Summary
Long have Nintendo fans gathered ‘round the campfire and shared spooky stories aboutthe dark secrets and grim undertoneslooming just beneath the surface of the happy-go-lucky world of Nintendo games. With such a longstanding reputation for being family friendly, the very idea of a dark Nintendo game almost feels like just that: a campfire story.
Truth be told, however, dark Nintendo games aren’t actually as far-fetched an idea as you might think. From colorful adventures with nightmarish undertones to straight-up psychological horror, these are the darkest Nintendo games we’ve ever played.
Eternal Darkness is aGameCube exclusive psychological cosmic horroradventure game, and if that didn’t already pique your curiosity, let us reassure you that this game takes the “psychological” tag very,veryseriously. As your sanity dwindles in game, Eternal Darkness will begin to play tricks on you rather than your character, messing with your TV and game settings as it pleases.
With everything Eternal Darkness does right, it’s a real shame that Nintendo has neverported the title to modern consoles, or even mentioned it at all outside of a spirit or two in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. If you can track down a copy and the means to play it, Eternal Darkness is a grim surprise you won’t believe is a Nintendo property.
Although Eternal Darkness was developed by Silicon Knights, and not by Nintendo themselves, we chose to include it anyway because Nintendo owns the copyright for the title, and because it was commissioned as a GameCube exclusive.
7Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Kirby And The Forgotten Landwas quite the thematic surprise thanks to its adorably apocalyptic setting, but this wasn’t the first time Kirby fans have been made toponder the aftermath of a mass extinction.Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards features several references to lost civilizations and world ending catastrophes, including a depiction of Earth as a frozen wasteland of concrete ruins, devoid of any human life.
That alone is dark enough to make Kirby 64 feel uncanny, but the inclusion of crude depictions of blood during the fight against Zero Two and the early 3D visuals make Kirby 64 feel a lot more sinister than a typical Kirby game, or any Nintendo game, for that matter.
Nintendo was very upfront aboutSplatoon’s Inklings and how their society rose from the depthsafter floods fueled by climate change drowned out its human inhabitants, but if we had to pick just one part of the greater Splatoon series to call the darkest of the bunch, we’d saySplatoon 2’s Octo Expansion.
Sure, it’s still all fairly tame in terms of presentation, but the way Splatoon’s Octo Expansion and its hidden lore tidbits portray the darkest, most desperate and selfish side of humanity is still pretty dark for a Nintendo game, least of all one of its most cheerful and colorful.
5Pokemon Colosseum
The Pokemon seriesis no stranger to darker elements in its games, like when Ghetsis tries to kill you in Black 2 and White 2 for example, but if you ask us, Pokemon Colosseum has got to be the darkest of the bunch.
This GameCube classicsees you explore a region riddled with crime, brainwashing Pokemon and stealing them away from their trainers, and blowing up laboratories right from the get-go, but it’s the idea of stealing a trainer’s partner and rewiring it to do your bidding forever that really makes Pokemon Colosseum feel darker than the rest.
While both Earthboundand Mother 3are at times very dark experiences, as is Earthbound: Beginnings to some extent, you could probably argue that the second RPG designed by Shigesato Itoi is the darkest of the three, and we would be inclined to agree with you.
The infamous Giygas battle is an obvious example of the game’s darker tones, but Earthbound also features cult-orchestrated kidnappings, child neglect, an evil statue dug up from the ground that begins to control entire organizations, explorations of childhood trauma, and more. All in all, let’s just say there’s a reason Nintendo changed the rating from ‘E’ to ‘T’for the re-releases.
3Super Paper Mario
Super Paper Mario might not have been what fans of the series were expecting gameplay-wise, but whatthe Wii titlelacks in traditional Mario RPG mechanics it more than makes up for with one of the darkest stories in any Nintendo game.
Many elements of this game aredownright Lovecraftian, from dark books containing evil knowledge to creepy monster clowns to the inevitability of the death of the universe and even an exploration of the concept of Hell, Super Paper Mario is the big N at its most experimental, wacky, and dark. Give it a try with an open mind if you haven’t, and be prepared for things to get serious in the latter half.
2Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime Remasteredre-ignited a lot of long-lost passion in us to revisit Retro’s other Prime titles, and if you’re in the same boat, then you too now know the horrors of the game that introduced us to Dark Samus, and you can not know again.
Metroid Prime 2 is great on its own, but the story, which sees Samus Aran called in to assist after an entire squad of Galactic Federation troopers was lost, is truly next level. Truth be told,the Metroid seriesis one of Nintendo’s most consistently dark and disturbing and is no stranger to horror elements like the notorious SA-X, but of all Samus’ adventures, this deeply tragic sci-fi epic is probably its darkest.
Everyone knows the iconic line: “You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?”, but not everyone knows the story behind it. After only being given one year to develop a follow-up toOcarina of Time, Eiji Aonuma didn’t have time to reject or overthink critical aspects of the game’s setting, characters, or story, and the result of that pressure is a game all about strict time limits and inevitable doom.
Majora’s Mask is a haunting experience. One that forces its characters to accept that they are going to die, and where in the center of a town desperate to pretend that all is well, a clock counts down to the arrival of the moon, and the end of everything it touches.
