What's the creepiest 2D game you've played?

[320x240]

Beyond the Forbidden Forest was probably the first game to creep me out, though that's not really 2D I suppose.

The original was scarier. Aztec Challenge was a bit scary too.

[Skykid]

Biohazard 4 was pretty unnerving.

[kernow]

REmake was more unnerving, and also not 2D

[cools]

And yeah, that sounds like Abuse. Never really creeped me out, but it's up there.

No 2D game has ever creeped me out, and there's only a few 3D that have done so.

Abuse got the mention because it's the only 2D game to ever make me jump. Running along desolate corridors with barely anything visible and suddenly having an enemy jump out and rapidly destroy you was regularly unnerving.

[Specineff]

Bio Hazard Batlle, mainly due to the eerie soundtrack.

Same here. If not for Super Fantasy Zone and Cotton, it would have sent me into a depressive state.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

The confession booth in Symphony of The Night was pretty creepy.

[VxD]

Eversion:
http://zarat.us/tra/offline-games/eversion.html
NOT INDICATED FOR CHILDREN OR THOSE OF A NERVOUS DISPOSITION.

[Leandro]

Flashback, for sure... Maybe not creepy, but that game atmosphere always gave me an odd feeling, one that I've not felt anywhere else.
Oh and Ecco the Dolphin. The sound effects there are terrifying.

[Ed Oscuro]

Oh yeah! Splatterhouse III. I knew I was forgetting something. Its monster designs are grotesque (before you smash their faces in and get juices running), the time-limited family rescue system is pretty nerve-wracking, the cutscenes are brutal, and the music (particularly in those cutscenes) is chilling. It used to creep me out as a kid, still impressively macabre even now. The first two are pretty messed-up as well, but III feels less campy and more downright morbid.

Sounds like Nosferatu except in 2D!

Hmm...Sweet Home mentioned already...I'll pick Otogirisou for the Super Famicom! Haven't gotten terribly far due to my lack of skillz though.

[Dale]

Splatter House2 and Trio The Punch, something is wrong and evil with the ninja's music with rest of the game I can't explain it.

Oh and Ecco the Dolphin. The sound effects there are terrifying.

Yeah weird and depressing game. Always felt haunted after playing it.

[Khan]

id say sanitarium on pc but its classed as 2d/3d (I still have the original boxset worth a few quid too)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YpPq71z_7o

still a very creepy game.

[sven666]

Net Yaroze: Haunted Maze
(i pissed my pants)

thats a 3d game..

i was kinda creeped out by "shadow of the beast" when it came out, great game too!

[Marc]

Beyond the Forbidden Forest was probably the first game to creep me out, though that's not really 2D I suppose.

The original was scarier. Aztec Challenge was a bit scary too.

Yeah I'd say Aztec Challenge too, though I think much of that was due to the soundtrack. See also Caverns of Kafkha, another Cosmi game from around the same time.

I'd also say Strider had quite an eerie atmosphere, alwasy found that first boss in particular very creepy, and the odd, almost out-of-tune music on the second level

[Battlesmurf]

Clumsy as fuck. Mouse cursor + d-pad to move cursor = fail.
If you could use a mouse with this game all would be fine.

I know that Clock Tower (us PSX) can use the mouse. Relatively certain "Clock Tower:First Fear" (re-release of the SNES game on PSX J) can use the mouse. Makes a world of difference for the US title- I'd imagine it'd do the same for the J title : )

[ZacharyB]

The only thing I can remember was back when I was something like 10 or 12, playing Metroid 2 on the game boy. That point in the final area where you think you've defeated every Metroid except one, and you're passing underneath the egg, and the counter suddenly fills up again--that startled me.

In Earthbound, Giygas's behavior at the very end was unnerving.

[BIL]

^The ambient noise during the run-up to the last boss was about as discordant and foreboding as GB music got. I like how it was lurking in some derelict, smashed-up dump of a place, too; decidedly non-epic, to good effect.

[moozooh]

Can't believe I missed Metroid 2. It definitely excels in that regard, and its music is awesome in a lot of ways.

[D]

SOTN

[Gespenst]

On the shooter front X-Multiply always comes to mind...

Yeah, that've prevented me getting the ultra-rare Image Fight/X-Multiply pack . (I was about 8 years old that time)

[Momijitsuki]

Eversion:
http://zarat.us/tra/offline-games/eversion.html
NOT INDICATED FOR CHILDREN OR THOSE OF A NERVOUS DISPOSITION.

You beat me to it!

Yeah, Eversion.

[BIL]

When you're young a lot of stuff looks scary to you. Fighting the Cyberdemon as a kid was terrifying.

Coincidentally, I was playing a Doom II megawad called Scythe very recently. A later level is a small courtyard surrounded by dark caves, which culminates in three Cyberdemons attacking. The courtyard is uncomfortable enough (sparse cover, uneven ground), but taking refuge in the caves is suicide. One of them damn near made me jump out of my seat when I realised it was standing in the darkness right in front of me, blocking off the way I'd come in. I'd gotten so used to seeing CDs in wide-open, circle-strafe friendly spaces, which really takes the edge off them... with ideal level design that monster can still be pretty alarming even today.

[No_not_like_Quake]

The PCE version of Ninja Spirit is kind of creepy, especially the music. It's almost depressing but I like it.

[unsane]

Shadowgate
Tombs & Treasure
Ninja Gaiden (final stage cutscenes and bosses)
Ninja Gaiden II (final stage cutscenes and bosses)

[ZOM]

Tombs & Treasure

aka ASTEKA II
Loved the game - falcom goodness!

[Cthulhu]

I'll give another push for Splatterhouse 2. 3 had some really damn cool monster designs, but I thought the series was waaaay better as a platformer (of sorts) than as a beat-em-up.

I remember playing Dark Seed, but it was so long ago I can't really recall any details.

As far as 8-bit games go, yeah, Sweet Home is pretty damn creepy. They did a nice job on detailing the corpses with the limited resolution and palette.

[Gozer]

The Haunting: Starring Polterguy
Some of the scares and music were creepy.

[ZOM]

Another mention goes to the shitton of creepy PC-98 AVG titles like Necronomicon and stuff like that.

[chempop]

Anyone mention Out of This World or Heart of the Alien yet?

[dcharlie]

I remember playing Dark Seed, but it was so long ago I can't really recall any details.

Came to post Darkseed - played the Amiga version and the weird flash backs and H.R.Giger art work conspired to give a very very odd feeling to the game.

Always meant to play Darkseed 2 but never got around to it....


Other than that, i always found The Sentinel very creepy - the C64 version specifically as the rotating sentinel makes some odd sounds and the panic of knowing it can see you was always just around the corner (but that's 3d so....)

[crithit5000]

Forgot about X-COM.