10 Messed Up Nintendo Switch Games You Won't Believe Exist

6. Uncanny Valley

Bulb Boy
Cowardly Creations

Whilst grotesque monsters and outlandish creatures have long since marked out their own territory in the scare stakes, they are disconnected enough from reality that they do not really bother us beyond jump scares and gore.

On the other hand, the term "Uncanny Valley" describes those things which disturb us on a more primal level, due to their close but not quite perfect resemblance to ordinary human beings.

The more a thing looks and acts like us, the more terrifying its imperfections.

It's for this reason that Uncanny Valley on Switch is so appropriately titled.

Playing as Tom, a security guard taking his first night shift in a middle-of-nowhere office building, the simple 8-bit graphics act as a security blanket to the player, whose comfort and familiarity is quickly ripped away as Tom makes his rounds on this seemingly empty site.

Unfamiliar sounds, bizarre iconography, inexplicable creatures which disappear as quickly as they arrive; such horrific scenes add to Tom's own recurring nightmares and result in one of the most unsettling games in years.

Add to this Uncanny Valley's Oxenfree-esque replayability, with each playthrough informing the next, and you have a hugely disturbing game which shocks and repulses in new ways with Tom's every shift.

Contributor
Contributor

Jedi Knight, last son of Krypton, backwards-compatible gaming nerd, Dark Knight of Teesside...