Scariest Retro Games?

Raskolnikov

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRPxTiMp2po

This game moves at a bloody snails pace, but the atmosphere and suspense is incredible for a title that is being run on relatively limited hardware. The variablity of the game is brilliant, you can go into a room one time and it's perfectly safe, another time, you'll be attacked by

Scissorsman

. The multiple endings give it longevity, but it's the uniqueness of this game in starting the survival horror genre that makes this title. 20 years old, but still playable today.

Retr0gamer

The only 2D games that ever truly scared me or unsettled me were Earthbound, Mother 3, Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion.

To say more about Earthbound and Mother 3 would spoil them. Metroid Fusions' scenes were the SA-X was hunting you down were tense and Super Metroid has that boss that came back from the dead that scared the **** out of me.

Must play clock tower sometime.

pdbhp

Retr0gamer wrote: »

To say more about Earthbound and Mother 3 would spoil them. Metroid Fusions' scenes were the SA-X was hunting you down were tense and Super Metroid has that boss that came back from the dead that scared the **** out of me.

I found that the music really added to the atmosphere in Metroid Fusion and that it had some of the best sound effects and music of any GBA game

CiDeRmAn

I was terrified by Thunderforce II, mostly because I had just spent 40 pounds on it, it sucked and the shop didn't take returns!

And Doom on the PS was nice and creepy, mostly because of the excellent soundtrack.
Alone In The Dark I played on the 3DO and it has its fair share of very scary moments, like when you read the book in the library....

Mr.Saturn

The original version of Pokemon Red and Blue were slightly disturbing games.
Nothing blunt obviously, but they're mapped out to be atmospheric, with the quaint overworld jilted with the oncoming of the almost alarm-like battle music/sequence, or indeed, when you encouter a certain beast you weren't expecting. Kind of like Earthbound or Zelda, where the sense of curiosity is mixed with a healthy helping of trepidation.

dr gonzo

System shock is 3Dish so im not sure if meant that new but that game is unsettling to say the least.

+1 on Doom too, its a classic for a reason.

yrwhu8jxtni06a

Waxworks,its death scenes where gory too-
http://poetv.com/video.php?vid=85042&big=3x

b318isp

Quake 4 is really dark and spooky. The sound effects and sudden attacks back it one to play with the lights fully on!

o1s1n

b318isp wrote: »

Quake 4 is really dark and spooky. The sound effects and sudden attacks back it one to play with the lights fully on!

Did I just time travel without realizing? :eek:

Skerries

back to the past you mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_4

Skerries

a very scary game on the Amiga was Dark Seed which was designed by H.R.Giger
you start off in your house but you can cross over to a strange distorted version of your world

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3dGvTaQjd8

Retr0gamer

Skerries wrote: »

back to the past you mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_4

Considering it's a 360 game it's not really retro now is it?

dr gonzo wrote: »

System shock is 3Dish so im not sure if meant that new but that game is unsettling to say the least.

Good choice. Must get back to that game now there's a patch to get proper mouse look and configurable controls in it.

SirLemonhead

Is this place specifically "Arcade and Console retro" that you'd state Quake 4 as being a 360 game rather than a PC game?

I'd add Clive Barker's Undying. Has some very dark and creepy levels in it, as well as general horror themed madness going on.

dr gonzo

Quake 4 is a 2005 release, im not sure if thats really what the OP was going for when they said retro...

CiDeRmAn

dr gonzo wrote: »

Quake 4 is a 2005 release, im not sure if thats really what the OP was going for when they said retro...

We have debates here of whether or not the PS1 is a retro machine!
Anything released on the 360 is, by default, not retro, but the line is a bit fuzzy at times.
The Saturn, is it retro? Most would say yes.
The PSone, is that retro? Some yes, many no.
The PS2? Not a chance!
The DC? Well, there we are into a cult machine, or a console that has a following of devotees but is not retro.
The Wii, you might argue, also has devotees, does that make it a cult machine?
No, not really, it has far too large a general following to be "cult".
A title on any machine may qualify as being a "cult hit", if the game has a devoted following but outside the general gaming knowledge, Ikaruga or Killer 7 are titles on established common hardware but not played by many people at all but judged to be classics by a cadre of fans.


This forum could possibly have a name change to Arcade, Retro & Cult but I'm afraid we'd have some slightly deranged religious types posting here in error!

Myrddin

The Xbox360 is current gen. If current gen is retro then I give, its all over!

Retr0gamer

Yeah lets just merge this forum with Games

Raskolnikov

Back to the recommendations, folks :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3Y3TTneIpI

The Gabriel Knight series was revolutionary, at a time when FMV was becoming all the rage in games for the PC. Some of the video was cheesey (Tim Curry's New Orleans accent is hilarious), but at the times, you couldn't help but being blown away by the immersiveness of the experience. For me, this is my favourite point and click game, and that includes the Monkey Island series.

Mcjmetroid

Mr.Saturn wrote: »

The original version of Pokemon Red and Blue were slightly disturbing games.
Nothing blunt obviously, but they're mapped out to be atmospheric, with the quaint overworld jilted with the oncoming of the almost alarm-like battle music/sequence, or indeed, when you encouter a certain beast you weren't expecting. Kind of like Earthbound or Zelda, where the sense of curiosity is mixed with a healthy helping of trepidation.

From this point of view, the original pokemon games were really depressing.

longshotvalue

One scary Game ( well first time anyway) was rescue on fratalus on the atari (im not sure was it the ST or 800xl)..

First time i played it we landed and heard a load of steps and knocking etc and then a big green monster pops up and breaks the screen of the ship.. Scary enough when you wernt expecting it..

Ruu_Old

Dark Seed, started playing it again recently. Creepy circus performers and music. Head wrecking game at parts.

Xinkai

Most disturbing game for me? Prolly qualifies, not too sure, but it's a GameCube game.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

My most absolutley terrifying experience in gaming is probably either Resident evil 2, I first played it when I was 8 years old, still can't play it today...

Or Metal Gear Solid 2, when at the end of the game the colneil comes on codec and says:

"Don't you think you've played long enough? Go on, get some sleep", and then he gets all distorted.

It was 3am and I had been playing for about 9 hours at that point,so yeah, THAT creeped me out.

Other than that, I'd say probably Haunting Ground, the atmosphere was immense.

Myrddin

Seeing as we've ruled out current gen as Retro :rolleyes:, how about the original Xbox? There was a game on that called Project Zero (Fatal Frame in JP I think) which had the type of suspense horror we all love to hate. That game, lights off, empty house....hmm, I'm still not sure I could do it

yrwhu8jxtni06a

Last half of darkness,the limited pc specs in the day did a good job with eerie effects and limited sound,forward to 4.20 to see are the children really innocent-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U31LuXTn4k

Some of other pics from game- http://www.abandonia.com/games/24521/Last+Half+of+Darkness.html

Zombi

Setun

EnterNow wrote: »

Seeing as we've ruled out current gen as Retro :rolleyes:, how about the original Xbox? There was a game on that called Project Zero (Fatal Frame in JP I think) which had the type of suspense horror we all love to hate. That game, lights off, empty house....hmm, I'm still not sure I could do it

Oh yeah - I remember that! You had to take pictures of various items to solve puzzles, and you'd attach ghosts by photographing them too I think. That was rather creepy alright.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpeb3yJlTwg

This game used to freak the bejaysus out of a mate of mine when we were kids, and looking back at it now, the part where the giant clown head scrolls onto the screen is slightly terrifying.

johnny_ultimate

The opening of the 7th Guest used to freak the hell out of me when my older cousins used to play it. I must have been six or seven at the time. Something about the heavily compressed video graphics and the stabbing scene used to unsettle me. It's embarrassing looking back now and noticing how naff the whole thing is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY96kCw7D4g

o1s1n

Skerries wrote: »

back to the past you mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_4

You missed what I was getting at. I would need to travel forward in time for Quake 4 to be considered retro, as more time would need to have passed for it to be considered an old game.

Unless you're ten years old of course.

Dark Seed is a game I've always meant to play. I saw it on my Amiga while browsing through games. Got all excited. Started it up - it's in German.

Which to be fair, is probably scarier than it being in English.

wyrn

For me, it has to be the MS DOS game - Azrael's Tear. At the time I had no idea of the plot, but looking over wikipedia:

Azrael's Tear is a 1996 first-person computer role playing adventure game published by Mindscape and developed by Intelligent games. Taking place in 2001, the player takes on the role of a futuristic grave robber/archaeologist called a "raptor", who has come to explore a recently opened cavern in Scotland rumored to contain the Holy Grail.

It was awesome. Very atmospheric and for some reason the contrast on the monitor was low, so very eerie. I remember being really impressed with the solar system puzzle. The random cries in that cavern of a room used to scare the crap out of me (I was only little). There may have been decomposed bodies in a water tank and lizards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AWcb1y9Z5U

Setun

^ Not bad graphics for 96. I like the music - clearly composed with the intention of making the player completely on edge

Just thinking of another I.D game that was creepy - Hexen. An electro-baroque soundtrack fused with the occasional cry of an unseen demon made this one rather tense to play as a kid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hPD8Go8zrY

Kal_El

I always felt that Splatter House 2 for the Megadrive was a freaky game!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatterhouse_2
Not so much the game but the intro the bit where the girl says "help me Rick" and then screams. Always gave me shivers. But then i was young at the time.:D

CiDeRmAn

Eternal Darkness wasn't terribly scary but it was very well done, well worth owning if you have a Gamecube, and if you don't, why not?

7sr2z3fely84g5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tldhoBZdXAI

Augmerson

Look up I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream for the Amiga....I think the title was changed but it's based on a book of the same title.

Kal_El

Augmerson wrote: »

Look up I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream for the Amiga....I think the title was changed but it's based on a book of the same title.

That just sounds wrong!:eek: I think ill give it a miss thanks:D

Augmerson

It is well worth looking it up, even a youtube video or something, the story it is based on too is great science fiction, here's the wikipedia link for the game -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream_(video_game)

deathrider

Kal_El wrote: »

I always felt that Splatter House 2 for the Megadrive was a freaky game!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatterhouse_2
Not so much the game but the intro the bit where the girl says "help me Rick" and then screams. Always gave me shivers. But then i was young at the time.:D

Agree completely. Splatterhouse 2 scared the crap out of me when I was young. Also, when I played Doom alone as a boy, it scared me silly. Great atmosphere to it, although it's primarily an action game.

Roar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw0jvDxgLx8

Playing this on your own in the middle of the night with headphones on. Absolutely terrifying.