The most widely circulated image of Lethal Lava Ruins.
Lethal Lava Ruins is the nickname given to an anomalous stage found in certain personalized copies of Super Mario 64. As the nickname suggests, it is found in Lethal Lava Land, and there is yet to be a report that claims otherwise. Some people say it is a subarea of Lethal Lava Land, due to the lack of a star select screen when entering the level. it looks very simple, being a flat plain of lava with stone and brick platforms and structures thrown throughout. There are also very few, if any, objects. It is believed to be a scrapped stage. The common belief is that it was cut at an early point in its development, due to the very basic and unfinished nature of the level. Something else to note is that pausing does not display the level title, and that the skybox is typically said to have a gray city in flames, possibly resembling that of Wet-Dry World's skybox.
Layout[]
Lethal Lava Ruins is very basic in design. All reports claim the shapes are very rough and typically very square. The stage has a very consistent appearance across reports, probably either due to the basic nature of the stage being easier to remember or because the simplicity and lack of objects makes it hard for the Personalization A.I. to make changes.
A few platforms beside the thing nicknamed "the structure".
Despite the stage's design, there are a few points of interest that have appeared in reports. The first one is a structure made of bricks and platforms, similar to an expanded version of the structure near the beginning of Shifting Sand Land dubbed "the ruins". Curiously, some people claim there is a single red coin somewhere in the ruins, although no red coins have been found elsewhere. Somewhere on the other side of the map is a plain of dark stone called "the obsidian field", which has a large pit with lava and platforms at the bottom in the middle. Some people claim to occasionally encounter objects, typically coins and/or boxes, amidst the platforms at the bottom. Most of the level consists of "The ocean" which is just the lava, although there are various platforms spread throughout and a large stone structure (known as "the structure") somewhere. A few reports have claimed to encounter enemies at the top. The structure doesn't seem to be enterable and there is overall no known subarea entrances.
Missions[]
Due to the overall lack of objects, there is yet to be a star found in the level. Although some people claim to see a star select screen (with no level title and a 7 as the course number) with one star named "Excavation". The star has yet to be collected or even found, due to the scarcity of objects in the level and the lack of any places that seem excavatable. A popular theory is that the star had something to do with the pit, as that is the place most likely to involve excavation and it is one of the only places to have objects, so it would be expected to find other objects there.
Reports[]
Everything in this section should be taken with a grain of salt. These are unverified claims.
Report 1[]
The painting found at the top of the volcano.
"So one time I was playing Mario 64, just looking around the levels, and I entered Lethal Lava Land. I stumbled my way into the volcano, and climbed to the top. When I arrived, I saw a painting. I wasn't sure if that was normal, so I took a close-up picture. Anyway, I jumped in and was brought to this weird place with a lot of lava and some stone. The sky had a weird burning grey city in the background. Anyway, I explored the level and was kinda disappointed. There weren't really any objects except for a single red coin near where I began, which I didn't bother collecting since I like to do red coin missions last. I platformed over to a large grey brick building thing, and then I got bored, so I took a picture [The picture is the one featured at the Layout section] and exited the level. Although there wasn't a name when I paused the level, so that was pretty weird."
Report 2[]
"I remember a while ago I played Mario 64, and there was some weird bonus area in Lethal Lava Land. I'm not quite sure how I got there, I think I was flying with the Wing Cap and got warped there? Maybe I flew too far? Anyway, the stage was basically just a lot of lava with some stone platforms. There was this cool city in the distance, though. Other than that, there was a tall thing made of stone pillars near the start that I explored. I got a red coin there, then got bored and left."
Report 3[]
A room in the volcano, which has a painting to Lethal Lava Ruins.
"I entered the doors at the top of the volcano, and they brought me to a weird series of rooms that were kinda hard to get through. I kept getting turned around, and eventually realized I should take a photo, so I took a picture of me running towards the door I came through for the 500th time. Eventually I stumbled upon a painting, and jumped through. It was this big flat plain of lava with some stone and stuff scattered around. I tried to look for something interesting, but the level was pretty empty. There weren't even coins or enemies. After dying to the lava once, I re-entered the painting to take a picture, [The picture is the one featured at the top of the page] then exited. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying enough attention to see the course name in the pause menu, but I think it might've just been blank? I'm not sure."
Speculation[]
Due to the very basic design of the level and the lack of objects, the common belief is that this level was an unfinished level cut early in development. Some people believe it to be an early version of Lethal Lava Land, but this is widely disregarded, as Lethal Lava Land was in the demo at Shoshinkai '95, so we know what the actual early version of Lethal Lava Land was like. Due to the simplicity of the level, some people believe it to be an instance of Dynamic Level Arrangement, but the consistency of the level's design throughout reports makes it harder to believe that. Something else to note is how some people claim to encounter this level through Big Bully's Key in some way, so it is believed the key and course were scrapped at around the same period of time.