Rainbow Chara X
Impossible to gauge!
- 129
- Posts
- 8
- Years
- Shiny Hunting in Sinnoh
- Seen Apr 25, 2024
Jesus, way to kill my ears there. Anyway, wow we're finally testing out Nintendo 64 emulation! We sure have evolved quite a bit since the Pokemon Snakewood days where anything but GBA emulation was a pipe dream.
I downloaded this Super Mario 64 ROM from a guy called Frike The Dragon. (I couldn't find a reliable place to get a copy after emuparadise got hit, but this guy had my back.)
Me and Mario 64 have always had a fascinating relationship because while it wasn't necessarily part of my childhood (I got it much later than Ocarina of Time or Megaman Legends/64), I remember playing it at my sister's grandparents' house. It's not Maui Mallard levels of nostalgia, but whatever.
I know what you're thinking - Dan, why are you starting up yet another let's play when you still have Sailor Moon: Another Story and Pokemon Emerald to do? Trust me, I know what I'm doing.
Let's get this party started in...
[font=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter #¢ - Special For You (Úóþþýå÷÷ü²Áâ÷ñûóþ² ¢£ª)[/font][font=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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Spoiler:
[Current OST: Title Theme]
There's Mario's big dumb head. You can imagine this was some high tech (
It's so much fun to stretch his face and make him look extra surprised for no reason.
[Current OST: File Select]
Just wanted to take a short stop and listen to the File Select music. Man, this just takes me back to the days when everything was a little more simpler. (Vinesauce Joel put it best - being a kid is like being high all the time.)
[As I click on a file, Peach's voice says "We have to do..."]
... The hell?
... Oh, and it just drops me off at the front of the castle without having to sit through Peach's letter or the Lakitu opening? This must be a hack or something... which to be fair, I wasn't fond about playing through vanilla Super Mario 64 anyway. God forbid trying to 100% it with a keyboard, but I think I can sit through a hack just fine.
I wonder what's actually changed?
... Thaaaat's weird. What are you giving me though, Peach? Halloween candy?
Side note: I've always liked how, even as the genesis of 3D Mario games, you can make Mario do some crazy ninja flippy shit with the base engine of Mario 64. It's aged really well in that regard. It's to the point where I recommend watching tool-assisted speedruns of this game, especially the Kaizo hacks.
Not even the classic Bowser taunt for when you enter the castle? The heck kind of Mario hack is this? Is it for speedrunners?
Every door but Bob-Omb Battlefield costs three stars to open... and I've just noticed that we have zero lives. If we bite it, that's an instant game over.
Wonder why they made it like that.
(I've always liked the ripple effect when you enter a painting in Mario 64. It's oddly theraputic to me.)
Footrace with Koopa the Quick already? What happened to fighting King Bob-Omb?
[Current OST: Bob-Omb Battlefield]
(Arguably the most popular song from Mario 64 and for good reason.)
Everything seems to be the same, though. This is already pretty weird, but as long as the game's fun to play then I don't mind.
Example: Me ruining this poor Goomba's day.
But I didn't... beat King Bob-Omb, though. Am I missing something here?
Being Koopa the Quick, he challenges us to a race. I somehow doubt we'll be able to lose even though I'm using a keyboard.
Uh... the Chain Chomp and the other star are gone. Hey listen, I wasn't fond of the giant metal dog but where did they go?
The places where the cannons would be are empty holes for some god-forsaken reason.
I made it to the top, but... what's this switch doing here? I think I'm gonna hold off until Koopa the Quick gets here so I can rub it in his face.
"That's all. Now, I must be off. Owww! Let me go!"
That's not the text I was expecting. The way he's phrasing this makes it seem like someone's trying to kidnap him, so I'm immediately suspicious.
[A star flies out of Koopa the Quick and it flies super fast out of bounds]
Well fuck. I guess we're not getting that star anymore. This game is starting to weird me out now.
Wonder what happens when we press the weird sw--
Oh. It just teleports you, I guess.
... Where the hell are we now? The Bob-Omb Battlefield music is still playing, but this looks markedly different from where we were before.
We've activated the Vanish Cap switch at the very least. (Good thing too, because we would have been completely barred off otherwise. What kind of prison is this?)
[The music goes completely silent. Normal BGM for getting a Vanish or Flying Cap]
... Okay, that's kind of ominous. Any time the music just cuts out in a video game, I freeze up. I dunno, the absence of sound gives me some bad vibes, especially in games where the soundtrack is bright and vibrant like Mario 64.
Wow, this place sure is big though. I wonder what's at the t--
... If I wasn't unsettled before, I'm terrified now.
It seems to be a person of some kind, but I'm not going to stick around and find out because they creep me out.
There's three Goombas here for some reason. If I had to make a guess based on the imagery the rom hack is adopting, they represent children playing on the road. Why? Call it a hunch.
There was another Vanish Cap at the gate, so why not, right? Where does the pipe take us?
[Old City]
It takes us to an old basketball court of some kind...? Is this what this area actually looks like without the Bob-Omb Battlefield textures? Interesting... if a bit worrying because the only bright colors are on Mario himself now, a sheer contrast from before.
It's so... lonely here. It's as if we were the only ones left here after the sun went down, and now we have to walk back home.
Really digging the autumn palette for the tree, just saying... I wonder what's beyond there now that the strange man in black has disappeared.
Hmm... it just ends, apparently. That's a shame, I kind of wanted to see if there was more of the city to explore.
City settings like this give me such a rush of nostalgia, I swear. There's just something about the building and the overhead bridge that makes me think about the past.
But how did we get here? What's the significance of all this?
... Something tells me to go into that dark tunnel.
It's so far away... I don't like this.
Turning back doesn't show something terrible at the very least, but the pitch blackness of this tunnel doesn't give me much hope anyway.
[Mario opens the door and walks inside]
[The only sound is a sand-like static]
I like the look of this room. Whoever did the custom textures did a damn good job with the place.
But this TV being endless static kind of gives me Ring vibes and I don't like it, no sir.
I had to use the Vanish cap to jump out of the window and land in this... backyard area, I guess. The negative space of this area implies that this is a two-story house, with the room we just jumped out of being the living room(?).
Is this our house? We seem to have left the Mario world - the only reason we're still Mario is because he's our avatar, so this is getting surreal quick.
Jumping into the second story window takes us into this room. Based on the wallpapers and the basketball, I'd have to assume that this is a young kid's room.
Speaking of which, there he is. Come here, little guy, I'm not gonna hurt you...
... Wait, what the fuck? What was that about? The red text should only come up when I'm pissed. I... I don't like this, guys.
Weirdness aside, this kid has some good taste in movies and video games. Maybe I should let's play Super Metroid in the future. (Æúóæµö²ð÷²ó²üûñ÷²æúýçõúæ¾²úçú)
Hmmm? There seems to be a note on the bed.
Jesus christ.
This hack got dark really quick, huh?
The next room over has a bunch of "kids" in bed, each one being completely still.
... What's with that poster in the corner, though?
The bloodstained bed doesn't help, alright? This is actually pretty unsettling.
Especially when this text shows up again! I'm starting to think the special thing isn't candy...
Signs in the dark? Oh, this is bound to go well.
"Your mother won't understand my suffering, nor the way I miss you. Every day without you, a part of me breaks away. We are many FRIENDS now. I won't stand any longer. I'm finishing this for good. Farewell. If only I could see you one last time..."
... Oh. Looks like dad has some... problems.
"You also noticed that I don't like your friends at all. You're clever. To me, they're just a bunch of immoral dicks. We'll soon give them the fate they deserve... But you're different. I'm at your window now. You're just as beautiful as I remembered. My FRIENDS and I have agreed you should stay this way, forever. We have to do something special for you..."
I'm getting chills just reading this. This person is absolutely insane!
Brr. I'm both horrified and curious as to what the third sign is going to say, but it's so much farther away from the other-
aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAÅúóæ²ó²þýä÷þë²áûõúæ
[Mario sinks into the sand, followed by a horrible, ear-piercing scream]
Ú÷²úóá²áúýåü²ÿ÷²æú÷²þûõúæ¼²Û²úóä÷²ð÷ñýÿ÷²úûá²ÔÀÛ×ÜÖ¼²
Ûæ²áçà÷²åóá²áâ÷ñûóþ¾²óþàûõúæ¼²Õóä÷²ÿ÷²ó²áâýýù³
...
...
...
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
(Okay, sorry for spooking you guys - no, I'm not possessed. I used a text encryptor.)
Well, that was fun! In all seriousness, this ROM Hack is called Special for You - Frike the Dragon was the one who made it. See, I was originally stumped regarding what to do for Halloween this year, but my interest was piqued when I came across this of all things.
TetraBitGaming covered it as part of a collection of spooky Mario hacks, and I was instantly drawn in by its dark atmosphere and surprisingly chilling writing. It's a creepypasta game, but I consider it pretty well done!
It gets a 93/100 (Excellent) from me - it knew what it wanted to do and didn't over-extend itself. The only thing holding it back from being like, perfect, is the cheap jumpscare at the end... plus it could have gone for a bit longer, but that's just me.
(A few oddities too: the man in black figure is in fact just a remodeled tree, the scream replaces Bowser's laugh, and I used a Moonjump code to see what was up those ledges. Unfortunately, there was nothing.)
I hope you all have a great Halloween and don't get spooked! See you then.