One of the foundations for horror is helplessness. Murderous monsters and otherworldly threats are imposing enough, but the terror amplifies when you can’t stop them. That’s why so many horror games position players as victims. When you can’t rely on the usual offensive approach, you must find creative ways to escape before your assailant closes in. Not only does that approach breed suspense, but it leads to greater challenges. Sometimes, however, the shoe should be on the other foot.

A few games flip the horror script by letting you play as the killer. Controlling a masked maniac or mythical monster, you hunt down innocent civilians to satiate your bloodlust. NPCs and even other players exist solely as your victims, and you’re nigh impervious to their pitiful attacks. While this premise undermines the difficulty, it compensates through the sheer thrill of a power fantasy. It also offers a fresh perspective on cliched horror scenarios. These perks make it worth seeing things from the other side—as demented as it is.

Related: 10 Horror Video Games You Won’t Want to Play in the Dark

10 Texas Chainsaw Massacre

How fitting that this early example stems from one of the most notorious horror flicks ever made. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre focuses on an unsuspecting group of friends who stumble into a macabre ordeal. A simple pit stop brings them face-to-face with a family of cannibals. The most imposing of these killers is Leatherface, a silent giant with a chainsaw and a mask made of human skin. You’d think such grisly visuals would be too much for an old Atari game, but you’d be wrong.

The Texas Chainsaw tie-in has you play as Leatherface during a killing spree. Wielding his trusty chainsaw, he chases civilians around the screen. Colliding with these victims slices their heads off, leaving them in a mass of pixelated blood. That gameplay loop sounds simple, and that’s because it is. You control this iconic serial killer and do what he does best. The game gives you exactly what you ask for.

If old-school Atari is not your thing, the 2023 version of the game comes with more killers and better graphics.^[1]

9 The Happyhills Homicide

In the same retro vein is a pixelated indie title. The Happyhills Homicide introduces John Wade. This unfortunate school janitor’s grotesque appearance earns brutal treatment from both students and staff. After a fire leaves him scarred and homeless, this poor soul takes revenge on those who wronged him. Needless to say, this game makes you root for the killer. It’s not just a mindless massacre, though.

The game is a side-scrolling puzzle title. You must sneak into your victims’ homes to catch them unawares. This process involves studying the layout, using tools lying around, and bypassing obstacles. This preparation makes success all the more rewarding. Not to mention, the harebrained schemes have a sadistic perk: killing your targets in wonderfully elaborate ways. The game prioritizes patience and ingenuity with its sadistic showmanship. Revenge is a dish best served cold.^[2]

8 Dead by Daylight

This title sees you target other players. Dead by Daylight is a multiplayer adventure whose premise stems from horror archetypes. Each match sees several players control the Survivors. Working together, they must escape the arena that they’re trapped in. This process involves gathering materials, crafting tools, and fixing generators to power up the exit gates. The catch is the time crunch.

The final player controls the Killer. This masked maniac hunts down the Survivors and impales them on hooks. This unholy act sacrifices them to a mysterious being known as the “Entity.” If he accomplishes this terrible tribute before his victims escape, then he wins. Essentially, each side has to race against time to outfox the other. The gameplay loop is basic, but so are most horror scenarios.^[3]

7 Predator: Hunting Grounds

The formula of Dead by Daylight naturally spawned a few imitators. Predator: Hunting Grounds is one of them, but it’s a fitting match. The Predator movies are about extraterrestrial hunters systematically slaughtering characters in densely confusing settings. That premise lends itself naturally to this formula.

As before, players compete in a horrific game of cat and mouse. Four of them control elite spec ops soldiers. Together, they must complete military missions like recon or eliminating targets. Meanwhile, the remaining player goes after them as the Predator. Either side can kill the other, but the latter obviously has the advantage, thanks to alien stealth tech and durable biology. It can easily catch its quarry unawares like a superhuman assassin. The toughest troops look like lambs by comparison.^[4]

6 Friday the 13th

Another multiplayer movie tie-in uses Dead by Daylight as a template. Friday the 13th focuses on a masked murderer stalking a forest campground and offing the counselors. This survival title positions one player as Jason Voorhees, who proceeds to hunt down the others. His uncanny mobility and extrasensory abilities make him a skilled killer able to ward off any attack, but the others are far from defenseless.

The remaining players are camp counselors. Their in-house know-how can hinder Jason through careful planning. Specifically, they slow him down by setting traps or shooting projectiles. Those small delays buy enough time to either escape or last until the end of the session. Granted, the counselors can also kill him by replicating his childhood trauma involving his mother, but that feat is extremely difficult to pull off. Because of Jason’s otherwise invincible nature, most matches likely involve running for dear life.^[5]

5 Jaws Unleashed

It’s easy to see how Jaws made audiences afraid to enter the water. This film portrays a scenic island plagued by a massive shark. Its bloodthirsty nature is never satisfied, and its aquatic habitat makes it nearly impossible to see coming. Like the best horror monsters, this animal is truly overwhelming.

Jaws Unleashed shifts the perspective beneath the waves. Players control the enormous predator as it prowls the waters near Amity Island. Gameplay involves attacking swimmers, sinking boats, fending off hunters, and eating other animals. Along the way, you improve your stats and attacks to take on larger prey. That loop continues as the pitiful humans resort to increasingly drastic means to drive you out. Overcoming those attempts lets you secure your spot at the top of the food chain.^[6]

4 Vampyr

To be fair, this entry depends on your playstyle. Vampyr sees a blood-sucking plague ravage London in 1918. You play as a doctor trying to stop it. The twist is that you’re a vampire yourself, albeit of a higher tier. It’s here where the game’s choices come in.

The selfish path is easier, but it also leaves more bodies in its wake. As a doctor, you have a set number of patients. They may be innocent people, but a vampire simply sees them as a food source. Killing them and drinking their blood can satisfy your hunger. In fact, it’s practically required to level up your vampiric abilities. The downside is that it somewhat undermines the medical profession when your patients mysteriously die off. By the end, this doctor is a bigger menace than the plague.^[7]

3 Terminator: Resistance

The Terminator films are pillars of technological terror. They depict an apocalyptic future where machines reduce the planet to a nuclear wasteland and wage a ruthless war against the survivors. Terminator: Resistance positions you as one of those human survivors. You frequently fight the menacing mechs, and each encounter is a grueling struggle thanks to their impregnable armor and unparalleled precision. Fortunately, you can tip the odds in your favor.

The Infiltrator Mode DLC lets you become a Terminator. Specifically, you control an infiltrator unit to terminate a Resistance commander. Accomplishing this mission involves scouring the dilapidated Los Angeles streets and storming Tech-Com facilities. At the end of the day, though, you just mow down any humans foolish enough to stand in your way. That frightening efficiency makes you wonder how people can ever win out against robots.^[8]

2 Rebel without a Pulse

Zombies usually make convenient cannon fodder. Stubbs bucks that trend. The eponymous Rebel without a Pulse survives by killing humans. The goal of the game is to simply devour people’s brains. This cranial meal keeps the undead protagonist alive (so to speak). Granted, the humans don’t make this easy, as many of them are only too willing to blast Stubbs into oblivion. The zombie can defend himself with makeshift weapons and stolen vehicles, but there’s strength in numbers.

Stubbs can also infect his victims with the undead virus. Not only does this action turn them into zombies, but it makes them loyal to their deformed creator. Soon, Stubbs has a whole army of mindless followers. These legions are great for both combat and spreading the infection. The resulting snowball effect eventually topples the entire population. It’s no wonder why zombies are so good at the apocalypse.^[9]

1 Among Us

Among Us looks like the most innocent entry, but those looks lure you into a false sense of security. It’s yet another multiplayer title about a group of survivors in an enclosed environment. They must roam around this rundown base and keep it operational through teamwork. Of course, they also have a killer seeking to wipe them out. However, that familiar setup comes with a lethal caveat: The murderer is one of their own teammates.

Certain players are imposters. These guys resemble regular characters, but that’s how they get close enough to assassinate you. You must somehow discover who is genuine and who is a saboteur. Otherwise, your companions will gradually get knifed in the dark. It’s tough to rely on a team you can’t trust. On the upside, paranoia is a solid foundation for horror.^[10]

Video games have consistently gained popularity around the world. Some of the most popular video games are filled with violence, sexual scenes, drug use, and other mature situations, earning the game a ban or censoring in several nations. However, some games have received a country-wide ban for shocking reasons. Here are ten video games that are surprisingly banned around the world.

Related: 10 Video Game Secrets We Wish We Never Found

10 Crash Bandicoot 2 (Japan)

It’s hard to believe that Crash Bandicoot would have content that was so unsuitable that it would be banned, but it was in one country. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back was banned in Japan for a death animation. In the game, Crash is squashed into a stunned, floating head with feet. Seems harmless, but Japan stated that it resembled the Kobe child murders, which was a series of child killings that occurred in Kobe, Japan.

The game was initially banned by Japan, but the developers didn’t want to cause any controversy and decided to alter the animation for the Japanese version of the game. The Japanese version of the game shows Crash redesigned to appear less aggressive and cuter. There were also other small changes to make the game more lighthearted for Japanese gamers.^[1]

9 The Guy Game (United States)

The Guy Game, released in 2004 by TopHeavy Studios, was a trivia game that allowed up to four players to complete multiple-choice questions and mini-games. While all of this is going on, there is filmed live-action footage of bikini-clad women on spring break. Players are trying to accumulate points that go toward the Flash-O-Meter, which progressively removes censorship of women exposing their breasts. Sure, it’s not a game you wanted your mom to know about, but the gameplay is warranted for a ban, right?

Footage for the game was filmed on South Padre Island during spring break in 2003. They went around trying to pay women to expose their breasts for the camera, and the footage was used for the video game. A guy playing the video game discovered his underage sister topless during gameplay, and the discovery led to a lawsuit against the game.

The unidentified woman gave producers a fake identification card and inconsistent information for media release. She sued the developers and publishers for breach of privacy and emotional distress. The lawsuit led to a temporary injunction against any further distribution, which led to TopHeavy Studios ceasing further sales of the video game.^[2]

8 Mass Effect (Singapore)

Mass Effect is a video game about a civilization that is threatened by an advanced machine race better known as the Reapers. The action role-playing game was originally released in 2007 for the Xbox 360. It debuted at #6 on the video games sales chart in the United States, and it also won several awards, including Best RPG at the IGN Best of 2007 Awards and Game of The Year by the New York Times. Even though the game was a huge hit, censorship kept it off the shelves in Singapore.

The video game had an optional subplot that allowed the player to develop a relationship with a non-player character. If the relationship grew stronger, scenes would show sexual activity with partial nudity. Singapore was the only nation that had a problem with the game and banned the game for same-sex love scenes between a human woman and an alien female. The Singapore Media Development Authority later reversed its decision and allowed the game to be released with an M18 rating.^[3]

7 Pokémon Go (Iran)

Pokémon Go introduced a new generation to the popular franchise while bringing nostalgia to old fans. The game makes you a trainer, and you must get out and be active to try to “catch ’em all.” The game was new and exciting in so many ways, but one country had one major issue with the mobile video game.

Iran made the decision to ban Pokémon Go due to unspecified security concerns. Iran’s High Council of Virtual Spaces believed the game’s usage of maps and geolocation data presented a security issue for the people of the country. Other countries and cities around the world have expressed their concerns with the game, but Iran was the first country to place a ban on the game.^[4]

6 Football Manager 2005 (China)

Football Manager 2005 was released in 2004 as a football (or soccer for Americans) management simulation video game. Players take the reign of a professional football team and try to coach them to a championship by managing team finances, signing new players, and giving the team pep talks. The game is supposed to simulate the real-world management of a team. What could be so controversial about a sports management game?

China found out that Taiwan and Tibet were listed as separate countries in the game, which led to a country-wide ban. They believed the game’s content was harmful to the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. SEGA announced that a Chinese version would be released with Taiwan included as part of China. The game went on to earn excellent reviews from most critics and gaming sites, including an 89 out of 100 by both GameRankings and Metacritic.^[5]

5 Animal Crossings: New Horizons (China)

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a social simulation game for the Nintendo Switch and is the fifth game in the Animal Crossing series. Players live on a deserted island and work to develop a town as they progress. The game is pretty chill as players walk around and catch bugs, water plants, and try to build a peaceful town, but China somehow found a reason to ban the game.

Players in the game have the ability to create custom graphics and meet up with other players virtually. Some banners created by users included images of the Chinese President and phrases such as “Free Hong Kong.” Images such as these are considered offensive and led to the country-wide ban.^[6]

4 Pokémon (Saudi Arabia)

Pokémon took over the world in the ’90s with the hit TV show, trading cards, and Game Boy video games. Their products made their way to store shelves all around the world… except in Saudi Arabia. The country stated that the games promote Zionism and involve gambling. The religious authority claimed that the video game and trading cards contain un-Islamic symbols, including the star of David.

It was compared to gambling due to the competition that involves money being exchanged between card collectors. The franchise has been critiqued by several other countries with partial bans and censoring. Nintendo released a statement saying that they didn’t create any symbols with religion in mind, and they promised to investigate all claims.^[7]

3 EA Sports MMA (Denmark)

MMA can be a brutal sport as two fighters rip into each other, leaving blood pouring into the ring. When EA Sports MMA was released in 2010, Denmark decided to place a ban on the game, but not for the bloody violence.

Denmark decided to not allow the release of the video game due to the marketing of energy drinks. Their law prohibits the marketing of energy drinks. EA decided not to change the product placement of energy drinks on fighters’ shorts and in the ring, but instead, they decided not to release the game at all in Denmark.^[8]

2 The Sims 4 (Uzbekistan)

The Sims 4 is a life simulation game that allows users to create characters, build homes, and live in a world full of imagination. The game features mild violence and gore, mild drug use, mild sexual situations, and some intense scenes, earning it a T for Teen rating in the United States. These features were more than enough to earn a ban from Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan banned The Sims 4, along with 33 other video games, for distorting values and threatening stability. The games are believed to be used to propagate violence and threaten security. Their government also didn’t want these games to distribute false information about the country’s history and culture. The ban is also a result of their government trying to keep young people away from “destructive” influences.^[9]

1 Mario Kart Tour (Belgium)

The last game you would think to find on this list is a first-party Nintendo game, but somehow Mario Kart Tour found a way to earn a ban. Belgium made the decision to ban the video game due to loot boxes that did not comply with local gambling regulations. Players could spend real money on loot boxes without knowing the contents of the loot boxes, which is associated with gambling in Belgium.

The Netherlands joined Belgium in banning the game unless the company selling them has a gambling license. The Norwegian Consumer Council also called the loot boxes manipulative and exploitative. Nintendo even faced a lawsuit in the United States after a young gamer claimed the loot boxes encouraged addictive behavior just as gambling. Nintendo made the decision to remove loot boxes from Mario Kart Tour in 2022. Who knew that Mario Kart could rev up so much controversy.^[10]

Horror games are no stranger to controversy, but these ten games took it a little too far, each crossing boundaries that got them banned or pulled from shelves around the world. From dystopian drug-induced joy to psychologically twisted survival games, these entries aren’t just scary to play—people were scared of what they could do.

Whether it’s Hotel 626’s eerie phone calls in the dead of night or Manhunt’s brutal, unapologetic violence, each game serves as a dark reminder of how far games and the gamers behind them can go.

Related: 10 Bizarre Urban Legends That Are Related to Video Games

10 Hotel 626

Let’s start with Hotel 626, the absolutely legendary web-based game that disappeared from the internet. Hotel 626 was released on October 31st, 2008, by none other than the company we all know and love, Doritos. Yes, I said Doritos. And yes, it is a horror game.

They wanted to revive their two dead flavors: Black Pepper Jack and Jack and Smokin’ Cheddar BBQ. Unfortunately, this was not a game about Cheddar Cheetah hunting you down and trying to kill you for eating his Cheetos. Instead, it was about waking up in a hotel that you found out pretty quickly that you didn’t want to stay at. You could only actually play it between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. (though I’ve heard the stories of people changing the time on their clocks to play it), ensuring you had the perfect eerie backdrop of darkness when you played.

The game had a creepy, unique style that used videos and photos of real people instead of 3D avatars. Your only mission was to escape while being hunted by ghosts, demonic infants, and a psychotic hotel maid. Easy, right? Well, it was apparently really hard due to the puzzles, specifically the one where you’re locked in with a starved-to-the-point-of-insanity man who will eventually escape and eat you alive.

However, the thing that actually killed the game itself was its collection of personal information. The game used things to send shivers down the players’ spines. It asked for your phone number at the beginning of the game in order to call you with a pre-recorded message during the allotted hours in the middle of the night that told you that you were still in the hotel, which is absolutely… great, yeah.

The second is used within the game. There was one particular part where you had to run away from a chainsaw-wielding maniac by finding a photograph that showed your own face from your webcam (or the hotel lobby if your webcam was off). However, as you were looking for your own face, you saw tens of other faces in your desperate escape. These faces were not actors but pictures taken of people in their own bedrooms reacting to the chainsaw maniac following them. Now, the only problem is that Doritos never asked the player for permission to use their webcam and pictures. Yikes.

This led to a panic from the legal department side of Doritos, and critics and privacy advocates pointed out the potential risks of hackers. Doritos eventually pulled the website from the internet to avoid being sued. Thus, they weren’t actually banned, but most likely were going to be, and they pulled the plug on themselves.^[1]

9 We Happy Few

We Happy Few transports players to an alternate 1960s England, a place where the streets are tidy, the colors bright, and everyone is, without exception, blissfully cheerful—or so it seems. The only thing that seems to keep the place running is “Joy,” a happiness pill designed to keep citizens smiling while erasing any uncomfortable memories of the past and everything that makes you you. Those who decide to stop taking Joy are labeled “Downers,” outcasts who are hunted down by the smiling authorities for “rehabilitation.” The game’s take on happiness, controlled by the iron fist of a drugged-up dystopia, poses an uncomfortable question: What’s the price of happiness if it’s manufactured? Turns out, it’s not pretty.

The story begins with Arthur Hastings, one of three characters you can control throughout the game. He discovers an old newspaper clipping that jogs his memory of events before Joy, spurring him to go off the drug and start seeing the crumbling reality around him. The town of Wellington Wells is bright on the surface, but for those not dosed up on Joy, the illusion fades quickly into a grim picture of societal and physical decay. Citizens go about their days in a forced euphoria, with the Joy-enforcing “Bobbies” smiling widely while clubbing anyone who dares to so much as frown. As someone who just watched Smile 2, I have an all-too-good vision of what this would be like in real life, and I don’t like it.

However, We Happy Few was a bit too dark. The game faced a temporary ban in Australia, where authorities claimed that its depiction of Joy might encourage substance abuse, echoing real-life concerns about drug normalization. The controversy highlighted the game’s balance between satire and shock value, as critics argued that its portrayal of forced happiness struck too close to reality. Yet supporters countered that the game isn’t about glorifying drug use—it’s a cautionary tale about the dangers of a society that sacrifices authenticity for the sake of fake positivity.

The ban was eventually lifted, as predicted in 2019. Its portrayal of a world addicted to false happiness simply points to our current social pressures to “just be happy.” By forcing players to choose between following the crowd or holding onto reality, the game poses an unsettling thought: can happiness be real if we don’t have a choice? And maybe more hauntingly, are we already swallowing our own version of Joy?

You might be able to tell I love this game’s concept.^[2]

8 Phantasmagoria

Imagine booting up your computer and stepping into the surreal, eerie world of Phantasmagoria. The game was definitely intended to keep you awake for hours after playing—or falling asleep to nightmares. Set in a massive, creaking mansion on a fog-draped coast, the game drops you into the life of Adrienne Delaney, a writer hoping to escape distractions with her husband in tow. As the days wear on, it turns out this mansion has more inspiration than she bargained for.

Slowly, Adrienne uncovers the twisted history of its former owner, a magician who dabbled in dark arts that left a lasting impression—and maybe a few curses behind. So much for inspiration, right? One of the game’s groundbreaking features was its usage of full-motion video (FMV), meaning real actors were filmed to play each character, adding a bit of raw realism that made each horrifying scene even more terrifying. Yay!

As Adrienne’s husband descends under the mansion’s spell, he transforms from her loving husband into a twisted and maniacal stranger. Love does drive you crazy, after all. The use of live actors brought an unsettling authenticity that caused horror fans to flock to the game in droves. With each sequence more gruesome than the last, the line between virtual horror and real-life terror became disturbingly thin. This live footage is also what paved the way for Hotel 626 just a decade later, and it’s what I have to personally thank for making horror games better.

When Phantasmagoria was released in 1995, it was met with a mix of fascination and outrage. Its unfiltered scenes of violence, supernatural possession, and psychological abuse quickly earned it a reputation as one of the most controversial games of its time. Critics were quick to condemn it as “too explicit,” arguing that some scenes were simply beyond the boundaries of good taste.

The now-infamous “head-in-the-blender” moment alone redefined how far horror could go in gaming, with fans eagerly replaying scenes while some critics wondered if they’d accidentally wandered into a horror film set. Australia, once again, was less enthusiastic, banning the game outright for being “too dark.”

Apparently, they didn’t care much for the murder, possession, or the infamous “head-in-the-blender” moment, a scene that truly redefines “blending genres.” But despite the ban, or maybe because of it, Phantasmagoria endures as a darkly beloved cult classic, known for taking horror out of the shadows and into a player’s lap—often a bit more literally than anyone expected.^[3]

7 Rule of Rose

Beneath the facade of its orphanage setting, Rule of Rose is anything but kid-friendly. Jennifer, the game’s protagonist, quickly learns that she’s the latest “lucky” entrant into the twisted social structure run by a gang of children who call themselves the Red Crayon Aristocrats. But this isn’t playtime with jump ropes and hopscotch. Unless you’re okay with the squares being replaced by symbols of ritual sacrifice. The “games” involve strange sacrifices and crazy rituals that make Jennifer the unwilling star player. Eventually, you’ll question if you liked the kids in Lord of the Flies better.

Rule of Rose achieves its horror by leaving most of the terror to the imagination and by hinting at everything behind the scenes. It leads to the feeling of cult-like control and a social hierarchy gone awry. While other games might use zombies or monsters, here, it’s the children themselves who set the stage for horror, forcing Jennifer into disturbing tasks involving cages, mutilated dolls, and animal sacrifices.

Each ritual drags her deeper into their twisted little “games.” As she endures ritual after ritual, she slowly uncovers twisted truths about the children, each task dredging up memories from her own traumatic past. It’s dark psychological horror at its finest—or worst, depending on how you feel about repressed memories resurfacing in the form of creepy lullabies. While this game was definitely more so on the violent side than the sexual side, some journalists claimed that the game had violent erotic undertones with underage girls. This, of course, caused the critics to make an even bigger uproar about the game, even getting the mayor of Rome and the EU involved in its release.

But it was Italy this time, not Australia, that took the largest issue with it. Italians bantered about banning it, saying that “Every frame is dripping with perversion.” Politicians in the UK fueled outrage over content they hadn’t even seen, based on rumors and worst-case guesses. It was eventually released anyway, but only in small amounts, making it a rare and expensive find today. The mix of eerie children, cult-like rituals, and symbolic violence even made sure it stayed off the shelves in several places.^[4]

6 Manhunt

Manhunt is what happens when someone decides a horror game can never be too bleak or too brutal. You play as James Earl Cash, a death row inmate given a second chance—though “second chance” is a bit generous when you’re dropped into a live-action snuff film. Cash’s director and “savior” is a shadowy figure who’s orchestrating every bloody detail for his own twisted film. From the moment Cash steps out of that prison van, his only goal is to survive the night by creatively dispatching a series of gangs—groups like the Hoods and the Smileys, each a little more colorful than the last in their own murderous way.

The game’s “murder with style” approach quickly grabbed attention, with every kill graded on a scale from “quick and clean” to “horrifyingly elaborate.” Manhunt doesn’t just let you eliminate enemies; it challenges you to do it with… pizzazz. Weapons range from plastic bags to nail guns, each lending a different flavor to your executions. The Director encourages the most vicious kills, rewarding Cash with higher scores for each gruesome masterpiece as he sneaks, creeps, and bludgeons his way through each gang. Art school really has changed, eh?

It was immediately banned in New Zealand, labeled as “grossly offensive,” which is just another way of saying they’d prefer it never see daylight. Australia pulled its rating with lightning speed, and the UK took it off shelves briefly after a real-life murder was initially linked to the game—a claim that was later disproven. The game was so infamous that critics quickly raised questions about whether Manhunt was even a game or just an interactive horror film.^[5]

5 Hatred

Hatred is, in a word, unapologetic. The main character (he has no name) wakes up, stares into the mirror, and, instead of making affirmations or grabbing a coffee, decides it’s time to kill everyone in sight. You play as “The Antagonist,” a nihilistic anti-hero clad in a leather trench coat who’s basically the twin of Bleach’s Yhwach. His whole mission? Complete destruction of anyone and everyone.

This game doesn’t mince words—or actions. In Hatred, there are no redemptive story arcs and no world-saving quests. The entire thing is a sandbox game where the goal is simply to be as destructive as possible. And while most games are like, “Hey, maybe save the city,” Hatred is more like, “Here’s your assault rifle, and maybe don’t forget the grenade launcher.” Each level is a parade of carnage as you roam a town that might as well have a banner reading “Welcome, We’re All Targets.” In-game scores even reward you for increasing mayhem, turning every quiet street into the world’s darkest block party.

The backlash? Immediate and intense. It was temporarily pulled from Steam Greenlight after complaints that the game “promotes wanton violence,” a charge that developers shrugged off with a “Yes, exactly.” And while Grand Theft Auto might get flak for “glamorizing crime,” Hatred threw its hands up and said, “Forget glamour, let’s just go all in.”

The developers state that the purpose of the game was to eliminate all the “fake philosophical stuff” thrown into games to justify their violence. The result? An unapologetic, chaotic game full of violence and animalistic nature. The game was banned in several countries, including Germany and New Zealand, and was widely labeled as irredeemably violent.^[6]

4 Mariam

Originally developed in Saudi Arabia, Mariam caused a stir almost as soon as it hit the app store. The game follows a young girl named Mariam who’s “lost” and asks the player for help finding her way home. But what starts off as a seemingly innocent interaction turns creepy fast. While guiding Mariam, players are prompted with increasingly personal and invasive questions, starting by stating she can read your mind by talking about trending news stories and then ending with a casual “Where do you live?”.

The game escalates through these bizarre, unsettling questions that make you wonder if Mariam is more of a stalker than a lost child. As the game progresses, it becomes less about helping Mariam and more about surviving her situation, making players feel like they’re stepping into a horror-themed therapy session they never signed up for.

What really ramped up the unease was the game’s tendency to ask for players’ location access, sparking rumors about potential surveillance and data collection. Reports swirled that Mariam might actually be tracking players, with each spooky message hinting at a ghostly GPS service run by Big Brother. The game wasn’t actually gathering any data, but the game’s eerie atmosphere and unsettling questions led to privacy concerns among players and their parents. It wasn’t long before the app felt less like a game and more like an interactive urban legend, where players were helping a lost girl… and giving her far more information than anyone should share with a haunted app.

In Saudi Arabia, Mariam sparked controversy, with concerned parents accusing the game of influencing children in unhealthy ways. Some even claimed that it promoted self-harm, though no evidence surfaced to support these allegations. Given the outcry, authorities acted swiftly, banning the app and issuing warnings about its “psychological impact” on young players. Apparently, the horror game had done its job a little too well, blurring the line between suspenseful gameplay and digital intrusion.

Mariam remains a curiosity, with its unsettling gameplay and strange mechanics drawing to those with a taste for the mysterious. But it’s more than just a horror game—it’s a digital campfire story that dares you to play and then leaves you wondering if you should have. In the end, Mariam became as much an urban legend as it was an app, proving that sometimes the scariest thing of all is realizing you’ve willingly handed your location to a creepy, fictional child.^[7]

3 Postal 2

Postal 2 is the video game equivalent of a fever dream had by someone who watched too many action movies on fast-forward. The game follows “The POSTAL Dude,” a guy who’s just trying to get through his week with simple errands like picking up milk, cashing a paycheck, and returning a library book. Sounds mundane, right? Wrong. Postal 2 gives you the option to complete each task peacefully or… not-so-peacefully. And by “not-so-peacefully,” we’re talking about flamethrowers, a shovel with a wickedly sharp edge, and a lot of chaos.

Set in a small desert town, Postal 2 doesn’t just allow for violence—it practically rolls out the red carpet for it. Almost every NPC has a quick insult ready if you look at them the wrong way, and the town is filled with groups like rampaging protestors and angry fundamentalists. If you thought going to the bank was stressful, Postal 2 makes it feel like a gladiator match. And just when you think it couldn’t get more absurd, the game hands you a health pack in the form of—you guessed it—catnip, which also doubles as a silencer if you attach a cat to the barrel of your rifle. Yes, Postal 2 is that kind of game.

Obviously, the response was explosive. Postal 2 was banned outright in New Zealand, where authorities labeled it “grossly offensive”—again! They really like that terminology, am I right? Australia followed suit, refusing it on the grounds of excessive violence and animal cruelty. Even in the U.S., it found itself in hot water, particularly within the court system, which pointed to it as proof that video games were steering the youth down a dark path. For once, the game’s creators didn’t argue, proudly marketing it as the game that will give the dark side of your imagination free reign.^[8]

2 Demonophobia

This RPG-visual novel hybrid throws you into a nightmare designed to test your mental stamina (and maybe your sanity). You play as Sakuri Kunikai, a 14-year-old girl. Without a clue as to where she is, Sakuri quickly realizes she’s in a world where everything has just one goal: to make her time here as torturous as possible.

What sets Demonophobia apart is that it doesn’t let you just get through the horror; it demands you watch it unfold in painstaking, pixelated detail. As if the silent, soundtrack-free gameplay weren’t ominous enough, the game makes every mistake lead to a new, disturbing death scene. Each creature has its own gruesome “surprise” for Sakuri. These vary from decapitation to death by slime (which somehow manages to be even worse than it sounds).

The game’s design pushes you to experience each death scene with the kind of loving attention to detail that could only come from a developer with a deep appreciation for Ryona-style brutality and gore. You could say that Demonophobia doesn’t just want you to play it; it wants you to suffer along with it.

By the time you reach Stage 4, things really start to get… weird. Sakuri faces off against grotesque bosses like Asmodeus, and with every level, the game finds new ways to make the whole experience feel progressively twisted. Sakuri, who is still 14, by the way, can lose her clothes, get ambushed by slimy creatures, or face certain “fan-service” moments that are despicable and disgusting to watch. While the game was made in Japan with a lower age of consent, it unsurprisingly caused outrage outside of the country.

Many countries banned it outright, not just because of the VERY questionable erotic scenes with a minor, but also because of the gore and its unapologetic way it served up horrific scenes without any clear purpose beyond shock value. Critics questioned whether it was a game or just a collection of gruesome animations in disguise. Still, Demonophobia still has its loyal fans, mainly in Japan, who are drawn to its sadistic challenges and the dark thrill of surviving each level. For those who make it through, it’s less “I beat the game” and more “I survived it.”^[9]

1 Euphoria

Euphoria, the darkest entry on our list, is an 18+ interactive visual novel game that walks a razor-thin line between psychological horror and boundary-pushing content. It leaves players to navigate an intensely disturbing plot that only gets darker the deeper they go. Set in an isolated, sterile white room, the game begins with protagonist Keisuke Takatou and six other women, five of his classmates, and one teacher, waking up in captivity with no memory of how they got there.

An anonymous speaker leaves them with a disturbing objective: only through a series of twisted and degrading “games” will they survive and escape. Each “game” unlocks a door, forcing players to decide how far Keisuke—and themselves—are willing to go to escape this nightmare. It’s a horror of the mind, with each task chipping away at the characters’ sanity and, frankly, the player’s as well.

Instead of jump scares, Euphoria focuses on psychological torment, making the characters’ physical and mental suffering disturbingly vivid. Keisuke is told to rape and sexually torment all the girls, most of who are also underage, I’d like to point out again, in the room in order to escape. Throughout the game, it becomes clear that each scenario is part of a larger mystery involving Keisuke’s own dark impulses as he constantly battles with his desire to go too far. The storyline gradually reveals more about each character’s background. The game does offer multiple endings, ranging from bleak to (relatively) redemptive, depending on the player’s choices.

While Euphoria is classified as a mature X-rated game, its usage of underaged girls, once again in Japan, makes the entire game even more unsettling and disturbing to play. Euphoria’s extreme content drew criticism for both its disturbing and erotic subject matter and its graphic depictions of violence. Many critics argue that the game crosses the line that no game should go. In reviews, some players admit that Euphoria is like watching a car crash: gruesome, horrifying, but hard to look away from.^[10]

In the heat of video game competition, people will do strange things and may even act violently. Sometimes, they don’t think before they act. Other times, people are already violent and use video games as a means to let out their aggression.

This is certainly not exclusive to video games. But as a relatively new medium, they have come under extreme scrutiny in the media due to the violence portrayed in many games.

However, most media—from books to movies—was analyzed by the public when first introduced. The more unfamiliar something is, the more frightening it can be. In the same way, the more immersive media has become, the more concerned people have felt over its effect on the human mind.

10 Pavel Mateev

A 15-year-old Russian boy named Pavel Mateev was quite fond of video games. Some might say he was addicted to them. Or at least that’s what Russian new sites claimed after Mateev seemingly inflicted fatal wounds to his own head with a chainsaw after losing at a computer game. Apparently, Mateev spent several hours at the computer at a time playing the game that his mother had bought for him.

Russia has several “death groups” that try to convince young teens and children to commit suicide while playing video games. So investigators are currently looking into whether Mateev was goaded into committing suicide. According to reports, he went into his yard, “switched on a chainsaw, and sawed off his own head.”^[1]

9 David Katz

David Katz was a 24-year-old man from Baltimore, Maryland, who was participating in a “Madden NFL 19” video game tournament in Jacksonville. According to the authorities, Katz pulled a gun and opened fire on the other tournament goers after he lost.

He murdered two innocent men—22-year-old Elijah Clayton and 28-year-old Taylor Robertson—and injured several other people before turning the gun on himself. Authorities said that Katz intentionally targeted the competitive gamers because he walked past other patrons without shooting them.^[2]

The tragic event was broadcast on Twitch.

8 Tyrone Spellman

“I’ve been doing this 13 years, and this is one of the few cases that’s ever left me at a loss for words. There’s never a good reason for [murder], but this is just the pettiest of reasons,” said prosecutor James Berardinelli.

Tyrone Spellman was a 27-year-old man living with his children and girlfriend in 2006. He was playing video games when his one-year-old daughter Alayiah Turman was crawling around on the floor and pulled down his Xbox console.

Spellman flew into a rage and beat the infant in the head five times. He cracked her skull in several places, which resulted in her death. Spellman was charged with murder and sentenced to the maximum 22.5–45 years in prison. Initially, he had confessed to the police. Later, he said that his statement was coerced and that he was trying to protect his partner, Mia Turman.^[3]

7 Johnathan Fair

Johnathan Fair was babysitting four-year-old Skylar Mendez for his girlfriend. When Skylar died under his watch, her family had an autopsy done. It revealed that she had been brutally beaten to death.

The 19-year-old Fair claimed that the toddler had just hit her head, but he also admitted to shaking her hard. He took her to the hospital after she passed out. Skylar died a few days later.

Fair was charged with murder and is currently being held on a $5 million bond. Authorities stated that they believe Fair beat the child because she spilled juice on his Xbox. If convicted, he could face 60 years to life in prison. Fair’s defense attorney, Sam Amirante, stated that his client “will be acquitted [when] the real facts come out.”

The family set up a GoFundMe page for Skylar’s funeral expenses. On the page, her family stated, “Our beautiful niece Skyler only 4-year-old had a tragic accident. At her early age, God had called for her. Unfortunately for a tragedy like this, we were not financially prepared.”^[4]

6 Alexandra Tobias

Alexandra Tobias and her three-month-old son, Dylan Lee Edmondson, were living together in Jacksonville, Florida. Dylan started crying while Alexandra was playing FarmVille which caused Alexandra to fly into a rage. She picked up the baby and started shaking him violently. Then she went outside and enjoyed a cigarette before going back inside to shake the baby again.

He was later taken to the hospital for his head injuries. There, he passed away from head trauma.

At first, Alexandra told the police that Dylan had fallen and hit his head after the dog knocked him off the couch. The police didn’t buy it, and Alexandra was arrested. She pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

The judge presiding over her trial said, “He who is the most defenseless among us was murdered by his own mommy. And why? Because he was crying during a game of FishVille or FarmVille or whatever was going on during Facebooking time that day.”^[5]

5 Chuang

Chuang, an 18-year-old living in Taiwan, had booked a private room at a Taiwan Internet cafe to play the game Diablo 3 for the next 40 hours. He didn’t eat and fell asleep at his table. An attendant woke him. Chuang stood up and took a few steps before collapsing on the ground. He was taken to the hospital and declared dead soon after arriving. It is believed that he had suffered from a blood clot after sitting for so long.

Afterward, a spokesman for the game developer Blizzard stated:

We’re saddened to hear this news, and our thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time. We don’t feel it would be appropriate for us to comment further without knowing all of the circumstances involved. While we recognize that it’s ultimately up to each individual or their parent or guardian to determine playing habits, we feel that moderation is clearly important and that a person’s day-to-day life should take precedence over any form of entertainment.^[6]

4 Patricia Waible

Patricia Waible, a nurse’s aide at a VA hospital, was responsible for checking up on Vietnam vet Bill Nutter. He had heart problems that put him at high risk for cardiac arrest. He could barely whisper after a surgery, he had both legs amputated due to diabetes, and he suffered from neuropathy in his hands. As a result, he couldn’t press a call button.

Waible was supposed to look in on him hourly, but she spent hours playing video games instead. She never looked in on Bill even once. After his death, Waible was transferred to a job in the cafeteria. Later, she was suspended with pay. A criminal investigation was opened on the VA hospital after multiple families came forward, suspecting the hospital of mistreating or neglecting patients.

“My dad might not have lived another five months, who knows? But if we could have had another month with him—this lady took that away,” Bill’s daughter stated.^[7]

3 Kim Jae-beom And Kim Yun-jeong

Kim Jae-beom and Kim Yun-jeong were a couple who had met in an online chat room. After the birth of their daughter, Kim Sa-rang, whose name means “love” in Korean, the couple began to frequent Internet cafes for up to 10 hours at a time. During this time, the infant would be left almost completely unsupervised, although the couple would drop by occasionally to give the infant powdered milk.

Kim Yun-jeong began to notice that her daughter was losing weight but didn’t do anything about it. The couple came home one day after a 12-hour gaming session to find Kim Sa-rang dead.^[8]

They reported her death to the police. The officers immediately became suspicious due to the three-month-old’s malnourished body. Kim Sa-rang had weighed 2.9 kilograms (6.4 lb) when she was born. When she died, she was 2.5 kilograms (5.5 lb). The couple was arrested and pleaded guilty to negligent homicide.

When asked if he had anything to say, the father responded, “I think of our baby in Heaven. I will be guilty until the day I die.”

2 Hsieh

In an Internet cafe in Taiwan, a 32-year-old man called Hsieh booked a room in 2015. Hsieh was a regular at this cafe. According to his family, he would disappear for days at a time.

When staff at the Internet cafe saw Hsieh lying down, they initially thought he was sleeping. But he had actually been dead for several hours. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. It is believed that Hsieh experienced cardiac arrest caused by exhaustion.

An Internet cafe attendant told reporters: “Hsieh was a regular customer here and always played for consecutive days. When tired, he would sleep facedown on the table or doze off slumped in his chair. That is why we were not aware of his condition in the beginning.”^[9]

1 Malik Terrell

Malik Terrell was a 21-year-old man living in Milwaukee. Terrell’s brothers believed that 15-year-old Dennis King had conspired with another boy to steal their video game system. The siblings questioned King about their missing game system and started beating King to get him to confess.

Malik Terrell beat King over the head with a hammer and stabbed him in the neck.^[10] Then they used a garbage cart to move King’s body to an abandoned house and set the corpse on fire.

The 15-year-old’s family reported him missing. Just a few weeks later, King’s body was found. Malik Terrell had fled from Milwaukee to Chicago but was arrested nonetheless. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole.

It’s no surprise that strange video games have hit the market in the past, but some of them are just downright bizarre. From the insane graphics to the unbelievable concepts, there are some weird games that are complicated to describe.

They span the time frame of video game creation—from the earliest days to modern times. A plumber who powers up with mushrooms while trying to save a princess is nothing compared to these odd ones.

10 Toilet Kids
PC Engine

Kids have all sorts of fears that they hope will never become a reality. This game starts off with one of those possible fears—being flushed down the toilet. Toilet Kids is a poo-filled humorous game that starts out with a kid waking up in the middle of the night to take a dump.

While he sits on the commode, the kid’s nightmare becomes a reality. He falls into the toilet, and the shoot ’em up game instantly begins at this point.

The kid begins flying around on some sort of a duck-shaped toilet shooting at poop-related objects. He must fight off attacks of monkeys, spiders, flies, and other animals that are flinging turds his way.

The game features four stages with different themes and bosses that must be defeated. Toilet Kids, released in 1992 exclusively for PC Engine, is full of pixelated keisters, turds, and toilet humor that makes up one weird game.^[1]

9 Sneak ‘n Peek
Atari 2600

Sneak ‘n Peek is simply a computerized version of hide-and-seek. Released in 1982, this Atari game could be played by two players or one player against the computer. One player would cover his eyes while the other found a hiding spot. Once the second person was hidden, the first had a limited amount of time to find the concealed player. When that person was found, the roles would be reversed.

The game is played in an old home with a yard and three rooms. There aren’t many hiding spots, and some of them are a bit strange. Sneak ‘n Peek can be played with fixed hiding places or variable hiding spots that will be moved each time someone enters the room. There are also two levels of difficulty to test.^[2]

It’s probably more enjoyable to just go outside and play the real version of this game.

8 Muscle March
Nintendo WiiWare

Some video games are absurd but hilarious to watch. Muscle March is one of those games. You play as one of a group of seven bodybuilders—five men, one woman, and a polar bear (yes, a polar bear)—chasing down various thieves who have stolen their protein powder. It’s already funny just thinking about it, right?

Muscle March was released on WiiWare, making it an interactive game to be used with the Wii remote and nunchuk. Your bodybuilder lines up behind three others as they chase the thief through the city.

The thief will bust through walls, and it is the player’s responsibility to make the same pose through the wall as the thief in order to continue pursuit through that hole. The other players in front of you will slowly drop out, leaving just you chasing the protein-stealing bandit.^[3]

The gameplay will speed up at this point for added difficulty. If you successfully copy the thief’s holes, you will have the opportunity to tackle the bandit and recover the coveted protein!

7 Seaman
Sega Dreamcast

The virtual pet toy fad was popular in the ’90s and featured handheld games such as Giga Pets and Tamagotchi. There was a much less popular game about virtual pet raising that also hit the market toward the end of the fad.

Seaman was released on Sega Dreamcast in 1999, and a Playstation 2 version was released in 2001 in Japan only. The goal of the game is to keep Seaman, an anthropomorphic fish with a human face, alive by interacting with its environment in different ways.

The creepy fish eventually starts talking, which is voiced by Leonard Nimoy in the English version. Players have to properly take care of Seaman’s tank, grow larvae in a different tank, and feed Seaman to keep him alive.^[4]

The game also required players to use Dreamcast’s microphone peripheral to answer questions asked by Seaman. After a short time of playing, though, Seaman will become bored and tell the user to “go away.” The creator of the game has hinted at a sequel, but no return has hit the market.

6 Sensible Train-Spotting
Amiga

Trainspotting is known as the activity of watching trains and writing down the railway engine’s numbers. It is a hobby that has been enjoyed by people in the United Kingdom dating back to World War II. The hobby is best enjoyed in person, but you also have the option of engaging in it without leaving the comfort of your home.

Sensible Train-Spotting was a simulation game released in 1995 for the Amiga console. A man with a thermos sits on a bench as several trains pass. You must spot the numbers on the trains as they roll by and match them to the numbers you already have.^[5]

That’s it—it’s that simple. The difficulty does increase as you progress through the game, but do you ever really win at a game like this?

5 Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker
Sega Genesis & Arcade

Sega released video games for the Genesis and arcades under the name of Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker. Looking back, it was made up of some fairly strange and creepy concepts. In the game, Michael has to rescue children that were kidnapped by Mr. Big. He uses Bubbles the chimp, moonwalking, and dancing to take down the bad guys.

It gets creepier: When Michael touches the children, it charges up his health. There is even a button to perform the famous crotch grab, although it serves no actual purpose in the game.

When he dances, it makes his enemies break out in a rhythmic dance routine before they die. The game is rather controversial, but you do get to jam out to some of his top hits while playing.^[6]

4 Playboy: The Mansion
Xbox, PS2, PC

Everybody wants to be like Hugh Hefner, right?

Well, you get to play him in Playboy: The Mansion . . . sort of. This game from 2005 blends social simulation with role-playing and empire building, which is similar to The Sims. The goal of the game is to build the Playboy mansion and magazine into a powerful brand.

You hire and fire journalists and photographers along with lining up photo shoots and interviews for the magazine. The quality of each component of the magazine is based on how well each person likes Hef.^[7]

Photo shoots and interviews are also only as good as the relationships those people have with Hef. The whole game really depends on how well everyone likes Hef. It’s a strange model for a game, especially coming from a company like Playboy.

3 Samurai Zombie Nation
NES

In 1999, a mysterious meteorite that crashes into the Nevada desert turns out to be Darc Seed, an evil alien with horrible powers. That’s how Samurai Zombie Nation for NES starts out, but that is only the beginning.

Darc Seed shoots magnetic rays that turn the people of America into zombies and bring the Statue of Liberty to life for his own benefit. He also gained possession of his most deadly weapon, the legendary samurai sword Shura. The great head of the samurai, Namakubi, heard about the sword falling into the wrong hands, and he sets out for the United States to defeat Darc Seed.

Namakubi has a massive head, which is why he is known as the “great head of the samurai.” He is able to shoot projectiles from his eyes and acid spit from his mouth. He also eats zombie corpses for extra points and health.^[8]

This oddly satisfying game is played over four stages with two difficulty levels. Give this strange game a try if you think you possess the strength and knowledge to reclaim the magical sword and free the Americans from evil.

2 Mister Mosquito
PS2

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a mosquito . . . well, wonder no more! Mister Mosquito puts you in the position of an adorable mosquito that must feed and store food and blood for the upcoming winter. To accomplish these tasks, you must terrorize the Yamada family who is trying to enjoy their traditional summer break at their vacation home.^[9]

The game is shown from a third-person perspective as you work to suck blood from the family. You have to be careful trying to extract the blood, though, because the family members can swat you dead.

The mosquito changes colors and size and looks cartoonishly cute, but it’s a strange concept for a game. Try not to let this game suck the blood out of you!

1 Boong Ga Boong Ga
Arcade

We’ve discussed some fairly strange games, but this is by far the craziest on the list. Boong Ga Boong Ga (aka Spank ‘Em), is an arcade game with a basic goal of punishing characters by spanking them. The game features a large screen, a fist with two fingers, and a butt with legs covered with clothes. The game was intended to make the player laugh and relieve some stress.

There are eight different players that you can punish, including the ex-girlfriend, gangster, gold digger, child molester, ex-boyfriend, mother-in-law, prostitute, and con artist. These characters can be punished by a traditional spanking or by using kancho, which is a prank where you poke a distracted person in the butt.

After the game is finished, a card is dispensed explaining the player’s sexual behavior. Small prizes can also be won if the score is high enough.^[10]

I’m just another bearded guy trying to write my way through life. Visit me at www.MDavidScott.com.

While we live in a world of short attention spans and ever-changing online games to cater to today’s generation, there is one thing that just never gets boring. That is board games! I guarantee that each of you has played at least one of these incredible top-selling board games, some of which have sold millions of copies and been played by billions of people worldwide. Check out this list of the top 10 board games of all time.

Note: because Christmas is just around the corner and inexpensive board games make good stocking fillers, I include links* to buy these on Amazon.

See Also: The 10 Most Offensive Board Games Ever Published

10Ticket to Ride

Buy Ticket to Ride On Amazon

Ticket to Ride has won dozens of awards and sold over 6 million copies since its creation. It is the most popular modern board game as it takes players on a train ride across the country while they collect cards of various types of trains which allow them to own railway routes between different locations. The game is simple to learn but requires great strategy and tactics to win. The longer the train routes each player claims means the more points they accumulate.

There is also a selection of “destination tickets,” which allow players to earn bonus points. To put it basically, each turn, you draw more cards, claim a route, or get a destination ticket. Don’t tell the kids, but it’s also educational. Everyone can brush up—or learn—their geography. There are also versions where you can build your routes throughout Europe, Scandinavia, and Africa. It’s a high-quality, modern game that everyone in the family can enjoy! Better get tracking!^[1]

9The Game of Life

Buy The Game of Life On Amazon

TheGame of Life is a board game from Milton Bradley that originated in the 1860s under the name, The Checkered Game of Life. The game simulates the steps one takes throughout their life—from college to retirement—with options for marriage, children, and homeownership along the way. There have been many versions of the game with various rule changes, with the game becoming less harsh in recent years. The modern version of the game was introduced in the 1960s and included squares for revenge against another player. These spaces were changed to “Sue for Damages” in the 1970s, and today, there are reward squares added—for recycling or helping the homeless.

The game is easy to play, with a game board, spinner (instead of dice), cards, tokens, cars, pegs, and money. After deciding on either the College path or Career path, you are on your way. Spin to advance and follow the instructions on that tile. You will have paydays, options to buy insurance or a house, have children (or not), and the one who retires with the most money wins. Have a good life!^[2]

8Clue

Buy Clue On Amazon

Clue (Cluedo in some places) is the number one classic detective game that requires solving a crime. There is one murder with six suspects. The game aims to determine who the murderer is, what weapon they used, and in what room the crime was committed. To do this, you must make your way around a mansion into all the different rooms. Each player has been dealt an equal number of cards that have each suspect, weapon, and room on them. Once you reach a room, you are to ask the player to your left if they have a particular character, weapon, or room card, and they must show you if they have one of the three cards you have asked for.

In the case that they have none, the question goes to the next person to the left. Through the process of elimination, you can cross off each suspect, weapon, and room and eventually make an attempt at solving the homicide. If you are wrong, you are out of the game and play continues with the remaining players. This is definitely a game you want to keep your poker face on for.^[3]

7Battleship

Buy Battleship On Amazon

Battleship is a classic Hasbro game that requires some luck and some strategy. It is a naval-themed game requiring a player to sink all of their opponents’ battleships before they get to yours. The game is played on a 10″ by 10″ grid and starts with players positioning a number of different shaped and sized ships on said grid. Your goal is to strategically place your battleships to make it harder for your opponent to discover their position. From there, the excitement begins when you and your opponent take turns guessing locations on the grid where you think each ship might be located. If you have scored a hit, your opponent yells out, and you get another turn.

Once a ship has been sunk, the catchphrase, as advertised by Hasbro, is “you sunk my battleship!” The game carries on until one player has sunk all of their opponent’s battleships. The game is simple but fun, and there are endless ways to position your ships. Now there are countless versions of online BattleShip games which can be played all over the world. Happy firing!^[4]

6 Scrabble

Buy Scrabble On Amazon

Scrabble was a game invented by Alfred Mosher Butts during the 1930s, the time of America’s Great Depression. Little did Butts know that his game would be a life-changer for many and would bring smiles to families who had little left to smile about. He analysed popular games such as chess, checkers, and bingo for years and concluded that word games didn’t reach the same popularity as other games because there was no score. Thus, Scrabble was born. The game is simple but requires a lot of thinking. Players start with 7 tiles, each with a letter and its corresponding point value typed on the front. After each turn, players take more tiles to replenish their “hand.” Each turn, the player forms a word using the tiles in their hand, and the points are calculated based on what squares the word is placed on. The words, however, must be attached to one or more letters of the words that have already been played. This adds an element of difficulty to the game.

Once a player has played all their tiles, and there are no more remaining in the pool (or once there are no more words possible to be made), players calculate the sum of their scores. Players with tiles remaining deduct the sum of the points from their hand from their total score. Your winner has the greatest number of points. Legend has it that the point system for each letter, as generated by Butts, was formulated from the letter’s likelihood to appear on the front page of The New York Times!^[5]

5 The Settlers of Catan

Buy The Settlers of Catan On Amazon

The Settlers of Catan puts players back in history to a time of voyages and discovery. Your ships have landed on the coast of uncharted territory, and its name will be Catan. Therefore, as players, you are the Settlers of Catan. Although it isn’t the most popular game in the world, it is certainly up there among the best! It is, of course, another game based on trade and economy. The game aims to take over the island of Catan, although there are no fights or eliminations of other players. Instead, the players use the island’s natural resources to build cities and trade goods with one another. At the end of the game, there will be one person who has earned enough points to be deemed the dominator of Catan.

While the goal is to have the most points by the end of the game, it is impossible to win without trading with your opponents and sometimes giving up valuable resources. This is where the strategy comes in! Pay attention to what you need and what your opponents need and form a strategy to ensure fair trading and ultimately win.^[6]

4 Risk

Buy Risk On Amazon

Created in 1957 by Frenchman Alber Lamorisse, it was originally titled La Conquete du Monde, which translates to The Conquest of the World. Parker Brothers then brought the game to the U.S. and retitled it to a more appealing sounding “Risk.” However, the aim of the game has always remained the same–to strategically eliminate your competitors and earn control of the board’s entire territory. The game took off in the 1960s and was hugely popular among high school and university students around the globe.

Its rise to fame was attributed to its challenging nature, which kept the minds of young students active and engaged. Although luck does play a little part in the outcome of the game, strategy is the ultimate key to conquering the board. Aside from Monopoly, Risk has been labelled as the best game for practicing and learning skills of negotiation and strategic interaction. Happy strategizing!^[7]

3Monopoly

Buy Monopoly On Amazon

Monopoly is one of the most popular games in the world. I’m sure almost all of you have played it at least once or twice or at the very least have heard of it. Since its creation in 1935, more than 250 million versions of the game have been purchased and played by more than 1 billion people. Being one of the most popular board games known to man, it was officially inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998. For anyone who hasn’t played, Monopoly is a real-estate-based board game played by up to eight players. The main aim of the game is to be financially stable while simultaneously forcing opponents into bankruptcy.

Each player moves around the board purchasing properties and building hotels which opposing players must pay to land on. As one player builds up their empire, the rest will slowly dwindle until there is only one player remaining with all the money. While chance can help you win or lose faster, it is essentially a game of strategy. The original game was set in London; however, there are hundreds of versions of the game now with many destination and movie themes.^[8]

2 Stratego

Buy Stratego On Amazon

Stratego is a game where two opponents use pieces of opposing colours (typically red and blue). Each piece has a numbered rank on one side, which is played facedown to remain unknown. When a piece is moved to an opponent’s square, the pieces are flipped, revealing the numbers, and the piece with the smaller number is eliminated from the game. In the case that the pieces are of matching digits, both are removed from the game. The ultimate goal is to remove all of your opponent’s pieces or force them to surrender. True to its title, this game appeals to strategy enthusiasts and hearkens back to World War II.

Since it was released, more than 20 million copies have been purchased worldwide, particularly in the US, Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium. Now, similarly to chess, there are national and world championships organized each year. As well as having new online versions released, there are several Sci-Fi-themed versions of the game. Definitely one to give you a headache!^[9]

1 Chess

Buy Chess On Amazon

Chess is one of the oldest and most played board games in history. Played by two people on a checkered board of contrasting colours (standardly black and white) and corresponding pieces. The pieces consist of a King and Queen, two bishops, knights (usually depicted as horses) and rooks (from the Persian word for a castle tower), and eight pawns. Each piece moves in a different direction around the board, and the aim of the game is to corner the opponent’s king. The game first appeared in India around the 6th century AD and quickly spread to Asia and Europe. It soon became known as a “royal game” due to its popularity amongst the royal family and is still played exactly the same today as it was back then.

During the 20th century, the game underwent massive growth, leading to nationwide competition and player sponsorships. With recent mass growth in technology, many apps have been created, allowing people to play online, accommodating international games and competitions. I’m sure back when the game was founded, it was never dreamed that it would become the phenomenon it is today.^[10]

+ Competition

COMPETITION ENDED: This competition has now ended. Congratulations to the winners who have been announced in the comments below.

Five random commenters will be chosen to win this awesome classic board game 100 game set, which comprises “An array of over 100 classic games, made with premium quality materials, all inside a stunning gold-foil gift box. Enjoy playing with your family and friends. A weekend trip or a week-day routine, this game set has multiple games to engage and entertain all players. 5 double-sided printed game boards: Snake & Ladders, Checkers, Backgammon, Ludo, Solitaire, Chess, Nine-men Morris, Racing game, Goose game, Chinese checkers, and more. Comes with 5 rolling dice, 30 checkers/backgammon pieces, 32 chess pieces, 15 matches, 60 ludo pawns, and instructions.”

How to enter: Simply comment on the list. You can tell us what your favorite board game is, or perhaps your funniest board game-related story, or you can just compliment the list writer! All comments are eligible, and you can enter multiple times (by commenting more than once). The competition runs until midnight tonight. The winners will be chosen at random, so it doesn’t matter whether you comment at 1 am, 6 am, or 11 pm.

Kids and playing go hand in hand—sometimes literally. Most of the time, when they do play a game, it usually involves kids running, chasing, and hiding. They all tire themselves out, laugh themselves silly, and maybe the worst thing that happens is someone skins a knee or breaks a window. It’s all innocent fun.

However, there are rare instances when a kid’s game gets way out of hand, and the lawsuits start flying, the cops show up, or something even worse happens.

Here are 8 examples of kid’s games that got way out of hand.

See Also: 10 Bizarre Things People Have Done Over Video Games

8 British Bulldog Game Leads to Girl’s Death

British Bulldog is a rough and tumble game popular among elementary-aged school children. In it, one or two “bulldogs” stand alone in the middle of a large field. A line of runners face them and stand at one end of the field. The runners try to get to the other side without being caught by a “bulldog.” If they get caught, they turn into a “bulldog” and join the other “bulldogs” to try and stop the remaining runners. The game goes on until there is only one runner left—he or she is the winner.

In February of 2013, a group of children played British Bulldog outside Trafalgar Junior School in Twickenham, England. An 8-year-old girl named Freya James played a different game close by when she was accidentally struck by one of the boys playing British Bulldog. She fell, stomach down, onto a recycled wooden railway sleeper. The fall caused a laceration of her liver which lead to internal bleeding. She was taken to the hospital, where she later died.

Freya’s parents, Anekke and Nick James, talked of what a good-hearted girl she was, “Freya was an angel and was loved by everyone who had contact with her.” They added, “She was so strong and determined in everything she did and always tried to help those that struggled.”

Sometime later, Freya’s parents called for a ban of the game that took their daughter’s life, “I hope our daughter’s death will lead to a more widespread ban.”^[1]

7 Snowball Fight Turns Into Race Brawl

Cole Harbour District High School is located in the province of Nova Scotia, on the east coast of Canada. Back in the winter of 1989, what started as a playful snowball fight between groups of grade 10 boys turned ugly as white students ended up fighting black students in a vicious brawl.

Apparently, the brawl was triggered when a, “…particularly large snowball showered one group with snow…”

Christa Webber, a grade 10 student at the time, who witnessed the brawl, said she saw a student’s face “…split open” from a punch and students getting kicked when they fell to the ground.

In the aftermath, 14 were charged, and the brawl led directly to the government of Nova Scotia creating the Black Learners Advocacy Committee. The committee, “…highlighted inequities in education for the African-Nova Scotian learner.” As well, “The BLAC report resulted in the hiring of cross-cultural understanding co-ordinators and African-Nova Scotian support workers in the province’s schools.”

30 years later, the brawl still haunts former Cole Harbour District High School student Corey Beals. Though he didn’t witness the brawl triggering snowball, Beals remains sad about the incident and feels it has had a lasting impact on the community, “Unfortunately, Cole Harbour has been scarred. Ever since. Thirty years later. And whenever there is an incident that takes place at that school, everyone reflects back to 1989.”^[2]

6 Dodgeball Leads to Felony

Dodgeball is a gym class staple. Use a ball to eliminate players on the opposing team by hitting them with it. The first team to hit all of the players on the other side with the game ball wins.

For Jacob Sigler and one other student of Ellsworth High School, that simple game turned into something much more ugly and much more complicated. The result was a facial fracture and a criminal complaint against Sigler.

According to the victim, who was 16 at the time, “When Jacob ran out of balls, Jacob closed his fist and punched (him) the face.”

When interviewed by police, Sigler, 18, said that he thought the other boy was going to tackle him. “Then, I punched him,” he told the police.

Months later, Sigler ended up pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery. He was sentenced to 1 year probation and ordered to pay more than $1,300 in fines.^[3]

5 Hide-and-Seek Leads to Dead Body

Who hasn’t played hide-and-seek? A classic kid’s game that may go all the way back to the Greeks of the 2nd-century, hide-and-seek consists of one kid seeking and many kids hiding. After counting up from 1 to anywhere from 10 to 100, the seeker then goes out and tries to find the kids that hid. If found, that kid then becomes another seeker. The last kid left hiding is the winner. Simple and straightforward. Most of the time, yes, but every once-in-a-while, a kid seeking another kid, instead, finds something that turns the game into a crime scene.

Back in October of 2017, two kids were playing hide-and-seek in the wooded area of a park in Indianapolis, Indiana. There, in the midst of their bit of fun, one of them came across the dead body of 30-year-old Christopher Bradley. The kids immediately told an adult, who then alerted the police.

Detectives working the case believe that the death was suspicious.^[4]

4 Salt and Ice Challenge Burns

Most childhood games (including some on this list) have long histories and countless hours of enjoyment—like jumping rope, hide-and-seek, dodge ball, and kickball. While these are mostly harmless activities, kids and teens today have a new source for things to do to pass the time: TikTok. Unfortunately. TikTok, created in 2016, has recently become synonymous with something far more sinister: viral internet challenges.

Some of these idiotic—and sometimes dangerous and deadly—challenges include the cinnamon challenge, the Tide Pod challenge, and the salt and ice challenge. An Iowa woman learned about the last challenge the hard way after a horrific late-night phone call. Her daughter and several friends had tried an internet challenge that involved putting snow and table salt on their arms to see who could stand it the longest. The ice and salt formed a chemical reaction that induced frostbite, giving the girl and her friends second- and third-degree burns. They were taken to the hospital for treatment, where the doctor noted that he had seen several of these types of injuries in recent months.^[5]

3 Choking Game Claims Life of 12-Year-Old Boy

According to the Center For Disease Control and Prevention, from 1995 to 2007, at least 82 kids have died playing the Choking Game. 87% of them were boys aged 11 to 16. The average age was 13.

The point of the game is to go just far enough to get the “high” that follows after briefly squeezing off the supply of oxygen and blood to the brain. The game has a long history and also goes by the names “Pass-Out Challenge,” “Flatliner,” and “Space Monkey.”

One boy who went too far was Erik Robinson of Santa Monica, California. One day in April of 2010, he put a rope around his neck and hung himself from a pull up bar. He was only 12 years old.

His devastated mother, Judy Rogg, found her son collapsed in the kitchen doorway. “I missed him by a few minutes,” she said. Rogg tried to undo the complicated slipknots her son had tied but couldn’t. By the time she got help, it was too late.

In the wake of the tragedy, Rogg founded the non-profit “Erik’s Cause” to help educate other kids about the dangers of the game. She and her co-founder Stephanie Small spent years designing an 8-minute video and PowerPoint presentation now shown to kids in the Iron County School District in Utah. Iron County adopted the training program after 4 kids died in its district playing the Choking Game.

Rogg keeps the memory of her son close—some of his ashes are locked inside of a necklace she wears. She works tirelessly for “Erik’s Cause” and has travelled to speak in Pennsylvania, California, and Maryland. Rogg even flew all the way to New Jersey to help a family get through their own tragic loss from the Choking Game.

“This is the best way for me to preserve his legacy…I have to keep busy.”^[6]

2 Sack Tapping Game Leads to Testicle Removal

One night, a 14-year-old boy named David Gibbons woke his mother up at 1 am complaining of groin pain. Apparently, he had been playing a game called “Sack Tapping” with other boys at school that day. One boy punched him in the testicles so hard that it was still hurting badly.

His mother took him to the hospital, where doctors removed the boy’s right testicle. “This may be called a game, but it’s not a game,” the mom said. “It’s dangerous, and it needs to stop.”

Urologist Dr. Scott Wheeler told a Minneapolis TV station that he thought the problem had gotten “…way out of control.”

Dr. Charles Raison, an associate professor of psychology at Emory University in Atlanta, believes he knows why boys play the game, “Games like this are to see how tough you are…It’s a way of establishing dominance, and because it’s hard to withstand being hit in the groin, it becomes a good measure of toughness.”^[7]

1 Hot Dog Eating Contest Turns Fatal

Jason Easterly/Special to the Daily News
Owen Houston, 7, of Naples starts the kids “Neat Eat” during the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog qualifying circuit for their annual hot dog eating contest held at the Mercato on Saturday, May 12, 2012.

In January of 2010, the Boys & Girls Club of San Pedro in California held a fundraiser for Haiti relief—a devastating earthquake hit Haiti on January 12, 2010. One of the activities was a hot dog eating game. Unfortunately, the fun turned deadly when one of the participants, 13-year-old Noah Thomas Akers started choking.

A male staff member performed the Heimlich maneuver, but it didn’t help. Paramedics arrived soon and tried to remove the obstructing piece of food using an extended pair of forceps. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful, and Noah later died in hospital.

Apparently, a staff member of the Boys & Girls Club did tell each child participating in the hot dog eating game to take their time and that it was not a game based on speed.

Lt. David McGill, of the Los Angeles Police Department, indicated that the initial investigation suggested that the children were appropriately supervised.^[8]

While most of us are familiar with, and enjoy watching, the summer and winter Olympics, fewer people are familiar with an event held by the Aleut and Inuit people of Canada and Alaska. For generations, various organizations made up of these northern tribes have held competitions, such as the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics (WEIO), where contestants engage in various athletic activities, many of which might seem quite bizarre to outsiders.

10The Ear Pull

Think of a game of tug-of-war—except, in this version, the cord that goes between you and your opponent is attached to your ears.

Specifically, the two athletes must be seated and facing each other with legs intertwined. After a thick loop of string is lassoed around both sets of ears, they must wait for a signal. Then, they must lean backward in an effort to make the other competitor experience such excruciating pain that they give up. With each pull, however, the string becomes tighter and tighter around each of the athletes’ ears, resulting in distressed expressions, discolored ears, visits to the hospital for stitches, and, in some cases, ears being pulled clear off.

While this game is no doubt fascinating (and painful to watch), the roots of the ear pull are based on skills that men and women in such brutal climates would need, as a balance of strength, control, and endurance is required in order to win. When asked about the purpose of the game, the chairman of the WEIO noted, “To endure pain. Some of the stuff that we do when you’re trying to survive out in the wild, or out in the ice, and you’re a long way from home and you hurt yourself, you have to be able to endure that pain until help comes.”

9The Two-Footed High Kick

Combining athletic prowess and grace, an athlete in this competition must leap from a standing or running position (depending on the rules of the particular competition) and, keeping feet parallel, jump as high as he or she can muster to kick a sealskin ball held up by string, usually suspended up to 2.5 meters (8 ft) in the air. If that sounds hard, keep in mind that they must also land back on their feet with each foot touching the ground simultaneously. This game is a variation of the similar one-foot high kick event, albeit harder.

Based in Alaskan tradition, this game is rooted in the age-old practice of a hunter returning to the coastal whaling village from an excursion and jumping in the air in sight of the villagers. According to the head official for the WEIO, the type of jump would alert the village as to the success that the hunting party had enjoyed and, if fruitful, to come help with the catch.

In 1965, Nicole Johnston set the unbroken record of 198 centimeters (6 ft, 6 in) for the women’s competition. The men’s competition record, astonishingly, is a whopping 264 centimeters (8 ft, 8 in).

8The Blanket Toss

If you want to play this game, here is what you have to do: Gather up some teammates, buy a blanket made from walrus skins, have them repeatedly fling you into the air from the blanket, and show off your athletic skills by performing gymnastic maneuvers while airborne.

While it is easy to miss the blanket and crash onto the ground when engaging in this game, many Inuits and Aleuts have mastered the skill, but none so prominently as Reggie Joule. The winner of 10 gold medals at the WEIO, he perfected the art, even performing back flips while propelled into the air. It was he who brought the game to public awareness, as he went on the road and ended up demonstrating the blanket toss on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, and even at the Smithsonian Institute.

The origins of this gymnastic event are believed by some to have been a technique hunters used to spot game, as one with good eyesight would be thrown into the air—sometimes up to 10 meters (33 ft)—in an effort to spot an animal on the flat terrain.

7The Knuckle (Seal) Hop

In another game that tests the strength and endurance of contestants, the participant must get in a push-up position. With his back straight, elbows bent, and supporting himself on only his toes and knuckles, he must then lunge forward—careful to hold that position. With wrists and ankles locked, the goal of the game is to propel oneself into the air while making sure to lift the hands and feet simultaneously off the ground.

Repeatedly springing forward mere inches off the floor, the rules in this hop for glory prohibit any body part from touching the ground other than the toes and knuckles. The competitor’s back also must not fall lower than the plane of their elbows. The winner in this difficult competition is the athlete who has hopped the greatest distance.

While completing this game is hard enough on the arena floor where it is commonly held, traditionally, it was played inside a rudimentary hut or community center and even outside at times.

6The Four-Man Carry

People generally get carried away when engaging in this event—literally. In what ends up being a sort of levitating group hug, four men must wrap their bodies over the fifth, the competitor, who must then walk as far as he can. With each man generally weighing in around 70 kilograms (150 lb), that means that the athlete carries around 270 kilograms (600 lb) during the game.

In a game that tests your muscles, joints, back, and spine like no other, the previous world record of 57 meters (187 ft) set in 1997 was crushed during the WEIO held at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks in July 2014, when Matthew Sido Evans reached a whopping 73.6 meters (241 ft, 8 in) before finally buckling under the tremendous weight.

This practical event has its origins in the common Alaskan task of carrying meat, ice, or wood long distances back to the village.

5The Indian Stick Pull

In the life of an Inuit or Aleut fisherman, having the strength, balance, and grip to catch a fish was a prized skill.

With roots based in this ancient practice, the Indian stick pull was developed, although the object in this event is not a fish, but a stick 30.5 centimeters (1 ft) long and 3.8 centimeters (1.5 in) wide tapered on both ends. To make it trickier to hold, the stick is greased. To make it even trickier than that, another contestant has his grip on the other end of the stick, using all his strength to pull it out of your hand. Thus are the complexities of this entertaining game, where no jerks or twists are allowed, and the winner is the one who wins two out of three matches.

In a similar event, the Eskimo stick pull, two athletes must also attempt to win the stick, although this is done in a sitting position with their feet pressed together and knees bent.

4The Arm Pull

In this full contact wrestle of sorts, two contestants must face each other and cross their legs over their opponent’s opposite leg. With arms locked at the elbows, the two athletes must then begin pulling on each other, using their legs, arms, and core muscles to weaken their opponent and collapse them.

Pushing down on the opposing contestant’s foot is just one of the techniques used in this game of brute strength. Describing what it takes to win, former men’s title holder Chris Jerue says, “You’re trying to get it done as quick as you can; it’s very stressful. The longer it takes, the more chance you have of pulling your arm muscle. You try to keep it locked, lean back, and use a lot of back if you can.” The winner is the athlete who wins two out of three matches.

With roots in Alaskan fishing methods, the game simulates the effort, strength, and stamina needed to bring a seal or other quarry out of a hole cut in the ice.

3Drop The Bomb

When someone drops the bomb at a WEIO event, the connotations are a little different than if the same phrase is spoken elsewhere.

The bomb, in this game, is the contestant, who must lie rigidly on the floor with his arms straight out. Three spotters must hold him by his wrists and ankles and lift him 30 centimeters (1 ft) above the ground before proceeding to walk at a speed decided on by an official on the floor. The goal of this game is for the athlete to keep his body as tense and rigid as possible, for at the moment that his body sags, he is said to have dropped the bomb, and his run is over.

Participants in this strength testing event are awarded if they refrain from sagging for the longest time and distance. Many athletes can commonly be carried over 30 meters (100 ft) before dropping the bomb, such as 2013 men’s champion Mikkel Andersen from Greenland, who endured for 33.2 meters (109 ft).

2The One-Hand Reach

You have to admire the athletes who compete in this difficult, yet fascinating, event that requires total concentration, balance, coordination, and muscular strength.

Balancing yourself on only your hands, with one elbow underneath your abdomen, you must keep your entire body above the floor while reaching one hand up to touch an object that’s been suspended, and then placing it back down on the ground without falling over. The higher you can reach to touch the target, all without tumbling off your palms or fingertips, the better your chances of winning the competition.

But be careful—upon establishing the height of the target during the first round, it will be raised 2.5 centimeters (1 in) per round, until you can’t reach it anymore. Also, you only have three shots at striking the target; after three tries, you are eliminated from the competition, even if you’ve kept yourself perfectly balanced and parallel to the floor.

1The Ear Weight

If you think the ear pull is hard, just picture this: Attach a weight or sack of flour weighing from 7–11 kilograms (16–25 lb) to a piece of twine, and then tie the twine around your ear. One of the rules is that you can’t use your cheek. So, lifting your head straight up, walk as far as you can. That’s right—walk until the tension in your neck is too horrible to bear, or the pain in your face is so intense that you can barely breathe, or just until your ear rips off. Believe it or not, quite a few competitors have managed distances of over 600 meters (2,000 ft) while competing in the ear weight.

While events like the ear weight certainly rank near the top of our list of games with the highest pain index, many events combine a need for agility, coordination, strength, and athletic prowess, and thus also deserve to be on our list as honorable mentions. Games like the back push (wrestling using only your back), the caribou fight (wrestling caribou-style), the seal-skinning competition (self-explanatory), the finger pull (tug-of-war using only fingers), and many others are also featured in the fascinating and difficult athletic games of the North.

I am an up-and-coming author that has written poems, screenplays, magazine articles, scripts for videos, and a comedy-adventure novel for kids.

Social drinking has always been one of the most opportune times to do a bit of human bonding. To speed up the process, many resort to drinking games, which add an extra layer of competition to the proceedings in order to make them more fun. As it turns out, our ancestors did the same thing. Although drinking games have been around for thousands of years, today, we’re generally only familiar with beer pong and a few other recent inventions. However, history is here to provide you with inspiration for your next social outing.

10 The Wager Cup

Originally known as the jungfrauenbecher (“maiden’s cup”), this silver cup originated in 16th-century Germany and was predominantly used at weddings. The cup took the shape of a woman with a wide skirt that formed a cup when inverted. The woman also carried a pail or a bowl above her head which swiveled to remain upright, effectively creating two cups in one. During the wedding feast, the groom had to toast by drinking from the skirt cup without spilling any wine from the pivoting bowl, from which the bride then had to drink.

Eventually, the usage of the maiden or bridal cup made it to the Netherlands and England. By then, however, the cup had lost its connection with wedding toasts and was simply used for social activities. In England, the wager cup, as it was now known, became a popular drinking game. Participants had to drink all of the wine in the skirt cup without spilling any from the pail, and if they succeeded, they got to drink the pail wine, as well. The production of wager cups continued well into the 19th century. Even today, you can find modern replicas online, as well as expensive, original antiques.

9 Kottabos

Kottabos was an ancient pastime developed in the fifth century BC and was popular at Greek symposiums (aka drinking parties). This kind of game probably wouldn’t be as successful today unless you had servants to clean up after you, as a typical game of kottabos left quite a mess. The game involved players drinking a lot of wine and throwing the dregs at various targets. Sometimes, the name of a loved one would be shouted during the throw.

The drinking cup used for kottabos was called a kylix. It had a wide but shallow body, more similar to a bowl, and handles on each side. The thrower would hold the kylix by one handle and use an overhand technique to cast the dregs. The kylix also featured an almost flat, circular center called a tondo. This area was often decorated with vulgar or humorous drawings that became more visible as the wine disappeared. One well-preserved example shows a man wiping his butt.

There were several variations on the rules of kottabos, but we know of two popular games from ancient art and texts. In one of them, the players had to knock off a disc balanced on a metal stand. In the other, there was a large bowl of water with dishes floating inside. The players had to throw enough dregs onto a dish in order to sink it.

8 Sumbel

Technically, sumbel was more of a drinking ritual than a game, but it featured heavily in Nordic tradition and was regarded as a good way to bond with those around you. There is a sumbel in Beowulf and in Heimskringla, the saga of Nordic kings. In essence, a sumbel is a social occasion where everyone would toast and take a drink before passing the cup to the next person. An authentic sumbel would feature mead drank from a horn. However, a cup was also acceptable, as were other drinks like wine or beer. The drinks had to be alcoholic, though.

It was important for each person to share a passionate toast before drinking. Thus, according to tradition, they would then swallow the words that they said. A typical format for a sumbel was three rounds preempted by a short introduction from the host. The first round was dedicated to the gods, and everybody who drank would hail and praise them. The second round was dedicated to heroes of old from history or legend, and the third was dedicated to personal ancestors or friends who had passed on. It was also possible to replace the toast with a poem, story, or song of personal significance.

7 Buffalo

Unlike all the other drinking games, Buffalo requires a serious commitment because, technically, you play it for the rest of your life. Once you agree to the Buffalo lifestyle, you become a member of the Buffalo Club. The American branch of the Buffalo Club has dozens of chapters in over 30 states, and many more have developed in Europe as well as Central and South America. For many, the biggest appeal of Buffalo is the feeling of belonging to a secret society, with fewer of the cloak-and-dagger aspects and more drinking.

As far as the game goes, Buffalo is fairly simplistic. Buffalo Club members must drink all alcoholic beverages with their nondominant hand. If they violate this rule, other members shout “buffalo,” and the offender has to chug their alcoholic beverage of choice. Although only other official members are allowed to take part, a true buffalo should not hesitate to “buffalo” himself if he is alone and breaks the code.

Although the origins of this game are blurry, and there are many stories out there, the most popular legend claims that Buffalo originated in the Wild West. Allegedly, gunslingers would prefer to do social activities like drinking and playing cards with their nondominant hand to keep their shooting hand free. If you want to become part of the Buffalo Club, be advised that only a current member is allowed to induct new ones.

6 Jiuling

Jiuling is a drinking game that has its origins sometime during China’s Zhou Dynasty between the 11th and 8th centuries BC. Although it started as a way of regulating people’s drinking, jiuling became a popular pastime on its own, and naturally, many variations of the concept arose.

Most types of jiuling were grouped into two categories—common and literary. Common jiuling was the most popular, since it was the most accessible to the masses. It was a simple game that involved each player taking a turn and then taking a drink. What exactly the players did during their turns varied wildly. They could tell a story or a joke or have some sort of contest where the loser would drink. Rolling dice and guessing fingers were popular contests.

Literary jiuling was more popular with the upper classes, as it required a higher education. This game was similar to the common version, but participants had to share riddles, poems, idioms, and so on. It was typically practiced by intellectuals who considered common jiuling to be vulgar.

5 Sconcing

Originally, “sconcing” was a term developed at Oxford University during the 17th century, referring to a fine levied against students for a misdemeanor. However, over the years, the students adopted the concept of sconcing themselves. Someone could be sconced for a breach of etiquette, but instead of a fine, the offender had to down a beer in one go. This was done at the challenger’s expense unless the offender couldn’t finish the drink, in which case he had to pay for it. Common offenses that were considered a breach of etiquette included topics such as religion, politics, and women.

There was a time when only the senior scholar at the table could impose a sconce. Other members could bring offenses to their attention only if they spoke in ancient Greek or Latin. Nowadays, sconcing is nowhere near as formal, and it’s more of a party game. Today, someone stands up and claims that they sconce anyone who has done a certain activity. Anyone to whom the sconce applies has to drink. If the sconce applies to no one, everyone else starts crying “shoe” until the wannabe sconcer takes off their footwear, fills it with beer, and chugs from it.

4 Pitch-Pot

Pitch-pot, known as touhu in Chinese, originated in ancient China sometime during the Warring States period. It later spread to Japan, where it was known as toko, and Korea, where it was called tuho.

The basics of pitch-pot involve throwing arrows into a pot. Players stand a set distance away from the pot (typically the length of two and a half arrows) and take turns trying to throw the arrows straight into the pot. When a player scores a point (an entry), the victor presents the vanquished with a cup to drink. After the arrows are finished, both players kneel and the victor will once again refill the cup of the loser. If you want to stick to strict pitch-pot etiquette, it is also considered polite to refuse to play the first time you are offered the arrows, as well as the second. It’s okay to accept the third time.

We know from ancient texts that tuho became very popular in Korea during the 12th century, when the Sung Dynasty ruled in China. It was seen as part of Confucian culture and was heavily promoted. It became a favorite pastime of Korean royalty, but more importantly, it also became a game accessible to women who were forbidden to participate in most sports like archery.

3 The Fuddling Cup

The fuddling cup was more of a puzzle than a game where, just like the wager cup, you had to find a way to drink without spilling any liquid on you. First appearing in 17th-century England, the fuddling cup was made out of three or more cups clustered together and connected through various hidden holes and tubes. In order for someone to drink successfully from the fuddling cup, they would have to use all cups in a specific order so that they wouldn’t spill the contents.

Although simplistic in concept and design, the fuddling cup proved to be popular and paved the way for more complex puzzle vessels, specifically the puzzle jugs. These became a common occurrence in England during the 18th and 19th centuries. Even though puzzle jugs had more intricate designs and decorations, they still relied on the same concept as fuddling cups. A standard puzzle jug would spill if it was used as a regular jug. Instead, the drinker had to find a way to suck up the liquid through holes at the top using a tube hidden in the jug’s handle.

2 Pennying

The origins of pennying are a bit murky, as both Cambridge and Oxford lay claim to its creation, providing yet another thing for the two universities to argue over. At first glance, pennying appears to be a simple concept where all you have to do is sneak a penny into someone’s drink. That person is then obliged to finish the drink in one go in order to “save the drowning queen,” since British pennies have the queen’s face on them.

In spite of its simple premise, pennying comes with a complex set of rules that must be adhered to in order to maintain tradition. For starters, would-be penniers are not allowed to participate unless they also have an alcoholic drink. Double pennying is not permitted, and if it happens, the second pennier must be the one to drink the beer. Alternatively, only one penny may be put in play in order to avoid people double pennying on purpose to get a drink.

There was a time when people didn’t have to consent to playing the game in order to participate. Just by attending Cambridge or Oxford you implicitly agreed to pennying, and if you refused, you encountered the scorn of the student body. That is why pennying has now been outlawed at several colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, since forcing people to drink was ruled a breach of conduct.

1 Passatella

As drinking games progress and people get drunker, the chances of violence increase. In passatella, this was not only expected, but was considered an integral part of the game. The game originated in ancient Rome and remained a popular pastime for Italians over the centuries. It was played with a minimum of four players, although it could accommodate a lot more. The more players involved, the higher the chances of violence.

The concept of passatella was to expose the inequality of life. That is why the first thing to do was to play a game in order to determine a boss and an underboss. Any game could be played as long as it had a winner and a runner-up, but card games or boccie were preferred.

Once there was a boss and an underboss, everybody chipped in to buy a round of drinks. The boss drank his and then offered the underboss a drink. Afterward, the boss offered drinks to all the other players that he wished, but before they could drink, they also had to get permission from the underboss. Both the boss and underboss could deny players the drinks that they paid for. Sometimes, they would also have to say why they denied a player his drink, which was usually done in the form of an expletive-filled rant (that only got more insulting as people got drunker). Naturally, certain players felt cheated, and more than one game of passatella ended in a fight.

Radu is a history/science buff with an interest in all things bizarre and obscure. Share the knowledge on Twitter or check out his website.

Long before board games such as Monopoly, Yahtzee, Clue, and Candy Land were enjoyed by families on game night, ancient board games were thriving in parts of the world. The ancient Romans, Egyptians, and Chinese were creative in the ways they made boards and pieces from stones, rocks, and wood. Many of these games resemble modern games in the way they look and play. Here are ten ancient board games that inspired the board games of today.

10 Gigantic Versions Of Childhood Games

Long before board games such as Monopoly, Yahtzee, Clue, and Candy Land were enjoyed by families on game night, ancient board games were thriving in parts of the world. The ancient Romans, Egyptians, and Chinese were creative in the ways they made boards and pieces from stones, rocks, and wood. Many of these games resemble modern games in the way they look and play. Here are ten ancient board games that inspired the board games of today.

10 Ludus Latrunculorum

Ludus Latrunculorum, which translates to Game of Mercenaries, is an ancient Roman strategic game. The game is similar to checkers and played on boards with grids of 7×7, 7×8, 8×8, 8×9, 9×9, or 9×10. Two players move their pieces forward and backwards across the board trying to capture their opponents pieces while protecting their own pieces.^[1]

The ancient game of military tactics was first mentioned in the Roman writings of Varro (116-27 BC) in his book titled De Lingua Latina. His writing mainly mentioned the grid of the game board, but the rules were first found in the anonymous Roman poem Laus Pisonis, which was written in the 1st Century. Several Ludus Latrunculorum boards of different sizes and materials have been found in various places and can now be seen in museums.

9 Patolli

One of the oldest known board games in America is Patolli. The game was mostly played by a range of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, and it is even reported that Montezuma enjoyed watching the nobles play the game at court. The game was enjoyed by both commoners and nobles, and it was a game of strategy mixed with some luck.

Patolli was a game that focused on gambling. Players would bring the same number of items to gamble (usually six items), and they would inspect each other’s items before beginning. The object of the game is to move the six game pieces from the starting square to the ending square before the other player. The game is played until one player earns all of the other player’s items. Players were known to gamble away their money, blankets, precious stones, food, homes, and even their family and freedom. The gambling game would be so detrimental to some that the Spanish priests outlawed the game during the Spanish conquest of Mexico.^[2]

8 Senet

Ancient Egypt introduced us to a board game known as senet, which means “Game of Passing.” It is one of the oldest known board games dating back to 3100 BC where fragments of boards were found in burials in Egypt. The tomb of Merknera (3300-2700 BC) features a hieroglyph resembling the senet board, but the first painting of the game appeared at the tomb of Hesy (c. 2686-2613 BC).

The game board is made up of 30 squares that are evenly arranged in three rows of ten. There are two sets of pawns with at least five pawns each. The original game rules are still unknown, but there have been pieces of texts revealing parts of the rules. The rules have most likely changed over time, meaning the rules of modern senet sets don’t reflect those that were used in Ancient Egypt.^[3]

7 The Royal Game of Ur

The Royal Game of Ur was widely popular across the Middle East and dates back to the early third millennium BC. The two-player strategy board game hit a spiritual high and was believed by many to reflect a player’s future and convey messages from the supernatural.

The race game is played using two sets of seven game pieces and a game board made up of two rectangular sets of boxes. You will need strategy and luck to dominate your opponent while trying to move your seven pieces along the course before the other player. The Game of Ur lost most of its popularity during the late antiquity, where many believed the game evolved into an early form of backgammon.^[4]

6 Gyan Chauper

A popular dice game in India is known as gyan chauper, and the earliest versions of the game date back to the 10th century A.D. Back then, the game was played on a painted cloth called patas. The game was entertaining, but it was also played to instruct morality. The central theme of the ancient game was the liberation from bondage of passions. It is more popularly known in today’s society as Snakes and Ladders.^[5]

In gyan chauper players start from the bottom of the game board and roll the dice in order to move forward according to the number that lands on the dice. The game is based entirely upon luck and is a simple race to the top while trying to avoid obstacles in the shape of snakes that hold players back. The board and gameplay have been slightly modified over time in different areas of the world today.

10 Bizarre Video Games That Actually Exist

5 Alquerque

Alquerque is an abstract strategy board game that is believed to have originated in the Middle East. Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani first mentioned the game in literature in his 24-volume work Kitab al-Aghani that was released in the 10th century. Unfortunately, the rules were never mentioned in his work. However, rules of the game were found in the 13th century Libro de los juegos by Alfonso X of Castile.

Before the game begins, each player places their 12 pieces on the two closest rows and in the two right spaces on the center row. The object of the game is to eliminate the other player’s pieces by jumping an opponent’s piece that is adjacent and the point beyond the piece is empty. Alquerque is considered to be the parent game of the U.S. version of checkers.^[6]

4 Mehen

The ancient Egypt board game mehen was named in reference to a snake deity in ancient Egyptian religion. Evidence of mehen has been found dating from around 3000 BC until the end of the Old Kingdom around 2300 BC. Physical boards and game pieces have been found that mostly date to the Predynastic and Archaic periods.

The game board resembles a coiled snake that is divided into several rectangular spaces and game pieces were often made of stones. Game boards have been found with different numbers of segments, but it seems that the number of segments had little importance on the game play. The game pieces are believed to be formed into the shape of a lion or lioness and came in sets of three, four, five, or six along with a few small sphere-shaped pieces. The rules of mehen are entirely unknown today.^[7]

3 Go

More than 2,500 years ago, the Chinese invented the abstract board game Go. The game of strategy is believed to be the oldest board game to be continuously played to the present day. A recent survey showed that more than 46 million people in the world know how to play Go, and over 20 million of them are current players. A majority of the current players live in East Asia.

Two players take turns placing their stones, black and white, on intersections of the board in order to start gameplay. Players must place stones on unoccupied intersections except for those forbidden by suicide and ko. A stone can not be moved once played, but it can be taken off the board if captured. Players may pass on their turn when they feel that nothing more can be accomplished, and the game ends when both players consecutively pass. The game is then scored to find out which player is victorious. Since Go is a competitive game in many parts of the world, many play the game professionally.^[8]

2 Hounds and Jackals

Hounds and Jackals was a popular board game invented around 4,000 years ago in Ancient Egypt. The Bronze Age board game was once found in its entirety in a Theban tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhat IV that dates to the 12th Dynasty. The complete gaming set that was found is preserved today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.^[9]

Hounds and Jackals, also known as 58 Holes, is the modern name given to the game by Howard Carter, who is the man that found the complete set in the Egyptian tomb. The original name of the game is unknown. Players move their ten small sticks with either dog or jackal heads along the board that contains 29 holes on each player’s side of the board. The player that reaches the finish point with all their figures wins the game. The modern game of Cribbage features a similar board and may have derived from Hounds and Jackals.

1 Nine Men’s Morris

Have you ever noticed a game printed on the opposite of a checkerboard? If so, there is a good chance it was a board for nine men’s morris, also known as cowboy checkers. The strategy board game dates back to the Roman Empire, but it peaked in popularity in medieval England. Many game boards have been found carved into seats at English cathedrals in several cities.

The two-player game is one of strategy that can result in a draw with a perfect game from both players. The game board consists of twenty-four points across a grid. Each player starts with nine black or white pieces, and they work to remove their opponent’s pieces until they only have two remaining. Once a player has successfully completed that or blocked their opponent from making a legal move, the game ends. There are also variations of the game known as three men’s morris, six men’s morris, and twelve men’s morris which changes the board and number of pieces played.^[10]

Top 10 Best Board Games Of All Time

About The Author: “I’m just another bearded guy trying to write my way through life.” www.MDavidScott.com