10 Deceptively Innocent Games With Incredibly Dark Lore
7. Adorable, Life-Consuming Parasites - Bugsnax
Back in 2020, the internet created a trend of getting hyped for Bugsnax, jokingly referring to it as the game that would push the graphical boundaries of the PlayStation 5, despite it clearly being a smaller title aimed at young children.
... at least on the surface.
However, when the game finally came out, it actually did end up pushing some boundaries. The only catch was that they were of a more graphic than graphical kind.
It would be no exaggeration to compare the twist ending of Bugsnax to the plot of John Carpenter's The Thing.
In the final act of the game, the player finds the lost explorer, Lizbert, who reveals to them that the cute and tasty Bugsnax they'd been collecting the entire time are actually incredibly dangerous parasites - ones that transform the person's body and take control of their brain.
Keep in mind that this revelation was given to you after you had spent hours feeding Bugsnax to your friends on the island and laughing at their food-shaped bodies. The game did not only turn the Bugsnax into a terrifying hivemind, but it made you the real monster.