For me it was Dead Space 2 when I was 12-ish. For reference, at this point the most gruesome/gorey/violent media I was exposed to was the Halo 3 Flood levels and the original 2 Alien movies.
I had way too much fun playing it to be traumatized by it at the time, although when i was old enough to understand the horror of the whole “your memories and experience becoming food for a god-like being that has absolutely zero respect for your existance”, that did inform my perspective of other media such as Evangelion or Childhood’s end when I watched them for the 1st time.
What was your equivalent to this? I’ve heard the Resident Evil games are quite common for this but I want to hear your perspective.
Growing up with the NES, horror games weren’t really a thing.
Some were spooky themed, but I doubt they qualify as horror by any standard. Like Castlevania, Ghost & Goblins and such.
The first real horror game I remember playing was Phantasmagoria. But I was a teen at that point, so it’s not really from my childhood.
Edit: Remembered my actual first horror game.
friday the 13th on nes is kinda spooky, especially the music