Horror Games that are Just Jump Scare Simulators

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Horror Games that are Just Jumpscare Simulators Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion The Mortuary Assistant MADiSON Ikai

Published Feb 3, 2026, 6:08 PM EST

Elena Chapella (She/Her) is a current Writer for DualShockers, formerly an award-winning journalist for local news stations and newspapers in central Indiana.

Elena is passionate about writing, playing Dungeons & Dragons with her friends, and, of course, playing video games.

When she's not writing, Elena is actually a high school teacher by day. She teaches students essential life skills for adulthood, including job readiness, financial literacy, and college preparation.

There are several staples you can expect when playing a survival horror game: tense atmosphere, impeccable sound design, and, of course, jump scares.

Love or hate jump scares, players of the horror genre are well-aware that they're par for the course, and many progress through horror games already tense because of it. Some games, however, happen to take these jump scares and run with them, either to the game's benefit or detriment.

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These games, in particular, I like to call Jump Scare Simulators, because they happen that often. That doesn't mean that these are terrible horror games, though — quite the contrary — it's just something that players should be aware of going in.

In fact, without jump scares, these games probably wouldn't be the same in the slightest.

10 Ikai

Shrine's Haunted

Japanese horror has always held a special place in my heart, especially horror that dives into a culture's folklore and deepest superstitions. Ikai is one of those games that's teeming with folklore, especially surrounding Yokai.

In Ikai, you play as a shrine maiden (in Japanese, called a miko) tasked with looking after the shrine, keeping it clean, and compelling away any evil that dares to get too close. Not only is this game tense, but it's also not afraid of using jump scares.

Of course, there's the typical death-screen-jump-scare, which is a common mechanic in horror gaming, but there are several scripted events that have the sole purpose of scaring you out of your seat. Part of the tension of this game is trying to avoid being hit with a jump scare, but it's not done so much that it's monotonous.

The developers of this game are also in progress on another new title, Silent Road, which looks like it surrounds itself with a more modern, but just as iconic, urban legend. And considering this ghost story is particularly bone-chilling, it might be more toned-down on the jump scares (or maybe not, sometimes ghosts are just crazy).

9 Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion

Well, Duh

Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion

When it comes to jump scare simulators, one of the most obvious entries is the free-to-play game Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion. In this cute pixel-art-style game, you end up going through 1,000 different floors that each have a different jump scare waiting for you, and they get progressively more intense as you go on. If you thought the game was called Spooky's House of Jump Scares, you'd be correct, as it originally was — developers just ended up renaming the game due to copyright issues.

Don't let the cute style distract you from its much darker narrative, especially as you get closer and closer to Floor 1,000. The monsters get more grotesque and freaky, and the original cuteness starts to fade into something outright uncanny.

It's one of those games that will genuinely surprise you, and not just with the fear factor. By the time you make it to the end, you'll have fallen in love with every single jump scare you have been exposed to thus far, and you'll be itching to continue onto what's next.

Just be prepared to do some repetitive gameplay, as it's the main complaint of players who weren't prepared for what to expect.

8 Aka Manto

Before Chilla's Art Focused on the Mundane

Developer

Release Date

Platform(s)

Chilla's Art

September 23, 2019

The infamous Japanese game developer Chilla's Art is known for making horror about the ordinary and mundane, using those everyday fears to drive home an unforgettably terrifying experience. One of their earliest works, Aka Manto, on the other hand, actually focuses on an urban legend about the titular Yokai.

The Aka Manto (literally translates to Red Cloak/Red Cape) is a Yokai that is known for stalking school bathrooms. In particular, they will go up to someone in a stall without any toilet paper and ask: "Red paper, or blue paper?"

Answering with red paper will result in an immediate, bloody end; answering with blue paper will result in suffocation, typically in the toilet itself. If you try to answer with another color, it will end just as badly, if not worse, due to your attempt at trickery. The only way to avoid a violent death would be to flee and not respond at all.

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In the game, you play as a girl that's locked in an empty school by two bullies, only to realize that the Aka Manto is there and after you. It's up to you to try to escape without being caught — and since this game has permadeath, if you're caught, you have to start again from the very beginning.

Unlike the other Chilla's Art games that are known for their atmosphere, Aka Manto is jump scare central. Not only is it startling every time the Aka Manto appears, but the creature itself makes this awful, deafening noise that will leave your ears ringing. It's anxiety-inducing, and a great title to see how the developers have evolved and improved.

7 Resident Evil

All the Way to the Classics

When looking at the old, classic survival horror games, Silent Hill is known for its intense, oppressive atmosphere and cultish tones, while Resident Evil, on the other hand, is known for traditional, monster movie horror — including jump scares. Seriously, the zombie dogs jumping through the windows of the Spencer Mansion will forever be as iconic as the first zombie looking back at you.

Basically, all the Resident Evil games are known for this typical, beginner-friendly survival horror experience, with the jump scares being wonderfully timed and spaced apart; this isn't even including the jump scares you'll basically give yourself when you run past an enemy and forget it's there until you come back to that room.

The more modern Resident Evil titles (such as Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village) tend to have a lot more atmospheric elements, but jump scares are still prevalent, just as they were commonplace in the classic titles.

Sure, the quantity of jump scares can take away from the actual fear factor of the game, but it's handled so well that it's genuinely a good time. As someone who grew up playing these games repeatedly since I was seven years old, Resident Evil is still the pinnacle of classic survival horror, jump scares and all.

6 Alien: Isolation

Hiding Can Only Get You so Far

Alien Isolation Xenomorph Pacing Through A Door

It's not surprising that Alien: Isolation has a ton of jump scares — it's perhaps the most intense game of hide and seek you've ever played in your life. In fact, your life depends on how you hide, and if you're caught, you're going to have a bad time.

The jump scares in this game are situational, and the ones that you'll experience will typically happen when you die (and it's indeed a when, not an if, since the Xenomorph's AI is so immensely intelligent that you'd have to have played the game several times to understand how to avoid it). For example, you can hide in the vents for so long before the Xenomorph learns and begins to search there — promptly cut to a jump scare in the vents.

You could take a whole number of different approaches, and the Xenomorph will still find a way to ambush you and get you to jump out of your own skin. Not to mention, the game uses your own imagination against you, so any jump scare you end up getting is 10 times more intense than the last.

5 Layers of Fear

Just Walk and Be Freaked Out

When it comes to walking simulators, you tend to either get an atmospheric nightmare, or a full-on jump scare simulator. Layers of Fear is a unique case in the fact that it manages both with ease, setting a foundation that Bloober Team would eventually become known for (when I had interviewed NeoBards, the dev team behind Silent Hill f, director Al Yang had specifically mentioned that Bloober Team was known for this balance of atmosphere and jump scares to other developers as well).

Layers of Fear has you playing as an artist trying to paint his magnum opus, but since it's a psychological horror game, you'll have to defeat some inner demons before you're even able to.

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There are a ton of jump scares in this game (even more so in the original that came out a decade ago), but they tend to be fitting in the scene and area. However, if you're someone who hates jump scares, the sheer quantity in this game might turn you away — though I'd encourage you to give it a shot regardless.

It's the right amount of freaky and unsettling — and while, personally, I think it could be a little scarier, it's an excellent representation of jump scares being done right.

4 Until Dawn

Cheesy Horror Always Has Jump Scares

Having your choices weigh on not just a game's story, but the individual characters, is what Supermassive is known for. Their most iconic work, Until Dawn, brought the importance of choices into the limelight for horror games, and it just so happens to also fit in as a Jump Scare Simulator.

What's unique about how Until Dawn approaches jump scares, however, is the fact that you have to carefully manage your own reaction — especially since one of the most common QTEs, in response to a jump scare, is don't move. Movement means death, so you have to keep your composure, even when wanting to leap out of your seat.

And trust that there are frequent jump scares.

I'll be wholly honest: I don't like Until Dawn — I tried to get into it, I really did, but it was just not good to me, mostly due to the abysmal acting and corny writing. Still, it's so widely beloved in the horror sphere, I'd be a fool not to give credit where it's due.

3 The Mortuary Assistant

Subtle Jump Scares are Still Horrifying

How do you create an effective jump scare, all while being subtle and borderline hidden at the same time? The Mortuary Assistant has plenty of examples to choose from, each better (and far more terrifying) than the last.

In The Mortuary Assistant, you play as exactly that; however, things take a sharp turn when demons start to show up and try to take over your body while you're trying to tend to other ones. From there, the game is a well-crafted puzzle about figuring out the demon's name and which body it needs to be exorcised from.

However, these demons don't want to let you go — and, in fact, love to linger out of the corner of your eye. If you think you see something, you very likely are, with several jump scares being dead silent and patiently waiting for you to make eye contact. And every single time, you're going to feel your heart drop into your stomach. Of course, there's the typical jump scares with noise, but so many more of them are simply quiet, watching.

It's honestly the only game that comes to mind if you were to ask about subtle jump scares, because I've genuinely never been scared in any other game quite like this.

2 MADiSON

Jump Scares, Jump Scares Everywhere

Horror has always had an interesting relationship with photography mechanics, with Fatal Frame being the iconic pioneer. MADiSON is another game that has its own unique mechanics centered around photography, but it's also full of jump scares — many, many jump scares.

For a lot of people, the jump scares ruin the game some, preventing it from being near-perfection, and that's mostly because it had a much stronger start than the second half.

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However, if you go in already expecting an actual ton of jump scares, it's actually a lot more enjoyable; a great time, even. The power of expectation changes things with MADiSON, truly.

After a while, the jump scares just start to become endearing.

1 Five Nights at Freddy's

You'll Get Used to Them

Five Nights at Freddy's is so known for its jump scares, it's become a meme in and of itself. I'm a high school teacher full-time, and if something startles my students, they will, in all seriousness, refer to it as a "FNAF Jump Scare," even if the thing that startled had nothing to do with Five Nights at Freddy's.

You can practically hear it upon mention, can't you?

The entire FNAF series has countless death-screen-jump-scares, but there are also jump scares when you check the cameras, jump scares when you check the lights, jump scares in the retro mini-games, jump scares in the exotic butters. The games are rife with jump scares, and after a while, you aren't even phased by them.

So when I think of the term "Jump Scare Simulator," FNAF is always the first, and immediate, game that comes to mind.