10 great video game monsters

Along with luminous fangs and rubber bats, video games are now an established part of Halloween folklore. Ever since hordes of 8-bit squids descended from the sky care of Space Invaders (1978), developers have been finding new ways of shaping pixels into ever more terrifying forms and – with the gaming industry today worth an estimated $334 billion worldwide and players now able to face off against abominatons in 4K quality – the monsters you encounter via your thumbs can be as vivid as those lurking in gothic novels or horror film franchises. Here are some that are fiendish enough to make you wish you’d stuck to apple-bobbing.

Anyone who went to school during the Thatcher years will remember this evil psychopath who sought to destroy an entire country – and who usually came pre-installed on your school’s sole computer. 4Mation’s Granny’s Garden introduced kids to deductive puzzles and word games. Get one of them wrong and you’d trigger the terrifying turquoise witch, who’d instantly expel you from the Kingdom of the Mountains.

The final boss of Nintendo’s iconic platformer was clearly an armour-plated version of the game’s Shellcreeper minion (the patrolling turtle that can re-hatch and cost you your power-ups). Getting hit by his relentless fire attacks on low life meant you went back to the start. Truly diabolical.

What’s scarier than crawling through a labyrinth while being attacked by banshees and poison-spitting headless humanoids? Realising that every monster you encounter is a dream being had by an indestructible alien – who’s right underneath you! Your mission in this early first-person shooter from Bungie (Halo, Destiny) is to try and stun him back to sleep before he wakes up and destroys the world.

The mutant matriarch was scary enough when she first appeared in Metroid (1986), but at least her single eye, cyber spikes and red neurons were contained in a giant jam jar. By the time of this second sequel, however, she’s not only acquired legs but also a metallic dinosaur body. The evil brain now poses a Mecha-godzilla-level threat to series heroine Samus Aran.

Inspired by the ghoulish infirmary from Jacob’s Ladder (1990), the nurses on duty in Silent Hill 2 are no Florence Nightingale. Their predecessors in the original game looked vaguely normal, wearing ward-friendly cardigans over their twisted backs. In the sequel, they’re monsters wrapped in liquid-filled masks and low-cut dresses, and their bedside manner consists of attacking protagonist James Sunderland with drip stands and broken pipes.

The Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System might not be the most ruthless of evil game AIs – that honour goes to SHODAN from System Shock (1994) – but she is the one programmed with extra sass and sadism. Her prime directive is to taunt, gaslight and try to kill protagonist Chell, who’s teleporting her way around Aperture Labs with a portal gun.

Making her debut in one of gaming’s greatest jump-scares, Laura ticked both zombie and spider nightmare boxes in Tango Gameworks’ survival-horror. Built from more arms than an octopus orgy and scuttling after you through darkened passageways, killing Laura is like trying to shoot a hurricane. You’ll need a lot of body stockings and mince if you’re cosplaying as her this Halloween.

John Carpenter’s iconic slasher has yet to receive the HD game port bestowed upon Evil Dead and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchises. Luckily, the mass-murderer with “the blackest eyes” is one of 33 killer characters players can select in Behaviour’s online multiplayer. At the start of the game, “The Shape” (as Myers appears here) is relatively weak; each lethal ambush sees him grow stronger.

If you think cel-shaded games can’t contain pure horror then you clearly missed Nintendo’s epic open world adventure. Evil spirit Calamity Ganon – who’s taken control of the Hyrule kingdom – appears as a storm cloud augmented with horns and red lightning. For your showdown in the bowels of a cathedral, he upgrades to a sword-wielding giant. Hit sprint and good luck.

You’d think the monsters would all blur into one down in Hell, especially when you have to destroy every one of them to escape. But even armed with lightning, rocket attacks and being the son of the god of the dead, hero Zagreus has his work cut out trying to defeat the armour-plated Bone Hydra. It blocks his way out like a persistent trick-or-treater. Happy Halloween!