5. Angels of Death
Both a horror manga and anime, Angels of Death may look like something from the Super Nintendo era but the horrific and unsettling nature of the game, manga, and anime quickly leave you with a cold shiver down your spine. Playing as Rachel “Ray” Gardner, Ray wakes up after witnessing a murder to discover she is a participant in a twisted game in which each floor of this building is designated to a participant. To enter another floor is to invade their territory, and soon enough there is only chaos, death, and horror around every corner.
The game makes use of the classic text format as opposed to voice acting, pulling you in for an even more intimate connection. Solving puzzles and trying to piece together what happened and why you can barely remember what happened is common in horror games, but the execution here mixed with its nostalgic presentation creates a compelling narrative.
4. Bendy and the Ink Machine
Depending on who you ask, Bendy and the Ink Machine is a downright scary and unsettling experience. An episodic survival horror title, the game is played in first person as Henry, a retired animator who worked for Joey Drew Studios. Joey Drew, his former boss, invites Henry back to the studio to show him something only for Henry to find the place abandoned. Setting out to repair the ink machine, Henry discovers that Joey had been taking an unhealthy interest in the occult and soon abominations of the studio’s classic characters come to life to terrifying effect.
The game keeps a very solid 1920’s aesthetic to its art style of both Bendy and the general game itself. These episodic adventures of Henry, the setting, and some incredible jump scares make this an unnerving experience, to say the least. This is not the kind of cartoon character you might expect to find on the Switch, but it sure does leave an impression.
3. Dark Souls Remastered
Somehow we seem to have collectively forgotten just how viscerally disturbing Dark Souls actually is when it comes to its content. We have gotten to the point that we remember it only for its incredible, controller-breaking difficulty and forget that the thing that made us break the controller is usually dead, skinless, mutated, or otherwise something to make H.P. Lovecraft shudder. You yourself play as a cursed undead, a human forever cursed to die and be reborn. The world itself is dead and decayed and there is little left in the way of actual life.
While not strictly a horror game, Dark Souls is a game rife with anguish, loss, terror, death, and a general sense of doom regardless how you let the game play out. If all of this and its insane difficulty isn’t enough to classify Dark Souls as a scary and terrifying experience, just look at the Gaping Dragon and tell me it still doesn’t qualify.
2. Resident Evil Revelations 2
Another episodic horror series, Resident Evil Revelations 2 and its predecessor made its way onto the Switch letting you bring one of the most iconic horror franchises in gaming for whenever you don’t want to sleep. Set between the events of Resident Evil 5 and 6, players take control of Claire Redfield as she teams up with the daughter of Barry Burton, Moira, as part of Terra Save – the biohazard prevention agency. As with every other Resident Evil game, things go sideways, viral outbreaks ensue, and mutated horrors attempt to eat your face.
While this isn’t the most acclaimed in the Resident Evil franchise, Revelations 2 and its predecessor made their way onto the Switch letting you bring the T-Virus outbreak with you wherever you may go. You may not think of the Switch for horror games but this is definitely a big one to check out.
1. Darkest Dungeon
Imagine a game that combines the strategy of classic turn-based RPGs, the dire consequences of any serious rogue-like, and the brutal masochism it takes to enjoy Dark Souls and you have a rough idea what Darkest Dungeon is all about. With a gothic horror/comic book art style, Darkest Dungeon has a pretty simple objective: survive. While this seems straightforward for a horror title, you must realize just how incredibly difficult that is for this game. Party members can and will die horrible deaths as well as contract diseases and quite literally go insane. You need to rotate party members out of active duty just to keep their stress levels low enough to attempt survival.
The only saving grace for this game is its simple and flat art style because if they had rendered the game in 3D it might very well be one of the most gruesome games ever made. If you are lucky, one of your party members might simply become too stressed and die of a heart attack as it’s probably the most humane way to die in the game. This is by far one of the most grueling and bloody dungeon crawlers I have seen in a long time and it is incredibly ill-advised to get attached to any one character.
And there you have it, got any scary or unsettling games on Switch that we missed? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or the Comments section below.