Ask any recognized gamer which titles they consider memorably “scary” and you’ll often be answered with modern, conventional titles: Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, F.E.A.R., among many others. I don’t know about you, but I grow weary and desensitized to the cliché pop-up-in-your-face ghost/demon/zombie style of survival-horror game play, especially when you have weapons at your disposal. Although mainstream, I enjoyed the Silent Hill series immensely for it’s ability to induce a chronic feeling of dread and unsettlement throughout the entire game. Similarly, games like Siren are memorable in that a player is unable to  kill enemies, only delay their attacks at the most. But what about those games that you haven’t heard of, or forgot?

What drives my hair to stand on end has evolved over my years of playing horror games, for now I actually prefer obscure, unnerving titles that at times don’t even intend on being creepy in the first place. Presented in this list are seven games that in my opinion fit the criteria above (save one, that may not actually exist) albeit never reaching mainstream recognition, and all the while not relying on cutting-edge graphics to induce fear.

7.  Eversion (PC – Freeware; Zaratustra Productions ’08)

This platform game is deceptively innocent, as the title screen so obviously suggests. You play as this little orange blob-flower (as seen in the title screen) who needs to save a princess in a castle by essentially getting to the flag at the end of each level (sound familiar?), all the while collecting gems on the way. What makes this game unique is the ability to “everse”, or turn the world inside out, a skill that is required to get through obstacles in each stage. Usually by doing this you enter an alternate world almost identical in terrain to the un-eversed world, but different in that it is often unnervingly stagnant and devoid. As you progress, the levels become darker and gloomier – the music transgressing from an upbeat melody typical of NES-era platformers to eerie silence, low-pitched groans, and an endless loop of several string instruments playing a single off-key note. Cute, happy enemies that look no more dangerous than the character you play are found later in the game either dead or frozen in place amongst shadow beasts, demon hands and walls of blood. If you’re an 8-bit nostalgic who gets goose bumps from macabrous atmosphere progression, try Eversion. Just hope you don’t get the bad ending.

6. Clock Tower (SNES/PSX/Wonderswan; Human ’05)

Despite the small-yet-devoted fanbase for the Clock Tower games released for the Playstation consoles, the true gem was the first in the series, which was originally released late into the SNES’ glory days. I got around to playing this badboy my second year of University, a point in my life where I was on a rampage to find a game that genuinely made it hard for me to sleep at night. The more modern PS2 survival-horror titles weren’t doing it for me, but little did I know that this 16-bit masterpiece was just what I was looking for. You play as Jessica, an orphan that is adopted into the clock tower mansion of Mary Barrows — a rich, reclusive mother, alongside three of Jessica’s orphanage friends. Immediately upon arrival, your friends start dying off and you realize that Mrs. Barrows is a psychopath sought on your death, often through he hands of her younger son Bobby, a deformed midget with a pair of scissors the size of his body who chases you around the house. Utilizing a point-and-click movement system, Clock Tower’s realistic atmosphere (certainly impressive for it’s time), bone-chilling soundtrack, and entrenched storyline alone do this game justice; however what truly turns this game’s terror gears is the inability to attack Bobby. As you explore the house, Bobby will pop out from random places (e.g., boxes, glass ceilings, mannequin bodies) and chase you, all you can do is run and hide. Simply running out of the room won’t cut it – the psychopathic dwarf follows you room-to-room until you find a way to get rid of him (by hiding or trapping him). I could go into detail about the floating doll room, dead crows, multiple death events as well as Bobby’s giant, tumour-ridden young brother, but I don’t want to spoil anymore than I already have – this game is a must-play for any survival-horror fan.

5. LSD: Dream Simulator (PSX; Asmik Ace ’98)

LSD: Dream Simulator is definitely one of a kind and is more mindfuckingly peculiar than it is scary –  the creepy factor emanates only through the surrealism and context of how the game plays and presents itself. Taking inspiration from a dream journal kept by one of the developers, LSD is literally a dream simulator (contrary to being termed after a potent hallucinogen) in all aspects – you do not level up, fight monsters, or reach an end goal. LSD allocates 10 minutes per “day” (in game) to explore a  randomly generated environment; any wall or object you touch transports you to another area in the dream world, changing your surroundings. Even if you manage to find your way back to an area you already visited, the fact that you interacted with something there has altered the area indefinitely (either by a change in the wall/ceiling/floor pattern, a new object or a previous object with subtle differences, etc.). What makes LSD true to it’s name is the random, avant-garde videos that randomly play on some in-game days instead of letting you explore (some examples include pigeons flying, gears turning, awkwardly filmed video equipment). For instance, I was denied access to explore on Day 15 because of this:

Seriously, what the fuck is this I don’t even-

As often proclaimed by the game’s cult followers, one of the more fear-inducing aspects of the game is a run-in with the only “enemy” in the game; in each dream there is always a small probability that you’ll run into the Gray Man, a soulless humanoid figure that hovers in a straight line. Upon touching it, you immediately wake up and are prevented from ever being able to flashback (re-visit) the dream you had on that day. Trust me, playing a game that imposes almost no threat to the player can get you shitscared when you finally encounter something that can.

4. Weird Dreams (Amiga/PC/Commodore 64/ Atari ST – Rainbird ’89)

Weird dreams is definitely one of those games that is so outlandishly bizarre that it really makes you wonder what was going in the developer’s heads. In fact, the design team took inspiration both from Salvador Dalí and a morbid fear of teeth (dentophobia) that one of the them suffered from; an ingenuity that is evident in both the atmosphere and enemy design. The story (which is presented to the player as a 19-chapter novel that comes with the game) involves a man named Steve who falls in love with some psycho woman who decides to possess him with the demon she currently embodies, resulting in Steve having really fucked up dreams. As Steve breaches the lines of psychoses, he decides to undergo neurosurgery to alleviate these nightmares – thus you essentially guide him through his final dream before he loses his visual cortex. This game is as random as dreams get: mimicking cotton candy to escape a large cotton candy machine, playing hot potato with a killer soccer ball against a psychotic, knife-wielding girl, killer obese ballerinas and beating ostrich-Moai statue hybrids to death with a flaccid fish are just some of the scenarios you will encounter. Oh yeah, this game is also extremely difficult.

3.  Yume Nikki (PC – Freeware; Kikiyama ’05)

Yume Nikki (lit. Dream Diary) is one of the most acclaimed freeware games to come from the RPG Maker software, effortlessly aggregating a large fanbase. The game revolves around the true story of Madotsuki (lit. Window), a female hikokimori (i.e., never leaves the house) who often escapes the woes of reality through her dreams, which have been getting progressively more nightmarish.Yume Nikki is very similar to LSD: Dream Simulator in that it is essentially an exploration game, but differs in that Madotsuki needs to collect 24 “effects” to see the ending and can pinch her cheek to awake from the dream at any time. The environments in each dream are often vast and looped endlessly, coupled by ambient, dream-like music (with some parts of the game having no music at all), zero character dialogue, and NPCs that either do not talk or utter meaningless phrases. Thus, the minimal audio really makes the experience very unsettling. Likewise, there are no real enemies in the game, aside from long-necked, beak-mouthed girls dubbed “Toringen” (lit. Bird people) that transport you to a part of the map that is inescapable, forcing you to wake up from the dream. However, the most highly regarded event in the game involves a house in “Snow World” where upon entering a house and turning the lights off, there is a 1.5% chance that the girl standing in the house turns into the headless, pale, disfigured face of a woman named Uboa, an encounter that immediately causes the screen to darken and shake, coupled by a single sound that can only be described as dread. If Uboa touches you, you are transported to a map that loops infinitely and resembles a schizophrenic child’s artwork.

2. Polybius (ARCADE;  Sinneslöschen ’81)

The infamous urban legend of the gaming industry, the stories regarding the mystery of Polybius vary immensely. The most consistent rumours involve it’s temporary placement in Oregon suburb arcades back in 1981 where the novelty and addiction of the game was so profound that people would line up to play. Some reports suggest that these arcades were often visited by “men in black” whom regularly collected data from the machine (often the information of high-scoring players) and eventually took the arcades with them. The game utilized hypnotic vector graphics, and played very much like Tempest. However, many cult followers believe the arcade existed to test the psychoactive influence of subliminal messages and perceptual hypnotism on the average Joe. Furthermore, many players reported symptoms of amnesia (typical of post-hypnotism), epilepsy (understandable), nightmares, and suicidal tendencies. Tales of Polybius remain a conspiracy theory since nobody to date has provided any evidence that a Polybius machine ever existed, although old-time gamers share similar reports of the game play and post-Polybius symptoms. Similarly, people do claim to own ROMs of the game, but many believe them to be fakes. Despite what has been said, a groundbreaking discovery has been made regarding a hidden Polybius arcade cabinet. The video can be viewed here.

1. Taboo: The Sixth Sense (NES; Rare ’89)

A repressed childhood memory of mine, I would consider Taboo one of the scariest game experiences I’ve ever subjected myself to. Try to bring yourself back to the age of 6, which for me was when the NES was the most popular console. Upon scavenging used NES games from a garage sale with my uncle, the seller decided to throw in Taboo (which came enclosed in a black velvet pouch) for free. Although my recollection of the whole transaction is hazy, my uncle told me not too long ago that he actually asked the seller why he was so willing to give the game away for free – apparently the seller refused to talk about it and just wanted to get it off his hands. So I took this game home and decided to play it before bed with my cousin. Upon starting the game up, I remember getting a little scared as the title screen music was very unsettling. The game then asks for your name, date of birth, gender, and a question you would like to have answered. I remember my cousin asking the question “will I die soon?”. Not realizing the entire game is a tarot card fortune-telling simulator, the game began to play itself — shuffling, placing and ascertaining our fates, card-by-card. In my case, each card flipped had signified a bad omen, alongside perhaps the most creepy, anxiety-stimulating music to ever grace any 8-bit console. I to this day can still remember the feeling of my stomach sinking each time another card was lifted, the terror gradually accumulating. Then came the final card – death. The combination of nauseatingly ominous music, a scythe-wielding skeleton, and the words “Your final outcome is an unexpected occurrence, illness, or change” unleashed the apex of my panic. Needless to say, future events fit nicely with this prediction, but I’ll leave that story for another day. That was the first and last time I played Taboo, although I still have it in my basement somewhere collecting dust. Just watching LP videos on Youtube is enough to bring back a little of that stomach-churning, childhood nostalgia.

Others have also had weird experiences with this game — a long, but elaborate attempt to understand and piece together some of the reports people have had with this game can be found here.

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