Sunday, May 29, 2016

I Made Super Mario Go To Hell

While reading the rest of Prince of Pain to post on later (refer to the last post), I wondered: with a SNES emulator, a Super Mario World ROM, and a multitude of cheats, what would happen if every last cheat were activated simultaneously? Perhaps wacky shenanigans, involving a multitude of colors and enemies flying everywhere? No. Instead, what I got was odd, metaphysical strangeness that seemed to break the very properties of gaming itself. I wouldn't classify it as "creepy", but bizarre. If you want creepy, here you go:


There you go. Have you gotten your fix? Anybut, I've caught a few screenshots to compile in (mostly) chronological order to show you all here. You have my word that these are in no way manipulated photos, but legitimate screenshots documenting my bizarre travels in the world of Super Mario. Let's-A Go!


Weirdness began immediately after the Nintendo screen, with a portion of the title screen cut. Mario didn't end up on screen but rather, moments after starting, I was whisked away to the screenshot you'll see next. The transition was accompanied by the "woosh" sound made when you go throthrough a secret exit.


I was pulled up to this starry screen, an auto-scroll level littered with Yoshi coins and regular coins alike. I had to restart and come back to this screen, as falling off simply crashed the game. I went back to the internet and found a cheat that allowed for infinite jumping so I could keep up with the auto-scroll. What I was greeted with next was a complete background change:


Mario, mind you, is only facing the opposite direction because I used the spin jump button to get myself over there. Yes, in case you are wondering, the arrow is there in the original game.


Next, instead of the overworld, I found myself in Yoshi's House where I was able to move farther right than normal, as seen above, with some portions like the little birds or fire misplaced. The speaker box that gives you hints didn't work and the only way I got out was to run back and forth until I glitched through the floor.


A few moments of a blank screen later and the overworld finally came up. Mario had one life (with an unexplained "E" with it), and had Luigi as his upper left hand icon. The level on the far left is somehow completed and without a doubt the most bizarre portion was Mario wearing a halo usually only seen, obviously, during game over. I feel like now is a good time to mention that no matter how many retries, the game would never let me move past the water level (the one just above Mario in the photo), so I often ended up repeating the first few as I explored.


Starting the level, the background was blank and Mario was a weird jumble of colors. I tried a few times, but Mario I guess refused to stay on Yoshi for more than a few moments. Enemies were nonexistent for the last half of the level save for the Chargin' Chuck guarding the exit.


I retried the same level, and this time little Mario stayed in a sort of "crucifix" position with his arms outstretched and moved foward with no walking or running animation. Only those bushes with apples were present save for the exit goal.


Moving to the level on the other side of Yoshi's house, I was once again Mario with Luigi's color pallette. It was pretty normal, and yes, enemies were present, just not in the shot I took. All was well until I took a wrong spin jump at Albuquerque, causing Mario/Luigi to get stuck, freezing the rom. After I restarted, things...didn't get any better.


Reached the overworld like normal, but as you can see it suffers from color differences, plus choosing the level opposite the one Mario is on (the aforementioned water level) in the pic brought this screen:


Just Mario and surrounding objects silhoutted against the lack of proper background. If I were the type to over analyze, which I am, I would bet this is symbolic. That's just me though.


I'll call the next foray into the same level "Trials of Luigi", because despite being the longest I've spent in one, I simply stayed as Luigi during most of the entire level. Starting the level caused Luigi to swim along the ground, somewhat spazzing out when I tried jumping. Again, zero enemies. Not to mention that weird "N" next to the lives count.


Then suddenly, running around some caused Luigi to turn small and don his fire flower costume, while seemingly driving a nonexistent car. Very glitchy. Despite having his fire flower suit, he didn't possess that power up.


And then, in the only very brief Mario appearance, Luigi running top speed glitched into Mario's "burned" sprite, clipping pretty violently through the floor. Slowing down turned me back into driving Luigi. Those eyes unsettle me.


Luigi then came to a dead halt, spending some time kinda....stuck there. Looks almost like he's slumping over, yeah? Either way, he snapped out of it eventually, temporarily darting foward really fast for a brief moment. Yeah, I don't get it either.


Enough running gave Luigi both his cape and fire flower suit, but it didn't amount to much considering the goal had no barrier to break, signifying the end of a level....so I just waited until I ran out of time. Thus, the Trials of Luigi Saga was over.


Back to Mario, I was only permitted to play the water level once. Immediately upon starting, discolored Mario was swallowed by the giant keyhole just like he would if he had just found the secret exit. Warping through it brings him to....



...the literal next screen of the same level, with the same Mario colors from the beginning, no background and silhouette Yoshi. It was pretty difficult but I was indeed able to beat this one fully.


Returning to the other level proved to be the worst decision of the whole experience, as I was just greeted by nothing but an entire level of what you see above. Everything was jumbled, constantly moving, and yes, with a slightly red tint. Cheesy, I know. I tried to navigate this madness to maybe reach some kind of end, and an end I got, but it was just this:


And that's it. Our adventure comes to an end with a red lined screen with a low humming noise. It has a reasonable explanation, since I'm an asshole who likes breaking games, but interesting nonetheless. Make of all this what you will, but I hope you enjoyed it regardless!

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