In horror games, the most scary things happen when you least expect them to.
Horror works perfectly well in video games. When you’re scared in a movie or book, you can look away or take a break. But in a game, you have to take part in order to get scared. It’s why the Resident Evil, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Silent Hill game series are so popular.
But the scariest things happen when you least expect them to. You might expect a game like Outlast to scare you to death, but not Mario. Never! So let’s celebrate those creepy and scary characters who sneak up on us when we least expect it.
The Lumiose City Ghost Girl – Pokemon X And Y
Even though the whole Pokemon series is made for kids, there are a lot of scary things in it. Most of these can be seen in the different Pokedex entries, but different ghost girls also show up, and the scariest one is in X and Y.
On North Avenue in Lumiose City, there is a building. If you go to the second floor, the screen will go black and a Hex Maniac girl will appear behind you. She will then move to the bottom of the screen, say “No, you’re not the one,” and leave. No one else is on that floor, and no one has ever been able to figure out what it was for.
Clanker – Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Kazooie is a happy game with a lot of bright colors and happy-looking things that bounce around. That is, until you go through a rusty pipe and into Clanker’s Cavern, where you meet a mechanical shark/whale with big eyes and a toothy grin. Say hello to Clanker.
Clanker is Gruntilda’s trash can, and even though he looks scary with his rusted hull and fleshy parts, he is actually very friendly to our heroes. It’s just that the first time they meet him, he scares them. Even worse, he comes back in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. But this time he’s broken up into pieces that you can drive your car over.
Clock Tower – Epic Mickey
Epic Mickey is a game that tried to give the Disney world a dark twist. Wasteland, where forgotten Disney characters are meant to live in peace, is where the game takes place. Mickey, however, spilled a bottle of paint thinner into the world. Which changed the people and places or made them evil. The It’s a Small World Clock Tower boss is the first one affected by this.
The face of the Clock Tower changes from a cute smile to a scary grimace, and it will always try to hit you with its arms. As you fight, you have two ways to win: paint the Clock Tower to save it or use thinner to destroy it. The paint will make it look like it did before, but the thinner will make it fall apart, leaving the tower’s face floating in the water below. All of this scary stuff is made even scarier by a score that sounds like a warped version of the It’s a Small World theme song.
The Fabulously Rich Family – Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
With enemies like the ReDead and the Dead Hand boss, Ocarina of Time brought some pretty scary enemies to the N64, but everyone seems to forget about the Fabulously Rich Family.
In Kakariko Village, there is an empty house full of six people who were cursed into Skulltulas because they were too greedy. And these things are horrible. Instead of spider legs, they have human limbs, and a human face is part of the Skulltula’s body. Curses are a classic horror trope, and this is one of the most disturbing ones you can see in video games.
Trevor Phillips – Grand Theft Auto V
Trevor is the most crazy person in all of Grand Theft Auto. He is chaos in the form of a person. Everything he does is based on his anger and what he wants to do. Even though this is mostly meant to be funny because it’s GTA, there are some scary parts.
When you first meet Trevor, he has a one-night stand with Johnny Klebitz’s girlfriend. He then kills Johnny and wipes his brains off his shoe. After killing all of his friends, including Wade’s brother and sister-in-law, he gets Wade to follow him. He hurt a man to get information, and then he kept doing it because it was fun. Trevor is supposed to be like the crazy players who break everything. And Rockstar did a great job of capturing that.
Unagi – Super Mario 64
Sometimes, to be scary, you don’t need a scary backstory or a grotesque look. Sometimes, all you need is a second. Jolly Roger Bay is a beautiful water level with a great ambient soundtrack. However, as you swim around in the water, a huge red eel with a mouth full of fangs pops out of the wall.
This is Unagi, and it is a very scary creature. And that’s all there is to it, really. Jaws shows that some of the scariest things in the world are big creatures that live in the water. Unagi does this perfectly, and in some ways, she is scarier than a whole scary level.
Marx Soul – Kirby Super Star Ultra
Kirby has always been the nicest and cutest main character in Nintendo games. He has such a strong sense of innocence. Which is why it’s so strange that he has to fight so many scary bosses. Marx Soul stands out from the rest.
When he first showed up in Kirby Super Star, Marx was already a little bit scary. But when he was made over for the DS, he went from being creepy to being horrifying. He got boney wings, a creepy laugh, and eyes that seem to look right at the player. When he showed up in Smash Ultimate, things got even worse. Actually, a lot of Kirby bosses could go here, but Marx Soul is the most famous.
The Abominable Snowman – SkiFree
Back in the early 1990s, the only computer games kids could play were the ones that came with their home computers. There were games like Minesweeper and Solitaire, but SkiFree was the most scary of all.
In SkiFree, you can freely ski down a mountain by jumping and avoiding obstacles. However, the abominable snowman was almost impossible to avoid. This gray mass with a scary face would run up to your skier from off-screen, grab them, and eat them in one bite. Even though the graphics were not very good, the fear was real.
Mimi – Super Paper Mario
Many people think of Super Paper Mario as the “black sheep” of the Paper Mario games. Because it’s a platformer and has a lot of poop jokes. But those people are missing out on an amazing story and some of the most memorable characters in Mario. Mimi is one of those memorable characters.
She is a cute girl in a yellow dress who works for Count Bleck. Mimi is creepy enough because she can act like anyone. But what makes her stand out is that she can change into her true self. She breaks her own neck, turns her head over, and spider legs grow out of it. This is scary, and it’s one of the many grown-up parts of Spacebar Clicker that make it a memorable game.
Vortex Queen – Ecco The Dolphin
About Ecco as a whole The Dolphin gave the impression that it was safe. The ads said it was a dolphin’s-eye view of an adventure under the sea. Before the neon colors were added, the cover looked like a Lisa Frank poster. Reviewers said this was one of the most relaxing puzzle games ever. None of these talk about the aliens that take food from the ocean or the ancient monster you have to fight at the end.
The Vortex Queen is taller than a skyscraper and looks like H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph. It sends drones after you all the time and tries to eat you. As you fight the Vortex Queen, it will lose pieces of its body. This makes the creature even more scary. Parents bought Ecco The Dolphin for their kids because of the cute dolphin. But the Vortex Queen keeps it in their nightmares.
