by Gamatroid

Scary games have always held a special place in gaming, as their fans love a good fright / gross-out, and enjoy the interactivity and immersive quality of games in addition to movies and other media, but in the past, parents and critics made it difficult for horror games to truly thrive.

Throughout home console gaming history, scary games and outright horror games have come and gone as the larger political tolerance for violent gaming has ebbed and flowed over time. For example, the first generation of home gaming only had one spooky-styled game and throughout the NES and SNES eras, Japan tended to get a lot more scary / horror games than North America did.

For the past few console generations, however, gamers have been treated to more horror games than ever before, and have seen some of the best quality games ever created. So we thought it would be interesting to take a look at horror gaming over time and identify what the best games are by each console generation, as the context in which a game is made tends to contribute to its greatness. While a game made 30 years ago might not look particularly scary or gory by today's standards, back in the day it was we had, and we loved it.

So without further ado, let's get into

THE SCARIEST GAMES OF ALL TIME!!

FIRST GENERATION

1973-1977

(Magnavox Odyssey, Atari Pong, Telstar)

Looking back at the first generation of home video game consoles, calling the games "basic" would be generous. If you recall the seminal Atari game, Pong, most of the games were some variation on that kind of gameplay. The Magnavox Odyssey had some of the more varied experiences, due to their use of vinyl overlays on top of the tv screen, which lent the games some kind of visual fidelity, aside from the "lighted squares" that were used for the actual gameplay.
Given the extremely limited graphic fidelity in this generation, there really wasn't much that could be done in the spooky games department, and there appears to be only one contender in this first generation.

-SCARIEST GAME-

Haunted House

(Magnavox Odyssey - 1972)

Magnavox Odyssey

The first spooky home console game, Haunted House, was one of 12 pack-in games that came with the Odyssey.

Players control either “The Detective” or “The Ghost”, which are essentially just squares of light behind a physical plastic onscreen overlay, gamers had to place on their TV screen, which was held in place with static electricity. The goal of the game is for the Detective to find all the clues before the Ghost catches him.

While not exactly Resident Evil, this game was the only spooky game to be released during the first console generation, and by default that makes it the best. Of course it also helped pave the way for more spooky games in later console generations.

If you want to see some gameplay from this classic, check out the Let's Play video below:

SECOND GENERATION

1977-1985

(Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision)

Starting in the second generation of home video game consoles, video games actually started to look like something and become somewhat playable. Now, I'm talking about games on the Atari 2600, so while they looked like "something" they still didn't look like much. This generation was famous for the game box art looking amazing, but the related games... not so much. Regardless, the Atari 2600 actually had a decent number of spooky games, and a few based on actual horror movies, although none of them were big sellers.

-SCARIEST GAME-

Halloween

(Atari 2600 - 1983)

While the second console generation had a few different horror games, the one that came closest to delivering a true horror movie experience was Halloween.

You play as a babysitter trying to protect the children from the murderous Michael Myers. Safely escort the children to the safe zones and you score points, fail and Michael will surely have your head (or the childrens’), complete with gushing blood.

Occasionally you may happen upon a knife that can be used to momentary fend off Michael’s horrible blood lust, but he doesn’t stay away for long.

Complete with the movie’s iconic theme music, Halloween for Atari is gory, scary and completely awesome for its time.

– HONORABLE MENTIONS –

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Atari 2600)

Haunted House (Atari 2600)

Dracula (Intellivision)

THIRD GENERATION

1985-1989

(NES, SEGA Master System, Atari 7800)

When the Nintendo Entertainment System was introduced in 1985, games finally started looking like something beyond super-blocky pixels, and games started to have actual stories, middles and ends. This should have helped usher in a whole new era of scary games, however video games were still largely seen as being something for kids, and this kept most games fairly kid friendly, but there were a few exceptions on the NES. Unfortunately, the Sega Master System and Atari 7800 really didn't have any scary games to speak of.

-SCARIEST GAME-

Friday the 13th

(NES - 1989)

Friday the 13th for NES was one of the few games that successfully combined horror themes with gameplay that actually filled the player with dread, and was the best horror game of its generation, released in North America.

The NES console generation had a surprising amount of horror/scary games compared to the generations immediately before and after it, but most of the better games were only released in Japan.

While games like Nightmare on Elm Street certainly used horror themed levels and enemies, the gameplay itself wasn’t scary for the player. Friday the 13th, however, was able to combine themes from the movies, with gameplay that was actually scary for its time.

As a kid I found the music in each house you enter to be especially eerie and when you saw Jason’s health bar in a house, you knew you weren’t going to escape without a fight (and before you learn to successfully fight Jason, there was a chance you weren’t going to make it out at all).

– HONORABLE MENTIONS –

Nightmare on Elm Street (NES)

Uninvited (NES)

Chiller (NES)

FOURTH GENERATION

1989-1995

(TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo)

With the introduction of the advanced graphics of 16-bit consoles (yes, including the T-16), one might have thought that we'd get a whole bunch of scary games to go with it, but largely this generation was pretty devoid of anything scary. Even the scariest games were more horror-themed and/or bloody than they were actually scary.

-SCARIEST GAME-

Splatterhouse

(TurboGrafx 16 - 1990)

Compared to the number of excellent horror games released for the NES generation, the SNES/Genesis generation saw a slight decline, relative to the number of total games and consoles at the time. This is possibly due to the increased regulatory scrutiny on the industry, and the focus on violence in video games prompted by the sensation created by Mortal Kombat.

Despite the decline, Splatterhouse for the Turbografx-16 did its best to keep the horror vibes flowing. Starting as an arcade game, it was ported to the Turbografx-16 in 1990. While it was an excellent port overall, it did have several changes from the arcade game to tone down the violence a bit and change the mask of the main character from white to red (seemingly to limit comparisons to a certain other white masked murdering maniac from Friday the 13th).

While the Sega Genesis received two exclusive sequels to Splatterhouse, the original game was exclusive to the Turbografx-16, and one of the better games on the console.

– HONORABLE MENTIONS –

Night Trap (Sega CD)

Splatterhouse 2 (Sega Genesis)

Splatterhouse 3 (Sega Genesis)

FIFTH GENERATION

1995-1999

(SEGA Saturn, Playstation, Nintendo 64)

When the PlayStation generation came along, video games finally started to be seen as something not solely for children anymore. This is probably because kids that grew up with the Atari and NES generations were now either teenagers or young adults, and there was more of a market for truly scary games. While there still weren't a ton of scary games available, the games that did exist were truly scary.

-SCARIEST GAME-

Silent Hill

(PlayStation - 1999)

Generally, games didn't start to get truly scary, approaching real horror, until the PlayStation generation. Probably since before this point video games were considered only for children, there wasn't really a market (or an appetite by parents) for truly scary or bloody games. Sure you had some exceptions in the past, but the real floodgates opened in this generation.

While Resident Evil came first, and was certainly revolutionary in its own right, it was Silent Hill that proved video game horror could truly terrify and provide a different but equally impactful experience as movies and other media.

The original PlayStation console generation was revolutionary in bringing true 3D polygon-based games to the masses, and with it came a slew of scary games, but Silent Hill truly stood above the rest.

From its super foggy atmosphere that obscured the player’s vision, allowing monsters an added element of surprise, to its terrifying ambient background music and frequent radio static (indicating a monster was nearby – but not its exact position), to its high level of gore and an overall feeling of helplessness…Silent Hill provided horror and terror like no other game at the time.

– HONORABLE MENTIONS –

Resident Evil (PS1, Sega Saturn)

D (PS1, Sega Saturn)

Clock Tower (PS1)

SIXTH GENERATION

1999-2006

(SEGA Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, GameCube)

After the advancements made during the PlayStation generation, the PS2 generation kicked scary games into high gear, with the genre defining sequel to Silent Hill plus other games that brought a whole new level of visual fidelity to scary gaming.

-SCARIEST GAME-

Silent Hill 2

(PlayStation 2 - 2001)

While Silent Hill is the greatest horror game of the PS1 generation, Silent Hill 2 is considered by some to be one of the greatest games of all time, period, for any generation.

Silent Hill 2 tells the story of James Sunderland who returns to Silent Hill after he receives a letter from his dead wife, Mary, telling him that she is waiting for him there. James and Mary used to visit Silent Hill back in the day, seemingly before it turned into the hellscape it has become when James visits in the game.

Silent Hill 2 had more of a focus on narrative and tension building than the pure horror of the first game, which led to some criticism at the time, but has since been truly appreciated for its excellent narrative construction.

Konami recently released a full remake of Silent Hill 2, by the creators of Layers of Fear, exclusive to PlayStation 5, which took all of the psychological fear of the original version and expanded upon it in new and interesting ways. Honestly the original and remake each stand on their own, and both are worth playing.

– HONORABLE MENTIONS –

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Director’s Cut (Xbox)

Resident Evil (GameCube – 2002)

Rule of Rose (PS2 – 2006)

Silent Hill 3 (PS2 - 2003)

SEVENTH GENERATION

2006-2013

(PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii)

While games looked good during the PS2 generation, the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation, really advanced the visuals of scary games to whole new levels of excellence. Many of these games still look amazing today. But while the visual fidelity of games increased greatly, the sheer number of scary games seemed to decrease a bit from the previous generation. Still, the scary games that did get released set a whole new standard for what gamers could expect from scary games.

-SCARIEST GAME-

Condemned: Criminal Origins

(Xbox 360 - 2005)

Condemned: Criminal Origins was a great surprise for horror fans when it was released for the Xbox 360 in 2005. Developed by Monolith Productions (F.E.A.R., Shadow of Mordor) and produced by Sega, Condemned first looks like it should be a fairly standard FPS with a crime drama background, but what players got was a creepy atmospheric horror game where you play an FBI agent, but things quickly take a turn for the worse.

A lot of the combat in Condemned is melee-based, and focus on you blocking attacks and counterattacking. Ammo is fairly scarce and most of the weapons you use are found in the environment, like boards with nails, pipes ripped from walls and rebar that has a chunk of concrete still attached to it. The enemies can do significant damage to you if you aren’t careful and also like to sneak up and attack you from behind while you are fighting someone else.

Between the creepy atmosphere, supernatural elements and impressive graphics (for the time) Condemned was the best horror game of its generation.

– HONORABLE MENTIONS –

Saw (Xbox 360, PS3)

Silent Hill Shattered Memories (Wii)

Siren Blood Curse (PS3)

EIGHTH GENERATION

2013-2020

(PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii-U, Switch)

Moving into the PS4 generation, scary games finally truly came into their own, both in terms of visual fidelity and sheer number. This generation saw the release of the greatest horror game made to date, plus saw a lot of truly great scary games released. Truthfully, if the best game of this generation weren't so obvious, it would have been tough to choose another, since there are so many to pick from, and almost all of them are great and still playable today.

-SCARIEST GAME-

P.T.

(PlayStation 4 - 2014)

P.T. is widely considered to be one of the greatest horror games of all time, even though it was created to only be a playable teaser for an upcoming Silent Hill game that was never released ("Silent Hills").

P.T. opens with the player regaining consciousness in a dark room lying on a concrete floor. As you are attempting to stand up, you see the door in front of you open slightly, as if to beckon you to go through it. When you finally stand you see the door is illuminated by a single light above it, but the rest of the room is dark and generally you can’t see anything (unless you adjust the brightness settings).

Upon going through the door you are presented with a simply hallway in a common residential house. You can hear a radio broadcast in the distance, but you can’t make out what it’s saying at first. Nothing in the house looks immediately creepy, but you may notice bottles of alcohol on the floor. When you get closer to the radio you can hear the broadcast is talking about a murder where a father killed his family and claimed it was caused by supernatural forces. This is really your first clue that something isn’t right.

When your character enters the door at the end of the hallway, you find yourself right back at the beginning of the previous hallway, in a sort of time loop. Sometimes you find the door at the other end locked and you have to solve a puzzle before you can loop again, but other times you can continually loop and loop and loop, almost endlessly, if you don’t find a solution to whatever puzzle is currently in play. In the meantime you have a killer ghost taunting and chasing you.

The atmosphere can get incredibly creepy and the puzzles can be extremely obtuse and difficult to solve. If you don’t use a walkthrough, you can expect to spend several hours looping in that hallway being massively creeped out. If the ghost “catches you” its game over and you start back in the original room you started in, but you enter the last loop you were in, so you don’t have to worry about losing progress.

One thing that makes P.T. so impressive and effective is its simplicity. Most of the gameplay exists within a single looping hallway, with very few items to physically interact with. The player mostly can only walk through the environment and zoom in on items of interest. Sometimes zooming in on an item will trigger an event, but most times it won’t, and the game doesn’t tell you whether the item you’re zooming in on will ever trigger an event or not. There is no health bar, no items, no written objectives and no restarting.

If you look up P.T. on YouTube you will find some videos postulating the hidden messages Hideo Kojima left in the game, giving enhanced meaning to the overall story and purpose of P.T. While I won’t spoil any of that here, I highly recommend you check it out after you’ve gotten a chance to either play P.T. yourself or at least watch a no-commentary playthrough, like the one embedded at the beginning of this section.

While there were other very impressive horror games released during this generation, P.T.’s unique approach is still unmatched by any other game to this day.

– HONORABLE MENTIONS –

Outlast (Xbox One, PS4, Switch)

Resident Evil 7 (Xbox One, PS4)

Until Dawn (PS4)

Layers of Fear (Xbox One, PS4)

Visage (Xbox One, PS4)

NINTH GENERATION

2020-present

(PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2)

Even though the visual fidelity of games has continued to increase in the current console generation, the types of scary games seem roughly the same as the prior generation. Luckily there are a lot of games available, but since so many games continue to be released across both the current and last generation of consoles, it's harder to draw a clear line between what is truly just from this generation. Personally, I do believe that first person games are much scarier than third person. I know some may disagree, but seeing everything from your own perspective pulls you into the story in a way that seeing a character in third person cannot hope to achieve.

-SCARIEST GAME (so far)-

OD-KNOCK

(2026)

Ok, to be fair, OK-KNOCK isn't even out yet, but honestly none of the games in this generation so far have come anywhere close to the scares delivered by the last generation. OK-KNOCK looks like it could change all that.

After P.T.'s runaway success and the cancellation of the associated game, Silent Hills, in the prior console generation, gamers have been anxiously awaiting Hideo Kojima to create another horror-related project, and that game is OD-KNOCK. Developed by Kojima Productions and published by Xbox Game Studios, OD-KNOCK only has a single teaser trailer so far, but it looks incredible, and seems to channel the super creepy vibes that P.T. is widely known for.

While other games this generation have some scary moments, like Resident Evil Village's House Beneviento, most don't even come close. OD-KNOCK looks like it is set to deliver the kind of scares we deserve, and I can't wait to see what Kojima-san has come up with.

– HONORABLE MENTIONS –

Resident Evil: Village (Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5)

MADiSON (Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Switch)

Luto (Xbox Series X/S, PS5)

OK! THAT'S THE LIST

Hopefully you found it interesting, and you learned something new you didn't know before. There are a lot of good games referenced here, and I would fully recommend playing any of them you might not have experienced before.

Several of the older games are playable online in your browser, if you just google [name of game] and [console] and "play online", you're likely to find a way you can play it. Just be cautious as always and choose links that look to be secure.

Some of the more recent past generation games may still be playable on the latest consoles, so you may want to check the Xbox, PlayStation and Switch online game stores to see if you can still purchase them. The only game that is (sadly) certainly unavailable is P.T. but at least there are a lot of playthroughs online you can watch to get a sense of the vibe.

Make sure to play a bunch of spooky games this season, and share your favorites with others so they can discover something new and cool as well.

Until next time...

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Five Must-Play Scary Games on PlayStation Plus for Halloween 2025

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Ultimate Terrors: The Scariest Games from Every Console Generation

FIRST GENERATION

SECOND GENERATION

THIRD GENERATION

FOURTH GENERATION

FIFTH GENERATION

SIXTH GENERATION

SEVENTH GENERATION

EIGHTH GENERATION

NINTH GENERATION

OK! THAT'S THE LIST