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A 21-year-old Piglet game is going viral among horror fans

A 21-year-old Piglet game is going viral among horror fans

Piglet in a large room with sun shining through the windows. Kanga is standing in a highlighted circle nearby.
Video Game Museum

It’s not unusual for a retro game for kids to resonate with an older and more modern audience. There are a lot of Disney games like The Lion King that have stood the test of time. This week, an unexpected entry has joined these ranks. Piglet’s big gamea 2003 video game tie-in featuring Piglet’s big movie which was released on the PlayStation 2PC, and GameCubehas gone viral and some people are calling it their new favorite survival horror game. Yes, you read that correctly.

The match started to gain traction with a X message from user Jaxonloidwho was shocked that there seemed to be distinct horror game music on the soundtrack.

This is making me lose my damn mind.,.!?!?,? pic.twitter.com/B0uDAC5FBE

— Jaxonloid | CEO OF BIGLETS BIG GAME (@jaxonloid) November 8, 2024

This led to streamers picking it up. Before writing this, I saw a number of live streams on TikTok from content creators typically playing horror games, with many comparisons specifically to the Silent Hill series – which is fitting considering the Silent Hill 2 remake has been well received by fans and newcomers to the franchise.

This increase in popularity has caused the prices of eBay listings to skyrocket. GameCube and PS2 copies will be selling for anywhere from $140 to over $300 starting Friday evening.

Although I haven’t played it, it’s very easy to understand why these comparisons are made. One of my favorite YouTube horror game creators, eurothug4000played it after seeing the viral post, describing it as “survival horror for kids.” There aren’t many of these sequences, but a lot of the strangeness comes from Piglet’s main weapon. To fight enemies and help his friends, Piglet must purchase and upgrade his Brave Faces, some of which can be quite frightening for younger players. Finally, there’s a panic system that seems straight out of a game Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem.

There are many empty spaces and rooms that Piglet has to pass through without the help of his friends, creating the feeling of walking through an empty Silent Hill. Other areas feel more dreamy, with a gothic aesthetic and puzzles that evoke Resident Evil.

This child’s play also includes techniques that were common in horror games in the early 2000s and are still used today. If X user Tredlocity postedit uses “fixed camera setups and sound design… more effectively than most mascot horror games.” It gives players the feeling that something is always lurking, which is one of the main ways horror games build tension. Plus, the soundtrack is just plain terrifying at times. In the clip Tredlocity shared, you can hear heavy thuds in the distance before they even appear on screen. The dark level lit only by some candles and a night sky coming in through a window only adds to the setting.

In an attempt to figure out why the soundtrack sounds like it’s from a completely different game, Destructoid went looking and discovered that it was composed by Philippe Codecco and Guillaume Saurel. However, they have few other credits to their name besides a few Disney games and another Pooh game. It was created by French developer Doki Denki Studio, which closed in 2004, not long after the game was released.

Fortunately, Eurothug4000 was able to get in touch with Pascal Cammisotto, a game designer at Piglet’s big game, which confirmed that the lead game designer actually wanted to make ‘Resident Evil for kids’. The team did not have access to the Piglet’s big movie script and Disney was coy about the details, so Doki Denki created their own story.

“It focused on his lack of self-confidence and the courage he would need to help his friends, who were asleep and trapped in a nightmare,” Cammisotto said.