Memoirs of a Frightened Gamer

With Halloween upon us, I’m in the midst of my own little fright fest. I have a years supply of candy corn, a Netflix queue that would make any horror fan blush, and a stack of scaaary video games to play! I figured it would be a neat idea to revisit a lot of the horror titles in my collection. Specifically the games that have collected some dust over the years so to speak. I want to give a little retrospect on how each game affected me as a kid and how they hold up as an adult. So consider yourself invited as I take a little trip down horror lane recounting my not so fond memories of having the bejeus scared out of me!

My first foray into the dark side of gaming was Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse on the NES. Now I imagine a lot of you are grinning and shaking your heads as to how an 8-bit side scroller could scare anyone. Well, I’ll have you know that I was only five years old when this game landed in my possession. My library of Nintendo games prior to this was a happy one, a safe one. A collection filled with whimsical overworlds, bubbles, and laughter. Battling the undead in a macabre otherworldly setting was something I just wasn’t ready for. While naturally I would overcome some of my fears with the game, Castlevania would always have me on edge. Perhaps it’s because of the near infinite spawning of enemies, the spooky soundtrack, or the many leaps of faith you are required to take. Bottom line I always found myself rushing through that game as if it somehow it would make the experience somewhat bearable.

Unfortunately in revisiting Castlevania III I’ve come away with one sad realization. While the game no longer scares me as it once did (okay the title screen still gets me), I find that I’m horrible at playing it! As a little kid I’d wiz by level after level without breaking a sweat. I could read the trajectory of a Medusa head with ease, no jump was too far, and no boss too hard. Now I’m struggling to kill the simplest of enemies, and don’t even get me started about that clock tower level. Maybe Trevor Belmont has put on a little weight since we last met? All and all the game is still tons of fun and I’m sure that if I really gave it a go, I could unlock that inner NES kid and give ol’ Dracula a run for his money!

Moving beyond the simplistic terrors of the 8 bit world, it was finally time to enter the R rated titles of my youth. Having opted for a Nintendo 64 instead of a PlayStation, I missed out on way too many horror games. I had to pretend I wasn’t jealous as my friends talked about games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Clock Tower and Parasite Eve. There was very little if anything I could counter with. Perhaps the ghost level in Mario 64? That’s kind of scary right? No? Okay… Well luckily the geniuses over at Angel Studios threw us scare junkies a bone in porting over Resident Evil 2 to the N64. Finally I would have my long awaited go at survival horror!

I can’t tell you how excited I was for this game’s release. I must have read the preview of it in Nintendo Power a gazillion times, I even wrote to the magazine expressing how happy I was about it! When the day finally arrived I suddenly came down with this inexplicable sickness; however could I go to school? With sick day status achieved, I preceded to sweet talk my mother into picking up Resident Evil for me. Now I would like to think she bought into my Oscar winning performance, “please mom I real- *hack* *cough* *wheeze* I really want to play this game.” Regardless if she was convinced or not, mom delivered and made a sick kid’s wish come true.

RE2 would introduce me to its fanatic atmosphere, a mix of ruined cityscapes and isolation a la the police precinct and laboratory. It had incredible replay value with multiple characters to play as and not to mention unlock. While I had no problem squaring off with Lickers, zombies, and the hounds of hell, one particular enemy really got under my skin. I always referred to him as zombie Charles Barkley, while later finding out that Capcom called him Mr. X (how original). For those of you unfamiliar with him, imagine the Kool-Aid man except he wants to kill you. You never knew when he was going to show up and when he did, it was an instant adrenaline rush.

On revisiting the game, I found RE2 held up quite well in large part due to its randomizer mode. This basically ensures that every time you replay the story mode, items are randomized in their locations. To my knowledge it’s the only Resident Evil title that has this and that’s a shame because this honestly should be the standard. So while you may remember how to solve all puzzles outright the way you will have to approach them ie defeating enemies and healing yourself will always be different. I actually found myself in many situations where I was low on ammo which was quite refreshing.

Finally we reach the crowning jewel of my retrospective, which is the Resident Evil remake for the GameCube. This is the game that literally scared me so much that it knocked me off my chair causing me to be wrapped up both in a blanket and controller wire, for shame indeed.

My experience with Resident Evil went as such; get scared, pause the game, attempt to regain courage, rinse and repeat. A large part of this had to do with in my opinion, is the most underrated enemy in all of survival horror. I’m talking about the Crimson Head. Prior to its advent there was a golden rule in survival horror, if you killed it, it wasn’t coming back. Naturally when I killed zombies in Resident Evil I found it strange that the bodies wouldn’t disappear. How far we have come in 2002 where fallen enemies don’t disappear off the screen! Imagine my surprise when that lifeless zombie suddenly jumped off the floor let out a howling scream and began chasing me! Now cue me falling off that chair. But it wasn’t just the Crimson Heads that gave me the creeps; a certain Lisa Trevor also unnerved me. The dragging of chains in the distance, that guttural growl, just thinking about it gives me the chills.  

Upon my replay of this game, I’m in awe that it came out in 2002! Not only is Resident Evil probably the most graphically impressive title on the GameCube, but arguably one of the nicest looking games of the sixth generation. The scenery is just marvelous to look at; dare I say the greatest use of prerendered backgrounds ever in a video game? Every hallway you walk down evokes fear, and not only that I find myself just marveling at the architecture in this game. This actually looks like a mansion that’s been lived in and not some set piece that only serves the gameplay. Capcom really outdid themselves and you can bet that the HD remaster of this will be a day one purchase for me!

So there you have it, a smattering of the horror games I grew up with as a kid. I’d like to think that I’ve developed some sort of tolerance to the genre over the years but I’d be kidding myself. I’m just as scared as I ever was and the good news is horror games have gotten significantly worse since my youth! So since I'm a glutton for punishment, I trudge on forever seeking the ultimate scare! I’m curious to hear what are you scariest moments in gaming? Sound off below and have a happy Halloween!