Scary things in non-horror games

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Simpsons Hit & Run

Level 1, 4, and especially Level 7, there is a barn full of cows just past the trailer park and the tire fire. I don't know if those cows have mad cow disease or if they've been fed Tomacco crops from the Tomacco field across the road, but their faces, man. Those faces! And when you turn the camera, the cows heads turn with it. They're always looking at you!

That reminds me of something:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13YlEPwOfmk

I haven't played the game, but the video kind of makes me want to...

Giygas in EarthBound

Running into lv 80+ monsters at lv 20 in Xenoblade Chronicles ( hey, I got scared when that happened... )

the Pokemon Yamask ( seriously, read the Pokedex info on it...effed up stuff there )

the fact that full frontal male nudity is apparently okay ( GTA IV & V ) but show 3 seconds of vagina and everybody acts like the apocalypse is starting....

Capcom's DLC practices ( lol, still love ragging on them for SFxT )

ReDeads, Wallmasters, Floormasters and Dead Hand in Zelda games

most enemies in Pikmin ( maybe that's just me....I hate the combat, and so many enemies scare the crap out of me when they appear...

Matt Helms in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

I sometimes feel a bit of vertigo when I'm playing some of the space maps on Quake 3 Arena or Open Arena, such as Q3DM18

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3w5d4BgG08[/youtube]
Keep in mind, this person is playing with their FOV cranked up, which explains the fisheye-lens-like effect. Unlike many other games, this isn't considered cheating on Quake 3, and it's actually encouraged by pro players.

Oh yeah I remember that. They didn't have any walking animation for him. He's always right behind you ready to give you a needless jumpscare. The original Slenderman before Slenderman.

This thing from Super Mario 64, you may remember it from childhood as that one moment you peed your pants while playing it.

*shudder* I forgot to list that one....1st time I saw that thing it scared the crap out of me....ahh, the magic of 3D gaming was not lost on me back then.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsuTC1yGqng[/youtube]
I don't think there is a way to translate whatever this is you hear on the River Twygz Bed with floating hands that try to grab you in Chapter 7 of Super Paper Mario. I advise you not to listen to it at night with the lights off.

NES Bionic Commando isn't really what you'd call a horror game, but when I was a teenager and saw Hitler's head explode I was really afraid to go to sleep that night because I thought I'd have nightmares, and even worse it was on a school night. Funny that it was okay to leave that in the game when it was released in NA but not all the Nazi propaganda.

Agreed! I dread Chapter 5! For me, it even outdid the Shalebridge Cradle of Thief Deadly Shadows. To get through the asylum I watched YouTube vids so as to know exactly what the scares were (and where). I was STILL terrified! It's been extremely well done and is the most frightening gaming experience I've had (I don't buy horror games as a rule though am now tempted since getting through this section of Thief...

Thief, BioShock and Half-Life are generally part horror games by design (with good portions of them entirely horror combined with whatever game mechanics they let you use).

System Shock 2 is the only game I've felt fear with (the atmosphere does it, plus some giant critters), but that's horror in the same way as Thief is.

If you've ever read about Nintendo's censorship policies back in the day, it's interesting to see all of the different things that made it past them. Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode is notorious for retaining a lot of its mature content in the North American release, despite Nintendo's strict policies. It wasn't entirely uncensored, as some storyline elements were changed and nudity was removed, but it still had blood, smoking, and even a heavily-implied sex scene. I actually own a copy of this game, but I don't have my old NES anymore, nor have I ever gotten far enough to see most of its mature content.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golgo_13:_ ... et_Episode
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/04/19/virtu ... t-episode/

Accidentally hitting the "quicksave" button just as you have something happen that will ensure your doom.

I was always surprised that Abodox was as disgusting as it was, especially for being an NES title.

Also, Nintendo's censors missed the part in Maniac Mansion where you can microwave the hamster @_@ Although I read somewhere (on the prototype page?) that some copies fixed it.

I've played Abadox as well, and I'm amazed it made it past the censors with all the gory imagery it contained. The game's logo even has blood dripping from it!

I know how Nintendo was getting overboard with the censorship. It seemed to peak near the end of the SNES era. When Harvest Moon was released characters were getting drunk on "juice". Juice that made them see butterflies.

Blood was acceptable on the Sega Genesis but nudity was a no-no. There was a game called Stormlord where there were fairies and princesses who were originally naked!

And oh yeah, that poor hamster, and one of their new rules was animals, especially cute ones (biased), could not be seen killed or abused. I think back then microwaving a live animal wasn't generally seen as a sign that whoever did it will be the next Jeffery Dahmer. There was even a joke about it on Tiny Toons where Elmyra becomes rodent-sized and is trapped in a cage at a pet store and Buster and Babs are pretending to be a kid and his mother. "Mommy Mommy, look at the cute little human!"..."Now now, Junior you know you microwaved the last one!"