Remember the simple gaming days of the 90s? When everyone owned either a Playstation One, Nintendo or Sega Mega Drive, and characters like Sonic, Rayman and Crash Bandicoot reigned supreme. Sure, horror games existed, but the graphics were so terrible they were nothing compared to their more modern counterparts. Still, this doesn’t mean that they didn’t occasionally scare the crap out of you, whether they were meant to or not! We got a few 90s kids to tell us what they thought were the most terrifying video game characters from their youth. These nasties may be tame by today’s standards, but at the time they were the worst thing ever!
“Shadows of the Empire. The Gladiator droid JUST WOULD NOT DIE and it freaked me out.”
Harry, 25
“Bowser from Super Mario Bros. that was in the SNES. I used to get my brother to fight him!”
Bryoney, 24
“The T-Rex in the Lost Valley level of Tomb Raider I. The sinister music combined with the fact it appeared out of pixelated darkness was scary stuff for a 7 year old.”
Adam, 25
“Obviously Nemesis from Resident Evil III. He would randomly appear in an area, scare the bejesus out of you, and beat you up… Also, he looked like intestines.”
Gary, 22
“Do you remember the moon in Ocarina of Time? If he even counted as a ‘bad guy’ I don’t know, but I literally angled my camera up to it one day and crapped my pants. It was when it was right near to the screen (it gets closer as time goes on until you rewind time in the game). Couldn’t look up again after that.”
Abbey, 24
“Omg! The Torso Boss in the very first Tomb Raider used to petrify me. Actually, all of Tomb Raider made me jump out of my skin to be perfectly honest.”
Charlotte, 24
“That skeletal head thing in one of the Tomb Raiders was some strange shiz!”
Woj, 25
“Shao Kahn from the Mortal Kombat series. I think that was in the late 90’s. He wore a skull helmet and would literally RAM you until you faint, then he’d pick you up and tear you in two..quite brutally. I’m an adult now but there’s a part of me that’s still terrfied everytime I get to that part.”
Marcus, 23
“The rhinos in Crash Bandicoot were as scary as it got for me.”
Sarah, 24
“There was that Emperor Zurg kite monster thing in the Toy Story 2 game. You had to spend like an hour climbing up a massive tree with various sub-monsters along the way in order to get to him, which built the tension, and if you fell off then you’d need to climb all the way back up again. Or maybe I’m just a delicate little flower…”
Alex, 25
“Mr Sax from the original Rayman. Have you ever seen a sax so angry?!” (5:23)
Luke, 24
“The Hydra from the Hercules game was a scary and so annoying! You chopped one of its heads off and it came right back.”
Ellie, 24
“There is nothing worse than when entering a new zone on Resident Evil 4 and finding a chainsaw wielding zombie running straight at you. Especially when it’s got a sack on its head.”
Lewis, 25
“I always hated them stag things out of Odd World, or pretty much everything out of the resident evil games. Sometimes I’d just give up and hide under my duvet.”
Danni, 24
“The butler from the Tomb Raider games still haunts my dreams.”
Sophie, 25
Which 90s video game character still gives you nightmares?
