Boy am I a sucker.  While I was slaving away at playing The Legend Of Zelda in 1986 as a 10-year-old kid, I could have been playing this:

Yes.  That’s an actual screenshot of a video game that came out in 1986 called Chiller.  Granted, this was not really an easy game to find, especially in North America, but it originated as a stand-up arcade game with a light gun that you used to apparently shoot and torture half-naked people. Really makes the story of Link and his quest to find the eight fragments of the Triforce Of Wisdom to rescue Princess Zelda look pretty fucking boring, doesn’t it?

Chiller wasn’t all about shooting mutilated bodies though, as you could also take out bats, wolves, and spooky skulls with your trusty light gun.  It’s good to balance everything out.  There was actually a playable Nintendo version of the game that was released in 1990 with the gore and naked bodies toned down of course to comply with the wholesome image Nintendo was trying to portray at the time.  If you own a copy of the NES version, you’re sitting on a $75-$200 gold mine by the way.  The mere fact that Chiller was originally released in 1986 with that kind of gory content is still pretty remarkable.  Check out the footage for yourself and head on over to Ebay to do some bargain hunting for a copy when you’re done: