Bloody Games - Classic Violence

It's time to get messy, and misbehave... and I'm not talking about trashing your office or throwing a fax machine out the nearest window. I'm talking 'bloodiest' games from the 80's computers, will you survive???

Relax, we won't be stoving any-one's head in just yet... instead, we'll just be taking a closer look at the games that have apparently caused parents of yest-er-year to raise all kinds of hell, beginning with Barbarian on the Amstrad CPC, Speccy, C64, and Amiga.

One of the things that bizarrely got people very worked up about Barbarian, and its sequel was of course the decapitation. Perhaps the most potentially frightening was when the goblin entered the screen, and kicked a blood soaked decapitated head with sheer delight, he's then seen savagely dragging the carcass away. Back then, it was probably considered one of the most gruesome things you'd ever see on an 8-bit. I dunno… maybe some parents led a sheltered life or something. Anyway, I loved it, and my parents couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.

Cracked.com said:

The game did attract some controversy for its violence, but its critical acclaim overshadowed it, After all, how are you going to criticize a game with a cover that mechanics could hang in their garages. 

Next up is a game that can only be described as the 8-bits answer to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Nemesis the Warlock! This game had a pretty horrific atmosphere, especially since the main chap saw most of the action, knee deep in dead people. It’s all very shock horror as you watch the bodies stack up, one on top of another, and the amount of blood spraying around is quite creepy and disturbing. As you lose energy, a hand squeezes the players heart to a pulp. In a later level, you had to create a bridge from human bodies in order to get through the level.

Lemon64 said:

When it first came out this title kept me playing for hours, despite being a really simple shooter. The comments about it being 'gory' in some magazines of the time made me run out a buy it!  

Now for a game that every-body's heard of, but probably never completed… Aliens! In Aliens, you basically lead a team into the Queens nest, however; as you crept along the outlandish eerie corridors, every now and then an Alien would pursue, and you’d quite literally brick it and run like the hell, before suffering a truly grotesque death.

NowGamer.com said:

There were no games – perhaps besides Cosmi’s Forbidden Forest titles and the odd Gothic text adventure – that really cranked up the tension and chilled the blood. There were no truly scary games except for Aliens.

How about Myth? OK so it wasn't so much a gore fest, but being bounced around from one mythological location to another, from Hell to Ancient Rome to Thor's Court and the Pyramids. The game-play was massively fun, and you had a well armed assortment of stabbing tools. The real fun was had on disposing of the bad guys, with a variety of gory finishes.

Sinclair User said:

The Greek Mythology is instantly apparent... the central character is immediately confronted by skeletal warriors and blood sucking harpies. 

Next up is Friday the 13th, surely this is the bloodiest, most violent video game ever to grace an 8bit machine... blood, sweat and horrifying screams come in their droves. And throughout you'll be presented with pictures of friends being mutilated with machetes. It's basically the creepiest game I've ever played, the setting is lonesome and the camp coloured in death, probably the first survival horror game I ever played, and yes, It scared me.   

Fridaythe13thfilms.com said:

There was also somewhat of a controversy in the UK over the computer game. Yes, “computer game” – did I stutter? Of course when people think of a playable Friday The 13th they automatically default their noggins to the perpetually and hilariously defamed NES video game. But the franchise got its first kicks through joysticks via (checks calender year) ancient computer systems Spectrum, Amstrad and Commodore 64. 

If murdering teenage kids in their sleep isn't your thing, how about Renegade, a 2D fighter from Imagine/Ocean? This very impressive game that had you visiting a series of criminal underworlds, packed with shysters, murderers and psychopaths, whilst fighting for your survival and mor importantly the girl. Once all levels were defeated, a showdown with Mr Big himself would unfold. Anyway the point being this game was moider, and a living nightmare for parents. It featured blood, and lots of it... blue blood in fact, unless you knew the keypress to unlock the strawberry red stuff.   

Sinclair User Said:

Renegade is irredeemably violent but never mind. I won't tell anybody if you don't.   

Bring out the Bronson, and join him on an ethical crusade... the film was bloody, but you haven't seen anything until you play the computer game, Death Wish 3 (What happened to 1 and 2). Bronson blows away anything that moves, including skin heads, old ladies and police officers with a handy array of weapons including a 475 Wildey Magnum, pump-action shot gun, machine gun, and rocket launcher... to be this good takes Bronson. How Gremlin went from cuddly characters to this I'll never know, but good on 'em for trying something brutal.

Your Sinclair said:

Death Wish 3 is Genocide.