Horror games have come a long way since their inception and are no longer just a genre for adults. Decent options for kids can easily put them in horror games they may choose to check out later as they grow up, such as Little Nightmares or Five Nights At Freddy’s.
As you can imagine, an E-rated horror game is a pretty rare sight for content and story elements. However, while most of these are labeled E10+ for anyone over the age of 10, they are generally still fine for children under the specified age. And here’s the perfect horror for little horror fans.
10 Hotel Transylvania: A Scary Story Adventure
More mature horror games like Vampyr and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow allow you to play as a vampire, but it’s the perfect kid-friendly option to play as Dracula in Hotel Transylvania. Despite not returning to voice Adam Sandler, Dracula’s personality and humor are little different from the Sony animated films.
And while it has “Scary-Tale Adventures” in its name, this game is the least scary of all the titles here, and more of a fantasy adventure than a horror. As Dracula reads stories to young children around the fire, you are transported to a world of children where puzzle solving, collecting and platforming are key objectives.
You’ll also play as his daughter, Mavis, along with other terrifying Hotel Transylvania characters.
9 Ghostbusters: Souls Unleashed
The classic Ghostbusters PG movie isn’t too scary and is full of comedic actors and an iconic soundtrack. Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered is rated T, but the online multiplayer Ghostbusters game for kids called Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is more suitable.
In an asymmetrical multiplayer style similar to Dead by Daylight, 4 players take on the role of a squad of Ghostbusters equipped with proton packs to capture other players who are ghosts wandering the location. The visuals are pretty cool overall and the soul stays with the classic design.
You’ll also meet Dan Aykroyd’s characters Ray Stantz and Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zeddemore.
8 Subnautica and Subnautica: Subzero
Subnautica is an underwater exploration survival and base building game set on an alien world. And it’s a far more welcome horror from under the sea than BioShock and Soma.
In fact, the game’s central horror aspect relies primarily on the darkness and hostile giant alien sea creatures that can hunt you down.
If your child is fascinated by marine life and dreams of becoming an oceanographer or marine biologist, this is a fun sci-fi horror way to explore that interest. There’s even a sequel called Subnautica: Below Zero, which lets you explore the planet’s new arctic biome.
7 Ghost and Goblin Resurrection
Originating as an arcade title in 1985, the Ghosts ‘N Goblins series is probably the most kid-friendly horror game from developer Capcom. And now, the latest products have been released on modern consoles, including the Nintendo Switch.
Become Sir Arthur, a bearded armored knight, and battle supernatural forces in 2D side-scrolling levels.
As the name suggests, this fantasy world is full of terrifying enemies with stunning designs that aren’t too scary for young audiences. There are zombies, weapon-wielding pigmen, dragons, cyclops, and Satan himself.
As Sir Arthur, you have a variety of weapons and spells to defeat your enemies.
6 Zombies ate my neighbors and ghoul patrols
This is a double feature remaster of two classic LucasArts SNES and Sega Genesis era horror adventures. The star characters of Zombies Ate My Neighbors and its sequel, Ghoul Patrol, Zeke and Julie are ordinary teenagers battling a plethora of monsters that can be seen right in the creature’s character.
Mummies, werewolves, UFOs, zombies (of course) and even a play on creatures from the Black Lagoon are all here to terrorize your neighborhood. The sequel is designed identically and has a story reminiscent of an Evil Dead setting.
Zeke and Julie discover a book of ancient spirits buried in the local library, full of 16-bit supernatural horror.
5 Goosebumps Dead of Night
R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps is one of the most popular horror mediums among young people, be it classic books, TV shows, and Jack Black movies. And over the years, there have been quite a few Goosebumps games inspired by iconic horror characters like Slappy the Dummy and Werewolf of Fever Swamp.
Goosebumps Dead of Night is the scariest FPS stealth horror attempt yet, while still sticking to its E rating. Just like the movie, the whole of these literary monsters are aimed at you as you do your best to avoid them in your quest to defeat Slappy.
Jack Black also returns as writer R.L. Stine in this installment.
4 hello neighbor series
Hello Neighbor is like a PG version of Fright Night and Fede Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe home invasion thriller. This is a first-person stealth-based horror game, in which the evil neighbor Mr. Trying not to get caught by Peterson.
And your neighbor’s moves are just as terrifying as any other horror game creature that’s after you.
Playing as Nicky Roth in the first game and a journalist named Quentin in the sequel, you’ll have to sneak around, run and hide. Menacing Mr. There is no defense other than to stun Peterson. Peterson’s AI gets smarter as you progress and activate traps.
A multiplayer spin-off called Secret Neighbor also exists, but for a teenage audience.
three among us
The sci-fi horrors of Dead Space and The Thing come together in this cute multiplayer game. An astronaut in a colorful space suit is killed in various places on the map by a secret alien impostor. When the body is found, everyone holds a meeting to root out who the killer is and get him out of the ship.
Among Us will be familiar to many children exposed to playground social reasoning games such as Mafia. Mini-games allow you to take on various roles as a crew member helping maintain the ship while the Imposter crew can sabotage the equipment.
There’s also a character creator where you can add fun accessories to your character.
2 haunted house
Monster House is a great animated film from 2006 about a group of kids who sneak into their neighbor’s house and discover that it is not only haunted, but alive. It also received a video game adaptation along with the film.
The game is a third-person survival horror that follows the main characters, Jenny, DJ, and Chowder.
It comes with some jump scares and an eerie sound design, with parts of the house moving and pipes blocking the path, but it’s still an experience more suited to kids than spending time in the Baker House or Spencer Mansion. To protect themselves, each one has a water gun to fight enemies, and the bathroom in the house serves as a save point.
One luigi mansion 3
Super Mario Bros. In the series, Luigi is always the one dealing with the creepier and creepier scenarios. And Luigi’s Mansion 3 sees Mario’s sidekick brother find himself on a ghost hunting adventure inside the haunted Last Resort hotel. There, he has a canine companion named Polterpup and a similar Ghostbusters device named Poltergust G-00 that sucks up ghosts and throws them around.
Your task is to clear the ghosts through each floor and solve all the puzzles in your path until you reach Mario and the rest of the company. The elementals are the final boss awaiting the very cartoonish and ominous King Boo while maintaining a fairly spooky vibe.
If you’re afraid to do it alone, there’s an extra co-op mode and a multiplayer map called ScareScraper.