Nintendo Once Made One of the Greatest Horror Games of All Time (& Everyone Wants a Sequel)

Nintendo doesn’t always dive into horror games, but one of their few experiments in the genre remains an undisputed classic. For the most part, Nintendo consoles are best known for their focus on family-friendly multiplayer experiences. The GameCube was an interesting challenge to that longstanding tradition, with the console serving as the original home for high-profile horror titles like Resident Evil 4.

It was also the console that debuted one of the most critically acclaimed horror titles ever — even if audiences weren’t ready for it at the time. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem remains one of the highlights of the genre, a grim fusion of Lovecraftian horror and adventure games with a memorably unsettling atmosphere and scary story that competes with other G.O.A.T. contenders. While it didn’t sell well upon release, Eternal Darkness remains a fan-favorite over two decades after it first snuck into our nightmares.

Eternal Darkness Is An Overlooked Horror Classic

Debuting on the GameCube in 2002, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem remains one of the undersung gaming classics of the genre. Developed by Silicon Knights, Eternal Darkness was a wildly ambitious title that fused influences from eldritch horror with the exploration of a traditional 3D action-adventure game. The first title ever published by Nintendo to earn an M rating from the ESRB, Eternal Darkness is set across multiple time periods and locations.

The story largely focuses on Alexandra Roivas, whose investigation into the brutal murder of her grandfather leads her into orbit of several monstrous entities from outside reality. The branching paths and multiple playable characters added to the epic scope, with a storyline that tracks the efforts of four ancient evils and their plans for the world at large. In fact, multiple playthroughs are required to unlock the true final path of the game, which builds out a terrifically scary lore that still haunts players years later.

Unnerving, frightening, and yet deeply compelling and tragic, Eternal Darkness’ incorporation of elements like “Sanity Effects” that impacted the visuals, environment, and even the fourth wall added to the tension. The influence of Eternal Darkness has been felt in the industry ever since it came out, with plenty of other titles incorporating similar elements — modern titles like Silent Hill f use a sanity bar in a similar way to Eternal Darkness, representing the collapse of the player character’s mentality amid the chaos of the situation. It speaks to the forward-thinking approach to horror that Silicon Knights brought to the title and how modern this twenty-year-old game still feels.

When it was released, Eternal Darkness earned rave reviews from critics, befitting its ambitious story, effective atmosphere, and solid gameplay. However, this didn’t translate to strong sales. Eternal Darkness didn’t even sell 500,000 copies worldwide, leading it to be considered a flop. As such, many gamers missed out on a truly one-of-a-kind experience, especially on the typically horror and mature-rating-averse GameCube.

Why Fans Are Still Holding Out Hope For Eternal Darkness 2

The relative handful of players who did get their hands on it (including this writer) have never been able to quite shake the influence it had on us, however. As time has gone on, the game’s reputation has grown within the gaming community, with many retrospectives calling it one of the best horror games ever made. Over the years, there have been multiple attempts to bring Eternal Darkness back for a new generation, either through hopes for a sequel, spiritual successor, or modern remake. Despite being designed as a stand-alone game, the game’s director Denis Dyack expressed interest in a sequel as early as 2006. However, despite efforts to produce a direct sequel, rumors and hopes for a follow-up have been repeatedly dashed.

Even an attempt to crowdfund the themes and story of the intended sequel for a new game titled Shadow of the Eternals was thrown off by behind-the-scenes problems. However, Nintendo continues to renew the license for the game, even incorporating references to it (along with most of the games that have been a part of the Nintendo catalog) in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. That has given fans a lingering hope to hang onto that the game might eventually be brought back in some form.

As the game’s legacy has only grown, hope continues to spring eternal. Eternal Darkness feels like exactly the type of game that would thrive on Nintendo Switch 2, especially now that it has incorporated GameCube as an option for the Nintendo Classics line. It could find a new audience that is more attuned with seeing horror titles on Nintendo consoles, especially in light of how far the horror genre has evolved in the years since. Eternal Darkness might have been a nightmare scenario for the characters trapped within it, but it remains a dream come true for anyone who has wanted to see the existential dread and monstrous designs of a Cthulhu story brought to horrifying life. Eternal Darkness is an all-time great horror and a must-play for die-hard fans of the genre.

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