Yes, folks, the Lick Ness Monster is a gamer. NES, Sega Genesis, Super NES, N64, Gamecube. That was the list of consoles that I owned throughout my formative years. As you can tell, I was (and still am) a big Nintendo fanboy, and that's something that causes me almost as much suffering as WWE does these days. If only these guys could get their heads out of their asses and get back to basics. But then again, they have to be raking it in over "Pokemon Go!" so I can't say that they're exactly hurting these days. Still...much like my philosophy with movies, I'm a big proponent of "keep it simple, stupid." As such, there was a time where I just lost interest in video games, because I thought that the whole experience from online multiplayer to the consoles themselves being more like general entertainment hubs than gaming machines had gotten to be anything but simple. See how that list of consoles ended two generations ago?
But alas, something brought me back. Hearing that there was a new "Doom" game on the horizon was the lure, because that was the series that taught me that I can combine my loser-y fascinations. 500-some-odd dollars later, I had an Xbox One, brand-new copies of "Batman: Arkham Knight" (combining loser-y fascinations again!) and "Grand Theft Auto V" (because it looked so awesome on various YouTube gaming channels I follow), and a couple months' wait for "Doom." Long story short, it was worth it, because it's still just as fast-paced, intense, and gloriously gory and horror-oriented as I remembered from my youth, with a story that doesn't go the traditional modern gaming route by shoving it in your face every five seconds. It's there, but it's not intrusive, and that's a rare thing these days. As awesome as it is, though...it still can't hold a candle to the original. Spoiler alert.
Thus, this week, we're going to be looking at my favorite horror video games.
Going back to my childhood, I've always been a huge fan of the "Castlevania" series - well, up to a point, anyway, because that N64 one can f**k right off. Of all the ones that I played in my youth, my favorite was undoubtedly "Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse" for the NES. This is a series of games where you play as a member of the Belmont family, whip-wielding badasses on a mission to kill Dracula. On your way there, you face off with skeletons, Gill-men, floating heads, you name it. The mood, atmosphere and music are all creepy to the max, but what sets this particular game apart from the others is the innovations that it brought to the table. There were different characters that you could find and take with you to find Dracula with different abilities ranging from high jumps to magic spells. Oh, and the game is balls-tastically hard. In other words, it's prime 8-bit side-scrolling goodness at its finest.
The next console that I owned was a Sega Genesis; I loved Nintendo, but the combined powers of Sonic the Hedgehog and the original "Mortal Kombat" in full blood mode were enough to win me over. Well, until I bought a Super in college and realized how wrong I was. But two games that I used to rent constantly were "Splatterhouse II" and "III," a series of games that I think is long overdue for a modern remake. The plot goes like this: you're a buffed-out dude wearing a Jason mask that gives you mystical powers attempting to save your girlfriend from horrific monsters. What more do you need than that? Answer: nothing, because these games were just 100% pure awesome. From your bare hands to bats to daggers, this game gave you the ability to splat the bad guys in insanely gruesome ways. Well, by early '90s standards, anyway. And I'll fully admit to pretending that I was playing as Jason himself.
From here, we go to arguably one of my most precious childhood memories. Now, computers and my parents were two things that definitely didn't mix. To this day, I still get called every time my mother gets a somewhat questionable email. Thus, I was only able to play the original "Doom" and "Doom II" at a friend's house, and I'll never forget the time that I found out what the initials "BFG" stood for. Many years later when I actually had my own laptop, these games were the first things that I downloaded. To this day, I still give them a play-through at least once a year. Here we have a first-person shooter about a space marine trying to stop an invasion from hell itself, with awesome weapons, baddies and loads of gore to be had in the process. But it's this game's puzzle solving element that really pushes it over the top...and the memory of playing it in the dark with the computer screen being the only light in the room.
While I stuck with the Nintendo consoles after my Sega Genesis experiment, my roommate in college had a PS2. It was here where I discovered the "Silent Hill" series. In particular, "Silent Hill 2." People...if only THIS story could have been presented to us unabridged instead of that godawful mess we got as a movie back in 2005. Without a doubt, this was the creepiest game I had ever played. The "Silent Hill" series is all about oppression, suspense and what is and isn't real, with the idea being that a town can bring out the worst fears of anyone unfortunate enough to wander in. This really is like Dario Argento's Suspiria in game form with a psychological twist. James Sunderland is a bad guy; this much we can gleam from the various cut scenes and horrific entities that you face off with here, up to and including the amazing Pyramid Head. Whether or not he gains any kind of redemption in the conclusion is up to your imagination.
Finally, we're back to Nintendo. In particular, the Gamecube, as the remade version of the PlayStation classic "Resident Evil" hit store shelves in 2002. I still remember the commercials for the original game when I was in middle school. Zombies, guns and video games...the mystique and draw of this game was definitely there for me. The Gamecube remake was my first exposure to the series, and while I've played many of the games in the series since, this is still THE definitive horror game for yours truly. The story of an elite tactical team called to a countryside mansion to investigate a rash of mysterious and violent murders, the scares just build and never let up. There's gunplay, but the focus here is on exploration, inventory management, and survival. Oh, and staying the f**k away from Lisa Trevor, truly the most bone-chilling creation I've ever run across in any video game. Those rattling chains still haunt my dreams.
Of course, those are just my favorites. And as the recently renovated "Doom" (along with "Five Nights at Freddy's," "Alien: Isolation," "The Evil Within" and many others) proves, there's no end in sight. Ever since I was a kid, I've enjoyed being scared. It's why I like this stuff. As such, I've always thought that it's fun to picture myself IN the horror movies that I watch, and this is your way to almost literally do it. Who knows? Maybe in a few more years I'll have my own personal Horror Holodeck or something. One can only hope.
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