When most gamers think of platformers, they think of lovable mascots like Mario, Sonic, or Bubsy-... er, maybe scratch that last guy. But the genre can also be a great conduit for fear. Think about it: in both platformers🧸 and horror games, you have to explore an unfamiliar environment, seeking a path forwar⭕d.
If a game developer wants to tilt the balanceဣ towards horror, all they have to do is disempower you... and maybe drop in a ghost or two. These games definitely prove that horror and platforming are two great tastes that taste great together.
10 Night I𒀰n The Woods
Infinite Fall's cult hit 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Night In The Woods owes a big debt to point-and-click classics, but it's just as much a side-scrolling platformer as it is an adventure game.
You control Mae as she returns to her hometown of Possum Springs, you'll also have to jump through dream sequences where you solve eerie puzzles to confront the mysteries beneath the town's surface. The game's finale goes full-blown horror, as Mae discovers the dark, Lovecraftian secrets she's been searching for.
9 Limbo
This enigmatic side-scrolling platformer was a🌌 game-changer when it was released for the Xbox Live Arcade back in 2010, and it served as one of the biggest indie s⛎uccesses of its era.
In Limbo, you play as a nameless boy who awakens in a dark forest. You have to make your way through its hazardous confines, dodging traps that will kill you in gruesome ways, while the game accompanies you with nothing but eerie ambient sound. Limbo's open-ended plot and grisly deaths make it a psychological horror experience for the ages.
8 Toree 3D
3D platformers tend towards the cutesy and cartoony, and Toree 3D initially seems like it's going to follow the trend. You play as a cute yellow bird name Toree, platforming through a colorful, low-poly world to recover your stolen ice cream cone. But as your adventure continues, you'll start to notice something... off.
As you get close to floating stars, their smiling faces turn vicious and angry, while giant creatures lunge at you from the 🎉fog. Will you get your ice cream back, or will you succumb to the obviously demonic forces at play?
7 Eversion
Eversion is a cutesy, retro-styled side-scrolling platformer, with a vibe reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 2. But when you boot the game up, you'll see a message warning that the game isn't suitable for children.
This seems strange at first, but as you progress, you'll start to see why it's there. The game's big gimmick is that it allows you to "evert" between different universes, but as you use this mechanic more and more, you'll get taken to realities that you may not like.
6 Darq
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dream statesജ are fer💎tile ground for horror. After all, in a dream, you're not in control of what's happening, and your subconscious mind isn't bound by the limits of reality; many horror games use dream logic to make their settings feel even more uncanny, and the indie platformer Darq is a good example.
The game takes place within a nightmare, using its unreal setting to create surreal environme♚nts that you can manipulate in strange ways. You can climb on walls and change the layout of the surrounding levels to access new areas. But watch out: strange, monstrous creatures lurk in the darkness.
5 Th🎃e Missing: J.J. Macfield And The Island Of Memories
Swery65 is a deve🌼loper known for outlandish, boundary-pushing concepts, but The Missing is up there with his weirdest. You play as the titular JJ, who searches the i♈sland for her lost girlfriend Emily.
The twist is that JJ can't die, so in order to solve puzzles and progress through the game, you'll have to wound and damage yourself in various ways. It's not every day that you see a side-scrolling platformer that uses buckets of gore to tell a queer love story dealing with existential terror.
4 🀅ꦬ A Hat In Time
Most of A Hat In Time is pretty delightful and cartoony, fitting its influences from the '90s and 2000s era of 3D platformers. You might catch a trace of sarcastic humor, but much of the game sends you through fanciful scenarios like a tropical island run by the Mafia or a pair of dueling movie studios.
But in its Subcon Forest world, you'll go up against the terrifying Queen Vanessa; you'll need to infiltrate her mansion and climb through its many floors, avoiding her wrathful gaze. Here, the game transforms into a stealth-horror experience, like Outlast or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Alien: Isolation. Good luck.
3 Inside
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Playdead Studios' follow up to their hit Limbo continues that first game's legacy. Like Limbo, Inside is a side-scrolling 2D platformer where you con🗹trol a young boy in a dangerous situation; like Limbo, the game presents a foreboding atmosphere, with nearly monochromatic graphics, a cryptic story, and plenty of gruesome death animations.
But Inside one-ups its predecessor with a larger sca𒊎le and an even stranger story to tell. This one will stick with you f♏or a long time.
2 🍌 🐷 Super Mario 64
"But 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario 64 is a classic 3D platformer," you say. "It's cuddly and cute!" No. Super Mario 64 is secretly a psychological horror game. As the first real 3D platformer... ever, the game was a standard-bearer for how to convert running-and-jumping action from linear 2D levels to 3D playgrounds.
It also featured some of the most horrific enemies the series has ever included - the giant eel and the haunted piano come to mind. The primitive 3D graphics combined with the game's cheery atmosphere make these terrifying elements stand out more. You have to wonder what darkness lies beneath the bright surface.
1 Metroid 🌳Dread 🥃
Yeah, Metroidvania is its own genre descriptor, but Metroid games are really side-scrolling platformers with a focus on exploration and action. And the Metroid series in particular has demonstrated how these mechanics can bui💞ld atmosphere in a way that channels tense horror.
The most recent installment, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metroid Dread, brings those elements to the forefront. Throughout the game, you'll confront powerful EMMI robots that Samus can only run from, not defeat; the technological horror that these enemies invoke makes this one of the scariest platformers ever.