Honestly, Minecraft.
Everyone remembers the moment they first realized nighttime and darkness is unsafe.
And as the years go on, more and more lore and items and events have been added that makes the game even more unsettling when you stop to think about them.
The first time you heard that sssssSSSSSSBOOM right behind branded every player with an eternal fear.
Also, shoutout to the moment they added fire spread. Way back in ye olde alpha days, you’d just randomly set stuff on fire to keep monsters out. Then fire spread suddenly made this dangerous and the world feel a whole lot more risky.
That brief period where fire spread was super op- you’d stumble upon decimated wastelands from natural fires.
makes the game even more unsettling when you stop to think about them
respectfully disagree. I ive recently been playing a Minecraft version 1.5 mod and omg it’s so much more eerie than modern versions. It doesn’t help that torches burn out after a while lol
When real-world horrors are too existential and complex to implement, more tangible, definite horrors must be created to make a game world a better approximation of reality.
Cuphead? Idk if it’s quite “cutesy” but with all the old-timey graphics it doesn’t strike me as something that should’ve been so tough
100%-ing that shit during lockdown was one of the hardest gaming feats I’ve ever accomplished. Next lockdown is going to be the DLC.
Another Crab’s Treasure looks like a cute game about a crab trying to get his stolen shell back but is actually about how capitalism crushes everything in its infinite lust for power and how it cannot be reasoned with, only destroyed.
Kirby. The only note on its official age rating is “fear”
one shot, Celeste, A Hat In Time, Castle Crashers, kingdom hearts, goat simulator (fun fact it recently got a remaster!), hollow knight, rain world
I guess I’ll start us off with Undertale… In my view the defining game of this genre
Yeah. When I read the headline, this was the first game that popped into my head.
Ecco the dolphin.
I never owned a Sega but my dad had one and this game. I wasn’t there often enough to get good at it but I loved it. Great game.
Cult of the Lamb
Hollow Knight
But depending how you feel about bugs it might not be as much cute as it might be nightmare fuel
Stray
You play as a cat in a post-apocalyptic world where human already extinct.
Idk if it “went really hard” but I had fun playing Epistory. It was very cute.
I came for the typing fun and stayed for the emotional story.
What a great game!
Bugsnax starts out like a fun cross between Pokemon and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, but it gets weird and dark.
Doki Doki Literature Club comes to mind
Tunic.
Lil’ Gator Game.
Slime Rancher.
Little Inferno turns into something completely else.
Just finished the game. Can’t reccomend it enough. It’s very cozy.
