Zelda ReDead
According to Kotaku contributor Luke Plunkett, you don’t have to look any farther than Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda franchise to find the consistently creepiest baddie in all of video gaming. He alludes to the fact that so many of Nintendo’s legendary villains are sort of cutesie, especially in the older games. With retro gaming, a nemesis that is going to be around for a series of games usually can evolve with the game. So it was with the Ocarina of Time’s ReDead…only in reverse.
First introduced in 1998 with the aforementioned Zelda contribution, the ReDead is a little bit zombie and a little bit ghast. It lumbers along, craving brains like any other reanimated creature in countless works of fiction, from games to movies. It was slow, but tough…still not especially difficult to beat.
It also couldn’t compare in appearance to some of the more terrifying looking creatures from the same era, such as the freaky dudes from Silent Hill or the super classic boss from Abadox, although its eyes do resemble Metal Gear Solid’s Psycho Mantis. The Final Fantasy franchise introduced some stellar anime enemies (say that three times fast) and of course, gamers are always looking over their shoulders after playing anything from the Resident Evil series. But, as Plunkett says, nothing makes that bone-chilling sound like the ReDead.
After the initial introduction of the ReDead in Ocarina, Nintendo has included the creature in all of the Zelda console games to date…and each time, the ReDead gets a little more watered down and less frightening. Yes, it was too creepy. Check out the evolution of the ReDead in the full story here.
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