10 HORRIFYING Moments In Children's Video Games
5. Level 14 - Lemmings
When the original Lemmings first hit shelves in 1991, it looked as though Psygnosis had engineered one of the best mindless bits of arcade fun for kids everywhere. Spawned from the urban myth that all these small rodents follow each other off on a death march together, the titular mascots provided the perfect protagonists for a game based on overcoming obstacles and getting to the end goal.
Even with the ability to have these little guys blast themselves into oblivion, the game does a solid job in keeping things on the harmlessly slapstick side of things. Except for one instance: level 14.
Level 14: MENACING in Lemmings is a hellish-inspired trek across some of the most bizarre and legitimately unsettling landscape possible to fit on an Amiga. Skulls with worms coming out of the eye sockets, dismembered limbs sticking out from all parts of the screen and blood dripping down from the ceiling round out what amounts to a fairly jarring moment from a game we can imagine a lot of parents picked up for their kids.