The 10 Most Terrifying Video Game Enemies of All Time
Since the Golden Age of Atari, there have been video game enemies who are so unpleasant that they made us question the existence of a higher power. We at Cracked pay tribute to the rogues' galleries of yesteryear with this list of the 10 most trouser-soiling bad guys in gaming history.
Some of these foes may not seem scary by today's standards, but in their heyday, all of them taught us how to swear, hit the reset button, and, most importantly, cry.
#10.
The Wallmasters from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Historically, video game players and enemies have agreed to disagree. We'll kill them and they'll kill us. It's a brutal social contract, but it's worked for the last 30 years.
The Wallmasters flipped this script on us. Most bad guys are courteous enough to kill us as quickly as possible. Not these giant, zombie phalanges--they shanghaied Link back to the dungeon entrance, thus turning our adventure into a boring, repetitive slog and giving us a chance to meditate on all the free time we were spending pretending to be a fey elf dressed in a green camisole and tights.
#9.
The Poltergeist from Splatterhouse
During the early '90s home console boom, nothing was creepier than Splatterhouse for the Turbografx-16. Sure, the game's AI was laughably primitive (the enemies' favorite strategy was to rush at you in a single-file line like undead conga dancers), but its revolutionary gory graphics made up for it. Look at those screenshots. If this was 1990, you'd totally be losing your shit right now.
The game's most memorable boss was also its least bloody. In Level 2, the player confronted an angry poltergeist.
The spirit's weapons were antique chairs, silverware and a tasteful art deco tapestry (the monsters of Splatterhouse apparently shopped at Pottery Barn). Once you beat this evil bric-a-brac, the poltergeist retreated and, as a Hail-Mary "get bent," dropped the goddamn chandelier on you. Getting killed by that chandelier is an embarrassing experience you'll never forget, just like the day you lost your virginity.
#8.
The Dog from Paperboy
Paperboy was a 1988 Nintendo classic about a plucky paperboy and an entire neighborhood that inexplicably wanted to murder him. The game never explained why and we were too weirded out to ask.
Unsurprisingly, your main nemesis was a yapping canine. Avoiding this dog was easy, but avoiding the crap he chased you into was much harder. A savvy player could shut him up with a well-tossed newspaper, but aiming correctly meant nearly crashing into other fixtures of suburbia such as Hell's Angels, tornadoes and the Grim Reaper. Yes, this damn dog was scarier than Death itself.
Here's your paper, Mr. Johnson
#7.
The "Polygon Monster" from Out of This World
In this 1991 cult favorite, you play Lester, a dumpy physicist who is teleported to an alien dimension when his particle accelerator goes kaput. The 2-D side-scroller played by Contra rules: one hit and you're boned.
Among the hostiles Lester met was this unnamed polygon monster. As soon as you arrived in the alien world, this fanged trapezoid immediately chased Lester off a cliff. If you failed to grab a nearby vine, the damn game was over in a crummy 90 seconds. This opening sequence helps explains why Out of This World only sold four copies.
wtf.
#6.
The Cherub from Doom 3
Half Gerber baby, half Rosemary's baby, the Cherubs were the only scary thing about Doom 3, other than the painful fact that we shelled out $50 for this snoozer back in 2004.
This was one of the very few actually frightening monsters in the game. It's not that the other monsters didn't look scary--they did--it's just that they were total idiots. When the Hell Knight got trapped behind a stack of crates, our hearts went out to him. It was like watching a three-legged puppy trying to catch a Frisbee.
However, we had no sympathy for the cherubs. These enfants terrible came after our space marine like his body armor was covered in lactating breasts. Observe:
When battling these diaper demons, we often resorted to the coward's tactic of haplessly waving around the chainsaw and closing our eyes until everything was dead.
I don't play too many video games, but the scariest enemy I've encountered is that creepy alien from Dead Space that's made of body parts and then splits apart when you shoot it. And it has a baby's head, so extra creepy.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesPlus that disgusting scene in Dead Space 2 where you stab a needle in your eye. It doesn't really make a lot of sense I think, but it was really effective.
It makes perfect sense. The (spoilers) entire point is that Isaac has barely recovered his sanity after the FIRST Dead Space when he's tossed into 2, and he's lost his s**t again.
I thought that the purpose of the eye needle scene was that it was going to recover the Marker codes.
Those Wallmasters are A LOT more terrifying than the author lets on. How this would work with every Wallmaster ever is that you'd go into a room, and Navi would tell you to "watch out for the weird shadows on the ceiling!" Then this creepy-ass noise starts, and if Link doesn't get out of the way fast enough (you'll know by the hand-shaped shadow that follows you around from above), this thing will drop from the ceiling, grab Link by the head/neck, and Link will kick and flail about as he is lifted towards the ceiling, and the screen fades to black as Link screams in terror. They make redeads look completely f*****g cuddly in comparison.
Reply"USER DEATH IMMINENT"
ReplyWait ... not character death? *User* death?
As in, the user of the Hazardous Environment Suit (the fancy talkin' scientist armor that the character is wearing).
This article needs a part 2
ReplyREMEMBER: This was made in May 13, 2008. With that said, my vote is for any of the bosses in the Twisted Metal series.
ReplyI'm going to give a shout-out to Hunters from Left 4 Dead
ReplyI find Witches to be worse
Nothing from Silent Hill?! how disappointing! It's almost as if this article was written by a 35 year old ma...oh.
ReplyWhere's the flying mask from mario 2 that hunts you down when you grab a key, v-something-os? Poor list overall
Reply0.) The holes in the ground from E.T.
ReplyI knew Sinistar had to be on the list! I still love this game to this day. Cyanide walls in "Berzerk"? I thought they were just electrified. After all, if you can lure the robots into walking into them, they'd "die" too and cyanide would not work on a robot.
ReplyI knew Sinistar had to be there! I still love this game to this day. Cyanide walls in "Berzerk"? I thought they were just electrified. After all, if you can lure one of the robots into them, they die as well and I seriously doubt that cyanide would work on a robot.
ReplyAnything that jumped out at you from the mist in Silent Hill 4. It was the first survival horror game I'd ever played and I swear to God there were a lot of moments in that game that scared me shitless. Too bad the series is no longer as good as it used to be
ReplyThe giant depraved ones, from valley of defilement, Demon's souls
Replyand Mimics from Dark souls
Don't forget the Ruin from Alice: Madness Returns. Fuuuck.
ReplyThat's right, Alice, a game made in 2011, on this 2008 article. Read the damned date stamp, people!
Both of you, put something up yer butt.
I was always really creeped out by Mirelurks in Fallout 3
ReplyGiygas, your argument is invalid.
ReplyWhat, no Psycho Mantis? When that guy shows up, s**t gets real, and you know it.
ReplyI don't know how many times I pissed my 6 year old pants when that dog jumped out on Paperboy for Gameboy.
ReplyThough that's better than pissing your new pants.
Fuckin' Descendants from Uncharted:Drake's Fortune.
ReplyBasically,they're fast,tough,zombies that crawl on four legs and look creepy as heck.
The first time you encounter them, you're in a low-visibility room where they can sneak up on you at any time,claw half your health off in one attack,and scurry away.
But the real kicker comes right after that.You're in a darkened,abandoned bunker full of rubble and tipped furniture,which is creepy enough.There are a few Descendants scatterred around,but they can be taken out easily.
THEN,you turn on the power.And Descendants come FLOODING in.You have to find and activate several power switches and escape through a door,all the while vulnerable to death at any moment.I don't know how many times I died during that part.
Creepy.And I think Uncharted was out by the time of this list,so that PROVES he didn't try.
Also Nemesis(RE3),Pyramid Head(Silent Hill 2),Big Daddy(Bioshock),Fast Zombies(HL2),Grims(Resistance 2),Goro(MK),Wolves(Tomb Raider),Grizzly Bear(Tomb Raider)...
Poorly done list.
anything from silent hill, ghosts from amnesia, ghosts from fatal frame, necromorphs from dead space, lickers from resident evil 2, and there are some pretty fucked up splicers in bioshock...especially in that one flooded room from the first one! you walk up to this desk and it's all quiet, as soon as you turn around BAM splicer right in your face!!!! scared the hell outta me lol or the Butcher from Dead Island.
Replywow I play way too many video games lol