Top 8 Creepiest Enemies in
Non-Horror Games
It’s that time of year again!
Halloween is right around the corner, and continuing on tradition, it’s time
once again for a spooky Top 10 list. Last year I gave you my Top 10 Best Creepy
Easter Eggs, and this year I have my Top 8 Creepiest Enemies in Non-Horror
Games. The only rule is only one entry per game franchise, and again, this is
just my opinion, so take it as you will.
8. Ghost (Hitman: Contracts)
Starting off with a simple one, this is just a random ghost
you can find in the mission “Traditions of the Trade”. If you go into just the
right area of the mission early on, you’ll get a glimpse of the ghost wandering
through the halls of the hotel you’re in. Later on in a washroom you can see
the spectre again through a mirror. Pretty creepy stuff added into an already
gloomy game, but what makes this count as an enemy?
Hilariously, the ghost can be killed
just like any other enemy in the game. Whether this is a joke or a programming
oversight is unclear, but you can do it. Even funnier is the fact that if someone
spots you strangling the ghost, they’ll send all the guards in the building
after you as if you’d just been spotted killing a living person. And perhaps
best of all, if you manage to kill the ghost without being spotted in the HD
remastered version of the game, you’ll receive an achievement titled simply
“Ghostbuster”.
7. Drifloon (Pokémon)
Pokémon is, for the most part, as
cutesy and kid-friendly as it gets. Aside from a few unnerving areas such as
Lavender Town and Mt. Pyre, things rarely stop being fun and colourful.
That is, of course, until you open
your Pokédex and look at the descriptions given for the colourful critters
you’ve seen on your journey. Kabutops slices open its prey and drinks their
entrails. Cacturne follows lost wanderers through the desert until they
collapse. Mimikyu hides under a cloak because its true form would scare anyone
who looks upon it to death. All sorts of stuff the people in these games are
perfectly happy exposing 10 year olds to!
Perhaps scariest of all is Drifloon,
the adorable Ghost/Flying typed balloon-like Pokémon introduced in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Nearly half
of Drifloon’s dex entries describe how it uses it’s balloon-like appearance to
grab onto children’s hands and cause them to vanish. For years we had no idea
what Drifloon did to the poor kids, until Pokémon
Sun cleared things up, saying that it dragged them away to the afterlife.
So yeah. While it never actually does
any of these things in-game, it should help you sleep at night that you can put
the Sinnoh region’s resident child murderer under control thanks to a simple
Poké Ball.
6. Dastardos (Viva Piñata)
Viva
Piñata is a deceptively tricky game hidden behind a cutesy atmosphere. The
further you delve into the papery, colourful world of Piñata Island, the more
things you’ll need to keep track of. Crops need watering, predatory visiting
Piñata need to be kept away, need requirements must be met, villains bent on
destroying your hard work must be taken care of, and your Piñata must be kept
healthy.
If that last requirement isn’t taken
care of, your animals will become sick, requiring a visit from the local doctor
to nurse them back to health. But if you leave them ill for too long without
calling the doctor, one of those villains I was talking about will show up.
Called Dastardos, he floats through
your garden moaning a weird song until he stumbles across the ill Piñata, which
he then smashes to pieces. The thing about him is that as long as you keep on
top of things, you can have entire playthroughs without ever even seeing him.
What really makes him unnerving is his
origin story. According to the Storybook you piece together over the course of
the first game, Jardinero (the guy who gave you the garden that appears to award you
various upgrades) had four children: Stardos, Leafos, Storkos and Seedos. The
latter three help you out on your journey, but Stardos is nowhere to
be found. According to the later chapters of the book, Stardos followed the
villainous Professor Pester into the jungle, and hasn’t been seen since.
Dastardos arrived sometime after Stardos disappeared. So basically when
Dastardos shows up in your garden, you’re trying to fend off a kid corrupted by
evil voodoo from smashing your paper animals.
Man, this game is weird.
5. 02 (Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards)
Another franchise you wouldn’t expect
creepiness out of is Kirby. Just one
look at the design on Kirby himself, the world’s he’s in, and most of the
enemies tell you that this is a cutesy adventure aimed at young kids.
But all that goes out the window at
the end of Kirby 64 when you reach
the final boss and come face to face with this monstrosity.
Called 02, this thing is probably the
most gruesome thing ever seen in a Nintendo game. You have to shoot crystals
into its eye, which bleeds on contact. Seriously. And this like Ocarina of Time where they colour
corrected the blood to be green in later versions. This is the real red deal.
Seriously, how did this make it into a Kirby
game of all things?
4. The Piano (Super Mario 64)
For many this was the first jumpscare
they ever saw in a video game. Big Boo’s Haunt is unnerving enough already,
what with the Boos and ghostly enemies everywhere, the creepy text box that
taunts you every time you try to kill something, and the eerie music box that
plays in the carousel underneath the level.
But nothing, and I mean nothing compares to the Piano. At first
glance it looks like a regular old piano, nothing too scary. But take one step
too close to it and suddenly it springs to life, making clanging piano noises
with every step as it lurches closer to Mario.
Even worse, you’re forced to come into
close contact with the Piano on one of the Red Coin levels. The devs hid a Red
Coin right behind the thing, and this ended up being a true test of bravery to see who wanted that Star the most.
3. Creepers (Minecraft)
Minecraft gets a bad rap. When playing
alone it can be one of the most unnerving experiences you can have with a
non-horror game. The atmospheric noises coupled with the fact that your
adventure can end by the hand of a number of unholy terrors at any moment is
legitimately scary if you don’t have friends around to lighten the mood.
I considered putting both the Endermen
and the Ghasts on this list, if only because of the noises they make and the
threats they pose to you if you aren’t prepared. But at the end of the day
those two aren’t super scary if you know what you’re dealing with and have the
means to take care of them.
Creepers, on the other hand, are
nightmarish creatures that can ruin your house, your world, and your entire day
if you let them get the better of you. At any moment in the game if you leave
yourself vulnerable and the spawn conditions for hostile mobs are met, you’ll
hear a hissing noise from behind you, followed by a massive explosion. On
higher levels of difficulty a close encounter with a Creeper often leads to
immediate death. Even if you’ve had a perfect Hardcore mode run, one wrong step
near a Creeper can end your entire playthrough in seconds.
While the Creepers themselves are
scary, it’s really the implication of the danger they pose that make them truly
terrifying. The fact that your adventure could either be massively set back or
end entirely if you aren’t careful is one of the best examples of horror I’ve
seen in a game, and it isn’t even in a game designed to scare you.
2. Giygas (Earthbound)
The Mother series has never shied away from including much darker
elements in the games than their initial quirky exterior let on, and the most
famous entry in the franchise, Earthbound,
is no different.
The final boss of the game, an entity
known as Giygas, is the closest Nintendo will ever get to having an eldritch
horror in their game. After a final showdown with your nemesis Porky, the beast
is unleashed, taking the form of what looks like a red ghost skull…thing. The
normally upbeat and energetic battle music cuts out as well, and is replaced by
this:
Rated E for Everyone!
The boss fight gets even creepier when
Giygas changes form. He splits into multiple versions of the same screaming red
skull-thing, albeit with a distinct pattern tying them all together. If you
look really closely, it looks like the red and black match together make the
shape of a human baby. The creator of the game claims this was merely a
coincidence, but you be the judge. I think the resemblance is unmistakable
myself.
1. The Dead Hand (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
Remember
when I said 02 was the most gruesome thing in a Nintendo game? Well, I lied.
Despite being rated E for Everyone
(like almost all of the other games on this list), Ocarina of Time had to be significantly toned down in later
releases. The infamous Muslim chant was removed from the Fire Temple
soundtrack, the Gerudo symbol was changed, and most instances of blood in the
game was colour corrected from red to green.
That is, except for the bloodstains on
the Dead Hand.
Forget the ReDeads, this is the single scariest thing ever
put into a Nintendo game, let alone a Zelda
game. You walk into a room where the walls and ground are built from
nothing but skulls and bones. In the room are long, pale arms with sharp red claws.
Then, nothing happens until you walk too close to one of the arms and you’re
grabbed by one of them. Then, the worst thing you’ve ever seen burrows out of
the ground and starts lunging at you.
It’s kind of hard to explain it
because frankly even I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be, but the Dead Hand’s
appearance most closely resembles pure nightmares. At first glance it looks
like a giant white worm, albeit with bloodstains everywhere and the most
horrible face 1998 graphics can give you.
The Dead Hand eventually got toned
down significantly in the 3DS remake, removing the bloodstains from its skin,
but despite that it still remains arguably the most terrifying moment in a
non-horror game.
Song of the Week
02 – Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
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