10 Video Games Way Darker Than Originally Advertised

Even the name sounds nice, but those who have played this cetacean classic know to not fall for that. What you initially mistake as being a harmless, sea-faring experience has a few remarkably traumatising turns around the corner.

The experience starts as it means to go on, making you feel all cosy and safe with your fishy friends before violently sucking them all out to space whilst a hurricane rages - leaving you, you useless finny nobody of a dolphin, all alone.

In your quest to make sense of it all and bring your friends back, you encounter friends and foes alike, all of whom have the potential to make you wince.

The deep dark ocean is home to beasts of Lovecraftian nature, and if that wasn’t enough there’s also elements of space and time-travel, providing plenty of scope for more horrible creatures! Ecco’s journey is confusing and upsetting, and the pixelated graphics accompanied by droning (slightly haunting) music make the whole thing weirdly uncomfortable.

Spoiler alert, the game does have a happy ending, but that’s not the problem here. The story in itself isn’t inherently scary, but there’s some intangible nature throughout the game that makes this a real challenging trip.