Scary Monsters...in Un-scary Games: Flesh-Eater

Have you ever played a game that’s not really meant to have really scary monsters, but somehow manages to be scary? There are several answers to this question (Yes; No; The fuck are you talking about?), and most people that you would ask this question of, will most likely give at least a few examples to support their answer. This is to highlight a particular scary monster from a game that’s meant to be educational and generally light-hearted. The game is an old Sierra point-and-click adventure game called Ecoquest: The Search for Cetus. It’s a game about a young boy named Adam, who, along with his dolphin sidekick, Delphineus, set out on a quest to search for the mighty King Cetus of the Sea Kingdom of Eluria.STOP!!! Did you see that this was a Sierra game? If so, then good. You’ll know that even in environmentally friendly games, the company that brought you Laura Bow: The Dagger of Amon Ra and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (both are murder mysteries), will not hesitate to let you know that you are in danger. Even if there’s no way to die in this game, it doesn’t diminish that sense of fear. How does it do this? By introducing the threat early on in the game: Flesh-Eater. Now…this game was meant for kids, right? Well, when you first meet Flesh-Eater, you see two other fishes of Eluria scurrying to hide, and a large…black…figure blocking out the sun is seen by Adam. His entire body literally goes pale, and he has the look of death about him. See the scene here:Now, if you were playing this game as a kid (like how I did when I first touched this game), you would be understandably freaked out by what was happening. What passed over Adam was a giant manta-ray. He’s bigger than most manta-rays in general and they are also mostly gentle. This manta has fed off of copious amounts of radioactive gunk.

So, picture a normal, friendly manta being exposed to and feeding off of radioactive materials. Now, picture it 3 times that size. And having an affinity for…meatier organisms...and it isn’t reserved to fish.

It gets worse when you actually start getting chased by him.

I feel that if they made him any bigger, it would be INCREDIBLY terrifying to young children o.O

So the next time you swim underwater in the ocean,

And you see a large shape blocking out the sun…

Then you see it start coming towards you…

…swim…swim away…

--Choco Thunda (10/10/10)

(Cover image from Cover Browser )