Which Games Scared You As A Kid?

The original shareware Doom. 1994. Played it on my friend’s PC because I didn’t have one yet. 14" monitor, with the screen size reduced to 10" to improve the framerate (remember when that was a thing?) Played with the light’s off and got as far as the secret maze in E1M2 before freaking out.

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I don’t exactly remember which level it is. It may very well be the one you referred to, but I do remember the portion of the map where the lights are completely out save for a few flashes here and there. That combined with the already tense atmosphere did make me unnerved to say the least.

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Yep, that’s the one.

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The opening screen to the original Metroid. That music creeped me out big time.

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  1. I forgot the names, but I remember there was this Harry Potter game that scared me when I was a kid. I forgot the name of it, but there were those ghostly looking creatures from the 3rd movie that appeared the game that scared the heck out of me.

  2. I’ve only seen footage of it, but Corpse Party really, really disturbed me.

  3. Again, I only saw footage of it, but I saw at someone’s house, someone playing Fear, which scared me.

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The game over scene for Banjo Kazooie on the Nintendo 64, when the sister turns into an ugly monster, was very upsetting to me as a child lol. I was also afraid of the Redeads in the Underground Maze in Super Smash Bros. Melee as well as the Brinstar stages.

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yes the leech death scene is pretty intense i’m surprised nintendo let that fly. Maybe they were afraid to censor such an early scene in the game that was on other platform. It would have likely been noticed.

@lunt Same for me. Doom is my pick. The sounds of the zombies groaning and dying was really intense when i was 10 or whatever. also those pinkies and the way they’d zig zag back and forth on their way to bite you, effectively dodging your bullets. Terrifying

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SNES got away with a lot. Mortal Kombat 2 was on it with full blood and fatalities. That was another game that creeped me out.

Getting back to Out of This World. There was an overall serious and creepy vibe that still kind of haunts me to this day even-though I love the game.

The story behind how the dev created it is fascinating, the guy busted his ass and released a game all on his own: Another World (video game) - Wikipedia

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Eternal Darkness - specifically the bathtub scene, but that whole game scared the crap out of me.

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Alien 3’s Game Over scared me to death. I hated Bill Paxton for years until he tamed that F5 tornadoes in Twister. I forgave him.

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I have memories of a lot of the things you guys are saying. I’m wondering if there is something really silly i found scary when super young but dont remember, like goomba’s eyes in SMB or something, lol

More fond memories:
-the damn screechy music of the torch running out in Shadowgate
-the damn headcrab in that pipe on the outside of the canyon before that chopper fight in Half-Life
-the damn way the boss of most Contra games scuttles back and forth.
-of all things in Mortal Kombat it was “GET OVER HERE”. like an abusive parent or something

different aspects of these games are creepy in general (and mentioned) but these moments are the highlights for me.

if you have traumatic memories from mortal kombat or other fighting games well guess what? I came across this YouTube the other night and watched it. I laughed my ass off but imagine seeing something like this when 12 lol it would mess you up for life. (Eternal Champions Challenge From the Dark Side Fatalities) it looks like a crappy fighting game where they spent oodles of creativity on thematic over the top violent fatalities.

warning its very graphic depictions of over the top violence.

i love how they basically snuck this stuff into the game just for shits and giggles in hot coffee like fashion. in this era the ESRB would have gone nuts i’m sure. I’d be curious to see the content thats not in this video.

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After watching AVGN episode about Dennis the Menace, I remembered how scary Mister Wilson was.

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Contra III cover and specially the opening. That opening had a demon face, horrendous music and a destroyed city that made me shake my hands immediately. But I still like very much this game, tho I never finished it (I always lasted to the sand stage).

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Contra bosses are horrendous indeed!

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We had Doom 2 on the computer when I was really little. It didn’t bother me much, but one night we went into the last stage and found the secret room where a fellow seemed to have lost his head

It scared me and I never played it again after that

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Shadowgate has a lot of creepy scenes and the writing can be scary. All the different and elaborate ways to die creeped me out a bit.

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  • the original tomb raider. something about the emptiness of spaces in that game just got to me, and i usually played with my sister so we could keep each other company through it lol.

  • majora’s mask. seems natural since it’s a pretty creepy game no matter how you look at it, but it was the “dawn of” screens and the sound that came with them that scared me most of all. that plus the moon. i used to never tilt the camera up in that game just so i’d see as little of that as possible.

  • the castle in mario 64. again, mario seemed to be completely alone in that place, and something about that was a big scare factor to me as a child. the water level was also hard to get through since i have mild thalassophobia.

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I haven’t played the original in quite a while but I can second that as well, as the enemy placement within the levels is a bit to be desired with very few as compared to games nowadays and even later games in the series, which left you in what could be described as a liminal space for quite some time.

Having just beaten Majora’s Mask this year, I would say that the game is off, with its darker themes throughout but as a kid, it was creepier than it appears now. The sound design was well used throughout, especially for the clock ticking when you tampered with time, and when the days would pass by.

I found Boo’s Mansion area to be a creepy place compared to the castle, and with a sense of Thalassophobia myself, the cheerful music of Jolly Roger Bay still doesn’t fully take the fear of being underwater away.

Great examples.

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Mine was probably Sanity’s Requiem, I always used to believe that the game was cursed. Other than that, Silent Hill 2 probably.

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I’ve only played Eternal Darkness a bit this year, and while it is interesting with the glitches, the novelty wore off quickly. I do remember being a teen when it came out and watching my friends dad playing it, which was more memorable.

Silent Hill 2 just rocks. It is a more brooding terror than most modern games today.

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