I was pretty late to the party when I finally played Yoshi’s Island for the SNES roughly 7 years ago.  All I really knew was that baby Mario’s crying was very annoying and that the game looked pretty dang cute.  Little did I realize that the game was far more difficult than the colorful, crayon-esque aesthetic had me believe and…it could sometimes be pretty spoopy.  Don’t believe me?  Think I’m playing up the spoops for the sake of October?  Well, continue on, my dear readers, and prepare to feel mildly disconcerted!

One of the earliest levels that kind of freaked me out was level 1-2: Watch Out Below!  You will see Chain Chomps in the background, and they will jump forward and create bottomless pits in the ground from their mad descent.  Having to avoid Chimps raining down from the sky like the most terrifying form of hail I’ve ever seen was quite an unexpected and unwelcome surprise for so early into the game!  Frankly, the Chomps were just generally very aggressive in this game, as there are two levels where you’re also chased by a giant Chomp known as a Chomp Shark.  The first is found in 4-4: Marching Milde’s Fort, where even more Chomps attempt to attack you from the background before you’re chased by that massive, chomping monstrosity!  And then again in 6-7: Keep Moving, you’re chased by several of these ravenous goobers!  Fortunately, if you’re quick, they’ll break their teeth on something hard and put a stop to their pursuit, but it sure is scary while it lasts!

Frankly, Yoshi’s Island is actually home to all manner of unsettling monstrosities.  While Chain Chomps are already a Mario staple, this game also has several unique foes of its own whose designs kind of get under my skin.  One such example is the water Blargg, otherwise known as a Nep-Enut found in the aptly named level 3-3: Nep-Enuts’ Domain.  I don’t know why these guys creep me out more than their lava-dwelling counterparts…maybe it’s my fear of water that gives me a case of the shivers whenever I see a creepy face, partially submerged, watching me from the water’s surface, with beady black eyes and big bushy eyebrows.  At your approach, they rear up from their hiding spot and open wide their gaping maw, which is made even more disturbing because they’re just so big and intimidating!  Although you can make them temporarily retreat by throwing an egg at them, these guys unsettled me to no end!

And then there are these translucent and misshapen ghosts.  While Boos don’t scare me (I actually find them rather cute), the specters in Yoshi’s Island are way more disturbing than they have any right to be.  Maybe because seeing a face peering back at you from a shapeless form, that really shouldn’t have a face to begin with, is just a bit too uncanny for my liking.

One example can be found in level 3-8: Naval Piranha’s Castle.  Immediately upon entering this place, you encounter some long, gelatinous abomination called a Caged Ghost that blocks your passage through a pipe.  It cannot be defeated, but can be pushed backwards by throwing lots of eggs at it until it’s been forced to retreat to a dark and murky grate in the wall from which it originates.  Who knows where this thing begins or how long its disturbing self snakes back into the darkness.  Shiver…

While some of these guys are long and skinny, there are others that are just large and imposing.  But either way, they do everything in their power to halt your progress.  And frankly, just their creepy, angry little faces are enough to send me running the other way.  A similar variant is the Dangling Ghost found in 5-4: Sluggy the Unshaven’s Fort.  As the name suggests, these guys hang from the ceiling and, at first, just appear to have angry eyes and those same shaggy eyebrows as every other disturbing monstrosity in this game.  And then, as soon as you get close, that maw opens up and they try to bite you!  Why is everything in this game trying to eat me!  I thought this was a kid’s game!  Heeeeelp!!!

Okay, so you see, Yoshi’s Island is inadvertently a horror game confirmed!  Ahem, maybe I’m silly to find so many of the enemies creepy in such an otherwise cute and colorful game.  Then again, this game’s difficulty level suggests Yoshi’s Island isn’t entirely intended for kids, so maybe the existence of so many spooky spooks is completely intentional.  Or maybe it’s like those kid’s shows that adults find incredibly unsettling, while the children themselves are having a blast.  But why don’t you back me up, dear readers?  If you found Yoshi’s Island as unsettling as I did, why not leave a note in the comments below.  Maybe we can start a support group for people who were traumatized by Yoshi’s Island!  And then maybe, just maybe, I can finally get over my fear that a Caged Ghost is going to one day emerge from my sink drain.  I can just see it in there, a shape moving amidst the shadowy depths.  The glint of beady eyes.  The twitch of bushy eyebrows.  Just waiting to strike…

All Yoshi’s Island screenshots by The Duck of Indeed