Spooky Video Games!

Can I just say how blown away I’ve been by the great responses to the surveys, here? Way to run with the ball, guys. We’re still ironing out some functional/visual kinks with Dino Drac After Dark, but even as we do, thanks for proving that this was a concept worth trying!

Tonight’s topic: SPOOKY VIDEO GAMES.

Which ones were/are your favorites? Which ones legitimately creeped you out? Tell your fellow creatures of the night, in the comments!

As for me, any regular reader has probably picked up on the fact that I’m not a modern gamer by any stretch. And when I say “modern,” I pretty much mean the past 20 years. If it’s not a Smash Bros. game or some bullshit on Facebook, there’s a strong chance that I’ve never played it.

Still, I must admit that the first Resident Evil seriously freaked me out. I never got very far in it — certainly not far enough to hit any of its big moments — but just the whole design of that game, even from the very start, felt like a living horror movie.

I have much stronger feelings about older horror games, namely Ghosts ‘n Goblins and Castlevania, both for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Relive ‘em with these two walkthrough videos, crafted by people who are much better at video games than I’ll ever be.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins is notoriously hard, but since I kinda sucked at all video games, I’m not sure I ever even realized that it was inordinately difficult. The graphics are cartoony by today’s standards, but there’s still something so sincerely Halloweenish about those monsters. I look at them, and all I remember is drawing spooky pictures on construction paper with two markers and five broken crayons. That was yesterday.

Castlevania is more famous and held in higher esteem, and was clearly the superior game. I didn’t get the cartridge until it was completely out of style, so my fondest Castlevania memories are of going to my best friend’s house for sleepovers that consisted of me, him and his big brother trying to beat their game all through the night. Back before we watched horror movies, Castlevania was our surrogate.

Your turn! In the comments, talk about your experiences with spooky video games from the past and present!