6) Moon
Play it on: Nintendo DS
Renegade Kid is known these days for Mutant Mudds, but not that long ago the developer was cutting its teeth with gritty first-person DS adventures like Moon. Sometimes the best scares come from apprehension and tension, which Moon does very well. After a group of astronauts discover a sealed hatch on the moon, Major Kane is deployed as part of a team intended to uncover its origins. Upon arrival, Kane’s crew is wiped out, leaving him alone to explore the moon’s desolate landscape and solve the mystery of the hatch. Moon creates a sense of isolation similar to Nintendo’s Metroid games, but emphasizes a feeling of dread and despair uniquely its own.
Moon takes place from a first-person perspective, which is an incredibly effective way to facilitate fear; there’s no barrier between the player and whatever dangers are lurking, which makes every encounter a nail-biter. Moon is definitely a capable shooter, but it’s so much more than that. Players spend the majority of the game scared of what’s coming around the next corner more than shooting and lobbing explosives. The pacing is a bit on the slower side, but there are little touches throughout the game that give the player pause, such as the ominous sight of dead bodies and sinister data logs to read through. A fantastically unsettling experience, after playing Moon, stargazing becomes scarier than it has any right to be.
Moon is my favorite DS game. Great recommendation.
Great list of games!
Dead Space: Extraction (Wii) was my October “scary game” of choice… and it succeeded in totally creeping me out more than once. Another great title for Nintendo horror fans to check out, even if Halloween has already gone by.