Many video games delve into mature content. You have theSilent Hillseries for its focus on psychological horror. Or theWitchergames and how they handle themes of discrimination and morality. It might be messed up at times, but it’s always fascinating to see a video game willing to take players out of their comfort zones.
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However, not every dark video game comes with an M rating attached to it. There’s a fair number of games intended for a young audience that handle some heavy themes and content. Whether it was a freaky monster or an unsettling twist, some kids’ games stretch their ratings to the limits. For this list, only games that were given an E for Everyone rating from the ESRB will be covered, ranked from the least disturbing to what can be considered the darkest kids’ game of all time.
The following list contains major spoilers for Sly 2, Ecco the Dolphin, Super Paper Mario, Sonic Frontiers, Undertale, and Bugsnax. You have been warned.
10Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed
Killing With Art
Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed
DecentDisneystories usually have a balance between uplifting moments with grim elements, but this game takes it to an extreme once you stop and consider the implications. InDisney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, players step into the shoes of Mickey Mouse after plunging into a darkened world of lost Disney characters. Armed with a magical paintbrush, it’s up to Mickey to restore color and save this world. Or not, depending on your choices.
Yes, despite being the hero, players can choose to make this already ruined world even worse. With the paintbrush, you may use paint to add new colors and creations to the world, or thinner to remove objects. Sounds fine for puzzle-solving, but when fighting enemies, this has dark ramifications. During certain battles, using paint will help heal things and lead to Mickey befriending his foe, whereas using thinner will just… end their existence.
Fun Fact: If you check out the behind-the-scenes art for this game, there’s scrapped content that was going to make the game even darker with Mickey Mouse turning evil should the player follow the thinner path.
9Sly 2: Band of Thieves
A Hollow Victory
Sly 2: Band of Thieves
Though the Sly Cooper series were mostly cartoony stealth/thief games, they weren’t afraid to have serious moments at times. No more was this apparent than in Sly 2: Band of Thieves. A dirty cop, a brainwashing criminal, the gang gets sent to prison, but that’s all poultry compared to the story’s distressing conclusion. After a long battle with the final villain, there’s no fanfare or celebration by the end.
Instead, Sly ends up arrested, Murray’s left traumatized by the events, and their close friend Bentley suffers a serious injury that leaves him crippled. Sure, Sly inevitably escapes and Murray makes peace with what happened, but poor Bentley is permanently in a wheelchair for the duration of the sequels. Pretty dark all things considered, but kudos to the creators for sticking with the decision instead of writing it out for plot convenience.
A Cartoon Fever Dream
Cupheadis an amazing video game for its charming design and challenging gameplay. It’s like stepping back in time to control a funny cartoon character. Though the game does a stellar job capturing the wacky vibe of 1920s animation, it also captures the disturbing nature of it too. Each level has Cuphead and his brother Mugman pitted against a strange and powerful character, each with their own shifty and wicked design.
As the level progresses, the bosses get more and more strange and unhinged-looking. Cuphead isn’t even the hero when you stop and consider his actions. None of this would be happening if he hadn’t lost his soul, as well as his brothers, to the Devil. So, the story was dark from the get-go. Then again, it wouldn’t be a classic cartoon if you weren’t a little chaos maker.
7Ecco the Dolphin
The Prototype Subnautica
Ecco the Dolphin
Here’s a cuteSegagame. You’re a dolphin named Ecco. After a sudden storm captures your dolphin pals and marine life, you’re the only one who can make things right by saving your undersea home and stopping an alien invasion from feeding on Earth’s lifeforms. Wait, what?
So, not only is Ecco the Dolphin infamous for its difficulty, but it’s also remembered for the unseen twist about fighting aliens called the Vortex. You wouldn’t know it from the beginning levels—you spend the majority swimming around avoiding dangers and finding dolphins. Then by the end, it turns into a whole other game as you’re swimming through an alien hive to fight the Vortex Queen, who looks like she belongs in the Contra games. It’s a guarantee that any kid who made it to the end of this game had nightmares for weeks.
6Super Paper Mario
Mario Goes to the Underworld
Super Paper Mario
How can you go wrong with good oldSuper Mario? Well, this isn’t the typical Mario experience—this isPaper Mario, a side-scrolling, role-playing adventure. The games took Mario players on a worldwide adventure featuring many memorable and supporting characters. Of all the games in the series, however, Super Paper Mario is considered by fans as the darkest in the series.
The main villain’s motivation is not to conquer, but to wipe out all worlds due to his tragic backstory of losing his love. Then you have the crazy scenarios Mario gets thrown into. Our favorite red plumber gets framed for murder, has to work in a sweatshop, is forced to fight his brother, who’s been turned evil after being brainwashed, and to top it all off, Mario ends up in Hell. Okay, it’s called The Underwhere, but the fact that the underworld is canon in Mario is an unsettling thought.
5Sonic Frontiers
“No Matter What Form I Take… The End Comes for You All!”
Sonic Frontiers
Fans have mixed opinions on what counts as the darkestSonicgame ever. You have Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog, but Sonic Frontiers stands out for its morbid setting and disturbing antagonist. Sonic’s friends are trapped in a digital purgatory, and the blue hero is forced to fight the reanimated husks of giant machines to free them. All this is set on a deserted island where you learn that some eldritch entity wiped out its former inhabitants.
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That’s another thing. The main villain isn’t some colorful robot or mad god with a corny name. Little info is given about the threat, other than it’s responsible for the death of countless worlds, and it’s known as The End. Even its true appearance is unknown. As if it’s some Lovecraftian horror, The End’s visual representation manifests as whatever the viewer sees as death. So, can we go back to fighting silly villains again?
4Metroid Fusion
Cat and Mouse with Your Double
Metroid Fusion
Legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran has gone up against Space Pirates and Metroids, but of all her adventures, there’s one that’s more horror than sci-fi. In Metroid Fusion, you face a new enemy called the X Parasite, creatures that can absorb any organic life’s appearance and memories. In other words, this game isNintendo’sversion ofThe Thing.
Featuring some crazy enemy designs like the Omega Metroid, Neo-Ridley, and Nightmare, it’s the SA-X that’s the most haunting. Mimicking Samus Aran’s original Power Suit, the X Parasite hunts the player throughout the game, and its encounters are consideredsome of the most frightening moments in the Metroid series. Unlike other enemies, Samus can’t damage the SA-X, meaning the only thing she can do is run and hide. Add in the chilling sound design that plays whenever the SA-X appears, and you’ll understand why Metroid Fusion is considered the scariest game in the franchise.
3Undertale
The Genocide Route
From looking at photos alone, you wouldn’t think a game likeUndertalecould get dark. It seems like a simple story about a young human and their adventures in an underground teeming with monsters. Then the game slaps you with some of the most heartbreaking anddarkest moments ever seen. You have Flowey with hiskill-or-be-killedoutlook, the tragic story of Asgore and his children, or Alphys and her mad experiments, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
In Undertale, players can make the game a lot more disturbing by becoming the villain. Instead of befriending and sparing monsters, players can just kill them. And it’s not just common enemies either—even the main characters of the story can be slain, and horribly. From here, the story and music drastically become less spirited and fun, but more twisted and deranged, leading to an ending where nobody wins.
You are What You Eat
On the surface,Bugsnaxseems like a silly game. You explore an island of mystery inhabited by tasty-looking insectoid food creatures. Players can capture them for fun and even feed them to the quirky characters in the village to change their appearance in humorous ways. All in all, this game feels like one big fun adventure, so what could be messed up about that?
Well, it gets dark when the mask comes off and you learn the truth. They’re parasites. That’s right, the cute critters you’ve been feeding your friends are evil parasites. So, in other words, Bugsnax is the kid-friendly version of body horror. But it gets worse as the game has multiple endings, and in the Bad Ending, you’re forced to watch characters die and dissolve into Bugsnax. If the point of this game was to scare kids into eating their vegetables, then mission accomplished.
1The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
“You’ve Met With a Terrible Fate, Haven’t You?”
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Everything about this game is dark, unsettling, and depressing.The Legend of Zeldagames have blurred the line between a lighthearted and dark fantasy adventure, but Majora’s Mask took it to the next level, making it thestrangest game in the series. For starters, there’s no Zelda, no Ganon, just Link, Majora, an evil entity inhabiting a mask, and a rather mature story about the end of the world figuratively and literally hanging over your head in the form of a falling moon.
Most Zelda villains want to conquer, but Majora takes delight in destruction and suffering. So many characters you encounter are either unhinged or depressed about the impending doom. Even the soundtrack, while beautiful and unforgettable, has a twisted atmosphere at times. That’s why so many players consider this their firsthorrorgame. How this game got an E rating is anyone’s guess.
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