History NightmareRetardant / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' has The Pigmask attacking Saturn Valley and intimidating Mr. Saturns with a Frightbot, which tells scary stories such as [[spoiler: Pants-wettingly scary story. Bloodcurdling story. A story so scary you want to cover your ears. A story so scary you'll never go to the bathroom at night again. A bone-chillingly scary story. A story so incredibly scary that your teeth won't stop chattering. A spine-tingling story. A story so scary you couldn't help but laugh. A scary story with some deep, touching moments mixed in, and also might tell an accidentally tell a cute, funny story.]] Not only they did nothing on your characters, the Frightbot itself looks goofy.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'': In Act III, Azmodan takes command of the forces invading Bastion's Keep, and several times gloats to the [[PlayerCharacter Nephalem]] and their allies about how hopeless the situation is for them. Unfortunately, his tendency to announce his exact tactics also gives the Nephalem and company exact pointers on where they need to go next, allowing him to repeatedly thwart his strategies. As a result, he sounds less like an intimidating general and more like a GeneralFailure with a metaphorical "kick me" sign on his back. Then there's his boss fight, where he makes speeches about the gruesome things he intends to do to the "arrogant Nephalem"...except as he takes damage, he keeps interrupting his own speech to start a different line, so his boss fight in practice sounds something like "Arrogant Nephalem--ENOUGH!--Arrogant Nephalem--ENOUGH!", almost as if [[AintTooProudToBeg he's begging the player to stop]].

* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'': In Act III, Azmodan takes command of the forces invading Bastion's Keep, and several times gloats to the [[PlayerCharacter Nephalem]] and their allies about how hopeless the situation is for them. Unfortunately, his tendency to announce his exact tactics also gives the Nephalem and company exact pointers on where they need to go next, allowing him to repeatedly thwart his strategies. As a result, he sounds less like an intimidating general and more like a GeneralFailure with a metaphorical "kick me" sign on his back. Then there's his boss fight, where he makes speeches about the gruesome things he intends to do to the "arrogant Nephalem"...except as he takes damage, he keeps interrupting his own speech to start a different line, so his boss fight in practice sounds something like "Arrogant Nephalem--ENOUGH!--Arrogant Nephalem--ENOUGH!" - repeat until he explodes into loot.

* ''VideoGame/SpookysHouseOfJumpScares'' plays with this extensively. The villain's main motivation for collecting horrors is that she wanted to (innocently) scare people, but was too cute to do so. While several of the monsters that appear in the game are scary, the overall setting is deliberately not, and the ending likewise balances the two against each other.

* In ''[[VideoGame/WarioWare Game & Wario]]'''s "Gamer" stage, 9-Volt's mom goes all horror movie on her son, doing stuff like punching his windows open, [[Film/TheRing emerging through his TV]], and flailing on his bedroom floor to scare him. Much of the mood is caused by the eerily quiet atmosphere until she suddenly bursts in. However, you are also simultaneously playing loud and silly-looking games on the Wii U [=GamePad=] involving stuff like flattening dough or picking noses.

* ''NightmareRetardant/FiveNightsAtFreddys''
[[/index]]
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!!Individual examples:

* ''VideoGame/ArthursNightmare'' suffers from this, though it's hard to tell whether or not it was [[IntendedAudienceReaction intentional]].[[note]]While most of the game is played as a straightforward horror scenario, the backstory (involving a member of the original series' FanDumb) and the author's description of it as a "meme game" muddles the intention.[[/note]] To start with, every enemy in the game uses a flat picture of themselves (most obvious with [[spoiler:DW]], who is prominent in every single room from the third level on). While Arthur and [[spoiler:DW]] are altered enough from their original appearance to at least possibly be unnerving, [[spoiler:their parents]] use barely-edited pictures of themselves with TearsOfBlood poorly added (particularly non-scary since said trope is heavily frowned upon in {{creepypasta}} communities). Not helping is that their {{Jump Scare}}s' audio, while certainly [[SensoryAbuse loud]] enough to be startling, is either a "HEY!" from the show's ''theme song'' or [[spoiler:either parent yelling "ARTHUR!"]], neither of which is particularly frightening - it's along the lines of a WebAnimation/YouTubePoop.

!!Games/franchises with their own pages:

[[index]]
* ''NightmareRetardant/FiveNightsAtFreddys''
[[/index]]

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!!Individual examples:
* ''VideoGame/TheCallistoProtocol'': The ScrappyMechanic of the fighting system has been considered to severely diminish the horror of the enconters with the monstrous enemies. If the player is fighting one-on-one, enemies are so easy that the fear factor vanishes. Meanwhile, fighting more than one, because of the limitations of the combat system, makes them frustrating instead.
* ''VideoGame/Portal2'' has Wheatley tell a ghost story as you follow him over a conveyor belt full of mangled and crushed robot parts. Of course, Wheatley being [[TheDitz Wheatley]], it doesn't have quite the impact he intended it to have. There is a grain of truth in his story though. There is a room in Aperture, completely filled with screaming robots. [=GLaDOS=] built it for shits and giggles. [[spoiler: She contemplates sending Wheatley there for ten years after he's taken over her facility and [[ItMakesSenseInContext stuffed her in a potato]].]]
-->'''Wheatley:''' They say the old caretaker of this place went absolutely crazy. Chopped up his entire staff... of robots. All of them robots. They say at night you can still hear the screams... of their replicas. All of them functionally indistinguishable from the originals. No memory of the incident. Nobody knows what they're screaming about. Absolutely terrifying. Though obviously not paranormal in any meaningful way.
* ''Franchise/SilentHill'':
** In ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'', you are able to control the transition from the fog world to the nightmarish otherworld by touching a mirror. It significantly lessens the power of being transported to a nightmarish industrial Hell if you do it willfully and deliberately (or worse, go back and forth between worlds trying to figure out what to do next).
** Mind you, that at least feels congruous with the story there. It's not as bad as the Patients from ''VideoGame/SilentHill4: The Room''. They could have been scary, but due to the noise, they make when hit, well... Nothing like a monster that BELCHES when hit to derail the scary, folks!

* ''VideoGame/ClockTower3'' establishes several of its villains by re-enacting some of their most brutal murders ([[HarmfulToMinors one of which was done to a 12-year-old girl]]) in front of the player in a grotesque, stone-serious manner. Yet, many of the means to repel these killers consist of cartoonish and silly pratfalls, complete with wacky reaction shots. The fact that the creators tried to shoehorn humor into a game that otherwise is ''not'' presented as tongue-in-cheek spoils the horror they were hoping to foster, and the slapstick bits are made shockingly unfunny and inappropriate by the horrific violence that precedes them.
* Azrael from ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma'' is so frighteningly badass that even Hakumen hauls ass in any opposite direction. However, he loses points for seeing a battle with Bang Shishigami as a friendly match as well as [[spoiler:be captured twice by Kokonoe, once in the start of his story, the second at the end of his story.]]

* In ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'', there's Fulgore. He's a badass killer robot with long, sharp claws, [[RedEyesTakeWarning glowing red eyes]], and some of the goriest {{Finishing Move}}s in the game. He also makes elephant noises when you hit him.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' introduced the "fast zombies," truly terrifying monstrosities that looked like flayed, emaciated corpses, moved like wild baboons on speed and howled loudly in blood-curdling screams as they attacked you. Except one of the stock sound clips was taken from the title sequence of ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters''. The horrific screaming the headcrab zombies when they're set on fire is also hard to take as seriously when you look at one of many comments/videos on the internet about how it sounds like they're screaming [[MemeticMutation "YABBA! MY ICING!"]] And it turns right back into NightmareFuel [[spoiler:when someone else comments that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfsBFN8PC1s they're screaming "OH GOD HELP ME" backwards]]]]. However, [=DasBoSchitt=] turns this Nightmare Fuel right back again into this on the third and sixth episodes of WebAnimation/TheGmodIdiotBox.
* ''VideoGame/NightmareDoors'' is a satirical example of horror filled with this.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'': The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJYvCHm3Ov4 "Mansion Basement" theme]] from the soundtrack for the [[UpdatedRerelease DualShock]] version of [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil1 the first game]] tries to sound ominous, but instead sounds like someone playing a trombone while drunk.

* The indie horror game ''Forest'', being similar to ''VideoGame/{{Slender}}'', does have a generally creepy atmosphere but if you get caught by the ghost girl, you see she has the face of the [[Creator/{{Laina}} Overly Attached Girlfriend]].
* While the NightmareFace in the Japanese ''VideoGame/{{Slender}}''-style horror game ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-0jYuKrwHs&list=PLYsfDB-PuCZsJw7ZuWyZ94oDqtlzQYxMb Death Forest]]'' is genuinely terrifying on its own, the fact that it's just a 2D floating head using billboarding to constantly face the player sort of ruins the impact.
* In ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'', on the AmusementParkOfDoom, there are [[MonsterClown zombie clowns]]. Punch them in their faces, and their noses give off a hilarious little honk.
* ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'' has Shadows as its main enemies. They are supposed to be creepy and scary, being a mixture of hallucinations and zombies in the Other World. Unfortunately, they are mostly gray models that walk a little doo-hickey funny and their garbled speech is not as frightening as was likely intended. The only thing about them that could be terrifying is the wide, black mouth of theirs, which isn't visible up close enough to honestly leave an impact.
* An intentional example - The video game ''VideoGame/NightTrap'' was an FMV Game in the 90s where the filmers tried to invoke this trope. In fact, one of them even admitted that in one of the times you see the characters die, the augers take out a device that's so unrealistic and over the top that there's no way kids would ''ever'' try to replicate it. One of the directors even said that there were people laughing on the stage.
* In ''[[VideoGame/WarioWare Game & Wario]]'''s "Gamer" stage, 9-Volt's mom goes all horror movie on her son, doing stuff like punching his windows open, [[Film/TheRing emerging through his TV]], and flailing on his bedroom floor to scare him. Much of the mood is caused by the eerily quiet atmosphere until she suddenly bursts in. However, you are also simultaneously playing loud and silly-looking games on the Wii U [=GamePad=] involving stuff like flattening dough or picking noses.
* In Chapter 4 of ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', there's a whole bunch of hype leading up to the chapter's villain. When you first arrive, you learn that he had cursed the bell to turn Twilight Town's residents into pigs whenever it tolls. Even the mayor falls victim to the curse! When you venture into the forest to get to this monster, you come upon a very creepy church-like steeple. You fight through it to eventually reach the top... Only to find that the "monster" that was causing all this trouble is [[spoiler: a BedsheetGhost wearing a party hat and bowtie...]] Yeah, people laughed. However, he IS a real threat in that chapter and even becomes a recurring villain, as he [[spoiler:[[GrandTheftMe somehow switches bodies with Mario and steals his identity]], trapping Mario inside the solid purple body, unable to say his name]].
* How do you apply this to a NightmareSequence setpiece where you're locked inside an asylum/prison cell, while [[DescendingCeiling the ceiling]] and the walls move to make the space smaller and smaller, forcing you to stay close to the door, where the BigBad known for an InUniverse instant liquefaction touch is watching you? As ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]: Extraction Point'' shows us, wait [[GoodBadBugs for the collision physics to wonk up and glitch you through one of said moving walls]].

* In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'', the {{Bad Future}}s are exactly that: Eggman has taken over, and everything has either become mechanical, is in some state of decay, or both. Each Bad Future also looks appropriately bleak and depressing, with muted grays, browns, and olive-greens. However, nearly every enemy in a Bad Future is equally worn down, oftentimes comically so. For instance, a Tentou will normally chug along to the right, dropping explosive mines. A Tentou in a Bad Future will move a little bit slower, cannot drop mines, and looks tired out. A Sasori rolls around and will shoot at Sonic from [[BewareMyStingerTail its stinger tail]], but in a Bad Future, Sasori will just sit in front of Sonic and wiggle up and down.
* Alf-Layla-Wa-Layla from ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheSecretRings'' may look scary ([[BodyHorror his transformation isn't particularly pleasant to watch either]]), but the voice work for him just kills the scare factor. It tries to make him sound booming and powerful, but it just sounds like he inhaled a tank of helium, which has the unintended effect of making him sound like a petulant man child. Just try to listen to him say "The stories of this world are MINE!" without laughing.
* ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'': The Wendigo are meant to be absolutely terrifying, but can easily fall into this. The {{Wendigo}} is a creature that occurs when a human commits cannibalism; eating human flesh transforms them into a giant, creepy ''thing'' that has no lips or toes and the skin is pulled away from the teeth. Sounds utterly dreadful, but the Wendigo in this game don't come across like that. Mostly because they stumble and squirm around by walking on all fours and looking like clumsy spiders. There's also the case of [[spoiler:Wendigo Hannah]] still walking around with underwear on.

* ''VideoGame/SpookysHouseOfJumpScares'' plays with this extensively. The villain's main motivation for collecting horrors is that she wanted to (innocently) scare people, but was too cute to do so. While several of the monsters that appear in the game are scary, the overall setting is deliberately not, and the ending likewise balances the two against each other.
* The introduction of the [[BossInMookClothing Gekko]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' is done like a horror movie, where they are heard in the distance by soldiers before showing up and effortlessly (and gorily) slaughtering the entire squad. Because the Gekko moo like cows, however, the scene fails to be even the least bit frightening or tense.
* ''VideoGame/ArthursNightmare'' suffers from this, though it's hard to tell whether or not it was [[IntendedAudienceReaction intentional]].[[note]]While most of the game is played as a straightforward horror scenario, the backstory (involving a member of the original series' FanDumb) and the author's description of it as a "meme game" muddles the intention.[[/note]] To start with, every enemy in the game uses a flat picture of themselves (most obvious with [[spoiler:DW]], who is prominent in every single room from the third level on). While Arthur and [[spoiler:DW]] are altered enough from their original appearance to at least possibly be unnerving, [[spoiler:their parents]] use barely-edited pictures of themselves with TearsOfBlood poorly added (particularly non-scary since said trope is heavily frowned upon in {{creepypasta}} communities). Not helping is that their {{Jump Scare}}s' audio, while certainly [[SensoryAbuse loud]] enough to be startling, is either a "HEY!" from the show's ''theme song'' or [[spoiler:either parent yelling "ARTHUR!"]], neither of which is particularly frightening - it's along the lines of a WebAnimation/YouTubePoop.

* ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'': [[BigBad Alexander]]'s face when you look at his portrait with the SanityMeter below 50% is a legitimately horrifying sight... until you see how similar it looks to a [[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Creeper]]'s face.
* ''VideoGame/TheClueFindersReadingAdventuresAges912MysteryOfTheMissingAmulet'' has one section in which you have to feed the stone head (speaking in a very slow, low pitched, and raspy voice) reading comprehension answers. Sure enough, if you give it the wrong answer, it'll sound like it's choking or throwing up, making it humorous.
* In ''VideoGame/ArmoryAndMachine'', all the BodyHorror monsters in the Bio Swamp (Weeping Hunchback, Irradiated Sore, Vomiting Behemoth, Mound of Despair and the boss Writhing Mass) are intended to be frightening with horrifying attacks such as self-evisceration, sloughing their flesh off or writhing in agony. However, the lack of any images plus the frequency of the monsters using self-harm moves and doing absolutely nothing with their other moves[[note]]with one exception being the Vomiting Behemoth's Form Tank, which hits for an extremely laughable 10 damage in a game where you start with 600 HP[[/note]] takes away most of the horror and makes them seem like comically inept buffoons instead.

* ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' has The Pigmask attacking Saturn Valley and intimidating Mr. Saturns with a Frightbot, which tells scary stories such as [[spoiler: Pants-wettingly scary story. Bloodcurdling story. A story so scary you want to cover your ears. A story so scary you'll never go to the bathroom at night again. A bone-chillingly scary story. A story so incredibly scary that your teeth won't stop chattering. A spine-tingling story. A story so scary you couldn't help but laugh. A scary story with some deep, touching moments mixed in, and also might tell an accidentally tell a cute, funny story.]] Not only they did nothing on your characters, the Frightbot itself looks goofy.
* The first ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' game features a boss fight with giant [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ursula]]. The setting is appropriately intimidating, being trapped underwater in a dark, swirling abyss with an enemy a great many times larger than you, but the fear factor is diminished somewhat by Ursula herself. Her eyes follow Sora as he swims around the arena, which is a good effect when it works, but she'll often go cross-eyed or look in two different directions at once when Sora gets close enough to attack. Some players like to take her [[BossBanter repeated taunts of "This won't be pretty!"]] as a warning of incoming derp faces.
* The next to last foe faced in ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', [[spoiler:the SA-X in a monstrous form]], has a horrifying appearance, but its only attack is easy to avoid and it goes down in 3-4 hits, which limits the scariness it could have had. Its Core-X form afterwards is actually more dangerous than the monster itself.