Part 3/Super Mario 64

DEDICATED TO: RadioDemon4ever

I remember when I was young I really liked the game Super Mario 64.

I always played it at my aunt's house, and one day by chance a pop-up appeared where I could order the game. I don't normally believe in these things but such was the nostalgia that I ordered it.

It cost me about 10 dollars, I never saw that pop-up again (don't save the URL). After a few weeks the game arrived, as soon as I opened it I felt robbed since instead of a cover with Mario flying and an official Nintendo seal, I saw a blank box with the title "Mario" written reluctantly and with thick marker. I remembered that the important thing was the game, so I dusted off my old 64 and started playing.

As soon as it started I saw Mario's face, which you could stretch in very funny ways. I stretched one part a little and when I was about to stretch my ear, the TV started emitting static plus some random sounds and I heard a voice in Japanese whispering and whistling.

I removed the cartridge and put it back in. I didn't bother with Mario's face again, so I just started a new game. When it started it had skipped the monologue where Peach was inviting Mario to her castle, and was directly in the building (which looked very scary). There was no Bowser to be heard and no Toad to talk to, there was just dead silence and the only door I could access was the bob-omb battlefield door; no other doors responded to the controller's commands.

When I entered the room, instead of the bob-ombs picture there was a blank canvas, I thought these were minor glitches that wouldn't affect the game so I entered the canvas. When you had to choose the mission on a white background with a Mario star everything turned black instead of the mission name appearing; it had another name: "Go back" (I don't know how if the game is supposedly in Japanese).

That's when the normal scenario started.

I thought I could finally play my favorite childhood game with peace of mind, but that's when I saw him....

Luigi; I never saw him in the game, plus it didn't look like a Mario palette change. It looked like a totally original model, so I chased after him, but he started running. Then everything got weird.

Every time I took a coin the music and the enemies became slower and the background more gloomy and morbid when I took the fifth coin the enemies just stopped and fell to the ground, as if they were dead. I was quite shocked but I kept looking for Luigi.

When I was going up the mountain, there were no cannonballs coming down and trying to hit me and at that point I could no longer see Luigi. I kept going up until I got to the top, I didn't see Luigi anywhere nor did I see the bob-omb king, just a small hut. There was no target so I entered the hut.

As soon as the door closed, the image of Luigi hanging appeared accompanied by a horrible shriek, very scary, along with a piano sound. Mario began to sob for about five minutes and then the screen faded to take Mario out of the painting and instead of the white canvas, the image of Luigi hanging appeared. The room changed.

It was now a small room with Toads of expressions and white robes. On the other side was a new image, which was of my family, but it was very recent. I remember posing for it last week. I was really scared there was no way I was going to play that. I tried turning off the console, removing the cartridge and nothing, the game was still there I tried unplugging the TV and the console but I was doomed to play. I jumped to the box. The only mission available was called: "Run, Don't Talk" and the only objective was "Let him go".

The stage was a bunch of platforms over water and a black lump; a glitch, I don't know what it was it didn't even look like a finished model, it was moving with no direction or objective. I was jumping from platform to platform with no goal or end, Mario just ran in circles.

I could have done it for hours until the black lump reached him; Mario didn't scream or object, he just let himself be consumed and I lost one of my lives. Mario shot out of the painting, but this time some Toads disappeared and the picture of my family looked the same, but our bodies looked partially decomposed, it was too real to be a fake, as if someone had taken our bodies and taken the picture of them. I jumped back into the picture, the mission this time was called "I'm over here" written exactly like this (according to the game it was in Japanese, I don't know now).

This time it was a dark room with nowhere to go, there was only Mario and a piano.

I had to escape from the crazy piano that wanted to kill the character, but there was nowhere to go. I had to let Mario take the damage, but instead of the usual death sequence, this time Mario fell to the floor and his guts and blood started to come out.

The camera focused from above the dead Mario and suddenly the full screen showed the scene realistically. I began to cry silently.

Mario shot out of the painting again, this time the bodies looked more and more decomposed, too repulsive: holes in the flesh, guts sticking out and my father had an eyeball out of its socket.

I saw the image of Peach's castle in ruins, the fields on fire and the sky turned black. Bowser's voice was heard saying "YOU CAN NEVER SAVE HER" (I insist that according to the game it was in Japanese).

I saw the image of Peach with no eyes, only black holes and she opened her mouth for a frightening scare. I entered the painting for the last time, there was no name for the mission, I only managed to read "Dive" and there was an ocean, but no target.

The water was dark and empty; there were no fish or anything, I swam and swam for ten minutes but when I got nothing I went up, until Mario was swallowed by a fish that appeared out of nowhere.

It came up on the screen "Game Over" and I saw the picture of my family, but this time they were very real skeletons.

I tried to access the game three times, but I didn't succeed, I opened the other game, but this time the picture of the skeletons didn't look like the first one.... As if it was another family.