"This is Super Mario 64. The end is never the end. Please restart your system."
That's the description on this hack's page. Enigmatic, creepy, and yet incredibly intriguing.
Released in 2022 by jefftastic, sm64.z64 is one of the iconic horror romhacks. And, at least in the SM64 space, it's still the best one ever made, because it remembers some rather important lessons about horror experiences.
Namely, the fact that they shouldn't be too difficult, but shouldn't be totally effortless either. It's a masterful slow build of an experience that you can finish in about 10 minutes.
To say anything else about it will spoil it, so let's just get into it right away. If you want to play it for yourself- and I highly recommend that, since it's really short- stop reading and come back once you have. If not, read on.
RESET 0
I'm sure this will be a totally normal game of Super Mario 64. Really! No creepy stuff here. Just ignore the slowed down music that never actually starts.
Right from the start, this game shows a mastery of the art of subtle 'offness' that so much good horror runs on. It's so close to looking like a standard Mario game... but not quite.
The spookiness continues when you get into the game itself. The intro's gone. No letter from the princess, no Lakitu establishing shot, no Mario jumping out of the pipe. Hell, there's no HUD or anything. The hole in the moat is gone, too- alone with a lot of other things. There's only one way to go- and that is forward.
Into the castle.
The lobby of the castle is similarly eerie in a subtle way as well, with all the normal features absent. No Toad, no myriad of star doors- only one door remains. The absence of the comforting Castle theme is especially unnerving here. Again, nothing's OUTWARDLY spooky, but for someone who's played SM64 front to back, it puts you on edge immediately.
Into the door. The only painting on the other side is the Bob-Omb Battlefield one, so that's where you go.
There's no star select screen, only a vague objective of "collect the star". And it looks normal at first, but the more you look around, the worse it gets. All the coins are gone, the Bob-Omb Buddies are gone, all the enemies have vanished. Even the cannons are replaced with flat planes, as if they never existed.
It feels like the suggestion of a level, like before the developers added all the things that make it a fun place to explore. Without them, it's a barren playground with nothing to distract you from how... artificial it all feels. Very lonely, like visiting a children's amusement park that's in the process of being stripped.
The only new thing in the level are various signs dotted all around, pointing away from the star. It's subtle- but it lets you know that something doesn't want you there.
Collect the star, the victory fanfare plays. Everything seems totally normal...
And then the game throws up an error message, much like any other if you've seen a hack whose coding broke, with the ominous text repeating. "SOMETHING CHANGED". You can't do anything here... unless you remember the description on the hack's page.
Reset the game. See what happens.
RESET 1
Reset the game, and even more things are missing from the outside. The waterfall outside the castle. The cannon off to the side. The windows on the castle. Something removed assets from the opening area, as if trying to break it down to its basest elements.
On this trip into Bob-Omb Battlefield, the "objective" text is even shorter and terser, as if it's annoyed that you're playing the same mission again and is trying to get to the point. Hm.
On this trip, the entire area is slightly darker, with a subtle dark fog looming in the distance... and there's a LOT more backwards arrow signs. Other than that, it seems exactly the same as last time. Seems.
Collecting the star crashes the game again. Reset the system.
RESET 2
Even more things have been stripped from the outside area now. The stained-glass picture of Peach is gone, the moat of the castle is gone. Even the birds chirping outside, a bit that's been taken for granted, have gone completely and utterly silent.
The breaking down of assets is progressing.
And when you enter the castle, you're in for a nasty surprise. It's spread inside the castle, too. One of the bob-ombs in the painting is gone, too.
And when you get inside, everything has a distinct, unwelcoming aura. The "objective" text just says OBJECTIVE, as if the game can't even be bothered to tell you what to do, since you already know.
More concerningly, is this dark fog that looms over the entire area, obscuring anything in the distance. There's nothing there... right?
And the music has been messed with. It's still just as slowed down as before, but now the bassline is overpowering everything else in the track, with the melody only barely audible. It feels like half the song is missing.
Get the star again, and the game crashes.
Reset the system. Find out what changed.
What doesn't want you here? That's your job to find out.
RESET 3
Even the skybox isn't immune to the corruption now, leaving only a blank white void. The castle is only a suggestion of its former liveliness, a polygonal monolith standing tall in the emptiness. Even the space where the Peach stained glass WAS is gone now, with a smooth gray brick texture in its place.
The boundaries of the area itself are turning gray, as if fading like an old photograph, like distant memories. Something is degrading. Something doesn't want to keep existing. But why?
Entering the painting room for the final time feels like one last desperate attempt to keep you away. The cheery, cartoony bob-omb is gone, leaving only a blank sky. And the room is much longer, as if it moved the painting away to try to dissuade you. But there's nothing else to do... so you press on.
And when you enter the level again, it's even worse. The fog is so dark that you can barely see two feet in front of you. The music is totally gone, leaving only silence. And the "objective" text isn't even trying to be courteous to you anymore. It wants you gone, to leave it alone.
But why?
After a few moments of calmness in the dark, a fanfare plays, and a timer starts. This does a great job of instilling panic without any obvious signs of terror- a simple timer, a feature not present in 3D Mario but ubiquitous in 2D Mario, instantly tells you to move. As fast as you can.
As you rush up the mountain, trying desperately to get to the star, the world continues to degrade. The area around you gets tinted red. An ominous, slow drone plays, driving your panic through the roof. If you can just get the star before that number ticks down to zero, you can escape. Right? That's how these games always work.
But when you get up there, there's *NOTHING*. And it's already too late. And once the timer goes off, increasingly LOUD static starts playing. You can try to run, but you can't hide.
He's coming.
No matter where you try to run, it's already too late. After a few moments, a glitched out white and black Mario (known simply as M, as if he is the vague suggestion of Mario without actually being him) appears and crashes the game as soon as he touches you. This totally startled me at first, three whole resets of nothing does a lot to make the jumpscare a hell of a lot more impactful.
And even then, it's still a great finish. There's no blood. No corny dialogue. Just a unsettling-looking glitched creature zooming after you and crashing the game faster than you can process what's happening.
It reminds me of the ending of Squirrel Stapler a fair bit, with a similar timer you can't possibly escape and a foe you can't flee from, appearing and ending the game too fast to realize.
But what happens if you reset?
RESET 4
Nothing happens. Mario's gone. All that's left is a static camera view of the castle grounds, restored to their former glory, some sad music, and a block of ominous text.
"EVERYTHING IS BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOU."
Just that one line recontextualizes the rest of the hack, while not being What IS M'? Why does it want you to leave so badly? Why is it willing to erase Mario from existence in order to do so? Is it referring to Mario, or you the player?
Perhaps it's a commentary on excessively diving into the same old games over and over, trying desperately to plumb whatever secrets they still hide. Perhaps it's a riff on the personalization AI phenomenon, with the castle and battlefield shifting to try and drive you away from playing more. Perhaps it's simply a monster that wanted to be left alone, and erased Mario, barring you from continuing to play, when you wouldn't stop pushing.
Like any good short horror piece, it asks a lot of questions, and never answers most of them.
EXTRA STUFF:
If you want a little more of this hack's ideas, there are a couple rooms in the mega-hack B3313 that are riffs on its concept. Of course there's a darkened Bob-Omb Battlefield, but there's also a version of Whomp's Fortress with a similar timer gimmick.
I just think it's neat that this small little hack was so influential that it got to have areas devoted to it in what is definitely the most grandiose creepypasta SM64 has ever had.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is one of those games that has a short playtime but will stick with you. The way it plays on your memories of Mario 64, removing subtle things from the castle at first, then taking more and more until it feels like an empty shadow. The actual level getting more and more foreboding, subtly warning you to get out until it's too late. And the refreshingly simple execution of its big scare, built up over three playthroughs of nothing happening.
Most importantly, it avoids the common pitfall of creepypasta hacks of being too difficult to be scary. Horror games should not be too difficult, otherwise they stop being scary and start being action games at best, or actively frustrating to finish at worst. The lack of a failure state in SM64.Z64 does wonders to keep the pacing up- there is not an ounce of fat on this game.
One of the best- and spookiest- ten minutes you'll ever see, and a shining example of what Creepypasta horror can still be capable of in the modern age. Play it.
GAME LINK:
https://romhacking.com/hack/sm64.z64
Reset the game. See what happens.
RESET 1
Reset the game, and even more things are missing from the outside. The waterfall outside the castle. The cannon off to the side. The windows on the castle. Something removed assets from the opening area, as if trying to break it down to its basest elements.
On this trip into Bob-Omb Battlefield, the "objective" text is even shorter and terser, as if it's annoyed that you're playing the same mission again and is trying to get to the point. Hm.
Collecting the star crashes the game again. Reset the system.
RESET 2
Even more things have been stripped from the outside area now. The stained-glass picture of Peach is gone, the moat of the castle is gone. Even the birds chirping outside, a bit that's been taken for granted, have gone completely and utterly silent.
The breaking down of assets is progressing.
And when you enter the castle, you're in for a nasty surprise. It's spread inside the castle, too. One of the bob-ombs in the painting is gone, too.
And when you get inside, everything has a distinct, unwelcoming aura. The "objective" text just says OBJECTIVE, as if the game can't even be bothered to tell you what to do, since you already know.
More concerningly, is this dark fog that looms over the entire area, obscuring anything in the distance. There's nothing there... right?
And the music has been messed with. It's still just as slowed down as before, but now the bassline is overpowering everything else in the track, with the melody only barely audible. It feels like half the song is missing.
Get the star again, and the game crashes.
Reset the system. Find out what changed.
What doesn't want you here? That's your job to find out.
RESET 3
Even the skybox isn't immune to the corruption now, leaving only a blank white void. The castle is only a suggestion of its former liveliness, a polygonal monolith standing tall in the emptiness. Even the space where the Peach stained glass WAS is gone now, with a smooth gray brick texture in its place.
The boundaries of the area itself are turning gray, as if fading like an old photograph, like distant memories. Something is degrading. Something doesn't want to keep existing. But why?
Entering the painting room for the final time feels like one last desperate attempt to keep you away. The cheery, cartoony bob-omb is gone, leaving only a blank sky. And the room is much longer, as if it moved the painting away to try to dissuade you. But there's nothing else to do... so you press on.
And when you enter the level again, it's even worse. The fog is so dark that you can barely see two feet in front of you. The music is totally gone, leaving only silence. And the "objective" text isn't even trying to be courteous to you anymore. It wants you gone, to leave it alone.
But why?
After a few moments of calmness in the dark, a fanfare plays, and a timer starts. This does a great job of instilling panic without any obvious signs of terror- a simple timer, a feature not present in 3D Mario but ubiquitous in 2D Mario, instantly tells you to move. As fast as you can.
As you rush up the mountain, trying desperately to get to the star, the world continues to degrade. The area around you gets tinted red. An ominous, slow drone plays, driving your panic through the roof. If you can just get the star before that number ticks down to zero, you can escape. Right? That's how these games always work.
But when you get up there, there's *NOTHING*. And it's already too late. And once the timer goes off, increasingly LOUD static starts playing. You can try to run, but you can't hide.
He's coming.
No matter where you try to run, it's already too late. After a few moments, a glitched out white and black Mario (known simply as M, as if he is the vague suggestion of Mario without actually being him) appears and crashes the game as soon as he touches you. This totally startled me at first, three whole resets of nothing does a lot to make the jumpscare a hell of a lot more impactful.
And even then, it's still a great finish. There's no blood. No corny dialogue. Just a unsettling-looking glitched creature zooming after you and crashing the game faster than you can process what's happening.
It reminds me of the ending of Squirrel Stapler a fair bit, with a similar timer you can't possibly escape and a foe you can't flee from, appearing and ending the game too fast to realize.
But what happens if you reset?
RESET 4
Nothing happens. Mario's gone. All that's left is a static camera view of the castle grounds, restored to their former glory, some sad music, and a block of ominous text.
"EVERYTHING IS BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOU."
Just that one line recontextualizes the rest of the hack, while not being What IS M'? Why does it want you to leave so badly? Why is it willing to erase Mario from existence in order to do so? Is it referring to Mario, or you the player?
Perhaps it's a commentary on excessively diving into the same old games over and over, trying desperately to plumb whatever secrets they still hide. Perhaps it's a riff on the personalization AI phenomenon, with the castle and battlefield shifting to try and drive you away from playing more. Perhaps it's simply a monster that wanted to be left alone, and erased Mario, barring you from continuing to play, when you wouldn't stop pushing.
Like any good short horror piece, it asks a lot of questions, and never answers most of them.
EXTRA STUFF:
If you want a little more of this hack's ideas, there are a couple rooms in the mega-hack B3313 that are riffs on its concept. Of course there's a darkened Bob-Omb Battlefield, but there's also a version of Whomp's Fortress with a similar timer gimmick.
I just think it's neat that this small little hack was so influential that it got to have areas devoted to it in what is definitely the most grandiose creepypasta SM64 has ever had.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is one of those games that has a short playtime but will stick with you. The way it plays on your memories of Mario 64, removing subtle things from the castle at first, then taking more and more until it feels like an empty shadow. The actual level getting more and more foreboding, subtly warning you to get out until it's too late. And the refreshingly simple execution of its big scare, built up over three playthroughs of nothing happening.
Most importantly, it avoids the common pitfall of creepypasta hacks of being too difficult to be scary. Horror games should not be too difficult, otherwise they stop being scary and start being action games at best, or actively frustrating to finish at worst. The lack of a failure state in SM64.Z64 does wonders to keep the pacing up- there is not an ounce of fat on this game.
One of the best- and spookiest- ten minutes you'll ever see, and a shining example of what Creepypasta horror can still be capable of in the modern age. Play it.
GAME LINK:
https://romhacking.com/hack/sm64.z64
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