• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Games you probably shouldn't have played as a kid

M

mike6467

Member
So one of my best friends just showed me an invitation her 7 y/o son received for a birthday party. It's a Five Night's at Freddy's themed party and the invitation had the creepy bear on it. She was wondering about the game, and if she should be concerned that it's a huge thing in his class and something he's absolutely dying to play.

I hadn't actually played FNAF, but I knew it looked sketchy, so I went on Steam, saw it was $4.99 and picked it up. I mean:

51U7wTxJI1L._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Plus jump scares. Jesus, I think I had an easier time with RE7, but that might be because animatronics have always been nightmare fuel for me. Still, the fact that this is all the rage in a 2nd grade classroom seemed...off. Apparently she talked to the Mom who sent the invitations and she had no idea it was a horror game (strong conservative christian who won't even let their kids watch Harry Potter lol).

It seems to me that on a scale of things I wouldn't want a young kid to see it goes nudity < sex < violence <<<< psychological horror.

This got me to thinking about games I played when I was younger that were probably too much. I was born in '84, and I can't think of anything this intense. Mortal Kombat was probably the worst, and that level of violence did mess with me at the time.

Of course, games have progressed from that, and the portrayal of "bad things" has gotten more explicit and detailed. On top of that, you're looking at shit like Jontron, fucked up porn and an infinite number of other things....All easily accessible to highly impressionable minds. I really wonder how parents today deal with this.

Anyways back on topic, what disturbing games did GAF play at a young age? Do you think it was a bad idea looking back? For those with kids, what are your limits as far as content goes?
 
A

Aesnath

Member
Yeah, I get this. My daughter (age 12 or 13 at the time) got really into FNAF, which was sort of OK--her friends were really into it and we discussed about the possible issues she might have. However, my son (5 and 6 at the time) got interested in it because of her. Obviously, we didn't want this to happen, but apparently kids at his school were into it as well. This leads to trying to watch videos of it on youtube (which we stopped) and then ripoff videos of it on youtube using minecraft or toys (which we also stopped). I mean, he got scared, but he really enjoyed it. It was sort of a social thing at the elementary school for him. I'm not sure I quite understand it, BUT I do remember both really liking Freddy Kruger as a kid while having nightmares about it.

As for video game, I think the first game that I got spooked by was probably Silent Hill, but I was a bit older when that happened. I remember hating the water labyrinth on the first sonic, really stressful, so maybe that counts.

Really, movies had a bigger impact. Aliens and Cats Eye (troll in my frickn' wall?!?!) messed me up.
 
W

womp

Member
I was really good at Strip Poker on my Commodore 64 when I was 11.

Thanks to Las Vegas Blackjack being the pack-in game included with the Intellivision years before,I ended up being quite the card shark by then.
 
T

Thewonandonly

Junior Member
Well the first game I ever played basically and got me into gaming was turok evolution when I was 5. Campaign was hard as balls and I never made it past like the fifth level but damnit me and my friends loved playing the multiplayer of that game. We wouldn't even fight each other we would just get guns then go on the ground and see how long we could last fighting the raptors.

Good times :)
 
F

Fou-Lu

Member
I am trying to think of the first rated M game I played and am drawing a blank. Killer Instinct probably? Didn't really bother me at the time. First straight up horror game I played was probably the original Resident Evil and the mansion got to me a bit but I loved it.
 
Terrorblot

Terrorblot

Member
Man, what is it with FNAF that drives kids and youtube crazy? It's an interesting phenomenon.

The first game I really remember being "too young to play" was Doom 64. My uncle got it for me for my birthday one year, I had to have been like, maybe like 8 or 9 years old. I don't know, a bunch of my friends played it back then too and I even remember playing it at birthday parties and such, but playing it on my own it just gave me total nightmares. It was also my first real FPS and I remember struggling to move the character around and getting sick to my stomach and lost in corridors. The chainsaw in particular freaked me out, funny to think about now and to this day when I visualize that game I think of it as way more gruesome than it actually was.
 
G

Goldenroad

Member
None that I can think of. I had a friend who definitely told me he got nightmares from Resident Evil 1, but we were 14 at the time. His parents were just a little too....protective. He was one of those kids who wasn't allowed to watch the Simpsons until he was a teenager.
 
1

13ruce

Banned
GTA 3, Vice City and San andreas.
Metal Gear Solid 2.
Medal of Honor that d day one on ps2.
Max Payne 1.
Soldier of Fortune.
Quake 2 or 3 one of those 2.


Played most of those around age 7-8 there are also a few horror games and some more but i can't remember the names of those games sadly. They (the horror ones) did give me horrible nightmares lol.

Edit: hentai games when i was 11 to 13 lol (yeah newgrounds >.>).
 
O

Onivulk

Banned
My grandmother bought Soldier of Fortune for me when I was 8. I had played other shooters like goldeneye and was fine with it. Iirc there's just some blood splatter in goldeneye.

Anyhow, at age 8 I just wasn't ready to see people get blown apart like that. I remember feeling very sick and having that sense of dread that I had done something my parents would be mad about (still the worst feeling)

I never told anyone about the content of the game and I knew if my grandmother knew she would feel really bad about exposing me to that sort of thing.

At some point I got over my gore fear and I can play anything with gore in it now without feeling sickened but I still don't want to go back and try soldier of fortune again.
 
K

kenji

Member
I shouldn't have played Silent Hill when I was 10

On Saturday night
At Midnight
Alone
With no light
At medium/high volume

When the radio screamed for the first time I lost 20 years of my life
 
PseudoViper

PseudoViper

Member
Chesskid1 said:
i was able to get my mom to rent me BMX XXX on the gamecube :)

i was like 13?
Click to expand...

Ah yes, this game! Lol, I remember playing it on my Xbox as a kid. I had no idea what it was, but I remembering seeing BMX and thought oh cool I like bike games.

Little did I know lol hence the XXX part.
 
G

gweemz

Member
I remember as a kid getting yelled at by my friend's older brother because we were playing Duke Nukem. Also played a lot of the first two Doom Games around the same time, when I was probably 8.
 
Rellik

Rellik

Member
I've been playing Grand Theft Auto from the first one since I was a kid. Didn't do me much harm. It taught me some great life lessons like how to save money with prostitutes.
 
P

PantsuJo

Member
I played Silent Hill when I was 10 years.

I was visiting the neighbors house with my parents.

-> Sneak in the room of the neighbors son
-> silently power up the Playstation
-> boot a strange disc with the title Silent Hill
-> play with fear and anxiety until the famous scene in the prologue
-> close the system immediately with terror and screams
-> son of neighbors enter his room and say: "WTF are you doing with my Playstation?"

Never touched Silent Hill until 16 years.
 
Fix-It Felix. Jr.

Fix-It Felix. Jr.

Member
Conker's Bad Fur Day when I was seven. My mom hated the game, but my dad was okay with it and figured most of the jokes were going over my head.. which they were.
 
Mexen

Mexen

Member
I was 7 and the game was Mortal Kombat. For the first time in my life then, it was me beating up someone :(

Edit: wrong thread
 
D

danmaku

Member
Meh, 80s games couldn't really have too much questionable content. Maybe if I had the chance to play Chiller it would have scared the shit out of me but thankfully it never happened.

There was Custer's Revenge too, but no parent would've bought that piece of crap anyway.
 
W

Wired All Wrong

Member
Knights of Xentar in middle school. Not even sure how I found out about that game. Actually remember liking the game along with the boobies of course.
 
O

Oscar

Member
Heart of Darkness on PS1.

My dad let me buy it after not letting me get Resident Evil 2 due to the crazy zombie face cover. In comparison, HoD had a pretty tame cover with just a kid and his dog.

The death animations in that game are pretty brutal and actually gave me nightmares. I kept going back tho, trying to power through the game.

Good times.
 
O

Otnopolit

Member
The Resident Evil series, and GTA 3 when it first came out. My friend and I used to stand in front of the TV very inconspicuously when the content warning flash screen came up for Resi 2.
 
ChuyMasta

ChuyMasta

Member
This really weird arcade game where you played as a bug. The game is about to completing squares or lines and unlock the background. Said background was an erotic image of a woman. If you cleared the background with less moves, the less clothes the woman had. And a perfect score would be complemented by moaning sounds.

I was like....13? Hitting puberty and all. This arcade was my only source of por back then.
 
Z

zephry

Member
It would have to be Duke Nukem 3D for me. Strippers, porno movie theater, etc was just mindblowing for a game when it was released.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Are there any games with levels you play as a kid that are genuinely great?
5
437
mrmustard replied
The first video game I ever played: Ninja Mission on Atari ST. What was yours?
2 3 4
170
2K
Ogbert replied
Have you ever played what you genuinely considered to be a “good” game on Mobile?
2 3 4
173
5K
MagnetoWasRight replied
What's the oldest game in your backlog you think you'll actually play?
2
71
2K
NightmareFarm replied
Games that scared you as a kid
2 3
109
3K
stickkidsam replied
Top Bottom