Spooky can be a tricky concept to fully grasp.
It lies somewhere on the boundary between horror and creepy, and while it doesn’t strictly need to be gory or graphic, it generally helps.
Basically, if it makes the hairs on the back of your arms raise up in sudden dread, it’s spooky. Even though there are many examples in cinema, there are also quite a few spooky games out there.
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It can be tricky and time-consuming to find all the compelling, nightmare-inducing spooky games.
So we put together a handy list of several of them. And better yet, they all feature gorgeous and intricate pixel art to make your blood run cold!
10Sunshine Manor
Scooby-Doo With Real Stakes
PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Hound Picked Games
Horror, Puzzle
Release Date
July 17, 2025
Sunshine Manor is an absolutely creepy little horror game with spooks aplenty.
Though it’s set in an occasionally humorous (often darkly) world, it’s also full of bloody mayhem and serious jump scares.
As you make your way through the manor looking for your missing friends, you may’t shake the certainty that something is following quietly on your heels…
Besides the jump scares in the manor itself,Sunshine Manorfeatures gorgeously detailed and bloody pixel-art that is enough to make you gag.
Piles of bones, sewer green decay, nightmarish demons, and ever-present phantom menaces all come together for a sometimes cute yet always spooky adventure.
9LISA: Definitive Edition
Serenity Forge
RPG, platformer
July 03, 2025
Some may look at the titles included in LISA: Definitive Edition (LISA: The Painful and LISA: The Joyful) as more bleak than scary.
And sure, there’s a lot of bleakness in this demented post-apocalyptic world. But there’s also plentiful spooky fare.
You’ll be wandering through a cavern, spy some vague wiggling appendage, and then suddenly come across a horrific mutant with a serpentine neck.
Or you’ll be wandering in the dark, only to have some lurking monstrosity ambush you, murder you, and take all your stuff. Not to mention the roving hordes ofderanged and sexually depraved marauders.
This is a derelict future nobody wants to live in, but nevertheless an unforgettable nightmare.
Gothic, Old School Scares
PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One
Neon Doctrine
Survival Horror
June 30, 2025
Classic horror is still considered some of the best in the genre, with limited maneuverability and artificial restrictions that only enhance the experience.
But when you take that and throw it in a blender with Gothic sensibilities and eldritch magic, you get something darkly captivating.
Fighting against nightmares is one thing, and there are plentiful creatures in Lamentum.
But when you mix it with limited stamina, limited visibility, and the ever-present need to find a way to save your wife, you get heart and horror tied up with a beautiful bow.
7A Robot Named Fight
Machines Versus Fleshy Horrors
PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4
Matt Bitner Games, Morningstar Game Studio
Metroidvania, rogue-like
August 13, 2025
A Robot Named Fight is a bit of a rarity. Not only is it a Metroidvania, not only is it a rogue-like, but it’s one with a robotic protagonist fighting against an unyielding, mutating horde of fleshy horrors named the Megabeast.
WhileA Robot Named Fightdoesn’t lean heavily into the horror, there’s still plenty of it, largely thanks to the incredible pixel art.
Everything is detailed, and most enemies are terrifying amalgamations of body parts, sometimes mixed in with robotic weaponry and prosthetic limbs.
This is a future where humanity is already gone, and only one unlikely robot can fight back.
6The Count Lucanor
A Little Boy Against Demons
Neon Doctrine, Merge Games
Adventure, Puzzle, Horror
July 29, 2025
For whatever reason, horror shines ever more darkly when it involves children. Maybe it’s some deep, primal need to protect them, maybe it’s just the knowledge that they’re innocent and don’t deserve what’s coming.
The Count Lucanor runs with this theme, and throws little Hans into nightmarish trials from the blue kobold in Castle Tenebre. The game is scariest when it showcases the occasional fully animated, pixelated cut scenes, but there’s also lots of horror.
Hans isn’t really built to fight back, and thus has to do a lot of running around in the dark, chased by monsters and avoiding traps.
The perfect situation to make you start sweating and anxious.
5Blasphemous
Uproot a Horrific Cult
Blasphemous
Blasphemousis another great example of a strange mix of genres that works better than it should.
It’s not just a Metroidvania, but it’s s Souls-like, which, of course, means it can be brutally difficult.
Which is sort of perfect in a world of religious zealots, torture devices and monsters that are equal parts amazingly well-animated and utterly horrifying.
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Everything about the world of the game is dark and oppressive. Every step forward has the opportunity to be your last, and thanks to the constant cycle of rebirth, the Penitent One will suffer a lot of bloody punishment.
Not only are there deadly spikes and traps aplenty, but every boss battle is against an unimaginable horror or vicious warrior clad in sharp armor.
4Varney Lake
Hang Out with an Ancient Vampire
Chorus Worldwide
July 21, 2025
It can be more challenging for the visual novel medium to convey horror, but it’s fully capable when lush visuals match tense and well written prose.
Varney Lake is a perfect example. It starts calm, but gradually a feeling of dread eclipses a Summer day with three young friends.
As the tale of that Summer is told via narrative flashbacks, your every choice will affect the end of the tale.
And there’s more than a few branches that end in horror or bloody violence.
While the vampire isn’t pure evil, he has the capacity to do very bad things in the name of helping his young friends.
3Iron Meat
Twisted Body Horror
Run ‘n gun
July 08, 2025
It’s fair to say that Iron Meat and A Robot Named Fight are a bit like long-lost siblings.
They’re both full of horrific, mutant monsters and contend with an invasion.
The key difference inIron Meatis that humanity isn’t gone quite yet, and is facing off against the titular monster over the course of several run ‘n-gun levels.
As you shoot your way through the game, things degrade further and further, and the mutations get absolutely wild.
There’s an entire sentient building that wants to gobble you, an unruly, serpentine train monster, and even a would-be human prophet turned into a festering meat sack.
A gloriously gory and creepy adventure.
2Hunt the Night
Gothic Scares That Would Make Castlevania Proud
DANGEN Entertainment
August 09, 2025
I think many of us were inspired by the Castlevania games, especially titles like Hunt the Night. It takes that Gothic special sauce and marinates it in a visceral, dark world.
You play Vesper, a human that’s found a way to tap into dark magic in order to fight and slay monsters.
This is one of those games where every dark corner is probably hiding a lurking threat, and monsters have a tendency to appear unexpectedly.
Throw in some vast and diabolical bosses and lush pixel art, and you have an action adventure game dripping with gory horror.
Take the Red Pill
It’s pretty rare that youget to play the monsterin a horror game. But that’s exactly whatCarrionis all about, and it flips the genre neatly on its head.
Even though playing the bad guy issurprisingly empowering, that’s not to say the game doesn’t feature spooky stuff. It’s just that you’re the one supplying it.
The reason is that you’re a fleshy, red monster full of tentacles and teeth. You don’t walk around; you slither through narrow pipes and tunnels, ripping humans apart like gooey piñatas.
As you explore, not only do you learn vicious new tricks, but you learn more about how you came to be.
