
The TurboGrafx-16 port tamed things down a bit for American audiences (overt references to religious iconography and mild profanity got the axe), but Rick’s rampage through West Mansion was still gory enough to make it unwelcome in many households.

At the time of its release, however, Namco’s homage to slasher films was fairly controversial. With its geysers of blood and over-the-top-of-the-top violence, Splatterhouse is pretty goofy by today’s standards. His adventure takes him to a twisted carnival where dismembered hands lunge at his neck while (somehow) screaming “I’ll swallow your soul” ( Evil Dead 2), and another level takes place in a massive hotel’s snowy hedge maze, complete with a frozen Jack Nicholson lookalike ( The Shining). Caleb is a resurrected gunslinger who uses a pitchfork, hairspray/lighter flamethrower, and even a voodoo doll to take down enemies like zombies and Tommy Gun-wielding cultists. Unlike id’s demon-blasting FPS phenomenon, Blood doubles down on carefully crafted settings and tongue-in-cheek nods to classic horror films. Monolith Productions’ long lineage of superb horror titles (F.E.A.R., Condemned) begins with what might have been dismissively labeled a “Doom clone” in the ‘90s. These are the top 25 games that we consider brutally frightening, a blast to play, innovators in horror storytelling, or some mixture therein.

Similar to how certain things scare some people and don’t faze others, deciding what constitutes a horror game is subjective. The full catalog of horror games is staggering, but we’ve taken on the gut-wrenching task of refining this massive history to the top 25 in their class. Iron-willed gamers have survived decades of horror games, from dread-inducing adventure games to gory shooters where you confront your fears while aiming down a shotgun barrel. The drive to win and the tension of impending failure is enduring across all genres, but horror games push that formula further, punishing foolish mistakes with gruesome death sequences and fraying players’ nerves with unforgiving scares.
