- 4 months ago
These aren't just game overs, they're nightmares burned into our memories! Join us as we count down the most disturbing and unsettling game over screens that had us reaching for the continue button in terror. Our countdown includes Shadow of the Colossus, Five Nights at Freddy's, Silent Hill 3, and more! Which game over screen traumatized you the most? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're
00:06looking at the most disturbing and
00:08unsettling game over screens in video
00:10games.
00:11It's okay to die, Bats. I'll be here to
00:15protect Gotham. I'll do a real good job.
00:21Number 30 Shadow of the Colossus
00:24Shadow of the Colossus is a dreary game,
00:37and nowhere is that better exemplified
00:40than its game over screens. Each time
00:42Wander loses to a Colossus, the player is
00:44greeted by the startling black-and-white
00:46image of their face, close-up, staring as
00:48if to look directly into your soul.
00:50Creepy, to say the least. In particular,
00:53the screen featuring Dirge, the 10th
00:55Colossus, became famous among players. The
00:58creepy music and its wide-eyed glare as
01:00Wander lays lifelessly on the ground,
01:02it's definitely one of the more
01:03unsettling images from the game.
01:17Number 29 The Punisher
01:23A lot of old arcade beat-em-ups feature
01:29disturbing scenes alongside countdowns to
01:32goad you into putting in more quarters.
01:33Released by Capcom, The Punisher follows the
01:36titular antihero and Nick Fury as they
01:38set out to bring an end to the Kingpin.
01:40Naturally, the crime lord has a lot of
01:42resources and you'll probably end up
01:43running out of health more than a few
01:44times. Once you do, your character
01:46collapses on the ground and one of their
01:48allies begins CPR in an attempt to save
01:50their life. When time runs out, your ally
01:53gives an expression of despair and the
01:55flatline that signals your death rings
01:56out. Well, that just makes us feel bad.
01:58Number 28
02:07Castlevania Symphony of the Night
02:09A classic in every sense of the word,
02:11Castlevania Symphony of the Night is a
02:13genre-defining entry into the
02:15PlayStation's library. As you might expect
02:17from a gothic-inspired action
02:18platformer, there are many macabre elements
02:20in its enemies, art style, and yes, even its
02:23Game Over screen. Should Alucard fall victim to
02:26the many traps and foes of Dracula's castle,
02:28you'll be greeted with a pile of monster
02:30bones and a crucifix half-buried in the
02:32sand. The creepiest part is the deep,
02:34chilling voice reading out, Game Over,
02:36before laughing evilly at your misfortune.
02:56Number 27
02:59Yoshi's Story
03:00Just like every other Yoshi game, Yoshi's
03:09story is pretty bright and cheerful, until
03:11you see its Game Over screen. Instead of
03:13health, you have a smile meter, which
03:15represents Yoshi's happiness. Each time
03:17you're hit, you lose petals and the face
03:19gets sadder. Should you lose all of your
03:21petals, Yoshi is carried away by the
03:23toadies to Baby Bowser's castle. It's a dark
03:26sight in such a happy game, and you can
03:27actually see Yoshi crying. This becomes
03:30even sadder in how it affects your game. You
03:32have multiple colored Yoshi's to play as, but
03:34this one will remain locked away unless you
03:37use a white Shy Guy to rescue them.
03:38Number 26
03:53Blue's Journey
03:54In this oft-forgotten platformer, you play as a
03:57hero trying to save the planet Ragai, which
03:59has been invaded by an evil empire. And if
04:02you fail to stop them, the game makes you
04:03feel really guilty about it. Blue is on his
04:06heroic journey at the request of a beautiful
04:08princess. Should the player reach the
04:10Game Over screen, they'll see a countdown
04:12as Blue is carried away by enemies, crying,
04:14and the tearful princess asking for help. When
04:16the clock gets low, her expression switches
04:19to anger, and she'll call you a bad guy. The
04:21final image is of a derelict landscape,
04:23letting you know that the planet has been
04:25ruined by pollution.
04:36Number 25
04:37RoboCop 2
04:38As you might expect, RoboCop has a lot of
04:41bad guys to go up against in his video
04:43games, even more than in his movies. More than
04:45likely, one of them will get the drop on
04:47RoboCop and you'll get a Game Over screen. Without a
04:50doubt, the most unsettling one can be found in
04:52the NES version. RoboCop is taken away for
04:54calibration so that he can be better, but
04:56it's accompanied by an image of the hero
04:58disassembled and hooked up to a monitor. We
05:01know the recalibration is so that he's able to
05:02get back to fighting crime, but something
05:04about him being taken apart like that, with
05:07worry and sadness on his face, just gets
05:09under our skin.
05:15Number 24
05:16Bayonetta
05:17In Bayonetta, enemy forces will appear in large
05:27numbers to try to overwhelm you. One thing that
05:29doesn't help is that when your health reaches
05:30low levels, shadowy hands will begin crawling
05:33toward Bayonetta from the sides of the screen. These
05:35represent Inferno, essentially the game's hell. No
05:38matter what foe you fall to, it's obvious you
05:40don't want these hands getting a hold of you. If you
05:42don't heal soon and Bayonetta dies, you get the
05:45option to continue. Click no and those hands
05:47will reach out from below and pull Bayonetta
05:50down to the underworld while she screams. Who
05:52knows what horrible fate awaits her down
05:54there, but it can't be anything good.
06:05Number 23
06:07Donkey Kong Country Trilogy
06:15The Donkey Kong Country games are bonafide
06:19classics that just so happen to scar any gamer that
06:22reached their game over screens. Each one tries to
06:24fill you with grim sorrow and sympathy for the
06:26Kongs so that you never run out of lives again. The
06:29first game features DK and Diddy bruised and
06:31bandaged from taking too many beatings. The second
06:34puts Diddy and Dixie inside a cell with a barred
06:37window teasing Freedom. The third features Dixie and
06:39Kitty placed in a crib with the most pitiful looks on their
06:42faces as if to accuse you of not being able to
06:45handle things like a baby. Number 22
06:48Alan Wake 2
06:49Alan Wake 2 is great at
06:59missing with our heads and the game over screen is no
07:01exception. Although you play as two characters, what
07:04happens when you die as the titular novelist is what
07:06really unnerved us and what made us never want to die again.
07:10When weight goes down, you're confronted by convulsing
07:12images of the actor who played him in live action
07:14segments with his face bloody and eyes staring blankly.
07:18Although black and white, him being live action and the
07:20picture shuddering and twisting make this really
07:23unsettling. There are a lot of elements in the game
07:25designed to freak you out and this is a prime example.
07:40A cult classic survival horror game from Capcom,
07:53Haunting Ground follows a woman who awakes in a strange castle
07:56and must escape without being caught by the vicious people who live there.
07:59And there's more than one reason to want to avoid dying by their hands.
08:02If you're caught and your pursuer kills you, you don't see what they do to Fiona's body,
08:07but you definitely hear it. And if the squelching sounds of flesh weren't bad enough,
08:11you also get moans, hysterical laughter, and slurps, depending on the character.
08:16Sometimes you don't have to see it in order to be disturbed.
08:19It's a game over tune that's recognizable to just about every gamer out there, so much so that
08:43we'd probably put it in a top 10 iconic game over tunes. But that's not what we're here for.
08:49What earns the Metal Gear Solid series a spot on our list is the haunting call we hear after said
08:53tune. While it has been memed to heck by the internet, the sound of characters crying out
08:58for Snake only to get no response is anxiety-inducing, and that's before hearing the gunshot.
09:03If only we could tell them what befell their best agent.
09:06Have you ever gone back to a classic game only to find something morbid that you completely forgot
09:24about? Well, that's pretty much Plants vs Zombies in a nutshell. You're so mesmerized by the charming
09:29visuals and adorable plants that you willfully neglect a terrifying moment when a zombie steps into your
09:34house. As if it wasn't already terrible enough hearing our characters scream, developer PopCap
09:39had to add in crunching sounds to really hammer home the implied brain munching part. Gross and disturbing.
09:49Only way that it could have been improved was with a geyser of blood and maybe a severed limb,
09:53but the simplicity works well, maybe a little too well. Number 18. Star Fox 2
10:04As morbid as it may sound, some of the coolest game overs are the ones that force the player to
10:09see the aftermath of their failures in a more cinematic light. Plenty of games have taken this
10:13approach, as we'll see later on, but Star Fox 2 is one that really stands out. Not only is it super
10:19depressing to watch, but it's also haunting to see General Pepper panic while Corneria gets blown
10:24to pieces. All you're left with is a creepy image of a grinning Andross. No worries, Nintendo. We
10:29didn't feel like sleeping tonight anyways. Number 17. Dead Space
10:40Dead Space is a gory and gruesome experience from start to finish. So, it's only appropriate that a
10:50game centered around dismemberment included brutal deaths for its protagonist, Isaac Clarke. Players
10:56will most likely witness Isaac be torn apart, impaled, decapitated, and eaten alive during their
11:01playthrough. However, what brings the whole thing home is how the screen turns a vicious blood red.
11:06Some deaths will even have a flatline sound, as if we couldn't tell Isaac was already dead.
11:11If you have a fear of being eaten or brutally severed, then Dead Space likely made your skin
11:16crawl or made you want to hide under your bed. Number 16. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
11:27At the time of its release, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs was one of the oddest beat-em-ups
11:36you could find in an arcade. In addition to its bizarre premise of dinosaurs being hunted in the
11:40future, the game really seared itself into the collective mind of 90s gamers with its overtly
11:45hostile game over screen. Should the player lose all their lives, they'll be taken to a game over screen
11:50where the game's villain points a gun at them. It was almost as if the game was threatening us to fork
11:55over more of our quarters. And you know what? It worked.
12:03Number 15. Galaxian III, Project Dragoon
12:07An often overlooked entry in Namco's long-running Galaga Galaxian series, Galaxian III was the first
12:21time the series tried implementing a new format, attempting to go for more of a 3D on-rails
12:26shooter a la Star Fox. So, what about its game over screen? Well, if you and your team fail the mission,
12:31you'll have to sit and watch the earth get destroyed. Enjoy the morbidly beautiful visuals
12:36and depressing music as you step outside of the booth. At least the game doesn't laugh in your
12:40face. It actually commends you for your efforts. But ultimately, all this really does is make you
12:45feel worse for having let humanity down. You fought well, but the earth has been destroyed.
12:52Number 14. System Shock
13:00Sometimes, you don't need a ludicrous amount of gore to terrify your players. System Shock, which is
13:05known for its eerie environments and horrifying story, strikes a balance of disturbing and haunting
13:10for its game over screen. Upon death, your character's carcass is taken and put into a cortex reaver.
13:15As if the message, you will serve Shodan well, wasn't bad enough, the now-dated animation style
13:20makes this game over screen even more frightening than it was back then. Then, of course, there's the
13:24thought of your dead body serving as a mindless killing machine. That might make your stomach churn
13:29just a bit. Number 13. Banjo Kazooie
13:36The Banjo Kazooie games, though generally family-friendly, weren't afraid to go dark. If Clanker's
13:46appearance didn't traumatize you as a kid, the game over screen certainly left you a tad unsettled.
13:51Should you lose all of your lives, or even quit the game, you'll be given a cutscene where Gruntilda
13:55succeeds with her plan. Klungo activates the machine as Tootie cries for help. Grunty steps out as a
14:00beautiful woman, while Tootie comes out grossly mutated, and not unlike Klungo. If that didn't
14:06make you feel guilty enough, there's a miserable banjo tune to reinforce that shame.
14:10Number 12. Five Nights at Freddy's series
14:23The Five Nights at Freddy's series has traumatized fans, casual players, and prank victims alike for
14:28years, with its decrepit environments, uncanny animatronics, and of course, the jump scares.
14:33What really gets us, however, are the game over screens, which typically insinuate that the player
14:41has been violently stuffed into an animatronic suit. The first game showed a pair of eyeballs,
14:46whereas the second showed Freddy staring back at the player from outside of the head. They've only
14:50gotten more gut-wrenching as the series has progressed, and honestly, we wouldn't want it any other way.
14:57Number 11. SpongeBob SquarePants Super Sponge
15:01They say silence is golden, but in the case of Super Sponge, it's enough to make a kid quit a game
15:11and have a mental breakdown. Should SpongeBob perish while trying to find a birthday present
15:15for Patrick, players are given a screen showing the pink starfish all by his lonesome. He'll start
15:20questioning if everyone just forgot his birthday, and if anyone even loves him. The absence of music
15:25is very unnerving, but it's the fact that the animation feels disconnected from what Patrick is
15:29saying that makes it downright disturbing. If you came across this game over screen as a kid,
15:34you probably didn't touch Super Sponge again for a long, long time.
15:43Number 10. Conker's Bad Fur Day
15:50Conker may have an adorable appearance, but anyone who has experienced this bad fur day knows that looks
15:55can be deceiving. Should Conker break off his last piece of chocolate, one of three game over screens
15:59will be shown. One shows his picture on the side of Panther King's milk carton, and another shows
16:04Conker, bound and gagged, serving as a table leg for the rest of his life. The most shocking one,
16:09however, is when the weasels report back to the Panther King with a bag of Conker's bloody bits.
16:14Between this silence and our state of shock, this particular scene stands out,
16:17as it shows just how vicious the Panther King can be.
16:27Number 9. Mortal Kombat 4
16:33Don't get us wrong, Mortal Kombat has some of the coolest fatalities in gaming,
16:37and each new entry shows there's more than a thousand ways to die. Mortal Kombat 4 seems to believe in
16:43overkill. After suffering defeat, your fighter will be shown falling down a seemingly never-ending pit
16:48of darkness. When the countdown reaches zero, the camera will shift, and your fighter gets impaled
16:53on a bed of spikes. Ugh, that's brutal! You can hear the bones breaking on that one.
17:01Number 8. Final Fight
17:03Okay, we'll admit this one is a little cartoony in presentation, but what makes it disturbing lies
17:13in the character animation. Just look at them. They all seem legitimately terrified for their life.
17:18It almost makes you feel horrible and want to keep playing the game. Wait a minute! We see what's going
17:23on here. Look, guys, we'd love to press continue and save you from the Looney Tunes looking dynamite,
17:28but we're all out of quarters. At least none of you guys are drowning or getting crushed by a bed of spikes,
17:33because that's a worse way to die. Ah, and they did that in the sequels. Ah, now we just feel really guilty.
17:43Number 7. The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask
17:52There's a lot of nightmare fuel going on in this game, from Skull Kid's creepy laughter to the
17:57unsettling dialogue like, you've met with a terrible fate, haven't you? For those of us who fear the
18:01stressful time limit, the game over cutscene is the most terrifying. You have the malicious-looking
18:06moon crashing into the Earth. This isn't just the end of Termina, it's the end of the entire planet.
18:11After a massive wave of fire kills Link, the last thing we see is Majora's Mask fading into the flames.
18:16The Batman Arkham games have some of the coolest game over screens in gaming. Having the villain tease
18:29and taunt you makes for a memorable game over screen. As neat as it is, there is a lot of
18:34rather sinister about them, especially when you die by the hands of Scarecrow and Killer Croc. The
18:51environment is shrouded in darkness and aside from the villain talking, there's nothing but silence.
18:56On top of that, the camera angle insinuates that we're seeing them from Batman's unconscious body,
19:01which is disturbing to even imagine. As we've seen with Majora's Mask, Nintendo is not afraid to put
19:19in some disturbing images and sounds to their otherwise kid-friendly games. The Metroid Prime
19:24Trilogy is a whole different ballpark. The action is always tense, the boss battles certainly make us
19:29feel like we're in life or death situations, and the death feels all too real. Before we're asked if
19:34we'd like to continue, we hear a painful scream from Samus. Then, we see that life support systems
19:40are offline and the system powers down, leaving us in total darkness. And that's just in the first two
19:45games. Corruption gives some subtlety to the gore, which somehow makes it all the scarier.
19:50There are more ways to die in Resident Evil 2 outside of being eaten alive by zombies,
20:06with each death being more brutal than the last. Where should we even begin? You can have your throat
20:11torn out by rabid dogs, impaled by a mutant creature, beaten to death with a pipe, even being swallowed by a
20:16giant alligator in the sewers. What makes these deaths even more frightening is that the only
20:21noise you hear are the screams and the gushing of blood. Yes, game, we can see we died. Thanks for the nightmares.
20:33Number 3, Silent Hill 3
20:40Sometimes, you don't need graphic details and violence to scare a gamer. While Silent Hill 3 has its fair share
20:45of savage deaths, from getting hit by a speeding train to falling into a dark abyss, the most
20:50terrifying game over screen involves the attendant of god, Valtiel. Once you are slain by the other
20:55creatures, Valtiel will be seen dragging your body, ready to hang you with the nurses. Of course,
21:00we can't forget the tantalizingly slow death of staying in the bloody mirror room.
21:04I'm getting chills just thinking about these.
21:06Number 2, Ninja Gaiden
21:20Oh, Ninja Gaiden, you kicked our ass just as much as you did in the console versions.
21:25While it's the oldest game on the list, it doesn't mean it didn't scare the ever-living crap out of us.
21:30Upon losing your last life, you're taken to a screen where you see Ryo Hayabusa strapped down with a
21:34screeching bus saw slowly descending, ready to tear into his torso. Once the countdown reaches zero,
21:39you hear Ryo die and a cheesy tune only the 80s can provide.
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22:04Number 1, XCOM UFO Defense
22:14The XCOM series has been known for demanding a high level of strategy from players.
22:18While most games would simply say game over or show a gruesome cutscene, like the other entries on this
22:23list, XCOM UFO Defense says, nope, you're gonna sit there and we're going to make you feel your failure.
22:29First, you're told how the government has fallen apart and nations will have to deal with the
22:33invasion all on their own. Then, with eerie music in the background, you read that humans are being
22:38eradicated. With the final sentence reading, you have failed to save Earth. Jeez, talk about adding
22:44insult to injury.
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22:59I need a very special song.
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