Dumb things that scared you in games?

[Gold Arsene]

Have you ever had something scare you in the past that looking back it's kinda silly now?

I remember playing Crash 2 as a kid and having to leave the room whenever Cortex's hologram would show up.

I have no idea why now but this thing freaking terrified me as a child.

 

[NexasX]

This isn't a particularly uncommon one but any underwater stage in Sonic turns the game from a side-scrolling adventure platformer to OH GOD WHERE'S THAT AIR BUBBLE HE CAN'T BREATHE I CAN'T BREATHE I CAN'T PLAY THIS.

 

[StarPhlox]

It's gotta be the sewer boss in Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. Probably not intended to be so scary but I hated it.

That and the "Thriller" level in Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

 

[Pixel Grotto]

I recently played Kathy Rain. This dude (the "Man in Red") was pretty creepy.

 

[Poutine Runner 2049]

That stare is not to be fucked with.

 

[Deleted member 23046]

In Bloodborne, the main hall of the upper cathedral, ALL that cathedral with wolves and marrow sucker get on my nerves.

I farmed it for blood rock dozen times but still have accelerating heartbeat when going in.

 

[Hero of Winds]

Most things at sea in The Wind Waker used to terrify me as a kid. Big Octos, Gyorgs, cyclones, but they're all pretty easy to defeat/avoid.

Except Seahats. Fuck Seahats.

 

[BrunOz]

 

[MetalLord]

 

[Iori Loco]

I don't know how dumb it is but Redeads in Ocarina of Time scared me when I was a kid and I avoided places where they appeared. Needless to say, when I got to the future Hyrule Castle I wasn't very happy.

 

[Toxi]

Somehow Gex 2 of all games scarred me as a kid. I never got past these guys in the horror-themed levels. Them being invincible really freaked me out.

 

[fieldafar]

 

[will0wis]

The game over screen in OutRun Europa:

When I was a kid I'd run out of the room or turn off my old Master System every single time this happened, I was beyond frightened by the image of the police officer taking the guy.

 

[Lysistrata]

Cactuar appearing as a summon in FF8.
I was sat pretty close to the TV when this first occured. Scared the crap out of me.

 

[Proto]

I was terrified of these as a little kid and made my older brother play these levels for me lol

 

[Laserbeam]

Though I can't quite say why pretty much all the bosses in Ninja Gaiden on the NES scared me when I was a child.

I think it was partly because how large they were compared to you. Also that music.

 

[FreeMufasa]

PSO Ver.1 Online

You get killed. As the screen turns red you see a teammate running towards your dropped gear from a distance. Ya revive at the hospital and the room is missing one person.

 

[HadesHotgun]

This shit right here is the first thing that came to mind.

Castlevania 64 Hedge Maze with Frank's monster and dogs.

 

[MopDog]

The ocean in Crysis.

I'm pretty frightened of open water swimming in general, and the game's visuals combined with the really well done ocean sounds made the shit too real. Had real anxiety about sharks.

 

[LowParry]

Dogs. Fucking dogs. Ravens? Zombies. You know what I'm talking about!

 

[Deleted member 15457]

 

[ERAsaur]

Not understanding what was happening and why everything was getting reversed and chopped up like that was pretty scary back then. Nowadays I just laugh and go fix it.

 

[AlexFlame116]

Yes I was nervous about it BEFORE the whole Ben Drowned creepypasta came out.

It just really unnerved me. Especially when I compared normal Link's face with this elegy.

 

[TheCthultist]

Click to shrink...

Done. I'm out. These assholes traumatized me as a kid, and their return in a specific part of Mario Odyssey brought those memories streaming back in...

 

[Jedi79]

You know those bushes you can hide in , in fortnite.... didn't know you could hide in those and was moseying along and BLAM a dude pops out amd shotguns me, I about shipped my pants.. embarrassing and funny

 

[shotgunbob04]

I was horrified, especially when they'd scream and jump on me

 

[Kyle Cross]

I was gonna say the spiders in the PS1 Emperor's New Groove game, but looking it up yeah no, these shits are still scary.

And they'd drop down from the sky out of no where, too.

 

[Zhukov]

The spider in SimAnt.

Mostly he'd just languidly wander around the map, but then every so often he'd choose a specific ant and charge them down at inescapable speed. And sometimes that ant would be you.

Oh, and since you could disconnect the camera from your ant sometimes you'd be looking at something else entirely and this would suddenly pop up on the screen.

 

[Samikaze!!]

I wasn't even young when this happened, I was probably 16-17 years old.

Playing Sniper Elite on Xbox, there would be papers floating around. It's was a nice atmospheric touch that added to the desolation that was 1945 Germany. For some reason, these bags would always get a jump scare out of me, to the point where I'd even dodge them in the game.

I have no idea why. It was not a supernatural game. There were no monsters, no small attack birds, no airborne enemies to speak of.
Yet it always, always got me.

 

[Nictron]

Ghostbusters 2 NES

 

[Green Mario]

Click to shrink...

I can still hear that rattling noise in my goddamn nightmares.
He needs to be locked in the freezer forever.

 

[Slammin_Hammon]

As a kid, pretty much any creature in the water. The Mario 64 and Majora's Mask sea snakes, Shadows of the Empire sewer boss, you name it.

 

[Iori Loco]

I was horrified, especially when they'd scream and jump on me

Click to shrink...

Just their grunts were enough to make me no want to go further and find them. Also, that weird green mist in the Windmill, it was spooky.

 

[reminio]

Most recently the Blood Moon in Zelda. The first time it happened to me I had no idea what was going on and I was scared shitless.

 

[Wong Kar Why]

Click to shrink...

this and

 

[texhnolyze]

Dark and empty toilets.

 

[Acquila]

Skeletons, particularly the one in Diablo 1 (left) as well as Blood Skeletons in Symphony of the Night (right).

I had an irrational fear of skeletons when I was a kid, and Diablo 1 just creeped me back then so I watched someone else play it. I could cope in SotN because Skeletons were one hit kills, but the idea of a skeleton that never died terrified me. For those who are unfamiliar, Blood Skeletons also die in one hit, but they just crumple into a pile of bones and resurrect a few seconds later.

I tried to play Diablo 1 a few times but only on the first few floors. However, I encountered a glitch where the skeleton somehow instantly resurrects after playing the dying animation, which made me stop playing the game until I was like a decade older.

 

[Unspoken90]

The whole gimmick of the series is blood and gore, but for some reason the Mortal Kombat 4 game over sequence scared me.

 

[petethepanda]

I think I was about five years old for this. In Monkey Island 2, when you're getting yourself out of the jail cell on Phatt Island, there was some snippet of dialogue from an NPC about how LeChuck was coming to the island to get you (or something) and I can distinctly remember being freaked the fuck out and running away from the computer.

 

[Kenagain]

This mother fucker in Gex. I never beat it as a child because of him. I remembered who moved super awkwardly and made some scary noises

 

[Deleted member 26156]

Megaleg from Super Mario Galaxy...

I'm not sure why this boss in particular scared me when there was the much creepier Kingfin. I hate sharks.

 

[MattB]

 

[bar_bar12]

Hollow Knight Jiji startled me the first time I met her lmao

 

[Josh5890]

Don't ask me why but I had nightmares for a good couple of years after first playing The Cluefinders

 

[Akela]

This one is weird.

Don't ask why, but for some reason when I was a kid used to be terrified of this pre-release image/footage of Crash Twinsanity showing a version of Uka Uka with fucked up textures on his face. I couldn't even look at it:

...yeah, I don't know either. I guess seeing the image taking up most of my 800x600 display made it appear a bit more shocking to my young brain, but still. I guess he looks a bit more freaky with the clashing colour scheme compared to his usual look:

 

[Pablo Mesa]

any underwater Level

 

[Nav]

The basment / rear courtyard of Mario 64.

Also, 3D collectathons in general. The invisible walls around the world felt claustrophobic. It felt like a fake world where everything was creepy and slightly off, in comparison to 2D games for me. I think the villainous laughs of Bowser and in Banjo made it worse.

 

[Stairouais]