The game that gave me the MOST trauma when I was about 9-10ys old, was Maniac Mansion on the NES. I can remember just starting out in the mansion, only for a character to get caught by a house member and thrown in the dungeon. I used to get SO upset! 😆😆😆
I was 22 (I didn't play a genny till I was 22 bc we were a Nintendo sony house and I got a itch in my early 20s to get I to retro gaming in 2000 ). when I heard it and STILL got anxiety. I get it today 24 years later
The mask that chases you after you grab the key in Mario 2 was always a little freaky to me. Also that angry sun in mario 3. But me and my cousins always got freaked out playing Friday The 13th in the dark. Whenever Jason popped out we all screamed! lol
Aging myself, but the Game Over screen from Adventure of Link (red screen with a silhouette of Ganon returning) freaked me out every single time. And that game was hard as balls, so I saw that screen a lot. 😂
I got my NES at 6-year-old for Christmas in 1988, then I got my SNES for Christmas in 1992 when I was 10. My parents are gone now, but I will forever appreciate what they did for me as a kid. Super Mario World and Street Fighter 2: Turbo were my first games for SNES.
I didn't have that. My parents divorced in the summer of 1991 when I was 4.5 years of age. My mom took me and moved 400 miles from Southern California to the Central Coast.
My Dad passed in 2014. He loved me very much and I had many, many great memories with him. I wish I had these memories digitized but I do not. Very cool that you have these precious instances in your life to watch again and again and a Dad that had the foresight to capture them.
@@jacobbradshaw1985 i'm sorry to hear that. i lost all of my families. my older brother especially would buys us videosgames a lot. old nintendo music reminded us of him
@@MyRetroLifeFirst played Sonic 1 at the FuncoLand in Norfolk,VA in May of 1991. While my Bestie played Castle of Illusion, I remember getting to Scrap Brain Zone/Clockwork Zone Act 3 and falling into the Purple Water, besides the gripping stage Music, I remember hearing Sonic’s drowning theme for the first time. In July, My Mom’s GF’s Husband Jesse brought a Genesis bundled with Sonic 1 and since he and his wife and son were staying with us as they transferred to Sacramento from Virginia Beach, I got to play and practice Sonic 1 everyday. His son is my Brother’s age, so they both were just 3 year old toddlers, and I was 8.
I’m sitting here and got to the sonic part - without even watching the rest of the video I’m 99% sure it’s going to be the underwater section. Legit paused to leave this comment… … and it was the underwater scene. You are right that it caused all the anxiety when the music started. As far as similar stories it was the buzzing sound as a young kid from operation that would cause me to flee the room😂
I was around 5-6 when the N64 came out. Things I was scared of: Mario64 - Bowser. I'd make my older sister fight him Ocarina of Time - Stalchild (the skeletons out in Hyrule Field), Dead hand... basically anything under the well and in the Shadow and Spirit temples. Majora's Mask - Just about everything... and this ended up being my favorite game... even still to this day Probably more, but these were the ones that I deeply remember. Lol
As a child, I was never traumatized by video games but movies and TV shows...OH YEAH. When K.I.T.T. got destroyed by acid in the show Knight-Rider. CRUSHED ME!!! When Vera got turned into a Cyborg in the movie Superman 3, freaked me all the way out. In the movie Superman 4, when Nuclear Man drew blood from Superman and kicked him out of the atmosphere only leaving his cape to float to the ground, THAT CRUSHED ME BADLY. When Atreyu's horse was sinking in the mud on the movie The Never-Ending Story, CRUSHED ME and last but not least....when Raphael got his a$$ beat by the Foot clan in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, that really TRAUMATIZED me. 😂
I don’t know about screaming out of the room but when I played Toy Story on SNES it was in the woodys dream where you fight a giant buzz light year it scared the shit outta me
I have another one, SPLATTERHOUSE 3 ON GENESIS! I was 8 years old playing this game and the whole thing made me terribly scared. The music, the imagery and sounds, everything. That first stage when you make it to the boss and find a dungeon full of body parts cut off, blood and guts everywhere, also let's not forget the girls head chopped off in the corner of the room with her lower jaw missing and white eyes. It completed traumatized my 8 year old brain. So much so that I traded the game with a friend at the time for Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine! But later I wanted it back to face my fears and I lost a friend over it lol But now it's like one of my favorite games, love the Splatterhouse series!
Ecco the Dolphin. So beautiful and mysterious and terrifying and haunting. Couldn’t put it down but to this day I genuinely still have Ecco the Dolphin related nightmares 😂
my workdays usually include watching your videos on my lunch break as a way to relax and escape. So I'm now coming into work and got a notification saying you dropped a new video. Just made my day a whole lot better, Thank you sir
Really enjoyed getting to talk more with you this weekend at Retropalooza. Appreciated the 1 on 1 conversation and seeing some of your editing process for this video. Knew it was going to be great before I even saw anything. Looking forward to talking with you again. As for the video, I totally agree with the Sonic drowning sound. I still to this day feel my heart pounding when I hear that music. Also, the Ghosts in Rugrats: Search for Reptar on PS1 scared for whatever reason as a kid.
This was a good show man! Yeah games illicit all different varieties of feelings and are a new media . When books were new some thought writing things down might not be good then as well... I think of games as together machines.
Tyler in with you on the Sonic drowning. When I played the classic games for the first time(keep in mind I was used to the modern ones at this point) and the music started going I just immediately got scared and frantically did anything to prevent Sonic from drowning. It still kinda gets me to this day😂
I got left in front of a splatter house arcade machine at a supermarket with a dollar in quarters when I was 6-7ish. When my family came back, they witnessed me fighting a room full of furniture with some of the scariest, loudest music at the time and where shocked and disturbed when they saw me beat down a picture frame till a Spirit flew out of it leaving the room empty and quite only to die to the chandelier falling on my head. My cousin looked at my sister and said “what the fuck did was he playing?!”
Golden axe when you fight the giant dog dudes, jaws when he swims into your area, out of this world when that dog beast chases you, all of chakkan the forever man… the blading segment on california games
I knew EXACTLY what you were gonna talk about when Sonic came up. My first Sonic game was Adventure 2 Battle on the GameCube so my first exposure to that music was the super dramatic orchestral version from that game. Needless to say, I had a similar reaction
I had an extremely similar upbringing and the look and feel of this time period is just unmatched. So glad I found this channel. And tbh you looked a lot like me as a kid! Wild.
The Bowser fight at the top of the castle in Super Mario World. That Clown Car of his used to freak me the **** out. When it's smiling, when it's angry, and when I was a kid, the zoom-in it does was the creepiest **** ever. Still is.
SMW did get me too, but it wasn't the ghost places. It was the autoscrolling cave level in Donut plains. I was playing it in my basement when I was little and the black back ground with rocks, not the back ground with the glowing crystals, but the dark one especially the music with the echos. It felt creepy in that level.
I beat SMW in 3 weeks time back in December 1991-January 1992 on the SNES I had asked my Stepdad for Christmas. I honestly found it to be inferior to Mario 3 and far more linear.
A couple of really scary stuff at the top of my head: - Last Half of Darkness (DOS): The little girl with the knife. - Hugo's House of Horrors II (DOS): reading a note saying there's a murderer in the house with no music in the background. - Quake (DOS): after going through religion, you probably knew what happened here. - Five Nights at Freddy's (Steam): Shit jumping out at me. - Where's Waldo (NES): Old man in the subway scared the shit out of me, because there was no background music. - Clock Tower (SNES): Pentagram room with creepy music. - Resident Evil Remake & Zero (GameCube): Everything.
I have a similar story with Mario, only it was the NES original which terrified me. Much like you, I loved the game, just one particular aspect scared the crap out of kid me. Whenever you die or start a level, it shows how many lives you have and what level you're playing. For some reason, Marios face being plastered on the screen like that made my little kid brain think it was his real body or something and scared the heck out of me. Probably had a lot to do with anxiety/fear of dying in the game, like a few of yours. That's tough to deal with as a kid!
I just wanted to say i love your videos ! Its crazy you have all of that footage, i would treasure it if i did! I grew up on different consoles, but it still reminds me so much of my experiences ❤
I had a similar thing about Dumbo's nightmare when he drinks and passes out in the movie. As a kid, the dancing elephant ghosts creeped me out so much, that every single time I had to cry for my mother to come fast-forward the tape since I didn't know how to do it myself. Honorable mentions: the mask in Mario 2 when you carry a key, and the sun in Mario 3 (you know exactly which one I mean)
I remember feeling scared every time I saw spikes in Mega Man as a kid. Knowing that one hit would be instant death, and that dying would be accompanied by a loud, jarring sound effect and exploding into a million orbs of light... As an adult, I know that what I was feeling was anxiety, but as a kid, it felt like fear. Sounds similar to many of your examples.
I remember when I was 8 or 9 in the early 2000s playing Super Mario 64 and finding a couple things in the game that scared me such as Mario drowning underwater, that drowning animation kind of traumatized 8 year old me. And the last battle with Bowser, the way Bowser looked and the organ music playing was nightmare fuel. I would later return to battle Bowser again 2 years later and beat him.
YES. Realizing that the ghosts chase you when you're not facing them, that scared me out as a little kid 😅 I first encountered it in Mario bros 3. Such a simple creative choice yet so effective.
I remember during the PS1 era, I played Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. The final boss used to scare me, but years later I got over it and since then, it's been my most favorite game of all the games that I play.
I remember playing Super Metroid for the first time when I was little. When you have your first encounter with space pirates, I asked my brother to get past that part for me. Something about their design, the way they move and how they sound really freaked me out. Super Metroid also just has extremely good atmosphere in its environments and music/ambient noises, so I'm sure that made the experience that much creepier to me as a child.
Tyler you are not the only one to be traumatized by the drowning theme in Sonic 1! It scared the living crap out of me as a kid and still messes with me to this day 😅
I also panicked every time the underwater countdown music appeared in Sonic 2. Another one is the game-over screen for Donkey Kong Country. My 5-year-old self could not process that depressing music and imagery and had to run out of the room.
When I first played Super Mario 64 the level Wet-Dry Land scared me because of those weird spider-like things that would hop around dry land or slide across the water. I had to get my dad to play it for me.
Awesome video Tyler! One of my boys is sensitive like this. I was a teenager when these games came out so while they didn't scare me I will say that the Sonic countdown music was unnerving.
I've had such moments with Super Mario World when i accidentally pulled on the controller cord too much. The cartridge wobbled like a millimeter but it caused the game to freeze, graphics glitch up and some boss music to play. I did not understand what happened and it scared the shit out of me 😂
I can totally relate to those scary 8 bit siren sounds. I‘m a bit younger than you and grew up with the original Gameboy and GBC, which is somewhat comparable to the NES. One particular scary game right of the top of my head was the Gameboy Camera with it’s scary error messages and other weird stuff. I couldn’t understand english back than, so just like when you weren’t able to read, I was even more scared
Hey, Tyler, this was a great video and great idea for a video. I can totally relate to you getting scared by the ghost levels in Super Mario World. They scared the crap out of me as a kid and I still find them creepy. The Sonic timer in the water levels also scared me. The last level in The Terminator for Sega Genesis scared me a little. In the last level, it was very stressful trying to avoid all the Terminator robots and get to Sarah Connor. If you run into a baby Terminator robot, it crawls on the ground and you can't kill it or jump over it. You have to walk off screen and then come back to where you were, hoping that the baby Terminator robot disappears. Sometimes the robots trap you. The music is also very tense in that level. In Bart's Nightmare for SNES, I would freak out when Itchy and Scratchy would attack you while walking through the Simpsons' house. The Indiana Jones level was also super stressful and I often couldn't beat it. The intro to Super Castlevania IV scared me. Castlevania for NES also scared me. I remember playing through the first level when I was 6 in my basement and the power went out in my house. I couldn't get out of the basement fast enough.
The Adventureland haunted house footage!!!! So good haha... I still miss that ride. Thankfully i was allowed to photograph the inside before it was demolished!
That part in Labyrinth Zone traumatized me to my very core as a kid. I still get sweaty, anxious and stressed playing that level even today. A game that really scared me as a kid, was Quackshot starring Donald Duck on the Sega Genesis. The Transylvania level creeped me off so much that it gave me nightmares; the spooky music, the coffin skeletons, that DAMN creepy, smiling ghost that would chase you. It's been quite a few years since I last played it; I truly loved that game, but that Transylvania level frightened me in ways that really stuck with me.
Funny you mention the boos! I was terrified of the big boo in Peach’s castle in Mario 64. I never wanted to go to the basement of the castle because boo would be there, waiting to scare me.
lol the moment Sonic came up I knew it was the air bubble. Sonic was the first game I ever played as a kid and that music freaked me out. Core memory for sure.
Sonic the Hedgehog was the first video game I ever owned, in 1993. I couldn’t get past Labyrinth Zone for YEARS. Running out of air was traumatizing as a 5 year old kid.
I've had a few jump scares..but never actually got anxiety..or afraid..but..the most stressful for me was the dragon in the wily stages mega man 2. Hopping block to block..still gets my palms sweaty.
Super Mario World scared me too, but not for the same reason. More like on the last phase when the Koopa Clown Car gets angry and just goes after you. I got more scared when games went to 3D. Banjo-Kazooie used to terrify me with the sewer level, it wasn’t the giant mechanical shark, it was those green monsters throughout the level. Donkey Kong 64, those parts when you’re going to get sniped at and that voice tells you to “Get out!” And that swamp monster in Sly Cooper and the Theivous Raccoonus. Now that I’m an adult, it’s practically harmless and they all look goofy. I am no longer crippled by fear by those parts, rather, I laugh it about now.
Without a doubt the scariest moment I had as a kid was with the Gameboy Camera. Fixated in amazement to that tiny screen, taking pictures carelessly without counting until you reached the error messages. Holy crap, these were jumpscares made by Nintendo! I had to turn the Gameboy on the side or shut it off when they showed up. The scary eerie music to fit also didn't help!
SMB3 is the one that traumatized me as a kid. The dungeon castle music scared me and my imagination went wild. I always thought those hanging rope things in the BG were nooses that Bowser used to hang his victims.
I had so much trouble getting through some of the levels in SMW as a child(about 5or6 yo). I remember that I got frustrated and angry a lot in this game, and so I begged my mom to help me get through some of the levels. But in the end I wasn't willing to beat the game, in favor of my mental health situation, and to not waste anymore of my mom's limited spare time😊
Super Mario 2 - Phanto Masks, (Particularly that room with the giant mask with the glowing eyes) Legend of Zelda: OoT - That one building with the family that's been cursed into halve spider people? Toki (Sega Genesis) - Game Over countdown, Not sure why but seeing that lady trapped inside that contraption used to scare me
I have faced the same issue with the Labyrinth zone in Sonic 1 before, but growing up it was the one thing that kept pushing me to keep going. No matter how many lives I lost. It was tough for me too. Not like nowadays. I even have the game on my phone.
I remember instantly two moments in my gaming life, that would get me goosebumps back in the day (as a child)...... The eel and the big fish in Super Mario 64 and the grabing hand in Zelda Ocarina Of Time which came from above and grabs Links and teleport him away..... oh boy, gruesome moments for me back then :-D
I read the title, and I knew it had something to do with the ghost houses. I was in the same boat. Those big boos scared the crap out of me. And my dad made it worse by adding fuel to the fire. He would pretend like he was the big boo and it made me hate the ghost houses. At least until I found out you can defeat the big boos. The drowning music in Sonic didn't scare me but what made me feel uncomfortable and a little scared was Mystic Cave from Sonic 2. The creepyish music and the fact that you were in a dark cave compared to the more open lively levels really threw me off. Great video as always Tyler.
I love watching your videos man, I wish, I have any footage of my childhood besides maybe some pictures we were too poor at the time. My dad didn't have a video tape camera until in the mid 2000s.
When I was around 8 years old back in the mid-90’s, my dad got me a PC game from a bargain bin in a small electronics store. It was called “Death Keep”, and yes, it’s on TH-cam. You basically play as three dwarves who have to get some generic piece of fantasy jewellery of importance back from an equally generic evil sorcerer. I BARELY made it past the opening cutscene, and I never made it more than three minutes into the game before some unseen monster killed me. Whenever I would die, the evil wizard would laugh. It scared me so much that even the sight of the cd case would sent me into a fit, and I remember secretly throwing it into the garbage can as a way of sending back to hell where it belonged.
now let's talk about being pursued by Phanto relentlessly in Mario 2. I even had a dreams as a kid he was chasing me. It was pretty cathartic when I found out there's a level where you can actually kill him, then you can wield the key without being chased throughout the whole level. it was also nice to have a game with no time limit.
damnit, yes! in sonic, the sudden sound effect and threatening countdown of your impending hypoxic doom! also traumatizing as a kid. it got so bad that when underwater, I would fill up with air at every air bubble spot even if I didn't need it, just to reset that timer.
I have faced the same issue with the Labyrinth zone in Sonic 1 before, but growing up it was the one thing that kept pushing me to keep going. No matter how many lives I lost. It was tough for me too. Not like nowadays
dang this is really gonna help me be easier on my son lol. hes 8 playing dying light and bo6 zombies and hes always afraid to sleep by himself and go to the bathroom by himself lol
Dude, as I was watching this and he was talking about the spooky music and atmosphere in the ghost houses in Super Mario World, I immediately thought of how scared I got playing Sonic as kid when you were about to drown HAHA. The hair would stand up on the back of my neck. That music still gives me ptsd.
I remember going to see Pee Wee's Big Adventure in theaters when I was 6. Seeing Large Marge's face on the big screen gave me nightmares for weeks. By the time the NES came to America, I was really too old to be scared by anything on there because after the theater incident, my dad decided to "toughen me up" by bombarding me with horror at every turn
What gets me is the loud beeping that would constantly happen in games like Zelda and Metroid when your health is low. It is a form of Misophonia, it’s a fear or disgust of particular sounds. Absolutely love those games and am glad I played them, but I think they legit messed me up a bit in that regard. 😂
Check out Rocket Money for free: RocketMoney.com/retrolife #rocketmoney #personalfinance Sponsored by Rocket Money
Good vid… I got emotional a couple times….. those early 90s vids make me start missing people
The drowning music was just encouraging probably. Not really, Sonic made me afraid to swim as a kid. Mario doesn't drown.
how do you purchase all them games? i havecemulator super console x cube. now my sd cardxis messed up :(
You were the luckiest and u had all those games. I barely had a thrift store Nintendo. Finally now i have a good amount if Library
The game that gave me the MOST trauma when I was about 9-10ys old, was Maniac Mansion on the NES. I can remember just starting out in the mansion, only for a character to get caught by a house member and thrown in the dungeon. I used to get SO upset! 😆😆😆
dude you are so lucky to have all these cool moments saved like this, Having a tech savvy dad really paid off for you
I know!! So blessed. Dad left behind an amazing gift
Dad was securing his sons future income from a young age!
Nah most kids probably wouldn't do this lol @alexelectricx
@@sk8n0mad What...Play Video Games With There Dad ? It Sounds Like A Sad Child Hood Mr.Sk8n0mad. Im Sorry To Hear
you had the best dad in the world!
That "running out of air" tune in Sonic should be the national anthem for anxiety!!! :D
I was 22 (I didn't play a genny till I was 22 bc we were a Nintendo sony house and I got a itch in my early 20s to get I to retro gaming in 2000 ). when I heard it and STILL got anxiety. I get it today 24 years later
Hehehe 😂
Panic attack inducing
I use it as my alarm clock sound. Nothing gets you out of bed quite like a panic attack. 🥴👍
What about sinking beneath koopa ship on mario 3
The mask that chases you after you grab the key in Mario 2 was always a little freaky to me. Also that angry sun in mario 3.
But me and my cousins always got freaked out playing Friday The 13th in the dark. Whenever Jason popped out we all screamed! lol
Yup Phanto would freak me out too.
Aging myself, but the Game Over screen from Adventure of Link (red screen with a silhouette of Ganon returning) freaked me out every single time. And that game was hard as balls, so I saw that screen a lot. 😂
Friday the 13th on NES was my scariest game as a kid. Going into the houses at night and knowing Jason is in there with the creepy music..
I was gonna mention this one. This one still has me scared with the audio itself
Same here! (F13th) jaja
I got my NES at 6-year-old for Christmas in 1988, then I got my SNES for Christmas in 1992 when I was 10. My parents are gone now, but I will forever appreciate what they did for me as a kid. Super Mario World and Street Fighter 2: Turbo were my first games for SNES.
You seriously need to come out with a T-shirt that says "Watch it Buddy!"
I'd add a comma after "it"
I really should
And have a shirt saying Genesis the power edge!
@@MyRetroLife Without a doubt stands out every single time.
I'd buy a Saturn shirt that says "It's enough to make Grown Men cry".
12:35 You weren't the only one who got freaked out by this!! As soon as you mentioned Sonic, I knew what you were going to say. Great video.
Having a dad like you had is something every kid should grow up with
I didn't have that. My parents divorced in the summer of 1991 when I was 4.5 years of age. My mom took me and moved 400 miles from Southern California to the Central Coast.
My Dad passed in 2014. He loved me very much and I had many, many great memories with him. I wish I had these memories digitized but I do not. Very cool that you have these precious instances in your life to watch again and again and a Dad that had the foresight to capture them.
@@jacobbradshaw1985 i'm sorry to hear that. i lost all of my families. my older brother especially would buys us videosgames a lot. old nintendo music reminded us of him
As soon as you said Sonic I knew exactly where that was going 😱
Me too😂
Me too😅!
Same.
Same, lol!
Best channel on TH-cam! True pioneers in the world of filming gameplay!
Video starts a 3:00 thank me with a thumbs up.
the way sonic gasps expressively for air when he gets a bubble. well done.
Glad you noticed
@@MyRetroLifeFirst played Sonic 1 at the FuncoLand in Norfolk,VA in May of 1991. While my Bestie played Castle of Illusion, I remember getting to Scrap Brain Zone/Clockwork Zone Act 3 and falling into the Purple Water, besides the gripping stage Music, I remember hearing Sonic’s drowning theme for the first time.
In July, My Mom’s GF’s Husband Jesse brought a Genesis bundled with Sonic 1 and since he and his wife and son were staying with us as they transferred to Sacramento from Virginia Beach, I got to play and practice Sonic 1 everyday. His son is my Brother’s age, so they both were just 3 year old toddlers, and I was 8.
That dreadful countdown before loosing your last breath in Sonic was incredibly painful and terrifying as a child! lol
I’m sitting here and got to the sonic part - without even watching the rest of the video I’m 99% sure it’s going to be the underwater section. Legit paused to leave this comment…
… and it was the underwater scene. You are right that it caused all the anxiety when the music started. As far as similar stories it was the buzzing sound as a young kid from operation that would cause me to flee the room😂
Haha you called it
@@MyRetroLife man your channel is so good - I’m a little older than you, but we grew up at the same time. You preorder an Analogue 3D?
I was around 5-6 when the N64 came out.
Things I was scared of:
Mario64 - Bowser. I'd make my older sister fight him
Ocarina of Time - Stalchild (the skeletons out in Hyrule Field), Dead hand... basically anything under the well and in the Shadow and Spirit temples.
Majora's Mask - Just about everything... and this ended up being my favorite game... even still to this day
Probably more, but these were the ones that I deeply remember. Lol
Donkey Kong Country game over screen scared me a lot when I was a kid, I’d run out the room
It is rather scary looking.
As a child, I was never traumatized by video games but movies and TV shows...OH YEAH. When K.I.T.T. got destroyed by acid in the show Knight-Rider. CRUSHED ME!!! When Vera got turned into a Cyborg in the movie Superman 3, freaked me all the way out. In the movie Superman 4, when Nuclear Man drew blood from Superman and kicked him out of the atmosphere only leaving his cape to float to the ground, THAT CRUSHED ME BADLY. When Atreyu's horse was sinking in the mud on the movie The Never-Ending Story, CRUSHED ME and last but not least....when Raphael got his a$$ beat by the Foot clan in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, that really TRAUMATIZED me. 😂
I don’t know about screaming out of the room but when I played Toy Story on SNES it was in the woodys dream where you fight a giant buzz light year it scared the shit outta me
I’d be more scared of that password on Roger Rabbit than anything else. Dear lord that’s excessively long!
Some of those old passwords were longer than bitcoin addresses. What were they thinking?
I have another one, SPLATTERHOUSE 3 ON GENESIS! I was 8 years old playing this game and the whole thing made me terribly scared. The music, the imagery and sounds, everything. That first stage when you make it to the boss and find a dungeon full of body parts cut off, blood and guts everywhere, also let's not forget the girls head chopped off in the corner of the room with her lower jaw missing and white eyes. It completed traumatized my 8 year old brain. So much so that I traded the game with a friend at the time for Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine! But later I wanted it back to face my fears and I lost a friend over it lol
But now it's like one of my favorite games, love the Splatterhouse series!
Ecco the Dolphin. So beautiful and mysterious and terrifying and haunting. Couldn’t put it down but to this day I genuinely still have Ecco the Dolphin related nightmares 😂
To me it’s that weird synth music used in the Genesis cartridge version. It just has that haunting and depressing feel to it.
@@Airjet2582 oh I love that music, and yeah, you described it perfectly.
Medusa in Tides of Time
@ 🪼
my workdays usually include watching your videos on my lunch break as a way to relax and escape. So I'm now coming into work and got a notification saying you dropped a new video. Just made my day a whole lot better, Thank you sir
The Super Nintendo was the first console I ever had and the game over screen In Super Mario World with that music terrified me for some reason
Me too
@@Jaydencouto glad I’m not the only one! The final boss in smw still gets my heart rate up
@@gamingwithahandicapreviews and my brother too was scared
Really enjoyed getting to talk more with you this weekend at Retropalooza. Appreciated the 1 on 1 conversation and seeing some of your editing process for this video. Knew it was going to be great before I even saw anything. Looking forward to talking with you again. As for the video, I totally agree with the Sonic drowning sound. I still to this day feel my heart pounding when I hear that music. Also, the Ghosts in Rugrats: Search for Reptar on PS1 scared for whatever reason as a kid.
This was a good show man! Yeah games illicit all different varieties of feelings and are a new media . When books were new some thought writing things down might not be good then as well... I think of games as together machines.
It wasn't just the ghost houses for me.
Having to go to the castle and facing a boss was also quite scary 😂
Tyler in with you on the Sonic drowning. When I played the classic games for the first time(keep in mind I was used to the modern ones at this point) and the music started going I just immediately got scared and frantically did anything to prevent Sonic from drowning. It still kinda gets me to this day😂
I got left in front of a splatter house arcade machine at a supermarket with a dollar in quarters when I was 6-7ish. When my family came back, they witnessed me fighting a room full of furniture with some of the scariest, loudest music at the time and where shocked and disturbed when they saw me beat down a picture frame till a Spirit flew out of it leaving the room empty and quite only to die to the chandelier falling on my head. My cousin looked at my sister and said “what the fuck did was he playing?!”
Golden axe when you fight the giant dog dudes, jaws when he swims into your area, out of this world when that dog beast chases you, all of chakkan the forever man… the blading segment on california games
I knew EXACTLY what you were gonna talk about when Sonic came up. My first Sonic game was Adventure 2 Battle on the GameCube so my first exposure to that music was the super dramatic orchestral version from that game. Needless to say, I had a similar reaction
I had an extremely similar upbringing and the look and feel of this time period is just unmatched. So glad I found this channel. And tbh you looked a lot like me as a kid! Wild.
0:38 DADDY YEAH WE’RE ALRIGHT MUMMY UAEHHHHH😥😥😥😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😓😓😓😓😓😓
The metroid lair in the original Metroid scared the hell out of my 8-year-old self!
oh yea thats a scary moment it basically does a good job of having you feel isolated and A Alien Creature is nearby
The Bowser fight at the top of the castle in Super Mario World. That Clown Car of his used to freak me the **** out. When it's smiling, when it's angry, and when I was a kid, the zoom-in it does was the creepiest **** ever. Still is.
Thanks for sharing a piece of your childhood Tyler. Love your videos!
SMW did get me too, but it wasn't the ghost places. It was the autoscrolling cave level in Donut plains. I was playing it in my basement when I was little and the black back ground with rocks, not the back ground with the glowing crystals, but the dark one especially the music with the echos. It felt creepy in that level.
I beat SMW in 3 weeks time back in December 1991-January 1992 on the SNES I had asked my Stepdad for Christmas. I honestly found it to be inferior to Mario 3 and far more linear.
A couple of really scary stuff at the top of my head:
- Last Half of Darkness (DOS): The little girl with the knife.
- Hugo's House of Horrors II (DOS): reading a note saying there's a murderer in the house with no music in the background.
- Quake (DOS): after going through religion, you probably knew what happened here.
- Five Nights at Freddy's (Steam): Shit jumping out at me.
- Where's Waldo (NES): Old man in the subway scared the shit out of me, because there was no background music.
- Clock Tower (SNES): Pentagram room with creepy music.
- Resident Evil Remake & Zero (GameCube): Everything.
I have a similar story with Mario, only it was the NES original which terrified me. Much like you, I loved the game, just one particular aspect scared the crap out of kid me.
Whenever you die or start a level, it shows how many lives you have and what level you're playing. For some reason, Marios face being plastered on the screen like that made my little kid brain think it was his real body or something and scared the heck out of me. Probably had a lot to do with anxiety/fear of dying in the game, like a few of yours. That's tough to deal with as a kid!
I just wanted to say i love your videos ! Its crazy you have all of that footage, i would treasure it if i did! I grew up on different consoles, but it still reminds me so much of my experiences ❤
I had a similar thing about Dumbo's nightmare when he drinks and passes out in the movie. As a kid, the dancing elephant ghosts creeped me out so much, that every single time I had to cry for my mother to come fast-forward the tape since I didn't know how to do it myself.
Honorable mentions: the mask in Mario 2 when you carry a key, and the sun in Mario 3 (you know exactly which one I mean)
I remember feeling scared every time I saw spikes in Mega Man as a kid. Knowing that one hit would be instant death, and that dying would be accompanied by a loud, jarring sound effect and exploding into a million orbs of light... As an adult, I know that what I was feeling was anxiety, but as a kid, it felt like fear. Sounds similar to many of your examples.
Wow, my little sister was also afraid of the Boo Diddleys in Mario Games.
Who calls them that really? XD
I remember when I was 8 or 9 in the early 2000s playing Super Mario 64 and finding a couple things in the game that scared me such as Mario drowning underwater, that drowning animation kind of traumatized 8 year old me.
And the last battle with Bowser, the way Bowser looked and the organ music playing was nightmare fuel. I would later return to battle Bowser again 2 years later and beat him.
The year was 1997, the Butler from Tomb Raider 2 crept up on me in the hedge maze. Never forget.
YES. Realizing that the ghosts chase you when you're not facing them, that scared me out as a little kid 😅 I first encountered it in Mario bros 3. Such a simple creative choice yet so effective.
I remember during the PS1 era, I played Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. The final boss used to scare me, but years later I got over it and since then, it's been my most favorite game of all the games that I play.
I remember playing Super Metroid for the first time when I was little. When you have your first encounter with space pirates, I asked my brother to get past that part for me. Something about their design, the way they move and how they sound really freaked me out. Super Metroid also just has extremely good atmosphere in its environments and music/ambient noises, so I'm sure that made the experience that much creepier to me as a child.
The sonic underwater boards and the ghost houses in Mario world had me a little anxious too when going through them. Great video.
Tyler you are not the only one to be traumatized by the drowning theme in Sonic 1! It scared the living crap out of me as a kid and still messes with me to this day 😅
I also panicked every time the underwater countdown music appeared in Sonic 2. Another one is the game-over screen for Donkey Kong Country. My 5-year-old self could not process that depressing music and imagery and had to run out of the room.
I’m from another era, but the flood in halo CE scared the soul out of me as a kid
The flood part in Halo CE was insane when I first played through the game in 2013 on my og Xbox.
It's like the game turns into a horror fps.
When Sonic came up I instantly knew which part it would be. God, running out of time underwater was so stressful.
When I first played Super Mario 64 the level Wet-Dry Land scared me because of those weird spider-like things that would hop around dry land or slide across the water. I had to get my dad to play it for me.
11:33 The *instant* I saw that cover slide in, I immediately knew where you were going with it.
Awesome video Tyler! One of my boys is sensitive like this. I was a teenager when these games came out so while they didn't scare me I will say that the Sonic countdown music was unnerving.
I've had such moments with Super Mario World when i accidentally pulled on the controller cord too much. The cartridge wobbled like a millimeter but it caused the game to freeze, graphics glitch up and some boss music to play. I did not understand what happened and it scared the shit out of me 😂
I can totally relate to those scary 8 bit siren sounds.
I‘m a bit younger than you and grew up with the original Gameboy and GBC, which is somewhat comparable to the NES. One particular scary game right of the top of my head was the Gameboy Camera with it’s scary error messages and other weird stuff.
I couldn’t understand english back than, so just like when you weren’t able to read, I was even more scared
man I tell you it was cool seeing all those cool games I loved the Bubble Bobble
nothing freaked me out like the dark in shadowgate nes...the reaper coming for you haunts me till this day. amazing game
8:11 You sound just like your dad. That really sounded like it was your own voice today telling you that you don't have to go
Hey, Tyler, this was a great video and great idea for a video. I can totally relate to you getting scared by the ghost levels in Super Mario World. They scared the crap out of me as a kid and I still find them creepy. The Sonic timer in the water levels also scared me. The last level in The Terminator for Sega Genesis scared me a little. In the last level, it was very stressful trying to avoid all the Terminator robots and get to Sarah Connor. If you run into a baby Terminator robot, it crawls on the ground and you can't kill it or jump over it. You have to walk off screen and then come back to where you were, hoping that the baby Terminator robot disappears. Sometimes the robots trap you. The music is also very tense in that level. In Bart's Nightmare for SNES, I would freak out when Itchy and Scratchy would attack you while walking through the Simpsons' house. The Indiana Jones level was also super stressful and I often couldn't beat it. The intro to Super Castlevania IV scared me. Castlevania for NES also scared me. I remember playing through the first level when I was 6 in my basement and the power went out in my house. I couldn't get out of the basement fast enough.
Ok, I thought I was the only one, but the ghost levels in SMW frightened me as a kid. The music and dang enemies always had me on the edge.
The Adventureland haunted house footage!!!! So good haha... I still miss that ride. Thankfully i was allowed to photograph the inside before it was demolished!
That part in Labyrinth Zone traumatized me to my very core as a kid. I still get sweaty, anxious and stressed playing that level even today.
A game that really scared me as a kid, was Quackshot starring Donald Duck on the Sega Genesis. The Transylvania level creeped me off so much that it gave me nightmares; the spooky music, the coffin skeletons, that DAMN creepy, smiling ghost that would chase you. It's been quite a few years since I last played it; I truly loved that game, but that Transylvania level frightened me in ways that really stuck with me.
i love your channel Tyler!! sharing your life in such an awesome perspective!
Funny you mention the boos! I was terrified of the big boo in Peach’s castle in Mario 64. I never wanted to go to the basement of the castle because boo would be there, waiting to scare me.
lol the moment Sonic came up I knew it was the air bubble. Sonic was the first game I ever played as a kid and that music freaked me out. Core memory for sure.
Same here! I had a SERIES of nightmare because of the ghost houses and the creepy castles! I still remember to this day 😅
Sonic the Hedgehog was the first video game I ever owned, in 1993. I couldn’t get past Labyrinth Zone for YEARS. Running out of air was traumatizing as a 5 year old kid.
I've had a few jump scares..but never actually got anxiety..or afraid..but..the most stressful for me was the dragon in the wily stages mega man 2. Hopping block to block..still gets my palms sweaty.
The caves in Ducktales scared me so much
My sister and I played so much Bubble Bobble growing up. Also Duck Tales and Monster Party and all 3 Mario games . Also loved playing Jackal.
Super Mario World scared me too, but not for the same reason. More like on the last phase when the Koopa Clown Car gets angry and just goes after you. I got more scared when games went to 3D. Banjo-Kazooie used to terrify me with the sewer level, it wasn’t the giant mechanical shark, it was those green monsters throughout the level. Donkey Kong 64, those parts when you’re going to get sniped at and that voice tells you to “Get out!” And that swamp monster in Sly Cooper and the Theivous Raccoonus. Now that I’m an adult, it’s practically harmless and they all look goofy. I am no longer crippled by fear by those parts, rather, I laugh it about now.
Without a doubt the scariest moment I had as a kid was with the Gameboy Camera. Fixated in amazement to that tiny screen, taking pictures carelessly without counting until you reached the error messages. Holy crap, these were jumpscares made by Nintendo! I had to turn the Gameboy on the side or shut it off when they showed up. The scary eerie music to fit also didn't help!
SMB3 is the one that traumatized me as a kid. The dungeon castle music scared me and my imagination went wild. I always thought those hanging rope things in the BG were nooses that Bowser used to hang his victims.
I had so much trouble getting through some of the levels in SMW as a child(about 5or6 yo).
I remember that I got frustrated and angry a lot in this game, and so I begged my mom to help me get through some of the levels.
But in the end I wasn't willing to beat the game, in favor of my mental health situation, and to not waste anymore of my mom's limited spare time😊
Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge was the game that did this to me. The death scream scared the crap out of me.
Super Mario 2 - Phanto Masks, (Particularly that room with the giant mask with the glowing eyes)
Legend of Zelda: OoT - That one building with the family that's been cursed into halve spider people?
Toki (Sega Genesis) - Game Over countdown, Not sure why but seeing that lady trapped inside that contraption used to scare me
Pac man 2 on Genesis gave me nightmares. Bowsers castle on SMW also gave me nightmares.
I have faced the same issue with the Labyrinth zone in Sonic 1 before, but growing up it was the one thing that kept pushing me to keep going. No matter how many lives I lost. It was tough for me too. Not like nowadays. I even have the game on my phone.
I remember instantly two moments in my gaming life, that would get me goosebumps back in the day (as a child)...... The eel and the big fish in Super Mario 64 and the grabing hand in Zelda Ocarina Of Time which came from above and grabs Links and teleport him away..... oh boy, gruesome moments for me back then :-D
I read the title, and I knew it had something to do with the ghost houses. I was in the same boat. Those big boos scared the crap out of me. And my dad made it worse by adding fuel to the fire. He would pretend like he was the big boo and it made me hate the ghost houses. At least until I found out you can defeat the big boos. The drowning music in Sonic didn't scare me but what made me feel uncomfortable and a little scared was Mystic Cave from Sonic 2. The creepyish music and the fact that you were in a dark cave compared to the more open lively levels really threw me off. Great video as always Tyler.
I love watching your videos man, I wish, I have any footage of my childhood besides maybe some pictures we were too poor at the time. My dad didn't have a video tape camera until in the mid 2000s.
Not realizing it until I watch this video. That was probably the first time I got anxiety as a kid when that noise came up and those numbers
When I was around 8 years old back in the mid-90’s, my dad got me a PC game from a bargain bin in a small electronics store. It was called “Death Keep”, and yes, it’s on TH-cam. You basically play as three dwarves who have to get some generic piece of fantasy jewellery of importance back from an equally generic evil sorcerer. I BARELY made it past the opening cutscene, and I never made it more than three minutes into the game before some unseen monster killed me. Whenever I would die, the evil wizard would laugh. It scared me so much that even the sight of the cd case would sent me into a fit, and I remember secretly throwing it into the garbage can as a way of sending back to hell where it belonged.
now let's talk about being pursued by Phanto relentlessly in Mario 2. I even had a dreams as a kid he was chasing me. It was pretty cathartic when I found out there's a level where you can actually kill him, then you can wield the key without being chased throughout the whole level. it was also nice to have a game with no time limit.
damnit, yes! in sonic, the sudden sound effect and threatening countdown of your impending hypoxic doom! also traumatizing as a kid. it got so bad that when underwater, I would fill up with air at every air bubble spot even if I didn't need it, just to reset that timer.
I have faced the same issue with the Labyrinth zone in Sonic 1 before, but growing up it was the one thing that kept pushing me to keep going. No matter how many lives I lost. It was tough for me too. Not like nowadays
Bullet Bills, especially the Banzai Bills from Super Mario World scared me all the time. The Duck Hunt title theme scared me too
For a second, I laughed at the Sonic the Hedgehog one wondering what it was until you said "air" then I remembered...yep, I had that same phobia too!
dang this is really gonna help me be easier on my son lol. hes 8 playing dying light and bo6 zombies and hes always afraid to sleep by himself and go to the bathroom by himself lol
With all this epic vintage footage, I’m starting to think this guy has a Time Machine! 😂
Dude, as I was watching this and he was talking about the spooky music and atmosphere in the ghost houses in Super Mario World, I immediately thought of how scared I got playing Sonic as kid when you were about to drown HAHA. The hair would stand up on the back of my neck. That music still gives me ptsd.
For me the most scary thing ever was the angry sun in Super Mario 3 😂
Almost included that! 😱
@@MyRetroLifeI remember seeing that stage for the first time in late ‘89. I just stood there at the Kaybee Toys Kiosk like “What?”
You mentioned sonic and I instantly saw me (sonic), under water, grasping at my throat, then sinking with my arms and legs out!
I remember going to see Pee Wee's Big Adventure in theaters when I was 6. Seeing Large Marge's face on the big screen gave me nightmares for weeks. By the time the NES came to America, I was really too old to be scared by anything on there because after the theater incident, my dad decided to "toughen me up" by bombarding me with horror at every turn
What gets me is the loud beeping that would constantly happen in games like Zelda and Metroid when your health is low. It is a form of Misophonia, it’s a fear or disgust of particular sounds. Absolutely love those games and am glad I played them, but I think they legit messed me up a bit in that regard. 😂