Why Super Mario 64 is Terrifying

In today's video we go over a classic game with an unnerving side effect. Why is Super Mario 64 so unsettling at times? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

CREDITS:

MUSIC:
“Beta Wet Dry World” - Mario 64: 1995
“Banshee Boardwalk” - Mario Kart 64
“Bowser's Cathedral” - Super Mario 64: The Lost Music
“Wet Dry World Beta” - Super Mario 64: The Lost Music
“Castle LoFi Remix” - BKnapp
“Gifts in the sky” - brotad
“Bowser Road” - Chillboy Beats

VIDEO CREDIT:
Gamingspens
Greenio
Luxury Station
Chrono
BlackJoystick
Master Nama
Ending Sequence by Optimus97

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#supermario64 #everycopyofmario64ispersonalized #creepysupermario64

[PressStartToContinueYT]

Welcome back to a new video everybody! Do you think Super Mario 64 is unsettling? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks to everyone for the support, it means a lot!

[callistomoon]

The silence at the start is actually brilliant. It was the first time for many people to experience 3D gaming. The silence made the experience stand out more and made the player focus on the movement.

[Theballadofahkim]

Mario 64 is actually a lot creepier to me now that I’m older, just imagine exploring the castle without music, just walking around a quiet empty castle with everyone stuck inside the walls begging for help, so creepy and unnerving

[ghstspdr]

This guy: “I just feel alone..”
Lakitu: 👋😀📸

[tlh]

As much as I loved this game as a kid, I could never pinpoint why it made me feel sort of sad. This hits the nail on the head. It was Mario, alone, with creepy villains sparsely spread out in barren levels with subdued music and the sense of Bowser watching every move.

[geraldbrown]

In this episode, Bowser uses psychological torture to get inside mario's head

[TheKingsPride]

This is very interesting to me, because I’ve been playing this game literally since I could hold a controller. It’s like a big security blanket to me, playing it feels so comfy and warm and safe. The idea that it could be creepy in any way is honestly hard to comprehend. Whenever I boot up this game I feel like I’ve come home, no matter where I am.

[Din]

Top 10 Things that Scared Me in SM64:

10. It
9. Didn't
8. Really
7. Scare
6. Me
5. I
4. Found
3. It
2. Peaceful
1. THE EELS.

[peblezQ]

As a kid, I deadass believed that Bowser just murdered all the toads in the castle and I thought the ghostly apparitions of the toads you approach were the ghosts helping you save the princess from their fate.

[Pupppeteer]

The limitations of the console definitely create an odd sensations when you break it down.

[Larry]

Also, the paintings, they're literally all worlds frozen in time. Everyone and thing in that world is forever stuck in a painting prison.

[cstrongman]

You know a game is a classic when even if it's overtly really positive and colourful, there's this very subtle, distant macabre or melancholy quality to it. Makes it way more emotionally complex and life-like without ever needing to obviously make it known. All the legendary old games had it. That element of genuine risk or danger.

[trolleyracingmaster]

Terminally online people when a game has empty rooms 😰

[Goolix_Aero]

As a child I believed in the L is Real conspiracy and the idea that Luigi was hiding somewhere in the game made it very spooky

[kenhollis]

I was never really afraid of this game, but the "empty" feeling of the castle hub made me feel unnerved. The only thing I really hated was the Boss Bass/Bubba in Tiny-Huge Island. I've always hated underwater enemies in games, especially when they ate me. The skull and crossbones in the secret slide in Tall, Tall Mountain bugged me, too.

[bajorekjon]

I've played the game countless hours since the 90s and it never really creeped me out. The eel, the piano, and the Bowser laugh were the only things that scared me as a child.

[noodlesofrubber]

I never felt like mario 64 was scary, i always focused on the gorgeus music in each level, amazing levels, and fun characters. I always tought of it as an fun platformer.

[Silverflame-]

Maybe this was just me, but as a kid, I always noticed the castle didn't have any of the normal things you'd find in a living space. So like, no kitchen, no bedroom for Peach, etc (which Paper Mario did have which I think is interesting). Maybe that could also be a subconscious reason the castle feels unnerving sometimes, since you just can't find any of the rooms you'd associate with a place people actually live in?

[watergirl]

Wet dry world made me feel scared as a kid because of the town. I felt like the town was empty because everyone probably drowned from flooding.

[okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

Funny enough, I think a lot of the things you described as creepy are the things that makes this my favorite Mario game. I love the dreamlike atmosphere, the mystery, I think most of the weird faces are cute and charming (I always felt bad for the Whomp’s because they had bandaids on their backs and felt bad for hurting them). I find liminal spaces weirdly calming, and the strange disconnectedness of this entry made it more interesting for me to explore compared to Galaxy and Oddyssey. I think I especially liked the water staged despite the anxiety I’d get from Mario’s health ticking down because I’ve always liked more slow-paced games.

The only things I really remember being afraid of were: the evil piano, the eel in that one water level, the time limit for being underwater, that electric ball that flies around you as you go up a pole, dying, running out of air underwater, and the platforming areas you’d go through before fighting Bowser. Everything else was a delight even though I was garbage at the game, the feeling of mystery and discovery drawing me in. I was terrified of any ‘real’ horror game/movie, but Mario 64 filled me with nothing but fascination.

(As a Sidenote, even though I’m still pretty pathetic when it comes to ‘real’ horror, I loved basically every RPGmaker horror game I played during its boom and find things other people find creepy like vintage porcelain dolls pretty and cute. So, y’know, maybe its just me lol.)