2. Sonic the Hedgehog

When booting up into the Green Hill Zone for the first time, few could have foreseen how frightening later stages of the game would become. Rolling and hopping about with his valiant efforts to save fluffy-wuffy animals, it all seemed nothing less than charming. Skip forward a little and where are we now? Oh, the Labyrinth Zone.

If Sonic realised that his monogrammed balcony was floating precariously above this river, he’d be bricking it.

Trapped and submerged as he moved through the liquid as if it were treacle, the speakers soon drowned out the upbeat music with a rough and frantic tune to warn the player that our hedgehog’s lungs were filling up fast. Watching Sonic breath his last as the terrifying jingle came to a close was as harrowing as it was disheartening, leaving most like myself permanently avoidant of the stage’s evil submerged nature by choosing instead to use the level select cheat to whip ahead to the Starlight zone; replacing the hectic fear of drowning with toe-tapping beats.

Drowning animals has never been so little fun.

If playing Sonic didn’t give a phobia of water, then I think I might know what it was that did.