Scary games for kids

I have a soft spot for scary games made for kids. Videogames as a medium are not strangers to horror. The market is full of well-designed, really scary games. Anything from classic games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill or Rule of Rose to more modern gems like Dead Space or Amnesia are fantastic examples with tons of fans across the globe. But there are other kinds of media with “horror” in it that is targeted to a different kind of audience. Book series like Goosebumps or television shows like Courage the Cowardly Dog are a way to introduce scary stuff to kids in a palatable and enjoyable way. My first time encountering something like this in a videogame was the original Luigi’s Mansion for the GameCube. Luigi’s Mansion is designed with a kid’s funfair “haunted house” look and feel in mind. While there are no jumpscares in it, there definitely is a creepyness which enhances the atmosphere of the game. For example, there’s this section where all the lights in the mansion go out, and…