Randy Robertson
The best classic horror games
Halloween is approaching rapidly, and what better way to celebrate than by experiencing the best horror video games out there? Over the next few days, we’re going to list off the best games to play no matter what mood you’re in. Whether you’re looking for the scariest, goriest, or most entertaining horror games, we’ll give you a few suggestions for every category. We will also touch on the best classics, and a few recent titles that are noteworthy as well. To help compile this list, we've enlisted the help of Rob Nielsen from RedGoateeRob’s Horror Pages.
To start it all off, we’ll revisit some classic horror titles that hopefully everyone has experienced already. If you haven’t, they’re definitely worth checking out, however getting your hands on a copy of the game as well as the necessary equipment to play it may prove to be a little more difficult. In the least, making yourself aware of these well-established classics is necessary for any horror fans or video game fans alike.
'Castlevania'
In the annals of horror gaming, “Castlevania” is perhaps the title that has best stood the test of time. The classic games in the series - generally considered the games from the original arcade release of “Haunted Castle” to “Symphony of the Night” on the PS1 - are not only some of the best games on the consoles they saw release on, they are amongst the best games ever made. Their legendary difficulty, the famous 'Castlevania Frustration Syndrome', kept a lot of gamers from ever seeing the end of one of the early games in the series, but for those who can stick it out, “Castlevania” offers some of the best gameplay ever.
Drawing equally from the classic Universal monster movies and from early video games, “Castlevania” puts you in the shoes of the legendary Belmont family and sends you against Dracula, who wants to destroy the world. To get to him though, you'll have to hack your way through just about every legendary movie monster you ever heard of, from the Wolf Man to the Mummy to Frankenstein. Sound epic enough for you?
‘Metroid’
Nothing conveys the feeling of absolute isolation quite like the low-toned, harmonic minor introductory music to the NES classic “Metroid”. It’s an appropriate introduction to “Metroid”, one of the few games that has ever managed to successfully convey the sense of desolate isolation that was perfected in progenitors of the genre like the classic sci-fi film “Alien”. Innovative in so many ways, perhaps most notably in being one of the first games to include a strong female protagonist, “Metroid” defined the experience of horror on the NES and solidified Nintendo as a company that could do more than simply ‘games for kids’.
Amazingly, Nintendo managed to not only match the quality of the original, but surpass it with the sequel, “Super Metroid”, a game many count as the best game ever. “Metroid” has appeared on many Nintendo platforms since, but the originals still stand as some of the best interactive horror ever produced; and they still have that haunting, lonely title theme.
‘Alone In The Dark’
A true underappreciated classic, “Alone In The Dark” appeared on the PC in 1992 and later, on the 3DO in 1994,to little fanfare. No one seemed to realize that not only was it an incredible game in its own right, it was the first game in what would become an entirely new genre. Simply put, survival horror owes its existence to “Alone In The Dark”. Setting forth most of the tropes that define the genre which would later produce “Resident Evil” and “Silent Hill”, “Alone In The Dark” pioneered gameplay concepts like static 3D backgrounds, providing the player with limited ammunition, environmental puzzles requiring the use of a specific item, and sound cues to tip off the player to approaching monsters. Heavily influenced by the work of horror icon H.P. Lovecraft, “Alone In The Dark” still scares the hell out of us.
Tomorrow, we’re going to take a look at the goriest games in the horror genre. These games will make you squirm in your seat while desperately pulling you in for more. You don’t want to look, but you just can’t help it. It’s ok, though, because this list of titles deserves your undivided attention, even if you have to fight to give it.