Feature: Top 10 Non-Horror Games That Have Accidentally Terrified Me

 

I have no problem admitting that I'm a complete and total wuss.  In fact, you could scare me with a Beanie Baby if you approached me from behind.  Because of this, I also feel no shame when I say that sometimes video games make me yelp like a helpless child.  However, sometimes non-scary games surprise me the most.  When I play these games, my guard is dropped, and I'm soon slapped in the face with the cold hard reality that is my feeble courage.

Pyramid Head is nothing compared to this.

   

I like to believe that some of my experiences are shared by others.  However, sometimes I just have to admit that I'm a wimp when something seemingly innocent scares the crap out of me.



#10: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
There shouldn't be anything wrong with this game, right?  Nothing scary, at least.  Sure, orcs and skeletons can be unnerving, but those guys have been around for a while, right?  They've gained enough exposure to the point where they're not really scary anymore.  You'd be right in saying that, but that's not the reason this game still manages to make me jump every once in a while.

It's not the monsters or the dark dungeons that make me scared.  Nope, it's the guards and the citizens.

Cue puppy-like whimpering.

Now give me a chance to explain.  I'm sure those who have played this game understand me when I say that the townsfolk can act a little odd when you talk to them.  They never break eye contact, and all have the same thing to say!

This small dip into the Uncanny Valley is what really makes me nervous when I play this game.  I could be on a quest that requires me to break into someone's house in order to find evidence of something.  If I mess things up and start picking a lock while a guard is around, my heart starts racing.  Nothing in this game makes me jump more than the sudden close-up of a man in armor yelling at my face.

Actually, I lied.  There is one other thing that freaks me out, but it follows the same concept.  You know when a villager has something to say to you, and they make a beeline for you just so they can give you a quest?  Yeah, that scares me.

This lady wants to tell me something, but I can't back away fast enough!  NOOO!

Even to this day, this sometimes freaks me out.  The NPCs have this dead-eyed look as they lumber towards you like a robot.  Then, when they get to you, the game does that sudden close-up thing where you're looking directly into their face.  This doesn't make me scream, per se, but it does make me shiver nervously...


#9:  The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
When you look at all of the colors in this game, there's no way you would think that it could strike fear into your heart.  This is what I was led to believe as I was playing it.  To the game's credit, it does a good job of not terrifying players, save for one certain aspect...

 

 Oh sweet mother of all things weak-hearted!

The enemy trains in Spirit Tracks were quite possibly the most terrifying enemies I've encountered in a handheld game.  These little spawns of Satan would be cruising around the train tracks on a designated path, so you never usually had much to worry about.  However, during those times when I had to cross their lines of fire, I would clutch my DS until my knuckles turned white. 

See, when one of these bad boys got on your tail during your travels, you freakin' knew it, because this little ditty would start up.  The instant this music starts to play, you know your life is on the line.  One small bump from them causes your entire train to explode and brings up an instant "Game Over" screen.  This was terrifying for me if I hadn't saved in a while.

Oh God!  Oh God!  Oh God!

The worst part about these less-than-high-speed chase scenes was the fact that you had a limited number of ways to avoid such a terrible fate.  You could only take turns when they were available on your path of tracks.  If you're on a straightaway with an enemy train that's invulnerable to cannon shots, you're pretty much screwed, as the enemies always travel ever so slightly faster than you do.  This brings on a slowly onset sense of dread, as the Demon Train from Hell takes its sweet time to plow you over.

...And don't even get me STARTED on those trains that turn around if you're behind them...


#8:  Home Alone 2
I don't expect many people to have played this game.  Heck, I hardly even remember it myself.  However, what comes into my mind when I think about it makes me remember why I never wanted to play the game as a kid.   From what I can recall, the beginning of the game centers around sneaking past staff members in a hotel.  If you were seen, you had to run like the dickens to get away.  This aspect of the game made me whimper as a child.  The blocky way the enemies moved as they pursued you was enough to get my heart racing.

Get AWAY from me!!  Gaaaaaahhhhh!

When a staff member caught you, it was an instant game over.  Thus, these chase scenes were intense for 5-year-old me.  When I saw a maid or some guy in a suit come out of an elevator, I pretty much crapped my pants and ran the other way.

#7:  Detective Barbie
After thinking about certain games years after I've played them, I often laugh at what scared me so much as a child.  This game is never a part of those moments.  In fact, the more I think about Detective Barbie, the more I slowly come to realize how freaky the game really is.  You play as Barbie, who's looking for a kidnapper.  By herself.  In a carnival.

An abandoned carnival is never a good setting for a game made for little girls.

There are clowns on the walls of the funhouse and creepy dolls on the shelves in the magic tent.  Every once in a while, you'll catch a glimpse of a faceless man in a trench coat peeking around corners and running down alleyways.  And you will have to follow him!  This game was like a PG-rated horror flick, and I had nightmares about it after playing it on several occasions.  Curse you, Barbie, and your deceptive ways of corrupting my childhood...


#6: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
(***KIND OF A PRETTY BIG SPOILER COMING UP***)
I knew what I was getting into when I picked this up.  It was a game about murder mysteries.  Of course it was going to be intense once in a while.  I enjoyed this feeling of tension throughout the game for the most part, except for one rather chilling moment...

In the third case, you are solving the mystery behind the murder of a famous singer's bodyguard.  Things seem pretty standard for most of the case, until you attempt to visit the singer for additional information.  She was supposed to be found in the stadium where she sang during the night of the murder.  However, when you get there, something is horribly, horribly wrong.

This chick's about to get a lot freakier...

The lights are out, and everything is pitch black.  No big deal, just turn them back on.  Wait, where's the singer?  And what's that sticking out of...OH HOLY SWEET JESUS!

Sadly, I could not find a picture of what happened, but imagine the woman above stuffed into a bass case, and presumably dead.  The game forced me to examine the case, which had a "mysterious piece of blue fabric" sticking out.  I knew in my gut what it probably was, but I was still shocked to see it.  That part remains to be one of the most unnerving moments in the Ace Attorney series for me.


#5:  Hotel Dusk: Room 215
(***A WILD SPOILER APPEARED!***)    
The majority of Hotel Dusk involves you searching around a seedy hotel for clues to a mystery.  You talk with staff members and locals, making a few friends and enemies along the way.  It plays out like a simple mystery novel, which doesn't exactly call for a "scary" atmosphere.  However, with such a peaceful ambiance and a slow-paced story, I was surprised when Hotel Dusk was able to unnerve me during the later portions of the game.

 You also do puzzles.  This game gets scary at some point, right?

When looking for a mysterious painter (notice I said "painter," not "murderer."  Nothing scary here), you come across the man's underground workshop.  It was an interesting place, filled with all sorts of books and old equipment.  Suddenly, you hear footsteps coming your way.  The person walking by, instead of entering the room, closes the door and locks it from the outside.

Well shoot, that's a tad inconvenient, isn't it?  I guess you'll have to find a way out.  Take your time...NOT!  Just kidding!  That door?  Yeah, it's air locked.  You've got a matter of minutes before you keel over and die from a lack of air, buddy.

You go from examining couches to dying of asphyxiation.  That's quite a leap.

You had better believe this put me on edge.  Every now and then when I examined something, I would get an update from Kyle saying how he was doing.  It would often go something like "Gasp!  I can't stay here much longer.  Have to get out..."  His quips would get progressively more desperate as he lost more air.  My heart was racing, as it truly was a terrifying way for the man to die (and yes, he would die if you weren't able to get out in time).

What made it worse was the fact that never, throughout the entire game, was Kyle's life ever threatened.  Worst case scenario, he was kicked out of the hotel.  So, as he was losing consciousness in that underground dungeon, I pretty much flipped out trying to figure out what to do.


#4:  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
I'm a little late to the party on this one.  I never played OoT until a few years ago, on the VC.  So, I guess I'm a little late when I say, "Holy sweet and salty steak sauce what is WRONG with those ZOMBIE THINGS?"

"Why won't you love me?..."

When I first saw these things, my first impression of them was, "Oh hey!  It's those zombie things from Super Smash Bros. Melee!  So this is what they're from.  Man, those things were kinda annoying in that game.  I wonder if they're hard to kill in this one."  So, in my ignorance, I decided to approach the demon.  Whereupon it looked at me and let out the most spine-tingling screech I've ever heard in a video game.

 I'm thoroughly convinced Nintendo made these enemies to traumatize little children.

I won't even go into the way this abomination goes about attacking Link, though I'm sure many of you are already familiar with it's...ehm..."fighting style."  Strange-looking or otherwise, this foul creature scared the crap out of me, and I literally stopped playing the game for about a week after encountering them for the first time.  Thank god I haven't seen them in any of the future installments I've played.

#3: Monster Hunter Tri
I never would have guessed that a game like this would have scared me.  I mean, if you just look at the box art, you'd realize that it was your standard adventure game, filled with awesome looking monsters and comically over-sized weapons.

No one looks at this and anticipates getting a heart attack while playing it.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm a very jumpy guy when it comes to pretty much anything (if that wasn't already painfully obvious).  This game seems to attempt to generate the excitement of hunting monsters that attack you at random.  Ok, fair enough.  That sounds pretty interesting.  After all, if the designers wanted to create a breathing environment, they would have to have those giant monsters naturally lumbering all over the place, right?  Sure, I get that.  However, it's the way they go about doing this that drives my heart rate up.

You could be walking around in an area, harvesting some mushrooms or something, and you decide to travel over to a new area, maybe to do some mining or something.  Suddenly, when you're about to transfer over to a new area...BAM!  A huge monster just happens to transfer over to YOUR area, right in front of your face!

"OH HAI THERE!"

Right of the bat, you go from gentle nature ambiance to this.  Yeah sure, the music sounds pretty invigorating and exciting, but that initial blast of orchestral music makes me jump every single freakin' time!   I'll never feel safe harvesting mushrooms ever again, as I'll always be expecting a giant dinosaur with a back-up stringed quartet to surprise me when I turn the corner. #2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 I am almost 100% positive that someone out there shares my sentiments for a certain level in this game.  You know exactly which one I'm talking about. Yup. This level was the sole reason I never beat this game as a child.  As soon as the purple water started rising, I would crap myself with fear.  I knew that it was only a matter of time before this terrifying tune started playing.  Once that happened, all bets were off.  My eyes would bulge wildly, my hands would shake, and my whole body would shiver.  I knew that I had mere seconds before Sonic drowned, and there was little to no chance that I'd make it out alive if I wasn't already past a certain point. As a child, I would always fail at getting past this part, and the oncoming sense of peril always scared the crap out of me once the music kicked in.  It was like repeatedly getting zapped by a defibrillator every time I retried the level and was subjected to those demonic notes. #1: Jak and Daxter Several games have scared me when they shouldn't have.  However, there has been only one game to flat-out traumatize me.  For the most part, Jak and Daxter is an innocent looking game.  The world is colorful and full of funny characters.  The architecture of the whole island is endearing and interesting to look at.  However, on the outskirts of the world lies a terrible, terrible secret that every child discovers early on in the game if he or she becomes too curious...A word of advice: Don't swim into deep water.  EVER. "Aw, it can't be that ba-HOLY GOD SWIM AWAY!  SWIM AWAY!!! Instead of bordering the world with an invisible wall like a good lazy developer, Naughty Dog decided to prevent you from wandering off the map by putting a giant freakin' shark in the water.  When it comes, you'll know. First, you'll hear it: the unmistakable grunt of a beast beneath your kicking feet.  The sound of a heartbeat slowly creeps into the background.  Then, you'll see it: the terrifying figure of a Lurker Shark powerfully swimming towards your helpless character.  The heartbeat grows faster as it gets closer.  By now, you've already had approximately 3 heart attacks and your pants are no longer dry.  At that point, it's already too late, and Jak is swallowed up in an instant.   The first time this happens, it can be pretty unnerving.  However, once you know the monster's there, you'll never look at open water in a video game the same way again.  I dreaded swimming for the rest of the game.  As a child, I eventually gained a fear of actual open water as well, all thanks to the Lurker Shark.  While today I may not have those same fears, I will still admit that encountering that beastie in the game several years later was still a terrifying experience that made me scream out loud.  Now I am always suspicious about swimming in any game.  My gaming innocence has been killed, and I know exactly who to thank.