User blog:Pebbler/My Friend's Copy Of Super Mario 64 (64pasta 2023 Submission)

Thomas ████. That was the name of my best friend. He always struck me as a bit of a goofball, but he was honestly a good person at heart. He would always be the funny guy of the group, cracking jokes, making us all laugh, etc etc. But, he was an honest and kind man, he cared for other people's feelings and never got upset at anybody in our friend group. He was truly a great man.

Which is why the thing that happened to him makes me all the more gutwrenched.

On Wednesday, the 14th of August this year, in the morning, I got a call from Thomas's brother.

Thomas was dead.

He died around night time of the day previous by forcefully pulling out his two eyeballs, and then bleeding out only a minute later. I couldn't describe my utmost devastation from this news. Thomas had never seen like the type of guy to end his own life, and he didn't have any sort of mental illness. But, at the current moment of his death, I didn't care whether or not he ended his own life himself; I was far too choked up to even think about anything besides the fact that my buddy had died.

I attended his funeral a couple of days after his death. I still couldn't really believe that the man that I had hung out with for nearly half my life is now dead. I would get into more detail, but honestly, I would much rather skip that part, since (in all honesty) that's not the full reason I'm here. No, this- this is about something else entirely...

When Thomas's family was going around Thomas's room, they found his Nintendo 64, with a copy of the titular "Super Mario 64" inserted inside the cartridge slot. I was at the house at the time - paying my condolonces to his family - when they had the idea to give Thomas's cartridge to me. They knew that me and him used to play the Nintendo 64 together, and they also knew that me and Thomas's favorite game to mess around with was Super Mario 64. So naturally, they had the bright idea to pass the game cartridge onto me, so I could keep Thomas in my thoughts and memories. I did already have a copy of Super Mario 64, but I took the offer anyway just to have something to remember Thomas by.

When I got home, I decided to bring down my old Nintendo 64 from my attic so I would be able to play the cartridge. It took a little bit of time to set it up with my television but I managed to get it hooked up in the end. I stuck Thomas's old Super Mario 64 cartridge into the cartridge slot, and was ready to experience a wave of what I expected to be nostalgia. I heard the sound of Mario's voice as he exclaims: "It's a-me! Mario!", and I immediately felt a wave of nostalgia from playing this game when I was younger by myself and/or with Thomas. I pushed down on start, and I was taken to the file select screen with 4 files to choose from: File A having 120 stars, File B having only 13 stars, and File C and D being completely blank. I selected the first file on the list - File A - and was ready to get all the memories back from my childhood.

But, I was very wrong.

For, you see, I expected to get a warm feeling of childhood lull and joy. That, however, was not the case here. I... felt different emotions. These emotions weren't of sadness due to my friend's death, oh no. These emotions were... ones of fear. Uneasiness. Uncertainty. Do you ever get that feeling, when you're playing someone else's copy of Super Mario 64, things feel...

...off? I never experienced this feeling before, but God help me, I did now. I felt like - and I'm being serious here - I was unwelcome. I didn't belong here... yet I persisted, shrugging it off as me merely being a bit tired at the time.

I entered the castle, and all went well. Most of the levels in the first floor were normal. You're probably wondering why I said "Most of" them were normal. Well, that's because, there was a slight problem with Big Boo's Haunt. Actually, that's phrased wrong, there was nothing wrong with Big Boo's Haunt, or there could've been, because I can't access Big Boo's Haunt as for some weird reason, when I tried to get into the Castle Courtyard, a message popped up, saying "You need a key to open this door. Perhaps you might find it somewhere?" This is where my uncertainty turned into utmost confusion. This... never happened in the original game... or at least not in my cartridge.

I decided to skip the basement, due to me being a bit scared of it, and go to the second floor, to see whether or not that key would be located up there or not. I stepped foot into the second floor, to realise that... something was off. I took a few steps forward, then a few steps backward. Forward, backward. Forward, backward. I then decided to run around the hall a couple of times. At last, I finally realised something. Mario's footsteps were being repeated from faraway. It was soft and subtle, but I just managed to hear it. I immediately took my attention to the Mirror Room. That's when I realised that the footsteps that I heard being repeated were from Mario's reflection. But that's impossible, right? Mario's footsteps can't make noise if there's no collision, right? There's no collision over there, right? It was at that moment that something caught my eye. I saw a vanish box, sitting on one of the corners of the room.

That... wasn't there... before...

I smashed it open, and was given the vanish cap. I walked over to the mirror, and, what do you know? I managed to pass through it, with the floor having full collision. I... was baffled to say the least. I went through the door that was on the other side of the mirror, and I was took to a mirrored version of the second floor. Everything was mirrored, perfectly, to say the least, except for one specific level.

Wet-Dry World.

The painting was pitch black. I was super freaked out by this, more than I would like to admit. Wet-Dry World had always been a weird level to me, and this soulless, empty pitch black void that replaced the original painting is not helping make this level anymore enjoyable for me. I felt really unnerved... but I'm not entirely sure if it was out of stupidity, bravery or morbid curiosity, I jumped in the painting to see what the level's deal was.

The level immediately started up, no star select screen or anything like that, it just started immediately. The strangest part was the placement of Mario's spawnpoint. He seemed to start... ...at the Wet-Dry World Town? What was weird, was the lack of music, and the fact that it was as dark as night. Mario also seemed to spawn right in front of that odd shrine thing that's in the middle of the level as well. The most disturbing part of this whole level was the fact that when 3 seconds MAX passed, Mario seemed to randomly, just, die. He just dropped dead. And you know how when Mario dies, Bowser's laugh plays as it warps out the level? Yeah, well that never happened here. Instead, I was forced to stare at Mario's lifeless corpse as he just lay there. I was obviously softlocked, so I resetted the game and then began to just think about what just happened.

The first thing that came to my mind was, "What the FUCK was that!?" and "Why the FUCK was that in his cartridge!?"

In fact, HOW was this in his cartridge? Thomas never made ROM Hacks or anything like that, he probably doesn't even know what a ROM Hack even is. So then, how is this even possible? Is... Is this really what his cartridge is like? If so, how is this only in his cartridge, and nobody else's?

I regained my composure and started to resume my play session with the game. I started File A up again, and expected to see the ordinary castle as it usually is, but I was dead wrong. Instead, there was a thick white fog that surrounded the castle area, and, somehow, it seemed like the area... had grown in size somehow...

There also seemed to be some sort of blowing wind in the background, sort of like the outside of Big Boo's haunt. I found this to be very, very strange yet continued onward into the castle.

I entered the castle, and was immediately caught off guard by the desaturated colors. The walls were a lot darker than normal, like the vibrancy had been sucked out of it, and what was left, was a dull reminder of what once was. It seemed... similar to something else, but during my playtime, I was more focused on what was happening in Wet-Dry World to take notice to anything subtle that the game was hinting at.

I proceeded to walk up to the second floor, to immediately be caught off guard by the sudden absence of the background music. It shook me to my core, which, really never happened to me before this incident. I decided to repeat the process of going through the mirror, and was caught off guard when I went through the door and was greeted by a greyish, almost monochrome area. The toads that occupied the place all now looked sort of uncomfortable and had frowns on their faces. Their textboxes didn't say anything besides a simple, "...". All of the paintings were now a pitch black. None of them worked, however, except for Wet-Dry World. I reluctantly jumped into the pitch black painting.

I was transported to the town again, but this time, there was a sign in front of the odd shrine thing. It read:

"you have awakened him

give up

for it is too late"

All of a sudden, the ground disappeared out of nowhere; Mario fell for what seemed like hours, until he landed the same exact town again, this time, the odd shrine thing in the middle was replaced... by a cross. Mario obviously died from fall damage, and the game then softlocked itself again.

I was really confused, scared, frightened, at what was going on in this cartridge, yet I persisted, believing that there might be something larger here than I originally thought there was. I booted the game back up for what I hoped to be the last time, as I really just wanted whatever the hell this nightmare was to be over already. But... I was wrong... for the nightmare was not over... far from it.

This time, the castle was covered by a thick, black fog, and now, had no background wind, or any sound effects at all for that matter, not even Mario's noises. I sighed, I just wanted whatever the fuck this experience was to be over, yet I was very hesitant to go into the castle at first. I finally mustered up the courage to enter the castle as after all, it's just a game, right? Nothing bad can come from a game, right?

I entered the castle, just to see that the familiar walls that I had entered multiple times before, were now replaced by these dark, monochrome walls, sort of like the mirrored second floor from the last time that I was in the castle. All of the paintings in the castle were now pitch black, and all of the toads were now just corrupted models, with only a slight reminder of what they once were. When interacting with them, all they did was spout gibberish that seemed to go on for ages. The doors to the courtyard and basement were both bordered off by an unreachable star count, but in all honesty, I didn't really care about that right now. I knew what I had to do. I marched my way up to the second floor, only to realise that there was no second floor. It had been replaced by an odd hallway that was longer than any hallway I had seen before in my life. At the end of the hallway, there was the the Wet-Dry World painting, although the skeeter present in the painting was mysteriously missing its eyeballs.

I reluctantly jumped into the painting, and was transported to the Wet-Dry World town. In the middle, where the shrine usually was, there was the cross from before, but this time, there was something on it.

Luigi.

Luigi was crucified on the cross, his hands and feet both nailed to the cross. What really shook me up, was his two absent eyes. His eyes were lying on the floor, beside the cross, and were practically smothered in his own blood. His two eye sockets were now leaking with blood. I was afraid. Not because of the imagery, but because of what the imagery symbolised. I think you know exactly what I mean by that.

I didn't do anything but cry. I couldn't turn the game off, I just couldn't. I felt like I had to continue, not only for Thomas, but for myself aswell. I waited for what felt like forever, until a bunch of strange figures started to appear around Mario. These "figures"... They sort of resembled people... In actuality, they seemed to resemble members of both mine and Thomas's family. But... something was off. That was when the sounds started playing. I heard mine and Thomas's families crying... not in real life... but through the game. I gasped in pure horror, as the crying became louder and louder and louder and louder. It was then when I realised that my family weren't crying anymore. They were screaming. They were screaming blood curdling screams, ones that I do not think I can describe here. I was then cut off guard by the change in appearance of mine and Thomas's family. Their faces... they seemed to be... melting? The screaming got louder and louder, as their faces melted more and more and more, until they collapsed on the ground dead. The screaming stopped, and I was left with pure silence, hearing only the sounds of my breathing patterns. I then looked at Luigi (at least what was left of him), and realised that he was slowly and very jitterly getting off of the cross. When he got off the cross, he immediately lunged at Mario, which caused the game to glitch out.

Mario was then taken to the second floor, except it was pitch black. I started to hear footsteps, which seemed to get closer and closer to Mario every second. Eventually, it managed to reach Mario, and I finally got to look at the thing that had tormented me throughout this entire game. It was a pitch black, shadow-y figure that seemed to leak some sort of... slime? Ink? I don't know, as I only managed to get a glimpse of what it was for approximately 3 seconds until "he" reached Mario. When "he" reached Mario, the game started to freak out again, and Mario was taken to the castle grounds, albeit... this time it was different. It was the castle from the beta version of the game, and the skybox was completely black. Everything else was a dull monochrome grey, the only thing with color there was Mario's model. I walked up to the castle door, and I was given a message. Instead of the standard "The door's locked" message, it was:

"Shh! Please walk quietly in the hallway!", which was the sign from the second floor.

It was then I realised.

The game warned me. The game told me to walk quietly, so I wouldn't hear "his" footsteps and go to the other side of the mirror.

I also started to get an epiphany. Thomas didn't kill himself. No... it was this game. This game drove him to the very limit, it managed to mess with his head in ways that any human cannot comprehend. The game made him forcefully remove his eyeballs. The game made him leave this earth, and now it was in my possession.

Thomas had fallen for this game's trick.

And now I had fallen for it too.