Has it ever happened to you? You're playing a game that has NOTHING to do with horror, and then you hit a change in the game. The setting because dark, the change in tone, the atmosphere becomes eerie, and strangely, things are getting creepy. It's almost as if you've suddenly stepped into a horror game.

I've had that happen recently, in the recently released game, Paper Mario: Color Splash.

One of the most cheerful, colorful games has horror in it?!

     And I'm sure the ones who followed the game will know what I'm talking about, the haunted mansion. Now, I did see this part of the game in pieces, but playing it was a different story. Before reaching this level, Color Splash has been bright, cheerful, and silly, but then suddenly you hit this area, there is a major contrast from the rest of the game. The music is eerie (as the track is named), the lighting becomes dim, and the tone is overall dark and unsettling. It's an unexpected drastic change, as if I was playing a different game. I certainly wasn't expecting this, and it was quite a nice and enjoyable change.

Where's Luigi when you need him...?

         The stage itself is quite interesting. It plays as a sort of mystery, where you're trying to solve the issues riddling the mansion, as well as meeting the restless spirits of the hotel. The whole areas feels as a sort of parody of traditional horror stories and tropes. Anyone who enjoys traditional horror, like haunted houses and ghosts, may enjoy this. Anyways, I would like to talk more on the level, but I don't want to spoil too much.

Oooooh, spooky cute ghooooost...

So that's my story. Has this ever happened to you in a non-horror game you were playing?

Mmmmm. I suppose the usuals. Lavender Town and its creepy tone, N's backstory in Pokemon Black/White was really unnerving, Rapture's atmosphere in the original Bioshock, the ominous demon in Shadow of the Colossus...

The closest thing I can think is a weird glitch I experienced playing God of War on my ancient PS2. The poor console was already old when I bought it from an used market store, and it had already suffered some glitches while playing Shadow of the Colossus. So when I tried to play GoW, the poor machine fell apart. The intro cutscene was flashing weird colours and screaming with its sound corrupted. The gameplay was basically weird deformed 3d modelss that looked more like some sort of lovecraftian monstruosity than Kratos and greek soldiers, all while the distorted music and soundeffects were still on. It lasted a couple of minutes before the machine crashed, and I was not able to turn the machine on ever again. it was... something.

Was your thread stolen??
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It's not really the same thing, as Fallout 4 can be pretty dark at times, but when you wander into Pickman's Gallery, it's a different vibe.

There are bodies and body-parts scattered everywhere but that's nothing new.  It's the paintings that are really creepy.

There is also a location known as Dunwich Borers, a clear reference to Lovecraft.  It's a rock quarry mine that goes deep underground.  It's filled with ghouls, which is normal, but you also have visions and you piece together evidence as you go deeper that the real point of the mine was to unearth some ancient evil that was buried long ago.

This is a terminal that you find early on, indicating that the raiders who lived there were starting to go insane.