- 5 minutes ago
Category
🎈
FunTranscript
00:06oh wait don't shoot down welcome to mojo plays and the n64 might not have had a huge catalog of
00:14horror games but it did still have quite a few that portrayed the big n's family-friendly image
00:20and gave us some truly unsettling experiences that made us keep the lights on the entire time we
00:35played before we continue be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
00:41about our latest videos scooby-doo classic creep capers
00:53a kid cart starring a talking dog about haunted houses and chase logic is easy to wave off next
01:00to resident evil 2 but that misses why classic creep capers belongs here the whole game is about
01:06walking into a place that has already decided to scare you on purpose hallways loop the way saturday
01:12morning mysteries loop while closets and kitchens hide the next beat the gang splitting up is the
01:18mechanic and the joke which still works because the fear is theatrical rather than gory you know
01:24the mask is coming off but the n64 still makes the mansion feel like a stage you shouldn't wander around
01:30after the laugh track stops it might be soft compared with raccoon city but it's still fully committed to
01:36the bit and that commitment is the real scare and also why we kept opening the next door even when
01:42we knew we shouldn't
01:51sin and punishment
01:52relax iron weak sake you've put their faith in us we must try to help the others
01:59video games primarily set on rails shooting usually lighten the mood with score banners but sin and punishment never does
02:06mutated food species and a ruined japan sit under a civil war that treats the camera like a witness
02:12not a carnival ride creatures look like they escaped a budget horror movie and then learn to occupy streets
02:19and all the while the rail keeps you moving which is how the setting never lets up
02:24there's no hub world between waves because the future is already lost and the gun is only buying players the
02:30next screen
02:31and that loop still unsettles today because the action never apologizes for the world treasure could have made this colorful
02:38chaos
02:38but instead they made it look like a country that had been eaten and then asked to keep fighting through
02:44a backdrop that refuses to become Saturday morning scenery
02:47the old earth will die soon
02:49killed by the very people it fed
02:54yakocho 2 satsujin koro
02:57the nintendo 64 didn't host many late night murder mysteries which is why yakocho 2 satsujin koro feels like it
03:04wandered in from an after hours broadcast
03:07investigation replaces mascot comfort in which you work nights talk to people who would rather be left alone and walk
03:13streets that don't advertise themselves as haunted so much as tired
03:17the tone is closer to a thriller that stayed up past the watershed than anything with the nintendo seal on
03:23the box and the japan only status has helped keep it obscure in the west
03:27a quiet road and a case file don't need a localization to make sense and even playing it now the
03:33scare is still the ordinary hour
03:35there's no demon gate or monsters to fight just a town that gets worse after the shops close and the
03:41questions start piling up
03:43quake 2
03:54strogost on the n64 is a meat factory with a trigger held down literally quake 2 doesn't quip its way
04:01through the conversations or spend hours building lore
04:04filled with industrial halls grafted bodies and a campaign that treats humanity as spare parts makes the theming darker and
04:11more unsettling than most first person carts
04:14on the system movement is the usual shooter loop the rooms however are not the in-game lighting stays so
04:20intentionally low that machinery reads as anatomy
04:23which in 1999 was a shock next to collect-a-thons and kart racers it still works because body horror
04:30architecture doesn't need a modern engine
04:33it just needs a corridor that looks like it was staffed by something that used to clock in and clearly
04:38enjoyed their work
04:39which in turn makes the scariest part of the game simply trying to survive its industrial machinery
04:52gauntlet legends
04:53a dark dungeon fantasy on a nintendo console usually keeps the corpses off the welcome mat
04:59but gauntlet legends does not
05:01demon gates and pile-ups of whatever failed the last run sit in the game's hubs that stay ugly between
05:07stages
05:08co-op noise can cover the mood for a minute until the art direction pulls it right back
05:13this isn't some subtle myth
05:15it's a cart that wants the fantasy dirty and lit like a basement poster rather than a saturday morning cartoon
05:22in the 80s
05:23that still packs a punch because the tone never resets at the door
05:26you come back for keys and potions and the place still looks occupied by the thing that ate the previous
05:32adventuring parties
05:33the game's scares aren't in scripted sections
05:36it's realizing the lobby is part of the dungeon
05:38want even more horror games to scare you senseless?
05:42then head to mojo plays 24 7 live stream for all the best content the gaming has to offer
05:47scan the qr code on screen to join us live for non-stop fun
05:51forsaken 64
06:00a hoverbike through dead installations should feel like a toy
06:04but forsaken 64 makes the emptiness the enemy
06:07the abandoned future architecture with long sight lines and facilities that look like they outlived their staff
06:13turn that speed into a way of not thinking about the rooms
06:16the combat that's there does little to quell the lingering feeling that this vacancy of melancholy is full of lights
06:23that don't mean safety
06:24and hangers that don't mean arrival
06:26in 1998 that tone sat at odds next to the traditionally brighter n64 science fiction
06:32it still works when the soundtrack drops and the next tunnel is just more unused space
06:37while the horror isn't a monster in a closet so much as a future that already ended and that just
06:42kept running
06:43an undiscovered realm awaits the inquisitive humans
06:47and hidden within its boundaries lies the challenge of survival
06:52Aiden Chronicles The First Mage
06:54traditional dark fantasy RPGs rarely appeared on this hardware
06:59which is why Aiden Chronicles The First Mage feels soggy and adult next to the rest of the library
07:05plague talk, tombs, and a pace closer to a damp PC campaign than a cartoon quest
07:10set the mood before the first dungeon finished introducing itself
07:14the in-game menus and travel are clumsy
07:17the fitting of the world that's willing to be grim anyway
07:20that combination still has a dark chill because the n64 almost never asked for this register
07:26n64 players typically expected bright field music and a clean hero arc
07:31but instead they got illness in the lore and architecture that looks tired of visitors
07:35the scare is tonal more than jump based
07:38because a tomb doesn't have to chase you when the rest of the continent already sounds so unwell
07:44Our Marines Project Swarm
07:52bug hunts live or die on tunnels
07:55so naturally Our Marines Project Swarm understands that
07:59and then makes the motion feel wrong anyways
08:02cramped spaces combine with illogical insect logic
08:06and a cart that looks like a first party title until the walls start moving like an alien set on
08:11a budget
08:11visibility is the core game mechanic
08:14while sound is the warning that makes fighting in the open a relief the game doesn't offer often
08:19in 1999 that was an intense first-person change of pace that still works because the swarm horror is spatial
08:26if the ceiling has too many holes your brain and imagination fills them
08:31ammo helps until the next nest reminds you that the dark is doing half the directing
08:36and the next corridor never becomes a hallway you own
08:46Body Harvest
08:53Rare could have made another colorful adventure but instead chose to traumatize the audiences accustomed to their cutesy platformers
09:01Body Harvest somehow managed to make the countryside even more disconcerting than it already was
09:06with decade-hopping alien raids that leave empty rural maps until the quiet is the warning
09:11and then the ships arrive and the harvest starts
09:15Wide open fields should feel safe on an N64 stick
09:19but here they feel exposed and dangerous
09:22towns go eerily still while livestock and people are inventory for something overhead
09:28that remains nasty because the scare is scale rather than the expected awe
09:33made exponentially worse when you see too much land and not enough cover
09:37the meanest rare joke on the system isn't a punchline
09:40it's the idea that Earth is a farm with a schedule
09:44and if you manage to survive one era
09:46the next decade still has the same appetite
09:56Turok 2 Seeds of Evil
10:05Turok 2 Seeds of Evil
10:08Dinosaurs were the initial franchise's draw
10:10but Turok 2 Seeds of Evil treats them like the least of your problems
10:15Flesh-lined corridors and primogen cult architecture stitched together with tight indoor routes
10:20turn the campaign into something closer to a biological siege than the expected jungle tour
10:25While the first game had space
10:27Turok 2 crowds the camera with walls that look grown rather than built
10:32This was the nastiest campaign in the series for a reason
10:36and it still works when a room feels like interior anatomy
10:39and the next door is just more of the same tissue
10:42Traditional action keeps the pace up
10:44but the setting never lightens
10:46forcing you deeper into the literal bowels of its world
10:49The dinosaurs were just for marketing
10:52whereas the cart would rather you live in the part of the map that shouldn't be this moist
11:05Hybrid Heaven
11:07Konami buried a wrestling RPG under Manhattan
11:10then lit the halls like a lab that was already lost to its experiments
11:14Hybrid Heaven has survival horror bones even when the combat is throws and holds
11:19The endless alien clones inside sealed facilities
11:22and a city overhead that doesn't know the basement exists
11:25keeps the mood strictly clinical
11:27Progression is tied directly to exploration led by a body horror directory
11:32The mini fights are awkward on purpose
11:34which intentionally stops the player from feeling like the building's equal
11:38and that remains unsettling because the scare is institutional
11:42The clone project doesn't need an expected jump scare
11:45It just needs a corridor that looks finished and inhuman
11:49Western players treated it as a curiosity
11:51while the lab treats the player as inventory that learned how to grapple
11:55Quake
12:05After Doom 64 this is the N64's most oppressive shooter
12:10and Quake doesn't pretend otherwise
12:12The oppressive brown and black realms and a loaded shotgun that provides little comfort
12:17all designed around a campaign that would rather be Lovecraft than a speedrunner's clip reel
12:22There is no bright HUD personality to lighten the mood even a little bit
12:26and levels feel like someone else's nightmare architecture with ammo placed as an afterthought of mercy
12:32In 1998 that tone was a statement next to collectible festivity
12:36and this design still works because the palettes never cheer up and never apologize for unsettling its players
12:42Clearing a slip gate into the next dimension is the same bad idea just with different gravity
12:48A shotgun helps but it doesn't make the walls any friendlier
12:58Hexen Beyond Heretic
13:06A hub world structure usually means keys and backtracking
13:10but Hexen makes that structure feel like being trapped inside its cultish architecture
13:14Dungeon keeps lined with rotting corridors
13:17and a fighter dropped into someone else's ritual spaces turns navigation into abstract horror
13:23You aren't clearing a linear hell so much as living in a fortress that recycles its rooms
13:28This idea was already grim on PC
13:31But on the N64 it sits even stranger beside the usual first party cheer
13:35The world and its design still work today
13:38because the hub starts feeling memorized and hostile at the same time
13:42Finding the next switch inside a building never stops being a nightmare that forces players to draw their own map
13:48Which makes the level design the game's greatest and most terrifying spell
14:00Shadowgate 64
14:01Trials of the Four Towers
14:03First person castles on this hardware usually expect to see a sword swinging
14:08But Shadowgate 64 Trials of the Four Towers wants you alone with locked doors and a list of bad ideas
14:15Combat here is almost completely absent
14:18Leaving players with little more than the most terrifying thing they can do
14:21Is touching the wrong object in a room that's been waiting for them
14:25Inventory puzzles become moral tests with furniture
14:28While lighting, hidden keys, and cryptic inscriptions do the threatening
14:32In 1999 that felt like a point and click ghost on a controller
14:36Which still works because the feeling of helplessness travels
14:39No ammo count arrives to flatter anyone
14:42And the castle doesn't chase
14:44Instead, it invites a mistake and then collects
14:47Because the tower would rather the next lever get pulled anyway
14:52Castlevania
15:01Dracula's castle in clumsy 3D shouldn't work
15:04And for a lot of the runtime it barely does, proving our point
15:08However, Castlevania still has that first night approach
15:11The unsettling fog on the ground
15:13Hiding undead bodies strewn on the stairs
15:15And a gate that looks bigger than the engine
15:18Legacy of Darkness is the bleaker sibling
15:21But this is the cart people remember stepping into
15:23Because the 3D stumble makes the players feel uninvited rather than athletic
15:28Combat is unintuitive and stiff
15:31Which makes the castle the main event that remains eerie
15:34When a hallway takes too long to read
15:36And a familiar Belmont theme can't make the geometry friendly
15:39This isn't peak Igarashi systems
15:42Not even close
15:43But arriving at a famous house on hardware that can't quite hold it
15:46Still managed to capture the legacy and malice of Dracula and his castle
16:05The Victorian streets of Nightmare Creatures might be more well known on the PS1
16:10But the N64 version keeps the world and its many monsters ugly for the full campaign
16:15Nightmare Creatures is action horror that never lets London feel safe
16:20With its relentless fog hiding cult leftovers
16:22And things that shouldn't walk occupy blocks the camera doesn't frame on purpose
16:27Combos exist so the night doesn't become a walking sim
16:30While the mood exists so the combos don't become a celebration
16:33That unholy combination remains disturbing because the city stays the enemy even after a win
16:39Even if you survive a street the next one is the same weather with a different silhouette
16:44And no reprieve from the constant tension and hidden threats lying in wait
16:48Within fog that lasts the whole cart rather than a single scripted alley
16:58Doom 64
17:05This is more than a simple port wearing a new hat
17:09Doom 64 builds darker maps and a sicker palette
17:13Then replaces Metal Swagger with Aubrey Hodges' ambient score
17:17Hell has somehow become an even more hostile place instead of another arena with a killer playlist
17:23The Marine still shoots but this time the rooms don't cheer
17:27The colored lighting and thick geometry make familiar demons feel relocated into something damper
17:33In 1997 that was a statement about what the N64 could do with a famous name
17:38And still works because silence in a Doom game is a threat
17:42A pinky in a bright PC map is a problem
17:45But a pinky in this lighting is a room that already decided the tone
17:49And a testament to how little the game needs to shout to leave players on edge
17:53In a series where they're used to being the threat
18:03The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask
18:06The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask
18:16A dying town on a three day clock doesn't feel like a Zelda pitch
18:20Which is why Majora's Mask still feels like folk horror wearing a familiar tunic
18:25The moon wants the ground and almost nothing will stop the calamity
18:28Yet Clock Town keeps smiling anyways
18:31Econa, the well, and the last hours before the fall turns mass into a way of borrowing other people's grief
18:38Jump scares were never the point of the game
18:40Instead, the point is Termina refusing to feel safe even when a section is solved
18:45The cycle is reset and the town remembers in the way that matters
18:49The problem is still coming and that remains the cruelest first party mood on the system
18:54Ocarina of Time's Hyrule taught players heroism
18:57While this card teaches the true meaning of a deadline
19:00Leaving the smiling face on the moon and the sky to do the rest
19:09Shadow Man
19:10I must stop this evil from bringing about the end of all things
19:14Only you can do it, Shadow Man
19:16You are a walker between the worlds
19:18Most N64 worlds want to keep you alive and busy
19:22But Shadow Man starts the hero already dead
19:25And then builds dead side like a swamp between this world and the next
19:29The game is full of voodoo rituals, serial killer errands, and a tone that never climbs back towards the N64
19:36family-friendly image
19:37And instead keeps the cart dead in the water
19:39Exploration is the point of the campaign
19:42While combat is messy enough to prevent a typical power fantasy
19:45The worst thing about the game is the way it creates the feeling of living in a place that treats
19:50death as geography
19:51In 1999, that was the darkest original setting on the console
19:56And it didn't need a licensed mansion to get there
19:59And this approach still works because the path looks like a bayou and a cathedral at once
20:03And a shadow did fall upon the world of men
20:08The prophecy is fulfilled
20:11Resident Evil 2
20:18Wait! Don't shoot!
20:20Get down!
20:21One of the N64's few actual survival horror games
20:25Somehow stuffed onto a cart with the police station completely intact
20:29Resident Evil 2 puts Leon or Claire in a police station that should have been a shelter
20:34And then lets the building teach otherwise
20:36Halls become familiar on purpose
20:39Until a liquor on the ceiling takes that familiarity back
20:42The familiar ink ribbons turn saving into a pause you have to earn
20:47And the streets outside stay loud enough that leaving the station never feels like relief
20:51Zombies own the first floor in a slow way
20:54While the faster things own the vertical space
20:57You learn the courtyard and the office loop
20:59But then a sound from above reminds you that the map was only ever a suggestion
21:04Even decades of remakes haven't retired that station
21:07And it still works because the next jump scare is hiding just around a corner
21:11The fixed camera won't let you see
21:14Hey, we still have a job to do
21:16Let's go
21:18Go?
21:19Oh, you can't mean
21:20What was the most unexpectedly terrifying game you played through on the N64?
21:25Share your tales of childhood trauma in the comments
21:28Did you enjoy this video?
21:29Check out these other clips from MojoPlays
21:31And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos