Nightmare Fuel / Shipwrecked 64

Just be glad you aren’t always guaranteed to get this.

Shipwrecked 64 like many Mascot Horror starts out fairly innocent but as the player and Bucky continue to travel through the layers of the game it is quickly apparent just how horrific the tale is, both in game and out.

Unmarked Spoilers Below

• Though he quickly proves to be anything but harmful, Stumbler O'Hare's appearance of having his arms ripped off with bones poking out of the bleeding nubs can be unnerving at first glance. And the implication of him stating they were torn off by wild animals indicating that they probably were either ripped off by the Wolves on the island or the Starlings.
  • Later revealed first through Stumbler's emails, then through a side-story detailing the specifics, that it was a rogue wolf villager who had a terrible case of rabies. Chief Wulf had no choice but to kill the wolf with a rock in order to save the little rabbit, also losing the use of his left eye in the struggle.
• The 2023 bad ending can be a little unnerving in a similar way many other bad ending game overs were in the Nintendo 64 era, with the volcano erupting and a text crawl saying everyone on the island was obliterated.
• The brutal deaths of Gary, Nathan, and Olivia. They are all first presented to the player without context should the player deliberately chose to fail the minigames in 1997 Mode.
  • Gary's death in particular comes as a sudden Jump Scare since there is not even a fade in before the player is treated to a scene of him getting his head brutally smashed against a microwave and then shoved into a deep fryer.
  • Nathan's is presented in a first person perspective of him lying on the ground as the man in the Bucky costume looks down over him, before savagely beating him with a chair.
  • Olivia's is also extremely horrific, even though it’s never explicitly shown. Upon failing Olive the Otter's mini game a second time the player and Bucky are taken to a dark cabin with a tape recorder and a projector. Playing the tape recorder shows a scene of her on the phone discussing something stalking her, shortly before her house is broken into by someone in a Bucky costume, with her screams being the last thing on the tape. Fail the mini game a third time and the player is transported back to the cabin, where we discover Olive the Otter drowned in a lake with a trail of blood while another Bucky stands above her. Right before the vision ends we get our first glance at Dweller Bucky, appearing the right pillar-box, staring right at the player.
  • Later in the game, you get a folder downloaded onto your computer containing information about the victims, including mugshots of them post-mortem. None of them are pleasant to look at, but Gary's mugshot in particular takes the cake because, unlike the footage showing his death, the aftermath of it is uncensored.
• When there's a blackout in Walter's minigame in the 1997 version, you might see one of three large monochrome heads dominating the inky sky. This can either be that of Walter's dweller, Rex Broadside, who looks like he's cowering or Olivia Finch, who looks like she's laughing.
• The player can leave the island should they fail only a single minigame completely in 1997 mode if they so choose by going back to the beach and interacting with the boat there. The ending starts out like the normal ending...before Starling Olive melts through the screen, giving the player a Jump Scare.
• The Plaza and the build up to it. Throughout the last parts of Layer 2 Bucky and the player can come across several notes from Cogware warning of the dangers that lie in Layer 3 and the plaza within. Layer 3 proper is oppressively dark compared to the rest of the game with spots of blood and Bucky starting to directly address the player, almost pleading to just hit the respawn button and for them to go back to saving his friends. The gate to the Plaza also has a direct trail of blood leading from it and blood covering the walls of the room before it. All this helps create a feeling of dread to when the game starts to reach its horrific peak.
  • There are also the three rooms you have to explore to open up the gate to the Plaza, each one corresponding to a Dweller. Walter's has the Dweller waiting outside, accompanied by a discordant remix of dialogue from the Legacy Edition (thankfully, he doesn't attack you there), but Olive's is the creepiest, with eerie music playing throughout, red graffiti of a grinning Olive, and if you wait long enough, you can hear Olivia's final phone call again.
• Everything about the Dwellers/Starlings. They are the “residents” of Layer 3, horrific perversions of the mascots of the game. Whether it be their glitchy, desaturated in-game models that emit distorted noises, voices, and song clips, to the flashes of their pseudo-live action visages whenever they spot or catch the player, they will make the Plaza a living nightmare. Especially since the player and Bucky has to solve multiple puzzles, including one with a strict time limit, all while being hounded by them. And the best part? The Plaza isn't the last you see of them in the game. Each Dweller has a special ability:
  • Dweller Giovanni has very good hearing, which can and will become a problem as you try to complete the various puzzles in the plaza.
  • Dweller Walter can break the barrels you can hide in. If he breaks yours, you have a split second to book it before he catches you.
  • Dweller Olive weaponizes the game's 4:3 aspect ratio by ambushing you from the pillar boxes. Additionally, there's a rare chance (1 in 20) that you'll get a live action visage of Olivia's corpse jumpscaring you. Yes, Olivia, the person who became Olive's Starling. It's as horrific as it sounds and she's the only human character to have a jumpscare.
  • Bucky's Starling is The Dragon of the entire story, so it stands to reason that his Dweller would be the most powerful of them all. He's a Lightning Bruiser; if you hide, he can destroy your hiding place like Walter, and if you run, he'll get faster and faster. And you might not even get the chance to attempt either because, the moment he spots you, he will open webpages on your browser, forcing you to stop and click them off.
  • The fifth Dweller is bound to catch players who weren't expecting him off-guard. You think you've already seen the Starlings of all the cartoon characters, but there's one more you've gotten a glimpse of that you probably forgot about: Bucky's predecessor, Blot Bunny. And out of all the Starlings, he got it the worst in the Body Horror department. Two jaws that are always open. One eye still human, the other eye a mouth. His right hand exposed and skinless, with two of his fingers fused in order to match the cartoon. And while he's roaming, he's trying to tell someone, anyone who he really is. Mark Mullins was already evil, but Blot is the point where Mark crossed from "evil" to "irredeemable"; not only willing to kill, but also exhume and experiment on someone who had grown tired of life and just wanted to rest.
    "Romeo... Echo... X-ray..."
• In the last stage of the game, Layer 1 is Back for the Finale... except the Dwellers have taken over. The sky is a hellish red, and the volcano is on the verge of erupting, while all five Dwellers have free reign. All while Bucky is being strung along by the mysterious Husk, with the implication that the Dwellers were able to escape and kill the islanders because of Bucky. The level itself is a brutal last fight... which turns out to also be a trap if Bucky wins. He just can't catch a break...
• Speaking of Husk, his voice acting alone drives home how much of a threat he is. Ty Coker's performance is positively dripping with Faux Affably Evil venom. You first hear him in a recording in Layer 3 without context, where he describes Olivia's death poetically, almost playfully. And then you actually meet him and face his challenge.
  "Oh... it's you! I thought I was the only one rotting down here."

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