Things that aren't meant to spooky but still scared people thread

Why were so many people scared of the Game Over screens in the SNES DKC games?

Because it was like it was "your fault" it happened.

I don't know what you're talking about. I've never heard of anyone being scared of a game over screen.

I have no fucking idea why this bowser painting scared me. It didn't even scare me when I first saw it, but then some random shit clicked in my head, and I became irrationally afraid of it while I wanted to progress through the game. What the fuck.

Only the third one unnerved me with Dixie trapped in the crib.

HE

Same.

HYPER REALISTIC BLOOD

getting caught in dark scenes which usually in stealth games or niche games like stalker or pathologic really makes me jump.

Feels weird man. I wish I wasn't such a coward when it came to horror vidya, I don't think I could handle shit like Silent Hill or Fatal frame. Maybe those shitty indie games but that's probably my limit.
I remember being spooked the shit out of during my L4D playthrough. What a fucking adrenaline rush, I loved it
I keep thinking about wanting to try these legendary horror vidya and have the pride and accomplishment of beating them but I keep avoiding it because they're not high in my backlog
Polite sage for random horror vidya blogpost

I was scared of everything in Ape Escape.
The t-rex in level 3, the bees and the giant fish, the motionless enemies that suddenly got up and attacked you, that one level inside the dinosaur, EVERYTHING in the castle level and pretty much any specter level because I was afraid of fighting the bosses. Oh, and the haunted house level, I feel like that one is the only one that makes sense.
I think part of the reason why was the fog that was present in many games of that generation.

Hydrus from SOTC. I already didn't want to get in the water with it, but then when it swam at me I kinda went through a phase like this:


I remember the fish freaked me out as a kid. But then I realized if you got out of the boat behind it you could literally touch it and it wouldn't budge.

You mean the castle?

8ch

the fuck

You get to have badass swordfights with knights in that stage, don't you? How the fuck are you afraid of that?

Only neogaf posters/fucking idiots were scared of a monkey with a cute bandaid on his face.

...

That fucking raptor, I'd forget it was there when it's been so long that it still ends up startling me when I start the game up again.

The game over screen from DKC 1 freaked me out as a kid. I think it's a mix of what said, and combined with the fact that young-me didn't get a good look at it the first time I saw it. So my initial impression was just a mass of flesh-tones in a dark room, and even when I did actually see what it was supposed to be it still had that mental connection to "what the fuck is that".

The Ninja Gaiden one made me panic a bit as a kid, it was a pretty good way of suckering you in for more coins.

...

after being bapped a couple times trying to get through, this fucker made me extremely wary
little did I know that he was nothing but a gate, barring us from the horrors of the deep sea beyond

Ditto. He always ends up surprising me.

What? I don't know what that line was meant to be but I think I'll just say that fog was used in that generation of games because it made rendering easier. With the hardware expending less effort, the framerate can be maintained better. I believe it's the third or fourth level or so that one first notices Ape Escape's framerate dips in big, open environments.

The first Postal. Maybe the game itself isn't that scary but when I played it as a kid it scared the shit outta me, had nightmares about the fucking game

The level intro tracks were phenominal in Postal

Yume Nikki gave me nightmares for almost 2 weeks. **I was like 16 I think.

maybe what scared you was the realisation that he's sexy owo

There is only one true answer.

There was a game which had a screaming skull coming to you as if he's about to eat you as a game over. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it, what I do know is that it scared the crap out of me when I was 4 - 5 years old. Since then I have an irrational fear of skulls as a game over screen.
No, it's not the fifth element.

Predators in hunting games.

Just about anything, that was both invincible and would come for you, or could insta-kill you, scared me. The shark in Treasure Trove Cove, for instance, made sure I never dared touch the water in that level. The giants in the Drakan games terrified me, too, because they would just pick you up and kill you if you got near.

Please end your own life asap.

Even Postal 2 had some weird ambiance once you enter the cemetary.

Underwater sections always make me pucker up by butthole.

I didn't really get scared by it, but I just wanted to say I always found the Alien Carnage game over sequence to be fascinatingly weird and unsettling.

The main offender for me was the sewer level in Shadow of the Empire.

Did someone say spooky game over sequences?

The emperor's face scared me in the game over screen of Super Return of the Jedi. I didn't expect him to make defferent ones after your Yes and No selections.