Nintendo is easily the most family-friendly company out of all of the major video game publishers. They have courted an image of producing games and systems that are meant for players of all ages. If you are a parent of a young child, then you can be safe in the knowledge that it's ok to leave your young son or daughter in front of a Mario or Kirby game without the risk of seeing viscera or bare skin on the screen.
Nintendo games do possess a dark side that has manifested in the form of the some of the most horrific creatures in video game history. Giygas from EarthBound still tops "Scariest Boss" lists to this day and he was a monster from a SNES game. The encounters with Dark Link in The Legend of Zelda games have often been disturbing, while some of the alien creatures from the Kirby games can give a Silent Hill boss a run for their money in terms of scariness.
We are here today to look at the most well-hidden disturbing secrets that were ever buried in Nintendo games. From the mysterious creatures hiding within the pollution on Isle Delfino, to the secret battle against the creator of Pikachu.
Here are Fifteen Unsettling Secrets You Never Found In Nintendo Games!
15 The Pollution Ghosts
Super Mario Sunshine is the most overlooked game in the Mario franchise. It has yet to receive any sort of recognition in the form of a remake or Virtual Console port on any of Nintendo's later systems. This might be due to the shoddy control scheme, or the fact that it was the prominent Mario title during a period of time when Nintendo was lagging in the console market.
Each area of Super Mario Sunshine features something called a "Pollution Map" which is a bitmap image that contains information concerning the design of the slime that covers each stage. These contain some unsettling designs, such as the ghostly faces that appear on the Bianco Hills map.
14 The Demise Of A Pokémon Ranger
Failure is cheap in the world of the Pokémon video games. All that happens when you lose a battle is a small deduction from your wallet and a free trip to a nearby Pokémon Centre.
There is one instance in the Pokémon series where failure means the demise of the main character. This potential fatality happens in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, during a mission where you have to stop a cargo ship from sinking.
If you take too long fixing the broken valves on the cargo ship, then you will see the screen start to shake and fade to black. The on-screen text claims that the ship was pulled under the waves... while you were still in it. This is still the only way to get a true Game Over in a Pokémon game.
13 The Secret Fate Of The Splatoon Humans
Those who are only dimly familiar with Splatoon will likely come to the conclusion that the game world is set on a planet where squids evolved instead of humans and they built all of the cities in the game. It's just a coincidence that they look like modern cities from our world. This will mostly be written off as an aesthetic choice that is made to try and link the Inklings to the youth culture that they are trying to emulate.
The Sunken Scrolls that are hidden throughout Splatoon tell a different story. According to the scrolls: a primitive race once existed in the world of Splatoon. This species destroyed themselves when they ignored warnings about global warming. The scrolls show a fossilized human skeleton sitting next to a Wii U GamePad.
12 The Twilight Man
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess had to undergo several major changes at a late point in development. This was partly due to the fact that it was decided to port the game to the Nintendo Wii first, with the original GameCube version coming at a later date. The fundamental changes between the two systems meant that Twilight Princess saw a lot of material left hidden away in the game's code.
One of the most weird secrets hidden within Twilight Princess is the "Bespectacled Man." This is a strange human figure with a striped body and a featureless face that has two eye-holes that resemble glasses. The fans suspect that the pattern on his body suggests that this person was used to measure the height of all of the characters within the game world.
11 The Former Toad
The Paper Mario games might be the most kid-friendly aspect of the Mario franchise. Nintendo took the world of Mario and turned it into a children's book, where everyone is a paper cutout.
The Paper Mario games have had a few grim moments in the series. One scene, in particular, was so dark that it never left Japan. The scene in question happened in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, during the sequence of the game where you are in Rogueport. Larson's house originally had a chalk outline of a Toad in the center of the room, with a few drops of blood near the head. The outline and the blood were removed in the international versions of the game.
10 Saving Private Conker
The Nintendo 64 was often accused of featuring too many games that were aimed at children. This was in contrast to the PlayStation, which was releasing games with more adult content. Rare's answer to this was to make Conker's Bad Fur Day, which featured far more objectionable content than most Nintendo 64 games.
There were a few scenes that had to be removed from Conker's Bad Fur Day due to Nintendo complaining. One scene showed a squirrel that had been captured during the Saving Private Ryan chapter of the game and was being experimented on by the enemy. The full scene was found in a demo version of the game.
9 Ness' Dream
EarthBound didn't sell well during its initial release in the '90s. The quirky style of the game did earn EarthBound a vocal fan community, which has only increased over time, due to emulation making it easier to play the game, as a physical EarthBound cartridge can cost a lot of money.
The diehard EarthBound fans might not have been so attracted to the game if they had played the Japanese version first. This is due to the scene in Magicant where Ness enters a dream world based on his own consciousness. Ness is shown walking around Magicant in his pajamas in the English localization of the game. This is in stark contrast to the Japanese version of the game, where Ness is shown walking around Magicant while not wearing any clothes.
8 The TV Aliens Of Animal Crossing
The Animal Crossing series might be Nintendo's nicest series. This is a franchise based on creativity and relaxation. It wouldn't do to have your cozy little town invaded by zombies, as that would ruin all the work you spent arranging flowers and little picket fences.
Animal Crossing does have a few scary moments hidden among the saccharine world of animal people and their expensive furniture. One of the most unsettling moments happens in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. In order to see it, you need to own a television and have it turned on so that it is emitting static. If you are watching the TV at 3:33 in the morning, then you will see images of a UFO among the static. This will be replaced by an alien, who will talk to you in gibberish before vanishing a minute later.
7 The Lost Girl In The Burned Tower
The Pokémon games have become a popular target for creepypasta stories. This might be due to the sheer popularity of the early games, which first rose to prominence during the period when the Internet was easier to access. The Pokémon games were a popular target for urban legends, which have been replaced with ghost stories.
One of the most unusual creepy stories surrounding Pokémon Gold & Silver refers to a piece of text within the files of the game that goes unused. There is dialogue from a random NPC who talks about how their daughter is missing and was last seen near the Burned Tower, which is a place where people commonly disappear. This text is never used in Pokémon Gold & Silver, which means that the girl really did vanish...
6 The Seal Club
Ice Climber was an early Nintendo game that starred two climbers as they ascended through frozen stages that were filled with obstacles. The game would likely have been forgotten about if it weren't for the fact that the two main characters appeared in the Super Smash Bros. series and would become one of the most prominent threats in Brawl.
The English localization of Ice Climber changed the Topi enemy. The Topi creatures look like yetis in the North American version of the game, while they looked like seals in the Japanese version of the game. You are supposed to defeat these enemies by hitting them in the head with your club, so you can guess why this was considered too graphic for a Nintendo game.
5 The Ghost Of Ehl
The Nintendo GameCube was the first home console released by Nintendo that didn't have a Super Mario game ready for launch. The fans had to sate themselves with Luigi's Mansion instead. Luigi's Mansion was an amusing game about Luigi trying to free Mario from a haunted house. It was a short, but fun title.
Luigi's Mansion wasn't particularly scary. It is the monster hidden inside the game that is truly unsettling, as there is a mysterious creature known as Elh within the files of Luigi's Mansion. Elh is a twisted creature that seemingly has no head. The body of Elh has no textures associated with it, so one can only imagine what kind of creature it was. All we know is that it has animations that are linked to water and fire.
4 The Mind-Bending Fate Of James McCloud
The Star Fox team was once led by a fox named James McCloud. The true fate of James has been an unsolved mystery in the later Star Fox games, though most people believe that he is dead.
One possible fate for James McCloud is that he is trapped in a mysterious dimension that can be entered in the original Star Fox. There is a secret level in Star Fox called "Out of This Dimension" which requires you to fly into an asteroid belt in order to discover. You cannot escape this bizarre level, which seems to have several celestial bodies based on the faces of Mario. If you visit this stage, then Fox McCloud will be trapped in a frightening realm with eerie music that he cannot escape from.
3 The Ghost Of Mario 3D Land
Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced the Boo ghosts to the series. These are spirits that cannot move if Mario is looking directly at them. Super Mario World made them homeowners, as Ghost Houses became a kind of level that Mario had to navigate. The Ghost Houses would appear in various forms across the Mario series.
The Ghost House that appeared in World 4-4 of Super Mario 3D Land seems to carry a genuine spirit. If you hang around on the last screen of the level, then you will see a ghostly apparition appear in the garden beyond the boundaries of the stage. You might have to wait around until the clock has almost run out of time before this unusual spirit shows itself fully to you.
2 The Hollow Villager
The Animal Crossing games get very angry when you don't save. The whole reason Resetti was created was so that there was someone to yell at the player if they switched their system off without saving the game first.
The first Animal Crossing game had a more... frightening method of reminding players to save. In order to do this, you need to drop all of your items and cash on the ground. You then need to talk to Porter and board the train and then reset your game. If you choose not to use the default character when you load the game, then your main character will now have the face of a Gyroid. This was meant as a harsh reminder for the player not to reset before saving.
1 The Battle With The Creator (That You Weren't Allowed To See)
The Pokémon series started out by giving away the secret Legendary Pokémon at live events. This changed for a while so that the Pokémon were hidden within the game already, but you needed to acquire special items at the live events to meet them. Pokémon Diamond & Pearl introduced the creator of all Pokémon to the series. Arceus is the closest thing the Pokémon universe has to a deity, as it is said to be responsible for creating the universe.
Arceus is still a Pokémon, which means that you can catch it. There was originally a planned encounter with Arceus that was going to happen in the Sinnoh games, but the item needed to see it was never distributed. The reason for this is likely due to the religious connotations of the Arceus battle... as well as how creepy it is. The item needed to encounter Arceus was the Azure Flute. You needed to blow this at the Spear Pillar, which would create a staircase that would lead to the heavens itself. Arceus awaits you in the Hall of Origin, while some of the creepiest music in the Pokémon series plays in the background.