Why Every Kid's Game Needs A Scary Level | Screen Rant
Seemingly every classic kid's game features at least one scary level, but what could be the purpose of this confusing tradition?
For some reason, almost every classic kid's game has at least one scary level. Super Mario sports the hellish Bowser's Castle while The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time features an equally spooky location in the form of Shadow Temple. The original SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom even forces its juvenile players to explore not one but three nerve-wrecking stages, those being Rock Bottom, Kelp Forest and the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard.
These kinds of levels usually feature dreary color pallets, lots of darkness, enemies whose power levels far exceed those of the player characters, shaky or downright collapsing platforms, and, of course, a score of uniquely eerie background music and startling sound effects. Taken together they make for an experience so anxiety-inducing it often makes kids stow away their consoles altogether, and haunts their dreams until they finally muster the courage to try again several years later.
Whilst all this is going on, parents understandably wonder why video game developers seem to derive such joy out of scaring their target audiences. At the end of the day, however, they may be holding the wrong end of the stick. Indeed, not only do psychologists deny that scary video game levels —assuming they aren't full-fledged horror titles — are capable of causing serious, long-lasting trauma to begin with, some speculate they might even have a positive impact on a child's mental development.
A few months ago, one researcher affiliated with the University of Chicago conducted a study in which he found that people who like to watch horror movies have had an easier time coping with the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic than people who don't. Trying to make sense of this statistic, the study went on to propose that experiencing stress in a simulated environment could prepare someone for managing it in real-life. Can the same be said about games — specifically, kid's games?
Perhaps. Many psychologists agree that it is better to expose kids to at least some degree of content than shielding them from it altogether. Restricting teenagers to watching nothing but children's shows like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, reads one article published in Psychology Today, could cause severe psychological harm. Forcing a teenager to play Pokémon instead of Call of Duty may well produce the same effect. Obviously this indicates one should not be banning scary content outright, but what about actively seeking it out?
One popular argument proposes that scary video game levels are a lot like roller-coasters. Although they may seem dangerous at first, riding them can give youngsters a valuable confidence boost. Among children, a scary level in a video game is almost a rite of passage. Those who are brave enough to beat one without turning off their console earn the respect of their peers and set an example for the group before moving on to the next stage, that being more adult-oriented games. It's likely that video game developers know this, and by keeping these levels in their games they are not only acknowledging that children can tolerate them but actively challenging them to grow and face adversity head-on. For these reasons, it's no surprise developers continue to add scary levels into their games... it's for the children's own good.
Sources: Evolutionary Studies In Imaginative Culture, Psychology Today