By Joseph "Skull Vault" Walter
In fact, I quite like its open world design, but as a kid, I had no idea what I was dealing with. I thought I was getting a traditional Castlevania experience. An action-platforming side-scroller.
And in all side-scrollers, you move right, right?
Well, imagine my surprise when Simon's Quest let me go left... a decision that I was punished severely for.
In retrospect, "going left" doesn't seem like a big deal in any capacity, but you have to remember that I had no idea such a concept even existed in terms of classic Castlevania games. This warped my entire perception of the franchise, and even some facets of old school gaming, in general.
Plus, the game was already kind of creepy, with its dire tone and the whole "hell house" thing in the prologue, but this was scary in a whole different kind of way.
The sacred truth of "move right" was suddenly shattered into thousands of pieces. My entire concept of the world was now obsolete. Everything I believed suddenly came under scrutiny. What in the world was going on.
As overblown and silly as this all sounds, this experience was harrowing on a meta-level, and it's something I'll always remember fondly.
Some people had their minds blown by finding the hidden block in the first level of Super Mario Bros., while others had the shocking misfortune of going left when they didn't know they could.
Both moments are awesome (and worthy of being considered "Shatterpoints!"), but only one is bone-chilling enough to be considered a "spooky moment," at least for me!