when half life came out and the beginning was incredibly scary to me. You encounter your first headcrab completely unarmed and seconds later a headcrab possessed person. Amazing game though. I'll still say fighting the marines with their aggressive Ai was peak video games.
@Gamecuber I'm old and grumpy and to me remaking re4 is stupid. It already is one of the best games ever made and remaking it is pointless. Like the dead space remake. Would you remake the sistine chapel? Why not just do something new with the ip. Finally make re revelations 3?
The intro to Medievil 1 & 2 on the PS1 always scared me and I had to either skip it or look away. The zombie coming out of the coffin on the first intro and the Dinosaur coming alive on the second intro.
Resident Evil when the dogs jump through the window and the whole Heart of Darkness game. Brilliant game but nightmare fuel for kids.
Night Trap used to give me nightmares as a kid, that creepy music and a house full of oggs. I was always worried my house had secret doors I didn't know about it.
Mine was watching my dad get to Mother Brain on NEStroid. The music compared with the horrific terror that was the titular stationary brain gave me nightmares. I was afraid to go into his room to watch him play that game again for years
@Ganner Yeah, Silent Hill… ooof. The sound of static on radios creeped me out for quite some time after playing that game. It didn’t have as many memorable jump scares as Resident Evil, but overall it was a far creepier/more disturbing game.
@DudeshootMankill I’m also old and pretty grumpy too! RE4 remains one of the greatest games of all time (I’ve lost track of the times I’ve completed it on various systems since 2005). Ordinarily I’d be very wary of remakes (Hollywood is notoriously terrible at them) but occasionally there are ones which work so well they surpass the original whilst staying true to what made it brilliant in the first place. Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 remakes are the bench mark for remake/updates done right. Both kept what was so good about the originals but brought the games kicking and screaming into the modern age. Of course the remake of 3 (which I did enjoy) highlighted some of the weaknesses of the original (it was always too short).
As an aside there is also something to be said for going another way; add a new sheen of polish and just tweak things that are a bit anachronistic today. The anniversary edition of Halo CE on 360/Xbox One/Series is a good example, especially with the ability to instantly switch seamlessly between the original graphics and the newer HD update. Ocarina of Time on the 3DS is another good example of a modern update that keeps nearly everything the same to the original but with some optional tweaks for a new audience (I’d love to get that and the update of Majora’s Mask on the Switch in HD).
There's a moment in Silent Hill 1 where a CGI cutscene happens and it's after you push a certain female character where she starts crying blood and then blood starts dripping from the top of her head, and then soon her while face is covered in blood while she's stumbling towards you as if pleading for you to not push her away again. Seeing that as a 10 year old was really unsettling. I think I had to pause the game and leave the room for a bit. I don't know if it gave me nightmares, but I'm sure that night or the next I had a hard time not seeing her bloody face when I closed my eyes. It was that combination of pity and disgust that was just so effective.
Other than that, if you're not counting jumpscare stuff, which is usually not very elegant, I wasn't a kid anymore, but I had a hard time with the first couple hours of Amnesia. Eventually, I got used to the creature(s) and they didn't affect me at all, but the first couple of hours were hard to play through. I actually had to have my girlfriend at the time play for several minutes so I could calm down.
Back when I was a kid, like around the time I was in the first grade, my uncle would come over to my house and he would bring his Playstation 1 to play Resident Evil 1 in our living room. I would often watch him play. After watching a few play sessions of his playthrough, I started having nightmares of zombies and have since then been afraid of the dark. Even now as an adult, the darkness still freaks me out and makes me think of zombies lurking around, so it basically scarred me.
A couple of years later, I borrowed a copy of Ocarina of Time from a friend and I didn't know how to start a new save file so I went into his save file instead. He was already adult Link so when I walked into the zombie (ReDead) infested ruined Castle Town, I panicked. Those loud zombie moans freaked me out so bad I started having nightmares again. So, I avoided playing that game for a few years until I was mature enough to get over it and try it again.
@Serpenterror was gonna say - the shopkeeper in Link's Awakening left me shaken for days. I don't think I had actual nightmares, but it was a while before I could play the game again...
The EEL in SM64.. god it was scary because of how badly it was modeled
@Riff-the-Don Eternal Darkness bath was the first thing that came to my mind too
I remember the first time I got to a boss in Rygar on the NES. I was 9. The sound effect the forest boss in that game makes is loud and awful compared to the calm music of the forest. Left me shaken for a while.
Happy Mask Salesman getting angry
When games were technological advanced enough to give people nightmares I was no longer a kid.
Thanatos' palace in Secret of Mana. The off-putting music and setting, the types of enemies, the way everyone was wearing masks and brainwashed into a cult.
The Moon in Majora's Mask was pretty creepy.
Friday the 13th on NES, and those children's faces in the cabin. I could think of more, but I'm at work right now.
@PapaGlitch I think that’s the only game I wouldn’t play with surround sound.
@Riff-the-Don I love Eternal Darkness, it baffles me why it doesn't get more love. I won't lie, the idea of playing it again on handheld was not an inconsiderate factor that pushed me into buy a Steam Deck!
The game Tombs & Treasure on NES always creeped me out as a kid, but I still loved it. Other than that, the original Splatterhouse on TG16 definitely gave me a few nightmares.
It was for me, the Friday The 13th NES game. Some of the images in that game scared me
@Gamecuber Oh wow you totally reminded me about my own Alien 3 game experience. For me though it was the SNES version. For whatever reason with that game the opening intro scared me AND the 'Game Over' screen with the alien looking at the screen along with that accompanying music. The game itself didn't scare me. It was just those 2 parts. Very random but those 2 parts just got me good.
It was a very similar experience to Contra 3: The Alien Wars on SNES. The game itself was nothing. BUT for whatever reason that opening intro of seeing a cityscape, then a big explosion happens followed by a scary looking demon face then it goes silent.
Yeah, I was a weird kid. Sharptooth from "The Land Before Time" even wrecked me
@Gitface You're absolutely right. That game was not in any way a jump scare type experience. Maybe that was the secret sauce. In a lot of ways jump scares are easier to accomplish even in non-scary games.
Pretty much all the sounds in that game were each of their own characters. The radio static, the heavy windy type of music that would play when outside in certain areas, the enemies, all the creaky sounds of the environment, the footstep sounds, I could go on and on. If I remember correctly there were many times in the game where there was no music and just the lifelike ambient sounds of the environment were all there was. Combine all that with the PS1 graphic style and slow drip story development (but done in a way that keeps you wanting to continue on but scared with every forward step) and you had lightning in a bottle.
Played Resident EVil 4 with a friend with lights out, we were exploring some cellar-dungeon sort of environment and at some point heard something breathing weird close by but I didn't spend too much attention until I turned around and there stands a Regenerador like an armlength away with his mouth wide open, preparing to bite. We both yelled as loud as we could and I hysterically tried to escape when of course that meelee-QTE already was triggered.
After we somehow got away (or died, can't remember) we laughed our asses off and to this day, like 18 years or so later, we would think back of that scene. I wouldn't even say that I usually think RE is what I understand under actual scary horror, but that moment was just priceless. [Edit] haha just scrolled through the comments to find out I'm not alone with that experience
@Ganner Absolutely! Very well put!
It was easily one of my favorite PS1 games.
Another really crazy thing is that as awesome and iconic as the original Silent Hill was, Silent Hill 2 came along and, against all odds, managed to be even better. I first played 2 with the mindset of "there is no way this will be as epic as the original," and holy cow was I pleasantly surprised.
@Ganner nothing weird about being scared of Sharptooth; he scared me when I saw that film in the cinema for the first time too!
Honestly i think one of the biggest jumps I've had from a non-scary game was in Sonic Heroes. When you are nearing the end of Lost Jungle and a huge Alligator pops out of the water, and chase you down. That truely had my heart skip a beat.
In a horror game Id say Outlast 2. Nothing like thinking you are in a good run and then something grabs you or the music shifts means you probably were seen and probably about to be dead.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
The Shadow Temple!
That big room where Navi tells you to look out for the shadows of monsters, back then we had CRT TVs and maybe it was different for other people but the ceiling in that room was cover in shadow, you couldn't see the ceiling at all, unlike OoT 3D. Coupled with the Wallmasters, I was always scared to go into that room.
Also the entirety of the well gave me the heebie jeebies
I was legit too sacred to play most games until I was around 12, 13, but I remember having a nightmare about the villain organization in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. Other than that, there were several moments in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s mask that stuck in my mind; more from Majora’s Mask than OoT. Also, I was in a mall when I was little and was watching a Last of Us add in an electronic store. Stuck with me for several years.😂 Almost forgot, but I had a nightmare about the Boo houses in New Super Mario Bros Wii, and I completely avoided them afterwards.
Games didn't really get scary until the PS1 era with Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and I wasn't exactly a kid anymore at that time. That being said, some of the freakiest moments in games for me,
bath tub scene in Eternal Darkness, (more of a jump scare if anything)
First Crimson Head encounter in RE remake. (also a bit of a jump scare.)
Also walking through the woods to Lisa Trevor's cabin in my first play through of RE remake. The atmosphere was palpable.
Splatterhouse 3 with the possessed teddy bear in that kids room was the scariest
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