Gaming in the early 2000s was a completely different world compared to the hyper-detailed AAA releases we're used to nowadays. Retro game consoles brought us janky gameplay and questionable graphics tinged with an unintentionally creepy nostalgia, and nothing demonstrates this better than Piglet's Big Game.
Made for the PS2, Piglet's Big Game was a 2003 'adventure' game loosely based on the cinematic masterpiece Piglet's Big Movie. Despite its wholesome Disney origins, the game was more akin to a Silent Hill-esque hellscape thanks to its bleak environments and terrifying soundtrack, leading it to become the internet's latest unexpected gaming obsession.
The game follows Piglet as he traverses his friends' dreams, encountering surprisingly creepy enemies like sentient mirrors, talking doors and spooky trees. Despite the game's 3+ age rating, gameplay screenshots reveal how terrifying the nightmarish environments truly are, with horror game-style Dutch camera angles, eerie lighting and spine-chilling sound design. To add to the terror, as Piglet takes more damage he appears increasingly distressed during loading screens, only increasing the tension and emotional turmoil.
The game soon started to gain traction online as gamers shared footage of the horrifying gameplay. "So glad people are discovering the terrifying atmosphere of Piglet's Big Game. Could never finish it as a kid because it was too tense for me," one X user shared. "The more I learn about the Piglet game the more it becomes abundantly clear that the devs were dead set on making an atmospheric horror game and didn’t care if it was going to be set in the Winnie the Poo universe," another added.
The horror game comparisons aren't just because of the terrifying visuals – X user @jaxonloid shared a soundtrack snippet titled 'Foreboding 1', which some gamers think resembles 'Chthonic Symphony' from the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack. The unexpected rediscovery of the game has caused such a stir online that copies have been selling out online, with prices steeply increasing on eBay.
Despite the release of the highly anticipated Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble movie next year, I think the producers will be hard-pressed to match the palpable terror of Piglet's Big Game. The unintentional horror is just as hilarious as it is terrifying and I'm so glad it's getting the recognition it deserves (albeit for the wrong gaming genre). For more gaming news, check out the Silent Hill 2 fog removal mod that fans were calling 'blasphemous'.
