Super Mario Bros: Forgotten

Boy, I love me some Mario.

And back in the day, I was a Mario fanatic! I had all the merchandise (even some of the unofficial stuff), had all the games, and I would get up at 5 AM to watch the Mario cartoons. And who could forget those memes?

Anyway, I'm getting off-topic. I don't like Mario as much anymore because of a strange and pretty creepy event that I'd like to tell you about. You might just pee your pants, but I'll tell you anyway.

One day, I was on Amazon (not that pesky e-bay) and bought me a copy of Mario 2. I found that game underrated, despite it being a reskin of DokiDoki Panic. I waiteed a few days and it finally came. What was strange is it looked brand new, like the shell just came out of the factory. I didn't pay attention to the label at first, Mario wasn't colored, it was transparent. The background was showing behind him. It was just an outline. And instead of the label saying "Mario Madness," it said "Mario Forgotten." I could've sworn it was "Mario Madness." I assumed it was my cloudy memory, since I haven't played it since, I dunno, 1990. (It was 2008 at the time, I already had Mario Galaxy by the way.) I blew the cartridge, popped it in my NES, and started playing.

The title screen was not normal. The color pallet was black and white and Mario, Peach and Toad weren't there. Only Luigi was there. Luigi had a frown on his face. I could tell because he had those sad eyebrows. Maybe it was a faulty cartridge? The story was not a story. It was a speech. Like the game was trying to talk to me. *Mario has been forgotten. Peach has been forgotten. Toad has been forgotten... I.. have been forgotten. You forgot us." This wasn't a faulty cartridge... This was a ROM hack. I didn't know how Amazon sent me a ROM hack of what they were trying to send me. The game started without me pressing anything. The character select was, again, black and white, and there's was only one character to select: Mario. He was also frowning. The music was the character select theme, but slightly lower pitched and in reverse. I selected him, but he didn't put his hand in the air like normal. He just looked down.

The level was in black and white. It was just flat ground, except for a couple of shy guys. They were standing next to each other, and they weren't moving. If Mario of on the left side of the level they would look left. If Mario was on the right, they turned right. The shy guys were watching Mario walk. Then, there was a door. It wasn't attached to anything. It was in the middle of nowhere. I went inside.

It looked like a kid's messy bedroom. Them textures were not anywhere in the files of Mario 2 before.

The creator of this ROM hack out a lot of effort into this. It was still black and wife, but as Mario went further and further into the area, it got its colors back. Luigi was on the bed. Luigi and Mario lost their sad expressions as they looked at each other. But for a split second, Luigi had reeeally dark red eyes and was smiling evilly. Then my NES shut off. I turned it on, and it bought me back to the title screen. But instead of saying, "Super Mario Bros. 2, it said, " I Regret Forgetting." The story was different this time, though.

"Mario has returned. He was remembered. But he is not the same. The princess is next."

The character select only had one selectable character: Princess Peach. She was sad, just like Mario. The music was the same as before. I was getting scared. I pressed start. It was colored, but kinda unsaturated. It was a slope up. I thought slopes didn't exist in Mario 2... It shouodves been slippery, but Peach was able to walk up there normally. The music was quiet, but it sounded like piano music. It sounded peaceful, yet creepy. The slope never seemed to end. However, just a muinites later, peach finally reached the top. It was Mario and Luigi standing next to each other, smiling. But for a second the music became loud and distorted, Peach became angry and Mario Nd Luigi looked insane. Then the NES turned off again. I turned it on, and the title screen was terrifying.

The color pallete was shades of red, the title screen just said, "Listening?" And there were gravestones of where Mario, Luigi and Peach should me. Toad was in the middle of it crying. The story was, "Do you want to die, but have nobody remember you? Do you want that to happen to you, like it happened to me? I'm doing this to entertain. Not hurt you. But sometimes, I just can't get the topic off of my mind..." I pressed start, and when I did, the text that said "Story" turned into "Wait!" for a split second. There was no music, and the only character was toad. He had no face, but somehow had sad eyebrows. I pressed start. The sprite stayed the same.

The level warm in normal colors, and the music was higher pitched. It was the Mario 2 Overworld theme. It was, again, flat ground. But, as I went on, it looked like I was in a cemetery. In the middle were three sprites. Mario, Luigi and Peach!. Their coloring was transparent, and they had no faces. Then, all of a sudden, Toad died out of nowhere. There was no death noise. Then the game over screen came up. The text wasn't, "game over" it said "R.I.P. Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad." It stayed like that. There was no continue. I had to reset the console.

The title screen seemed to be back to normal. Except the title screen text said "Stop." The story was: "I am done. Turn off the NES. The story is over for Mario, peach, Luigi and toad. Let. Me. Out."

"This cartridge.. is haunted...?" I thought.

I thought nothing of it and smashed the cartridge to bite-size bits. There was no electronic board inside, but blue goo. The the goo disappeared. A small burst of wind flew into the sky. The story was over.

To this day, my computer opens up text documents that I never made. They say things such as:

"Not trying to scare you."

"All I want is to entertain."

"Don't be forgotten like me."

I've gotten used to it, but I assume lots the ghost that haunted Mario 2, possessing my computer... trying to talk to me...

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