31 Days of Gaming Terror – Day 31: Funniest Moments
Alexander Lucard: Even the scariest games have their comedy bits. From the serial killer who seems to have a crush on you in HellNight to the having to collect gay porn in order to get new dresses for your puppet in Shadow Hearts: Covenant, there have always been moments of levity in games that are otherwise dark and depressing. Today, we’re going to take a brief look at some of our favorites.
For me personally, there are a lot of great bits. The god awful voice acting and script in Resident Evil pretty much kept me laughing rather than getting scared. It’s so bad, it is MST3K worthy. Thank Cthulhu for Umbrella Chronicles as it’s the best RE1 has even been with voice acting and dialogue.
Another game worth mentioning is Grim Fandango. This was a beautiful blend of creepy situations and comic mirth. This is an excellent four act Adventure game, and in fact, it is considered one of the best video games ever made. In it you play as Manuel “Manny” Calavera through his four year journey to the ninth level of the underworld. It’s a very dark game, filled with a lot of Aztec imagery, homages to classic movies from the 40’s and 50’s, and yet manages to make you laugh. You can definitely tell this is a Tim Schaffer game, who also created Day of the Tentacle and Psychonauts.
Finally, there’s Maniac Mansion. This awesome game for very old computers and the NES was another wonderful mix of horror and comedy. From the weird tentacle who wants to be a rock n’ roll star, to the weird blue people living in the old house o’ doom, to all the bizarre things that can happen to your characters, it’s hard not to find yourself laughing throughout this game.
My favorite bit has to be the fact you can microwave Weird Ed’s hamster. Take a look at what happens if you are stupid/insane/crazy enough to take the exploded hamster out of the microwave and give it to him. Oops.
Mark B: Generally speaking, I’m more inclined to make my own humorous moments with video games; for instance, playing with the Sniper Rifle in Resident Evil 4 and shouting “LUKE, USE THE FORCE!” as I cap an unsuspecting villager in the head? Never gets old, man. Never.
But generally speaking, aside from the bad dubbing of the Resident Evil franchise in general, the funniest moment I can recall from a horror game was the UFO ending from the first Silent Hill. It wasn’t even funny because there were aliens, or because the aliens torture the main character, or anything like that. Oh no, it was funny because Harry Mason, the protagonist of the story, is looking for his daughter Cheryl who has gone missing, AND JUST DECIDES TO ASK THE ALIENS IF THEY’VE SEEN HER.
I guess, when you’ve seen faceless nurses, killer children, and rotting buildings, aliens just don’t really phase you anymore. I don’t know.
Misha: Zombies Ate My Neighbors is my favourite comedy horror game of all time. There were plenty of great bits, but my favourite is, and will always be, dropping an inflatable clown to distract the Jason Voorhees clones long enough for you to make your escape (and getting a fat bonus at the end of the level for not using your bazooka on them)
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