Y-You're kidding, r-r-right?
On a fog-bound November day in 1918, the Little Baroness, a ship filled with tourists, failed to return to port.
A newspaper article from back then simply says "It most likely sunk for some reason".
Despite an extensive police search, not a single fragment of the ship nor any of the 14 bodies of passengers or crew has ever been recovered to this day.
In November 1918, the sightseeing ship Little Baroness disappeared with all its passengers and crew while crossing Toluca Lake, near the little town of Silent Hill. Despite all the subsequent inquiries, no bodies or shipwrecks were ever found. What no one knows is that Hanna, a poor little ill girl, was thrown overboard by her mother for no apparent reason, and the ship's captain tried in vain to save her before... something pulled the ship underwater.A newspaper article from back then simply says "It most likely sunk for some reason".
Despite an extensive police search, not a single fragment of the ship nor any of the 14 bodies of passengers or crew has ever been recovered to this day.
Cut to 75 years later, where Eric, the 21-year-old great-grandson of the captain, his classmate Tina, and some of their college friends arrive at Silent Hill to investigate the occult mysteries behind the town's legends, while Tina pays a visit to Emilie, a young Internet friend of hers who lives there with her father. As it turns out, Emilie looks an awful lot like Hanna. Needless to say, things go From Bad to Worse.
Breaking from its Survival Horror roots, Silent Hill: The Arcade is a House of the Dead-style shooter spinoff that, while aimed for people unfamiliar with the other games, still features the series's trademark settings, enemies, music, and Multiple Endings, even making rail shooting scarier than usual.
This game contains examples of:
- Actionized Sequel: Justified that this is a Rail Shooter spinoff. The normally powerless protagonists wound up solving their issues in here with unlimited ammo pistols. Not that it makes Silent Hill any less scary.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Pyramid Head. Just because it's an arcade shooter, don't think he'll go down easily.
- And I Must Scream: This is most likely the fate that befell the passengers of the Little Baroness, trapped at the bottom of the lake. Until Eric and Tina intervene, that is.
- Black Knight: Pyramid Head acts as one, this time bent more on destruction than
rape. And the guilt he represents does not even belong to the player characters. - Continuity Nod:
- Surprisingly enough, the Little Baroness and the ghastly hands of the dead at the bottom of Toluca Lake are all mentioned in Silent Hill 2.
- At one point Eric considers examining the inside of a toilet.
- At one point, the protagonists find themselves warped directly into certain levels of Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4, (the amusement park and mall, complete with Numb Bodies, and the staircase between worlds, to be specific).
- Composite Character: The nurses resemble the ones from Silent Hill 3 but have the voices of the "Bubble Heads" from Silent Hill 2.
- Creepy Doll: The second main boss is a cross between this and a giant Murderous Mannequin.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Emilie recently lost her mother in a robbery attempt gone awry.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to other light gun rail shooters at the time, before Dark Escape 4D in comparison.
- Lighter and Softer: However, compared to the rest of the Silent Hill games, this isn't as dark, probably containing the happiest ending in the series.
- Demonic Possession: It's implied at one point that Emilie is possessed by Hanna.
- Eldritch Abomination: Hanna is a particularly nasty one.
- Futile Hand Reach: Eric does this in the bad ending when Hanna's arm sinks into the water and fades away before he can save her.
- Killer Rabbit: Robbie the Rabbit costumes begin picking up weapons and attacking in force during the Lakeside Amusement Park level.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Near the end of the game, Tina comments how her arms are getting tired from shooting so much, and Eric responds with a comment about how they've fired so many bullets yet somehow never run out of ammo.
- Multiple Endings: Two different types of Good, one Bad, and one UFO. They all depend on how you defeat the final boss as well as whether you were able to save all of the friends you have to try to save throughout the game.
- Mythology Gag: Pyramid Head is accompanied by swarms of Creepers like he was in the movie.
- Nothing Is Scarier: There's an unusual number of long, awkward sections of the game where nothing happens and no monsters are around. And no music, either.
- Recurring Boss: Pyramid Head appears as a early boss, then returns for a sequence of chase scenes near the end before fighting you in a proper arena.
- Simple Rescue Mechanic: All of the friends you save, but particularly Bill, who explicitly tells Tina and Eric to leave him behind (so he doesn't even have the excuse of being Behind the Black like Emilie) yet is the only friend who can't possibly be lost, as he is automatically marked "saved" right at the beginning of the game.
- The Stinger: After the credits, Pyramid Head is shown looking creepy in the room he was first met in.
