Highlights
- Creepypastas are spooky online stories that immerse readers into terrifying narratives, and a few have been inspired by video games like The Legend of Zelda and Sonic the Hedgehog.
- These creepypastas use elements from the original games, such as modified gameplay and sprites, to enhance the creepy atmosphere.
- While these stories are fictional, they tap into the eerie and isolated settings of games, creating a sense of dread and unease.
Creepypastas are the modern day version of spooky campfire stories. Whereas instead of sharing some scary myth over a fire, people from all over the world can create and relish some truly terrifying stories including pictures, videos and even ARGs (alternate reality games) to fully immerse the reader into a world where the monster that lurks beneath the bed really exists.
However, whilst most creepypasta stories are centered around cryptids or spooky locations, there are some popular stories that are inspired by video games. Here are some of the most spooky creepypasta stories that are based around video games.
8 Ben Drowned
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Origin |
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask |
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The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is already one of the darkest entries in the series, so there is plenty of fuel for a horror story. That’s where Ben Drowned comes in. The story is about a child named Ben who was chosen by a cult to be in a ritual which involved drowning. Unfortunately, Ben was actually sealed in a cartridge of Majora’s Mask.
The story follows the perspective of a college student playing the haunted cartridge and discovering this backstory. The story is one of the better-known creepypastas and features different characters from Majora’s Mask including the Elegy of Emptiness to represent Ben and a Happy Mask Salesman representing the overall antagonist known as The Father.
7 Red
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Origin |
Godzilla: Monster of Monsters |
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Most of the time, video game creepypastas tend to be around games that are very popular, but there’s just something infinitely more terrifying about some more obscure games like Godzilla NES. This creepypasta follows the perspective of Zach, a man who wants to enjoy a childhood favourite game, Godzilla: Monster Of Monsters.
However, the game begins much more differently than he can remember with strange levels, odd names such as Entropy or Dementia and soon the arrival of horrific monster that chases Godzilla, known simply as Red. But what is even more terrifying is that Red seems to somehow hear Zach and forces him to play the game, at one point even making him feel the damage it inflicts on Godzilla. Overall it’s a very well-made creepypasta filled with screenshots of a modified Godzilla: Monsters Of Monsters game.
6 Sonic.exe
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Origin |
Sonic the Hedgehog |
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Perhaps one of the most well known creepypastas of all time, Sonic.exe has become a series in its own right. Originally the creepypasta followed Tom, a big Sonic the Hedgehog fan who received a CD known as Sonic.exe which he was told to destroy. But in good old creepypasta fashion, he plays it instead and encounters a creepy Sonic game where a depiction of Sonic with bloody eyes and a wide grin murders Tails, Knuckles and Robotnik.
The story spawned numerous sequels and even a fan game that anybody can play, which is a modified version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog title. Overall, it’s a spooky story that makes very good use of Sonic the Hedgehog sprites and gameplay to highlight how creepy it is.
5 The Numbers Station
As if Fallout isn’t scary enough, Fallout 3 definitely has a more isolating atmosphere than some of the other games, which makes its own creepypasta more terrifying. The story goes that after killing Three Dogg, a player saw that Galaxy News Radio was still active, but it glitched out and in certain locations would give out Morse codes that seemed to predict future events and give insight into the past.
The decoded Morse code spoke about things such as the death of Queen Elizabeth. Perhaps the most creepy message is one of the last which seems to be someone rambling about scientists who pushed too far and caused the universe to unravel. It may not be believable, but it does make the Capital Wasteland that much more spooky.
4 Buried Alive
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Origin |
Pokemon Red and Blue |
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Pokemon has a whole lot of creepy myths and legends surrounding it, but one of the more well-known ones is Buried Alive, an alleged cut fight that could be accessed in Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue. It was apparently to be found at the top of the Pokemon Tower where a zombie rises from the ground and attacks the player.
After a Pokemon battle, if the player lost, then it would flash to a Game Over screen which seems to show the zombie eating the protagonist while claiming it has fresh meat. The creepypasta makes excellent use of just how creepy the original Pokemon games could be, even showing a new sprite for Buried Alive and a game over screen that would haunt anyone.
3 Herobrine
Everyone who has been on the internet in the 2010s likely remembers Herobrine. The story was a forum post about someone playing Minecraft Alpha who was loading up a new world in the game when they saw something move through the dense fog. At first, thinking it was an animal they approached, only to see that it was another player staring back at them with white eyes.
They screenshotted it and posted it online, but the thread was quickly removed with a user known only as Herobrine messaging them to stop. They later received an email from someone who researched Herobrine and found it to be the username of a Swedish gamer that would turn out to be Notch’s deceased brother. Although Herobrine isn’t real (and Notch has never had a brother), it quickly garnered a life of its own, is constantly referenced in all sorts of Minecraft media and has become an unofficial mascot for the game.
2 Lone Wolf Radio
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Origin |
Fallout: New Vegas |
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The next creepypasta is perhaps one of the darkest yet and is known as Lone Wolf Radio, centered around the much loved Fallout: New Vegas. The creepypasta claims that an abandoned trailer known as Lone Wolf Radio had original plans which included a radio station of a figure known as The Lone Wolf who would murder a child every night on radio.
The game would then give players a quest to either join The Lone Wolf or execute him, and joining him would have the player murder a child character, rewarding them with a perk that could let them kill other children NPCs in the game. Although very dark and thankfully untrue like all creepypastas (we hope), it does give a sense of dread over how creepy the abandoned location is.
1 Lavender Town Syndrome
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Origin |
Pokemon Red and Blue |
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The most well-known Pokemon creepypasta, Lavender Town is a creepypasta based on the village of the same name in Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue. The myth claims that the Lavender Town music compelled numerous children to commit suicide or afflicted them with illnesses and lifelong conditions due to the high frequencies of the music.
This was a popular myth for years and even now the Lavender Town song is still iconic.