Games geared towards younger audiences typically steer away from spooky territory.
But every now and then, there’s a title that manages to thrust players into pretty
terrifying depths of their story world, whether with just a moment, a character, or a whole
darn level.
So today, we’re diving deeper into this occurrence with our list of the top 10 scariest
moments in kids’ games.
Objectively speaking, a lot of these games can be enjoyed by players of all ages, so
don’t get too caught up in these games being ‘geared towards kids’.
For the most part, they’re family friendly, or tend to appeal to younger demographics.
So with that in mind, let’s jump in!
10 The Piano – Super Mario Big Boo’s Haunt is one of the scariest levels
in a Mario game.
It first appeared in Super Mario 64 and made a return in Super Mario DS, and in both games,
it was equally freaky, thanks to this big ol fella.
The haunted evil paino, that once you get near to it, will open up and attempt to eat
you whole.
The whole encounter is pretty jarring when you first enter the space, especially since
the piano seems to be a regular piano, nicely lit by the moonlight pouring through the window
above.
9 Tricky 14 – Lemmings Lemmings was a game that came out in 1991,
a puzzle platformer for various systems of that time.
You essentially guide a group of anthropomorphic lemmings through various puzzles in order
to get them to an exit, getting the assigned number of lemmings out in order to progress.
Out of the 120 something levels in the game, there’s one that looks like you’re navigating
the depths of hell.
It’s disturbing, it’s got lots of blood, and lots of other not so fun imagery for children.
Combine that with the fun upbeat music and all of the Lemmings shenanigans, its feels
like a bad acid trip.
Compared that to the other levels in the game, and the bright friendly colourful marketing
of Lemmings, well, you can imagine how well that boded with parents.
8 Mimi – Paper Mario Mimi’s true form is something we could have
done without ever seeing.
For context, this character appears in Super Mario Paper, a title that has a very clean
minimalist approach in terms of design, and is generally filled with lots of colour.
Mimi is a master of disguise, and when she’s exposed, she decides to let things get real
ugly.
This initiates a transformation in which she starts twitching, and the sound of snapping
bones is audible.
Then her body starts sprouting spider limbs and everything is horrific and please go away
Mimi, I’d rather pass on your true form, please and thanks.
Worst part is, her previous forms’ lifeless body hangs from where her neck used to be.
For something so simple in design, it’s pretty darn scary, all things considered.
7 Maniac Mansion Rather than just having a specific moment,
Maniac Mansion is a game full of content that you wouldn’t normally expose children to.
A point and click game, Maniac Mansion follows the story of a group of kids who sneak into
a mad scientists’ mansion in an attempt to save their friend.
It’s a horror game, but because it was made for the NES, it had to be simmered down a
bit, with a lot of its initial content being removed or censored for the game’s final
release.
But some disturbing stuff still made the cut.
There’s a character in the mansion, the son of the mad scientist, whose name is Weird
Ed.
You can either befriend him, or just go into his room and steal his hamster.
From there, you either return it to Ed and apologize, or head on down to the kitchen
and toss it in the microwave.
As you can imagine, Ed doesn’t have the best of reactions.
6 Sonic CD While there are arguably a few moments throughout
the history of Sonic games that are utterly terrifying, and even mildly disturbing, like
Sonic’s drowning animation, there’s one particular aspect players of Sonic CD uncovered
that gave many a Sonic fan the chills.
Sonic CD had a bunch of hidden messages and screens, and this one in particular has gone
down as the creepiest.
This message though was unlockable by pressing Down, down, down, left, right A on the title
screen, and then entering these numbers into the sound test.
FM no 46, PCM number 12 and DA number 25, then press start.
This would bring up a screen with a deformed looking Sonic and some spooky sounding music,
with Japanese writing that translates to, Infinite Fun, Sega Enterprises, Image by Majin.
Now in the early days, the translation got butchered a bit, and the image by part was
often lost or paled in comparison to what people thought Majin meant.
Majin often translates into satan or the devil.
But turns out it’s just the nick name of developer who created that eerie deformed
sonic image that appears in the background.
All and all, it’s the developers having a laugh.
But to many, they believed it was a message from the devil, and that the infinite fun
one got from playing this Sega game would lead to darker events occurring.
5 Hell Valley Sky Trees – Super Mario Galaxy 2
This number is the subject of a Mario creepypasta that has made the rounds on the interwebs.
Known as the Hell Valley Sky Treees, these figures are an eerie texture that appears
atop the hills in Shiverburn Galaxy.
Initially it was believed that they were remains of a Hell Valley Galaxy that was meant to
go in the final game but was ultimately removed.
But then in later Mario games, they reappeared, specifically Super Mario 3D Land in in world
4-4.
Here, they stand at the back corner at the end of the level, and players claim that they
scream.
Regardless of what Nintendo was trying to achieve by having these creepy figures within
the games, who knows, but they’re definitely not the happiest sight for players to encounter.
4 The Ghost Girl of Lumiose City – Pokemon X&Y
For a long time, fans of Pokemon X and Y were baffled over the Ghost Girl who appears in
the game in a building in Lumiose City.
Her presence was pretty haunting, and since at the time, for the most part, it was unexplained,
a lot of players got freaked out by it.
When you enter this specific building in Lumoise city, the game’s music will stop, the screen
flashes, and then a creepy pale girl walks by you, with her animation appearing as if
she’s floating.
Regardless of what you’ve done in the game, she will always say to you, “no, you’re
not the one” and then disappear.
There have been plenty theories that attempt to unravel the truth behind this mysterious
girl, and connect her to other events in other games as well.
But regardless of Game Freak and Nintendo’s intentions, needless to say, it’s a fairly
spooky moment in the game that has stuck with a lot of players, especially if they were
playing at night.
3 Giygas – Earthbound Giygas is the main antagonist in Earthbound,
and has gone down in the history books as one of the most horrifying villains in video
game history.
The character is an evil alien, who is also known as the embodiment of evil and the universal
cosmic destroyer, and oh boy, does it look exactly like that.
If, you know, you were to imagine what that looked like.
Anywho, the villain’s main objective in the game is to sentence all of reality to
the horror of infinite darkness.
Sounds charming, doesn’t it?
S*** gets really weird towards the last hour of the game, and when you finally head on
over to Giygas’ lair, the Devil Machine, you can’t help but notice that it looks
kind of like an endoscopic image of a woman’s cervix.
If you’re familiar with what an endoscopic image of a woman’s cervix looks like.
Well, now you are!
Giygas, during your battle, gradually turns into something that looks like a weird repetitive
fetus painting, which makes sense, considering you basically have to travel back in time
to a point when it’s the weakest in order to defeat it.
So basically, when it was a fetus.
Fun fact!
The game’s creator, Shigesato Itoi, based the antagonist on a childhood trauma he endured
when witnessing a horrific murder scene in a Japanese film called The Military Policeman
and the Dismembered Beauty.
2 The Moon in Majora’s Mask Majora’s Mask is arguably the most eerie
of the Legend of Zelda titles.
Many have gauged that the game is one big metaphor for death and the inevitably of time.
Each day, the moon moves closer to Termina during the narrative’s three day cycle,
with Link attempting to prevent the moon from crashing into it and killing everyone.
If you don’t manage to turn back time before the end of the third day in the game, this
will happen; the moon crashes into Termina, and it’s utterly horrific.
Also, just look at the Moon in general.
It’s the stuff of nightmare fuel.
1 Bottom of the Well – Ocarina of Time The bottom of the well is a level we’ve
discussed on many a list on our channel.
It’s because it’s so unpleasant.
While Ocarina of Time has its oddities and peculiarities, the bottom of the well takes
the cake when it comes to the unsettling.
For starters, you crawl through a small vent to access it, and all of the enemies you face
look like they’ve crawled right out of a horror film.
This only gets progressively worse, and when you finally come face to face with the level’s
boss, Dead Hand, you’re going to wish you had skipped the level altogether.
In addition to the horrors of Dead Hand, there’s also a room in the upper floor of the level
that contains a big wooden X with a puddle of blood beneath it.
It looks a whole lot like a saltire, which was a torture device, implying that perhaps
the bottom of the well is actually a torture chamber, located beneath the Kakariko Village.
There we have it friends!
Which of these games have you played?
And did these moments or levels creep you out?
Give us a shout in those comments ahead and let us know!
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