My Missing Fear.

While browsing through Jasmine's collection, I started getting really nostalgic for Pokémon, of all things (from looking at her DS). I started thinking about how much fun I had with the original Red/Blue versions, and I was going to do a write-up about how great those games were. But as I dove deeper into my memories of those games, I started getting into some less than great memories. In fact, I found that one of my biggest fears had come from these games.

It was the Fall of 1999, and my brother and I had gotten our respective versions of Pokémon (him Blue, I red), and we were knee-deep in catching 'em all. We also had a number of cousins over for the weekend. All of us were playing different games, when one of them noticed my red cartridge and said, "Hey, do you know how to get 99 Master Balls?"

"What? How?"

He then told me the legendary process that involved talking to a trainer at Viridian City, then flying to Cinnabar Island, and using Surf in a certain area that would allow you to duplicate the sixth item in your inventory. What I didn't know was that this involved an encounter with Missing No., who was a glitchy block-shaped "Pokémon" that was essentially the block of memory where the player's name was stored.

The first time I saw him, I was a little freaked out by it, but didn't pay it much attention, and continued happily with my seedily gotten Master Balls in tow. It was only after my brother suggested that we catch Missing No. instead of just run from him that things started going wrong.

The problem was that if you caught the wrong version of it (there was a level 80 version, and a level 0 version), it essentially broke your game. My cousins told us this, and that was what made so afraid. My brother did indeed proceed to catch the right one (the level 80 version), and then leveled it up, and, to his dissapointment, turned it into a Kangaskhan, but I was still stuggling with the concept of losing all of my save data, even though it hadn't even happened. So as much as my brother badgered me to do it, I refused to catch my own.

That night, I had nightmare that involved You-know-who coming out of the Game Boy and erasing all of my memory, after which I woke up and started crying quietly like the seven-year-old I was. I went to school the next morning, but I was still haunted by that horrible, blocky strip of data that threatened to erase me. After a couple of days I forgot all about it, though.

The only other time I remembered it was when Advance Wars: Dual Strike came out. That game also had a glitch in it that lead to a blocky, mixed up figure (though the glitch itself did nothing other than give you a generic commanding officer who was a reassembled version of the character Andy). When I figured out how to do it and was shown the blocky figure, I almost dropped my DS out of fear (I had the sense to close it instead). I turned the DS off, and didn't touch if for the rest of the day.

To this day, misshapen graphics and glitches still freak me out a little when I see them (like in Castle Crashers), although it also sort of makes me laugh a little at how scared I was (am) of it.

So, has a video game ever scared you for an unintentional reason (i.e. not like Resident Evil scared you)? If so, how did you deal with it?