1. Pokémon Gold/Silver- Ruins Of Alph (Radio Music)
So here’s the scenario: it’s the year 2000, I’m 11 years
old, and Pokémon mania is in full swing. After the fallout of Pokémon Red &
Blue and the effects it had on kids my age, parents had begun to realize that
we were all a lot more concerned with catching ‘em all than our math homework
for the night. My parents were certainly among the masses that were in favor of
locking our Gameboys up until we finished our homework for the night. As a
result, the only time I found that I could play to my heart’s content was late
at night, right before I went to sleep. One particular night, I was just
futzing around in the Ruins of Alph, and out of dumb luck I just so happened to
scroll through the radio stations when all of a sudden, I discovered this
sinister little hidden track. With all the elaborate creepy pastas out there
about Pokémon these days, it’s funny to think that this was long before any of
that, and it terrified the hell out of me. Sitting up late at night, the house
completely silent, and suddenly this truly creepy ambience of 8-bit sounds
starts coming out of my Gameboy. It almost felt like something was watching
me…stalking me through the ruins…ready to strike. Needless to say, after that I
stopped playing late at night and stuck to my math homework. Maybe the parents
put that track in there on purpose.
2. Silent Hill 2- Brookhaven Hospital (3rd Floor)
The Silent Hill series may be the most terrifyingly
disturbing franchise of games ever created. I don’t think I’ve ever been as
scared playing a video game than I have been while playing some of these games.
Silent Hill 2 was my favorite of the entire series, and personally, I think
it’s the scariest of any to date. The Brookhaven hospital is about the midway
point of the game, but for me, it was the scariest part. Hospitals have always
creeped me out to the core. They’re places filled with sickness, with disease,
and with death. And not just physical illness, but with mental illness as well.
All these abstract aspects are chilling enough on their own, but when you’re
thrown into a hospital alone, with the lights out, and with horrific monsters
lurking around every corner, you’ll hardly have enough wits left to keep the
controller in your hands. But that’s just the setting. The real horror, and
this is one of the trademarks of the Silent Hill franchise, is the ambience and
atmosphere the music creates which draws you until the world of horror, like it
or not. This music plays when you enter the third floor psychiatric wing of the
hospital. Every time I played through the game, I dreaded going up to that third
floor just because of this music. It was (and still is) utterly horrifying to
have to walk down that long, dark corridor, checking every room along the way
and praying you didn’t run into something
,whatever that might be, waiting for you in the dark. That was the truly
genius thing about the Silent Hill series- it preyed on your psychological
fear. It (for the most part) wasn’t one of those games that relied on cheap
jump scares to frighten you; it did so by isolating you, leaving you feeling
alone and trapped, much like being in the grips of paranoia and insanity itself.
Part of the reason it did so effectively was by surrounding you with music like
this.
3. Doom II- Map 18, 27 (The Courtyard, Monster Condo)
This music played on two levels, but the level I associate
it with that creeped me out the most was level 27, Monster Condo. The level
itself disturbed me in that it was a very dark level, and half the time you
couldn’t even tell where you were going or which direction monsters were attacking
you from. In addition, there were a number of long, wide open hallways with
nothing in them at all; however, one wrong step could set off some kind of trap
or trick wall and you’d be surrounded by demons in an instant. There was also
one room with nothing in it but impaled corpses and body parts hanging from the
ceiling. But aside from all of that, the music was very unsettling and provided
for some of the creepiest in the game. Most of Doom’s soundtrack was very heavy
metal-esque- literally, it blatantly ripped off the likes of Slayer, Alice in
Chains, Pantera, etc. (and speaking of, this track is actually a total copy of
Pantera’s “This Love”, practically note for note. However, I’m okay with it
simply on the grounds that Doom’s soundtrack on a whole kicked ass). But in
contrast, this music is very slow and creeping, like evil luring you into
darkness. I remember that it scared me sufficiently enough to use that level
skip code every time I got to it.
4. Resident Evil 2- RPD Building (1st Floor)
For many young gamers of the late 90’s, the Resident Evil
series was our first taste of fear from playing a video game. I know for
certain that this was the case with me. I hadn’t played much of the first Resident Evil game by the time the
second came out, though I knew of it and its plot. My friend Dave, whom I
played video games with just about every day after school, had gotten Resident Evil 2 right after it came out,
and I would often sit and watch him play it. Just watching was enough to
terrify me beyond belief. Flesh-eating zombies, killer zombie dogs, horrific
virus mutants, it all was enough to make me piss my pants. Well, not literally,
but anyway, I couldn’t even so much as pick up the controller myself without
being scared stiff. I remember lying awake at night after watching it being
played, horrified at the thought of zombies breaking into my room and devouring
me alive. The music only heightened that sense of tension and primal fear as
you wandered the hallways of the abandoned R.P.D. police station, just trying
to stay alive among the living dead and wondering just what the hell else
this game had in store for you lurking beyond the next door. I think the music perfectly
captures that fear, and definitely made it that much harder to keep oneself
together while playing through. When I
finally worked up the nerve to play the game on my own, I would always try to
rush through the areas that had this music, just because it was maddening to
hear it. The part that always got me,
always made me jump a little, is right at the 1:00 mark of the video, when
there’s a loud bang that’s part of the soundtrack, but I always thought it was
something in the game itself, like some monster breaking through the wall ready
to kill me. And that’s why this was the scariest in the whole game for me. There were so many memorable pieces of music, not only from this
game but from other games in the series, that it was truly hard for me to pick one in particular. But I settled on this one because it left such an impression on me at a young age, and still gets to me even after all these years.
5. Super Mario Bros. 3- World 8 Overworld Map
Anyone who calls themselves a true gamer has played Super Mario Bros. 3 at one point in
their lives. It’s one of the best games for the NES, one of the best of the Super Mario Bros. franchise, and possibly
one of the best games of all time. With its mix of platforming action, great
music, and fantastic power-ups, I spent much of my childhood playing this
absolute classic. Now at the time, every kid in the entire neighborhood knew
how to get those warp whistles and skip ahead all the way to the end of the
game, so getting to world 8 wasn’t a big deal. But, oh man, after playing even
just a little bit of the game and listening to the happy, upbeat music and
going through all those bright and colorful levels, nothing in the world could
prepare you for stepping into world 8 for the first time. You go from happy,
sunny, mushroom kingdom straight into hell. Literally, hell. There’s fire,
darkness, and skulls everywhere. It’s like a bad nightmare. You have to fight
your way through Bowser’s battleships and pits of despair (which you are
dragged into by hands coming out of the ground) before you can even get to the
levels, which are some of the most challenging and frustrating of the whole
game. But in the overworld map, you’re treated to this 8-second loop of doom.
And that’s what it is, pure doom. Like, “oh, you like using those warp whistles
to get here kiddies? Well, welcome to hell. Just try to get to Bowser’s castle
if you can.” Being very young and playing this was honestly a terrifying
experience.
6. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards- Dark Matter’s Cave
Like all the other great Nintendo mascots, Kirby made a jump
to the Nintendo 64 in a spectacular fashion. The game was pretty simplistic, no
doubt, but it provided endless entertainment in the form of combining power-ups
and searching for all the hidden secrets. Playing the game for five minutes
might leave you with the false impression that this is purely a kid’s game.
Granted, that’s how it and many other N64 games were marketed, but there were
some legitimately challenging puzzles to deal with that often left me stumped
as to how to how to collect all those crystals. And much like Super Mario
Bros. 3, once you leave those cheery, happy, upbeat levels and make your way to
the final world, what you find might truly disturb you. Entering level 2 of world 6, you’ll be greeted
by this sinister music. I remember feeling like the game took on a decidedly
darker tone upon entering the final world. This track in particular always left
me feeling very unsettled as I trekked into the heart of the dark matter.
7. Pikmin- The Final Trial
Upon first listen, this track seems fairly innocuous. You’ve
all but completed the game, and one last ship part to collect stands between
you and 100% completion. Considering the hell you’ve gone through on some of
the previous levels, building a few bridges and knocking down some walls
doesn’t seem very difficult, right? Right? But behind the façade lurks
something terrible. Something horrific the likes of which you haven’t even come
close to encountering in the game yet. And that very sentiment is reflected in
the music- the background music is pure doom, which is glossed over by a cheery
little tune. As you’re progressing through the level, you’re thinking to
yourself, “this is it? This is too easy, something isn’t right.” And if you’ve
trusted your instincts enough, your dark fears will be confirmed when you break
down the last wall and step into the arena, only to be ambushed by the biggest,
ugliest, nastiest boss you’ve ever seen- the Emperor Bulblax. I literally
jumped during my first playthrough when he burst from the ground and sent my
Pikmin flying. He’ll effortlessly wipe out entire squadrons of your Pikmin if
you aren’t careful- which, let’s face it, none of us really were the first time
we faced him. And the worst part of it all? After nearly your entire army of
Pikmin has been annihilated, and you finally manage to slay the beast, and that
final ship part falls to your feet, you’ll notice that it’s a piggy bank. A god-damned piggy bank, not even an
essential part needed to fly the ship and complete the game. All the lives of
those Pikmin sacrificed for greed. Utterly horrific. Intentional moment or not
(er, probably not, but whatever), it really puts everything into perspective
and makes you think about what you’ve just done. As such, this unsettling music
is quite fitting.
8. Crash Bandicoot- Slippery Climb
The original Crash Bandicoot is a platforming masterpiece,
plain and simple. The gameplay is engaging, the graphics are still wonderfully
appealing even to this day, and it’s just such an overall fun experience.
However, as you progress to the third and final island, the levels take a
massive step up in difficulty. Case and point: slippery climb. Just the mention
of its name is enough to make most Crash veterans shudder. Easily one of the
hardest levels of the game, you’ll find yourself scaling the walls of a
medieval castle in the rain while dodging enemies and performing some insane
jumps. And just attempting to get the gem from this level was a nightmarish
experience. If all of that wasn’t enough, this terrible, twisted track is
playing the entire way through.
9. Twisted Metal- City Park
Along with Resident Evil, Twisted Metal was one of the first games I ever played for the PS1. It’s
an action-packed battle game that’s still fun to this day. Different cars,
unique special abilities, and some kick-ass heavy metal music made for some
great gaming memories. However, things got sinister on the second level if you’ve
strayed far enough away from any of the other cars doing battle in the map. If
you did, you were treated to this lovely track, which sort of sounds to me like
a serial killer’s rendition of classic Christmas songs. I remember just hating
this track because of how disturbing it was and always trying to get it to go
back to the heavy metal music.
10. Gex: Enter The Gecko- Scream TV
Though it might not be as memorable as the first game in the
Gex series, Enter The Gecko was still a fun little game in its own right. As
you traversed through the different levels based on TV shows and movies, you’d
notice that it was all pretty cartoony and silly. The second you head into the
Scream TV levels, however, things take a much more devilish turn. Looking back
on it, these levels are pretty cartoonish too, but it doesn’t change the fact
that these levels have you smashing coolers filled with blood, dodging giant
monster faces coming out of the walls, and fighting off killer dolls straight
out of Child’s Play. That all seemed
pretty creepy to me, but this music just totally topped it off. I remember that
I couldn’t play this game late at night alone in my basement if I had to go
into those levels because of this music.
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