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Creepy Findings in Kid-friendly Games

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Poke Dragon

Poke Dragon

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Whether we want to admit or not, there are creepy stuff lurking in the files of video-games that are targeted towards children.

One such thing that was found are the mysterious figures you see in Shiverburn Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2, another is a sound in Splatoon in the boss rooms where it depicts something horrible happening in the background, off course this sound can only be heard before or after fighting the boss because the music blocks it.

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Don't know if this counts since it is a bootleg game, but what about that infamous The Lion King game that has Simba, Timon and Pumbaa commiting suicide in the Game Over screen? While Pumbaa's is unintentionally funny (he jumps into a boiling bowl of water), seeing Timon burying himself alive is extremely creepy, same with Simba hanging himself.

There's also the (accidental) drug trip in Tanetane Island in Mother 3. You find the loved ones of the main characters saying mean and creepy things to them, specially Flint telling Lucas (his son) that he's going to beat him up and Claus telling Lucas how much hated he is. I recall reading somewhere that the scene in the cancelled Nintendo 64 version was even worse, to the point of giving Itoi nightmares, making me wonder just how much toned down the GBA version is.

Also from Mother 3: Unused sprites of Lucas being grabbed by something and then tossed aside makes me think that Hinawa's death scene was not going to occur off-screen. Yes, there's an unused scene of her death where she's blown by one of the Pigmask's bombs, but judging by how the finished version fits with EB64, I feel that they went back to their original plans afterwards.

Mario dying by drowning in Super Mario 64 is also extremely creepy. Same with the infamous eel and piano in that same game.
 
Those angry looking arrows in Mario Kart Double Dash's Bowser's Castle course.

SM64, Big Boo's Haunt having a Boo (then again, Boos looked creepy in the 64 era, glad they were toned down starting with the Gamecube era) in the corridor, and one of the rooms having coffins that just rise up and the Lethal Lava Land painting.

The graveyard in Luigi's Mansion. The tombstones, dirt piles, and skeleton ghosts all bring up horrific implications.

The cemeteries in Pokemon along with the concept of Yamask and Cofagrigus.

DK64 Kreepy Kastle in general (it is one of those haunted levels after all), those Angry Aztec temples where after collecting the Golden Banana, a cross hair shows up on your Kong and you're told to "Get Out!" in a certain amount of time before your Kong is shot.

Earthbound's town of Threek overrun with zombies.

Mega Man Battle Network 2's Netopia Castle dungeon skeletons.
 
chibighost said:
The concept of Giygas in Earthbound and Lucas' mother's death in Mother 3
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I forgot about Giygas, but I'm not sure if I should count him seeing how I only started getting creeped out by him after a lucid dream I had. Then again, I deserved that dream because I was making fun of people having nightmares of Giygas earlier that day...
 
In the first Spyro game quite a few of the enemies from the Beast Makers homeworld are unnerving. The plant enemies in one of the realms especially got to me since they literally charged at you, and they eat Spyro whole if Sparx isn't with him. Those demon dogs in, iirc, Dream Weavers(?) homeworld realms are also pretty creepy in their dark form.

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage had the Hurricos realm that always creeped me out, pretty sure it was the atmosphere of it that got to me though along with one of the enemies that'd steal those stones you needed to get back. Most likely not meant to be scary at all, but when I was younger it certainly got to me.

Pokémon itself had some unnerving Pokedex entries with Drifloon, Hypno (specifically it's FR and X entries), Cacturne, and Phantump coming to mind.
 
Speaking of Kirby, there's 0 and 02 from Crystal Shards who bleeds...from the eye...
 
prog rocker said:
02 bleeds? I know that the original 0 did (and even used it as an attack), but I didn't know about 02. I guess this is because I have not played Kirby 64 in at least 10 years...
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Well it's artwork does show a bloody tear drop,
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and it's fight shows what's supposed to be blood when damaged (go to the 00:53 mark),
 
I remembered another one, the Sanitized Octarians in Octo Expansion are essentially robotic zombies. Marina stated that she couldn't detect a pulse or a sign of life from them. I personally found this bit creepy because before this, there wasn't any kind of undead enemy fought in either the games. Another thing I found creepy is when Agent 8 is unaware of the giant blender that he unknowingly put together and goes in with Cap'n Cuttlefish until it's too late and the blades start coming from the top towards them. Thankfully though, Agent 3 hears the distress call and he comes immediately to save both of them.

But regardless, a giant blender is a big part of why this is creepy, despite it being kind of comical.
 
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chibighost said:
Oh, and the Marx Soul boss fight in Kirby, and basically evil Marx in general. Love him, but jeez. This is KIRBY
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Kirby is a cute series on the surface, but that's just on the surface. The final bosses are routinely eldritch abominations. This stuff is like normal for it. Then you have things like "All of Haltmann's memories have been deleted from the OS. Even his soul--the last trace of Haltmann-- has vanished. Star Dream has gone from a near-perfect being to a cold, mindless machine." So yeah.

One thing comes to mind here. Don't have personal experience with this one as I never accessed the screen, but Sonic CD has a particularly infamous one. A hidden screen that is a thing with the US soundtrack. Or for that matter with said soundtrack, the game over music.
 
System Error said:
Kirby is a cute series on the surface, but that's just on the surface. The final bosses are routinely eldritch abominations. This stuff is like normal for it. Then you have things like "All of Haltmann's memories have been deleted from the OS. Even his soul--the last trace of Haltmann-- has vanished. Star Dream has gone from a near-perfect being to a cold, mindless machine." So yeah.
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not to mention Susie, Zero, Magolor, the Mirror Dimension, and Nightmare
 
Sonic Adventure 2 Knuckles levels. He can occasionally dig up skulls. Not to mention the King Boom Boo fight.
 
The first Zoo Tycoon had a funny glitch. Place pretty much any base-game herbivore in with an Emperor Penguin, and the penguin will just straight up kill it.

This was referenced in the second game's Extinct Animals expansion, where they made up an extinct species of Killer Penguin from the island of Madagascar.

EDIT: You know what? I'll make it my avatar for now!
 
If glitches count, then there's what I call "Linda Blair Mario" from Super Mario 64. I don't know if it was just my cartridge or not, but if you slightly moved it Mario would move in pretty weird ways, kinda like something straight from The Exorcist. The weird thing is, it only affected Mario, not any of the other models as far as I remember (never tried it in front of a Toad, for example).
 
prog rocker said:
If glitches count, then there's what I call "Linda Blair Mario" from Super Mario 64. I don't know if it was just my cartridge or not, but if you slightly moved it Mario would move in pretty weird ways, kinda like something straight from The Exorcist. The weird thing is, it only affected Mario, not any of the other models as far as I remember (never tried it in front of a Toad, for example).
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I got so curious about this that I Googled it, and this is the first video that was recommended:

That distorted music kinda startled me at first, but it is pretty unsettling.
 
Ever Oasis is an adorable, under-the-radar, late 3DS game with a story requires the player to mercy-kill several people.

Also, it's a classic answer: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers. It was the first time I realised how dark a story could be, and unlike most other "creepy kids games", I realised it as I played it for the first time.
 
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