Nintendo has long built its reputation on being the family-friendly company. Most of its games fall into that camp, making for something anyone can play (or at least watch if they don’t have the finger dexterity). However, there have been a handful of times when Nintendo developers have taken risks, creating something a little darker than the company’s usual fare. While these games generally don’t quite stack up to the darkest games in history, they’re still a step further into that side of the business than Nintendo is usually comfortable taking.
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Here are the five darkest games in Nintendo’s long history. Before diving in, it’s important to note that there will be heavy spoilers for these five games.
5) Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Generally, the Metroid series is Nintendo’s most grim. Many of the games include elements that you’d never see in something like Super Mario or Donkey Kong. Super Metroid has a group of scientists being murdered during an experiment gone wrong, and Samus’s whole story is about her being raised by aliens.
That said, Corruption takes the cake because of that bummer of an ending. Sure, Samus saves the day and stops Dark Samus, but she can’t save her bounty hunter friends. Nintendo pulls a similar trick in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, but the first go-around was much better.
4) Mother 3
Earthbound is also a dark game, what with your best friend deciding to ditch you and join a world-ending alien, but Mother 3‘s story hits closer to home. Heck, the story begins with Lucas’ mom dying at the hands of the Pigmask army, sending his father Flint into a deep depression.
That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Lucas’s older brother, Claus, turns to the dark side, and eventually the two meet in an unexpected battle. Their mother’s spirit convinces them to stop fighting, and Claus commits suicide to ensure Lucas can move forward in his quest. Toss in a story about the dangers of capitalism, and you have one of the darker RPGs of its era.
3) The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Majora’s Mask almost feels like the Super Mario Bros. 2 of the Zelda franchise. What I mean is that this follow-up to Ocarina of Time is so tonally different from all of the Zelda games that came before it, you’ll almost wonder if Nintendo decided to slap Link into this game at the last second.
That is, of course, not true, but what is true is that everyone in this game knows they are going to die. That ever-present moon guarantees that the world will end every three days, and most of the people in Termina have accepted the fact. Adding to the grim nature of Majora’s Mask, you eventually learn that Skull Kid is a pawn of the game’s larger villain, who is using Skull Kid’s grief to get him to end the world.
2) Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Two games on this list have never come to the West: Mother 3 and Genealogy of the Holy War. That’s surprising given how popular both series have proven to be outside of Japan, but it might be because Nintendo doesn’t want its players to dive into some of its darkest games.
See, in Genealogy of the Holy War, players will find Game of Thrones-like political intrigue. One of the initial heroes, Sigurd, is betrayed by his friends and killed. Then, his wife has her memory wiped and starts a relationship with her half-brother as part of a plot to resurrect a god. It’s some trippy stuff, but thankfully, her son Seliph comes to save the day.
1) Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
Technically, Nintendo didn’t develop Eternal Darkness. Developer Silicon Knights was brought in for this GameCube game after Nintendo saw Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Still, Eternal Darkness would not have been made without Nintendo, as the company wanted to have an M-rated game on its new system.
Silicon Knights definitely delivered on that front. Eternal Darkness isn’t gory or especially vulgar, but it is absolutely terrifying. The developers included a feature called “Sanity Effects,” which was one of the best innovations in the history of the genre. As you lose sanity, different things start to happen. This includes everything from subtle changes to the game world to effects that break the fourth wall, like a promotion for a fake sequel or simulated TV errors.
It was an absolutely dynamite survival horror game that cleaned up critically. Unfortunately, Eternal Darkness did not sell well, so we never got the sequel, despite several attempts from Silicon Knights. Even worse? Nintendo has never released it on another platform, leaving it stuck on the GameCube more than 20 years later.
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