The Great ToH Halloween Spooptacular: The Best Creepy Video Game Tracks

By W.

October 31, 2018

2838

Ghouls, ghoulettes, and non-binary spirits, it is Halloween, the best holiday of the whole damn year. Are you excited? I’m excited! And downright spooped, as I’ve been listening to some of the very heeby-jeebiest tracks in all of vidya, as suggested by the fine, if not a bit demented, folks in the Toilet ov Hell Social Club spinoff, the Retro Gaming Coven! I hope you’ve saved up all your good ghoul tokens so Mumbo Jumbo can transform you into a pumpkin and flush you down a sentient toilet, cuz it’s time to explore the Mad Monster Mansion of video game creeps.

Of all the degenerate passions we extol here at Toilet ov Hell, video games are perhaps our second-favorite form of debauchery, behind fatass riffs and just slightly ahead of sweaty men in rubber suits, so what better way to celebrate a night of pure hedonism than by combining our love for brain-rotting digital entertainment with our zest for musical extremity (and silliness) in all its forms. Below are some of our favorite tracks from some of our deepest terrors, running the gamut from downright disturbing to classically creepy, as suggested by the Coven faithful.

“Tsuta Ruins” – Okami

Dubs: The “Tsuta Ruins” are a cursed and forsaken location in Okami comprising a dilapidated temple where Orochi’s malevolence lingers and a huge, ruined Dogu statue casts its baleful visage upon intruders. The brooding strings and breathy pipes convey a deep sense of unwelcome.

“Drowning” – Sonic Mania

Joe: Just having a good time, going at an incredibly fast speed when I get stuck underwater and the nice, chill music turns into this and my underpants fill with shit.

“Stone Tower Temple Upside-Down” – The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

Spear: The inverted Stone Tower messed with my head as a kid, due in no small part to the unsettling music. And falling downwards into the sky forever.

“Mansion Basement” – Resident Evil: Director’s Cut

Spear: Let’s be real though, the scariest video game song ever was the basement theme in Resident Evil: Director’s Cut.

“Verdugo” – Resident Evil 4

Dubs: Though I tend to find ambient tracks the most unnerving on game soundtracks (perhaps because of the threat of looming danger rather than outright horror), the loud clanging in the Verdugo track reminds me of perhaps the most scared I’ve ever been playing a video game. Imagine being trapped in a basement with a nearly invincible monster lurking in the shadows, lashing out you from above as you scamper around, praying that the elevator arrives in time.

“The Nearest Place to Heaven, Part 2” – Phantasy Star Online

TB: Considering the stage goes from spooky ruins to a nice green field then turns into what’s pictured in the video I was officially spooked.

“Lavender Town (Original Version)” – Pokeman

Submitted by Son ov Wolf

“Black Waltz” – Final Fantasy IX

Submitted by Son ov Wolf

“Maridia Sandy Desert” – Super Metroid

Submitted by Spear

“River Twygz Bed” – Super Paper Mario

Dubs: Despite this game’s cheery aesthetic, this song is genuinely unnerving, coming across as the audio equivalent of a backmasked tape playing while the nurses in Jacob’s Ladder twist their necks. Thanks, TB.

“The Oracle” – Secret of Mana

Submitted by TB

“The Cove Battle” – Darkest Dungeon

Dubs: Darkest Dungeon is, if nothing else, a cruel game bout the meaningless of existence and struggle. While this track seems to fly in the face of that theme with it’s stirring percussion and vibrant strings, the distant, eerie chimes serve as a constant reminder that no matter how much you fight, the tide and its putrid servants cannot be stopped. This is the sound of inevitability.

“Deepnest” – Hollow Knight

Dubs: Hollow Knight is a triumph of game design, a vibrant, unforgiving world of breathtaking vistas and beautiful architecture. Deepnest, a hell hole deep beneath the Earth where a violent cult of insects reigns over a world of twisting thorns and skittering spiders, is neither breathtaking or beautiful. It is hell, and the grim ambience of its music only serves to enhance its hostility.