What things in games scared you as a kid?

[Ambidextroid]

As a kid I was scared in games of glitches, specifically ones that break the realism or established norms of a game. I'm talking about things like when a character or piece of the world warps into a freakish spiky mess of polygons, when NPCs don't do what they're supposed to (like not talk when they're meant to) or like when you find a way out of the confines of the game and you can walk outside the map and explore the vast emptiness beyond. It reminded me of how the game was just a program, that the characters were empty mannequins of polygons, pieces of code, that the level was not a solid lively part of a larger world but instead a smaller place made of infinitely thin walls and floors of polygons, the sky and land in the distance being nothing more than a flat texture or a skybox, a fake backdrop hiding the endless barren void behind, a complete facade.
It reminded me of how alone I was; that the world was actually completely empty and that each apparently living character was no more than a hollow wireframe model, that I was actually the only real thing that inhabited the barren world.
That shit freaked me out as a kid, but I still used to try to trigger these glitches because, as much as they scared me, they also fascinated me.

For anything more specific I'd say that Jano and his level really freaked me out, but I still love his character completely. Another thing that freaked me out was some of the stuff in Gauntlet Dark Legacy, especially the first graveyard levels and those death grim reaper like enemies that were almost impossible to kill and just constantly followed you and drained your health/level when they were near. Those are still the scariest enemies in any game in my opinion, in fact the whole game has it's scary creepy parts but it was incredibly fun and I loved the eerie level themes and designs as a kid.

Something a bit more irrational was the machine you destroy to save Ly in Rayman 2. I was always really terrified of that thing for some reason, even more than Jano. When a bomb came at me I would panic, accidentally throw the keg somewhere and run back into the grassy outside area. I was even scared that the bombs might fly through the tunnel and chase me.

Was there anything in videgames that scared you when you were a kid, be them terrifying or completely irrational?

[Eparcyl]

For me R3 because of the knaarens.

[Eren]

Nothing new but as a kid, when i played rayman 3 for the first time the knareens scared the crap out of me :c

[Ambidextroid]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that, that'll probably be one of the most popular things posted here from the looks of things
But yeah, just like why I was scared of the death/grim reaper enemies from G:DL, the thing that made me scared of Knaarens most was that they were invincible and you were completely powerless from them. Thinking about it, the stupid little enemies in Mercury Meltdown Revolution scared the complete shit out of me too for that reason. They weren't that scary really, but you were absolutely powerless as you couldn't attack or anything.

[GNineify]

Little me used to often become really scared if a video game character turned to look at me after leaving them idle or whatever, expecially if they looked pissed while doing so. Somehow I kept thinking they're judging me and coming to eat me in my sleep because I left them standing around, despite being nothing but a bunch of colorful polygons on a TV screen. Also the "Wanna Kick Rayman" cutscenes in R3 made me slightly uncomfortable because goddamnit I really didn't wanna beat the shit out of Rayman.

But for some reason, even the scariest-looking monsters in video games just made me go "hehe cute".

[incognito]

That :



We used to play Half-Life 2ep1 with my father when I was a kid, their damn screams scared me...
Half Life 1 was looking ugly, so I didn't had that problem.

But now, I play games like Dead Space, and I really enjoy to rip and tear these monsters s'guts.

[Harpic fraîcheur]

So, to be brief, I will only say one thing : Tily ...

[Itooh]

The first time I played Rayman 3, my PC couldn't display Knareens (neither Rayman :p). There was just shadows. Invisible dangerous creatures against which I couldn't do anything. Not a single idea about what they look like, it was just an evil presence. Quite… frightening.
But it is nothing compared to the little Jano in Rayman 2. The one that hide behind pillars. For ten minutes, I didn't understand at all how to beat him! I was searching, hearing its scary jumping noise… And suddenly it would attack from behind! >< I could see only glimpses of it, before it would hide and completely disappear, but still reminding me of it presence. Brrr.
The most scary monsters are the one that you can't see.

I can understand the fear and fascination for glitches. In fact, it's not for nothing that there's so much creepy-pasta about games working strangely (hello BEN): glitches can bring so much odd atmospheres… There's a kind of poetic horror and/or beauty into Out of Bounds zones, or graphical errors.
Actually, there are even games now that use that idea! I recommend to try the free game Strawberry Cubes, which is about exploration in a completely messed up world. Memory of a Broken Dimension looks also very promising!

As for my earliest video-game fears… It would probably be Ocarina of Time.
Everything in this game. Gosh, it terrified me, I had trouble sleeping because of it, but I couldn't stop playing it. It was the very first time I experienced so much fear induced by a video-game, and I still occasionally have nightmare about it (delicious, beautiful nightmares, though). I could go deep into what terrified me in this game, but for now, let's focus only on the Redeads. Sure these creature were ugly, and the sound they were making was creepy, but they weren't moving. So maybe I should go talk to it, right?
… Not only that was a frightening jump scare, but it also inspired an absolute confusion to the child I was. Why the scream? What are these things? What are they DOING? Why am I powerless!? Perhaps the most horrible sight wasn't Link dying by the hand of one of these creatures. It was returning there afterward, and seeing them standing, or slowly wandering, hearing they low lament, and knowing that they're waiting for a prey.
I feared Redeads for years, in all Zelda that would come afterward, and it's likely that even today I get chills by hearing their scream.

[Bradandez]

Bunch of pussies here. I got something scarier than all of y'all.

Whenever a spooky ghost popped out in Luigi's Mansion. That shit was fucking nerve wracking.

[Keane]

Surprisingly Luigi's Mansion ghosts never got me sp00kt, but one thing that did make me really unsettled was one of the tracks that plays when you're sucking up ghosts because it sounded all distorted and weird.

Also the "Wanna Kick Rayman" cutscenes in R3 made me slightly uncomfortable because goddamnit I really didn't wanna beat the shit out of Rayman.

For some shit reason I was terrified of that last second of those videos where you see the hoodlum mouth closing because I thought the mouth was being stapled shut and that idea turned into a bigger issue for me than the Knaarens.

[Bradandez]

Surprisingly Luigi's Mansion ghosts never got me sp00kt, but one thing that did make me really unsettled was one of the tracks that plays when you're sucking up ghosts because it sounded all distorted and weird.

You mean this one?

I love this track to be honest. I always loved distorted sounding music for some odd, strange reason.

[Xenon]

No levels or characters scared me when I was a young gamer. I was uneasy with shooter games but that's probably just because I wasn't ready for that genre.

[Ambidextroid]

When I was young the majority of games I played were games my elder brothers owned like Gauntlet Dark Legacy, Medal of Honour, Turok etc., games not really made for my age at the time (that last one incidentally got taken away by our dad because my brother shot a monkey in the face when he was in the room). I got desensitised by most things (definitely violence) at a very young age, so the things that scared me weren't the same as most people I knew then. It had to either be incredibly creepy or completely abstract/unexplainable.

[Vojtazem]

When I played Rayman 2 and got to the part of Cave of Bad dreams, where i had to get the magic orbs, the catterpilars scared the crap out of me. If you don't know, who I'm talking about, here is an image.

[Itooh]

Uh, I've never noticed the little dots on their eyes that make them look silly! I've always thought they had glowy eyes.

Speaking of N64 games (well, kinda), I'm maybe not the only one who remember this vision of terror:


Damn you Rare, you totally did that on purpose!

[Ambidextroid]

I was never scared of Clanker (or whatever he's called), I just felt really sorry for him from the start.
Those caterpillars from R2 did really freak me out though, if I ever fell off the tree when I was joung I used to panic loads because I knew I was going to fall into the grasps of that freaky little thing.

[Haruka]

There is one thing I particularly got scared as a kid, and even by today I still can't explain it:



Minute 1:14. I remember getting really scared by seeing such a big jellyfish sprite and closed the game immediately and nevermore played it.

[OCG]

The whole concept of this game is very cruel. So many fish died.
Also, to me, sharks look way scarier than jellyfish in this game

[Thebananacrafter!]

I remember when playing Rayman 1 when i was 7 And when i heard the hunter clean his gun it scared me because i didn't know where it was coming from

[R4Y_ANC3L]

What I used to be scared of:


Rayman 2- The caterpillars and the Mini Janos.

Mostly the mini Janos, mainly because of the fact that When you get too close to them, They grab you and devour you.

And....


The Bosses in Spongebob Squarepants: Battle For Bikini Bottom for the GBA.