My son loves the adrenaline rush of getting scared, particularly with jump scares, however, I have a lot of difficulty finding a game or show which is appropriate for him. He is prone to nightmares, and more adult-oriented “kid horror” is too much (Poppy’s Playtime, Cartoon Cat?) And others like Siren Head. His peers exposed him to those things and made my own nights pretty sleepless for a while.
It’s a tough plate to fill, but surely there’s gotta be something. He’s played Luigi’s Mansion and got a kick out of that. That game would be a good example I suppose.
Thanks for any suggestions!
OK hear me out: Minecraft in survival. For real. Nothing jump scares like a creeper going “psshht” in your back, telegraphing that you’re about to die in a destructive explosion. As you walk a narrow path over a chasm of lava in the Nether, the wail of the Ghast might make you fall out of sheer panic before it even shoots at you. The Warden is a special kind of scary too, as it’s nearly unkillable and will detect you by the noise you make. It sounds kind of silly but there’s plenty of players making the remark that Minecraft survival is basically horror.
And it’s all in a child friendly, non gory, voxel style.
Yeah that shit scared me when I played it at 40 years old. It kind of wears you down when you walk around in dark caves for hours on end.
Another alternative might be Subnautica. It has some jump scares but mostly it’s just the Deep Unknown that gives you chills. Few things in that game are actually dangerous.
+1 to this, when I was like 11-12 playing Minecraft, it took me a solid year or so to overcome my fear of going into caves.
Aw man, preparing for the nether and writing down my coordinates, terrified of ghasts and facing blazes for as long as I could stand it. I still prepare for any excursion from my base like a packrat.
While we’re at it with non-horror games: the level that introduced the flood in Halo CE really gave me a scare. I don’t know what it says about me, but I invited a friend over to play that level with me, lol. It’s a bit of a reach not being a horror game, but a great game with some tension here and there.
+1 for minecraft.
You can try mineclone2 if you dont wanna pay.
Might still be a little too intense if Luigi’s Mansion is your starting point, but Bendy and the Ink Machine is basically a mix of Bioshock and Amnesia but for kids. It has a great 1930s cartoon aesthetic.
Has he played the other Luigi’s mansion games ?
Limbo and the other one by the same devs
Inside
Dont Starve is pretty dark… i wouldnt call it horror exactly but it has a spooky vibe. Its officially 12+ but I think a horror-loving kid would probably be fine with it.
A Hat in Time has quite a spooky level in a swamp with a Deal with the Devil involved: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIrPsJMRJmo
How about Spookie’s House of Jumpscares?
At least I think that’s what it’s called?
I second this one. It’s pretty straight forward, and just as the name suggests, is filled with jumpscares.
My kid enjoyed that game where youre a lil kid in a yellow rain coat. Little nightmares
Yes how can we horrify children
My Friendly Neighbor hood is mascot horror, but played entirely straight. It’s resident evil 4, but with all of the zombies replaced with puppets.
I would give My Friendly Neighborhood a try - it’s very much in the vein of Resident Evil 4 with just-different-enough Sesame Street puppets that give you a jumpscare and damage when they make contact. Put together by John and Evan Szymanski (brothers to and collaborators with David Szymanski, of several New Blood titles fame,) it’s made explicitly to be horrifying without relying on gore and excessive violence.
It’s on the tip of my tongue; there was a whole series of ghost pirate themed “hidden object” point and click puzzle games. I’ll update the post when it comes back.
Edit: Nightmares of the Deep
If Super Metroid is on the Nintendo Switch emulator, that’s a good spooky game, including an explicitly horror-themed level, the Wrecked Ship. There’s a layer of removal since it’s 2D and zoomed out. Not all of the game is all that spooky, I think it’s mainly Wrecked Ship and the end of the game.
Metroid Fusion is much spookier, including sequences where you’re being hunted by a Samus clone. Very creepy vibes throughout too. Other M has a lot of thrills as well. And Metroid Dread is, of course, dread-inducing. Actually it was the first Metroid game I couldn’t play because the stealth sequences were too much for me, lol.
Majora’s Mask is mostly more eerie, but there are some good high tension moments as well.
FNaF is a classic, there’s no gore or anything like that and a lot of jump scares
That game is deep into the uncanny valley, it will be TERRIFYING for a child.
I think the animatronics look way to scary for a kid
Yeah but after that he will be immune to a lot of petty jumpscares
that kid would never ever look at a corner of the wall. what if fredy faz bear is there
Métro 2033, the library level will make him shit his pants. And the game is probably not going to make him have nightmares from gorish horror too
