Best Parody Horror Game, Ranked

Important takeaways

• Parody horror games offer replay value with new elements every time, rich lore or unique gameplay innovations.
• Games like Baldi's Basics and Spirit Cleaning parody horror genres while combining comedic elements with horror games.
• Killer Frequency mixes inspiration from 80s slasher movies with interactive puzzles and critical decision-making, making for an exciting experience.

The best parody horror games offer something beyond a cheap laugh. Some games are highly replayable and offer something new with each run. Others pack enough story, character development, or lore for players to stick around. More introduce innovations or variations on horror games that make them more than parodies of their genre.

Some might even argue that games like Killer Frequency and Doki Doki Literature Club is not strictly a horror parody game. But these games imitate the style of their main inspirations, like 80s slasher horror and visual novels, to comical effect. They do so while introducing, or before showing, the twists that made them unique.

10 Baldi's basics in education

If Edutainment was the demon game parents thought Diablo was

Baldi's basics in education aims to teach players the basics of education such as math and spelling. It is also a terrible trap where Baldi's anger will lead to their death. To escape intact, players must collect 7 notebooks around the school while avoiding Baldi and his friends to get out.

As Basic Games notes on their Itch.io page, Baldi's basics in education is a send-up to delightfully mediocre 90s edutainment games. There's no educational value here other than quizzes that players need to get right to avoid incurring Baldi's wrath.

9 The organ joint

Oregon Trail But Cholera is the weakest threat

IN Oregon Traildysentery and cholera can end runs in a flash. Not so in The organ jointwhere gastrointestinal issues are the least of the player's problems. Organ loss and zombie-induced zombification are the ultimate threats in this Americana trek to Safe Haven.

The organ joint challenges players to balance supplies and keep their five-pack and station wagon running, on top of battling zombies. Towns will have supplies and trainers to prepare the party for random encounters that can end a party's run.

8 Alcohol cleaning

PowerWash meets cute and scary anime girls

Players like PowerWash Simulator for its relaxing, hypnotic gameplay. Alcohol wash combines its coziness with visual novelty elements for a short, bittersweet experience. Players are tasked with spraying away bloodstains and taking care of the ghosts in a bloody house. The game switches between first and third person for scavenging and story snooping.

The game uses the infamous HQ_Residential_House asset, but its music and decoration give it a comfortable aura. Alcohol washThe fast pace also keeps it charming and gives the ghosts a sense of tragedy.

7 My friendly neighborhood

Baby dolls that count corpses

Gordon O'Brian is a whiner whose anti-social tendencies may soon get him fired from his repair job. His last hope takes him to an abandoned studio broadcasting the supposedly defunct puppet show The friendly neighborhood again. He soon learns that the studio is not abandoned, and the puppets are definitely, horrifyingly, in working order.

My friendly neighborhood has depth despite its horror parody premise. Gordon must manage his livelihood in true survival horror fashion and decide when to fight dolls or leave. The plot also turns its initial thesis on its head, giving the player an incentive to learn the real reason The friendly neighborhood took to the air again.

6 The Typing of the Dead: Overkill

Typing Parody Of A Typing-Based Parody

House of the Dead (THOTD) is campy on its own thanks to its over-the-top voice acting and straightforward gameplay. By-product Overkill ramps up the campiness to B-movie levels with cheesy one-liners, inaccurate locations, and hilariously gory settings.

The Typing of the Dead: Overkill marries the absurd in Overkill with Typing of the Deada typing game spin-off with the exact story of THOTD. It's the goofier version of an already ridiculous game, though its typing mechanic offers a different kind of challenge than developing light-gun reflexes.

5 Shadows of Disgust

West Of Loathing meets Cthulhu & Prohibition Noir

Shadows of Disgust shunts the player into dreary Ocean City after their Uncle Murray sends out after them. Uncle Murray is nowhere to be found, but the artifacts in his antique shop push the player towards an ominous apocalyptic plot.

As the eldritch noir successor to the comedy Western West of disgust, Shadows of Disgust serves up more of the same humor in the turn-based RPG. This time, instead of westerns, it lovingly lames tropes in cosmic horror and noir mysteries, while deepening the combat and mission/side-quest integration.

4 Slayaway Camp 1 & Slayaway Camp 2: Netflix & Kill

Scream & Friday The 13th's PS1-Lookalike Baby

Slayaway Camp is a loving send-up to 80's slasher films featuring an adorable serial killer in Skullface. The killer must calculate the optimal number of moves to kill victims on an isometric voxel map filled with traps and killer implements. Players can unlock assassins to replace Skullface, though changes are purely cosmetic.

Slayaway Camp has a sequel called Slayaway Camp: Free 2 Slay. Instead of a single camp, Skullface butchers across legitimately distinct movie parodies. Assassins now have special powers and access to new killing tools such as rolling boulders and pressure plates.

3 Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion

Cutest Jump Scares & 1st Person Dungeon Crawler

Two things stand in Spooky's way of being recognized as a terrifying evil spirit: her cuteness and the player. The player slowly realizes this as they navigate Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion and survive the ghost child's cohort of evil spirits.

In addition to parodying jumpscare-based horror games, Spooky's also built a fun story and world around the scarce lore found in the base game. Karimari Hospital and The Dollhouse tie together the scattered lore of the base game and turn the game away from puzzle to survival horror bit.

2 Doki Doki Literature Club

Tearjerker Visual Novel & Horror Parody

Doki Doki Literature Club (DDLC) follows four high school girls and the player's charming attempts to establish their school's literature club. In another game, they would have succeeded, and love would have blossomed between the player and a lit club member. But this is DDLCa title where describing too much would give the game away.

DDLC exploded in popularity in 2017 for its refreshing take on dating sims but was dismissed by some for allegedly relying on shock horror. Yet DDLC endure for having good character writing and thoughtful existential horror for a visual novel parody. The game's subversions also work precisely because its first act perfectly sets up expectations for a typical visual novel.

1 Killer Frequency

Parody love letter to 80's Slasher Flicks

DJ Forrest Nash and producer Peggy already have their plates full with The Scream, a dizzying radio show on station 189.16. Things take a turn for the worse when they are forced to juggle 911 calls from local townspeople who are being hunted by serial killer The Whistling Man. With the police out of town to call for backup, Nash and Peggy must uncover the true identity of the town's boogeyman.

Killer Frequency challenges players to solve puzzles, gather clues, and find useful materials to help callers survive The Whistling Man. Every choice matters in this 1987 slasher thriller, and the death of one character can spell doom for another. Fans of 80s slasher movies can benefit from their knowledge of movie tropes, but can also trick them into making a fateful decision.