Ever had a game that you enjoyed so much as a child, but now you hate it? It had been months, or almost a year, since I had last touched the game, Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. I had my reasons for never touching it again. Last Christmas, my father had sent it to me as a gift, probably unaware that the cartridge was cursed, or hacked, or haunted. I don't know. All I do know is that the damn thing wasn't right. I don't care if it's ghosts or some jackass getting kicks off of hacking games, I just know that it scared me.
I had never told anybody I knew in real life about what happened. They'd think I was nuts. What I did however was take the cartridge out of the good ol' 64 as soon as I turned it off, put it in a box, and just left it lying in the storage room of my house for the next few months.
Although I had no plans to play it ever again, throwing it out would have been a mistake. It wasn't just any old copy of Paper Mario, it was a hellishly evil game. Maybe one of a kind. No, I'd rather keep it stored away to prove this happened to me.
The past few months went pretty well for me, and it was nearing my 16th birthday on August the 30th. I thought the game was completely out of my life. I was wrong. I was really wrong.
How it returned...[]
Was only a few days or so from my birthday, and obviously I was excited. Was on my computer like usual browsing Youtube, 4chan, and other popular websites when I received a message on Skype from, guess who, my father. The guy who unknowingly sent me a nightmare in a cartridge.
Our conversation went pretty normal, he said he was sending up another gift. I was pretty skeptical considering what had happened before. I didn't tell him what happened before and had no plans to. I went with it. What were the odds the next thing he'd send up would be out to traumatize me? What would he send up? A serial killing toothbrush? A homicidal pair of underpants? It turns out the odds were pretty high.
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My birthday was tomorrow, but my father's gift had gotten here today. It got here in the mailbox, in a parcel. Instead of being enthusuastic, I simply walked in. Now, I wasn't nervous, I just wasn't so excited. You couldn't blame a guy for not being excited about a gift after what happened before, no?
I opened the parcel, and I saw it. I felt sick. My head was spinning. What a fucking coincidence. I was telling myself, "No! No! No!" My eyes met it. My father had sent me the sequel to Paper Mario. Paper Mario, The Thousand Year Door.
It was obviously a used copy as there were a few presumable coffee stains or something on the cover, but it was obviously it.
Immediately, I had to tell myself not to think the worst. It's not like this was haunted too, right? I don't know. I didn't want to play it, but I didn't want to disappoint my father at all.
With the parcel came a letter from my father, I picked it up and read it, "I know you loved this game growing up, I spotted it at the game store. Hope you enjoy, my little man." My hands shook. Was it the same game store as before? All I knew was I wasn't playing it. I would have to lie to my father and say I'm playing it. That's the case.
I went to the basement quickly, entered the storage room near my consoles, and fucking threw the thing into the same box that held the N64 cartridge.
Rot in hell, whoever hacked that shit.
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It had been a few weeks now, I hadn't touched the game at all. My father kept on asking how it was and I kept on saying it was great. I was lying to him, and I felt terrible. I couldn't keep up the charade. I wanted to play the game, but I feared it too was going to distort into a hellish spiral staircase. But I kept on feeling drawn to play it. Nostalgia was a powerful thing, it can draw you to things just because you loved it when you were younger, and now it dragged me into sitting infront of my TV, a few minutes later, with my old gamecube and controller, and a copy of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, slowly appearing on the screen.
Into the Game...[]
I loaded up the Gamecube and was at the title screen of the game. My hands were shaking out of nervousness, and it was up to my scrambled, terrified brain to calm them down. However, like the previous game, it started up normal. I told myself looks could be decieving. I forced that phrase into my brain.
The Title Screen was fairly normal but it was choppy. I wasn't sure whether to blame it on the paranormal or the fact that I neglect my Gamecube, however, the choppiness did put me on guard. I went to the save screen.
What caught me next was terrifying. The names of the saves from Paper Mario 64 were carried over to The Thousand Year Door. The first save was BETA TEST. The second save was YOU_ARE. The second save was ERA_UOY", and last, but not least, Rest In Peace, previously Bananas.
I was stupid, I did not turn off the game. I did not call the police. I continued onwards. I could not log into BETA TEST, YOU_ARE, or ERA_UOY. I could only go into Rest In Peace. And that I did.
My brain was into overdrive, I couldn't think correctly. If I could, I probably would have gotten off and ran down the street screaming. But I didn't. Rest in Peace loaded up, and I was thrown into Twilight Town. Mario wasn't even in his normal appearance, he looked purple, just like he was when Dooplis had taken his soul in the actual game.
The NPCs were still there, all of them in cowering positions, and some running around. The typical Twilight Town's music wasn't playing, but instead it was replaced with Twilight Trail's music. I was disoriented at first because my brain couldn't comprehend the terror going through my mind, but I quickly picked up my bearings and approached one of the NPCs, a typical Twilight Town citizen, and tried talking to it.
"GO AWAY"
I tried talking to her again, "GO AWAY."
Same response. So I went to another NPC and tried talking to it. Instead, it attacked me and I was thrown right into a battle. I wasn't even controlling my character in the battle, instead, I think it was making an example, as sick as that sounds. I don't believe in ghosts, but right now, I feel anything could happen.
The NPC attacked Mario, only doing 1 damage. I felt sorry for the guy. But what happened next was disturbing. It felt too real.
Mario did a power bounce, I think that's what it called, on the poor guy. He kept on jumping up and down on the NPC at least thirty times, each time, I heard a crunch, and with each jump, a speech bubble appeared, "Stop!" "STOP" "STOP"
At the last bounce, the battle was over, and I was out of the battle mode. The NPC laid on the ground motionless. I knew he wasn't real, but it was disturbing me a lot. I play a lot of violent video games, but this disturbed me, even though it lacked the blood that modern games have. It was just... no.
One of the NPCs said one thing, "You can't get away with this."
Another joined in, and another, until it was just a mass of speech bubbles covering the screen saying things such as, "First Peach, then yourself, then your home, now us."
I trembled. What did it mean?
Did I kill Peach? Did I somehow 'kill' myself? Did I destroy my home, did I destroy them? Was Peach faceless because I somehow killed her?
No, it had to have been Mario that killed them. I really don't know.
The cloud of speech bubbles disappeared, finally revealing the game again, but this time I was not in Twilight Town. No, it was a black screen. Some text in the game's font appeared, "You chose to cease to be, but now you can't rest in peace."
What the actual fuck did that mean? I don't know, and I don't care anymore. I was halfway out of my seat to turn off the game when the screen changed again... This time, impossibly, I was in Toad Town. That wasn't right, Toad Town isn't even in the code for The Thousand Year Door.
Some buildings were missing, some were in piles of rubble, and there were no signs of NPCs. Mario was still purple like he was before, and I just walked through the ruins of Toad Town, up to Peach's Castle. I didn't want to explore.
I went into the Castle, which had a grayer color than normal. It wasn't white, it was gloomy. Everything was empty, and occassional speech bubbles would pop up randomly.
"I gave you everything, Mario."
"I gave you everything."
"Why would you backstab me?"
"...Cease to Be..."
"...Rest in Peace..."
I continued through the castle, on my way to Peach's throne room. More bubbles of text appeared.
"Please don't do this."
"You don't have to be a murderer."
"I hate y-"
No more speech bubbles. The game wouldn't allow me to run as Mario anymore, whenever I pressed the control stick, he'd just walk slowly. I was finally in the hall that Peach should be in.
I saw it. A faceless Princess Peach. For a split second, a faceless Princess Peach flashed on the screen, and although it lacked eyes, it was just staring out of the TV, probably at me. Only for a split second, but then it left, and in the hallway infront of Mario was the faceless Princess, but this time, she was in the same clothing that she wore when the Shadow Queen possessed her in the real game.
A text bubble appeared from her, "You killed millions."
The game turned black, and wouldn't load up again. I opened my gamecube, and the disk was cracked in two.
I do not know what it meant, and I don't want to. Was the repitition of Cease to Be a guilt trip? Was this all an illusion in Mario's mind, that he's just thinking of to get over the guilt of killing millions?
I really don't know. I am just glad it's over. Hopefully for good.
