Everyone can remember the most frightening moment they’ve ever had when playing videogames. Whether it was the dogs smashing through the windows in Resident Evil, discovering Dr. Janice Polito in System Shock 2, or exploring Silent Hill’s haunted school, we’ve all got our memories (branded permanently into our subconscious).

Taking a slightly less harrowing trip down memory lane however, Retro Fusion takes a look at the top 10 unexpectedly frightening moments; paying homage to the times when a goofy grin was suddenly wiped away, being immediately replaced with shock or panic...

Bear in mind, many of these might depend on you having played these games at a slightly younger age and being as emotionally stable as a wet paper bag. Please feel free to share your own experiences/ laugh and point at me in the comments section.
 

10: ToeJam and Earl

Putting you in the shoes of a pair of aliens from the planet ‘Funkotron’, ToeJam and Earl seemed to promote high-brow values such as co-operation, chilling, and 80’s hip-hop. Tasked with finding all the parts of your broken spaceship in order to escape from the strange floating world, the duo would collect presents, earn bucks, and befriend wise carrots, buxom opera singers, and hula dancers.

It was a game that took the term ‘levels’ rather literally, with each new stage being literally above the previous; an interesting idea that in practice simply meant that falling off the edge of the map would irritatingly mean a long trek to get back to where you wanted to be. This wouldn’t have been too bothersome if huge chunks of the levels hadn’t been apparently inspired by noodles, and if you weren’t being poked by demonic figures hell-bent on making your life a living nightmare.

The fear of backtracking was almost bad enough, but to make matters worse the enemy design in ToeJam and Earl ranged from strange to downright disturbing. Being chased by insane dentists, giant hamsters, and deranged pram-wielding mothers to name but a few; despite its chilled out demeanour ToeJam and Earl was very much a game that involved running the hell away from almost everything. The fact that many of the fiends harassing you seemed to be caricatures of insane humans gave the game an unexpectedly disturbing edge, which before you know it could easily slip you into blind panic.