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NightmareFuel: Video Games
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I feel g...o...o...d...
READY! TO DIE
Some computer and video games are supposed to be scary, but that's okay because we as player characters have the power to destroy The Legions Of Hell. These examples, however, leave us wondering what the hell the script writers were thinking.
This can often occur while braving Big Boos Haunt during the Night Of The Living Mooks. Also, while not quite the same thing, many Demonic Spiders can lead to nightmares.
Examples:
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Kirby Games
- All of the games in the Kirby series has something in the final bosses that makes them spooky, despite the rest of the games being cute and colorful:
- An Enemy in the Kirby games named Scarfy is a cute happy flying creature that resembles Kirby, until you turn your back to it or try to eat it, in which it shows a demented mouth and a single eye and attempts to eat Kirby...
- Worse yet, in Kirby Super Star Ultra's minigame revenge of the king, all the enemies are given different sprites. Scarfy is replaced with an apple that turns into a Red Jack-o-lantern-like apple.
- Kirby's Dreamland features MT Dedede as the final level. In this stage, you need to fight through remade versions of the levels, and at the end, you find.... a clone of Kirby pacing back and forth? You need to pop this to open the door, I am dead serious...
- Kirby's Dreamland 2 features Dark Matter, the Black Eye that possesses things, he possesses Dedede as the fake final Boss. If you don't get the good ending, Dark Matter is listed as "!?" and Kine is acting rather odd...
- When fighting Dark Matter, he first appears as a Samurai, and shoots energy swords and throws an orb. After defeating the Samurai, he turns into his eye form and attacks with black lightning from his pupil.
- In later games, a possessed King Dedede will open his stomach forming a mouth with part of his clothes becoming teeth.
- It's not just a mouth, either. It also is an eye at times. An eye that shoots out blobs of darkness. Even though this troper knew in advance her favorite character was going to end up with these same lovely additions in Kirby 64, this was one of the biggest "do not want" moments she had playing the Kirby games.
- Kirby's Adventure (And the updated version "Nightmare in Dreamland") features the Nightmare who attempts to take over Dreamland to rid it of any and all dreams. At first you fight Nightmare as an orb which attacks similar to another boss in the series (Kaboola/Kabula) only, this fight is timed. If you take too long, The orb escapes, and Kirby crashes into the planet. The music played in the NES version is downright creepy as well.
- Kirby's Dream Land 3 features the bad end showing Dark Matter as "!?" and this time, you not only fight Dark Matter, you also fight 0 (Zero) who is a white eye who attacks by cutting slashes across its eye and shooting blood. After depleting his health bar the first time, his pupil bursts out of the body in a fountain of blood and begins chasing Kirby.
- Kirby Super Star features the minigame "Revenge of Meta Knight" In which Meta Knight attempts to take over Dreamland. After defeating Meta Knight, you have a time limit to get off the ship while Meta Knight is chasing you, going apparently insane as he angrily hurls swords at you. He enters this segment by shouting "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!!"
- In Kirby Super Star Ultra, they toned down Meta Knight's fury.
- Kirby Super Star's subgame "Milky Way Wishes" features the final boss: Marx, who is at first a cute guy bouncing on a ball. Once Kirby awakes Nova to wish for the Sun and Moon to stop fighting, Marx transforms into a relatively demonic form and attempts to take over the planet. However, he isn't as bad as Kirby Super Star Ultra's final boss...
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl's remix of Marx's theme also sounds both creepy and sad at the same time, not unlike the themes for the first part of Subspace and the themes for both Melee and Brawl's versions of Final Destination.
- Kirby 64 features 02 (Zero Two) who is similar to 0, and mimics the blood shot attack, and the Floating White Eye design, only he is an angel now. Also, his concept art shows his eye bleeding.
- Not only that, Word Of God confirmed it's the vengeful spirit of 0.
- His stage is made out of an hexagonal, cell-like structure. And the place where you fight him has inexplicable bar codes in the background... Not to mention that, after you destroy its halo, a green root-like spike with thorns around it that "bleeds" poisonous gas will come out from below it.
- Kirby 64 also has a factory stage on Shiver Star featuring evil machines with demented smiles, animal parts in test tubes, and one segment where you fight a bird on fire in a lava pit.
- It's even worse when you take into consideration that when you take a closer look at the planet, it looks suspicciously like Earth.
- Dark Mind's second form in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror first mimics Nightmare, but then attacks as a flaming version of 0 (holy crap!)
- Kirby and the Amazing Mirror also features Dark Meta Knight who attempts to kill Kirby, splits him into four, seals the old Meta Knight in Dark Mind Orb's Realm, and then challenges, and is defeated by Kirby. The creepiest thing about him, is when he dies, he shatters like a piece of glass.
- Once again in Amazing Mirror is a gray-colored Kirby, who occasionally appears with a creepy musical entrance. Hitting him yields an item.
- Not so creepy if you played the whole game, as it turns out that he's just Mirror Kirby, who is trying to save HIS world. That's why he drops the items.
- Kirby Super Star Ultra features Kracko's Revenge and Kracko Jr's revenge. Both of these are well-known bosses in the series with an updated attack pattern, however, looking close, Kracko's Revenge's eye resembles 0 (Zero) yet again.
- The final boss of the True Arena, Marx Soul is an updated version of Marx, who looks more demented and insane than regular Marx, and attacks in a similar attack pattern as Drawcia from Canvas Curse (Reusing her Paint Barrage and Big Bang attacks). Marx Soul splits in half to use these attacks, and when you defeat him, he lets out a horrible, ear-raping scream as he splits in half, and each half explodes.
- You can watch yourself [1]
. The death cry is at 3:10 . That death animation/scream will stay with me until the day I die.
- Actually the Marx death scream is in the sound test. Check 347 in the sounds if you dare!
- Also from the True Arena, the rest area for the Final Four. As if the overcast sky with lightning and menacing coliseum in the background weren't freaky enough, the music could probably be described as "[[{{Pokémon}} Ruins of Alph radio signal]] cranked up to 11".
- Super Star Ultra also features the battle with Masked Dedede who attacks with a huge menacing mask that looks like the headgear from the original Saw, a large mechanical hammer, and an electric caged arena.
- Again in Super Star Ultra, Wham Bam Jewel, who appears in the background and attacks after defeating Wham Bam Rock in Helper to Hero (unlike in The True Arena, where you fight him right off the bat). His face is living rather than made of stone, and every time you hit him, his face goes to a distressed look before going to an evil look.
- Another in Super Star Ultra, Galactic Knight. He is the series badass like Meta Knight, but NOVA's description of him said "He was sealed away because of his great power"; you are fighting a godlike being! After defeating him, he flies around as if having a seizure before blowing up...
- Kirby Squeak Squad features Dark Nebula, which is an evil black star that possesses things. After defeating Daroach, He attacks for real after you catch him... Also, his Japan name is Dark Zero...
- In Canvas Curse, the final boss, Drawcia, is a paint-themed witch. Not so scary, until she goes One Winged Angel and turns into a living, screaming, multi-eyed paint monster. Every time she shrieks, this troper shivers uncontrollably. You'll have to see it for yourself
to really get it.
- For Midna, this would be the "death" sequence as Kirby in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (if you run out of health). The scenery fades to black and Kirby stumbles around, then falls down a loud, slow version of the regulation Kirby death music appears out of nowhere
. Just thinking about it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
- Try losing on the boss rush. There's something terrible about a red-tinted screen showing Kirby and his allies looking depressed.
Final Fantasy Games
- This troper remembers his sister nearing the end of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. She said she was about to beat it. Shortly thereafter, she came running out of the bedroom, scared. At that point, she was deathly afraid of spiders, which is the final form of the final boss. Seeing the transformation resulted in her deleting her save file so she didn't have to see it again.
- This troper admits that the Gizamaluke boss fight in Final Fantasy IX was a nightmare for him as he did not have Steiner or Vivi in his team at the time.
- Whoa, back up...how did you NOT have Vivi? He was a pre-assigned character at this point. (I happened to be playing this exact part last night) Steiner is correct though; he's on the divergent path with Garnet, heading back to Alexandria at this juncture.
- The theme that plays when you get to beat Trance Kuja and meet Necron is disturbing as well. That sad, mournful tune that played with all that moaning in the background? Creepy as all get-go when you're ten or so.
- In Final Fantasy X, Yunalesca's fight was pretty traumatizing. Particularly because you're basically fighting on a tiny piece of land surrounded by nothing but space, partially the screeching quasi-industrial fight tune, and
partially almost entirely since she turns into the creepiest One Winged Angel in videogame history. I dare you to watch the beginning and 4:15 without flinching
- This is what went through my mind fightning her, "Nothing too bad...Okay, there's some tentacles now, a little creepy...WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"
- Also in Final Fantasy X, Anima
. Just...every last thing about her.
- This troper thought watching Crusaders get reduced to black particles on a white screen at Operation Mi'ihen was the one of most disturbing things she'd ever seen. Then Tidus started doing their autopsies.
- The Chocobo Eater. Just the idea that there is something out there that eats chocobos is terrifying, and just before the fight it picks one up.
- Once you finally get inside Sin, there's a cutscene where the characters marvel at how surprisingly beautiful it looks in there... then suddenly it turns dark, an Evil Laugh is heard and you see a brief-but-horrible extreme close-up of Seymour Guado, complete with Giant Eye Of Doom. Made even worse for this Troper because she's had actual nightmares about said villain.
- This troper personally found Yuna being separated from Tidus such a nightmare it actually reduced him to tears. I thought Tidus was an idiot, but Yuna had spent the entire game warmly thinking of everybody but herself. Watching a woman who's only desire for herself was to spend the peace she earned with the only man she had ever loved was heartbreaking to watch. Of course, some might say X-2 rewarded her with the happy ending she deserved. Others, like me, thought she deserved a better game...
- On the subject of Final Fantasy IX, Atomos can be extremely unnerving and more than a little frightening. After watching it tear apart Lindblum, this troper never summoned it in battle. Ever.
- Frankly, Zorn and Thorn's true form Meltigemini may give Yunalesca a run for her money for creepy One Winged Angels. Their Exorcist-esque spasms when they transform is pretty damn creepy too.
- There are two trademark monsters of the Final Fantasy series that are very creepy, Tonberries and Molboros. Tonberries are genuinely unnerving hooded goblin like monsters with typically enormous health, that would slowly stalk the characters with a oversized butcher's knife until it got close enough to immedietly deliver a one-hit kill, while Molboros are hideous and monstrous masses of tentacles and eyeballs with enormous gaping mouths that would either breathe a horrible gas attack that would more often than not wipe out an entire team with status effects or would simply devour and digest characters whole.
- Throw in a note of Body Horror with, if I recall, in FFXII, the notes on King Marlboros say they were once human, but transformed into that lovely visage after putting on the former Marlboro's cursed crown.
- While this troper thinks Tonberries are cute, I still hate that stupid monster-in-a-box in Final Fantasy VI with three Master Tonberries inside. I always forget it's there, and I'm never strong enough to beat them.
- Adel from Final Fantasy VIII. The fact that she's a giant man-woman who has the face of and moves like a monster is creepy enough, but it gets worse when the lifeless body of Rinoa is attached to her chest and she thrusts it upward to suck Rinoa's life away. And if all that wasn't enough, when you defeat her, the ending cinematic displays her face getting blown off before she falls on her kness to dissolve.
- Pretty much every scene with JENOVA in Final Fantasy VII freaked this troper out to at least some extent. But then again, considering who was following it around, it was probably the point to give you nightmares.
- This troper curses Final Fantasy VII's flawless emulation of a slow, pulsing heart in "Those Chosen By the Planet." He still fears that Sephiroth might jump out of his television and choke him to death any time the tune plays.
- This troper was deathly afraid to use the submarine out of a fear of running into Emerald WEAPON.
- Also, he spent very little time in the Forest of the Ancients, mainly due to the huge Venus flytraps within the area. He tried to walk by once, and SNAP! Screen flashes red, Cloud gets chewed for a few seconds. This troper's reaction? "AAAAAHHHHH!!"
- Another Troper was level grinding in the sunken Gelnika... which is pretty creepy in and of itself, before deciding to return to the surface... AND IT WAS RIGHT(Censored)THERE, SO CLOSE THAT THE BATTLE STARTED INSTANTLY... then I died...
- The freaking Yin-Yang that you have to fight in the room where you find Vincent. Not only does it look like a zombie, but anytime it uses an attack, you have to sit there for a minute and watch it twitch in a disturbing fashion. A number of the other Shinra Mansion monsters were also freaky.
- Helletic Hojo. OMG HELLETIC HOJO. Thank God the battle wasn't too hard by that point, or I would have resorted to cheat codes just to get that abomination off the screen faster.
- Kefka in Final Fantasy VI isn't too nightmarish aside from the Monster Clown fashion, as even his Kick The Dog moments are done with gleefully over-the-top flair and humor. But during the final battle, he's a little... excited. Say what you will about some final bosses' nightmarish One Winged Angel forms, at least none of THEM are sporting a poorly concealed erection during the climactic battle. Behold.
◊ Or don't, we completely understand.
- Still, his laugh SFX does not fail to bring chills even 14 years down the line.
- Another case of Your Mileage May Vary, as this troper loves that sound effect and thinks it rounds out the character beautifully. Uwee-hee-hee!
- Speaking of SFX, the scene after the three-team battle in the fields of Narshe provide a bit of Nightmare Fuel. Right after the fight, your team goes to examine the esper they just saved. However, everyone aside from Terra is blown away by the esper's power, all of them either knocked out or hanging off the edge of a cliff. Then a faux battle starts, complete with creepy music, and Terra transforms into another being entirely. Battle ends, Terra spins around a bit, and then unleashes a BLOODCURDLING scream and flies away. That last part scared the living SHIT out of This Troper on his first time playing the game, as he had been listening to it on headphones, and had the volume cranked way up. The fact that the scream was preceded by several seconds of absolute silence did NOT help one bit.
- Some of the enemy sprites in this game are pretty nasty, even though a lot of them are just recolors of eachother. Humpties are pretty grotesque, looking like round, wrinkly, naked humanoid shapes. The Brainpan looks absolutely drug-induced, like a giant saggy bald head, and Crullers resemble huge, twisting tentacles covered in discolored tumors. Try imagining some of this stuff from our heroes' point of view.
- For this troper, it's the World of Ruin music, with that bone-scrapingly discordant pipe organ. Related to that, discovering Narshe has become a ghost town in the World of Ruin. Its inhabitants decimated except for that one old man, the mines left abandoned and filled with monsters, and that CREEPY ASS MUSIC driving it all home... this troper could not get through those damn mines fast enough.
- This troper is afraid to open chests in Final Fantasy IV due to a few instances of opening a chest, expecting an item, only to be met with "Monsters!" and an enemy battle.
- The Seeq Berserker in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Put on some pants!
- Probably doesn't help that in one mission, you fight a gang of goblins that have stolen some things that involve the Head Editor and his Owner (Both are the Seeq race, Ranger and Berserker class). The Head Editor is glad to get his owner's underwear back, only to discover there's tons of holes in it. You don't need me to tell you about Seeq minus its underwear.
- Also, Moogle Jugglers have the Monster Clown thing going for them.
- The animation for the doom and death spells has taken a turn for the traumatizing, in the first FFTA the animation would involve a spooky but cartoony-looking Grim Reaper to come and attack them. In the second game? The character's soul would rise out of their body and 3D inky black spectres with real looking skulls would sweep in from the bottom of the screen while speaking backwards and whisk the soul away! Also try casting the Scion's wrath ability Condemation without flinching.
- By the way, the death spell ghost things are saying: "I'll be taking this."("this" being your immortal soul). And they aren't saying it backwards, they just have really creepy voices. How do phoenix downs even heal THAT.
- My guess? The Judge swoops down and beats up the ghosts with his sword of lawful RIGHTEOUSNESS, takes the soul, and puts it back. After all, it's his job to keep these fights safe.
- It doesn't help that if you've played FFXII and read the lore in the monsterpedia, you know that the woman attached to Zalera was some sort of shamaness that the esper fused to himself and is now using as some sort of grotesque puppet. The chilling scream that rings out during the animation for Condemnation is the aural manifestation of her never-ending torment at the hands of her Cosmic Horror master. Happy nightmares.
- Also Cúchulainn's Blight could be nightmare fuel for some people, what with him jumping up in the air, jigglying around his fat only to have a scorpion tale burst out of his back, strike the ground and poison the surrounding environment.
- Other Scions aren't much better, for the record. Belias was made as a half-man, half-Gyigas creation to be used as a guardian...which was promptly deemed a reject. Mateus isn't the woman, but rather the fish thing behind, as the woman was an ice goddess he took hostage. Not that it mattered, as, with Zalera, to take him out, they took out the hostage as well. Chaos was built to be immortal, by dying and being reborn consistently. Cuchulainn was designed to devour all the impurity in the world, and ended up being bloated and corrupted. Seriously, they are all kinda messed up.
- The Evil Eye
◊ monster in Final Fantasy always has and always will creep me out. You think you can just step forwards and take the Floater, but bam! Trigger tile'd into a battle against that creepy thing. I overlevel every time just so I don't have to spend time fighting it.
- From one of the bonus dungeons in Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls, you find yourself in a dark-as night city, populated by a bunch of zombies that do not attack you—instead, they're exactly like NPCs like you'd see in any other town, only they move half the normal speed, they have greyish skin, and apparently they're in incredible amounts of pain, given what they say when you talk to them (the only thing my subconscious is letting me remember right now is a woman that says "Why... is this happening... to us? We did... nothing wrong..."). Some of the town's people, meanwhile, have been turned to stone (and after they're turned back to normal, they tell you that they were aware of what was happening), and a soldier next to the door to the boss begs you to go in and save them, saying, "Do it...it's the only way..." Oh, and did I mention that the Game Over music is being played the entire time?! A lot of the stuff mentioned on these pages that This Troper had previously encountered didn't really bothered him until he was "encouraged" to think about it, but this creeps me out just thinking about it.
- Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles has a major one in the form of Tida; a village that was destroyed because their caravan failed. In other words, it's quite clearly pointing out that this is exactly what will happen to your village if you fail, even more so because Tida looks so much like Tipa (the name of your village). The entire place is covered in an eerie grey light, which adds to the creepy irony of seeing the sign at the entrance which reads "Welcome to Tida, the Sunniest Village Anywhere!" It gets worse the farther you go in, especially as most enemies here (that aren't worms twice the size of your character) are highly humanoid undead. Take a wild guess what that implies.
- Final Fantasy X-2's Bonus Dungeon has Elder Drakes which can wipe you out without breaking a sweat unless you've been Level Grinding like mad. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, as there's always the Flee command... except, it doesn't work on fiends you can see before you fight them. You have to time your run perfectly to avoid them, and they keep jumping out at you - and the noises they make as they pounce... *shudder*
- This Troper would like to introduce you to Mateus: The Corrupt
◊ from Final Fantasy XII. Simple enough in design, nothing Nightmare Fuel to it, right? Guess what - the actual Mateus is the strange construct - that woman on it is actually a goddess of Ice bound to Mateus' form as a LIVING SHIELD. This Troper nearly had a brain aneurysm after discovering that her favourite looking summon was actually a stealer of bodies for his own purpose.
- Reading the supplementary flavor text in Final Fantasy XII is an exercise in stealth Nightmare Fuel. In addition to the examples already mentioned, nearly every monster, summon, or bit of random Vendor Trash has some horrifying story attached to it. Zalera and Mateus are just two of the most gruesome.
- How has Calcobrena (Final Fantasy IV) not been mentioned? From the mere knowledge of the fact that you're fighting possessed dolls, to them cheerily telling your heroes that they are out for their blood (paraphrased oh so slightly,) to their general appearance and movement, to the incredibly apt sound of their theme music. Here.
The DS version just takes it up one more notch.
- In Final Fantasy XI, Dynamis is a dreamworld that has been corrupted by various dreamers (such as the deceased Shadow Lord). The scary part? The people and beastmen trapped there are stuck in a cycle where they fight each other in vain and death does nothing permanent. One article on the official website shows one of the Hydra Corps member's descent into insanity as he writes to his loved one.
- Although Final Fantasy V is one of the goofier games in the series, it still managed to creep out this troper when she played the game as an adult with Exdeath's Castle. It turns from a fairly standard looking building to an outright Womb Level when you dispell the illusions surrounding it, complete with freakish creatures that breath making up the walls with visible beating organs. The fact that it's also the background for random battles doesn't help much either.
Close Final Fantasy Games
- Psychonauts is mostly fun and humorous, but some things in it are quite disturbing. The most egregious example, of course, would be the horrible Meat Circus level, but there is definitely more than that. For instance, the chest in Milla's mind that contains a "fiery" cage, surrounded by nightmare figures whispering sinister accusations about Milla not saving them in the voices of children (granted this place is supposed to /literally/ be a nightmare room); the two peppy "cheerleader" campers casually discussing their various suicide attempts; and the entire ascent to Dr. Loboto's office, what with the kamikaze rats, gloomy atmosphere, and Sheegor constantly peeking out from corners and staring at you, just to name a few.
- Even having watched a playthrough before, Loboto scared the bejeesus out of me. However, I actually found Sheegor endearing, because I wasn't along. The rats, though, nearly killed me "vanishing in a puff of annoying".
- Some of the "memory vaults" in the game, found while traversing the mental landscapes are very disturbing.
- This troper thinks this is intentional, and that it's a great tool for providing atmosphere. Considering part of a psychonaut's job is going into people's heads, they're bound to run into some Squicktastic stuff once in a while (more often if they're unlucky).
- The entire game runs on Nightmare Fuel, quite literally in a number of places. Every in-brain level is, in spirit if not in body, a Womb Level. Brains are yanked from children's heads by a strait-jacketed dentist with a metal claw and a shower cap. It gets so traumatic that they Hang a Lampshade on it in the last level—if you ask for advice, Raz will calmly sum up the rabbit enemies as "hellish nightmare bunnies spawning from meat grinders", and Cruller will respond with "Well, at this point you might as well just whack 'em", equally unruffled.
- Inexplicable is this example, as it takes place in the real world. Later in the game when talking to the suicidal duo (who like to talk about how powerful they will be after they die, creepy in itself) they'll comment on how beautiful the sun is. If you go to "visual mode" and turn the screen to look up at the sun; you'll see it looks like a skull. Gah. There's no reason for this.
- This Troper has not done this, as he was wise enough to believe the opposite of everything those two creeps believed by that point. Nonetheless, the image kept him awake at night for three days, before he remembered that he sucked at visualizing skulls. He then started imagining more and more Narm-tastic skulls, culminating in the perfectly spherical Kingdom Of Loathing skull. He ain't scared no more.
- Another real-world example - the clouds right on the horizon in the outside area of the Asylum at night appear to be in the shape of human faces. Based on their expressions, this troper could only interpret them as screaming in terror.
- This troper just replayed and can confirm they're deliberate human faces with clearly distinguishable features. Almost photorealistic, in fact, which is quite jarring compared to the outlandish cartoonishness of the game style. However, to this troper, they appear to be laughing derisively at the player. Perhaps Psychonauts wiggles deeper into her particular paranoias than even she guessed.
- This Troper finds the sobbing of the Emotional Baggage disturbing, especially if said baggage is off-screen, and it takes a while to reach it, with the sobbing in the background all the while...
- This troper finds the Emotional Baggage cute, in a Woobieish way. However, she is unreasonably disturbed by the strange pieces of meat in the Brain Tumbler Experiment level that start to quiver and give off green "gas" when you punch them. They're just... deeply unsettling.
- Listen to the background music in Milla's "Dance Rave" mindscape. Eventually, you'll realize that what sounds like laughing...is crying. The music is trying to drone it out.
- While it's one of the funniest levels in the game, The Milkman Conspiracy has its dark underbelly. It's not just the falsely bright and physics-defying overworld wearing on the nerves, the hinge-jawed Watchers sword-swallowing hedge trimmers, and getting pulled not once, but twice into a nightmare world to fight with dark, gas-masked figures that vomit chunks of their former victims, then turn to glass and shatter. While silly at first, the paranoia permeating the level eventually warps the player's thoughts just a little bit towards Boyd's mindset. When you start looking over your shoulder for walking mailboxes, it's a good idea to turn off the console and have a little lie-down.
- You know what else is scary about that level? A GIRL SCOUT EXPLODES A SUICIDE BOMB. Seriously. She's only a thought, and is evil, but still...
- This troper was creeped out when he realized this is how Boyd sees a regular neighborhood. It was especially disturbing when he used Telekinesis on a girl scout (being in the habit of using TK on everything) and she said something to the effect of, "Don't touch me or I'll call the police!"
- The Lungfish boss fight combines gamer-based fear with psychological terrors. It takes place at the bottom of a dark lake, in a bubble of air that the boss can contract from "almost comfortable" to "unbearably claustrophobic" in a matter of seconds. Since the main character and his family have all been cursed to die in water, a pair of glowing green hands hover at the edge of the bubble, following the player's movements and grabbing them the second they stumble across the barrier. At three or four intervals, the boss swims off, dragging the bubble with it and forcing the player to run through a series of harrowing obstacle courses before the water closes in. The Lungfish itself is a hulking mutant, but the truly troubling part regarding it comes after the fight, when it's revealed that she's actually a very kind, intelligent lady lungfish named Linda who was mutated and enslaved against her will, and you've been feeding her boxes of nails. There are also crabs and sucker fish falling from the edges of the bubble constantly, but the latter are actually Nightmare Retardant, as they'll latch onto the top of Raz's head and wobble back and forth with an expression that can only be described as "8B".
Super Mario Games
- Super Paper Mario features a Big Bad who wants to destroy all the worlds. It's a standard villain thing, and you usually manage to discover the Plot Coupon in each world before he can destroy it... except one. In the happy ninja world full of honorable men in a cartoony version of medieval Japan, you get delayed... and the world falls apart around you. You re-enter the world and where there was once dozens of people, there's now whiteness. A seemingly infinite expanse of whiteness, with only the occasional pile of dust dotting the landscape.
- You know how loyal Count Bleck's servants are? And trusting of him? And how they're convinced, that Count Bleck is going to remake the universe after he destroys it, ridding it of war and crime and all that bad stuff? Yeah. He's not. He's killing himself and taking the entire FUCKING UNIVERSE WITH HIM. And he's even destroying the goddamn AFTERLIFE by doing this. Upon realizing this, it's one part heartbreaking, one part "Holy shit THERE'S SERIOUSLY GOING TO BE NOTHING LEFT."
- Another part: If memory serves, he's actually pretty damn broken up about lying to them. He's wanting to keep them blissfully ignorant, so when the end comes, they have hope. That's... One part disturbing, one part kinda heartwarming.
- The true form of Mimi from the same game deserves an honorable mention — if she weren't done in a cartoony art-style loosely inspired by NES games, the appearance of a little girl with a bizarrely warped, upside-down head with spider legs coming out of it, and her now limp and useless body dangling below her in Homage to The Thing, would be grade-A Nightmare Fuel, and it still manages to be creepy even with that art style.
- It's creepy BECAUSE of the art style. SHE TRANFORMS BY BREAKING HER NECK. THE HELL, NINTENDO?
- Plus the knowledge that if you stay in one room for too long, she comes to get you with a cry of "Mimimimimimimi...." *shudder* Luckily, that only happened to ThisTroper once. Because it sent said troper into an unholy panic which allowed him to complete that hellish maze as fast as physically possible.
- This troper concurs about Trueform Mimi, but for him the later part where Mimi turns out to be quite the Dirty Coward because you've just shattered her magical invincibility barrier was delightfully Nightmare Retardant.
- Also, that she turns out to be not really evil after all after her Heel Face Turn. Still nasty, yes, but not homicidal.
- Yoshi's Island has many frightening elements, probably helped by the fact that it had excellent music for the time, and was able to create an effective atmosphere in a level with its music.
- If Yoshi is hit, Baby Mario is suddenly caught in a flying bubble, wailing desperately, as the player tries to get him back before the enemies catch him and fly away with him.
- The threat of being eaten occurs quite a bit. Not only is there a boss battle that occurs in a Frog's throat, but there are a few chase scenes in which a huge, round creature with pointed teeth is out to eat Yoshi.
- Speaking of chase scenes, in the final level, there is an optional chase where a large spiked undefeatable enemy is chasing Yoshi across a rocky, lava filled area, as the screen ever so slowly moves to allow him more area to move. It doesn't help that before entering this chase, if the player wants to receive helpful information, all they get is "RUN AWAY!!!" in dramatically huge font.
- Kamek would enlarge small creatures in the boss battles. The transformations were complete with 'Time to Die!'-esque music.
- In the final battle, where Baby Bowser, in an eerily designed toy room, attempts to ride (and therefore injure) Yoshi. After he has been defeated, Kamek turns him into Big Bowser. Big, meaning the castle he had occupied is completely destroyed by his transformation, and he could probably crush Yoshi with a single finger/claw. The transformation and battle is accompanied by rather horrifying music, and the battle is pretty much Yoshi trying to hit him with large eggs to push him back, while he is slowly coming towards you. When he is hit, he is indeed pushed back, only to then run at full speed towards Yoshi, who is standing on a small ledge (which is being destroyed by the boulders that fly in the air from Bowser's roars). If Bowser comes close enough, his stomach knocks Yoshi off the ledge. This can be extremely scary when one is desperately trying to get him further back, knowing that he will run at full speed afterwards.
- All the fun of taking on Godzilla all by yourself.
- "Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy."
- Your primary method of attack in this game is you eat your enemies, and then transform their digested corpses into ammunition, which you then throw at their comrades, who no doubt just watched you consume their friends seconds earlier. If that's not just a little'' bit disturbing.....
- Consider that this ammo is eggs. Yoshis use their unborn young as ammo.
- The sound of the Lunge Fish
is one of the most terrifying sounds in videogames.
- This editor remembers being terrified of Super Mario World, thanks to unusually sadistic elder siblings. They frequently abused the pause button in the final battle with Bowser. To clarify; in the final battle, Bowser is seated in a hovercraft which is painted like a clown's face. After Bowser is hit a number of times, he flies forward, so that the screen zooms in on the hovercraft. Push the pause button at the right time, and there is a screen full of clown face. Of course, this editor's siblings abused this technique excessively to scare her out of the room.
- The giant caterpillar in the Gusty Garden Galaxy of Super Mario Galaxy. The way it's almost realistic in appearance in a game with an intensely cartoony art style creates an effect similar to the Uncanny Valley, and it makes some genuinely disconcerting high-pitched noises. The enormous nose and buck teeth do little to diminish this.
- Speaking of Galaxy, how could no one mention how freaking disturbing it is to see Mario's hand rise up when he sinks in sand or toxic waste, all while hearing him drown? A similar effect is also in Twilight Princess.
- Not to mention that when Mario touches dark matter, he slowly disintegrates, and his life bar isn't empty until AFTER Mario is completely gone. He feels the whole thing!
- And then there's the dying of electrocution which leaves only a skeleton.
- While this troper feels he is the only one who felt this way, the friggin bird head thing in Super Mario Bros. 2 (the one that acts as an end of level gate) scared the crap out of him in the end of World 7-2 when it flew off the wall and tried to chase him! I never played that level again until I actually worked up the courage to face it one more time.
- It scared this troper, too.
- Let's not forget Phanto. Creepy pumpkin masks that move REALLY fast and chase you? *shudder*
- New Super Mario Bros has Bowser fall into lava and then show him desperately flailing in the lava, yelling in agony, and emerging with all of his flesh melted off. Totally unexpected and freaky as all get-out.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa! Have we really had all these Mario mentions without a trace of Super Mario 64's piano that grows teeth and tries to eat you? This troper has heard of more Mario-related trauma from that enemy (invincible, I might add) than any other.
- Great, you had to remind me of that piano. *shudders* But that level has other scary parts, such as the Big Boo fights and that music.
- 'Ghosts...Don't...DIE!'
- I remember plummetting into a pit from inside the mansion only to be paralyzed by fright when I heard that creepy calliope music from the carousel. I set the controller down, slowly edged toward the TV, hit the power button and didn't play that level again for six years.
- Speaking of Super Mario 64, the entry to Lethal Lava Land (remember, that flaming face painting?) actually sent this editor running out of the room.
- Remember what happened when you ran into a door when you didn't have enough stars to open it? DAH DAH DAAAAAAAH NAH! BWOAR WOAR! HAR! HAR! HAR! This troper couldn't been the only who freaked out when that happened.
- Okay, let's be straight here. In Super Mario 64, nothing terrified this troper more than THAT GODDAMN FUCKING EEL. THAT stupid thing is, without exaggeration, the main reason he's afraid of water (which has since evolved into a much bigger fear, but that is DEFINITELY the trigger). He will always skip the level and proceed through the game until he can make his brother or dad play the level for him.
- Whole-heartedly seconded. Actually transitioned into a phobia of real eels, the mention of this eel, deep water, etc. Bad enough that the other water levels bring on a surge of panic, and Mario Kart Wii? Koopa Cape was awesome until SUDDEN EELS. Cue screams, eyes shut tight, and difficulty breathing. There may have been tears. It's the teeth, or the way it moves or... I don't know, it's just the scariest fictional thing maybe ever.
- FUCK NO! NOT THE DAMN EEL AGAIN! OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT Yes, I had a rather pertinent dislike for that eel OH SHIT IT'S COMING TOWARDS ME AGAIN GAAAAAH as well.
- Super Mario Sunshine, an otherwise rather bright game, features a level where you have to go underwater (thus, making it a Timed Mission), and clean the teeth of a giant eel; complete with poisonous bubbles and a whirlpool that threatens to suck you in.
- Cheep Cheep took the cake for this troper. That fish eats you on Tiny Huge Island.
- The poisonous gas maze in Hazy Maze Cave. Getting bullet spammed by the Shy-Guy type enemy wearing A GAS MASK (yes, I know they're just the bullet-firing variety in all the games, but...) didn't help.
- Ahh, yes, Super Mario 64. Along with the piano, the eels, the music in the staircase room, and everything in this section mentioned above for this game, there was the flying books in Big Boos Haunt as well as the chairs, the wind thing on Tall Tall Mountain, the Bullys that pushed you into lava, and, oh yes, that GIANT FREAKIN' FREIGHT TRAIN-MONSTER that is the Chain Chomp. Heroic BSOD, anyone?
- Mentioning the Eel without Mario's drowning animation in general? Drown and Mario 64 suddenly feels far more graphic than most Gorn games, with Mario desparately struggling and seemingly making failed attempts to gasp for air in blind panic and agony, with the game fading out as Mario's corpse is going limp. The poison gas death (the area mentioned above) is no better, with Mario grabbing for his throat then falling on the floor with the screen fading out as he lies twitching (apparently still alive) in his final moments on the floor. These things pretty much go right into High Octane Nightmare Fuel too... What the hell Nintendo?
- The River Twygz from Super Paper Mario. The music when you get too deep turns into music sounding like demonic radio tuning, and the creepy, invincible Underhands don't help either.
- Not many folks could possibly have been scared playing Luigi's Mansion, but at least one troper was...
- The only time this troper was particularly scared of that game was when lightening struck the mansion and cut the power off. So every single previously safe haven was now a miniature hell hole of never ending ghosts and could only be stopped by finding a special ghost looking at himself in a mirror and you're never told which one. A little over half of the houses of the mansion have mirrors!
- The game itself is one thing, but the game over screen from the beta version gave this troper insomnia, due to Luigi looking literally scared to death.
- Make that two. This troper got it on launch day, and it scared him out of his mind playing at midnight. (He was also 8...)
- Trying to capture Luggs, the huge ghost in the dining room, was terrifying. The fact that this enormous ghost is spitting fireballs, then calmly going back to his meal once the candles are relit, just disturbs this troper.
- This troper jumped at the easter egg in the Telephone Room in which Luigi's shadow appears as if he were dangling from a rafter by a noose. It's mostly the fact that it's an almost unnoticeable effect that appears for only a split second that makes it scary. That, and the fact that actual horror elements seem totally out of place in Luigi's Mansion.
- This troper is still afraid of the 'Press Start' screen of Super Mario 64 due to the intended comedy of stretching out Mario's face traumatizing him instead. It ain't easy seeing your childhood hero's face being mutilated like that...
- Playing with gameshark in Mario 64 can get you very disturbing results. This video
, one of the many that refers to gamesharking in Mario 64, leads the watcher to ultimate nightmare, especially as Mario enters the castle lobby.
- Mario Teaches Typing 2, like Mario 64, featured the floating disembodied head of Mario
. Unlike the Mario 64 version, this one goes back and forth between cracking jokes and being amusing, to being just plain unsettling at times.
- More like annoying! God I just want to kill that dismembered head now
- Oddly enough, this troper, being the one that added the Super Mario 64 example, had no problem with Mario Teaches Typing 2. Probably because you can't stretch his face around.
- World 8 of Super Mario Bros 3. Apparently, Bowser's home base is Hell itself
. The gigantic, discolored hands that drag you down on certain tiles are especially creepy to a small kid.
- Worse than that is the final stage of Tetris Attack for the SNES, where a Godzilla-sized Bowser rises out of a chasm at the end of a mountainside cave. Cue the sinister organ music.
- The Angry Sun made this troper too scared to play past World 2 for YEARS.
- The troper was also afraid of the flames jumping out of the lava in the World 1 mini-fortress, according to her sister.
- This troper recalls a Mario image that was quite disturbing. While he was CGI-ed(?) in the ever known Mario style, it had realistic skin textures, facial hair and other creepy details. It was the definition of Uncanny Valley.
- Bowletta from Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. Seriously, Bowser. With boobs. In a children's video game.
- Let this troper start out by saying that in Wario Land 3, nothing can kill you. Being hit by enemy attacks causes some kind of inconvenience, such as knockback or a status effect (being set on fire, for example, causes Wario to run uncontrollably until he touches water or until the fire envelops him, giving you a short time to walk around, invincible and able to use the fire to solve certain puzzles, at least until it reduces him to a pile of cinders. Which he walks out of completely unharmed, being indestructible). After retrieving the Plot Coupons, you return to the temple holding the being that has advised you over the course of your quest to find out that, on top of simultaneously being the Treacherous Advisor, the Big Bad, and an Evil Clown, he is the only thing in the game that can kill Wario. First of all, this troper lost because the clown, while not quite Nightmare Fuel, was still pretty scary. Secondly, as a child who took games a bit too seriously, seeing the Game Over screen almost broke this troper’s fragile little mind, rendering him unable to finish the game.
- Can I be the only one afraid of the Golden Diva from Wario Land 4?
- This troper has always been scared of the painful cry Mario did whenever he got hurt in Mario 64.
- Phanto from Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA. Those opera mask face assholes drove this troper to his possibly-first act of Sequence Breaking in World 1-2, just so he wouldn't have to grab the key.
- Yoshi's Story was probably the happiest game of this troper's childhood... Until the day she FINALLY unlocked the final level of the final world, "Magma Castle." Inside the Magma Castle lurks an enemy not found anywhere else in the game—the Attacky Sack, a colorful, patchwork ball with OH MY GOD RAZOR SHARP TEETH IT'S FLYING RIGHT AT ME OH MY GOD OH MY GOD MOMMY MAKE IT STOP! Cue this troper whimpering in a corner. Watch this,
and be enlightened.
- Everything has eyes. You can't go anywhere without being watched.
- The first Super Mario Bros. gave us the Minus World, a world no man is intended to go to and has no escape, unless you count drowning to death or the reset button as a method of escape.
- Paper Mario 2 has a wide selection of fuel.
- The gallows in Rogueport.
- Chapter four in general. People turning into pigs, live bodysnatching, ghosts...
- The Shadow Queen's method of replenishing her HP - by dragging the audience with a collection of disembodied hands.
- The diary and its owner on the Excess Express.
- An (apparently true) legend in the game discusses a Toad who faced the Shadow Queen and won. When Mario visits, her tomb contains a precious treasure which turns out to be a seemingly worthless Dried Shroom. Combine that with the legend of the heroic Toad and there's an ambiguous implication that the Dried Shroom is his corpse. And yes - you can eat it.
- No one's mentioned Super Princess Peach yet? This troper specifically found the HUMONGOUS Thwomp in the background of certain segments of Bowser's Villa to be horrifying. And if it's mere presence isn't scary enough, if you fail to mimic the action of the Peach statues scattered around the level when it's eyes open, it will swallow you whole.
Super Smash Bros
- Think about the original Super Smash Bros. You fight constantly against your fellow creations, killing them all, ultimately annihilating your creator, who had been sadistically forcing you to fight for his own dark amusement. All this knowing that he was the only thing giving you life, turning the whole thing into an extended quest to die... which is exactly what happens. Only a fleeting memory of some past life comforts you as you slip into insensible death. And this is the game's plot.
- Super Smash Bros Brawl's Link has an alternate costume that turns him into Dark Link, with black clothes, grey skin, and red eyes. He's pretty standard fare. However, the game also has "Toon Link", which is the cutesy, SD Link from a couple of the more recent games. He has his own "Dark" costume, which is much freakier-looking, and has been described as looking like a cursed marionette.
- In the Subspace Emissary game, Brawl's "Adventure" mode, there is a room in the Halberd Interior level in which your character passes through a room with nothing in it bar unreachable glass cages that appear above and below you. Within these cages are various enemies that you encounter throughout the game... except one
. On the bottom row of cages, second to the right, is an enemy that appears nowhere else in the game. It appears as a little ball with tiny arms and legs that is suspended in mid-air by a sticky mucus that extends from the ceiling and floor of the cage. It flails its arms and legs around and appears to be screaming in agony. It doesn't help that you can't hear ANYTHING in this room bar the humming of the lights.
- Speaking of creepy enemies, there's also the Armights, which fly out of the background with a creepy "MWAH HAH HAAAAH!" laugh when they appear. An Armight appears to be some sort of mutated, blue-skinned, dismembered head with two pointy tentacles and a Roman helmet. This troper had the crap scared out of her when she first found one of these enemies. It doesn't help that actually fighting them is freaking annoying.
- This particular editor found Floows to be even more disturbing. Picture a floating, shadowy, wraith-like creature with beady, red eyes that follows you everywhere and regenerates as fast as you can damage it. Sound creepy enough? It gets worse; its main attack is to stand in place and let out a ghastly, tortured shriek as hundreds of smaller ghosts fly out of its body. The bio on its Trophy adds additional layers of Nightmare Fuel, stating that it harbours "pent-up resentment" and "one part sadness, one part madness"..
- Puppits... oh dear God, Puppits! These corpse-like things with really long claws, that just sort of hang lifelessly from a string... Until, they come across the poor unsuspecting Nintendo character in their way... then they start attacking like crazy.
- It doesn't help that their trophy description points out that nobody knows what's on the other end of the string. Somehow that spooked this troper something fierce.
- Captain Falcon's Final Smash knocks a couple of characters near him onto an F-Zero track, where they look up to see Captain Falcon racing towards them in his Blue Falcon... which crashes into them and sends them flying. Anyone sensitive to real-life car accidents are better off not thinking about that one too much.
- Mr. Game & Watch's Final Smash frightens this troper. It's bad enough that he turns into a giant octopus that hovers around with its undulating tentacles, but there's a constant ominous and unnatural humming sound throughout the whole thing.
- This Troper's gaming group has a rule: Whenever a Game & Watch player performs a Final Smash, we must all shout "Tentacle Rape!"
- On the topic of Final Smashes, this troper was more than a little disturbed to find out (via the trophy) that, when Pit summons Palutena's Army, the Centurions *DIE* after striking the enemy.
- Their deaths are not in vain.
- While she's never played any of the Mother/EarthBound series, this troper found the boss battle against Porky to be incredibly terrifying. Even if the freakish spider-mech hadn't done it for her, the fact that there was a little boy trapped inside of it that seems to be crying and screaming with terror would have pushed her over the edge.
- Since you haven't played the series, you may want to know the little boy in question is evil, biologically thousands of years old due to time travel and is operating the spider-mech trying to kill you. Not that that helps very much, though. Now we have a Psychopathic Manchild that's Really Seven Hundred Years Old trying to kill you for making him a Sealed Evil In A Can.
- In fact, the entire Ruined Zoo level seemed to be slight-to-extreme Nightmare Fuel, not a small part because it was so jarring from the usual bright and happy Smash Bros. world.
- It doesn't help that the level starts with Lucas, who's basically a frightened little boy, being pursued by the completely unstoppable Pig King statue (which is prime Nightmare Fuel itself). After a brief level of keeping ahead of the (mercifully slow) Pig King, Lucas trips on a root and stares up at the approaching golem with a look of abject terror on his face. It's a relief when Ness shows up and one-shots the thing into a million pieces.
- This troper was terrified by the fight between King Dedede and Bowser in Subspace Emissary. Not because of the actual fight, but because Master Hand is lying in the background, apparently bleeding to death.
- Playing in stamina mode always tends to creep this troper out a little; instead of knocking fighters off the stage, you just beat them down until their HP drops to 0. Simple enough — except for when the HP does get worn down, the final hit is rendered in slow motion with the loser crying out in defeat... and then their lifeless bodies just lie there on the field.
- This troper finds the hands creepy. Fighting Master Hand is not entirely unlike one's action figures trying to kill one's hand. Of course, Crazy Hand is creepier, since it idles spastically, has a few oddly creepy attacks, and is a tough boss, since it almost always brings Master Hand along.
- "Action figures trying to kill one's hand," nothing - this editor found Master Hand itself pretty darn scary. Maybe that's just because she had a nightmare involving a giant disembodied hand...the night before she first saw Master Hand. Retroactive nightmare fuel!
- For some strange reason, this troper was kind of disturbed by the characters turning into trophies.
- This troper just thought of it as a really sucky game of freeze tag.
- Ooh, ooh! We haven't mentioned Tabuu yet! It's not because that he's a floating digital ghost. It's not the fact that he's a borderline SNK Boss with highly damaging attacks, including his signature, which can kill you in one hit on standard difficulty. It's not even because during said signature attack, he looks like some Cyber Punk version on an evil angel. It's because he used Master Hand to trick Ganondorf and Bowser in an attempt to draw the world into Subspace...using chains that he implanted under the latter's skin to make him dance like a marionette. Is there any wonder why Ganondorf suddenly realized why going along with Tabuu's plan from that moment on was a bad idea?
- You know, that scene is even worse when you go by the original idea of Master Hand being a child who owns all those toys. Now imagine Tabuu being in your head, messing with your imagination, and doing all that to YOUR HAND.
- This troper found the scene near the end where the heroes have finally fought their way to the heart of Subspace, with Mario leading them, ready for the final battle...and then Tabuu "kills" them all at once before they can do anything to be very... unsettling. The slow motion shots of them with looks of shock and horror on their faces as they were hit... and then all the lifeless trophies scattered everywhere... *shivers*
- Giga Bowser's introduction in Melee. Just after getting to the end of Adventure Mode and beating Bowser, you think it's finally over, when Bowser's trophy suddenly lurches back on stage with a loud thud, and then mutates into this colossal, far more vicious-looking Bowser that more than likely proceeds to completely destroy you while a more unsettling version of the Final Destination theme plays in the background. Especially creepy if you didn't know it was coming.
- The fiction for the Smash Bros. Brawl world is freaking disturbing as well. Apparently, all the main characters are trophies that exist to fight. Nothing else. They don't stop and wonder "Hang on, why am I beating up this guy? I don't even know who he is!" They just fight. No regrets. That, and the fact there are crowds in staduims that watch them fight. It's a new low for these guys, story wise.
- That particular element is probably one of the scariest (if not the scariest) plot points in the Subspace Emissary.
- Giant. Purple. Yellow-eyed. Diddy Kong.
- Not enough? Giant Dark Diddy is also right up there with Tabuu as one of, if not /the/ hardest boss on the higher levels. Even Tabuu's most deadly attack gives you a heads up and a moment to ready yourself, Dark Diddy can attack just as any other character except his great size gives him huge reach and enough knock back to one hit KO with smashes. There was even one time when he grabbed a star rod... from half way across the stage I fired at him with Samus and he sliced though the fully charged blast and instantly took her out in one swing.
- I kinda found evil, purple, yellow-eyed Zelda to be freakish too. She isn't giant, but still...
- Shaydas. First off, it has two heads. Two heads, each with glowing red eyes, not to mention the glowing pink thing in its chest. It has blades for hands. And it's made of shadow bugs, which are made of Mr. Game and Watch. Just a bit disturbing.
- This editor was deeply upset by the scene titled "Ganondorf Takes Command". All the R.O.B.'s turn on the Ancient Minister, then —set him on fire— while sad music plays. :(
- Of course, the unadulterated awesome that follows immediately afterward as the Ancient Minister proceeds to shoot down a number of the annoying flying enemies, while on fire, then reveals his true form by erupting from the fire, to the tune of the games rousing Battlefield
sort of mitigates this.
- Then it goes to Tear Jerker when the unveiled Ancient Minister turns to his fellow robots and they shake their heads sadly to say they can't turn off the bomb they are now stuck to, and he just lowers his head and closes his eyes in sorrow.
- Donkey Kong CRUSHES A KOOPA'S SPINE at one point. And then you see pieces of the shell flying all over. Come on.
- Actually, that's something you need to take in context with the series. Koopas are like hermit crabs, not actual turtles—the shell isn't connected to the body. If Mario jumps on one in Super Mario World, it flies out of its shell, dressed in an undershirt, and wanders around unhurt. It can even wriggle back in if you don't steal the shell or stomp on it. So it's really only a small inconvenience...which is good, because the player will shoot off dozens of shells as weapons in any given Mario Kart game, and they explode with a meaty crunch on impact. Without the aforementioned logic, now that would be Nightmare Fuel.
- It made me sad when Pikachu was stuffed into a jar and electrocuted. It's Pikachu. How could they do that?
- It seemed more like Pikachu was stuffed into that jar and used as a source of electricity. Still kinda nightmarish.
- I found that disturbing because Pikachu looks like he's SMILING when the electrocution stops.
- That could be because the folks in charge of character design didn't understand how to animate Pikachu's lips to express relief or agony. Thus, every time Pikachu gives an angry look and you zoom in on it, what you get instead makes it look like it has less... wholesome intentions.
- This troper finds Bombeds really, really disturbing. They decapitate themselves to attack, and then they run around like a beheaded chicken until they grow a new head and repeat everything all over again. The fact that they look like emo kids doesn't help, either.
- It hurls its own bomb head at you—at least it's kind enough to reveal the bomb fuse, which will light up when hit with a fire attack like Mario's fireball. Then..BOOM! This is an easy way to take it out. It's this weakness that sometimes makes them sad that, regrettably, they were born with bomb heads.
- Some theories as to just how Tabuu managed to extract the Shadow Bugs from Mr. Game and Watch also fit this trope. One theory is that the Shadow Bugs weren't just "there", but were formed by liquid Subspace being injected into G&W's veins (or whatever organs serve that purpose), and the method of extraction was forcing him to cut himself open. Creepy.
- Maybe this troper is just a wuss, but Luigi's Final Smash freaks her out.
- Samus getting worfed by Ridley. It is the most unbearably painful looking attack, and fairly striking in its sheer brutality.
- Appearenly, accoring to the SSBB Website, R.O.B's homeland was unable to be restored like the rest of the world, and R.O.B. is now the Last Of His Kind. Something about that is deeply disturbing
- Just remember, ROB is a robot. They can analyze the tech and build more or something equally convienent for a ROB army vs. Subspace RTS.
- Back to the freaky-ass enemies Subspace Emmissary, why has no one mentioned Bytan
yet? Looks like a mutant Pokéball with a sharp-toothed grin, and reproduces by popping another Bytan out of its eyeball. Eugh! They form huge, terrible swarms. The giant ones are even worse. The nastiest part, though, would have to be the Mook Maker portals near the end of the game that produce Bytan after Byan, all the while the Bytans themselves are multiplying on their own, until you're drowning in a candy-colored, beady-eyed, razor-toothed flood of pure terror.
- Mutant Pokéball, nothing. They resemble how the Langoliers are described in the book of the same name. This troper, playing through Subspace Emissary for the first time after reading said book, nearly screamed.
- And don't even get me started on the Bucculus!
Hides in the ground so you can't get at it until it attacks and often won't notice it until it ambushes you, and drains the life out of you with giant spiky lips, which wouldn't be so bad if This Troper didn't have personal space issues. To make it worse, it also falls into a very special category of Grotesque Cute. The worst part is the first Bucculus of the game... Suddenly, this THING pops out of the ground and latches onto you! Get it off me! Get it off me!
- Moveset swapping. Just
. Moveset . Swapping .
- The save points
in the Great Maze. Take a look at the background. It's desolate, and the sky is ripping apart to reveal the eerie darkness that is Subspace. Then, listen to the music. It sounds like you're in a Super Smash Bros. version of Hell, with a slow, unsettling rearrangement of the opening theme on top of it.
- Metroid series: the source of many alien-based Nightmare Fuel examples.
- The SA-X of Metroid Fusion. Whether before or after the true form appears, you pick.
- The door opens. Everything goes quiet - or almost. Save for some very indistinct, creepy background music. The only audible sound effect is a steady tap... tap... tap... tap... tap... tap... When you consider that the source of those footsteps is usually inches away from discovering you, it can get pretty freaky. And then... it spots you. What do you do? Run? Try to freeze and then run? Unless you're in one of the few situations where you can get away, you are DOOMED. The chill running up your spine assures you of this shortly before Samus is frozen to death.
- And what about the aptly named Nightmare boss in Fusion? Its face... ... ...
- ...starts off with huge pupiless black eyes and a mouth that looks inexpertly sewn shut. But that's just a mask. Its real face is green and almost liquid with wide eyes, randomly placed teeth, and is always screaming. As it takes damage it turns red and starts melting, with peices eventually falling off with a horribly plopping sound. Aptly named indeed.
- For This Troper, Nightmare wasn't quite as scary as the music it played in the background. This Troper decided to first play the game on a rom, and when the Nightmare battle came, she thought that there was something wrong with her rom causing it to run slowly and play the music sketchily. Imagine her reaction when she plays a retail copy and gets the same sounding music complete with slowness
- The second-to-last room in Metroid Prime was not only full of Metroids, but was also equal parts lava and internal organs. And full of big cancerous spikes.
- If that weren’t bad enough when you enter the last room you find this staring at you
◊.
- And when you finally reach Phaaze...well, it's an entire living, sentient planet, like a vast, unnatural neon-blue and black Womb Level. And it preys on other planets, sending out its "children" to corrupt them via Phazon. It's essentially one of the closest things to an Eldritch Abomination in the Metroid universe.
- Metroid Prime 2 kicked off with dead bodies hanging from the ceiling, some of which turned into zombies. And then there was the profoundly upsetting security tape in which the Ing made their first appearance. And once the Hunter Ing - essentially gnarled black hearts with tentacles - started showing up, well...
- This troper felt a wrench of unbearable pity and terror upon reading the log of a fallen trooper in Metroid Prime 2. While the other trooper logs are relatively professional or at least person, Haley's says, "I hear. Them. Everywhere. They'll eat me. Eat."
- This troper found Milligan and Denys's logs fairly disturbing as well.
- That damned water on Dark Aether. Even with the Light suit, this troper has to sit for about 10 minutes to work up the courage, and then there is the War Wasps, and the Bloggs, and the Shredders, and the entirety of Torvus Bog.
- This troper's first encounter with the Blogg came when he missed a jump and fell a large distance into a pool of water on Dark Aether that had not been checked for enemies yet, and guessed that when he turned around, a giant fish monster would bite his face off. This troper hates being right.
- Amorbis. Oh god, Amorbis. This troper could not come back to the game for a week after seeing that unholy worm trio.
- Metroid Prime 3 continues the tradition with creepy monsters ambushing you as you fall down a shaft. One of them is a giant mouth with arms that drags you closer and closer while you shoot frantically. It's not much of a threat, but it looks creepy even for the game's standards and is completely unexpected the first time. The game also features Metroids that latch onto your visor. As if the places where the metroids show up weren't creepy enough on their own...
- There's this one place in the GFS Valhalla where you can look out the window...
- How about the cut scene that plays when you defeat Gandrayda? She swaps through multiple forms due to loss of control and she finally changes into Samus lying on the ground with her arm stretched out to the real Samus, all while screaming in pain. Samus turns her head away and closes her eyes. Now if that ain't freaky enough...
- Honestly, this troper was deeply unnerved by being forced to kill any of your corrupted friends, witnessing their deaths, and seeing them absorbed by Dark Samus. Rundas' battle theme especially didn't help and made me want to cry.
- And don't forget the living Phazon puddles that move disturbingly fast along walls and ceilings. This troper nearly broke his television when he first saw one in the walled-off section of the Norion Marine Base, which was creepy enough in that you know it was walled off for a reason but all you're told beforehand is that there's "spent Phazon", which leads to expectations of hazards, not... moving goo.
- Would the Nonstandard Game Over of Corruption count as well? Some people would freak out from seeing The Virus taking over their character because they took on a little too much Phazon.
- Who needs nonstandard? This troper was traumatized by the standard game overs of Prime and Echoes. Oops, you died. For your failure, you must watch poor Samus breathe her last.
- This troper can't decide which was worse: the shattered visor or the entirely too realistic depiction of cardiac arrest. From the stopping heart's point of view.
- Normally, Screams Like A Little Girl is played for comedy, but this troper found Samus' death wail to be deeply unsettling in how unfitting it was. If the sheer pain of it can make the galaxy's most seasoned Bad Ass cry like she did in grade school... Brrr.
- Super Metroid has either the ghastly battle with Phantoon, or the Family Unfriendly Death of Crocomire.
- Spelling out the latter, when you finally defeat Crocomire, its flesh melts off its body (along with, presumably, any internal organs), leaving the bones. The only way to proceed is back toward the spikes, and when you reach that part of the room... the skeleton appears from the other side, knocking away the spikes, and the boss music starts up again, possibly fooling you into thinking you'll have to fight it! But then it promptly collapses. Of course, the melting flesh part is probably the worse of the two parts of its defeat.
- And the Wrecked Ship, before you defeat Phantoon. With the power out and the ship interior in darkness, nothing that uses electricity (even save points) works, and ghosts randomly pop up to terrify and impede.
- This troper is disturbed by the meaty-looking spikes in several areas, Venus flytrap-like creatures in Brinstar, and one room that has both of these...on the floor and the ceiling.
- The hideous abomination that was Draygon!
- It starts sooner that all that for This Troper. "Oh, good, another Chozo statue. Well, these bombs should be useful. Wait, why is the door locked and what's that rumbling- OH GOD IT'S ALIVE!" Haven't trusted another chozo statue since.
- Heck, just the mere concept of the Metroids themselves is Nightmare Fuel. A protoplasmic lifeform that's a super-powerful space leech, except there's only one person in the world who can even get them off? And it takes more firepower to take out than any non-boss in the game? There are quite a few mature, skilled players who instantly degenerate into crazed Beam Spam attacks should a Metroid appear.
- It only gets more surreal in the first two Metroid Prime games, where the Metroids will actually explode if they go through a door... such as if they're attached to your face.
- Which makes the Metroid Xenostorage on Elysia nitro-burning Nightmare Fuel - not only do you have to deal with the Metroids in there, but there's also the fact that they're contained in forcefields on your way in. Since another forcefield locks you out from the Seeker Missiles you need to complete your current mission, that means you need to cut the power. Nothin' says loss of bladder control like fighting Metroids in the dark. And since they have their own unique screech, expect the same players who degenerate into Metroid-induced Beam Spam to dump ammo just from hearing one of the little bastards. Have fun!
- And it's worth mentioning those Metroids phase through the walls and floor.
- It's just as bad if you're Genre Savvy and can guess what is going to happen the first time you see the metroids because, well, it's a Metroid game. But you cannot do anything about it except slowly walk through base towards the inevitable. This troper debated for a good couple of minutes whether or not it was worth it to get the Seeker Missiles before letting out a defeated sigh and grabbing it.
- Traditionally, you're supposed to use an ice weapon to freeze the Metroid so you can actually hit it with missiles (otherwise they are immune/dodge.) Uh wait, Metroid Prime 3 uses Ice Missles. oh god it's not WORKING they just phase through it oh god oh god oh god I just wasted 50 missles on a single Phazon Metroid oh god. Thank god you can trick them into not phasing.
- Shoot the normal - at this point probably plasma - beam at them until they let out their distinctive screech which means "I am going to eat your face now !", then (quickly) shoot an ice missile and watch the Reverse Shrapnel work its magic. Worked every time - annoy them, then ice them, then shatter with the plasma beam yelling "BURN YOU ***ING SPACE JELLYFISH, BURN !"
- What creeped this troper even worse than the metroids themselves was their victims - especially the shock value when you see your first one in Xenostorage. "Hmm, this door has what looks like a metroid above it. Guess I'll have to be extra careful up ahead. At least I'll be able to OH JESUS FRAKKIN' CHRIST THAT WAS A DEAD SPACE PIRATE AND IT JUST TURNED TO POWDER!!!" And it only gets worse from there. GFS Valhalla, anyone?
- The first Metroid Prime was deeply marked with one particular chain of events. At one point of the game, you're raiding a Space Pirate base, until... A room-entering cutscene shows you a Metroid, locked in a glass tube with fluid. You'll think, "thank goodness, it's locked and I don't have to fight it yet" and stares at it for a few seconds. And it breaks the glass and comes at you. Some rooms later (and lots of Metroids still locked in the energy reinforced glass), you find the Thermal Visor, and the entire lab shuts down. When you start walking up the floors, Metroids start breaking the glasses, and this keeps on happening until you finally exit the lab. Interestingly enough, few Metroids don't break away, standing still until you shatter the glasses yourself.
- Who's the f***ing idiot in the Space Pirate command that decided to put Metroids in all these important facilities???
- The third game has a similar sequence, except with the Cluster Missles...And Phazon Metroids who, as noted, can fly through walls and have escaped before you returned to the area. Throughout the sequence, you see glipses of dozens through the glass floors...
- And after you finally get out of the building, you look up and see hundreds of Metroids floating out into the sky...
- The light blue X-parasites that appear from a certain point of Metroid Fusion reproduce a similar feeling to the Metroids. They are fast. They are big. They can only be very shortly paralized until you grab the necessary item to dispose of their deadliness. They are coming at you at full force, in high numbers. They harm you at touch, what means you can be hurt even while they're paralized. And to top all that, they take a large chunk of life out of you. That's what you'll have to face in the middle of the game.
- X Parasites in general qualify from a conceptual standpoint. A single basic X-parasite is not only immune to and capable of killing someone like Samus, the most badass bounty hunter in the galaxy, but is then able to become a copy of her. Which splits into multiple copies that are equally strong. These creatures were why a nightmare fuel creature like the Metroid would be made by a benevolent sorta-precursor.
- Of course, once you get the Varia Suit, they become extra large health pickups.
- The GFS Vallhalla. THE ENTIRE GFS VALLHALLA! This troper tries to avoid the last few rooms for as long as possible to avoid the second half of it's theme.
- The entire Valhalla is creepy as hell, but the scariest part for this troper is this one door when you open it and there is a dead marine on the other side that disappears right as the door opens. Scared this troper half to death the first time he saw it.
- Especially that last room, where you unlock the secret message from a captured Aurora Unit. At the end of the message, there's a very deep, distorted voice saying: "Darkness... coming..." As far as this troper recalls, there's nothing in that room that can actually harm you, yet it's quite possibly the single most dark and disturbing thing in the entire game. It doesn't help that the final boss is that same poor Aurora Unit!
- In Metroid Prime, there are enemies called Chozo Ghosts. They can disappear from your normal visor, making them really hard to fight until you get a certain upgrade, they can disrupt your suit, causing you to see static, and are accompanied by deeply disturbing music. And they seem to respawn more often than other enemies.
- And they take over certain areas, so that whenever you enter them, the lights dim, and the ghostly essences float up and take their form... At least when this starts happening, you don't have to fight if you can get to another door instead.
- Adiitionally, they're immune to all but your weakest beam and missiles, meaning they're still a hassle late game.
- The series' biggest Big Bad, Mother Brain was creepy as hell before she turned into a death-spewing robotic tyrannosaur. And worse, thanks to the Federation, there are bunches more just like her. Watching Samus' reaction to AU 242 and 217, you could almost imagine her thinking, "Why did it have to be a giant disembodied brain in a jar...?"
- The splinter hive in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes has you fighting your way through hordes of what can only be called space marine zombies. The architecture of the place is just disturbing, with polyps as long as your arm growing out of every concievable surface, giant egg pods everywhere, and there's this one room where you open the door... and a half-dozen dead Bravo soldiers drop from the ceiling, hung from their necks. NOTHING in Echoes was quite as scary as that area.
- Prime 3 didn't creep this troper out much, but the Apocalyptic Log of Bryyo is what got to me. You're looking at a civilisation that once explored the starts and coexisted with the Chozo, embroiled in a civil war that literally broke the planet, reducing their species to a handful of savages prowling the ruins After The End, and then The Corruption arrives...
- Dark Samus' laughter sends a chill down my spine....
Earthbound (Mother)
- Giygas, the Big Bad from EarthBound, is by far one of the most trippy, intimidating, and nightmare-fuelish final battles in video game history. Face the facts: every battle in the game is trippy in and of itself, so imagine how a battle against a giant eyeball with your face on it and that... thing you've just seen above should be. The worst part, though may be the random lines he speaks during the battle ain't exactly that random, and are in fact quotes from a violent porn movie the game creator watched accidentally. Not making this up, really. Believe me.
- Right on all counts, except it wasn't a porn movie exactly...it was a movie called Kenpei and the Dismembered Beauty (憲兵とバラバラ死美人, Kenpei to Barabara Shibijin) Or so the other Wiki told me
, and Itoi walked in during a rough lovemaking scene he thought to be a rape scene. The original point stands though: he based the dialogue from this scene on that childhood experience, and the result is disturbing as heck.
- This Troper took the stilted dialogue to be Giygas pleading for his life, claiming that he feels happy as he is and telling the heroes it isn't right to be attacking him as he doesn't know what he's doing wrong. Make of that what you will...
- This troper's not sure about those quotes, but the final battle is made more creepy when you play the first Mother game, where you see Gyiyg (or Giygas, whichever you prefer) as he was before he went completely insane, and that part of the reason he went insane was because he was unable to comprehend the emotions he felt when felt the love his "mother" had for him (this appears to be very vaguely alluded to in his Mother 2/Earthbound battle quotes). He's almost a sympathetic character, despite being the ultimate evil...
- If the final battle from Earthbound freaks you out, wait till you play its sequel, Mother 3. The game was made to have intensely disturbing moments that contrasted with the otherwise cartoony feel of the game. Take a look at the rejected final battle background
if you don't mind seeing massive spoilers.
- Entering Happy Happy town for the first time (as an adult mind you) is creepy. The music, combined with the color scheme, and the CULT are enough to fill you with dread.
- Mondo Mole and the five Guardian Diggers, period. Come on, like you'd really want to fight against a hulking giant mole with blood dripping out of its mouth? At least the latter enemies are somewhat amusing, what with their tendency to think they're the third strongest after all...
- What about when the story finally focuses on Prince Poo of Dalaam, when he goes to meditate as part of his training. When you do, ignoring the messenger that tells you to stop, you are "visited" by what claims to be the (very ugly) spirit of Poo's ancient lineage, who proceeds to dismember him gradually. All sound even stops when the spirit takes his ears. Of course, it then turns out it was All Just A Dream.
- And, of course, Threed while it's overrun by the undead. This troper nearly jumped out of his chair twice, the first time was when he got lured into the zombie trap in the town's hotel (the creepy erratic tempo remix of the normal hotel music didn't help), and the second time was when he got a bit too close to the living tent at the bottom of the town's map.
- Let's not forget Moonside, the creepy, surreal Dark World version of Fourside. So creepy, in fact, that This Troper stayed up three or four hours past her bedtime just to get out of that place so she wouldn't have nightmares.
- The mailboxes on Tanetane island in Mother 3 quickly cross into the "disturbing" spectrum of Nightmare Fuel.
The boy named Lucas is crying at a grave. The boy named Lucas and his dog are loitering the forest. The boy named Lucas is getting into trouble in the mountains. The boy named Lucas stole Nuts from our garden. The boy named Lucas is bullying animals. The boy named Lucas learned some bad magic. The boy named Lucas... The boy named Lucas... The boy named Lucas... The boy named Lucas...
The mailbox let out a tremendous scream.
Claus: "Everyone's here, Lucas. Everyone's waiting to spit on you, throw rocks at you, and make your life Hell."
"Who's "Everyone"?"
...
"Everyone you love"
- Also in Mother 3: the Chimera Lab. Knowing what goes on there combined with the music makes it creepy enough when nothing is happening. And then the Ultimate Chimera breaks loose...
- And if you run into it, INSTANT DEATH. No ifs, ands, buts, or Bonus Boss battle, you go directly to the Game Over screen. This troper had trouble going from one room to another.
- And the thing makes a guest appearance in the final area of the game — in a part of the bathroom maze! You have to be quick on the controls in order to get the Awesome Ring it's guarding.
- This troper cannot stay in the highway cafe in Mother 3 due to the very eerie music
, at least without using the jukebox to change the music.
Close Earthbound (Mother)
The rest...
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