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The 10 Most Terrifying Video Game Enemies of All Time

By Cyriaque Lamar May 13, 2008 1,015,233 views
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#5.
Baron von Blubba from Bubble Bobble

The biggest bastard in Bubble Bobble was an albino whale named Baron von Blubba. Back in 1988, this white whale reduced even the most hardened Nintendo vet to a weak-bladdered Captain Ahab.

Whenever the stage timer ran out, Baron von Blubba emerged to rock our faces with his invincibility and horrifying ability to fly only at 90-degree angles. Thanks to our encounters with the Baron, we now harbor deep-seated phobias of whales, geometry and the Nintendo Entertainment System.

#4.
Any Body of Water from Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Sonic's deadliest nemesis was the innocent pool of water. This sounds totally stupid, but remember: You're playing a video game about a neon blue rodent who jogs at Mach 5. You gave up your right to be incredulous a long time ago.

Once submerged, our hyper-kinetic hedgehog swam slooowly, as if he was paddling through morphine-infused molasses. If you left Sonic underwater too long, you then heard the most panic-inducing music in video game history. Watch what happens as some sadist happily asphyxiates poor Sonic:

We dealt with the water in the most dignified way possible--by screaming and unplugging our Genesis before he drowned.

#3.
Sinistar from Sinistar

What do you get when you mix Andrew Dice Clay, a Pog and pure undiluted evil? You get Sinistar, the only video game boss to ever lower our self-esteem.

Playing Sinistar was slightly more enjoyable than being waterboarded. The player first entered his arcade booth, or as we at Cracked call it, the Chamber of Shame. After shooting meteors for a minute or so, you met the star himself, who greeted you with a cheerful "BEWARE, I LIVE!" With formalities dispensed, he quickly turned your life into shit:

The fun begins at 0:40.

Fighting Sinistar was like a therapy session with Dr. Phil--this chatty SOB knew we had problems and wasn't afraid to go for the jugular. Bullies beating you up at school? "RUN, RUN, RUN!" he'd bark. Marriage failing? "RUN, COWARD!" was his advice. Having an otherwise nice day? Once you heard his "RAAAWRGH!" you knew existence was nothing but pain.

#2.
The Poison Head Crabs from Half Life 2

Bar none the freakiest first-person shooter enemy ever, the poison head crabs turned our jeans brown and our khakis even browner. If these jumpy alien turds bit your face, their neurotoxins knocked your health down to one percent, at which point the game would twitter "USER DEATH IMMINENT." These buggers were so scary that even your PC told you to quit. Ouch.

Whenever we heard these lil' fuckers ululating in a shadowy corner of the room, we fell back on our default strategy of spinning in circles and shooting at the ceiling. And we weren't the only ones wigging out --the crabs' shrieks were so unpleasant that they reportedly threw Half Life 2 play testers into ammo-wasting paroxysms. But hey, as LeVar Burton famously said, "You don't have to take our word for it:"

#1.
Evil Otto from Berzerk

Our number one villain is unstoppable, immortal and can be easily drawn on MS Paint. He's Evil Otto, the scariest face in gaming history.

Evil Otto debuted in '80s Berzerk, a groundbreaking shoot-em-up that nowadays could be programmed by a preschooler. Berzerk's plot was seemingly adapted from a Dadaist stage drama. You are a green man who shoots yellow robots. If the robots shoot you, you die. If the robots touch you, you die. If you touch the walls (which are presumably laced with cyanide), you die. Your goal is to destroy 64,000 rooms worth of jaundiced robots, after which you are awarded 72 virgins in heaven.

It was Otto's job to fly through the poisonous walls and zap you when the timer ran low. Otto was merely a pain, but what makes him truly frightful is the fact that he is possibly the only video game enemy in history to kill players in real-life. Between 1981 and 1982, two teenage Berzerk players died of heart attacks shortly after posting high scores at video arcades. Evil Otto watched them die ... with a smile on his face.


For entire games that annoyed us, check out our rundown of The 10 Most Irritatingly Impossible Old-School Video Games. And speaking of old school, remember when the premises used to be about dinosaurs riding giant birds and all other manners of clown shit insanity? Ever wonder why? Find out in Video Game Pitch Meeting (1979). And be sure to read about even more terrifying games in columnist Dan O'Brien's report on the surprisingly dangerous choking game.


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266 Comments

Where are any of the "Silent Hill"s?

5/24/2009 9:39:33 AM
reinierl

I'll have to say the scariest enemies for me were the fish from Half-Life, Iron Maidens from RE4, and the headless suicide bombers from Serious Sam....I haven't played that game in 6 years and I still hear those fuckers scream. Oh, and all of Prey. That game was just f*****g wrong, especially watching a possessed child beat up and throw another little kid into a spike.

And Muffles, those were WAMPAS in Shadows of the Empire. Like the yeti-thing from Empire Strikes Back.

5/20/2009 8:20:14 AM
Cuntboy

If you watch a video on Berzerk you'll notice that when you kill a robot, for like a half second when it's exploding, it shows a smiley face. lulz

4/26/2009 6:35:51 PM
IAmChuck

In regards to the comment about Splatterhouse, if this were 1990, I most certainly WOULD be 'losing my s**t', as I would be exactly 6 days old.

4/8/2009 6:21:58 PM
Faranya

Facehugger from aliens vs. predator > all. If it got, you, you DIED. And it didnt give any hints of its existence before jumping on your FACE. Game over man, gameover!

4/6/2009 4:49:36 AM
pygmyhsrew

They forgot the wookies from Shadows of the Empire. The first time I opened that door and saw the wookie behind it rush at me, I was gripped with a terror so primal it makes me wonder if, perhaps, eons ago, when mankind was young, there were wookies, and they ate people. I've spoken to other people who played it, and they all felt the same fear when that wookie attacked.

3/27/2009 5:29:42 PM
Muffles

Dude, where the hell is the Licker from Resident Evil 2? And Nemesis from Resident Evil 3? What about those damn naked kids that crawled through school in Silent Hill? f**k, those were creepy...

3/16/2009 1:01:36 PM
vato_loco

Has anyone played Haunting Ground? One of the craziest games I've ever played. The music and everything else that occurs when an enemy is chasing you makes you feel like you're having a panic attack. It's an intense experience, to say the least. It's on PS2.

3/14/2009 11:05:34 AM
gladeplugins

Oh yeah, nintendo people those bullet things on Super Mario Brothers. Traumatizing. And those turtle...
(To this day, I have urges to leap on backs of turtle and kick them at solid objects to see if green mushrooms suddenly sprout. My therapist says its PTSD.)

3/13/2009 10:28:04 PM
thunderguppy

Silent Hill was the first and only game that I ever played that really freaked me out. The spooky music and scenes set the perfect tone. Yeah, there are newer, better games but for its time, Silent Hill deserved to on the top ten.

3/13/2009 10:10:50 PM
thunderguppy

how about almost everything from pathways into darkness, but especially the phantasms cause they were fast, hard to see, screamed, and you couldn't kill them with any of your weapons

3/11/2009 12:06:30 PM
wackobythebay

Gauntlet Legends for N64. the damn suicidal guys who screamed and ran at you and then exploded. make me jump everytime.

3/8/2009 10:20:33 PM
Gruszeczka

or the berserker from Gears of War. definantly scared the s**t out of me. i hate being chased.

3/8/2009 10:12:36 PM
Gruszeczka

no, the scariest thing was the f*****g abomitable snowman from that skiing game. The one where you sky thru trees and such. idk what the f**k it was called but it was the most terrifying thing ever.

3/8/2009 10:10:04 PM
Gruszeczka

How the Hell are those tubby, big headed, underwear-wearing freaks from Tenchu not on the list? They f*****g breathe fire and dance!

3/8/2009 5:16:56 AM
Boneshaker

whoa, what about iron maidens in resident evil 4??? those thing scare the f*****g s**t outta me, and ive played the game like 50 times thru by now... the way they sniffle and flop onto your neck and try to eat ya....shiver

3/5/2009 5:16:45 PM
guitarchick250

I agree with the "everything from DeadSpace" comment. For serious. And why oh why are Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Fatal Frame, Alone in the Dark, and every other survival horror game essentially omitted from the list? Also Alma from the FEAR games. Children are terrifying, especially when they're dead, totally f*ck with your calm, and happen somehow to be your mother.

3/1/2009 7:03:45 PM
bigpanda

This article was posted before Left 4 Dead came out though I believe (but yeah I would have that in the top 5).

2/28/2009 9:10:13 PM
TheHuck

I dunno, im pretty sure The Witch from 'Left 4 Dead' was pretty flippin scary. the music that played, that eerie childlike crying you heard when you got closer to where she was...then that dead silence you hear when you realised you just startled her and she rips the s**t out of you!

2/28/2009 4:44:03 AM
bee-anchor

i found the dahaka from prince of persia 2 scarey. i hated being in present time cause always the chance of it showing up and you having to run. to slow and you die. was a real pain.

2/27/2009 10:03:17 PM
tissmekyle

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