Mario Video Game World

Ever look at a video game world and think, "I'd like to live there"? While many of our favorite video game worlds are full of conflict and trouble—it's part of what makes them so fun to play—others seem incredibly peaceful, like pleasant utopias to retire to.

But one thing is almost universally true: any video game world is probably going to be a whole lot more sinister than it appears on the surface—which is why our knees start to knock as soon as we're plunked down in overtly sinister places like The Evil Within's Beacon Hill Hospital.

If a game environment isn't riddled with fearsome enemies, it's probably quite hazardous in other ways—making you scramble to find food or playing havoc with gravity and other laws of physics. These three video game worlds appear cute or utopic on the surface, but they're also some of the most deceptive in terms of player safety.

Enemies Are Everywhere in the Mushroom Kingdom

For a plumber, Mario sure has a wide variety of skills. Maybe we can chalk his insane jumping ability up to reduced gravitational pull in the Mushroom Kingdom? But even if we had Mario's capabilities upon entering this video game world, it still wouldn't be a great place to live.

First of all, colorful enemies abound. Goombas, Koopas, and Chain Chomps alike have their sights set on blood, even if you never actually see any blood in the series. While they don't always bite, their mere touch is enough to cost you health points—but your troubles are greater still. Giant plants threaten to eat you, paintings contain alternate dimensions, and you might end up racing through a go-kart course where gravity sometimes spontaneously switches directions, tossing you into the bright and shiny void.

Also, you know, giant ghosts. Cute and fun though the Mushroom Kingdom may be, the place is actually terrifying thanks to a slew of enemies, a complete disregard for physics, and walking, talking mushroom people.

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Page 2: It's Dangerous To Go Alone

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Being the Very Best in Pokémon Is Harder Than It Looks

If a ten-year-old kid can become the Elite Four champion, the world of Pokémon can't be that bad, can it?

Sure, the world is full of relatively weak common pokémon like Raticate and Pidgey, but keep in mind that some of the stronger ones—Onix or Pinsir for instance—also roam the wild grass. As if that wasn't bad enough, Pokémon are frequently bigger than we might expect; Beedrill is a three-foot-tall hornet, and Lugia is a whopping 17 feet long.

And, lest we forget, the world of Pokémon—like the mushroom kingdom—is also filled with giant ghosts, not to mention dragons, mythological birds, and science experiments.

While you might be backed up by a team of amazingly trained pokémon, consider the mysterious "whiting out" that happens when all of your pokémon faint—you wake up in another place with some of your money missing. Who took you there and why? What happened in that missing time? Needless to say, this video game world is a lot more sinister than it first appears.

Hyrule Video Game World

Even in Peace Time, The Video Game World of Hyrule Isn't a Great Vacation Spot

Obviously, Hyrule isn't always a great place to live. Whether it's a giant moon in the sky waiting to crash down or a plague of ReDeads invading the castle, Hyrule has some pretty scary stuff happening. Of course, that's only in its bad times. It's implied that this video game world experiences long periods of great peace and that, given its beautiful nature, benevolent princess, and plethora of pots waiting to be broken without consequences, there's a pretty good life to be had.

Even with the potential for giant cataclysms aside, not everything is as nice as it seems in this video game world. While many of the world's villagers seem to be doing okay in their isolated towns, venturing outside of them has the potential to get you killed. This is a world where the dead routinely come back to life; a world where chickens go into homicidal rages and, of course, giant ghosts.

If you fancy yourself a hero, you might just find a great place to live in any of these deceptively cute and carefree video game worlds. But if you're anyone else, you might find yourself the victim of an early death, or madness at the very least.

What video game world would you most like to live in? What video game world would you least like to live in?