If you clicked on this article, you're probably wondering whether you're being clickbaited. There's no way that a Winnie the Pooh game could actually be a survival game, let alone one of the best of all time, right? Wrong.
Calling Piglet's Big Game "baby's first Silent Hill" isn't actually too far off from the truth.
Released in 2003, this Nintendo/PlayStation game was released as a tie-in to the film Piglet's Big Movie. Both the game and film feature Pooh's lovable pink friend trying to overcome his many fears. While the game may be rated 3+ it was many player's first exposure to the survival horror genre.
Baby's First Silent Hill
There's slight variation in the game's plot depending on what device you play on (a desktop game was released as well; it was the golden age of the CD-ROM), but here's a quick outline. The player must guide Piglet through seven levels, each representing one of his friends' dreams. In these dreams, Piglet must brave all manner of horrors such as Woozles, Heffalumps, and scary trees, oh my!
To help Piglet face his fears, the player must press a code which makes him quite literally put on a Brave Face. Objects such as cookies and balloons can also help him be brave when enemies come too close. In practice, the game is about as simple as it sounds.
The gameplay itself is a whole other beast. While the pace is gentle enough for young gamers and there aren't any jump-scares, a lingering sense of unease permeates the game. Under the surface, there's something sinister lurking the Hundred Acre Wood.
First, there's the game's eerie soundtrack, which bears resemblance to the scores of the Silent Hill games. In fact, one of the samples in the first track—known as "Foreboding 1" among fans, as the tracks lack official names—is part of the same pack used in the 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2. The track is eerie even without the crossover connection; the minor-key droning would make even the bravest residents of the Hundred Acre Wood feel uneasy.
And that's just the music! The art direction is a whole other level of surreal, ranging from overhead shots that leave you unable to do anything to help Piglet brave the terrors, to jarring Dutch angles when things really start to get scary. All of this is without mentioning the dreams themselves, which include headless statues, flooded islands, and a room mysteriously devoid of color.
The Revival Of Piglet's Big Game
Paul from Hacketts Cove, Canada on Wikimedia
While Piglet's Big Game received mixed-to-negative reviews when it was released, it was something of a spooky sleeper hit for older fans. In 2024, scenes from the game unexpectedly went viral. Both people who played the game as children and those who had just heard about it as adults were pleasantly horrified to learn how scary a Disney tie-in could be.
All these comparisons between Piglet's Big Game and more intense games such as Silent Hill and Resident Evil aren't just coincidental. In light of the revival, the game's director, Pascal Stradella admitted that Resident Evil and Luigi's Mansion were both inspirations in the development stage. The goal wasn't to frighten children, "but to make them feel uneasy, to give them just the right amount of chills so they don't feel entirely at ease," said Stradella.
With Piglet's Big Adventure being unavailable for purchase, used copies got more hits than ever. Copies on eBay were selling from anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars! Unfortunately, being a game for children, there was no way to toggle difficulty modes and the game was over in about half an hour. However, for many players, it was the scariest half hour of their lives!
