Are there any games that play with your phobias?

[Geoffrey Taucer]

how is it physically possible for humans to hate water? I have always loved water, its like my natural habitat. My favorite parts of videogames are the water temples, that one level of pokemon snap where you went down the rapids, stuff like that.

water + vertigo = bliss

Concurred.

Only game I've played that genuinely scared me was Zelda: OoT. And I loved that about it! I thought the bottom of the well was utterly terrifying (though strangely the shadow temple never really bothered me).

For the longest time, even though I was a pretty obsessive completionist in these types of games, when I got to the well it was get in, get the lense, get the fuck out, and fuck whatever else was in there. I've only recently (like, since I graduated highschool) been able to go back and really do a thorough search of the well.

[glasfen]

Eternal Darkness: It wouldn't be so bad except that your health starts decaying once your sanity is depleted. And that cut scene in the bathroom... geez.

Ocarina of Time: Redeads and that corpse miniboss (Lens of Truth room)

Resident Evil: Anything that will not stop chasing you (redheaded zombies) is freaky.

[nohero]

Maybe not quite what you're going for, but this fucked with me nonetheless.

I had a mild panic attack when visiting my family once during my little sister's party. They were playing Guitar Hero and one of the little dipshits got the whammy bar stuck so that "When You Were Young" was being played on one guitar an entire half step down the whole song. I found this shit so unnerving that, combined with being yelled at and trying to talk on the phone at the same time with a bunch of loud ass 16 year old girls in the background, I started to freak the fuck out.

[Nohbody]

In the case of water - Humans can't physically hate water, mentally though... It goes into the fears of drowning, having constricted movement in water to a degree, not to mention rational/irrational fears of undersea creatures attacking humans. Also the great uknowns of the sea always brings up terror for those already predisposed to it...

Space actually shares some similarities with the fear of water; exceptions of course being things space related...

Drowning I can understand, but anyone with sense can realize that regardless of currents, if you swim straight up there will be air. And water allows for more freedom of movement-- try doing a triple backflip on ground.

You know I met somebody who swore that he would get a fungal infection if he submerged his head in water? I wanted to smack him.

In space theres just this awful abyss, total lack of control, no safetey anywhere, though if I died in space it would be pretty awesome, I mean talk about a fitting view for your own death. If I could die calmly in space while staring into NGC6357 with a great understanding of it all then it would be the perfect ending to my life no emo.

For emphasis, here: http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Nebulas.html

[Wintermute]

Super Mario 64, at Tiny-Huge Island. The fish that tries to eat you when you're tiny.

In the first, it was that giant fucking fish that would eat you if you got close.

I take it you are too young to have played Super Mario Brothers 3, which is why you don't know A) the name of that fish and how much more frightening he was in that game.

So young.... so innocent...

[Elex Synn]

Friday the 13th on the NES scared me half the death. The creepy music when you are in the house made you really feel isolated, keeping in mind I am not a fan of being in a dark house by myself. The game caused me and my cousin playing to damn near flip the table over the TV was on during a mad scramble to get the hell out of my room when Jason suddenly appeared up out of nowhere. This game only reinforced these fears back when I was a kid.>_<

[Nohbody]

I take it you are too young to have played Super Mario Brothers 3, which is why you don't know A) the name of that fish and how much more frightening he was in that game.

So young.... so innocent...

Gahh cant remember... tell me its killing me please.

There was a spiky one in Mario Bros for snes, but it was just annoying. Too many happy dolphins for fear to exist in that level

[Xenon Odyssey]

Not necessarily a phobia, but sometimes the music of game can really get to me...back when Banjo-Kazooie came out and I was in elementary school, Cheato's music made me flip. I managed to get through it cuz I wanted 100%, but damn if I enjoyed it. There were some other but they don't come to mind at the moment.

Also Big Bertha both scares/pisses me off.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

...In space theres just this awful abyss, total lack of control, no safetey anywhere...

Thank you for describing the mid-Atlantic ridge as well as any deep body of water.

[Thalzon]

I take it you are too young to have played Super Mario Brothers 3, which is why you don't know A) the name of that fish and how much more frightening he was in that game.

So young.... so innocent...

Young? Feh, I'm 22. This was back when I was 10 or 11.

But I think the fish in SMB3 was named Gumper... And I raged when he would jump out and eat me. It just didn't have the same kind of fear attached to it, though.

[Nohbody]

Thank you for describing the mid-Atlantic ridge as well as any deep body of water.

Pools are cool and so are water temples. nobody hangs out at the mid-atlantic ridge anyway.

[Triad Orion]

I have mild arachnophobia. It's not severe in that I don't run away or tense up around any spiders, but if it's large? Yeah. Kinda freaks me right out.

So needless to say, any of the games that have *GIANT BLOODY SPIDERS* kinda play on my fear a bit. And of course, every goddamned high fantasy game has giant spiders. It's like, a rule, and I hate it. LoZ: Twilight Princess freaked me out *right good* with its more realistic looking Skulltulas. The ones in OoT were funny looking and didn't bother me, but these were huge realistic looking spiders that somehow *knew how to block sword swings*. The first time I encountered one, I flipped out and swung my Wii Remote like a madman until it died.

Though the fear of those particular spiders is gone now, especially considering I've discovered how fun it is to mess with them by making *them* flip out by hitting them in the face with a slingshot bullet or with the gale boomerang. That was fun.

Though sometimes the spiders aren't bad, but usually conceptualizing the situation into a more realistic picture in the mind can unnerve me.

A good example is in Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones. There are monsters that would be conceptually very scary in reality, like gorgons and zombies. But it's the goddamn giant spiders that are the worst, and it's especially bad when the chapter you first see one involves you rescuing a family from an approaching spider that's threatening to eat them all alive.

Again, not scary with in-game graphics, but far worse in your head.

[Salluz]

Any thing with too much blood, especially traces of old blood.

[Gollgagh]

I take it you are too young to have played Super Mario Brothers 3, which is why you don't know A) the name of that fish and how much more frightening he was in that game.

So young.... so innocent...

that thing had nothing on this mofo:

[Zephyr]

The spiders in the old Twilight Princess trailers (one that wrapped you up and tried to eat you, and a huge one in a tunnel) probably would have creeped me out a little, but they never actually made it in the game.

OoT shadow temple was pretty creepy, but I think the well was worse... especially since you have to be a kid and there's invisible pits and enemies everywhere.

I have OoT Master's Quest for Gamecube and I'd say the shadow temple is much scarier in that version. The evil ship and especially the evil (invisible?) thing that lives underground with huge arms sticking up that will grab you and slowly bring you to a huge gnashing head freaked me right out.

The Chozo Ghosts in MP bothered me as a younger kid but I don't think it would get to me now.

[Salluz]

^Oh God, Gollgagh!

[Drayzon]

As with a lot of the people on here, the well in LoZ: OoT freaked me out.

Another game that freaked me out was Glover, a more obscure N64 title that had a horror level, with Frankenstein as a boss. The main hub world also came on with this really lame laugh everytime you entered it that scared the %&$! out of me as a kid.

Lastly, in Banjo-Kazooie, one Jiggy that had you escaping a pyramid in Gobi's Desert gave me a nightmare as a little kid. Very odd.

Coincidentally, the nightmare was actually a sweet dream right until the end.

[Sam I Am]

Hoo boy, you guys made me remember a good one---

Playing Super Metroid when I was younger, I was just getting around to beating Mother Brain in all her jarred-specimen glory...when her second form came up. Ran out of the room promptly.

[Tables]

Another thing comes to mind, the Metroids in Metroid Prime. Metroid Prime was my first Metroid game (besides Fusion, which didn't really have Metroids...).

So it's like, CRACK! SCREE! OH GOD THEY'RE ON MY FACE, X BUTTON A BUTTON A BUTTON A BUTTON A BUTTON A BUTTON A BUTTON AHHH SHIT

[The Xyco]

MGS2: Colonel Campbell in Arsenal Gear.

In fact, just about all of Arsenal Gear. Just about everything emphasizes the total loss of control, awareness, and connection between reality and the game.

[Monobrow]

All the Silent Hill games play off MANY natural fears people have:

being alone

abandoned buildings

little children coming after you (*with knives (and laughing))

what is behind occupied bathroom stalls (try knocking)

being watched/followed/stalked/chased

fear of closets and closed spaces

fear of being trapped, locked in said spaces

fear of drowning (lots of reference to this in SH2)

fear of what you can't see underwater, fear of wells

fear of burning to death

fear of persecution while innocent

fear of religion, god, deities, ancient, creepy folklore, creepy sacred places

fear of cemeteries, your own grave (buried alive)

fear of falling

fear of dark places, especially holes, especially since you have to jump in them

fear of mechanical noises, white noise, hums

fear of insects, like roaches and moths, dogs, cats

fear of fans, things that rotate

fear of basements

fear of places like sewers, boiler rooms, warehouses, places with narrow tunnels, subways and trains, being run over

fear of sharp jutting objects, metal grating, rust, needles, electrical shock, blood, etc. etc.

fear of hospitals (ahhhhh), and hotels, of staff areas, of malls after hours

fear of sticking your hand places you can't see, fear of toilets and sinks

fear of your home not being as safe as you thought

fear of carnivals, fear of ummm... carnival mascots, haunted houses

fear of nightmares and bad dreams, premonitions

fear of answering unknown calls

fear of strange unexplained noises

fear of rape, sexual molestation, sex with a stranger

fear of disease

fear of one thing being out of place, messy, out of order, uncleanliness

fear of mirrors

fear of serial killers

fear of torture

fear of addiction

fear of food, frozen meat, opened cans, things going bad, unused

fear of stereotye (lots of monsters play on this - such as fat and lazy)

fear of losing your mind, mental hospitals, straight jackets, and all that comes with it

Yeah play these games!

[Nohbody]

All the Silent Hill games play off MANY natural fears people have:

being alone

abandoned buildings

little children coming after you (*with knives (and laughing))

what is behind occupied bathroom stalls (try knocking)

being watched/followed/stalked/chased

fear of closets and closed spaces

fear of being trapped, locked in said spaces

fear of drowning (lots of reference to this in SH2)

fear of what you can't see underwater, fear of wells

fear of burning to death

fear of persecution while innocent

fear of religion, god, deities, ancient, creepy folklore, creepy sacred places

fear of cemeteries, your own grave (buried alive)

fear of falling

fear of dark places, especially holes, especially since you have to jump in them

fear of mechanical noises, white noise, hums

fear of insects, like roaches and moths, dogs, cats

fear of fans, things that rotate

fear of basements

fear of places like sewers, boiler rooms, warehouses, places with narrow tunnels, subways and trains, being run over

fear of sharp jutting objects, metal grating, rust, needles, electrical shock, blood, etc. etc.

fear of hospitals (ahhhhh), and hotels, of staff areas, of malls after hours

fear of sticking your hand places you can't see, fear of toilets and sinks

fear of your home not being as safe as you thought

fear of carnivals, fear of ummm... carnival mascots, haunted houses

fear of nightmares and bad dreams, premonitions

fear of answering unknown calls

fear of strange unexplained noises

fear of rape, sexual molestation, sex with a stranger

fear of disease

fear of one thing being out of place, messy, out of order, uncleanliness

fear of mirrors

fear of serial killers

fear of torture

fear of addiction

fear of food, frozen meat, opened cans, things going bad, unused

fear of stereotye (lots of monsters play on this - such as fat and lazy)

fear of losing your mind, mental hospitals, straight jackets, and all that comes with it

Yeah play these games!

Ive got to play this game

[friendlyHunter]

Nice list

OoT shadow temple was pretty creepy, but I think the well was worse...

Heh, I think anyone can agree on that. For me, Jabu-Jabu's insides was pretty unnerving my first time around - all that pixelated organic shit, hard-as-shit puzzles with that not-entirely-un-creepy fish girl who's too spoiled to walk anywhere (except for INTO A BIG BLOODY RED HOLE IN THE FLOOR!!), giant pulsating invincible tentacles that swing at your face, big cube sponges thrashing around for no apparent reason... and on top of all that, everything you attack either bleeds or electrocutes you. Epic boss though, felt so good to conquer that place =D

Oh yes, and I've always had a slight phobia of jellyfish (or at least the idea of touching one or stepping on one, even swimming near them *shudder* DAMN THOSE STINGING BEASTS!), so that didn't help at all =/ Ironically, I've yet to be actually frightened by jellyfish in a videogame (Metroids included). The movie "The Sphere" is a whole other story

Oh wait I forgot, the SMB3 jellyfish. That game was just a horror-fest, wasn't it =p

And on the topic of Super Metroid:

The first time I got to Ridley's Lair (the boiling fiery place with the trademark drum/choir-filled theme and all those beige-ish bird statues), I got a terrible fever which only got worse after I stopped playing. Now every time I play that place I feel a little ill... ugh just thinking about it..... Super Metroid is so awesome. In fact many areas in that game have some ingrained childhood memory associated with it - some of which take place in entirely different seasons for some reason... it didn't take me THAT long to beat, did it??

Haha, I just remembered another one:

When I was a little kid, I played Metroid (I mean this is one of the first NES games I ever rented)... all I remember is that it was an epic giant-ass maze, and that the music in the item rooms scared me right back out the door... it made me think there was going to be some giant boss that would suddenly appear!

[Tables]

'Nohbody', you reminded me of another moment that creeped me out. 3 guesses what and the first two don't count.

[benprunty]

A lot of things in King's Quest VI creeped me out, like the genie who kept showing up trying to get you to inadvertently kill yourself. He could always be identified by his glittering eyes. The zombies in the land of the dead were freaky too. If you touched them you would disintegrate, but because you had a goddamn adventure game point-and-click interface, it was impossible to guarantee that you wouldn't brush against them. So every move was nerve-wracking.