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{{trope}}
* Id Software did this. Their earlier publication, ''[[Commander Keen (Video Game)|Commander Keen]]'', was a lighter hearted game that was quite intended for children and maybe relatively more innocent hearted adults. Id Software is famous for popularising the first person shooter in the form of ''[[Wolfenstein 3D (Video Game)|Wolfenstein 3D]]'' and ''[[Doom (Video Gameseries)|Doom]]''.
** Strangely enough the characters of all these games appear to be related, as discussed [http://www.cracked.com/article_19323_6-movie-tv-universes-that-overlap-in-mind-blowing-ways_p2.html here]
* Bioware games as a whole have been going through this. Their first few games (''[[BaldursBaldur's Gate]]'', ''[[Neverwinter Nights (Video Game)|Neverwinter Nights]]'', etc) were fairly idealistic [[High Fantasy]] games. Their later ones, though? The game worlds are grim, bloody and [[Crapsack World]], [[Black and Gray Morality]] runs rampant, and almost every major quest (and quite a few sidequests) end in a [[Sadistic Choice]] where even the seemingly best option has disastrous consequences. Oh, and about 99.9% of the available party members have [[Dysfunction Junction|severely traumatic pasts]].
** ''[[Dragon Age II (Video Game)|Dragon Age II]]'' is easily their darkest game. While their other games lately have been dark, they have all carried a feeling of hope and eventual triumph over a great evil. The ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' series [[A World Half Full|is a perfect example of this.]] However, ''Dragon Age II'' is darker on a personal scale with [[Grey and Gray Morality|two sides that both have grave flaws]] and are [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|utterly convinced that they are correct and everyone else is wrong.]] [[Civil War|This leads to a situation where compromise is impossible]] with the protagonist, Hawke, stuck in the middle of everything. Where other Bioware games have had the feeling of hope and triumph, ''[[Cliff Hanger|Dragon Age II]]'' [[Downer Ending|does not]] [[Crapsack World|give this.]]
** ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' was rather serious and even bleak to begin with. ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' didn't necessarily get that much darker, but where the first game only made hints, the second goes all the way. The very first scene is an absolute [[Curb Stomp Battle]], in which a voiceless and faceless enemy appears from nowhere {{spoiler|and completely rips your ship from the first game apart, with you still inside it}}. Then you join forces with a ruthless survivalist organization whose agents you killed by the dozens in the first game, because there are much more pressing matters at hand. The [[Black and White Morality]] of the first game is pretty much abandoned and nobody blinks an eye when you murder a mechanic with his own power tool because you have to slow down the repairs on the vehicle he is working on. And in pretty much every space port you'll find a couple of people talking about sex, or have your team scientists give you advice for sex with aliens and mentioning something about zoophilia on the ship.
** ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'' has the Reapers arriving, and their first target was Earth. Remember, the events of {{spoiler|Arrival delayed their invasion.}} And by the looks of it, the Reapers are not easy to destroy. And like [[Dragon Age 2]], doesn't exactly give you the feeling of hope and triumph either.
*** Apparently some people thought it was [[Memetic Mutation|Victorious and Uplifting]].
** While ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (Videovideo Gamegame)|Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' wasn't made by Bioware like the first game, it definitely took a hard right into this direction. Instead of helping old Twi'leks across the street or drinking the blood of space puppies, [[Black and Grey Morality|it's either helping someone who comes to you with a problem, thus making them a target for other people to kill, or just cutting out the middleman and murdering them yourself for kicks]]. Every act, [[Karma Meter|good or evil]], is deconstructed by Kreia, who helpfully points out that they die either way, all because you happened to kill some Mooks. She even explains why {{spoiler|you're gaining experience points. It's because for everything you kill, you absorb the Force from them and feed off of them, however you kill them.}}
* When the first ''[[Metal Gear]]'' came out, people saw it as a little fun and cheesy action game with a twist on stealth elements. Then starting with the second game and the Solid series, [[It Got Worse]]. By the time of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]'', you could expect the world to blow up at any moment and can't do a thing about it. {{spoiler|It's actually surprising that at the end of the series, that about 80% of all named characters died. For most of the time, it feels like there would be a lot fewer people to make it to the end alive.}}
* The idealistic ''[[Ultima IV]]: Quest of the Avatar'' was followed up with ''[[Ultima V]]'', which involved resisting an oppressive tyrant using twisted versions of the very virtues the previous game was founded on to keep power. THAT was followed up by ''[[Ultima VI]]: The False Prophet]]'', which STARTS OUT with the hero narrowly avoiding being sacrificed as part of a terrible and brutal interspecies war.
** And that trilogy was the Age of Enlightenment. Let's not get started on the Age of Armageddon...
* Although the ''[[Fallout]]'' series isn't exactly cheery to begin with (what with being set in a [[After the End|post apocalyptic wasteland]] and all), the first 2 games mainly focus on various towns and civilizations rising from the ashes and trying to rebuild, and contained a lot of dark humour and pop culture references, especially ''[[Fallout 2]]'', which is considered the silliest game in the series. ''[[Fallout 3 (Video Game)|Fallout 3]]'', on the other hand, was much darker by comparison, being set in and around a [[Crapsack World|sparesly populated and desolate Washington D.C.]], which was directly hit by the bombs, where every day is a fight for survival as towns and groups barely manage to stay alive. Because of this, it is generally considered the darkest and most depressing game in the series.
** ''[[Fallout New Vegas (Video Game)|Fallout: New Vegas]]'', however, swung back to the other side with a more populated, civilised area with a clear blue sky and various vegetation, full of different factions vying for control of the titular area, which was barely hit by the bombs at all. Because of this, it has more of a [[World Half Full]] feel to it instead of the pure grimness of 3. It also brought back a lot of the zany humour that was largely absent from 3. It's definitely not the lightest game in the series though, due to a large dose of [[Grey and Gray Morality]] in its main story, and some of the [[Nightmare Fuel]] DLC's released with it, especially ''Lonesome Road'' and ''Dead Money''.
** In a wider sense, the canon itself is supposed to be [[Darker and Edgier]], with the developers stating they really don't like the comedic elements. However, since the comedic moments do draw a portion of their fanbase and the game is, in part, a dark satire of the 1950s, they have relegated some of the zanier comedy to noncanon status, never mentioning it in future games, glossed over it [[Broad Strokes]] style, or, in the rare case it is plot relevant, downplayed as much as possible
* The shift in style between ''[[Jak and Daxter The Precursor Legacy]]'' and its successor, ''[[Jak II Renegade]]'' took place during the opening cinematic. In the original, the tone was light, the hero was a [[Heroic Mime]], his rodential sidekick joked all the time, and the combat was minimal and hand-to-hand. At the beginning of ''Jak II'' the heroes [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|traveled forward in time]], released an extra-dimensional evil onto the world in the process, then skipped over two years of Jak being tortured under lab settings. After that, [[Suddenly Voiced|Jak got a voice]], a sardonic attitude, a [[BFG|gun]], and became a card-carrying [[Phlebotinum Rebel]]; Daxter got some dirtier jokes, and was dropped from the title. This [[Time Travel]] based change was a plausible way to change the world of the game drastically in one scene.
* The original ''[[Double Dragon]]'' was already a gritty game to begin with, but the arcade version of ''Double Dragon II: The Revenge'' attempted to up the ante by [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome|killing off the girl from the first game]], changing the objective from [[Save the Princess|rescuing her]] to [[Stuffed in The Fridge|avenging her death.]] All the returning enemy characters were redesigned to look more punkish (Linda the female [[Mook]] for example, was given a mohawk and a chain whip) and the new bosses includes a masked wrestler who leaves behind his mask when he dies and an [[Andre the Giant]]-lookalike with [[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|Terminator]]-esque sunglasses whose stature dwarfs Abobo from the original game.
* A much less successful video game example was ''[[Bomberman (Video Game)|Bomberman]]: Act Zero'' for the [[Xbox 360]]. That's right, Hudson tried to make '''''[http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/3/3d/225px-Bomberman-art-work-style.jpg Bomberman]''''' Darker And Edgier. To be fair, the original concept of Bomberman was rather dark (robot-like beings trapped in an underground arena and forced to kill each other with bombs) and the lighter feel of the original game was actually a compromise. However, none of the other games in the series [[Canon Dis Continuity|make any references to Act Zero]] in any way, choosing to stick with the familiar [[Hello Kitty]]-esque Bombermen.
* [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] is overall somewhere between Mario and Zelda in terms of creepiness, but its tone is darker nowadays than it was when starting out.
** ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog CD (Video Game)|Sonic the Hedgehog CD]]'' has [[Bad Future]] versions of each of its zones, and an overall higher concentration of [[Nightmare Fuel]] than the Sonic games before it.
** ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball (Video Game)|Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball]]'' features a much darker aesthetic than the main series games. One of the bosses actually shows the animal robotization process in [[Sonic the Hedgehog (Franchise)/Nightmare Fuel|horrid detail]].
** The Sonic Adventure series goes beyond Sonic games prior to it in intensity; [[Sonic Adventure (Video Game)|the first]] deals with large-scale destruction dealt to modern cities by creatures reacting to {{spoiler|atrocities committed by ancient civilizations led by tyrannical, abusive fathers}}, and [[Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)|the second]] surpasses THAT by dealing with use of "weapons of mass destruction" (and yes, they are actually called that in the game) to threaten whole countries, a military conspiracy involving {{spoiler|the deaths of numerous innocents in a space colony}}, and threats to the survival of the entire world from anguished people with a vendetta against it. A case can be made for this game's 'Final Story' being the grimmest part of any game in the Sonic series. Gerald's diary is pure [[Nightmare Fuel]], containing such lovely lines as "I lost everything, I had nothing more to live for, I WENT INSANE!" (this part is helped by the fact that Gerald's voice actor was actually really good).
** ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', where [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic's]] [[Evil Twin]] [[Base Breaker|Shadow]] (introduced in ''[[Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)|Sonic Adventure 2]]'') was given the chance to drive cars, shoot guns, and [[Contemplate Our Navels|brood over his purpose in life]]. Occasional cursing was added to the US version.
** ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]'' attempts to toss Sonic into a hyper-realistic world, where he protects a princess {{spoiler|who is the container of Iblis, one half of Solaris, a time god}} from Eggman. Along the way, he, Shadow, and Silver deal with a conspiracy where it is revealed in the final storyline {{spoiler|Sonic dies to upset Elise to release Iblis ancient monster from her body, allowing that and the other villain, Mephiles, to merge to form Solaris, slaughtering the entire space-time continuum in the process. And then Elise kisses Sonic, reviving him with the power of the Chaos Emeralds, and restoring the space-time continuum from the damage dealt by Solaris, in the process.}}
** ''[[Sonic Chronicles]]: The Dark Brotherhood''.
** In ''[[Sonic Unleashed (Video Game)|Sonic Unleashed]]'', Sonic gets a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] that is the Werehog. However, the Werehog can also be considered a partial subversion of this trope, seeing as he has many comical-looking moves, not to mention his stretchy arms -- also, Sonic himself [[Angst? What Angst?|takes the whole thing in stride]] rather admirably.
*** And then, the game explicitly tells you that the only reason why Sonic isn't massacring everyone is because he's got a will of titanium laced with diamonds, and that's what's keeping his Werehog side from going on a total rampage. The Werehog is very much not harmless at all, it's only Sonic's willpower keeping it on a leash that manages to somehow defuse its threat factor.
** ''[[Sonic Colors (Video Game)|Sonic Colors]]'' is [[Denser and Wackier|significantly more lighthearted in tone, almost having a saturday morning cartoon approach to it]], despite Robotnik's evil schemes getting [[Sequel Escalation|even more dangerous and threatening]].
** ''[[Sonic Generations]]'' is somewhat dark, with the whole concept that [[Nightmare Fuel|when Sonic's friends were turned into statues, their souls were left floating in a dark, endless void]].
* The teaser trailer in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' suggested that ''[[Kingdom Hearts II (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts II]]'' would be Darker And Edgier and involve people in [[Black Cloak|black raincoats]] fighting in a dark city.
** And then there's ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358 Days Over 2 (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days]]'', featuring a much more depressing story, culminating with a [[Downer Ending]].
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep]]'' continues that trend, as shown by a line from the Keyblade Graveyard:
{{quote| '''Ven''': I'm asking you, as a friend. Just... {{spoiler|put an end to me.}}}}
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' kind of inverts the usual use of [[Darker and Edgier]]. Aesthetically, it has stayed pretty even for the entire series. ''Thematically,'' it's changed from a nostalgic romp through Disney worlds in search of missing friends to a thorough exploration of what it means to care wholeheartedly about other people - which in itself tends to run the gamut from [[WAFF|impossibly cute fluff]] to [[Tear Jerker|emotional pain so unbearable that not having a heart seems preferable.]]
* While on the subject of [[Disney]] related games, ''[[Epic Mickey (Video Game)|Epic Mickey]]'' for the [[Wii]] had concept art of creepy steampunk cyborg versions of both Mickey Mouse and Goofy. [http://www.totalvideogames.com/img/uploaded/www.totalvideogames.com_69109_beetleworx_6.jpg The artwork really speaks for itself]. For a Disney game, that is pretty damn dark.
** ''Epic Mickey'' has a different kind of dark to it. Rather than dealing with [[Body Horror]] robotic chimeras of our favorite Disney characters like first expected, it's about the consequences of Mickey's irrationality and how he must make up for it.
* In the 90's, the space sim genre dominated by ''[[X- Wing]]'' and ''[[Wing Commander (Videovideo Gamegame)|Wing Commander]]'' wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows to begin with. But then ''[[Free Space]]'' appeared with a much more serious tone, but it also got far surpassed by ''[[Free Space]] 2'', which was even darker and edgier and comparable in mood to ''[[Halo: Reach]]'', if anything.
* ''[[Advance Wars]]: Days of Ruin'' is clearly Darker And Edgier than the other three ''[[Advance Wars]]'' games, which sometimes bordered on silly. It pulls it off just fine, thanks in part that it's a brand new continuity, plus the fact that it recognizes that adult themes don't necessarily mean throwing out all humor. It works because the setting is [[After the End]] but the survivors are trying to make the best of things. The doctor exemplifies this, saying that it's times like this you need to laugh. The last mission is called [[Earn Your Happy Ending|Sunrise]].
* The original ''[[Rayman]]'' was packed to the brim with cheery, bright colours, silly characters and all sorts of silly things that make its sequel, ''Rayman 2: The Great Escape'', look extremely grim in comparison. Fortunately, the latter also added an additional sense of mystery and wonder, not to mention consistency, to Rayman's world, so it all works out.
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** Moreover, when ''[[Serious Sam]]'' was released, some reviewers thought that the game was a bit too bright, light-hearted and silly, which didn't exactly keep up with the game's old-school ''[[Doom]]'' and ''[[Quake]]'' influence, or in one reviewer's words, "too ''Braindead'' and not ''Aliens'' enough". With its significantly meaner attitude, it looks like ''[[Painkiller]]'' was the game these reviewers wanted ''[[Serious Sam]]'' to be.
** Considering ''[[Serious Sam]]'' not only recreated but also parodied the "gunning down masses of Mook" gameplay (and gleefully lampshades its parodies), it seems said reviewers [[Comically Missing the Point|completely missed the point]].
* ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (Video Game)|Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2]] [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|Explorers of Time/Darkness]]''. While the first game's offered a character that simply tried to ruin your protagonists' lives and was a cosmic [[Jerkass]], the sequel goes further by {{spoiler|sending your protagonist duo to the literal End of Days, having to face down a legendary Pokémon that has become an evilly subverted primal force of nature, and a [[Big Bad]] who not only traps children in unending nightmares, but also poses as an "ally" who suggests that it's ''all your fault and the best way to fix things is to [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|kill yourself]].}}''
** ''Pokémon Platinum''. In Diamond/Pearl, we get Dialga and Palkia, and the Team Galactic storyline ends at the Spear Pillar. In Platinum, we get [[Nightmare Fuel|Giratina's shadow interrupting the proceedings from another dimension]], and have to carry the chase onwards into [[Dark World|the Distortion World]]. ''Nothing'' lives in the Distortion World except for Giratina, making it a literal [[Ghost City|Ghost World]]. It's just...eerily calm. [[Gravity Screw|It also has some issues with proper gravity.]]
** ''Black'' and ''White'' definitely qualify, too - {{spoiler|the game does ''not'' in fact end with the Champion as in the previous four generations, the villainous team takes a ''much'' heavier role in the plot than before, the plot itself is much less of an [[Excuse Plot]], and on top of all that we also have the single most despicable villain in the series.}}
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*** The [[Darker and Edgier|darkness and edginess]] of the series seems to go down a bit, but not really, with Team Plasma in Black and White who claim to want to free pokemon from human slavery but [[Straw Hypocrite|actively use and abuse pokemon for their own goals.]]
**** Black and White also have arguably the single most evil villain, Ghetsis, who {{spoiler|abused his own son and brainwashed him into believing that humans are evil so he would help his father with his ambitions for world domination.}}
** ''[[Pokémon Colosseum (Video Game)|Pokémon Colosseum]]'', the [[Nintendo Gamecube]] [[Spin-Off]] series set in Orre, is like this. The first game stars a Pokémon-stealing [[Anti-Hero]] from the Team Rocket-like organization running off with a prototype Pokémon-theft device in a desolate desert land, with more than few shades of [[Used Future]]. He eventually discovers a plot to "seal the hearts of Pokémon" -- while it sounds [[Narm|really cheesy]] when you put it that way, it actually involves [[Hate Plague|removing all sense of compassion from a Pokémon so that its primal bloodlust can be unlocked]]. The second game was [[Lighter and Softer]] in comparison, but was still set in Orre, which, even when "cleaned up" significantly, is still pretty grim.
** Orre, by the way, is officially based off the American Southwest, Arizona in particular. Thinking of Arizona as a ''[[Mad Max]]'' wasteland is amusing.
* Done well for the nightmarish ''[[Twisted Metal]]: Black''. To put this in perspective, ''[[Twisted Metal]]'' began as a series about a burn victim inheriting genie like powers, and putting on a no holds barred kill or be killed destruction derby in densely populated areas between maniacs with heavily armed vehicles. They went darker from there.
* Rather than an adorable ''[[Astro Boy (Mangamanga)|Astro Boy]]''-esque android, the [[Fan Nickname|Blue Bomber]] of ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]]'' is a morally conflicted hero. Similarly, the comical Dr. Wily was succeeded by Sigma, a ruthless (and seemingly indestructible) robot bent on the total annihilation of the human race. It was still done rather well, [[Capcom Sequel Stagnation]] aside. Still, apparently Capcom knew when enough was enough, as a later series in the franchise, ''[[Mega Man Legends (Video Game)|Mega Man Legends]]'', significantly dials down the angst with less hard-edged artwork, a more reasonable difficulty level, and a comical cast of characters.
** ''[[Mega Man Zero (Video Game)|Mega Man Zero]]'' was hands down the darkest in the series, what with the hero being ''on the losing side of the war'' (at first), giving the players the "pleasure" to see countless allies die. Not to mention the horrible [[Backstory]] (bridging this series with ''X''), which later gets incorporated into the main plot, and a truly [[Omnicidal Maniac]] [[Complete Monster]] as the main [[Big Bad]]...
** ''[[Mega Man ZX (Video Game)|ZX]]'' was lighter than ''Zero''...except for the backstories of the four protagonists, the general atrocities caused by the antagonists, and Giro falling victim to Zero's death curse. It was still done well.
** ''[[Mega Man 7 (Video Game)|Mega Man 7]]'' is a classic example. It turned Mega Man into a [[Perpetual Frowner]], removed the happy expression on the [[One Up|One Ups]], and Mega Man tried to kill Wily in all versions, including the [[American Kirby Is Hardcore|American Kirby is Hardcoreless]] version.
** ''[[Mega Man Star Force (Video Game)|Mega Man Star Force]]'' was definitely darker than its predecessor, ''[[Mega Man Battle Network (Video Game)|Battle Network]]''...somewhat. Appearances can be deceiving. Geo Stelar starts out being understandably depressed about his dad to the point where he won't go to school... But his depression quickly lifts the longer [[The Power of Friendship]] thing hangs around (Then it hits a roadblock when {{spoiler|Pat betrays him and Geo goes into a short-lived fit of [[Wangst]]}}). Star Force actually lightens up quite a bit after this point. The anime and manga were more comedic in nature (The latter a lot more so, like the Zero manga).
*** However, the sequel contains one of the darkest plotlines in the entire series. The Apollo Flames "second quest" involves an alternate universe [[After the End]] scenario where every human has been [[Kill'Em All|killed off]] thanks to the Precursor To Ruin.
*** The third game has some decidedly un-cheery plot elements, such as {{spoiler|two war orphans trying to use an [[Eldritch Abomination]] to destroy the world's technology, a corrupting, quasi-[[Hate Plague]], and one character being killed before Geo's eyes (Luckily they turn out to be [[Only Mostly Dead]]).}}
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** Meanwhile the Two Thrones is darker in the sense of storytelling, pitting the Prince against the darker and edgier persona of himself
* Not even an obscure series like ''[[Snowboard Kids]]'' can escape this trope, with the DS installment gutting nearly everything that gave the earlier games their quirky charm for the sake of appealing to teenagers. Neither the critics nor the small but dedicated fanbase were amused, which possibly spells doom for the franchise.
* Though ''[[Halo (Video Gameseries)|Halo]]'' started off fairly grim in the first place, as the series progressed it went ever deeper down the tunnel. By ''[[Halo 3]]'' there's some ''serious'' nastiness going on, especially regarding the Flood and the [[Nightmare Fuel]] inherent to some of Cortana's messages.
** The story goes that the original script for [[Halo 3]]'s ending had a much lighter tone, with all the main characters returning to Earth to a hero's welcome. Marty O'Donnel, Bungie's musical director, thought that this ending was too [[Lighter and Softer|light and soft]] and didn't portray the grim consequences of being a "hero" in a 30-year war. Subsequently the script was re-written to have a much Darker And Edgier ending in which several main characters die and Master Chief {{spoiler|is stranded in deep space with Cortana, presumed dead by the rest of humanity}}.
** ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' is supposed to be the darkest depressing game thus far since you [[Doomed Byby Canon|already know everyone what will happen to you, your comrades and the planet itself]] . It's about the heroism and sacrifice of those people on a doomed planet watching their friends and everything they love fall. Hell even look at the medals when you perform a feet (Double Kill/Triple Kill), in ''Halo 3'' they were bright and brightly colored, in Reach they are darker, and look metallic, yes even these meta-game symbols are darker AND edgier.
* ''[[Devil May Cry (Video Game)|Devil May Cry]] 2'' was clearly made under the assumption that the overblown camp of the first game was a ''bad'' thing, and decided to play the B-movie setting straight, as evidenced by changing the stylish wise-cracking, cowboy-esque, demon hunter Dante to a generic, stoic badass who barely gets any lines. It might also have to do with the fact it was rushed into production ''without'' informing or involving the original creators. To say the least, [[Fanon Discontinuity|it didn't turn out well]]. Capcom made up for it with a return to [[Camp|the appeal of the original]] with ''[[Devil May Cry (Video Game)|Devil May Cry]] 3''.
** Dante in ''[[Devil May Cry (Video Game)|Devil May Cry]] 4'' grew up and apart from bishounen self in previous installments, sporting [[Perma Stubble|five-o-clock shade]] and somewhat cynical and wisened behaviour.
** This appears to be what Ninja Theory is going for with DmC, which is a reboot featuring a younger, more rebellious Dante. Many fans complained that this "emo" kid wasn't the "real" Dante, ignoring the fact that the design isn't too far off from DMC 4's Nero, who wasn't the "real" Dante either, and completely eclipsed him in the promotion. He even has the a similar hoodie-and-trenchcoat look. Also, the new Dante seems to be more cocky and punk rock than emo.
* Done in ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV (Video Game)|Grand Theft Auto IV]]'', replacing the cheesy crime dramas with an immigrant story wrapped in a crime drama, while retaining the humor.
** If anything, people complain because Niko wasn't dark ''enough''.
** The current generation of ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV (Video Game)|Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' plays to a cynical darker tune. ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV the Lost And Damned (Video Game)|The Lost and Damned]]'' DLC turns the Grim Dark [[Up to Eleven]], with the protagonist Johnny partaking in a series of events which leads to {{spoiler|the death of his best friend Jim at the hands of Niko, being betrayed by childhood friend turned [[Big Bad]] Billy Grey who tries to have Johnny and Jim killed during a drug deal and later attempts to sellout everyone to save his own ass after said drug deal gets him arrested, and said arrest leading to a civil war that wipes out more than half of the Lost. Once everything is over with Billy dead, Johnny and the survivors of the whole ordeal (One of whom happens to be a paraplegic crippled in an accident caused by Billy's carelessness) decide to just burn down the clubhouse to put it out of its misery after it and the club have been ruined over the course of the game. This leaves the player with a single, run down safehouse that is in one of ''the'' most run down areas of the city and used to belong to one of the Lost members Johnny had to kill in the civil war.}} [[Wham! Episode|Damn.]]
** Subverting the first two main stories of the IV generation, the last IV DLC ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV the Ballad of Gay Tony (Video Game)|The Ballad of Gay Tony]]'' went in the [[Lighter and Softer]] direction, with the return of some over the top elements of games from the III era, and an overall happy ending that doesn't end in the deaths of any major characters close to the protagonist Luis or anything being left in ruins.
* The original ''[[Super Mario Bros. (Videovideo Gamegame)|Super Mario Bros]]'' was fairly light and soft, with a generic "save the princess" story, fairly comical villains, and overall cartoony style. ''[[Super Mario Bros 2 (Video Game)|Super Mario Bros 2]]'' had more of a "[[Dreaming of Things to Come|seeing upon waking what you saw in a dream]]" story, and introduced a variety of spookier enemies, like the Sparks, the Albatosses, (no, that's not a typo) the mousers, the tryclydes, the fryguys, and let's not forget the [[Super Mario Bros (Franchise)./Nightmare Fuel|ESPECIALLY intimidating]] Phantos. Even {{spoiler|the hawkmouths}} eventually become enemies. It's also the first Mario game to involve the use of bombs. Of course, many of the introductions are due to it being a [[Dolled-Up Installment]] of [[Doki Doki Panic (Video Game)|another game]].
** ''[[Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door (Video Game)|Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door]]'' is darker and edgier than the first ''[[Paper Mario (Video Gamefranchise)|Paper Mario]]''. The first example of many that this game will be darker than the last is probably the ''gallows'' in Rogueport's town square. This is also a game in which Mario does jobs for [[The Family for Thethe Whole Family|the Mafia]]. Nonetheless, the whole thing is fairly cheery and innocuous.
*** ''[[Super Paper Mario (Video Game)|Super Paper Mario]]'' is even ''darker'', what with Mario and company saving the multiverse from an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] and his dysfunctional flunkies.
** ''[[Mario and Luigi (Video Game)|Mario and Luigi]]'' went the same kind of way with the second game (''Partners in Time''), with the second game being based around an alien invasion of the past Mushroom Kingdom and having places like Toad Town and Princess Peach's Castle turned to ruins by the Shroobs, and some rather creepy things as background detail and music. It actually introduces a Christmas-themed village solely to destroy it less then five minutes after your arrival.
*** Toad Town. Literally just pieces of rubble tossed around. Compare to Toad Town of ''Bowser's Inside Story''. Even Peach's Castle from the latter isn't so... Devastated and dangerous as Shroob Castle!
** ''[[Mario Strikers|Mario Strikers Charged]]'' did this in a tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top way.
** And let's ''definitely'' not even get us started on the times [[New Super Mario Bros (Video Game)|when Bowser unexpectedly comes back to life as a zombie]] and [[Super Mario Galaxy (Video Game)|when Bowser tries to]] [[Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Video Game)|take over outer space.]]
** ''[[Mario Party (Video Game)|Mario Party 4]]'' can be seen as Darker and Edgier than the Nintendo 64 installments - with its psychedelic music, and its somewhat more serious tone - in fact, while the rest of the world gave it the same age rating as the earlier games, it got a G8+ rating in Australia. Strangely, the next three installments took on a more childish tone than the N64 installments.
* The original ''[[Super Smash Bros (Video Game)|Super Smash Bros]]'' was a cartoony fighting game with cute Nintendo characters and cartoony sound effects, and the artwork was done in a comic book style. The sequel, ''Melee'', was not as cartoony, had more realistic sound effects, the characters had more realistic appearances, and some of the playable characters were ''villains''. The second sequel, ''Brawl'', went as far as to portray the characters as more aggressive (even the happy-go-lucky ones like Yoshi and Mario), an adventure mode where each character once again acts, to some extent, out-of-character (though you wouldn't know it from the lack of dialogue), and two of the newcomers have stuff that is inappropriate for a Nintendo game: Wario has a ''[[Fartillery|flatulence]]'' [[Fartillery|attack]], and [[Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)|Solid Snake]] not only comes from a game series known for its violence, making him look unprofessional amongst all those cute Nintendo characters, but as a secret, he makes, along with his contacts, witty comments about every character. Let's not get started on what they'll do in SSB4...
* ''[[Conkers Bad Fur Day (Video Game)|Conkers Bad Fur Day]]'' was originally going to be a kid-friendly platformer starring a cute little squirrel in a blue hoodie. Indeed, the predecessor ''Pocket Tales'' had that tone. Early screenshots of the game met a chilly reception from the gaming community, saying it looked suspiciously like a weak ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' knockoff (a fair criticism--the collection platformer was a genre which had plagued [[Rare]] around the turn of the century, resulting in the decent but largely unpopular ''[[Donkey Kong 64 (Video Game)|Donkey Kong 64]]'' and ''[[Star Fox Adventures (Video Game)|Star Fox Adventures]]''). In response, Rare kept the cute squirrel and the platforming, but changed just about everything else, adding enough sex, gore, and profanity to make it perhaps the most perverse title ever released for the N64.
** Ironically enough, the port for the Xbox was ''less'' offensive due to enforced censorship on swear words. [[Mis Blamed|That idiots blamed on Nintendo]]. (Never mind that Nintendo in fact ''did not'' censor the N64 version, except for F-bombs.)
* Not to pile on [[DC Comics]] again... but they did agree to make a crossover game called ''[[Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe]]''. ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' itself is the Darker and Edgier version of every other fighting game (ironically, the crossover was [[Lighter and Softer]] for the ''Kombat'' side. Or at least, its trademark violence).
** The series itself seems to get darker every other installment.
* The unreleased Playstation game ''Thrill Kill'' is the Darker and Edgier form of ''Mortal Kombat''. Yes, that is possible. The game was never released because it got an AO (Adults Only) rating for being too gory and sexual (AO-rated games are not allowed on consoles, San Andreas being an exception), and because Virgin Interactive was bought up by EA Games, who refused to release something like this.
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** On the other hand, the ''[[Red Alert]]'' series has headed in the ''[[Lighter and Softer|opposite]]'' direction as that series progressed.
*** Actually, it's Darker and Softer. If not for the fact that the series got weirder and weirder with each game, it would be quite disturbing.
* ''[[Super Robot Wars (Video Game)|Super Robot Wars]]'' recently had a slightly Darker And Edgier tone with Z being that a famous hero of an original franchise is given an evil spinoff. You can't save both psycho girls from Gundam and the bad ending route is possible again. Mind you this is as far as they go.
** It only gets really Darker And Edgier if you pick Setsuko's route. Rand's route has several [[Camp]] elements and mostly considered light hearted. But Setsuko's route is just throwing you lots and lots of [[Break the Cutie]] moments to the poor heroine, and in the end... she doesn't get completely better...
** It is darker compared to past games. There are personality issues and infighting with nearly all the members or your team for most of the game, you are duped and betrayed several times throughout the game. All the original villains are more or less [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]], with the guy who does the worst things arguably the kindest since he isn't a psychotic bastard in it for the evil. Also your team at one point literally splits into factions and tries to kill each other with no Brainwashing involved. And the ending is bittersweet as some people are lost. It's pretty dark.
** You actually can save both crazy Gundam girls if you [[Guide Dang It|plan carefully]]. Compare it to SRW A, where you are forced to choose between {{spoiler|Master Asia and Gai Daigoji}} and can't save both no matter how hard you try. The storyline of Z is still dark as far as SRW games go, though.
** ''[[Super Robot Wars Z]] 2'' continues the dark trend with some [[Doomed Byby Canon]] to boot!
* ''[[Final Fight]]: Streetwise'' is a good example why you don't make it so damn Grim Dark. And they forgot our favorite [[Transsexual]] Poison? For shame, for shame.
** To expand: Guy, the series [[Lawful Good]] [[Knight Errant]], becomes a mob boss. Cody? He does drugs. [[Broken Aesop|And they heal his permanent injuries.]]
* The ''[[Tekken (Video Game)|Tekken]]'' games have both been an example and subversion of this trope. While the games have become more story based and darker (What with Jin's Wangst and all) they've at the same time introduced increasingly ridiculous elements like kickboxing kangaroos, endings where people are launched into space or blown up with bow ties, and training dummies that communicate through nonsensical clicking noises.
* The ''[[Call of Duty (Video Game)|Call of Duty]]'' series has the weird example of becoming darker and edgier three separate times throughout the series. ''Call of Duty 1'', ''2'', and ''3'' were all T-rated [[World War II]] shooters which while showing the intensity and violence of war, weren't really that brutal or dark, all of them had happy endings for their protagonists. ''Call of Duty 2'' and 3 were slightly darker and edgier versions of ''Call of Duty 1'', but not by much only with minor cursing and intense hand-to-hand combat respectively. ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' amps it up with an M rated, major cursing, more violence, and a significantly darker story in which {{spoiler|almost every major character dies, including one of the main characters by nuclear explosion}} and a lot more pessimistic view of things. And then ''World At War'' comes out which amplifies ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' by two, with a curse word being in every second sentence, dismemberments and charred corpses being standard fare, the opening mission which has one of your squadmates brutally tortured and his throat slit by a Japanese officer, and enough war crimes to fill an encyclopedia, especially by the more sadistic Soviets who are also supposed to be the good guys.
** ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' tops that off with you getting to {{spoiler|witness your character being burned alive FROM FIRST PERSON.}}
** ''[[Modern Warfare]] 3'' is also quite dark, simply put the moment the cover went from men heroically attempting to break past the enemy lines to a silhoutte of a soldier with a gun was when the series became dark to the point of no possible return. {{spoiler|Oh, and everyone except Price dies as usual}}.
** ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops (Video Game)|Call of Duty Black Ops]]'' goes even further, with the gore being amped to 11, in addition to {{spoiler|the entire plot revolving around your teammates torturing you}}, not to mention the {{spoiler|scene were Weaver gets his eye dismembered}} and that {{spoiler|Reznov, your main ally in the game is a hallucination.}} However, none of those top the fact that {{spoiler|that you are the assassin of John F. Kennedy.}}
*** And then there is the upcoming ''Call of Duty: Black Ops 2''. The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqOjoYRgnHs reveal trailer] literally states that ''the future is black''.
* ''Elevator Action'' featured an agent named Otto and was more spy themed, shooting down agents. Elevator Action Returns, however...[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwqIBYvAofA did that].
* ''[[Ratchet: Deadlocked]]'' (and, arguably, ''[[Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal|Up Your Arsenal]]'') was obviously targeted towards a more mature audience:
** Ratchet's new outfit hides his tail (and head throughout most gameplay) and makes him look suspiciously like Samus or Master Chief. (Likely intended to be the latter, considering the era it was released in.)
** Clank, although still having a major role, had his name removed from the western titles, likely to make the game seem less friendship-themed.
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* ''[[Star Wars]] [[Republic Commando]]'' is dark to the point where some people complained it wasn't very Star Wars-like. For starters, no Opening Crawl is present, and there is blood and gore in heavy levels for a T-rated game. It's a first-person shooter in which you play as a clone trooper, and the scale, far from epic, is outright tiny. Not actually a bad game, but definitely darker. The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] is veering towards this fast these days.
* Massive, massive change in mood between ''R:1'' and ''R:2'' in ''[[.hack]]''. The good AI are dead or apathetic, and players have gone from dealing well with depression to psychosis. It's possible that the third "season" ''R:X'' is trying to regain the innocence.
* ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' parodies this somewhat; in contrast with the increasing violence and realism seen in many current online FPSes, all the characters look like they're from a Pixar movie. It's gory, yes, but a game where the standard infantry character was rejected from the army during WWII and got on a plane to Poland, going on a Nazi killing spree (in 1949) and awarding himself medals ''that he made for himself'' can't be anything but outlandish and silly.
* ''[[American McGee's Alice (Video Game)|American McGee's Alice]]'' is almost a literal definition of this.
** And ''[[Alice Madness Returns (Video Game)|Alice: Madness Returns]]'' manages to top even that, what with all the [[Mind Rape]] and surprisingly [[Anvilicious]] pedophile psychologist.
* There is some of this between ''[[The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind]]'' and ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion]]'' where major plot points are concerned. Not only does the player character in Oblivion spend the main quest {{spoiler|helping the Empire's last heir sacrifice himself in order to provide a stopgap against demon invasion while simultaneously [[Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu|eliminating any possibility of such protection in the future]]}}, Oblivion also has the Dark Brotherhood series of quests wherein the player character can actually become an assassin with all that this entails. Further, many of Oblivion's NPC dialogues discuss events in ''Morrowind'' and involve events that overturn previous cheerful endings, such as {{spoiler|Vivec disappearing and Ald'Ruhn being burned down}}. At the same time though it also censors a few in game books, and makes the gameplay much softer (the only way to fail most quests is your death or bugs).
** Rather, ''Morrowind'' is lighter on the surface. ''[[The Elder Scrolls II Daggerfall (Video Game)|Daggerfall]]'' featured nudity, graphic texts in books, ''insane'' dungeons, disease is instant death if not cured in time, etc..
** If you include the spinoffs, ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' constantly went through two phases of going [[Darker and Edgier]]. ''Arena'' was pretty light, ''Daggerfall'' was darker, ''Battlespire'' pushed the darkness as far as it could go. Then ''Redguard'' went back to square one, followed by ''Morrowind'' and ''Oblivion'' being progressively darker.''Skyrim'' meanwhile goes...in a bit of a zigzag. The world in ''Morrowind'' was pretty Crapsack, but you make it better. ''Oblivion'' is in a Crap-saccharine world. ''Skyrim'' goes ''right'' back to a crapsack world...even ''worse'' than the world in the previous games! Yet the story ends on a pretty idealistic side.
* ''[[Donkey Kong Country (Videovideo Gamegame)|Donkey Kong Country]] 2'' was subtly darker than the previous, and [[Your Mileage May Vary|arguably]] a bit better.
* ''[[Blood Storm]]'' for all its [[Black and Grey Morality]] (only 2 were actual good guys, everyone else was either an [[Ax Crazy]] sociopath or a bastard) and [[Bloodier and Gorier]] worth compared to ''[[Time Killers]]'' failed miserably to compare to ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' since even in ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' morality wasn't that grey. This caused the company to go bankrupt as a result
** They now exclusively make Golden Tee games, learning their lessons from [[Follow the Leader|following the leader]] too closely.
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* ''[[Contra|Contra: Shattered Soldier]]'' went a long way to undo the optimistic ending of ''Contra III: The Alien Wars''. Bill Rizer, the hero of the original games, is now a wrongly accused war criminal convicted for causing [[After the End|the destruction of 80% of the world's population]], while his former partner Lance Bean is now a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|a terrorist leader]] seeking to overthrow the [[Government Conspiracy|Triumvirate]], who were responsible for provoking the alien invasions in the previous games.
** ''Neo Contra'' inverts this by essentially being a self parody of the series.
* [[Koumajou Densetsu]], fulfills this trope by putting the characters from ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou Project: Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil]]'' into a ''[[Castlevania]]'' inspired universe.
** Ironically just played with in the end, as only the designs and settings are truly Darker and Edgier - now that the game has dialogue (and in English, at that!) the story and characterizations are every bit as nutty as its mainstream counterpart.
** The sequel however plays this much straighter.
* ''[[Spyro the Dragon (Video Game)|Spyro the Dragon]]'', When you remember that the original games have a cute dragon fighting hilarious freaks who mostly ran away from him, and you regained health by collecting BUTTERFLIES, it's difficult to see how it progressed to the level of Grim Dark it is today. And damn, Spyro got ugly.
* Inverted with ''[[Backyard Sports (Video Game)|Backyard Sports]]''. The executives wanted to make the series darker and edgier by making the kids older and giving them new designs, but it became [[Lighter and Softer]], and its audience's age went down.
* [[Square Enix]] has announced that ''[[Final Fantasy Versus XIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Versus XIII]]'' will be the darkest entry to the ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' series yet. The trailers and plot information released so far paints it as fairly bloody and bleak, so this is probably true.
** Proven correct as it's cousin ''[[Final Fantasy Type-0 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Type-0]]'' is also dark, bloody and depressing as well.
** For 13-2, it was true with the ending. {{spoiler|Serah is dead, her sister is [[Taken for Granite]], the villain's [[Time Crash]] plan pulled through, Valhalla consumes the living world, the Goddess of Valhalla is dead, and the villain got off scot-free. Frankly speaking, it was a real [[Downer Ending]].}}
* The entire FF series went this direction after (or, one could say, starting with) [[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|VI]], though [[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|VII]] and [[Final Fantasy Tactics (Video Game)|Tactics]] went the furthest.
* ''[[Dragon Quest (Video Game)|Dragon Quest]]'' games are often pretty idealistic, but as shown by ''[[Dragon Quest V (Video Game)|Dragon Quest V]]'' they aren't afraid to make the heroes work hard for their happy endings. However, ''[[Dragon Quest VII (Video Game)|Dragon Quest VII]]'' is easily the darkest ''[[Dragon Quest (Video Game)|Dragon Quest]]'' game yet, with the heroes almost always finding a part of the world that suffered (or is about to suffer) some kind of unspeakable tragedy that would wipe out everything. Normally they put a stop to this and manage to save the town (and that part of the world) but there have been instances where they were too late or there wasn't anything they could do.
* ''[[Radical Dreamers (Visual Novel)|Radical Dreamers]]'' and subsequently ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]'' shifted dramatically in tone from the relatively lighthearted adventurous spirit of ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]''. The fact that the idealistic heroes from the previous game are strongly implied to have been [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|unceremoniously offed]] is a pretty good indicator of the general tone of the games.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: MajorasMajora's Mask (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' is pretty dark for a Zelda game, especially in comparison to [[Ocarina of Time|the previous title]]. Although not to the same extent, ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Video Game)|Twilight Princess]]'' is also pretty dark, suggesting that the "realistic" games are permanently taking a turn for the dark and edgy.
** If one would branch the 3D Zelda games into two categories, ''Toon-style'' and ''Real-style'', the "darkest" entry in the generally more cheerfully ''Toon-style'' category would be ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Video Game)|Spirit Tracks]]'', which is one of the only two Zelda games to not receive a regular E rating (''Spirit Tracks'' was rated E10+ ; ''Twilight Princess'' was rated T). It even features one of the shortest, but creepiest plot points of ''Twilight Princess'' as framework for a huge junk of the story: {{spoiler|Princess Zelda's empty body being possessed by a male [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]].}}
* One could argue that ''[[Wild Arms 3 (Video Game)|Wild Arms 3]]'' is the darkest entry in the ''[[Wild Arms (Video Game)|Wild Arms]]'' series due to having the most sinister villains, Filgaia (normally [[A World Half Full]]) being a flatout [[Death World]], and {{spoiler|arguably having the bleakest ending in the franchise}}.
* While not to the extent as other examples in this page, ''[[Tales of Rebirth (Video Game)|Tales of Rebirth]]'' is probably the darkest entry of the ''[[Tales Series(series)]]''. Overall, the game has a more grim atmosphere and serious story than its predecessors and successors (doesn't mean that the game ''doesn't'' have humor, mind you, it's just in smaller amounts). The game isn't universally considered ''the best'' of the franchise, but it's pretty high up there; so, an example of the trope working.
** ''[[Tales of the Abyss (Video Game)|Tales of the Abyss]]'' qualifies as well. It followed the much [[Lighter and Softer]] ''[[Tales of Legendia (Video Game)|Tales of Legendia]]'' and more idealistic ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' series. (Including ''Phantasia'', which received a [[Game Boy Advance]] release months before Abyss was.) The game's [[Wham! Episode]] involves {{spoiler|Luke being tricked into causing a mining town full of people suffering from Miasma-poisoning into the Qliphoth. Those who didn't die in the initial fall then ''sank into the mud'' and died. Nothing quite like that happens (unless you include the mass-Suicide of the Replicas) later, but almost all the characters wind up losing someone important to them or going through hell to earn their happy ending. And even then...they got a [[Gainax Ending]].}} Not to mention the characters themselves. {{spoiler|''Jade'' is the only one who doesn't go through some kind of traumatic event. And given that Jade kind of created a [[Humanoid Abomination]] and nearly killed himself when he was younger...yeah.}}
* ''[[Homeworld (Video Game)|Homeworld Cataclysm]]''. Although we don't witness it directly, the Beast easily trumps the Taiidan in terms of brutality; at least the Taiidan stopped at annihilating a planet, the Beast only cares about making more of itself in a gruesome and (by the sound of it), '''REALLY F***ING PAINFUL''' way.
* ''Army of Two - The 40th Day'' was a much darker compared to ''[[Army of Two]]'', Morality decisions that is in the [[Black and Grey Morality]] section. A much darker plot and quite the number of people killed off.
* ''[[Max Payne 3]]'', as if the series wasn't already dark enough. There may be [[Creator Breakdown]] involved.
* ''[[Tales of Monkey Island (Video Game)|Tales of Monkey Island]]''. For starters, the sex jokes and double entendres are more frequent and overt. The comedic, silly deaths from previous games are mostly replaced by gruesome, occasionally-tragic deaths. LeChuck tones down his [[Large Ham]] persona. There's almost no [[No Fourth Wall|fourth wall breaks]]. Oh, and {{spoiler|Guybrush DIES...he gets better later on, but still.}}
* ''[[Doom (Video Gameseries)|Doom]] 3'' is pretty much this compared to its predecessors. [[Who Forgot the Lights?|Especially ''darker'']].
* ''Zork: Nemesis'' was a black sheep in the series, largely eschewing the light-hearted, satirical nature of the rest of the series for a dark, grim story set in an abandoned and ruined temple, where the only characters to interact with are four [[And I Must Scream|self-aware corpses]] and the [[Eldritch Abomination]] who killed them, [[It Got Worse|and that's just the first area.]]
* For a while the third sequel to [[Kid Icarus]] seemed to be heading this way, looking more like Nintendo's answer to ''[[God of War (Video Gameseries)|God of War]]''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc9c9hOWots\] Apparently, Pit was a adult and was "cursed for thousands of years for a crime and becomes a '[[Fallen Angel]]" and had a [[Tattooed Crook]] on his arm bearing the inscription of said crime. Most of the fans did not like it. Fortunately for them, they went with the [[Super Smash Bros (Video Game)|Brawl]] redesign and appear to have scrapped the old ideas.
* ''[[King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (Video Game)|King's Quest Mask of Eternity]]'' took the series in a direction that embarrassed [[Sierra]]'s designers. Among them were [[Gabriel Knight (Video Game)|Jane Jensen]], who wrote:
{{quote| "Me and my poor befuddled brain, trying to fathom a Sierra where... the most recent King's Quest involves killing things? Whatever happened to saving the cute little bee queen? HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD?"[http://www.justadventure.com/articles/Love_Letter/Jane_Jensen%27s_Love_Letter_to_Sierra.shtm\]}}
** Quite a few Sierra adventure game series turned Darker And Edgier around the fourth installment: ''[[King's Quest IV]]'', ''[[Space Quest]] IV'', and ''[[Quest for Glory IV]]'', for example, had more [[Nightmare Fuel]] than their respective predecessors.
* The Mother series falls under this somewhat. Mother 1 and 2 were relatively cheerful and funny, then comes Mother 3 where {{spoiler|Your mother dies (in the first 30 minutes of the game, no less), your brother goes missing after trying to avenge your mother's death (although its implied the main character thinks he's dead), your father dedicates his life to finding him, your brother is used by the big bad to pull the seven needles which if he gets more than half the WORLD ENDS, the big bad is an insane person who is thousands of years old and has the mind and body of a kid, and in the end your brother kills himself.}} Amazingly it does retain the humor of the previous games though.
** ''[[Earthbound (Video Game)|Earthbound]]'' seemed slightly darker than Mother, as well. {{spoiler|Especially when considering [[Eldritch Abomination|the]] [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|final]] [[Fetus Terrible|boss]]...}}
* ''[[No More Heroes (Video Game)|No More Heroes]] 2'' is a slightly darker version of the first game. While it still retains the quirky, paradoxal, [[No Fourth Wall|fourth wall-breaking]], Tarantino-esque qualities of the first game, it continues the series’ theme of revenge that was only brought up at the end of the first game, a noticeably angrier Travis, and the brutal murder of Travis' friend Bishop, with his severed head in a paper bag being thrown through Travis' window at the beginning of the game. Interestingly, the second game also features some actual [[Character Development]], with Travis {{spoiler|starting to get sick of mindless killing and eventually deciding to quit the UAA because it disgusts him}}, as opposed to the first game, where he was just a violent, foul-mouthed [[Blood Knight]].
* ''[[Sengoku Basara (Video Game)|Sengoku Basara]]'' is a game series that's known for being ridiculously over-the-top with all its character designs, [[Engrish]], attacks, plotlines, ham, silly humour, cheese and the tendency to ignore actual history. Basically, everything was turned [[Up to Eleven]], and it was awesome in its own way. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Kind of]]. Then along came ''Sengoku Basara 3'', kicking the previous poster boys out of the way and taking over with new serious plotline. Capcom also decided to be more history-accurate, [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|making them NPC]]/killing off important characters along the way. Result? Previously "LET'S PARTY!" -characters overrun with angst.
* The [[Star Fox (Video Gameseries)|Star Fox]] series continuously bounces between this and [[Lighter and Softer]]. The lighter games are ''[[Killer App|Star Fox 64]]'' and ''[[Star Fox Adventures (Video Game)|Star Fox Adventures]],'' both containing [[Narm Charm|amusing dialogue]] spoken in rather dire situations. The darker games are ''Assault'' (following ''Adventures'') and the original SNES game to a degree; in the latter, virtually no humor exists, and when your wingmen are shot down, they're [[Killed Off for Real]]. The former features a [[Hive Mind]] assimilation plot leading to [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|The End of the universe as we know it]], and rather painful sacrifices {{spoiler|on the parts of Peppy and the [[Anti-Hero|Star Wolf Team]], but they manage to survive}}. ''Command'' is somewhere in the middle; cheesy dialogue and story with [[Bittersweet Ending|rather]] [[Downer Ending|questionable]] [[Multiple Endings]].
** If you count it, the unreleased ''Star Fox 2'' is dark by the fact that ''interplanetary ballistic missiles are used to destroy Corneria.'' To top it off, the ''entire game'' is on a time limit of sorts. Don't take out the missiles, ''and Corneria is '''hopelessly destroyed'''''.
* ''[[Syphon Filter]]'' was already rather dark to begin with, but ''Logan's Shadow'' especially [[Up to Eleven|turns up]] [[True Art Is Angsty|the angst factor]], with the IPCA shut down, Logan sent on a botched mission by corrupt bureaucrat Robert Cordell, Lian accused of treason by Cordell, and Logan's and Teresa's possible death at the end. Ironically, it has a T rating, as opposed to the M rating of previous games.
* ''[[Patapon]] 3'' is a rather mild example. The art style is much darker in this one and music has lots of heavy guitar riffs in it.
** The sequel is notably darker, instead of leading an army of Patapon, the Patapon are left to 4 survivors who are tossed into a dimension filled with dark demons and must fight them off with masks that can corrupt them.
* EA released a game that plays like ''[[Diablo (Video Gameseries)|Diablo]]'' in a dark and gritty sci-fi universe. It's called ''[[Dark SporeDarkspore]]''. Yes, ''that'' ''[[Spore (Video Game)|Spore]]''.
** Just like ''[[Spore (Video Game)|Spore]]'', ''[[The Sims]]'' Medieval is darker than the older sim games as it breaks the three rules of Simology which is no religion, no murder (You can kill people in swordfights and executing them) and no alcoholism. It also introduces some things such as breastfeeding for instance.
* While ''[[Transformers]]'' has had darker and lighter reboots multiple times, ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron]]'' seems to be one of the darkest takes yet. For once it focuses on the fighting on Cybertron and how absolutely ''brutal'' it was, and we see [[Scenery Gorn|cities getting torn apart]], a nightmarish Decepticon war prison, and it's not just the Decepticons who have [[We Have Reserves|large numbers of unnamed expendable soldiers]].
* The "Wonderful Life" subseries of ''[[Harvest Moon (Video Game)|Harvest Moon]]'' are extremely dark compared to the other games. For one, unlike the other HM games, once you've chosen who to marry, the game [[You Bastard|clearly spells out to you]] that the lives of the other potential brides are now ''completely, irrevocably ruined''.
** For the second, characters age in real time, which means the end of ''A Wonderful Life'' is {{spoiler|a wonderful death.}}
* ''[[Arc the Lad (Video Game)|Arc the Lad]] 2'': the game takes every trope and cliche found in [[Eastern RPG|Japanese RPGs]], then apply with bullheaded consistency [[Murphy's Law]], turning the sequel of a generic RPG into one of the most [[Player Punch|sadistic]] game on the first Playstation.
* The general direction of ''[[Dwarf Fortress (Video Game)|Dwarf Fortress]]'' updates is that each is darker and edgier than the last, if it's more than bug fixes, to bring more [[Unusual Euphemism|Fun]]. Highlights include:
** DF2010 gave made the [[Dug Too Deep|Hidden Fun Stuff]] go from {{spoiler|a handful of demons}} to {{spoiler|hell itself, spewing [[Zerg Rush|legions]] of demons}}, the [[Our Monsters Are Weird|randomly generated Titans and Forgotten Beasts]], and the strange, bizarre [[Beneath the Earth|underworld]].
** The recent .17 version of DF2010 came with the introduction of [[Things That Go Bump in Thethe Night|bogeymen]] that kill anyone who wanders alone at night, the [[All Trolls Are Different|Night Creatures]] who abduct innocent people to [[The Corruption|transform]] and [[Mars Needs Women|breed with]], and {{spoiler|the spirits of improperly memorialized dwarves haunting, and sometimes murdering, the living}}.
* Compare ''[[Robot Unicorn Attack (Sugar Wiki)|Robot Unicorn Attack]]'' to [[Robot Unicorn Attack (Darth Wiki)|the sequel]]. The original is [[Camp|fabulous]], while the sequel is [[Darker and Edgier]].
* ''[[Castlevania Lords of Shadow (Video Game)|Castlevania: Lords of Shadow]]'' is extremely dark and cynical for a Castlevania series. For better or for worse.
* Telltale's ''[[The Adventures of Sam and& Max: Freelance Police (Video Game)|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' games went from being a collection of lighthearted (but [[Satire|satirical]]) stand-alones in the first two seasons, to the much more serious and epic Season 3, ''The Devil's Playhouse'', which (while still a total comedy) had a strong overarching plot, was less satirical, and deconstructed the [[Dead Baby Comedy]] stuff into more serious and emotionally-affecting [[Black Comedy]]. It went down really well with the fanbase, though.
** ''[[Tales of Monkey Island (Video Game)|Tales of Monkey Island]]'' is also the darkest of its series. [[Telltale Games]] seems to be good at making things [[Darker and Edgier]] while keeping the overall charm intact.
* ''Hard Truck'' series started out as a trucking simulation game. Then ''Hard Truck Apocalypse'' spinoff was released where events take place in post-apocalyptic Europe.
* Would you believe ''[[Little Big Planet]] 2''? It's still a fairly light, silly game, but... well, the previous titles were about traveling an imaginary world, helping people. This one is about stopping an [[Eldritch Abomination]] from destroying an imaginary world, complete with some genuinely creepy levels and enemies.
* According to [[Kevin Conroy]], ''[[Batman: Arkham City (Video Game)|Batman Arkham City]]'' would be this compared to the first game. That's saying something considering how dark ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum (Video Game)|Arkham Asylum]]'' was.
** ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum (Video Game)|Batman Arkham Asylum]]'' itself was essentially a ''MUCH'' darker version of the animated series. In fact, it was so dark and filled with so much [[Nightmare Fuel]], that many people who play are shocked that it didn't get rated M. One wonders how they got away with a Teen Rating for ''[[Batman: Arkham City (Video Game)|Batman Arkham City]]''.
* ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' went this direction. [[Tomb Raider (Videovideo Gamegame)|The first game]] had [[Lara Croft]] simply hunting for artifacts and getting into shootouts for self-defence. As the games progressed the character became darker and more violent, with the player being unable to avoid killing in order to proceed with a level in some cases. One game's cutscene has Lara cold-bloodedly allowing a man to fall to his death, while a mission in ''Tomb Raider Anniversary'' chronicles Lara's first killing of another human being. (See [[Darker and Edgier/Literature|Literature]] for how Lara got even more darker and edgier.)
** Especially with a new reboot of the series recently announced, this E3 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFBrgeSjj-0 trailer] definitely contains a much darker and emotional-scarring experience for our young heroine. Can't shake the feeling of [[Survival Horror]] on this one.
*** If you didn't feel [[Tear Jerker|anything]] [[Break the Cutie|at]] [[Darkest Hour|all]] watching the goddamn trailer, you are a horrible, horrible person.
* ''[[Tenchu]]'' isn't exactly a family friendly game but its prequel, ''Birth of the Stealth Assassins'', got rid of the supernatural elements and the soothing music and elaborated on Rikimaru and Ayame's tragic back story.
* ''[[Golden Sun Dark Dawn (Video Game)|Golden Sun Dark Dawn]]'' is darker and edgier than its predecessors. Weyard in the two previous games was largely at peace, and the only characters who tended to kick the bucket were the villains. Now Angara, and very likely the other continents of Weyard, is full of budding countries who frequently war with each other, and once the {{spoiler|the Grave Eclipse is activated, townspeople start dropping like flies in the face of an overwhelming monster horde, with even a few named characters both good and bad getting [[Killed Off for Real]].}}
* ''[[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]'' 2, while still being as hilarious as the first game, has a noticeably darker and more serious plot.
* While ''[[Mabinogi (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mabinogi]]'' [[Crap Saccharine World|isn't exactly one of the cheeriest games around]], its prequel game ''[[Vindictus]]'', focusing on humanity's war against the Fomors to reach [[The Promised Land]] (Mabinogi's original setting Erinn) is as violent as all get-out and has a lot more serious themes. In the third major episode, {{spoiler|a young cadet that you spent the first few episodes getting to know is viciously murdered}}, and as the game goes on, we learn it's only the beginning of [[It Got Worse|how worse things are getting]].
** It doesn't help that the cutscene where he's killed is right before the boss fight in a mission. And it's unskippable. Given the luck-factor in finishing quests, it's not uncommon to see him murdered over and over and over again.
* ''[[Rocket Knight Adventures]]'' was a cute game about a silly opossum who wears knight armor and a jet pack, and fights an army of pigs, who, when defeated, run around in their underwear after their armor is knocked off. There were two sequels released shortly after, both named ''Sparkster'', one for the SNES and one for the Genesis. The music is no longer as upbeat, the enemies are replaced with wolves or lizards (depending on which sequel), the humor and silliness are gone, Rocket Knight (now Sparkster) himself is no longer chubby and happy looking but instead slim and grim, and a lot of the original charm is gone.
* ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' also has its fare share of Darker and Edgier moments. A particularly notable example is ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]'': There are hints at unethical experimentation towards a sentient race by [[The Empire]], the amnesiac main character, when knocked out, experiences [[Flashback Nightmare|a particularly horrifying recollection]] about her being outfitted with a slave crown in a manner that is implied to be unwilling on her part, then being forced to torch fifty of the imperial troops alive, and the war speech made by the Emperor. In addition, the main villain, a psychotic jester named Kefka Palazzo manages to gleefully poison an entire civilization's water supply and was implied to have wiped out said civilization in what is essentially an act of Genocide, with the Empire also suffering losses from the same poison as well, and then proceeds to stab the Emperor in the back and cause the world to be significantly ruined, remaining this way throughout the second act, and it is implied that the world's condition is slowly getting worse, with the main bad guy (now a god) murdering various people with his Light of Judgement, even orphaning various people, and then trying to destroy the entire planet.
* ''[[League of Legends]]''' newer skins as of August 9th, all of them felt a lot darker and grittier.
* ''[[Hyperdimension Neptunia]]'' was a fun light-hearted [[Console Wars]] game filled with a fun cast and a happy game overall. The [[Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk 2|second game]] starts off with the four goddesses on the receiving end of a curb stomp, piracy monsters are rampant, and in one of the endings {{spoiler|murdering fellow goddesses to power up the sword, only to find out that Nepgear was being controlled by the [[Big Bad]].}}
* ''[[Need for Speed]]'' is seemingly heading into this territory with [[Need for Speed]] The Run.
* Compared to the rest of the series, ''[[Hitman]]: Contracts'' is probably the darkest. All of the missions take place at night and it's usually raining. The game also has really haunting background music, and at least 4 of the missions have already dead bodies, one who was horribly butchered.
* ''[[Darwinia (Video Game)|Darwinia]]'', released by Introversion Software, centers around saving a race of small, green machine-intelligence entities known as Darwinians from a virus that has infected their computer system. However, in the process, the player introduces the Darwinians to a previously unknown concept: organized conflict. The result can be best seen in the slogan for the sequel, ''Multiwinia'':
{{quote| '''Multiwinia''' ~ Darwin is dead. Prepare for war.}}
* ''[[NHL Hockey|NHL '99]]'', where the menus had a grittier feel to them. However, this didn't change the content of the game.
* Although ''[[Metroid (Video Game)|Metroid]]'' is already a darker and edgier Nintendo franchise, it reached a new level with ''[[Metroid Prime (Video Game)|Metroid Prime]] 2: Echoes''. In addition to including a [[Dark World]], its backstory tells about much more tragic events, including the rise, decline and near-extinction of the Luminoth, the death of the Galactic Federation soldiers, [[Even Evil Has Standards|and the Space Pirates being frightened before the presence of an]] [[Evil Counterpart]] of Samus Aran. The next game, ''Corruption'', didn't have a Dark World, but Samus does witness the death of several fellow hunters, several (not just one anymore) planets being affected by Phazon, the renmants of a merciless attack towards a GF ship, and {{spoiler|she being gradually corrupted herself by Phazon.}}
* Playing the first few games of the ''[[Soul Series]]'', you think that the Soul Calibur is the "good" sword to the evil of Soul Edge, right? Not as of IV - Calibur is [[Knight Templar]], just as evil as Edge. Previously-sympathetic characters like Taki become major bitches. Justified as Soul Calibur was made from a purified shard of Soul Edge.
* ''[[Sly Cooper (Video Game)|Sly Cooper]]'' had a major shift between the first and second game. The first had Spyro like gameplay with a slightly darker story, the second had actually thieving, a "spice" smuggling business, an evil FBI authority that tried to brainwash Carmelita, and so much more.
* ''[[X (Videovideo Gamegame)|X3: Albion Prelude]]'' compared to ''X3: Terran Conflict''. The previous game's eponymous [[Space Cold War]] goes hot when one of the characters from ''X3: Reunion'' suicide-bombs Earth's [[Big Dumb Object|Torus Aeternal]] (a massive space station ringing Earth), killing millions of Terran civilians instantly (never mind the surfacer deaths from [[Colony Drop|deorbiting debris]]). The Terrans deploy their entire fleet in a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against the Argon, who retaliate with artificially intelligent warships reverse-engineered from [[AI Is a Crapshoot|the Xenon]].
** Add to it a [[Broken Aesop]]. We're apparently supposed to think [[Designated Hero|the Argon are the good guys]] and [[Designated Villain|the Terrans are the bad guys]], even though the Argon committed the 30th century equivalent of [[War On Terror|9/11]] and are now trying to wipe the Terrans out, while the Terrans are acting in self-defense.
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2 (Video Game)|Neverwinter Nights 2]]: Mask of the Betrayer'' compared to the original campaign. So much so that some people wonder how the same company could have created the lighthearted [[Troperiffic]] romp through the Sword Coast, then turned around and created an original, dark, atmospheric campaign in ''MotB''.
* ''[[Ghost Recon]]'' and ''[[Rainbow Six]]'' shifted to a darker direction as the newer soldiers are more like [[Military Maverick|Military Mavericks]] than by the orders soldiers and [[Spec Ops]], ''[[Tom Clancy Rainbow Six Vegas]]'' exemplified the notable shift.
* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' was the first M-rated game published by Nintendo, followed by ''Conker's Bad Fur Day'' and ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' (contrary to public belief, ''Eternal Darkness'' was the ''third'' one, not the first).
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