If you’re afraid of snakes, you’re not alone. Of all the animals to be afraid of, snakes make a lot of sense. Not just because of their intense, unblinking eyes, or the fact that they are essentially just one long muscle that could either poison you or crush you to death, but also because snakes may in fact have been one of humanities earliest predators. The fear of snakes is so deeply ingrained in our animal brains that they have permeated a lot of the stories we use to scare each other. The scariest snakes to ever be put into videogames are listed below, lying in wait… be warned.
For a list of bosses utterly devoid of snakes, check out the best Soulsborne series bosses
5. Snake in a Box – Resident Evil 4, 5, & 6
A super fun mechanic that the developers decided to add to the Resident Evil games was the concept of the “Snake-in-a-Box”. The concept was very simple and effective, in a psychological torture kind of way.
Basically, what later Resident Evil games threatened you with was the idea that every box you break open has the potential to house a live angry snake instead of the traditional bullets, herbs, or anything useful. The snakes never did a lot of damage, but it’s a game that already has you wired and tense, it’s an effective jump scare for even those not predisposed to hate the slithering little monsters.
4. Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy – Elden Ring
The God-Devouring Serpent, which after being killed reveals itself to also be Praetor Rykard the Lord of Blasphemy. Rykard was obsessed with overthrowing the Golden Order and gained immortality by allowing the God-Devouring Serpent to eat him so that he himself could become the Serpent King.
It’s hard to decide what is more horrifying about this boss, his grotesque appearance, his sword made out of fleshy little hands, or the fact that you have to fully deplete the serpent’s health bar before fighting him again in his true form. Hardly any other shard bearers do this, most other bosses have their phase two come halfway through health depletion, so having phase two at the end of the bosses health being fully depleted is extra demoralizing. Another terrifying detail surrounding good ‘ol Rykard is that if you re-visit his boss arena after killing him, you’ll walk in on his wife on her hands and knees tearfully eating the enormous corpse of her late husband. We all grieve in our own ways
3. Yawn – Resident Evil
Yawn is a genetically modified venomous adder from the first Resident Evil game that has grown to the size of a very prehensile school bus. One of the biggest and most dangerous genetic mistakes made by the Umbrella Corporation at this time, Yawn has made the Spencer Mansion its lair.
Yawn might not be the scariest looking giant snake in the world (he isn’t even the scariest giant snake in the Resident Evil franchise) but what makes Yawn especially stressful and terrifying is the fact that you have to fight him and avoid being eaten by him using the games fixed camera angles perspective. Meaning that your orientation is constantly being flipped around, making it hard to keep track of exactly where Yawn is at all times.
2. The Great Serpent – Sekiro
Speaking of giant snakes that are hard to keep track of, The Great Serpent from Sekiro is a reoccurring baddie that shows up without warning, winding its way all throughout the canyons of the game’s mythical Japanese setting.
Each and every time the Great Serpent is near is a breath-hitching game of red light ,green light and hide and seek. You aren’t able to fight the serpent head on so you must be clever in sneaking past it each time, which it will not make easy as it is incredibly fast and constantly changing its vantage point in search of you.
1. Snake Parasites – Bloodborne
You may think this list is heavily favoring FromSoft games, but we’ll stop including their games when they stop making hideous evil snake monsters. Deep in the Forbidden Woods of Bloodborne lives a colony of hunters suffering a fate perhaps worse than death. If one of these huntsmen see your approach, their head will burst open and out of the blood, brains, and viscera will come a pit of writhing angry snakes (fun fact a group of snakes is called a den or pit).
If that wasn’t nightmarish enough, these snake parasites are venomous and inflict you with poison damage if you are struck by one. And the snake party doesn’t end there, some of the snake parasites you fight also have backup. All they have to do is whistle and rolling to the parasite’s defense are snake balls, as in concentrated balls of more snakes. Looks like those woods are forbidden for a very good reason.
Honorable Mentions
- Iluzija – Resident Evil 6: Iluzija is a giant mutant python with fangs that wiggle around in its jaw like fingers and has the ability to go invisible and the only reason it isn’t on this list is because we could not, in good faith, put the same franchise on this list three times. Resident Evil and Capcom are just very good at making the scariest snakes.
- Reaper Leviathan – Subnautica: An immensely horrifying sea serpent that uses its four large pincers to grab you and eat you whole, but horrifying as they may be, the pincers and forelegs disqualify the Reaper Leviathan from the snake category.
- Jörmungandr – God of War: Conceptually, a snake God the size of a small island is terrifying, however he is sympathetic to your cause in God of War so he isn’t terrifying to you specifically.
- The Complete and Unsuspicious Lack of Snakes – No-Snake Hotel: No snakes to be found in this game, therefore it couldn’t possibly make the list, if you would like to play a game that has definitely has no snakes whatsoever check it out here for free on itch.io
For more games on Itch.io check out this list of the best ones.
