Moments in Games that make you Panic! Fear! Worry! *NEW Repulsive!* or just Holy Sh*t!

[Nix]

Well, I thought this guy was kind of scary.

When the 4th case in the first Ace Attorney starts, the prosecutor you'd normally butt heads with is the one being tried for murder, ergo, someone else takes up the mantle as your opponent in court, which happens to be this asshole: Manfred von Karma. Before the trial actually starts, you hear many things about him. He has a perfect win record, and has been holding that record for 40 years. And you, the rookie, have to face him and win for the sake of your friend.

Well, shit.

Then you actually see him in court. His get-up screams "I'm a pro, and I'm going to wreck your shit", and his attitude and mannerisms are even worse than you expect as he proves that he's the one running the show in the first 5 minutes of the trail. You get out by the skin of your teeth, and have to come back to this two more times.

Von Karma isn't your typical scary, really. But just hearing about him and how I had to face him made me scared, and after seeing him in action, dear god, I was at the edge of my seat shitting my pants because of how tenacious he was. That feeling when you have to confront him in the evidence room, alone (well your assistant is there I guess), knowing damn well that he's a murderer among other things... I don't wanna talk about it.

Edited October 6, 2012 by Pinkamina

[Ferno]

More of a technical issue than an actual in-game worry moment, but basically, anytime you have to switch rails in SA2 or Heroes. There always seems to be a 20% chance you could screw up and fling off into the abyss so you're always a little on edge. (I still love Final Rush and Rail Canyon to death though.)

Also, this:

even though I played the second gen games first as a kid, this was still a holy sh*t moment for me because by that point I just assumed that Ash and Red were one in the same, just with different names and slightly changed appearances. "holycrapigettobattleashthisissoawesomeermagerd"

[SuperStingray]

Fear: The space pirate research labs of Metroid Prime. As if the creepy level of the whole encampment itself wasn't enough, the sudden atmosphere change from the serene snowfall of Phendrana Drifts makes the whole area uncanny as well.

Panic: The yellow and red elevators in WarioWare. WarioWare doesn't take long before things get out of hand, and the fact that you can't predict what game will come next makes the whole thing so it becomes a bizarre chaotic barrage that consistently catches you off guard.

Worry: Demon's/Dark Souls. Just everything about them. You quickly learn to become paranoid and walk with reserve and trepedation. You don't know what lies behind the next white fog, but you do know the consequences of failing to conquer it, and that alone fills me with anxiety.

[YeppersPeppers]

It hurts.

Go back.

That's not right...not right...

I feel h...a...p...p...y...

Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness.

[Old dead account]

I'd say almost all of Metroid Fusion was a thriller. It always felt like anything could go wrong at anytime especially with the SA-X stalking you. It's as if you're all alone on some unreachable place where everybody's been killed with Michael Myers stalking you, you never know when you'll see him but he's there on the hunt and neither of you can get out of there.

Those sections in DK64 with the snipers. you get the banana in that place in the crystal caves, you celebrate and suddenly King Krool tells you to GET OUT! and then you got 10 seconds to leave before you die...fucking sore loser.

[T-Min]

PANIC

Death, Persona 3

"Dude...is that Death?" - Junpei

Hm? Not so scary, you say? Why, I should think not. Death himself is not a very good source of Nightmare Fuel OR Panic Fuel...but as for the situations in which he is usually encountered...yeah. See, for those who haven't played the game, Persona 3 only has one real dungeon that you return to throughout the game, called Tartarus. Tartarus is pretty much a giant tower with randomized floors that you ascend on your way to the top over the course of the game, finally reaching the top for the final battle at the very end. In Persona 3, this is your main method of grinding, as it's the only place you'll find a great deal of enemies. Also, Tartarus only has checkpoints every 12-15 floors. So, say you've been walking around Tartarus for about an hour, beating up on enemies, getting tons of money and new equipment and gaining tons of experience points for you, your various Persona, and your ever-growing teammates. Then you get killed. Well, guess what. All that's gone and you have to do it over again. Yeah.

So, where does Death factor into all of this? Well, every now and then when you kill an enemy, you get to go into Shuffle Time, where several cards containing various bonuses are placed face-down and then shuffled. That's all well and good, but sometimes there will be a card eerily marked with a skull and crossbones. Pick said card and you will get a very ominous message: "This card is cursed! Death draws near..." The first time I got this, I didn't know what the frick to expect. Would my guys just drop dead in the middle of Tartarus for an automatic game over? But nothing seemed to happen, so I pressed onward. The same went for most of the other times I ended up getting a cursed card. Oh, but wasn't it my lucky day when I accidentally picked a cursed card and suddenly I heard it.

Chains.

Rattling chains.

Drawing closer.

Closer.

And oh my god what is that that's not a shadow help help save me God AAAAGGGGHHHHH

FEAR

ReDeads, The Legend of Zelda Series

"BRAHIHIAHRUIAHERUGH" - A ReDead

I genuinely doubt that any one creature from any one game series has left me as legitimately scarred when I was a child as these horrid abominations. Oh, I'm not so scared of them now, but when I was a around 8-10 years old, good God, did these things ever scare the crap out of me. Whether they were the Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask variety, the Wind Waker variety with their

or the somewhat less horrifying Twilight Princess variety, I literally had nightmares about these things for years. The uncanny valley puppet-like movements, the horrendous moaning crap they do when you walk into their lair,

(okay, not literally, but that's what it freaking looks like), and the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXvHaPodYhE, OH GOD, the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ynHywjo9PU. When I was a kid, I had to fight them with the volume muted just to maintain my sanity. Good lawd.

WORRY

Every Freaking Thing, Demon's Souls

Seriously, every area is filled with so many traps and ridiculously dangerous enemies that you can't help but go into pretty much every area without at least somewhat of a feeling of apprehension. Just about everything is going to try to kill you. Every decision you make is going to have a (probably negative) consequence, and by the end, don't be surprised if you start to think your friggin' shadow is going to spring out of the ground and strangle you to death.

HOLY SH*T

Spider Queen's Ghost, Okami

Couldn't find a picture of the actual ghost, so one of the original Spider Queen will have to do. Anyway, the Spider Queen is the first boss in Okami. Not much to say about the boss itself; it's pretty easy, as first bosses tend to be. But, in a later dungeon called the Sunken Ship, you encounter, uh...her ghost. As a floating head. If you touch her, she uh...her disgusting visage will suddenly jump at the screen and hang there for a good few seconds, obstructing your view. She...doesn't really do anything else. Yeah. It's pretty random.

Edited October 6, 2012 by T-Man

[MamboCat]

Being chased down a long corridor by Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! Help! OMG! He's gonna get me, he's gonna get meeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I'm not normally scared or panicked by games as such, but I have had feelings of apprehension when I come up to a really difficult bit or boss in a game. Sweaty palms and what not.

[Blacklightning]

Oh look at that, the dark knight has a tiny little spaceship. That's so cute. Hey, is that a speaker attached to the side? What's he gonna do, bass me to death?

HOLY FUCKING SHIIIIIIIIIIIT

[Lamor]

My scariest video gaming moment was in Batman Arkham Asylum with these lunatics running around. I literally walked with scanner turned on all the time 'cause I was so scared of them.

[Semi-colon e]

So imagine you're about 14. You're cruising through Metroid Prime. Finding shit. Killing Shit. Getting killed by shit. Getting lost. Staring at your map for about 5 minutes just so you could figure out where the hell you we're supposed to be. having a good time.

And then, you see a Metroid trapped in a case.

Huh. Why does the game think this is so important? Oh well. Might as well scan it and search the rest of the room.

So you scan it, not even bothering to read the text. You turn around for a second. And then you hear the shattering of glass and OH SHIT IT'S OUT. SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT WHY WONT IT DIE SHIT SHIT IT'S GOT MY FACE OH JESUS HOW DO I GET IT OFF OH GOD SAMUS IS DYING FUCK FUCK FUCK NO.

and that was the first time I played a Metroid game.

Edited October 6, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[The Hoenn Kid]

Pretty much the whole of the Resident Evil GameCube remake keeps me on edge, thanks to one thing: CRIMSON HEADS. God, those things freak me out so much. Also the bit at the end where you're holding some sort of power thing and if you get hit one, it blows you up, I am always tense during that part as well.

Edited October 6, 2012 by The Hoenn Kid

[Hexadecimal]

PANIC

Death, Persona 3

"Dude...is that Death?" - Junpei

Hm? Not so scary, you say? Why, I should think not. Death himself is not a very good source of Nightmare Fuel OR Panic Fuel...but as for the situations in which he is usually encountered...yeah. See, for those who haven't played the game, Persona 3 only has one real dungeon that you return to throughout the game, called Tartarus. Tartarus is pretty much a giant tower with randomized floors that you ascend on your way to the top over the course of the game, finally reaching the top for the final battle at the very end. In Persona 3, this is your main method of grinding, as it's the only place you'll find a great deal of enemies. Also, Tartarus only has checkpoints every 12-15 floors. So, say you've been walking around Tartarus for about an hour, beating up on enemies, getting tons of money and new equipment and gaining tons of experience points for you, your various Persona, and your ever-growing teammates. Then you get killed. Well, guess what. All that's gone and you have to do it over again. Yeah.

So, where does Death factor into all of this? Well, every now and then when you kill an enemy, you get to go into Shuffle Time, where several cards containing various bonuses are placed face-down and then shuffled. That's all well and good, but sometimes there will be a card eerily marked with a skull and crossbones. Pick said card and you will get a very ominous message: "This card is cursed! Death draws near..." The first time I got this, I didn't know what the frick to expect. Would my guys just drop dead in the middle of Tartarus for an automatic game over? But nothing seemed to happen, so I pressed onward. The same went for most of the other times I ended up getting a cursed card. Oh, but wasn't it my lucky day when I accidentally picked a cursed card and suddenly I heard it.

Chains.

Rattling chains.

Drawing closer.

Closer.

And oh my god what is that that's not a shadow help help save me God AAAAGGGGHHHHH

You stole mine, ya jerk! ;p Yeah, I experienced the exact same thing! I had no idea what Fuuka or Mitsuru were going on about when just that happened, I turned a corner, and screamed when something rushed at me. I never saw that coming at all!

Chase sequences really get to me. In Clock Tower 3 there's a dude with a hammer chasing you and at one point, I believe in a music hall, he stays away for a fair amount of time. I was just starting to relax when all of a sudden he BURSTS THROUGH THE FREAKING WALL! He even shouts "THERE YOU ARE!"; I had never once screamed before while playing a video game.

There's also this guy from Digital Devil Saga. He's a jailer that likes to eat humans:

Are you guys watching Two Best Friends play horror games every night? Because you should. These two really made me jump. The first due to the cheap jump scares and the second because... You'll have to watch.

Shoot! Can someone tell me how to just link a third video? I can't seem to get it to work and end up with an error that I posted too many. I'd like to edit this post and share the third. Thanks in advance.

[C.J]

Not exactly scary but the ghosts in SA2 made me jump a bit, especially the big ones in Death Chamber. The aligator also made me panic during the end of Lost Jungle in Heroes as you to quickly move from ivy to ivy but you couldn't go too slow or too fast, it was all about good timing. I also panic when the drowning music plays in any Sonic game and the eyes from Sonic 06.

I guess one of my most scariest game moments was when I got to the Cave of Bad Dreams in Rayman 2 R and met the guardian of the cave.

His voice was very menacing and what scared me the most was when you had to slide away from him while the camera was showing his mouth before you actually battle him and if he got you then you'd die quickly, it really freaked me out when I was little.

Edited October 6, 2012 by Red Raging Wisp

[Covskin]

The obvious ones for me have already gone - ReDeads and Metroids.

As a kid, I was always shitting bricks when it came to the end of Monkey Island 2, being chased around underground tunnels by LeChuck and never knowing when he would find me. But, I always say that in these topics...

So for a change, let's say Chapters 18 and 19 in the original Uncharted. Fast, powerful, feral, unnatural things that pop up out of nowhere, scream down your face and rip you to pieces? Yeah, that spooks me.

[Winston]

When I walk up to the piano for the first time in Super Mario 64, I panic, get scared, and I worry all at the same time.

I never ever want to relive that moment again.

[DarkDefeater]

The first time in skyward sword I awakened the guardians because one of those poes saw me in a silent realm...It was hard for me to resist the urge to panic.

[DarkLight]

Panic: Any drowning music in Sonic games. I don't think I need to explain why...

Fear: Going into Old Chateau in Pokemon D/P/Plat. Though as a kid I've been very spooked by Lavender Town (and Pokemon Tower which seems to have been forgotten in favor of LT) the music for this place justs freaks me out because it practically personifies the haunted and unsettling nature of the building. Even the purple-esque windows reeks of creepiness just as you enter it. Perhaps the scariest part of the place is not the fact that it's abandoned, the ominous red eyes from the portrait, nor the two ghosts you see but never talk to, but merely because there's little to no backstory to this place. Granted it's implied that Charon lived here as a child and befriended Rotom, but that doesn't really explain who the two human ghosts are. So yeah, the sheer mystery of Old Chateau's history was the scariest part of it for me.

Can't really think of any Worry or Holy Shit! moments, so I'll probably get back to it soon.

Edited October 31, 2012 by DarkLightDragon

[Nepenthe]

Yeah, I'm gonna echo DarkDefeater and cite the Silent Realms from Skyward Sword as a triple dosage of panic, fear, and worry.

You're transported to a realm of blue overtones and shiny dust. It's like Avatar-land, all pretty and ethereal, and punctuated with echoing string music. Then you're given the rules of the trial you have to do:

Stepping off the protective circle you're in awakens the guards. Stepping into the water awakens the guards. Being snitched on by one of those sentries awakens the guards. Simply being too slow in collecting the 15 Sacred Tears awakens the guards. The guards can kill you in one hit and you have nothing to defend yourself with. Have fun.

A feeling of dread wells up when you realize the pins and needles you're walking on in this place, so you decide to get it over with quickly and step off the circle:

Enter an immediate cut scene where the beautiful blue sky is draped in red, and those humble little beings situated around the places wake up and magically dawn swords as big as a fucking Ford Raptor. The whimsical music gives way to this pounding industrial nonsense. And all around you, you can hear the stomping of the ground troops getting closer and the shings of swords being sharpened in homicidal delight. It's terrifying. You can reset everything by getting a Tear, but how do you find one when there's a dude with five Final Fantasy swords chasing you down into a corner-- oh my goodness I'm trapped. Fuck.

And you have to go through this four times.

It never gets better.

[Solkia]

Metroids are scary? I think they're cute.

[Wraith]

Ah, yes. the Silent Realms It doesn't get better when you replay the game either. The atmosphere is just terrifying. They will stop at NOTHING to find you and kill you. Even when you find a tear, you get this ominous feeling that the guardians are watching you as close as possible, waiting eagerly just for you to fuck up in even the slightest way.

[SuperStingray]

Metroids are scary? I think they're cute.

To be honest, I thought Clanker from Banjo-Kazooie and the Eel from Mario 64 were pretty cute, but everyone seems to freak out about them.

[Solkia]

The eel is more of an asshole than he is scary.

[Rurifuu]

Resident Evil: The first CG video where the zombie turns around. That used to scare me a lot and I used to have to cover my eyes when the video played!

Silent Hill: I think the game itself just scares me. Unlike most modern horror games, it really builds up suspense and the music helps with that. You expect to find something around the next corner, but you're left hanging until you're off your guard!

Tokyo Jungle: This is a fairly new game on the PSN for those who don't know it. It quite often makes me jump. One moment I'm running around as a little dog, killing rabbits and chickens for food, even the occassional bigger dog. As the years in the game go on, you expect to come across the occassional wolf, that giant cow you can't kill on your own... then all of a sudden you accidently run into a pride of fully grown lions and get chased across the map by them with no way to hide! Next thing you know, those same lions are getting eaten by dinos and the dinos are coming after you next, much faster and deadlier!!! It's especially heartpounding at night.

Shadow of the Colossus: You can't play that game and not panic when you see one of those huge creatures!

Most scary games I never really played because I don't like playing something that makes me jump out of my skin. But I used to love watching my brother or my friends playing them.

[188Eternal]

Definitely whenever I encounter either a pack of Revenants or a single Arch-Vile in DOOM 2, even after all of these years.

Also whenever I enter underwater areas in any Sonic game which I ever play. Those ticking counters just can't allow me to relax and enjoy the gameplay.

[a bad poster]

Pretty much any moment in any of the Thief games that involved the Pagans had me really on edge, but also notably from those games were the Church and Shalebridge Cradle in Thief 3, and the library in Thief 2

Seriously, holy shit