Forbidden Forest is a 1983 third-person shooter game made by Paul Norman, and published by Cosmi for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-Bit Computers.
You play as an archer who, while practicing his skills out in the woods, has stumbled into the feared forbidden forest, where giant, ferocious animals and deadly monsters wander, looking to slay any intruders into their domain. The only way out is to put your archery skills to the ultimate test, killing every monster you encounter before you meet the lord of the beasts, the feared Demogorgon.
The game was quite a technical achievement for its time, as it included things such as parallax scrolling, a day/night cycle, and context-sensitive music. The game got positive reviews for its gameplay and creepy atmosphere.
Two sequels were made. The first, Beyond the Forbidden Forest, also for the C64, featured an archer who has now set out to specifically kill Demogorgon, who awaits in the caves under the castle. You must slay the monsters he sets fourth to earn enough golden arrows to pierce the darkness of the underworld where he dwells. This game allowed for full movement in all directions, which the game dubbed "Omnidirection 4D."
Another game, simply titled "Forbidden Forest" (Though often informally called Forbidden Forest 3) was released in 2003 for Microsoft Windows. This one was a full 3D adventure game where the main character wandered around, gathering powerups and battling the first game's monsters again. It's mostly known for bringing back the victory dance from the first game, with remixed music.
Forbidden Forest contains examples of:
- Background Boss: The Ghost, the Snakes, and Demogorgon in the first game. The giant hydra in the sequel.
- Big Bad: Demogorgon, lord of the beasts of the titular Forbidden Forest.
- Boss Game: Each 'stage' is a single battle against the current monster, though you may have to kill several of the same monster to win.
- Dem Bones: The third-to-last boss in the original game. A bunch of spear-wielding skeletons led by a large ghost in the background
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Twice, you challenge Demogorgon with nothing but a bow and arrows. At least partially justified in the second game by needing Golden Arrows.
- Dire Beast: Many of the monsters are giant animals. Spiders, bees, frogs, snakes, scorpions, and even giant mosquitos will assault you through the games. The third game introduces giant owls.
- Disintegrator Ray: Demogorgon's eye beams in the sequel light up the archer for a moment before he evaporates.
- Eye Beams: Demogorgon's main form of attack in the sequel. Once he kills the archer, he turns his gaze towards the player.
- Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Spiders, bees, frogs, snakes, scorpions, mosquitos, bats, and even more monsters.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In the sequel, if you die to the Demogoron, he then turns and shoots his eye beams directly at you, the player.
- Fragile Speedster: The archer. He can only take one hit from the monsters, but he can outrun any of them, including a flying dragon.
- Giant Spider: The first boss. Many of them, actually. They come back as regular fodder in the third game.
- Happy Dance: The archer's Victory Pose after each level in the first and third games, with accompanying victory music.
- Hard Mode Filler: The first game loops back to the beginning after defeating Demogorgon.
- Lightning Reveal:
- In the first game, Demogorgon is only visible when lightning flashes. So you'll need to quickly aim arrows at the place you last saw him.
- The second game's title screen hides the title in darkness, only illuminated by lightning flashes for a while before fully revealing the game's name.
- Limited Loadout:
- If you run out of arrows, it's effectively game over because the monsters can kill you but you can't kill them. In Innocent and Trooper difficulties they replenish after every stage, but in Daredevil difficulty they only replenish twice during the whole game, and in Crazy only once. This is made even worse by the fact that the harder difficulty levels have more enemies.
- While you start with infinite normal arrows in the second game, you have to acquire golden arrows to take the fight to Demogorgon's lair. Running out of golden arrows within the caves will end your run.
- The Lost Woods: The titular Forbidden Forest, a deep section of the woods where only monsters dwell, ready to devour the unwary.
- The Many Deaths of You: Lots of bosses can give you a unique death animation, including being stabbed or stung to death, eaten alive, crushed into gory paste, melted with acid, sucked dry of bodily fluids, burned to a skeleton, or outright disintegrated.
- Motion Parallax: One of the earliest 2D games that uses parallaxes in its backgrounds.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The archer on the game's box art looks suspiciously like Rambo-era Sylvester Stallone
- Non-Standard Game Over: What happens to you if you fail to kill the Demogorgon in the final stage of the first game. His giant head lowers down from above as horrific music plays, and then the game just ends, regardless of how many lives you have left. Unlike other stages, you don't get to continue, either.
- Nothing Is Scarier: What makes the Demogorgon so creepy in the first game. Up to this point, it's been a pretty standard arcade shooter. Enemies arrive, you avoid their attacks, and you kill them, and move on to the next stage. Finally, you arrive at the final stage and the music abruptly stops while the sky goes pitch black. You wait for the Demogorgon to make his appearance...and he never does. No attacks thrown your way at all. All you get are brief glimpses of him as the lightning flashes. As time passes, you see him getting closer and closer to you with each flash of lightning, and a sense of urgency hits as you know something bad is going to happen if you don't kill him quickly enough. Fail, and you're greeted by Scare Chords as the Demogorgon's head descends upon you, and then you get a one-way trip to the Game Over screen.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: You and just about every monster. Including Demogorgon.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The first one you meet is a flying serpent who spits fire. The one in the sequel is a large, fat hydra who can breathe fire from his many heads.
- The Place: The game is named for the monster-infested forest the protagonist finds himself lost in.
- Sand Worm: The second boss in the sequel is a worm that pops out of the ground at random. In this case, though, you'll want to keep moving.
- Scare Chord: A shrill chord plays when you die to a monster in both the first and second games. Demogorgon killing you gets a unique shrill noise.
- Scary Scorpions: The first boss in the sequel, he will chase you around the forest.
- Stripped to the Bone: Getting roasted by the Hydra's fire in the sequel reduces you to a skeleton.
- A Winner Is You: Beating the Demogorgon just rewards you with the same dance as all the other stages, and then the game abruptly ends.
