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1. Polybius: The Arcade Game That Probably Never Existed
The Polybius legend describes a mysterious arcade cabinet that supposedly appeared near Portland, Oregon, in 1981. Players were said to suffer nightmares, hallucinations, amnesia, suicidal behavior, or other psychological effects. The story adds men in black who allegedly visited the machines and collected data.
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There is no reliable evidence that the alleged cabinet existed. No original machine, ROM, manufacturer record, contemporary magazine report, or dependable 1981 newspaper account has been located. The story became prominent decades later and resembles older rumors about mysterious arcade games and government agents.
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Verdict: A famous arcade myth, not a verified cursed machine.
2. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: The Atari Landfill Legend
Atari really did bury unsold game cartridges, consoles, and computers at a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in September 1983. The excavation on April 26, 2014, recovered E.T. cartridges—but also cartridges for several other Atari games.
The legend grew into a story about millions of copies of E.T. being dumped in a concrete-covered grave, supposedly symbolizing the video-game industry’s collapse. The burial was real, but the scale is often misstated. The Smithsonian reports that Atari officials later put the number at approximately 700,000 cartridges across various games, rather than millions of E.T. copies. The best surviving documentation also does not support every version of the concrete-cover story.
The game’s reputation is better explained by its rushed development, difficult design, overproduction, and the wider 1983 market crash than by anything supernatural. The Smithsonian’s account of the landfill and excavation provides the clearest correction to the popular version.
Verdict: A genuine commercial disaster with a real burial, not a cursed cartridge dump.
3. The Madden NFL Cover Curse
The “Madden curse” claims that an NFL player who appears on the cover of a Madden NFL game will suffer a major injury, decline statistically, or experience some other misfortune during the following season.
The superstition became especially persistent after Garrison Hearst appeared on the cover of Madden NFL 2000 and suffered a severe ankle injury. Michael Vick’s broken leg after the release of Madden NFL 2004 added another memorable example.
But the pattern does not demonstrate a causal curse. Cover athletes are usually selected when they are among the league’s most prominent players—often at or near a career peak. Regression toward more ordinary performance is unsurprising, and professional football already carries substantial injury risk. Selective attention also makes apparent “hits” more memorable than uneventful seasons. ESPN’s review discusses the pattern as coincidence, injury risk, and attention rather than evidence of supernatural influence.
The superstition remains current. As of August 8, 2026, the newest entry is Madden NFL 27. EA announced Caleb Williams as its cover athlete on June 3, 2026, and scheduled the worldwide launch for August 13, 2026, with earlier access available through some editions and memberships. Details are listed in EA’s cover announcement and the Madden NFL 27 FAQ.
Verdict: A sports superstition reinforced by coincidence, career timing, and confirmation bias.
Rank #2
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4. Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue: Lavender Town Syndrome
Lavender Town’s music in the original Pokémon games is intentionally eerie. That real design choice became the basis for a story claiming that the Japanese music caused children to become sick, violent, deaf, or suicidal. Some versions further claim that Nintendo altered the soundtrack for international releases to remove dangerous high frequencies.
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The USC Digital Folklore Archives and Dark Myth’s fact-check separate the unsettling fictional legend from the documented anime incident.
Verdict: A real creepy soundtrack wrapped in an unsupported internet legend.
5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask: BEN Drowned
In “BEN Drowned,” a player buys a strange second-hand copy of Majora’s Mask containing a save file named “BEN.” The game begins behaving impossibly: the Link statue follows the player, scenes change on their own, and the cartridge appears haunted by a drowned child.
This is not a documented paranormal incident. “BEN Drowned” was created by Alexander D. Hall, writing as “Jadusable.” The story began online in 2010 as a multimedia creepypasta and expanded into an alternate-reality-style web serial, using faux footage and documentary framing to make fiction feel like evidence.
There is no verified haunted cartridge, drowned child, or supernatural behavior in an official copy of Majora’s Mask. The original story archive makes clear why the presentation can be mistaken for a recovered account, while academic discussion at ToDiGRA examines its construction as digital horror.
Verdict: Fiction deliberately presented in the style of paranormal evidence.
6. Sonic R: The Tails Doll Curse
The Tails Doll is a real unlockable character in the 1997 Sega Saturn racing game Sonic R. To unlock it, players must collect five Sonic Tokens in Radical City, finish at least third, and defeat the Tails Doll in a race.
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Its floating animation, blank expression, and vaguely unsettling design inspired a curse story. In the legend, unlocking and playing as the Tails Doll, followed by a particular sequence involving Super Sonic, summons the doll into the real world or causes it to pursue the player. The earliest widely cited version dates to the 2005 “Tails from the Crypt”/“Sonic R Horror” story.
Rank #3
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The real game contains an unlockable racer, not a hidden possession or summoning mechanic. The Sonic Stadium archive documents the character, while Know Your Meme traces the online legend.
Verdict: A genuine character whose creepy fan fiction outgrew its game mechanic.
7. Sad Satan: The Alleged Dark-Web Download
Sad Satan became notorious after the YouTube channel Obscure Horror Corner began uploading gameplay on June 25, 2015. The channel owner, known as Jamie, said an anonymous tip led him to the game through a Tor hidden service. The videos showed a bleak, unsettling experience associated with hidden messages, disturbing imagery, and claims about illegal material.
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The story is difficult to verify because the original download’s provenance was never independently established. A later link posted to 4chan produced a different and more extreme version, but there is no reliable evidence that it came from the same source. The available record supports an online mystery and possibly multiple versions—not a confirmed supernatural artifact or a proven criminal package.
Claims that the original game was definitively created by a dark-web developer called “ZK,” or that every disturbing file associated with later downloads belonged to the first version, go beyond the evidence. The documented chronology and contemporary Kotaku coverage are useful for separating reported claims from established facts.
Verdict: An unresolved internet mystery, not verified evidence of a cursed game.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.8. Petscop: The “Lost” PlayStation Game
Petscop presents itself as footage of an obscure, unfinished 1997 PlayStation game discovered by a player. The apparent game contains hidden rooms, coded references to a dead child, and clues suggesting abuse or abduction connected to its supposed creators.
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It is not a rediscovered commercial PlayStation title. Petscop is a fictional horror web series published on YouTube beginning in 2017. Within the story, the game was supposedly made by a company called Garalina, but the apparent Let’s Play footage is part of the fiction.
Calling it a conventional alternate-reality game can also be misleading. The creator stated that Petscop was not intended as an ARG and that viewers did not directly affect the story. Kotaku’s overview and the reference archive document the project’s fictional status and mythology.
Verdict: A carefully constructed web horror series disguised as a lost game.
Rank #4
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9. Sonic.exe: The Haunted Executable
The Sonic.exe story begins with a player receiving a disc or executable labeled “SONIC.EXE.” It appears to be a corrupted Sonic the Hedgehog game in which Sonic kills Tails, Knuckles, and Dr. Robotnik before addressing the player directly.
The original story was posted by JC-the-Hyena on the Creepypasta Wiki on August 9, 2011. A separate fan game based on it was released by MY5TCrimson on Game Jolt in August 2012.
Those works should not be confused with Sega’s official games. There is no official Sega release called Sonic.exe, and no evidence that the executable described in the story was a real cursed commercial game. The original creepypasta and Dictionary.com’s origin summary distinguish the story, fan adaptation, and official franchise.
Verdict: Creepypasta and fan game, not a haunted Sega release.
10. The Story of Kamikuishiki Village: The Alleged Aum Shinrikyo Game
The Story of Kamikuishiki Village is a real and obscure Japanese game associated with the underground software scene in 1995. It uses real footage and animation connected to Aum Shinrikyo, the cult responsible for the Tokyo subway sarin attack on March 20, 1995.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsIts proximity to that event, limited availability, and use of authentic cult imagery helped produce a disturbing story: that Aum Shinrikyo itself created the game as propaganda or a brainwashing tool. That attribution is not established. Available research and reporting identify the game more convincingly as satire mocking Aum and its leader, rather than an official cult production.
The false attribution remains plausible because the game uses genuine footage and appeared so close to the attack. The VICE investigation, MobyGames entry, and HandWiki summary provide the available context.
Verdict: A real, unsettling satire repeatedly misidentified as cult propaganda.
What These “Curses” Have in Common
Most of these stories follow a recognizable pattern. A game has a striking image, unusual history, technical oddity, or disturbing subject. Later retellings remove uncertainty, add a victim or secret organization, and present the result as a firsthand account. The less accessible the original game is, the easier it becomes for screenshots, rumors, and fictional “evidence” to fill the gaps.
That does not make every game harmless or every story meaningless. E.T. really was overproduced and buried. Pokémon Shock really did cause reported photosensitive seizures. Sad Satan really did generate a documented online mystery. But those facts are different from claims of supernatural powers, mass deaths, or hidden curses.
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