Why is Super Mario 64 so Creepy?

Also at 6:01 I didn’t realize until now that I accidentally put in the wrong photo oooooops, it was supposed to be a creepy looking floating Wario head. I thought I re rendered it to fix that when I posted the video, but I must’ve made the mistake twice lol. Anyways, thanks to everyone for watching!

For me, it’s the loneliness. For example when you are in the area in front of the castle. No one is there. No music is playing. It’s only you and the sound of birds

Super mario 64 has the same uneasy feeling as earlier versions of minecraft. There are few NPCs and it feels like everything is out to get you.

I believe it's because Mario 64 has many liminal spaces. There are many areas of this game that are devoid of life, but those areas look like they were made to have people in them. It almost makes you as the player feel out of place, or even exposed. I played the DS version of this game and totally had this feeling as a kid. I didn't grow up with the "Luigi is in the game" theory, but the "Waluigi is in the game" theory. It made me feel super uneasy for some reason. One more thing I don't know if others noticed in the DS version is the missing castle window. In the game save screen, there is a photo of the castle on the top screen. On the very right of the photo, there is a black window. When you actually open the game, the window is missing. Anyone else remember this?

Main reason that creeped me out when I was kid, was the song on endless stairs. While the concept of endless stairs itself is creepy, the song made me go crazy when I first heard it. In fact, I refused to defeat final Bowser for multiple years because of it.

What always creeped me out the most in this game was the painting of Peach that slowly faded into Bowser. AND, the music in shifting sand land/lethal lava land

I thought I was the only one that felt this way. Didn’t realize many others feel the same way.

I like how no one mentions that Mario is literally being watched the whole time by Lakitu. Even though he makes his presence known in the very beginning, it's something you kinda just forget about. In a way Super Mario 64 is kinda like the Truman Show.

For me, I think it’s the crisp geometry and bright colors of Mario juxtaposed with the blurry and smeared textures of the world around him. The blurry textures add to the dream-like feel of the game. Feeling alone in a dream makes things feel much more intense, and that’s why I find it so creepy.

I started playing a little recently, and realized how creepy it was...Mario’s lifeless eyes, the voids in the worlds, the abandoned towns in the background of wet dry world...everything feels deserted, like a bad dream where you wake up and your family is just gone, along with your whole town. What happened? Why is it like this? When will it end? Then, when you wake up, you are relieved, but continue to think about what you saw and experienced.

I feel creeped out by the loneliness in the castle. This feeling only applies to the castle for me as I think that the enemies still make the levels feel lively. The castle only has a few toads and mips who vanishes after you catch him the second time. Every other mario hub world is very lively. Compare the 64 castle to Delfino Plaza or the Comet Observatory or Starship Mario. The great music does help make it less eerie but the feeling still lingers in the back of my mind when I'm in the castle.

the bowser laugh creeped me out the most, not to mention the musical sting when entering the castle for the first time, or walking into a door you don't have enough stars for. and the bowser face when mario dies was a little much for me as a kid..

Mario 64 DS is the version i grew up with, i also felt this weird feeling even though there were more playable characters in the DS version

Super Mario Sunshine is pretty much the exact opposite of this game when it comes to atmosphere

The game emphasizes "secrets" quite a bit. It makes you feel as though there are things hidden in plain sight all around you.

When I was growing up, I often felt like Bowser was watching me the whole time playing

The absurdly graphic death animations of Mario in SM64 literally scares me. Especially the drowning animation, that one made me go insane.

That court yard with all those round laughing ghost things is creepy in itself

As a kid, it was just lonely, I just felt like the only person on the game

What makes it creepy to me is quite a few things that kinda mix that give the creepy feel. The early 3D graphics, textures, and static ness of characters and the worlds all give off the creepy vibe to me. A lot of the worlds just don’t have the mario feel like say 3D Land. Just looks like a level that mario was placed in that has no relation to him at all. While the same could be said about odyssey or sunshine, the name of those games kinda explains why he’s in those locations where Mario 64 is just mysterious and random for locations. The textures of the game adds to the creepiness of the games and levels as well. At least in odyssey and sunshine, you have more bright and charming textures that make sense for those worlds. Mario 64 has a bunch of dull and odd textures in it’s worlds that you sometimes question. They have a prerendered cg look, they’re blurry and look so different, as if they don’t belong in the game. It feels as if the devs were experimenting and went overboard with prerendered textures with their workstations, and just threw them into the game. If you compare Mario 64 with 64 DS, you can see they definitely changed most of those prerendered textures and made the game brighter as a whole. Lastly the staticness of the world and characters bring more creepiness. Sunshine and beyond, there was a lot going on in the worlds, characters had more fluid animations, and everything was more dynamic. Mario 64 in comparison to later games feels static and still with it’s fewer animations and little dynamic worlds. The skyboxes are just textures, so there’s nothing going on in the sky and nothing besides enemies or hazards move in the world. Basically it feels cold and bare, there’s nothing that gives you comfort in these random worlds that Mario is in all alone. The early 3D graphics of the characters with no sign of emotions or expression tie up the creepiness of the worlds. When you fight bowser, it’s just you and him. He’s just coming at you with his stiff body and showing no expression whatsoever in a dark eerie world wanting to hurt you. Gives me chills and feels darker than it should. One last thing I wanna add is the mix of sprites and the 3D worlds. I can’t really explain this one, but it feels like it adds a bit to the creepiness for some reason. Maybe it’s just the overly detailed yet blurry and prerendered look compared to the simple 3D models make something unsettling. I feel like I finally expressed the creepy feel I’ve had for this game since I was kid. Never really knew what it was when I was younger. Always thought it was just me that felt this way of the game giving creepy vibes, but it’s nice to see others feel the same. With all that being said, this game is amazing and these things don’t take away the love I have for this classic game.