I like how the letter Bowser gives you after World 7 starts with "Yo!"

I never understood why the Bowser fight in this game is so widely hated. I think making him break through his own floor is a really clever idea and I consider this a far better fight than those showdowns on the bridges. It _actually feels like a fight._

Mario quite literally went to hell and back for the princess.

I remember playing the GBA version when I was a kid and when it came to Big Bertha, every time she ate Mario I kept mistaking one small animation or whatever for splashing into the water as an angel representing Mario's death or something and it kinda creeped me out. Pausing at 3:37 can show what I mean.

Recently, videos showing an anti-piracy screen of Mario Party DS have gained a lot of popularity, which reminds me that anti-piracy screens in video games make for some very creepy moments.

I’d like to imagine that Angry Sun coming up from the ground is because it’s actually some type of subterranean creature that can levitate. It’s huge lion-like mane makes it look like a sun, so foolish animals that it eats or kills for prey/fun don’t notice that “the sun” has suddenly appeared 40 ft. above their head. Also, it can’t exactly tell the difference between a plumber and a koopa, they’re both the same shade of red when looked at from above. Just a fan theory.

I actually watched the cartoon as a kid before playing the game... And I distinctly remember the sun in the cartoon chasing the bros in the episode where the Koopalings kidnap the prince of Giant Land, and I was terrified of him. When I played the game for the first time as a kid, I was less terrified and more like "Ohhh, that's where he came from in the show." and I thought it was cool. Big Bertha still terrifies me though.

I feel like something that helps World 8’s dangerous and ominous feel in this incarnation is the difficulty. I have a theory that Bowser was just broken after this game, because the finale never gets this brutal again. It’s like the Koopa King is tossing every last obstacle, every defense at his disposal at you, and when you beat him this time, his motivation starts waning over the rest of the series.

That Bowser's theme is very iconic (before Smash Ultimate it also made it in the prologue boss fight in Super Mario RPG).

I can see the World 7 Mini-Fortress as this: A curse has been inflected onto it, and it wiped everyone out, including even undead entities like Boos. The timer counting down in that level could be how long you got before you are irreversibly cursed as well. (Mario dying from Time Out is just a filter to hide the TRUE aftermath.) Once you reach the survivor of the curse (Boom-Boom), his mind has been infected by the curse, and you have to take him out as he makes a mad dash towards you... Thankfully, the curse is more or less destroyed once you collapse the fortress. ...Merry Christmas?

I still have this game for my GBA, and honestly it's still my favorite version.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the easter egg of the chain chomps breaking away from their chian after tugging on it for too long.

oh wow i also thought world 8 felt really weird when i was a kid, especially in the NES version where the lava almost looks like blood, the sky is pitch black and there's no grass or green

I played the GBA version of the game first, and I think world 8 was probably the first time I was creepped out by a game. Before that point, the game was bright and colourful, then it hits you with the unexpected letter from Bowser, and you're sent to a dark hostile world filled with fire, lava, skulls, and no regular levels in sight. The combination of creepy imagery (for a kid my age), the high difficulty and such a deviation from all the other worlds made a lasting impression on me. But yeah, like you said, it doesn't hit as hard with modern mario games anymore since it's so cliché by this point.

I've always felt a little creeped about nes games in general. Especially ones that couldn't put a background up so thet just opt for a black void... those give me the creeps

The only moment in Mario games that really scared me was the Bonefin battle in mario galaxy. Skeleton fish scared the crap out of me.

"Wandering around after the aftermath" Gosh i cried just for reading that

As much as I played SMB3 on the SNES, I never knew that the Hammer Bro arena changed on the water segments. You learn something new everyday.

Big Bertha was probably the beginning of my long-standing fear of big underwater monsters that eat you. Big Bubba in SM64 continued this trend, and then Dianoga and Drugon in Star Wars cemented it. World 8/Dark Land is certainly a step up from World 8 in the original game, and the final world in SMB 2 was a fluffy cloud heaven, the inverse of this one. No other world in Mario has been quite this hellish, with all the skulls and fire. It would have been neat if they'd had a dark level representing each world, and surely the hypothetical 8-3 would have brought Big Bertha back with a vengeance.

I don’t see why it would be sacrilege to say you prefer the All Stars version. Aside from maybe some music not being quite as good due to the instrumentation, it’s more visually pleasing and seems to have less graphical glitches, so I’d say it’s fair for people to like one over the other. No, Sacrilege would be like me thinking Mario Land 2: 6 Golden coins is better than Mario 3... still salty we didn’t get a Land 2 aesthetic in Mario Maker 2

This channel has almost no memes in the comment section, congratulations for being so classic guys!

Luigi was in the World 7 mini-fortress before Mario, and that's canon.

0:19 Don't worry, me too.

It gets as scary as a game about a plumber fighting a huge dragon spiked turtle creature to save a princess can get

I wholeheartedly agree with this video. SMB3 was a lot darker than the rest of the series. Part of the reason why it's special to me. More immersive, more atmospheric.

I prefer the GBA version of the game, honestly.

With Mario 3 canonically being a play, I wouldn't be surprised if they felt like doing some scary, creepy things would be perfectly acceptable.

The empty Fortress was my first thought when thinking of creppy momemts in Mario Bros 3. For same reason I found the first minutes of Super Metroid when there are no enemies the creepiest Moments of that Game too

I'm genuinely impressed you got to World 2 without running.

Honestly, the creepiest part about Mario games, to me, originated from this game specifically: the body-swallowing bass. It eats you _whole,_ and you're dead. Imagine being Mario in that situation. At least with Cheep-Cheeps, they would maybe bite out a considerable chunk of flesh, but no, the giant bass immediately consumes and digests you, in mere seconds. Edit: no, I hadn't gotten to that part of the video yet.

When i go through an empty level in any video game, i mostly think that the enemies aren't visible, but they're still there and they're watching every step you take. It's weird, i know.

Guess this is the perfect time i can share this little moment of me being a silly kid. Back when i reached Big Bertha's stage for the first time, i thought that the splash effect that stays still when she gets Mario wasn't a splash effect. I'm not sure how 8 years old me saw bones instead. I just... Man, i was not a bright kid.

The world 7 Letter scared the hell out of me because I was staying up all night when playing...

What makes the Big Bertha stages more scary in the original NES version is that the water is not transparent. You can't see the big fish except for it's fin just above the water like a menacing shark until it jumps out to take you in a single bite.

>Mario Bros. 3 was the scariest of the classic games. glad to know I wasn't the only one who thought that, going from the pastel and vibrant colors from mario world to the mostly faded colors from the original nes version was quite an experience to me.

I definitely agree with you on the darker tone this game has compared to the other Mario games. I wouldn't call it scary, but it definitely has a creepy vibe at times.

I remember being scared of a lot of these things when I was younger

I came into this video shaking my head... but it's true, World 8 and the empty fortress are indeed eerie. Also, I'd argue the skulls and the grabby hands might as well have been one of the earliest examples of "Dark Nintendo".

bowser just sending a kidnapping notification letter starting with "Yo!" and ending with "Ha ha ha!" has got to be the most Bowser thing I've ever read lmao

I just needed to look at the thumbnail to know you were going to talk about that empty castle level. So scary...

That mini fortress you mentioned creeped me out, but for childhood me, the sky tower was the worst. I still don't know what it was about that place that made me so uneasy.

Crap the beginning jumpscared me somehow xD

Once I was scared about the Musikbox Item Theme in SMB 3. I hated this tune for Years in my Childhood. Now I am 35 and found out, that it's the Mario Theme in general, just slowed down...

World 7's mini castle caused fear in me and my older brother because, one: we didn't know what to do; two: there were no enemies at all; and three: The Timer...

Old Mario games are the equivalent of that era of rubberhose animation where they aimed to be as dark as possible Disney's Spooky Scary Skeletons and Fleischer's Wanna be a member, basically very little regard to whom it might scary.

I can't say Super Mario Bros 3 ever really creeped me out in the "viscerally disturbing" sense, but Boss Bass/Big Bertha makes me paranoid every damn time I see it.

The thing about SMB3 that scared me as a kid was the Game Genie codes that had a side-effect of causing the game to pause itself and become impossible to unpause after beating Bowser, unless you stood right in front of the door to Peach's room and held up to enter the instant it opened up.

I always liked the little sprite flip Big Bertha/Boss Bass did after it ate you. Kinda like an alligator death roll.

There’s a mod on NSMB Wii that adds the angry sun, but they also added a twin brother called “the mad moon”, there was one level that had both of them together trying to kill you.

another GIT video, just what i needed!

Every second of this damn video gave me chills. Super Mario All-Stars was my very first game. I remember having a nightmare where something so bad happened that my cries transcended normal human bawling and became the castle throne music from this version of the game.

i completely agree on smb3 _(and i think smw to a lesser extent, but that game has yoshi which offsets it a lot)_ having an oddly unsettling feel sometimes, especially towards the last few worlds i feel it starts feeling increasingly isolated and both dark land and that tower are two of the big examples why to me i think ice land is another one, though - its map music has always really chilled me and it gives it the feel of being trapped in the middle of nowhere in a snowstorm rather than the jolly and upbeat atmosphere most mario snow levels go for that and the abandoned fortress have always stuck with me as really spooky, i'm glad you decided to talk about this game's penchant for that stuff !

12:46 Maybe that sun was so pissed off he skipped to the other side of the earth since this is nighttime and the opposite of that is sunny and it'd take a veeeeeery long way to get here, which is even scarier considering the size of the earth. Even if this was a stage show, it feels pretty scary to think that the sun came all the way from the other side to here within minutes, let alone seconds.

Dark World Sun = Black Hole Sun. Oh, won't it come wash the rain away.

Not gonna lie, those hands that grabbed Mario scared me when I was a smol danshi

11:56 If the original developers originally viewed 8-1 as a dense forest, then why are there hills in the background (in both versions)? The forest background in the SMAS is pretty cool but probably should have been used in a different level.

Mario has a evil sun Zelda has a evil moon

I can see why some people prefer the All-Stars version. However, the "16-bit" sound effects, just sound...weaker...for some reason to me. The 8-bit sounds are the ones I love the most. Give me the 16 bit visuals with 8-bit sound and it'd be perfect! Love your videos man!

Great video Bro, i thought that i was the only one that thinks the ambience of super mario bros 3 was the darkest of the series (i was particullary afraid of the water and airship levels by its dark ambience) PD:3:43 and 18:14 XD

I’m pretty sure you can spit in the air while in a crowd, and it would land on someone who was scared of Big Bertha.

more awesomeness

One of the creepy Mario moments is the Sunken Ghost Ship level from Mario World. It's hinted very well that the level is one of the Airship levels from mario 3. Meaning that yes, YOU DID SINK THE AIRSHIP, CANONICALLY KILLING ALL THE CREWMEMBERS ON BOARD, AND ALL THE DEAD CREWMEMBERS REINCARNATED AS BOOS. I know Bowser and his goons don't mean well, but they don't deserve the fate of death man.

The sound Bowser makes after going through the floor... it sounds like him screaming as he's falling to his death... I miss these days in video games.

I think the distinction between the Hell of SMB3 and later final worlds is that most of the later ones are more natural. They're usually volcanic rather than infernal in nature.

Themes of final levels/worlds in mainline Mario games: SMB: It just uses generic field assets, but it feels far more like a fortified battleground than the other worlds. 8-3 is especially pronounced in this regard. SMB2J: Sky themed. Makes Bowser's castle seem more impregnable. SMB2A: Also sky themed. Wart's castle gives off similar vibes. SMB3: Hell itself. SMBW: A deep, dark cave that rose out of the ocean. SML: Uhhhh the last level is a shmup in an airplane so sky themed I guess? SML2: Wario's castle feels dark and twisted in a way that even many of Bowser's castles fail to match. SM64: Bowser in the Sky doesn't really feel like it's in the sky? I don't know how to describe it. SMS: Corona Mountain, the first of many volcanic final worlds. NSMB: Not quite volcanic, not quite hellish, but it does feel like a dark, dangerous wasteland. SMG: Uhhhh space I guess? I don't remember the Galaxy games that well and IIRC the last level is kind of a gauntlet of various trials. SMG2: I remember even less about Gravity Generator NSMBW: Volcano. NSMB2: Volcano. SM3DL: The world map is incredibly bare bones and the levels themselves are kinda all over the place but the last level or two are just kinda lava castles NSMBU: Peach's castle which is now inexplicably a bog-standard lava castle in a volcano. SM3DW: World Bowser's carvinalesque theme is really unique and interesting, but not particularly intimidating. And it's preceded by World Castle which is basically just "lava castle but really big." SMO: The friggin moon. Which inexplicably has a lava cave.

I, too, prefer the SNES SMB3 over the original version. All-Stars SMB3 just looks and sounds so gorgeous. And I must say, I was never more than just a slight bit unnerved by the final world. Didn't think it to be all that creepy, but it was a massive tonal shift alright...

If mario 3 is scary, then the sims series is the embodiment of dread and despair

My fear were the walking flames. They creep me out, fire growing legs like that Also I grew up with Allstars so this is immensely nostalgic. To this day, the Allstars remixes are my favorite versions of a lot of these classic tunes. The Mario 3 Athletic theme, the Mario 2 Overworld, the original Mario theme, the Koopaling Boss music

So there's one more reason the final Bowser fight might leave an impression on eighties kids. A lot of us had this thing called a Game Genie. And well... using it came with a price. A price the code book even warns you about: For some reason, using the game genie makes it so that after the door opens, you have to enter it IMMEDIATELY or the game will pause.... forever. Even if you unpause, it will immediately re-pause. As a kid this got me in a habit of standing in front of that door and continually hitting UP whenever Bowser went thru the floor, just so I could actually beat the game.

the airship theme and koopalings sprites in the allstars/advance version of Mario 3 terrified me as a child.

For me, the creepiest part of Super Mario Brothers 3 was the Spiral Tower from World 5 but it's way scarier in the original NES version. There's one room just before you enter the final outside area that is just a dark room with nothing in it except two burned out light globes. It's actually kind of peaceful and serene but also weirdly ominous, especially considering the background of that area is noticeably darker than the area before it. It's almost like a little haunted attic.

One weird thing about this game is that it's the only one to really feature military weapons. You have cannons, missile launchers, tanks and even GUNS on the tanks. Bowser really went all out this time.

The other thing that makes more misterious about the No souls in Fortress 7, is that there are still enemies elements, like the Boo platforms, the spheres of the spinning Discs and the canddles

Merry Christmas!! Thanksgiving for another great video !!

I will agree, the straight up hell theme of the final world freaked me out a little too compared to the cuteness and straightforward nature of the previous worlds

so i'm not the only one who was unnerved by that abandoned world 7 fortress, thank god

All i can think of when you said Mario 3, is creepy is the AVGN review, also yeah fighting the hammer bros is always a nightmare.

1:23 is an understatement. Nintendo seems hellbent on considering almost everything pre-Galaxy nothing more than early installment weirdness... 13:10 It's because the spawner only exists at the start of the level IIRC, so using the shortcut removes the sun from memory

That ghost fort is real creepy. I’ve always skipped that world with the flute though, so I never played that fort

The fortress theme, the Pipe Land fortress, and Bowser's castle had always made me feel uneasy.

I get what you mean with the world 7 and 8 fortress. They give me Tourian 2 vibes...

The only time this game truly scared me is when I was in 2-fortress and I went up a pipe and just sat there for a minute. Suddenly the fricking boo from the last segment just pops up from the bottom of the screen, he followed me from the last area! Scared the hell out of me lmao.

I remember seeing boos for the first time. I went through a pipe and they followed me through the floor and I was terrified.

Interesting. The castle theme was later used in Six Golden Coins in Mario's Castle. It also shared some stage patterns, too. Ah, those memories... :)

You climb the tower of Babel and storm heaven, it's kinda creepy.

If I saw that Bowser letter as a kid, I'd have nightmares for weeks. I had nightmares from Boom Boom's boss battle and the game over screen. Mario's death sprite still gives me the creeps to this day.

Hmmm you say that in the empty fortress, you feel as if something very bad happened and you're walking around in the aftermath... Things like that make me actually feel like the opposite, and I think it makes it even scarier. Basically, I feel like something so terrible is ABOUT to happen, that all regular inhabitants/ennemies of the area have fled, and I barged in just in time to get the blunt of that catastrophe.

The most scariest thing in super mario bros 3 is the world 0 (only in nes version because the all stars version have no sound) And by using another cheat code you can change the music for more creepier

14:19 That's an interesting theory. That they were going to make regular levels in world 8 based on the 7 past worlds. They might've been going this way, but ran out of space on the cartridge for more levels (despite there being beta levels still left in the final game).

I honestly love those strange, creepier moments in Super Mario Bros 3, its both fascinating and eerie to me at the same time and makes me more curious about the area, or imagining things about it. Super Mario Galaxy and Yoshi's Island in World 6 also had those places, and they've really stood out to me! I was playing Super Mario Bros 3 my first time without knowledge about it, so a lot of things surprised me. It was the NES version on my 3DS. I got badly stuck on a few levels I may have had to look up though, especially that World 7 fortress...there was no way I was figuring that one out. Then before the last world, I'm sitting there expecting another letter from the princess when suddenly Im startled by the flashing red and music! Then am thrown into a very creepy world with lava and skulls...I was expecting a very cool (and perfectly ominous) lava world since Ive played later Mario games before this one, but not with an atmosphere THAT creepy. I bet if Yoshi's Island had different world map themes for each area too, there wouldve been some unsettling music in the last world to make the already spooky land even more creepy and ominous! The creepiness in the last world of both of those games made me so much more interested and actually pretty excited to journey through them before reaching Bowser, the final battle! Okay, that thing the princess says at the end of SMB 3 also seriously caught me off guard. My thoughts were something like "Wait what?" "I didnt win?" "This is a trick! It wasnt really her!" and I was expecting Bowser to return with a real final boss fight or something? The thoughts were really quick. And then it turns out she was kidding and there were the credits...ok then Even though creepy places are, well, creepy, I still look forward to them in Mario games!

I am today years old when I realized the 3 at the title screen has a shadow with ears and a tail. I am 29 and played the heck out of this growing up.. 😦

I found Super Mario World to be more unsettling. Something about that Sunken Ghost Ship never fails to creep me out.

3:45 That sudden shift in the mood creeped me out!

0:58 Especially helpful in Mario 3 if you want to experience all eight worlds and don’t want to marathon it in a day

You know what would honestly be really creepy? Have the boss of that world 7 fortress also be another empty room with no sign of life. Only the orb is there. Yeah gameplay wise means there's no boss fight but it would be unsettling as fuck. Not to mention the boss fights in Mario 3 are relatively simple and easy so doing something like this won't deprive the player much gameplay wise since you already encounter boom boom numerous times throughout the game so the player doesn't miss out on anything unique.

Man, i used to SMB3 as a snes game. It just felt too different in nes and sometime it spoilt the mood for me. But in my personal preference, i like the GBA version, despite the downgrade of sound quality

I knew you were gonna talk about the giant fish the moment I saw SMB3 in the thumbnail...

I think the abstractness of old VG visuals and sound helps with how creepy they can be. Hard to be comfortable around something unclear and with potentially sharp, harsh sudden impact. Muted colors and sound fuzziness also play into that. And if nothing surpasses SMB3's unique parts, good. It's clear the designers wanted the game to REALLY stand out and hit hard. And "original vision" isn't always "richest". Maybe in literal depiction terms-most of the time-but not so much in style and gameplay terms.

This is the first game where Dry variations were encountered, right? Dude, I think the fact that you're fighting undead versions of the enemies you face is creepy in of itself. It implies Bowser amd his minions (looking at you Magikoopa) has knowledge of necromancy.

The King Theme gives me chills.