Double Dose of Quick Thoughts- Doom and The Evil Within 2 (PS4)

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. It's been quite a while since I've posted, having had the adult world catch up and hit me pretty hard. However, as you probably know about me, video games constitute roughly 40% of my waking thoughts, and as long as that's going on I'll still need an outlet to express my unwarranted opinions, so here we all are. Anyways, today I have a bit of a two-fer for ya, that being two games for the PS4 I've played through and thought quite a lot about: Doom and The Evil Within 2.

I'll start off with Doom, having completed that one just last week. It's technically just Doom, and though it seems to be colloquially known as Doom 4, by my count it could be Doom 6 or 7. Anyway, Doom is one of my favorite franchises of all time. I've never played a Doom game that I haven't enjoyed the hell out of, so I was expecting just as much from this new one. The end result, I felt, was a little bit meh, but there was enough there that I still got plenty of enjoyment out of it. Let's talk about the positives first- I really liked the weapon/armor suit upgrade system, in which you'll need to do plenty of hunting through levels to find secrets and earn upgrade points. You can also complete certain challenges in each level to earn points for weapon upgrades; things like finding secrets, killing enemies in a certain manner, and using certain weapons in a level can all earn your points in different levels. This was a really fun aspect of playing, probably the thing that I enjoyed the most.

I also liked how you gain health and armor pieces from killing enemies. After lowering an enemy's health sufficiently, you can perform what the game calls a "glory kill" on it- that is, you'll instantly kill it in some savage, brutal, and crazily over-the-top way, very much in the good old Doom spirit of things. Performing glory kills causes an enemy to drop a plethora of health and armor, especially if you running low on either. You can also gain ammo by killing enemies with the chainsaw, which offers and insta-kill of any enemy, though you must have enough gasoline for it to do so.

I have to be honest, I wasn't that big of a fan of the enemy designs. Overall, I liked Doom 3's designs a lot better. That's not to say this games' designs were terrible, just that I felt like some were overdoing it. Imps and Revenants just look kind of ridiculous. Though, some choices were better; Cacodemons, Pinkies, and Mancubuses, for example, were closer to their original designs. Also, the inclusion of the Spider Mastermind as the final boss was pretty badass. And Doomguy is just the Master Chief now? Okay.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but this is ridiculous.

The level design was interesting, though it starts to get old at a certain point. There's a lot of moments where you'll be momentarily trapped in an arena-like area that more so resembles a multiplayer map than a natural extension of the campaign level, and in these areas you'll need to square off with a horde of demons before you can progress. That's all fine and good and makes for some fun combat, but it happens a few too many times in each level for my liking. I'd rather progress through a level and spend more time fighting enemies over longer stretches of the level than to be constantly dropped into pits to have a gladiator battle to the death with demons for 5 minutes at a time. Again, this is something I thought Doom 3 did a lot better, as it feels like there's more of a natural progression through the level (and perhaps the only reason I'm saying that so much is because I'm currently playing Doom 3: BFG Edition and it's easy to make the comparison with it fresh on my mind, but who's counting).

A few times during each level you'll have to destroy these glowy orb things, which then drops in a bunch of demons whom you'll have to do battle with until they're all dead. Hilariously violent, sure, but a little tedious.

That all being said, the overall experience was a positive one, and if Doom 3 was a more serious take on the franchise, then Doom 4 definitely goes back to the absurdly violent and nearly comical nature of the original games. You know, the "shoot it until it dies" kind of attitude. But you know what, that's perfectly fine with me.

Next up, we have The Evil Within 2. The original game sparked my interest way back in the distant past of 2014 when I heard it was directed by Shinji Mikami, the very same director of the original Resident Evil. The first game was pretty fun, like a strange mix of Silent Hill and Resident Evil. It's got plenty of horror to go around while still offering enough action to be varied and enough weird shit going on to keep me entertained.

Anyway, the second game picks up where the first left off, with our protagonist detective Sebastian Castellanos still haunted by the events of the first game, as well as the disappearance of his wife and young daughter. He's pulled back into action when people from Mobius, the mysterious corporation performing all manners of unethical experiments, tell him where to find his daughter: inside S.T.E.M., the virtual reality machine that's basically The Matrix combined with Inception. You know, giant fake world constructed by a computer in the real world. Throw in the "tortured former cop with nothing to lose" angle and this game really does start to feel like a giant amalgamation of generic plots thrown into a blender. Like, you could basically stitch together this entire game from scenes from other movies and games.

 In a world...where evil is the rule of the land...a hard-boiled cop with nothing to lose gets plugged in to the system to take down the people who took away his family...oh, sorry, you've heard this before? In every single movie trailer ever, you say?

Well the plot might be as hackneyed as they come, but what about the actual gameplay? That's basically what makes the game playable. While it definitely leans more action-oriented than the weird, dream-like horror of the first game, the basic schema remains intact. You run around following different objectives, collecting lots of little pieces to craft into useful items and ammo, and do battle with a host of ugly creatures which have taken over the world of S.T.E.M. and turned it into a hellhole.

There's a little more of an open-world feel this time around. You'll have to run around in a large overworld area, fighting off enemies and hopping between objectives on a map. It's a little easy to get lost, but the map system is very helpful in finding your way. You can set waypoints on areas you'd like to get to, which really helps in guiding you along. However, everything is pretty non-linear; there's tons of little side missions and other points of interest to explore on the way to your next main objective. You'll also pass in and out of the "Marrow," which is a sort of in-between area within S.T.E.M. that controls how everything is formed in the overworld. You'll use the marrow to travel between overworld areas, and sometimes you must enter it during side missions. The side missions usually reward you with new weapon or a cache of ammo or parts, so there's plenty of incentive to seek them out.

The map is actually really cool and useful. Big points to the game for that.

I also enjoyed the weapon upgrading system a lot. You'll find various bits and pieces of weapon parts strewn throughout the game, which you can use to upgrade your weapons as you go. The pieces don't come easily, especially the so-called "high-grade" weapon parts which unlock further upgrades for each gun. You can also upgrade health and stamina and other abilities in a similar manner. It really does feel like an earned accomplishment to max out a weapon or a stat, and that's part of what makes the game as fun as it is, for me at least.

Despite the overall gameplay being fun, the nonsensical plot and generic characters kind of detract from the overall experience. Sebastian's voice actor unconvincingly grumbles his way through every line (who, by the way, is a new actor from the first game. I understand it's not always easy to get all of the same people to do all of the same parts over and over, but it's always just a little disappointing to me whenever that happens), and the rest of the characters don't exactly lend themselves to the experience. The first game was a lot darker in terms of the plot and it led to some really crazy and disturbing scenarios. It's basically a journey through the mind of a psychopath, and the tone of the game really reflects that. It seems like the sequel was really missing that element and turns more towards cliché action tropes than twisted horror. By the end, it just becomes "yeah yeah, you save the kid, take down the corporation, rediscover yourself, blah blah blah." But, again, at least the general gameplay makes up for it.

Anyway, so that's that for these two games. Would I recommend? Definitely, if you like shooting demons and not paying attention to the story too much. So hopefully it won't be another 5 months until I give another update. I have a few half-cooked reviews and whatnot in limbo on my computer, so I'd like to get back to finishing them sometime soon. In the meantime, relax, enjoy the summer weather assuming you live in a summer weather area at the moment, and also be happy that THE RESIDENT EVIL 2 REMAKE HAS FINALLY BEEN OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED AND WE'RE GETTING IT IN 6 MORE MONTHS! YEEEEAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Collection Additions Volume 15: 600!

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. Once again I'm back to give an update on my ever-growing collection, which I've been working on for nearly 6 years now and have not showed any signs of slowing down just yet. In fact, I recently reached a milestone: 600 individual video games in my collection, spread out across over 20 different consoles and handhelds. That being said, let's look at the games that got me to that point.

Though I usually focus on retro games on this blog, here's two brand new ones: The Evil Within 2 and Doom, both for the Playstation 4. The Evil Within was a game I enjoyed a lot when it came out in 2014, so I was looking forward to a sequel for a while now. Having played through it and just finished it yesterday, I have a lot of thoughts on it that just may fill a review at some point in the near future. However, for now, suffice it to say that it was pretty cool. Both the story and characters were all kinds of cliché and lackluster compared to the first, but the gameplay really made up for it. Again, I'll save the commentary for a longer review. As for Doom, I haven't played it yet but will definitely start it soon. I was a bit skeptical about it when I first saw trailers, since I'm very wary of "reboots" and thought it looked a little dumb. However, I've heard nothing but positive things about it since it's been released, so I'm willing to give it a try and judge for myself.

Back to retro, we have two Sonic The Hedgehog games for the Sega Saturn: Sonic Jam and Sonic R. Having already owned Sonic 3D Blast on the Saturn for a long time now, these two games complete the "trilogy" of Sonic games released for the Saturn in the mid-90s. Sonic Jam is probably the best of the three, but only because it's a compilation of games from back when Sonic games were actually still good (-Author's note: Sonic Mania is probably good, I haven't played it yet. Soon.). It contains the classic four of the Genesis era: Sonic 1, 2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles. It even simulates the "lock on" ability of Sonic & Knuckles with 2 and 3, which is pretty cool.

Sonic R, however, is not a good game. I have a certain nostalgic sentimentality toward it since I played it a lot when I was kid, but having played it for about an hour as an adult...yeah, no, it's really bad. I think it wouldn't nearly be as bad if it weren't for the god-awful controls. Oh. My. They're terrible. Your character will just fly all over the place, repeatedly slam into walls, fall into water and other hazards, and constantly careen out of control as you struggle to just finish a race, let alone win it. This came out the same year as Mario Kart 64 (in fact, 10 months after it), so there's absolutely no excuse for being as bad as it is. But you want to know the worst thing about Sonic R? It's the only original Sonic The Hedgehog game that came out on the Saturn! As I just mentioned, Sonic Jam is just a compilation game and Sonic 3D Blast is a lame port of an even lamer Sega Genesis game. For Sega's next-generation console at the time, that was pathetic. It's really no wonder the Saturn did so poorly in the U.S. After the debacle that was the Sega 32X, one would think that Sega of America would do a better job with its next console, and while the Saturn does have some quality games of its own, the lack of a definitive game for its primary mascot was pretty sad. Looking back, it's pretty easy to see why Sega eventually pulled out of the home console market for good.

HOWEVER...just a few years prior, Sega did have a golden age of sorts with the Genesis. Here's two games to help prove that point: Fatal Labyrinth and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Hyperstone Heist. First off, Fatal Labyrinth is a really fun and original dungeon explorer/RPG that is still really fun to play. I first tried it on a compilation of Genesis games on the Xbox 360 called "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection", and always wanted to play it some more. Again, I think I might have a longer review of it coming soon, but it's a really great original game for the Genesis, I think. Hyperstone Heist is an interesting specimen- it's the Genesis version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (which I also own), which was released one year prior, which in itself is the home console version of an arcade game of the same title. Still with me? I've never played it, but from what I understand it's a watered down version of the SNES game, though it's still a fantastic beat 'em up. I'd love to compare the two side by side one day and judge the merits of both simultaneously.

Last but not least, we end on an accessory, if not only for the ridiculous story I have about buying it. So, in short, I am a moron. I had been on the lookout for a Nintendo Gamecube Broadband Adapter, a very rare accessory that regularly sells for $80 or more on eBay. I'm mainly interested in this little piece of hardware for its ability to connect two Gamecube consoles to one another, which one could theoretically use to play a massive 8-man game of Mario Kart: Double Dash or Kirby's Air Ride (assuming you'll also be able to acquire not only a second adapter but two Gamecubes, two copies of the game, eight controllers, two TVs, and seven other people willing to play it with you). Anyway, when this popped up on my eBay feed one day for $40, I thought I had a steal on my hands and jumped on it as fast as I could. However...I didn't look very closely at the label. Yeah, that's not the Broadband Adapter, it's the Modem Adapter, which looks nearly identical to the Broadband Adapter, if not for a shinier label and text which distinguishes it from its counterpart.

What was it used for? Apparently, for connecting your Gamecube to a dial-up modem (remember those?) to play a very few select games online. In fact, the only game I know of that this could be used for is the RPG Phantasy Star Online. Anyway, I had no idea there was even such a thing and didn't read the description very carefully- I just saw a picture of it, assumed it was the Broadband Adapter and purchased it immediately, thinking I'd just gotten a pretty good deal. Well that, boys and girls, is a perfect example of why you should always read the descriptions carefully, lest you end up with a small piece of plastic that's worth no more than interesting an historical footnote in the graveyard of obsolete online-connectivity technology. Thanks for reading.

Review: Doom 64

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. Today we'll be looking at a pretty sweet Nintendo 64 game, one I spoke of not too long ago in my collection additions segment, if you've been paying attention. Yes, I'm talking about Doom 64, Nintendo's very own incarnation of the first-person shooter classic. Having recently completed this game for the first time ever, which is admittedly a bit embarrassing considering that Doom is one of my favorite video game franchises ever, I'm ready to give it a proper review. So let's travel to the shores of hell as we take a look at Doom 64.

Released in 1997 for the Nintendo 64, Doom 64 is quite an interesting specimen because it was the first, to my knowledge, to do something completely original with the series. Up to that point, there were only three other games in the series: the original, Doom II, and Final Doom. The original had been ported to just about every console that was around at the time, including Nintendo's biggest rivals, the Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn. Both the PS1 and Saturn versions took a good deal of liberties from the original including a new soundtrack, sound effects, and a few new levels. However, for the most part it was running on the same engine as the original PC version. Enemy sprites, weapons, items and level design from the original all remained the same.

Meanwhile, Doom II had yet to be brought to any home console and Final Doom had only been released on the Playstation, but neither of these games really brought anything radically new to the table yet. Enter Doom 64, which started from scratch and did something very much original while keeping the core gameplay intact. The end result was a game that managed to be both new and familiar at the same time. I think this novelty of it is what I enjoyed the most. I've played Doom 1 & 2 probably a zillion times in my life and a good deal of Final Doom as well. I've also done several playthroughs of Doom 3 too. So, playing an entry in the series that I've never experienced before was just very refreshing.

Story-wise, the game seems to follow the events of the original PC Doom trilogy (I, II, and Final Doom), yet stands alone as its own game for the most part. Actually, from the level design, it reminds me a lot of movies like Alien and Event Horizon with the "haunted space ship" vibe going for it. There's a lot of long corridors with glowing computer monitors buzzing everywhere, sliding metal doors with that classic sci-fi spaceship sound effect, and very few wide-open outdoor areas which makes you feel like you are somewhere deep in space. It's also interesting to note that this game and Event Horizon came out in the same year, about 5 months apart, and Event Horizon has basically the same plot as the original Doom: an inter-dimensional gateway is opened up which causes hell to spill out. This has nothing to do with Doom 64 of course, it's just an interesting footnote.

Anyway, the gameplay is just as straightforward as any other Doom game- grab some weapons, blast the crap out of demons, and find the level exit. The game throws a few curveballs at you however, if you were expecting everything to be exactly like the earlier Doom games. For one thing, as I alluded to before, all enemies and items sport completely redesigned sprites and sound effects. Most are pretty similar to the originals, but some have interesting design choices- for example, Cacodemons now have arms with chains attached to them, the plasma gun has a constant buzzing electrical field, etc.

Enemies, weapons and items all sport newly redesigned sprites, like our friend the Cacodemon here.

The game is also notably darker than it's predecessors. It could just be the TV I'm using, but there were some points where I had absolutely no idea what I was doing until I increased the in-game brightness, and even then it was still hard to see what was happening. Actually, I imagine that back in the day it probably would've been pretty scary to play this game; considering the dark lighting effects in tandem with the chilling minimalistic music that plays in each level, I could definitely imagine being easily frightened playing this alone at night as a kid.

You'll find yourself stuck in a lot of hallways like this, where you can be ambushed quickly from any direction.

There's also some new types of mechanics too, such as items that only appear when certain conditions are met. For example, in some parts of the game killing all the enemies in a certain room is required in order to make a key appear, which just sort of materializes in after all the demons are dealt with. You can also look through little monitors at different parts of the level (often hidden ones), reminiscent of the security monitors in Duke Nukem 3D.

And lastly, there's even new enemies- only two to speak of, but still a fresh take on Doom that wasn't anywhere else at the time. There's the so-called "nightmare imps," which are just regular imps that have been re-colored and fire faster, more powerful projectiles at you. And there's also the "Mother Demon," the final boss of the game. This continued the Doom tradition to that point of having something entirely new as a final boss, and just as before, she's pretty effin' difficult.

Anyway, despite the changes the core gameplay concept is still the same- which is certainly fine with me, since I love Doom so much. There are a few notable flaws though. For one thing, the control scheme is a bit weird. You can use either the D-pad or the control stick in order to move around, but the control stick is far more responsive, meaning I mostly gravitated toward using that. However, strafing is an integral part of dodging enemy attacks and those buttons are mapped to the left and right bumpers. Maybe my hands just aren't big enough, but I find that when I use the control stick, I can only manage to reach one of them, which only allows me to strafe one direction. I don't have this problem when using the D-pad, so I found myself switching back and forth between to two which sometimes got confusing and led to a few unnecessary deaths.

Speaking of deaths, restarting a level after dying is a tad unnecessarily annoying. If you die, you'll automatically start over at the beginning- however, you'll be stripped of all of your weapons and ammo. There's a fairly simple password system that lets you restart with all of your items, but inputting it is kind of awkward. If you die you'll need to go back into the menu, select the password option, and then you'll be taken to the password entry screen. Your previously entered password will still be there- however, for some reason you won't be able to just start up the level again. You need to erase the last letter of the password, then re-enter it and hit start, at which point you'll be back at the beginning with your weapons again. Not too much of a hassle, just annoying to do every time you die.

Another unique and interesting feature of this game that wasn't present in any other game of the franchise, which I haven't actually completed myself but I've read about, is acquiring the three so-called "demon artifacts" in secret levels in order to make the final boss easier to complete. Secret levels were nothing new to the franchise; Doom 1, 2, and Final Doom all had hidden levels within. However, this was the first time that secret levels had specific objectives to them- to collect three "demon keys" that both upgraded the powerful "Unmaker" weapon and deactivated teleporters during the final boss that normally spawn in extra demons to deal with. Again, just another unique twist to the formula not seen in any other game (and also one that will likely give me a reason to revisit this game in the future).

The "Unmaker" weapon gives you this quaint message upon picking it up. 

In all, Doom 64 is a very fun game. It's Doom, so you pretty much can't go wrong there, but it adds plenty of twists and turns to the formula for fans of the earlier games to enjoy thoroughly. These days, the franchise has been turned on it's head numerous times, starting with Doom 3 all the way up the "reboot" (just so you all know, I really hate that word) released earlier this year. However, back in 1997 Doom 64 was the very first shakeup in the series, one that I think went over very well. If you're a fan of Doom and haven't had a chance to play it, I'd definitely recommend giving it a try. Thanks for reading.

Collection Additions Volume 5: A rarity and a...box

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. I go through some lulls in my collecting adventures, so this update is a tad light- however, I did get one very cool addition and another that was more or so just for the completionist in me, so let's check it out.

So that's Doom for the Sega 32X and Mega Man 5 for the NES. Doom was a game I've already owned for the 32X (as well as nearly every other console I own, it seems), but I didn't have the box for it. If you didn't already know from any of my other posts, I have a complete Sega 32X North American library- yup, all 36 of those pretty bad (and a sparingly few good) games for a weird console add-on that should've never existed. Anyway, I've been trying to obtain all 36 games CIB- I'm almost there, and the only games I don't have boxes for were Doom and Star Wars: The Arcade Game, which ironically enough are two of the most common games out of the whole library. Even then I won't be entirely finished yet because I want to get better condition copies of certain games (some of them are beat to shit), but having a box for everything will feel pretty good. Especially since the price of 32X games (and all games in general, pretty much) has been steadily increasing over the years. Thankfully my copies of the rarest ones (i.e. Spiderman: Web Of Fire, World Series Baseball) are in very good condition.

Anyway, there's not much to say about the actual game itself other than...it's Doom. The graphics are pretty good for the time, but the sound quality is terrible compared to the SNES port. The SNES port has inferior graphics though...so I guess it's just a matter of preference between graphics and sound. These days, it's kinda obsolete though since you can play a high quality version of the original Doom just about anywhere. But I digress.

As for Mega Man 5, it filled another completionist void I've been yearning to meet by finally obtaining all 6 original games in the Mega Man series for the NES. For the longest time I was missing 5 because it's (sort of inexplicably) the rarest of the bunch. I'm not sure if it's because it's marginally better than the other Mega Man games, but regardless it's currently the rarest NES I game I own thus far by quite a bit. Is it really that different of a game from the others though? I'm a tad skeptical on that. Of course I haven't had a chance to play it at length yet, but from what I have seen, it doesn't look a whole lot more original than the others. It could just be that I've always been a much bigger fan of the Mega Man X series than the original, but the first 6 just seem to blend together in my mind. Anywho, I'll just have to play it more find out for myself.

That's all for today, thanks for reading.

Collection Additions Volume 3: Extensions Galore

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. I apologize for the long leave of absence but after a much-needed vacation (and some recovery time afterward) I'm back to talk about games and and my never-ending and improbable quest to have the greatest video game collection ever. Now that I have a lot more free time I'm hoping to do more reviews of random games, plus updates every week on any game-related stuff I've bought. Anyway, let's jump into it today, shall we?

So yesterday I nabbed a pair of N64 games, plus some controller extension cords- one for the Super Nintendo and two for the NES. I know a lot of people are into wireless controllers these days, but personally I don't want to bother with that. Changing batteries, constantly charging them- I'd much rather be plugged right into the system without having to worry about any of that. So what's a gamer to do when you want to have a comfy spot on a couch without living in fear that you'll accidentally yank your console right out of the TV in the heat of the moment?

Thankfully, a ton of third party companies have emerged to save us from just that. I already have extenders for pretty much every console I have, including four for my N64 so I don't have to worry about three other people doing the aforementioned console yanking. I didn't have any for the NES though, mainly because the NES controller wire is pretty lengthy as it is. However, after some recent console rearranging I decided it would be a lot easier for me to just buy a few extensions and have the peace of mind that I wouldn't accidentally destroy my toploader NES one day. As for the SNES extender, I already had one so I figured I may as well grab one more, lest I ever have any two-player SNES sessions.

Now for the games- Doom 64 and Perfect Dark. Firstly, I should say that I absolutely love the Doom franchise. Doom is just one of my go-to games that I can always play whenever I want and still have fun with it, regardless of how many times I've beaten it in my life (which is probably in the thousands at this point). However, I must confess that I've never actually played Doom 64. I've known about it, but for whatever reason it always just flew under the radar to me. However, I've been determined to rectify that and now that I own it, I'm hoping to give it a playthrough soon. Might even be good for a review, wink wink.

As for Perfect Dark, I never owned it myself but I have played the multiplayer back in the day with friends. From what I gather, it's pretty similar to another classic first-person shooter Rareware game of the era, that being Goldeneye 007. That's good enough for me to give it a shot.

So that's all for now, but stayed tuned for more stuff coming real soon. Thanks for reading and as always, game on.

10 Video Game Music Tracks That Creeped Me Out As A Kid

As you may have already gathered from reading any of my previous entries, I love horror. I also love video game music, and as such I thought I'd compile a list of musical scores I've encountered in video games over the years that have frightened me the most. Now, keep in mind a good deal of these tracks really aren't that creepy; however, they all completed the distinct job of disturbing me enough to remember them well. So, I present to you, 10 short stories about creepy video game music that I've heard over many years of gaming.

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 (3^rd 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.