Top 13 Scariest Video Games

Top 13 Scariest Video Games

Written by Zeromage 40 Comments
Last Updated:: October 10, 2008

It’s October. The leaves are falling, pumpkins are being smashed and video game nerds are breaking out all their scary video games from the past. Which are the scariest though? In this list we will go through what video games frightened the gamer to the core of his being while trying to find their way through the game. Some games just plain nailed the spooky quality needed to make a game scary by accentuating the moody soundtrack and making the enemies horrifying to look at. Some of the choices on this list may not be obvious, but on second look the reader will understand what could make a simple game like Pac-Man for so scary, which we will start off with first.

13. Pac-man

Pac-man may seem like a simple game and it is. It’s the greatest simple game of all time. But let’s think about it a little bit more. You are a floating head trapped in pitch black maze with four ghosts chasing after you. Is this not the definition of hell? Spending the rest of your life as a moving mouth running away from ghosts that never tire from trying to exterminate you from existence? With this in mind, I think we now all understand how scary of a game Pac-Man was. We like playing the game, sure. But who would honestly want to live the life of Pac Man?

12. Alone in the Dark

Alone in the Dark was unprecedented for its time. The music was suspenseful at every turn. The voice overs were dramatic and dark. Doors would randomly close behind you, and you never knew what was behind the next corner waiting to suck your blood. This 3D adventure started a slew of games like the Resident Evil series, where you were alone in a house trying to solve mysteries and find artifacts. Playing Alone in the Dark actually in the dark would accentuate the already tense mood of being in a massive house reading Latin scripture relating to biblical demonic prose. Making this game even more scary was seeing yourself from the prospective of zombies inside the house and you drive into this nefarious manor. Alone in the Dark was the first of it’s kind and still gives spooks to those who have played it thoroughly in the past.

11. Ghostbusters

What could be a scarier job than busting ghosts? If you answered “nothing” then you’ll agree with us that Ghostbusters for the NES deserves a spot on this list. There’s no denying that the Ghostbusters franchise has provided Western society with some great entertainment, with the cartoons series and the Ghosbusters movie, but most people seem to forget about how great the video game was. Unlike most movie-based games, this game actually stays true to the plot of the movie it was based on, and that by itself is scary enough considering all the ghosts we see in the movie. But if battling a 20 story walking marshmallow and an ancient Mesopotamian demigod doesn’t scare you, maybe bad spelling in a video game does, as this game is filled with spelling mistakes as you can see by the ending text:

“Conglaturation !!!
You have completed a great game.
And prooved the justice of our culture.
Now go and rest our heroes !”

10. Zombies ate my Neighbors

The main character of Zombies ate my Neighbors may have looked like some regular old teenager, but the town he was in was one of the scariest in video game history. Everywhere you turned, Zombies were out to devour your human body. The whole town looked like the best Halloween you ever had, except you didn’t have to worry for your life in your town. Some things were odd about this game. Like why you had to save cheerleaders if everyone knew that the town was manifesting zombies at every second and why some obese guy was drinking a beer in his back pool with zombies waiting for him by the side. Regardless, running away from these zombies made you on edge. It made you not want to relive this experience in real life.

9. Fester’s Quest

Along with being one of the most difficult games of all time, Fester’s Quest for the Nintendo Entertainment System is also hands down one of the scariest as well. Spooky music, a scary looking main character and aliens from another world combine to make this one of the most frightening experiences of your life (assuming you played it as a kid like I did). Battling the alien invaders from the streets to the sewers, to even their own space ship armed with nothing more than a what’s basically pea shooter, this game will give you the chills. To make matters worse, the “upgrades” for your gun turn out to be downgrades, as some of them don’t even shoot straight. If you’re not scared yet, you also have to fight the game’s gigantic alien bosses in a pitch black screen. Spooky.

8. Doom 2

Doom 2 took the themes of Doom 1 and accentuated them to more spookier proportions. The levels were darker, the music was more tense, and cacodemons would appear out of nowhere. Lets also nto forget the sheer amount of Cyberdemons you had to face in this game. Beyond the sheer quality of engineering super-spooky levels was the final boss who represented arguably the scariest final boss in the history of video games. The Icon of Sin (which was listed in our top 10 bosses of all time) looked like the worst nightmare a human could possibly have. Having to fight him was even more of a nightmare with the bastard throwing out every enemy in the game on command. Doom 2 set the standard for 3D spookiness that would be mimicked across all platforms. This game needs to be remembered for setting that standard.

7. Zelda 2

Zelda 2 was always an underrated game within the Zelda series. This game was a bit too adult and strange for some gamers, but this is what made it such a great game for others. Right from the start, you were adventuring into towns with Old Wizards (Like us!) endowing Link with the best magic, and completely dark fighting scenes where you were getting hit by monsters from places you couldn’t see. Further into the game, and you were visiting deserted towns with townspeople who would turn into bats. You would be walking on water at points and fighting massive bosses with chain balls taking away half your strength with one hit. There were always some secret forests or caves where you were picking up ancient statues and letters to help you on your way. This game had a very hidden feeling to it keeping the gamer tense throughout. This was certainly the spookiest Zelda out of the whole series.

6. Maniac Mansion

Walking around a broken down mansion. Being chased by mice and old nannies who look like their Dr.’s of Euthanasia. Blood stains on kitchen walls. Knives on those kitchen walls with even more blood stains on them. Pictures of brain surgeons on the top floor of the mansion. Has their ever been a game that has appeared more gloomy than Maniac Mansion? Sure, this shit looks like a B-rated horror movie, but you have to give this game credit for the sheer amount of gloomy aesthetics attempted in the appearance. This game started a trend for many more after like Resident Evil. Maniac Mansion was the first though to overkill the gloomy aesthetic of a destitute manor.

5. Castlevania Symphony of the Night

What a game Castlevania Symphony of the Night was. This was appropriately placed very high in our top 100 video games of all time. It was also on our top 5 video game soundtracks of all time. It finds its place again in our top 13 scariest games of all time list. Just listen to the sweeping soundtrack. It’s like you’re in a broken down church which somehow still has an organ player who has advanced beyond his years into making music on par with Beethoven’s Sonatas. Play the game itself and you will come across the creepiest monsters in the video game medium like massive brain organs with human body parts falling off of it. Get to the top of the castle and you are in the dark of a full moon night with owls and bats ready to attack from every corner. We could write about this game forever. Play it, and you will be in a perpetual haunted house for at least 40 hours.

4. Super Metroid

Boy was this game moody. Right from the start of the game you were in a broken down spaceship with quiet music slowly rising up every minute. Out of nowhere flies Ridley into the screen tearing down the whole spaceship Samus was on. You have a couple minutes to dash off the spaceship before it blows up. This sets up the whole game as a spooky adventure across the newly adjusted Zebes. Every area is smothered with spooky music and dark backdrops. The environments continually get more creepy as you visit a ghost ship and have to fight a phantom one eyed octopus, and visit Ridely’s lair where the pounding marching beat sets the mood for a battle of the ages. In terms of pure mood, there has never been a game to capture the mood sought after like Super Metroid. You are on edge at all moments of this game.

3. Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th is infamous for being one of the worst games on the NES, but what most people don’t talk about is how it is also one of the scariest video games ever made for the NES. When I was a kid this game gave me some serious nightmares, which may be why I’m so screwed up today. In the game you play as six faceless camp counselors trying to survive their stay at Camp Crystal Lake. During the game you fight a ton of zombies with little more than a knife (anyone who’s ever fought a zombie in real life knows how useless a knife is against them) while trying to find Jason and save your fellow camp counselors. I’m not sure if there are any zombies anywhere in the Friday the 13th movie franchise, since I stopped watching them after number 4, “the final chapter”, but apparently they exist in great numbers in the video game. After surviving the zombies you fight Jason in a style reminiscent of fighting Mike Tyson in the Punch Out! series. While Punch Out! is a far better game, there can be no denying that Friday the 13th is scarier.

2. Castlevania 2

Castlevania 2 was always an underrated game, much like Zelda 2 as a sequel to its precursor. This is unfortunate as many people won’t have the opportunity to play this incredible game that was one of the scariest games to play in video game history. Days would change into nights and the most nefarious night time monsters would do more damage than the day time monsters. The towns were desolate with townspeople epitomizing borderline mania speaking in strange proverbs and walking around slowly in cloaks. The music throughout the game was haunting. It’s not as if you felt totally at ease when visiting towns in Castlevania 2. The environment always stayed tense throughout the game. This game was a pure success at making a game as morbid as possible.

1. Ghosts n Goblins

Ghost’s n Goblins tries to be a scary game by hinting at full moons and zombies. The game itself though is not scary at all. The monsters don’t come across as scary, the final boss looks like a buffoon and the music lacks any sort of mood. So why is it on the top of this list? The game is the scariest game of all time because of how fucking hard it is. What’s scary is knowing that you will continually have to buy new controllers because how many times you smash them playing to impossible game. What’s scary is that after years of playing it and finally getting to the end, you have to go back to the middle because you didn’t pick up an artifact. The sheer difficulty level of this game makes it the scariest game of all time. Just the thought of playing the first level again frightens the shit out of us, because we won’t make it half way through.

40 Comments

#1 Jesus Christ says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:44 pm

This is the worst list ever. If there was a list of the top worst lists ever conceived this would be #1.

#2 Moses says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:57 pm

I agree with Jesus. This list is terrible!

#3 WTF says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:58 pm

Agreed, this is should be titled “Top 13 Games that have something to do with scary things, but are not scarry at all”.

#4 Xbot says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:13 pm

I started with gaming with the Atari just like you but this nostalgia fest is sickening to say the least.

#5 Old Boy says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:35 pm

Yeah… And Resident Evil or Silent Hill or Fatal Frame or Forbidden Siren aren’t scary at all, right?
Man, even the first Tomb Raider was scary compared to the games you put in this list.
Were you drunk maybe? Or your game experience ended with the 16-bit era?

#6 well says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:43 pm

I’ve seen you do these top lists before. you might want to stress that that they have an emphasis on classic games, because otherwise they are quite biased.

#7 Nick says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:47 pm

Where the hell is splatterhouse (3 was the scariest IMO), you need splatterhouse, or silent hill… hell, condemned: criminal origins was scarier than anything on that list.

#8 zman says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:53 pm

Ditto Old Boy. I don’t see how Silent Hill and RE don’t make this sorry list.

#9 TheMountain says:
March 16th, 2010 at 10:53 pm

Great article. Castlevania 2 def hit it with spookyness. I’m ganna break that out again

#10 Belialxyn says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:20 pm

Hmm, yeah, classic games never ever scared me really, though if i think about it the only game that ever has is Fatal Frame..

#11 Chase357 says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:08 am

This list blows. Doom II deserves to be higher and most of the games on the list do not deserve a spot.

#12 Spreadsheet Ninja says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:31 am

I dont want to be as harsh as some of these other guys, but this list is kinda lame. Pac-man? Scary? Are you serious?

Your list should read something along the lines of
Resident Evil
Silent Hill
Bio Shock
Doom 2/3
etc…etc…

#13 Big A2 says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:54 am

Guys, calm down. This list is obviously made out of sarcasm.

#14 daz says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:21 am

scarey game’s my arse if you peed your pant’s while playing these game’s you need to take a pistol and go around the back of your house and blow out what’s left of you brain’s

#15 gryzor says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:29 am

Resident Evil? Silent Hill? Scary games, yes; but lists are no fun if you just get the same crap/ what you’re expecting every time.

I agree with a lot of these, actually. ‘Spooky’ or ‘creepy’ might be more apt, though. Maybe it’s just from being a kid at the time; but these old games do have an odd, mysterious quality that you scarcely see anymore.

The music on Castlevania 2’s password screen used to scare the crap out of me, for one thing.

#16 asdf says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:25 pm

My ass, another 10 reasons why i’m so noob list

#17 Miller Time says:
March 16th, 2010 at 1:09 am

this list was NOT what i expected, so i thank the person who crafted it.

it’s VERY easy to make a top 10 or whatever list of the scariest games, and throw in a Siren, or Silent Hill, or Resident Evil, or Fatal Frame, etc, etc, but for an old timer like me, seeing these old games brings back a lot of memories.

i’m not ashamed to admit that i STILL have my Friday the 13th cartridge, and it still works in my NES from back when i was 9 years old (that’d be 1988).

fun list.

what’s the point of rehashing the same “Top Scariest Games” that we’ve read countless times before? at least this one was unique. hell, i’m tempted to fire up the ol’ NES now…

#18 g says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:20 am

jesus you thick fucks have no sense of humor what so ever

#19 Dav says:
March 16th, 2010 at 4:50 am

I must say, I’m not a fan of any of the lists on this site, but this is one of the more disappointing ones I have been linked to. Most of these games were not scary at the time, and are not scary now, they just have some kind of ghost or alien theme; that doesn’t necessarily make them scary.

#20 DM says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:33 pm

Dav,

As with most of the lists on this site, we strive to re-live our youth through the ironic eyes of our adult selves. We know these games are not the scarriest games ever, but for someone our age to pull up and relive the moment we first regretted paying allowance money to rent the horrible fester’s quest from the video shack can brighten our days. we write these lists in the same dry off-serious tone tht we use when we debate them in real life, placing grave importance on something that is absolutely UNimportaint, making us laugh and taking some of the actual importaint, scary, and depressing realities of adult life on the back burner for a minute. If you had any idea how many times Zeromage and I have face-palmed while reading some of the over-serious readers comments…lets just say i have a permanent dent in my forehead from my wedding ring.

#21 Karl says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:38 pm

This list was scarier than the actual games.

#22 Benjamin says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:43 pm

I do not see a single title on this list that was developed by Rareware.

The scariest Rareware game a lot of people know is “Taboo: The Sixth Sense” is not really a game at all; and it is scary in that the nature of the game, tarot reading, was not appropriate for children.

#23 D.J. says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:21 am

This was a really lame attempt to try to be funny….

Hell why not put the Barney game in there *rolls eyes*

#24 Fraught says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:06 pm

Even if it’s sarcasm, it sucks. This list isn’t “Top 13 Scariest Video Games”, but it’s “Top 13 Games, Which Would Be Horrible, If You Were the Characters In Those Games.”

Not to talk about the biased viewpoint of Nintendo’s old consoles’ games. I mean, on a NES, or SNES game, never a monster jumped out literally from every crack (Doom 3), and there is no Fatal Frame, Silent Hill, Condemned or Resident Evil, which are all scary in the scary factor, and in the “I-wouldn’t-wan’t-to-be-inside-the-game-world” scariness more than any NES and SNES game ever.

I find some lists funny on Old-Wizard.com, but this one wasn’t even funny, and the sarcasm was fail. Seriously, I really want to know what games you really think are the best, scariest etc, not just “Oooh, think about it. Pac-Man has no legs, he has to roll around, eating balls, and when he rolls around, he can’t always see around. Think about it when a ghost appears behind him, but you’re (Pac-Man) still rolling. Spooky!”

Seriously, drop the whole Nintendo biasness. You thought you did a good joke by admitting it in the “Top 10 reasons why old-wizard.com sucks” that you’re Nintendo fanboys, but it isn’t funny, and it’s getting really, really old.

#25 pandora says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:49 am

OMG! yes pacman scares the crap out of me!!!
thank you!
now i know that iam not alone!!!!

ps, one moment in pikmen, the cutest game ever, unfortunately one of the spiders has machine guns attached to it’s butt and slaughters your pikmen.
it should be added immediately.
as well as pokemon battles, tetris, hello kitty rollerblade adventure, diddy kong racing, and kirby air ride. so freaking scary. omg.

#26 Kat says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:38 pm

Haha, okay, I personally don’t think any of these are scarey, but its a good list none the less. I even have a few of them, and I never thought I would see Ghosts n Goblins on a top anything list.

#27 Thad says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:30 pm

Okay first of all ghost busters? come on all you do is play tag with ghosts. and Pacman seriously the only decent game is doom2 but if I had to agree with one person it would be Jesus Christ.

#28 Casey says:
March 16th, 2010 at 2:46 pm

This list isnt really about fear. Its more about games that cause frustration, stress, or worry. I dont see how a game with such old graphics inspires fear in you at all.

#29 Uhhhhhhhhh,pie says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:14 pm

C’mon old-wizard. At least put a Resident evil game in there. Seriously.

#30 Asmellysock says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:52 am

I loved this list. It brings out the best of the old games that some may have thought couldn’t be scary at all (like pac-man) but are scary in some way or another. And Zombies ate my neighbors is a effin epic game I might add.

#31 avi says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:25 pm

athis should have been titled ”top 13 least scary games with monsters in them.”

#32 UP2IP2 says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:03 pm

well i could agree with Ft13,Doom2 and Alone in the dark but PACMAN???????????

#33 Anonymous says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:42 pm

I am sad to say i am deeply dissappointed. While i usually agree with these lists in the end even if i don’t like the results due to sound logic, i do not in this case. I mean come on old wizard there are so much more scary video games than those on the list. F.E.A.R freaked me out, hell even the invisible guys in prince of persia were scarier. While Ft13 Alone in the dark and Doom2 were acceptable to be on the list the rest is just a bunch of bull**** that panders to the classic games despite their inability to put us in a truly horrifying environment. Plus pacman just had to eat a yellow ball-thing and the ghosts turned into lunch.

#34 Wolf says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:39 pm

*girly scream* those are almost as scary as a bedsheet on a stick

#35 ash says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:50 pm

You’ve totally ignored the entire survival horror genre.. Pac Man??! Pac Man is not a scary game.. You making a mockery of your lists just to stay loyal to your dangerous obsession with pre-1995 video games

#36 ShadowHunter says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:00 am

I agree that Silent Hill and Resident Evil should be there (I am talking about Resident Evil 1-2-3-0). Silent Hill IS the scariest game in my book. I played Homecoming and god! The nurses scared the hell out of me!

#37 James says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:10 am

I think you guys don’t get the point of the list. All of these games you guys are screaming to be put up there are new games. Look at the games up there, its only classic games. The list really should be called “Top 13 Scariest Classic Video Games”. Any moron can say RE, Bioshock, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, etc, etc, but these are CLASSICS, not new stuff.

#38 ShadowHunter says:
March 16th, 2010 at 4:53 pm

God, I played Silent Hill Homecoming recently. I never thought that game could be that freaky. It deserve the first spot on this list. Even the first F.E.A.R. deserve a place.

#39 Dodester says:
March 16th, 2010 at 10:23 pm

Tsk… if you count Pac-man as “scary” then you forgot another “scary” game: Kirby. If you brush off the cutesy exterior, its kind of freaky. First off, the protagonist, Kirby. A nonsexual mutant puffball who can eat you and take your powers, not to mention fly. Then their are all the enemies, from Ci-clopses who shoot laser whips, to living wheels. Then the bosses, from a giant, one eyed cloud, to a dark, robotic-winged rival, to a fat king- penguin?

Top 13 Scariest Video Games

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