Summary
To everyone’s surprise, horror and comedy really do work together. There’s not that much difference between the surprise of a good joke and a terrifying scare, and both are all about the punchline, making them a surprisingly great combo for gaming.
Whether it’s games that delve deeply into the patently absurd or a happy-go-lucky bubblegum aesthetic, there are plenty of great horror/comedy games out there. This list is ranked both by the quality of the game and how well they fuse horror and comedy together.
Anyone well acquainted with video games will know about the mad genius of Suda51, one of the most beloved video game studios around, precisely because they do whatever they want and continue to do so, unbending to market pressures or critical reception.
Shadows of the Damned, the horror-action-comedy game that infamously has a section with a very long gun attached to the groin region is a textbook example of Suda51 irreverant genius. It’s crude, creative, and endlessly entertaining, and a beloved if not underrated entry into the horror genre in the early 2010s thatmay well get a sequel soon.
At a certain point, the levels of gore in a horror film can become so over the top that it becomes funny again. The shambling zombies are less a threat and more walking sacks of meat just waiting to be exploded into a great big gory mess, which is exactly whatThe House of the Deadseries does best.
While it’s hard to pick an absolute favorite in the series,The House of the Dead 2is the gold standard of great cheesy writing, fun levels, response controls, punchy gore, and expert pacing. It’s an underrated game even today, and is well worth consideration for gamers who want their horror with a bit of cheesy levity.
The PlayStation brand is full of great IP, but a lot of it is forgotten too, which is a shame, because there are some great games hidden in the depths of Sony’s catalog. The originalMediEvilwas definitely one of the best, fondly remembered by many, and with a 2019 remake, it has finally gotten its just deserts.
In the game, players control the hapless Sir Daniel Fortesque, a resurrected skeleton knight, on his quest to stop an evil necromancer. The game pays loving homage to gothic and supernatural horror, never truly delivering big scares, but clearly enjoying its horror presentation. It’s a cute game with a distinct sense of British humor.
The gaming world is consistently oversaturated, and getting attention in the crowded market is a really difficult task. Yet, in 2012,Lollipop Chainsawbroke through into the mainstream by being so outwardly ludicrous that gamers couldn’t resist giving it a try.
With an unconventional cheerleader protagonist wielding a great big bloody chainsaw cutting through hordes of zombies, the game fused everything great about the horror-comedy genre together. It remains a beloved genre classic with one of the most iconic horror protagonists ever, cemented furtherin a great remake full of secrets.
For a long time, horror games struggled to figure out a truly effective way of getting organic laughs into a horror setting. However, in the early 2020s, the rise of the co-op horror game solved the issues almost instantly. Proximity chat, procedural scares, and co-op gaming are perfect for hilarity.
Lethal Companymay be one of the finest examples of this. Set in a wacky corporate hellscape dystopian future, players are tasked with exploring deserted ruins full of horrors better left undescribed. It’s a hilarious adventure where players scream as much as they laugh, anda vibrant modding sceneensures the game always stays fresh.
Sometimes, horror-comedy games can try a little too hard to force in the laughs, but the beauty ofDeadly Premonitionis that it’s so idiosyncratic and singular that it reeks of authenticity from top to bottom. There’s no way a boardroom approved this game, and that’s why many gamers love it.
Clearly inspired by David Lynch’sTwin Peaks,Deadly Premonitionfollows a truly strange FBI agent who navigates an even stranger town in search of a serial killer. Every character is bizarre, the world is nonsensical, and the deadpan wit and strangeness make simple conversations hilarious.
While it’s hard to choose one game from the early 2020s boom of co-op horror games to define them all,Phasmophobiacomes the closest to truly being the best. It embodies everything great about the modern co-op horror, and it produces the organic laughs to prove it.
In the game, players take on the role of ghost hunters sent into haunted locations to try to findone of many terrifying ghosts. It’s genuinely scary, but with proximity chat, fake-outs, and the ability to mess with friends, it’s always comedic, and each ghost-hunt is full of gut-busting laughs as well as brain-chilling scares.
Few franchises have truly made the horror-comedy genre their cornerstone, butDead Risingdoes. This franchise has always been about mowing down hordes of zombies in increasingly bizarre and wacky ways, filled with strange characters, and truly outlandish plotlines.
Dead Rising 2is the best the franchise has ever been. Set in a fictional version of Las Vegas, the game encourages constant experimentation with wild weapons, pouring on the blood, injecting countless comedy characters, and even having some truly great scares. It’s the platonic ideal of the horror-comedy game, and a worthy topper of this list.
