10 Video Games Hiding Sinister Secrets
Not even Animal Crossing can save you from the aliens.
Video games truly do offer something for everyone. From gentle, easy platformers to brutally challenging action RPGs and intense, complex sims, everyone’s catered for. Whether young or old, hardcore or casual, there’ll be games just right for you.
Children’s titles can be fantastic too, offering a fun factor and educational value when pulled off well. That’s a super tough balancing act to hit, but it can be done. ‘Edutainment’ doesn’t have to be terrible, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be educational: good, bright, colorful fun that doesn’t leave children feeling frustrated by difficulty or freaked out by creepy content is a winner too.
On the other end of the scale, there are some surprisingly deep and affecting horror titles available for grown-up gamers, not to mention all the plain grim and bloody ones.
Again: Everyone is catered for, but sometimes these worlds collide.
Sometimes, the most innocuous and otherwise wholesome titles take a sudden turn for the downright creepy. Here are some titles that seem innocent enough, but have a hidden dark side you’ll wish you’d never checked out.
Enjoy!
10. Pikmin - Captain Olimar’s ‘Death’ And Rebirth As A Pikmin Hybrid
The premise
of the first Pikmin is that Captain Olimar crashes his ship, the S.S. Dolphin, on a
mysterious planet with an atmosphere that is toxic to him. The parts of his
ship flew out all over the planet, leaving Olimar with a strictly
limited number of in-game days in which to collect enough of them to take off
again before his air reserves run out.
Luckily for him, he soon meets the super-cute Pikmin, who are happy to help. They serve as the player’s troops, battling enemies and carrying spoils and spaceship parts back to base.
This being a Nintendo game, you probably wouldn’t expect our hero to come to a grim end if he runs out of time, but things get a lot darker than you might think.
Should he fail to gather enough pieces, the atmosphere overcomes Olimar (after a last desperate attempt at a launch) and he collapses. His now-faithful Pikmin carry him back to one of their Onions (the ‘base’ where new Pikmin of each species are created), which sucks him in and melds his DNA with that of the Pikmin.
The final shot is of Olimin/Pikmar (as fans know this horrible hybrid) planted in the ground.