Pingu for Game Boy
Content Warning: This creepypasta contains graphic scenes of death, dismemberment, and suicide. If you do not wish to see this, please turn back now.
I'm sure that some of you are familiar with the children's show Pingu. For me, it was one of those weird shows from Europe that happened to air on CBBC, CITV or Pop. Apparently it came from United Kingdom or something. It looked like some stoners got together and made a show about penguins and whatnot. I was into it, watching it often when it was on Cartoon Network back in 2000 during their "Small World" block. It was the only show I enjoyed on that block, other than Courage the Cowardly Dog, Kids Next Door, Billy and Mandy, and other shows. I vividly remember liking the seal character "Robby" a lot. He felt the weirdest out of the main cast, but oddly in a charming way.
But watching cartoons weren't going to pay the bills. I worked as a garbage man, taking out the nasty trash that the city of Chicago had to offer. I hated every second of it, but at least I was paid. But something... odd happened one night. It was raining pretty heavily and I was put in charge of cleaning this really disgusting dumpster. It smelled like raw sewage, filled with bags of rotten food, crushed beer cans, and I thought I saw some vomit at one point. Then, while my buddy (which I won't reveal the name of) took the dumpster and with the claw and put it into the rear loader to smash it and take it to the landfill, a small cartridge appeared behind the dumpster.
"A video game cartridge? Who left this here?"
I went over and picked it up. It looked like a standard Game Boy cartridge, but something stuck out like a sore thumb. It was a Pingu game. They made a video game about Pingu? The cover just had Pingu on it as well as the yellow logo. The text above Pingu was written in Japanese with a red logo on it. "B-AI". It was really strange. It also had a sticker saying "Enhanced with Super Game Boy add-on for Super Nintendo!" Seeing this, I figured just to stick the cartridge in my pocket and take it home. Maybe I would play it for 5 minutes and then never play it again.
At the end of that night, I got back to my apartment and took off my coat and shoes. When I got to my room, I took out the cartridge from my pocket. I honestly thought that it would smell worse than that dumpster, but surprisingly I didn't find any difference between that and my Super Mario Land cartridge. That meant one thing. Someone stuck that cartridge under that dumpster very recently. But why though? Did they think it was not worth their time? I didn't see it on any Nintendo Power listings, so I'm assuming we never got it here. I guess it was only for Japan. Such a bummer when that happens.
I brushed those questions aside and hooked up my Super Nintendo with the Super Game Boy add-on, because I wanted to take advantage of the sticker I saw on the cover. I forgot to mention that it was really dark in my room, almost pitch black. The lighting in my room was faulty and I didn't have the money to call an electrician. There was also a window right next to my bed so playing it with the only light being from my TV was the only option. After the Super Game Boy logo played, I was greeted with the title of the game.
It had Pingu, the logo, and a rendition of the theme song in 8-bit. I was a little impressed by how they managed to make it faithful to the show. There were two options. Game Start and Password. The password screen is useless since I can beat a whole game in one sitting. There was also a custom Pingu border, with the Pingu logo and all the characters... except Robby? Then, I clicked Game Start.
I should have just left that game back to where it was.
For some reason, the custom border had disappeared, which was odd. The game starts with you controlling Pingu. He was at the South Pole, which had igloos and snowmen and ice blocks. The pleasant music set the mood of the game well and it even had a dedicated "Nug-Nug" button. I keep hearing people say its "Noot-Noot", but I think that it's just a misconception about Pingu, because Pingu has recently gone back up in popularity in recent years. I start moving right for a few minutes, but then I start getting a little agitated. I've been walking for what seems forever, with the same music looping over and over again... At one point, I think I see something behind one of the ice blocks. I can't tell what it is though.
Then, out of nowhere Robby appears and Pingu seems to stop walking. I didn't even stop holding right. The game just... made me stop moving. A few seconds pass... and Pingu starts walking towards Robby. During this, white noise started to play very quietly, but then gradually got louder and louder with Pingu approaching him. It got so loud that I had to turn down the sound on my TV in a small panic.
"Is something wrong with my Super Nintendo?" I say to myself, but there wasn't anything wrong with it. I also caught a glimpse of a split second change in Robby's appearance. He was smiling and looking at Pingu. A billboard graphic came up and said this. "Hello Pingu, would you like to fish with me? I'm pretty hungry!" I pressed the A button again, and it sent me to a level that didn't have the usual snowmen and igloos in the background. Instead, it was... an endless snowy field.
At this point, the game has started to give me an eerie feel. Is the game supposed to be like this? Is this just an unfinished prototype? I consider turning the game off because I got bored of it, but... for some reason I decided to play more. I held right again. During this, the once cheerful music started to feel... weird. It felt like the music was getting slower and lower pitched. 30 seconds had passed since I started the level. I kept walking and walking, gradually getting chills up my spine, which I don't think I felt a game made me do that before. Suddenly, halfway through the level, the music turns tense, as danger began to lurk behind Pingu. At this point, I realized that... this was different from any game I had played... was this actually released? Was this game put on store shelves for fans of Pingu to enjoy?! What was this?!
I held right for what seemed like an eternity, before I saw him...
It was Robby the Seal.
And he was chasing me.
And he had the same smile as before.
Robby caught up to Pingu, and the seal disappeared. Pingu sat down and cried. A few seconds later, Robby appeared again and was looking straight at Pingu. Why was he right next to Pingu all of a sudden? Was he there to help Pingu after he chased him? Was he... happy at his suffering?
I pressed the A button again.
And it was...
It was...
It was Robby tearing Pingu's head off of his body and eating it. Blood spurted out of his head as horrifying sound effects of Pingu's head getting ripped off played out of the speakers. After a split second, the screen turned dark and I heard Robby laughing at the sight of Pingu's blood on his hands. I... could've shut it off. But I didn't want to shut it off! I just wanted to see what happened to Pingu! I was forcing myself to watch him die! This has to be a joke. Some sicko modified the game and put it under a dumpster! Yeah, that's what! But... then again... how did you even mod a Game Boy game? Was it just skillful programming all for a sick joke?
That scene stuck to me. I began to tear up at the sight of Pingu's life coming to an end, by the hands of his best friend. It was nothing but a black screen at this point. My sick curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to continue playing. I waited around for something to happen, and after a few seconds, I pressed the A button again. Another billboard popped up, saying this. "I guess Pingu went to go play somewhere else. Maybe I can savor Pingo's taste instead?" It was talking about Pingo, Pingu's other friend. He was sometimes a bully towards him, but overall a good friend to him. I quickly gazed over the screen, before noticing that Pingu was absent from the billboard screen.
It was South Pole again, but this time it was darker, with hints of crimson in the background. The snowmen were lacking any facial features. This time, there were multiple fish to collect, for some kind of score at the end of the level. I pressed B out of curiosity, causing Pingo to walk faster. That was helpful. I mean, as helpful as a Game Boy game can get. Collecting pointless fish aside, the music for this level was... really slow and low pitch. I didn't know what to think at this point, I just held B to walk fast to progress.
To say I was scared right now was an understatement.
More time passes by as Pingo collects fish for zero reason. For what seemed like an eternity, the game got more horrifying. And eventually, I got to the last fish. There, I was greeted with Robby dropping down and stabbing Pingo with a knife, complete with more gory sound effects. I gasped at what had unfolded, especially with Pingo's guts being torn out of his body and being eaten by the seal. Another bone chilling laugh from Robby played. I asked the game a question. Robby... why would you do this?
"So many tasty "fish", so little time. Wouldn't you agree, Pinga?"
Pingu's little sister was who I was playing next. Seeing this, I dreaded what was going to play out. Pinga was such an innocent kid, with her and Pingu getting into comical situations. I didn't want to see her get hurt, but I had no choice. The billboard screen had Robby holding a fish with a bloody chopped off head, Pinga sweating in terror, and blood at where Pingu used to be. What followed, was Pinga walking forward slowly, visibly upset at what was going on. The B button didn't even function as normal anymore; it just made Pinga cry in fear. The A button didn't work either.
In my path... were Pingu's friends. His mother, his father, Pingg, and some hockey players... And when I touched them... they immediately died. Pingu's mother had her beak chopped off, Pingu's father had his arms torn out of their sockets, the hockey players had been grotesquely sliced up, and Pingg turned into a pool of blood, with disgusting sounds of blood playing. The music was somber and depressing.
Eventually, after those people were killed, I reached the end of that level. What followed was Pinga at her house. The music had turned even worse, from what I thought was... the sounds of hell.Pinga got more and more upset the more she walked. The house background looped infinitely, with the same table appearing time and time again. I didn't even want to complain anymore because the game had scared me that much. On one table, there was Pingu's headless corpse. And... when it seemed like the walking wouldn't end. Robby appeared and static blocked the screen with white noise. Her death was off-screen.
During the white noise, I could hear Pinga's blood curdling screams. The static lasted for about a minute. At the end of the static, this scene popped up. It was all the bones of Pingu and his friends. Robby was floating above them and gazing upon his bone collection. Some of them still had blood and uneaten body parts on them. No music was playing, just rain and thunder. Robby looks at the screen and laughs one more time before grabbing a dagger and stabbing himself. And then... My game froze. It produced a screeching noise out of my television. I quickly went to yank the game out of my Super Game Boy cartridge, believing that it broke something. I turned on the system without the game and it worked just fine.
I couldn't believe what I saw.
Years later, I moved away from Chicago and got a job as a businessman in Wyoming. I feel like it's a better job for me than having to deal with dumpsters all day. It dug into my brain for years. I would have nightmares for years, before seeing professional help. I still love Pingu, and Robby, and all the aspects of this show. But this game just... did something unreal to me. To be honest, I'm beginning to think it was an illusion. I tried searching everywhere on every search engine and I found nothing. Not even any articles on any forum site. I heard there were a couple people on the dark web talking about it, but I wouldn't go near that with a fifty foot pole.
I think I'm insane for saying that a Pingu game of all things would ruin my life, but... it ruined mine. When I left, I never went back to get the game.
I pray that the person who now has that apartment doesn't play it.
Update
A few days ago, a man by the name of Mattes Isakson was arrested in the United Kingdom. He had been arrested for stealing technology from a local shop and threatening the shop owner with a pocket knife. When he was getting put into the police car, he kept blurting out the same thing over and over again.
"NUG-NUG!"
A few days later, he hung himself in his jail cell. The carvings he wrote in his cell were written in an unknown language, though the cell-mates joked around saying it was "Penguinese or something."
It is unknown if this man had anything to do with that cartridge.
Credited to Nickbo9
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