Nightmare Fuel / The ClueFinders Reading Adventures Ages 9–12: Mystery of the Missing Amulet

• Malicia. She mutated and/or imprisoned all of the rightful inhabitants of the planet, kidnaps Santiago and Leslie at the beginning of the game, attempts to blackmail Joni and Owen for the amulet and implies that she is perfectly willing to kill her prisoners. For those unaware, Santiago is 12 while Leslie is only 10! There's also the fact that she wants that amulet in order to destroy....a lot of places; she says that when she's finished with Millennia, Earth is next on her list.
  • She gets a particularly chilling moment during a cut-scene in the portion of the game where Joni and Owen are making their way up the mountain to confront her. She remarks that even if they make it up to her, they'll give her the amulet. Santiango asks "Why would they give you what you want?" and she all but purrs "Because I have what they want: YOU."
• The game itself has a very eerie vibe. During the Therma gems and lava rock activities you see all sorts of scary creatures coming your way. Open up the map screen and rather than a map, you just get a four-armed snake creature who says "CHOOSE WHERE YOU WANT TO GO". The lava rock activities are especially bad - between the demonic monsters you encounter and the unholy looking flames in the background, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you somehow wandered straight into Hell.
• One of the stone-heads in the mystic mountain activities. His voice is very slow and he sounds quite threatening. His eyes just stare into your soul, as well as the fact that you have to feed him things and he makes nomming sounds. Of course, give him the wrong answer and he'll sound like he's choking or throwing up.