Nintendo is known for pushing the envelope when it comes to what they’re known for producing. Whether it’s more direct or if they take a more nuanced approach, Nintendo has never been one to be afraid of placing darker themes into some of their more well-known franchises. While this hasn’t been seen much in recent years, the release of Metroid Dread and Breath of the Wild 2, has seen Nintendo embracing their darker side once more.
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid series games have never dealt with the lightest subject matters, but a few of their installments actually take on a darker tone than others. While the original Metroid Prime game departed from the initial Metroid type of game, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption actually took the game to a much darker place than it’s ever seen. A main conflict of this game is that it involved Samus Aran having to fight off Phazon corruption, while attempting to save a large number of planets from facing the same fate. While Samus Aran ended up being successful,a great deal of her fellow bounty hunters died.
- Luigi’s Mansion
While most of the companions in Mario haven’t been shown to have a dark side, they still have the potential of being so. Take this game for instance, one that takes other half of the Mario Bros. family, Luigi and places him in the dark world of Boo Woods to hunt ghosts. While the game may seem friendly, there are some true frights in the tale and way more tension than that that’s typically found in the Mario franchise.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
When we discuss the darkest games in Nintendo’s history, it’s hard to not include The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. After the success of Ocarina of Time; Majora’s Mask put players into a chilling and offbeat adventure. The initial dread comes from the moon that is set on a course to collide with the world of Termina, but it moves on to the Skull Kid, the main antagonist of the game who plagues the different regions in the world of Termina. While this is one of the darker games in the Franchise, that didn’t stop it from being a success alongside its predecessor Ocarina of Time.
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
While Super Smash Bros. isn’t typically sought after because of it’s adventure mode, the one in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate definitely has a dark tone and was well sought after. Taking place in the World of Light, the adventure mode has dozens of playable characters in the game being vaporized by a being titled Galeem. Kirby was the lone survivor as is given the task of saving the members of the Ultimate’s roster from being imprisoned by Galeem. This is pretty heavy for a game that typically has characters like Mario and Jigglypuff fighting.
- Eternal Darkness
Nintendo doesn’t typically publish rated mature games for their consoles, something that older audiences have griped about for years. However, they did publish a game, going by the title of Eternal Darkness, that was a true psychological horror that changed many’s beliefs about what could be published under the Nintendo name.
The game tried to make players feel as uncomfortable as possible. While the plot of it wasn’t very notable, the “Sanity Effects” in the game were interesting. These effects would show up as players being chased by abnormalities such as floating heads, or by making players feel as if something is wrong with their television by modulating the volume or freezing the screen. The objective of this game was making players feel like something was going on in their heads.
- Mother 3
Mother 3, when compared to Nintendo’s Majora’s Mask, is at the darker end of the spectrum. This game was only released in Japan, and has a reputation for being incredibly disturbing. At the game’s beginning, the main protagonist’s Lucas Mother dies and his brother goes missing. That’s just to let you know how disturbing the game gets. But it doesn’t end there, at the end of the game Lucas’ brother kills himself and world the game takes place in is destroyed by a dragon.
- Splatoon
Splatoon has it all, capitalism, environmentalism, corporate betrayal, death, segregation, and racism. The game quite literally starts off by saying that we all have died in their world, with the first game having a Sunken Scroll, that details a skeleton placed deep underground with a Wii U and a gamepad that essentially says “a 12,000 year old fossil of a creature with a weird internal skeleton”. There are also characters in the game who made regular references to finding dead human bones in their backyard. Essentially they are saying that the human race died out a long time ago and that Inklings rose up to take out place. Crazy right?
The game also goes on to detail how exactly the human race died by saying that we passed away by not paying attention to how we treated the environment and that we couldn’t handle rising sea levels.
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