Why Super Mario 64 is Terrifying

so i was looking at the topics to cover for my strange gaming stories series which if you haven't seen it there's a link to them up above and i came across one of the most bizarrely popular creepypastas i've seen in recent memory every copy of mario 64 is personalized now the premise is simple enough the belief that there is some sort of personalized ai that alters each individual's playthrough based on their decisions were you a mischievous miscreant that thought no one would know that you dropped the baby penguin off into the frosty abyss or perhaps even the order that you obtained the castle stars in had a bearing on the game's overall outcome it also explains the supposed disconnected feeling one would have from playing someone else's copy of super mario 64. it just wouldn't feel the same of course this creepypasta is anything but real super mario 64's code has been unraveled to the point of transparency so any question as to this mysterious artificial intelligence has been dispelled but that didn't stop conspiracy theorists everywhere from jumping on the super mario 64 creepypasta bandwagon just by simply searching super mario 64 iceberg into youtube you can find hour-long dissertations and dissections of similarly creepy compilations of odd disturbing or terrifying theories surrounding the n64 game why is there a negative emotional aura surrounding wet dry world have you ever seen the wario apparition in your copy of the game as with most of these iceberg conspiracies our mind loves to wander and meander away from the straightforward and ponder on things with subjective what-if statements the best part is that none of the theories can be proven but our minds continue to produce them but why super mario 64. the game isn't necessarily mysterious nor was it intended to be a horror game so how is it we can find ways to link these disturbing creepypastas to such an innocent game well perhaps it's because super mario 64 isn't actually as innocent as we remember in today's video we're exploring what about the mario 3d classic makes it so unnerving to some people so sit back relax as we uncover super mario 64's unsettling truth [Music] it wasn't until a few months ago when i played the re-release on switch that i started to think about some more of the things that unnerved me about super mario 64. the game looks very much like it did in 1996 for better or for worse nintendo did absolutely nothing to spice it up i've become older and wiser over the years and honestly a lot more aware of what totally freaks me out and well let's start at the top as soon as you start super mario 64 you're greeted with a 3d mario face that you can play around with the reason for this minigame of sorts should be obvious the nintendo 64 was the company's first dive into three-dimensional graphics and this existed as a way to showcase the impressive nature of the console i can't think of any other game in nintendo's long history that had this type of activity at the beginning of a game and it really puts into perspective the importance of the upgrade to 3d but it also helps us understand another important aspect of super mario 64. the multiple limitations the team had when crafting the world our favorite plumber traversed through have you ever wondered why toad turns from transparent to solid when you approach him how about the expressionless face of mario or perhaps the slowdown experienced when there are multiple coins on the screen super mario 64 cut a lot of corners when it came to 3d because well there simply didn't exist a perfect balance between cost and conceptualizing a proper 3d environment sure if people wanted to pay 150 for a game some of these limitations could have been eliminated but because of this there were sacrifices that had to be made during the creation of the game that in retrospect just made the game weird but was that really the reason super mario 64 is so unsettling sacrifices in other 3d platformers like banjo-kazooie and crash bandicoot undoubtedly had to be made as well but those games just don't have the same vibe they don't creep me out when i play them today there's something more about super mario 64 that just freaks people out have you ever been into a normal hustling and bustling type place at night how about your school your workplace maybe even in a long hallway of your house getting a drink of water at 3am with all the lights off did it just feel creepy to you well you may have experienced what is known in the psychology world as a liminal space liminal space aesthetics relate to the unique and combined feeling of eeriness nostalgia and apprehension one gets when presented with such places outside their designed context in super mario 64 none of the usual business is present outside of maybe battlefield or womp's fortress peach's castle is a barren wasteland when outside there is absolutely no music or life outside of some bird chirps and butterflies going inside your mind starts to play more tricks on you everything just feels so empty and it lends a disturbing vibe that i just can't shake a lot of miyamoto's inspiration for video games came from his experience as a child and it was once stated that peach's castle was no exception the many floors locked areas and basement make it resonate with dreamlike appearances perhaps the most fascinating part about peach's castle is that by definition it's not really a liminal space it's an area we've honestly not explored before but it feels off all the same like we expect things to feel one way but they just don't think about the beginning of the game for example after you boot things up and select your file you're greeted with a castle flyover and dramatic intro music and then silence examining your surroundings point to landscapes that are just out of reach the washed out backgrounds are almost dreamlike pointing to an alice in wonderland style aesthetic i mean there aren't even any direct walking paths to the castle why did mario come out of a pipe at the beginning of the game is this really even peach's castle at all or just some mirage created by bowser the deeper we traverse into peach's castle the creepier it becomes the haunting laugh of bowser around every turn the multiple secret entrances and trap doors it all feels very fun-house-like and the paintings you jump into to enter each level it's all very strange as well each area of exploration offers that same feeling of isolation murky watercolors in the distance where you can almost make out what lies beneath but you can never really truly get there it's almost as if bowser designed each stage literally out of the painting and nothing more although you can roam around wherever you want each area is surprisingly small some mid-stages like the shifting sandland pyramid and lethal lavaland's volcano offer additional areas to explore that almost act as their own stages and in typical alice in wonderland style are much larger inside than the structures you jump in to get there it's as if every minute detail of super mario 64 holds a sinister secret that nothing can be taken for granted and everything has something else lying beneath oh and let's not get me started on the never ending staircase the illusionary mechanics mixed with the menacing tune that plays when you try to climb them literally gave me nightmares as a child [Music] in fact all of this reminds us how alone we really are in super mario 64. there's no luigi no yoshi for pretty much the entire game peach is kidnapped and even bowser exists mostly as a haunting voice and cheesy animatronic-looking boss fight sure there's a few characters that you can talk to along the way but a majority of my experience through the game i just felt alone some instances of aloneness are furthered by the question of why why is dire dire dox so absolutely desolate i mean i think there's only like 15 or 20 enemies in the entire level why is there a skybox image of a real city in yemen in wet dry world this coupled with the secret underwater city makes us wonder where everyone is are these houses abandoned did they all die who lives in the house in rainbow ride i have so many questions and i'll never get those answers it's all very unsettling when you start to think about it aloneness can manifest a wide array of feelings in our minds dread like when you traverse down to the basement for the first time terror when spending time swimming around in wet dry world or just plain creepiness when navigating the shifting sand lanes there isn't anyone to reach out to when playing the game and in all honesty there's just no spark of personality normally present in other mario titles despite this game being so loved and nostalgic by many it's a surprise that it makes me feel the way it does and i'm certainly not alone the titles that followed in the 3d mario path also had limitations but sunshine and galaxy both feel lifelike and full of personality and there's plenty of characters to talk to vibrant landscapes that feel lush and full and i just don't get that feeling from super mario 64. adding on to the chronic feeling of loneliness super mario 64 possesses is the lifeless and frightening appearance many of the characters and enemies have we've already alluded to mario's flat expression but the enemies themselves exude some blank auras as well the womps with their gaping toothy grins the giant eel from jolly roger bay with its washed out eyes the pokey's glaring red stare and don't even get me started on the man-eating piano from big boo's haunt i'm not one for jump scares but that one seems to get me every single time the limitations of early 3d had a lot to do with how the enemies had these singular expressions emblazoned on their faces but looking back now there are a lot of unnecessarily creepy enemies in the game even some characters with happy expressions like the spindle in shifting sandland gave me the creeps all the enemies seem robotic only serving a limited looping purpose which only strengthens the alice and wonderland approach and also what's with those boxes and shifting sand lands with the multiple faces on it that's really freaking creepy and add on to the 3d limitations super mario 64 had sometimes the enemies just randomly appear and scare the crap out of you a further dive into the game's beta will only further our fears with creepy alternate faces for enemies seeming just as unsettling why were these ideas scrapped in the first place there's even a secret enemy motos kind of like a bully mixed with a chukkya that would have given me nightmares as a kid with its lifeless beady eyes did bowser create these robots just to fit the setting of each stage or am i reading too far into things [Music] the last major thing i want to highlight are the wide array of spooky game mechanics and graphics that just felt strange when playing through super mario 64. when you die in most mario games the little red plumber has some sort of crazed expression on his face and it all seems very innocent however in 64 when you die you really die i mean the amount of realism present in mario's drowning sequence alone tells you all you need to know drowning gasping for air passing out and dropping on the floor the x's on the eyeballs i mean put the icing on the cake the silhouette of bowser's face juxtaposed against his laugh like i really really didn't want to see that creepy bowser face when i was a kid i did everything to regret dying not just because of losing progress but man i think that was awful in addition to this falling off the stages just felt incredibly daunting in the bowser stages or hazy maze cave it was literally like falling into an abyss this only furthers the alice in wonderland theory as well because you're basically falling out of the contrived space created from the painting you jump through and it makes me feel unnerved to say the least and lastly when you do die there exists a red game over screen with slowed down music and a sad mario face it just didn't make me feel better at all [Music] to add on to the fear of drowning did swimming in super mario 64 ever just feel incredibly slow to you it only compounded the fear i had swimming down into the depths of the water levels watching my health tick lower and lower just tapping buttons as fast as humanly possible to avoid drowning in the liquid abyss why do we have to intentionally hurt that messy whale thing in hazy maze cave i mean you literally hear it cry out in pain when you ground pound it the over abundant amount of glitches the backwards long jump like that is such an impressive glitch that it's almost like it had to be there on purpose sticking with the theme of creepy graphics super mario 64 is riddled with muddled textures on walls unreadable signs like the suspect l isreal 2401 and the overall lack of detail in many of the game's aspects somehow the age of a game's graphics and mechanics can really add to the creepy factor and super mario 64 sure takes the cake for me whatever your opinion is of super mario 64 whether you think that the game is legitimately scary or not i hope this video has at least opened your eyes to the many odd things about the game's existence we've only scratched the surface of the game's unsettling nature and there are tons of other videos out there dissecting specific sections of the game and why they have haunted people for years do you think super mario 64 is scary let me know how you feel in the comments below what was the scariest thing for you when you were playing the game i appreciate everyone for watching the video today as i know this topic is a little bit different from my usual content as always this is press start to continue and i'll see you next time my uh up

Channel: Press Start To Continue

Views: 1,830,087

Keywords: super mario 64, mario 64, mario 64 creepy, super mario 64 creepy, every copy of mario 64 is personalized, creepypasta, mario 64 creepypasta, super mario 64 creepypasta, super mario 64 scary, press start to continue, press start, pstc

Id: d7mzAcYHtFY

Length: 15min 29sec (929 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 02 2021