 Real formidable robots. Mario has been a gaming icon and an idol for decades, present in near-endless titles, and will likely be until the end of time. Although no years in recent memory has gone past without some type of Mario game being released, series fans will remember the nearly decade-long drought of traditional Mario platformers, much less games that would stick to the traditional Mario formula without deviating genres. From 1997 to 2005, there was only a single new one released, Super Mario Sunshine, with other games during this period being sports or party games. During the second part of this drought, the mysterious Super Mario 128 was the main focus of the fanbase and gaming news sources at the time, like Electronic Gaming Monthly or various forums at the time. No concrete information was given on the game, and eventually series creator Shigeru Miyamoto claimed it had simply been a series of test concepts that were never intended to be an actual game. This was indeed partly correct. When the rise of video and content creation rose on YouTube and other platforms, the build that many Mario fans would come to be familiar with would be a tech demo at Space World 2000, event much like E3. Other than that, only rumors fueled the mythos behind the game. The mystery faded from memory as the Mario drought finally ended, and most people forgot about the game that had once been the center of every Mario fans' imagination. With the console wars getting more competitive at the time with the rise of the Xbox and PlayStation. Miyamoto himself claimed in an interview when asked about Super Mario 128 that he likely already played it, referring to the fact that the tech demo at Space World served as the foundation for several Nintendo games such as Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess. The Mario drought entered, corresponding with a negative era for Nintendo in terms of console sales as well as popularity, especially towards their IPs which were being beaten out by rival IPs such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot for example. The Nintendo 64 and GameCube did not have the financial success of the earlier Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo, and by comparison, performed poorly in comparison to rival consoles. For a company that took pride in game development that also relied solely on video games to make money, this was quite depressing for the higher ranking employees who were attached to the company and felt its success or failure reflected on them personally, especially towards those who grew attached to some of these projects. Nintendo started working on a sequel to the 1996 Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64 disc drive shortly after the game was released, but during the late 90s, it became clear they were not winning the console war and that the N64DD was a failure in the west, with it only barely being a success in Japan. The Super Mario 64 sequel was restarted from the beginning, since the company believed that it was not a substantial enough improvement over the original to turn the tides of the market battle against rival brands. Seeing the generally more gritty, grainy, realistic and violent games on Sony's PlayStation, the market leaders of Nintendo considered making a Mario game as well as for many other IPs that were closer in tone to what the public seemed to want. There was quite a bit of internal conflict over how far to go with this new direction, and the new Mario was clearly not going to be ready until Nintendo's next console, the GameCube. This tone for darker games could be seen with the release of several dark Nintendo games at the time, such as Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, Luigi's Mansion, Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door and Star Fox Assault, all of which were praised for not only being games of high quality, but changing the status quo of the franchises associated with them due to their more diverse means of either gameplay or storytelling. This trend would carry on even after the console wars died down, with Nintendo experimenting with dark subject matter in video games. The only hint of this release to the public regarding the Mario game however, was a comment by Miyamoto. He apparently thought Mario and Luigi should act more like grown-ups in their games for the, then soon to be released, GameCube in an interview. The new Mario project was ultimately split into two games. The aforementioned Luigi's Mansion, which reflected the darker tone that many felt the series should turn to, although it was still toned down quite a bit compared to what some Nintendo executives and developers wanted, with various concepts being scrapped from the game, like the infamous secret depressed Luigi cutscene, as well as the unused ELH model, and Super Mario Sunshine, which went in the complete opposite direction, following a more linear and traditional aesthetic to Mario 64. Both were released within a year of the GameCube's launch, and Nintendo felt confident that their new system and Mario games, as well as the other games mentioned would return them to their former glory as market leader. As those familiar with gaming history and the console wars know, they didn't. The GameCube did even worse in market share than the Nintendo 64, and the mass markets' taste shifted even more toward violent realistic games. It also didn't help that Nintendo's rival at the time, Sega was struggling against their former rival due to the popularity of the PlayStation, which only emphasized the public's once at the time. During this period, the somber and melancholic mood at Nintendo intensified, and the Darker Mario project was revived for a short time period, this time code named, Super Mario 128. The title was derived not only from the test at Space World 2000, but also because the GameCube was a 128-bit console, and Nintendo wished to show off the power of the GameCube to the rest of the market. It isn't clear exactly what happened at Nintendo during this period. As we know, nothing called Super Mario 128 was ever released or publicly shown, other than the tech demo at Space World. A group of leaders at the time revealed that the internal strife at Nintendo during the later N64 era, and revealed Nintendo's policy at the time for spokespeople when talking about the recent events regarding the Mario Trout and the console wars. That policy would be that they had to agree to refuse to discuss what was happening during the time of the GameCube's failure. This would explain why Nintendo's marketing attitude at the time wasn't as aggressive as Sega's or Sony's. One of the leakers in question leaked a prototype of Super Mario 128 online that can be played on the Wii Homebrew Channel to various online file sharing forums and ROM sites at the time, as it ran on Super Mario Sunshine's engine. The reaction Nintendo displayed at the time was without doubt the biggest display of the protective nature of their IPs. Links to either the whole game, the ROM, the assets and even some of the sites that had the source code and game lead to it were struck down or forced to close down under the threat of getting a DMCA takedown by Nintendo. It was almost as if the project had never existed. Even after the incident, Nintendo, more specifically Nintendo of Japan and America, took a staunch and harsh approach to copyright to make sure another leak like this would never happen again. As in 1999, a similar leak for Mario 64's beta assets as well as the mass leaking of other Nintendo files was made and dubbed the Omon Archives. At the time, I was an avid member of various online forums and communities such as the Something Awful forums and Well as 4chan. And at the time, moderators of those sites, more specifically their gaming boards, had cracked down on leaks in general by either banning those associated with leaks or purging clearing any chat sections that just so mentioned leaks, even in the most minor way, to avoid being struck down, as Nintendo's legal actions at the time had set a precedent. However during this time, I was able to get my hands on a link and personally archived it to a media fire page that I had uploaded to my account years ago. Furthermore I was able to get in contact with the leaker and in exchange for me being guided on how to start up the game. He requested I teach him on how to use VPNs as well as making his address hard to trace as well as his emails, as I was a tech support person during this time in the early 2000s, and I figured that since he was the main culprit behind the leaks, he was on the run from law enforcement, as when I contacted them, they seemed scared and almost paranoid about the contents of the game. I chalked this up to them being paranoid, however why would an experienced leaker be afraid of being caught all of a sudden? After many attempts, I was able to get the game to work and uploaded it to a USB stick that I was able to attach to my Wii and play it through the homebrew channel. The following is a recollection of my time playing it. The game was clearly an early beta. The title screen was nothing but white text saying, Super Mario 128, against a black background. There was no options menu or save file selection either. The text however was blocky like the normal Super Mario font, so I figured it was close to being finished. I had difficulty in taking the screenshot of the title screen at the time due to my camera being of low quality. After the title screen, the game started with a fade to white, like how Mario 64 begins. Bowser's left from Super Mario 64 looped in the background with last bit crush and the sound effect. Meanwhile, a plain text box displayed this dialogue. Mario, I have taken Princess Peach. She will not live to see another sunrise. Don't try anything funny unless you want to hasten her death. You know where to find me. Don't keep me waiting. The game certainly was going for a darker tone. After I made the text box go away, I was pushed right into gameplay. The first thing I noticed was Mario's character model. His body looked about as detailed as his Luigi's Mansion model, and with him, he was equipped with sash with various pieces of plumber-related gear, such as a cartoony-looking hammer, a plunger and a flashlight. However, that wasn't what peaked my interest. Mario's head appeared to be ripped straight from one of the N64-era Mario Party games, which made the model look unfinished and somewhat uncanny. The setting was a sky level. The sky box resembled the one from Bob-omb Battlefield, however it looked stretched and slightly pixelated due to the size of the level and the quality of the image in general. There were some simple wooden platforms floating in the air. The rest of the area was just several clouds scrolling in the background to make the sky box pop out more. They were quite graphically impressive, more realistic than the usual cartoony cuts in Mario games. There was no music or full voice samples from Mario, but there were grunting sound effects when he jumped. The jumping was more restrictive than in other Mario games. He didn't jump as high in the air as he normally did, and you had little control over his movement in the air. The different types of jumps like the triple jump which were in every 3D Mario world present, perhaps too soon a more realistic tone. I played through the monotonous level. There was nothing especially notable about the gameplay. Enemies didn't seem to have been added yet, which made things significantly easier. I just jumped from platform to platform, it wasn't very challenging. Well, until what happened next. As I continued, I noticed the graphics gradually changing. The sky became more and more obscure until it was entirely composed of clouds, and the background gradually turned to a dark grey. After this, it started to rain. I had almost fallen off the small wooden platforms a few times, but was able to reach the end of the level where I reached a small platform with a toad on it. The toad looked like the Luigi's Mansion model, however it had a depressed expression on its face. When I landed on his platform, dialogue appeared. You're old news Mario. You're not special anymore. You couldn't even stalk Bowser from kidnapping the princess. You already failed to save your brother. What makes you think you can convince us you can save our leader? We'd be better off without you. Just give Bowser what he wants and he'll leave us alone. This made me feel quite uncomfortable but confused. What happened to Luigi? What did Mario do to make the kingdom turn on him? I didn't have much time to ponder this. After the text box went away, I no longer had control of Mario. He just stood there for a second, then turned around and walked off the platform. His body seemed to go limp as he fell. Whilst falling the visible sound of wind could be heard with Mario's head flopping on his head but not falling off. There was a seemingly panicked expression on Mario's face with his mustache even drooping down a little and his eyes squinting a little before something became visible below him. Eventually it was revealed that there was a realistic modern city under the sky world. The buildings looked neglected with splotches of dark gray on the ivory and light gray colored concrete buildings but there were people on the street. Mario hit the ground with a semi-realistic sounding thud but he didn't explode or show any visible wounds. He'd just lay there with no more insight. The impact caused a large dent in the ground with cracks surrounding the hole. The people in the city were walking by, ignoring his presence. The people resembled PS1-styled human models with the female models slightly resembling Peach's model from Mario 64, however their faces were blank, as if they hadn't fully modeled them yet. This went on for a few minutes. Eventually, people stopped appearing and the sky began to darken and warp into the sky box for Big Boo's haunt. The screen faded to white as if it was a transition and then faded back. Mario got up. I was back in control but he couldn't jump at all and walked with a limp and a reduced walking speed. I was able to nab a picture of the street just before the transition to white but since the lighting of the area was getting darker due to shifting to the night, it obscured the image. The large buildings didn't appear to be visible anymore having changed to large trees and mushrooms with what appeared to be holes in them which made them resemble doors and windows. I just walked down the path for a while with what seemed like bricks and other rubble scattered across the floor. What did this mean? Was this a level transition? Or did it mean something else? Eventually, I found a small house that seemed out of place among the larger mushrooms and foliage. When I approached the house, it resembled a 1980s bungalow house, however it had more cartoony graphics than the buildings from earlier with its design also taking some inspiration from Mario's house from Paper Mario. As I approached the door, Mario opened it. The screen went black and some text appeared. House of Torn Memories This seemed to be the level title. It only had one star available which was seemingly in stark contrast from the first 10 minutes of gameplay which didn't have an objective other than platforming and exploring. When I pressed a button to choose the star, the screen faded back to Mario. He was inside the house from before. Everything seemed bigger than it should have been. Not enormous, but scaled as if Mario was a very small child or nimble and short adult. The house was well decorated and filled with normal objects, however they were covered in dust and had signs of neglect. There were no people on the ground floor, just things like broken lamps, windows and other day-to-day objects. I found a door that opened to a set of stairs going down, leading to a basement. In the basement, I found a dilapidated couch and a broken patch of planks in the floor. However, what really caught my attention was what was on the couch. It was... Luigi. Confused yet slightly comforted as I had finally found another NPC to at least make the game feel less lonely. Well, it felt that way at first until I heard what he had to say. You let Bowser do this to me, Mario. Every day of my life is misery because of you leaving me at his mercy. The only time in my life when I finally escape your shadow is when I'm in pain. I hate you. Just give Bowser what he wants and spare the princess what happened to me. You'll at least do some good to make up for what happened. I was starting to get really disturbed by now. How had a Mario game containing this been programmed to this extent? I went up to Luigi to get a good look at him to see what was wrong only to see something confusing yet unsettling. One of Luigi's feet was missing, however there was once again a lack of gore or detail, and his face, now more visible looked as if the color had been drained. His face drooped and hung low alongside his bristly mustache, and his eyes were white as if he had been blinded. I went to sit down with him for a while as I cared him, however before I could do so, his model faded out. Without any control, Mario fell to his knees and began to weep. Before he could mourn any longer, I heard a large crashing sound from just outside the house area. Mario seemingly regained his composure, however when I traveled up the flight of stairs to get to the main floor, the whole scene had changed once more. Mario's house was now a pile of burnt planks and sharp stones that damaged Mario. The skybox had changed to lethal level ends, and the main area had shifted back to the city, however the buildings looked different. They resembled the houses from Paper Mario, and the design as a whole resembled the main village area around the Mushroom Castle. Mario now dawned a tenacious and fearless face dashing through the burning village. Bowser's airships floated above the village, raining down a barrage of cannonballs, waterballs and bullet bills. Toads were seen fleeing the scene with some even having a fire texture on their heads, with cross eyes to show that they were in pain and were panicked. After traversing the burning village and fighting through a horde of Koopas and Goombas, I reached the main bridge of the castle, however something was off. What appeared to be Bowser seemed to have broken through the bridge from below and landed in front of Mario. I say appeared to be, because he was nothing like the way Bowser is usually rendered nor depicted. The draconic reptilian monster in the game had Bowser's basic brownish yellow and green color scheme, but looked far more intimidating than any Bowser model I had seen before. His arms and legs were far longer and bulky in relation to his body, and ended in razor sharp claws. His green had a faded bluish green color, and the shell didn't look like it had spikes glued on, they were more jagged and organic looking with a rusted metal texture. The face had small but intense pure black dilated eyes, and a mouth full of jagged yellow teeth that took up far more space than they should have. Mario was cowering in fear from this thing, but still retained his expression. A dialogue box appeared. You've kept me waiting long enough Mario. That brother of yours put up a good fight though I must say. But that's besides the point. After hitting the continue button, Bowser reached one of his hands from behind him. In his hands, he had the squirming and panicked princess with an expression of pure fear and anguish. Does Peach have to die like your brother, or will you surrender and end all of this? I still didn't have control. Mario just stood there, shivering for several seconds before nodding his head. The coota began to grin sinisterly and released Peach from his grasp. Bowser without warning then impaled Mario with his claws. There was no blood, but it was clear from the animation and sound effects that the sharp digits of Bowser's hands had gone straight through Mario's body. He squirmed for a while whilst making distorted struggling and coughing noises. I felt sick watching this. Whilst it wasn't explicitly dory, the sound effects made it feel uncomfortable and questionable, with each cough sounding more and more gurgled and unwell. In one swift motion, Bowser dragged Mario up to his face. With one final motion, Bowser slung Mario backwards and onto his head on the bridge. Again, there was no blood or graphic details left behind on the back of Mario's head, just Mario's character model being destroyed. The game then cut to a POV shot of Mario with the sound of Bowser's footsteps going away and growing more distant, with Bowser's laugh being heard. Before blacking out, Peach would run to the screen and observe Mario before weeping. The screen faded to black. In white text, another level name appeared. Mario's Eternal Home. Mario's character model was whole again when the level started, however there was a major difference. His head looked in proportion with his body and no longer resembled in 64 era Mario. Mario was the only thing on the screen besides the black background. He was floating, as if in space. I could somewhat control him, but it felt more like I was deciding the general direction in which Mario would stumble, rather than fully deciding his movement. As I drifted towards no apparent destination, voices faded in. They were echoing and deep, telling Mario that he was worthless, that the world no longer had any use for him, and that everyone would be better off if he was dead. Among these echoes were Bowser's laughs. High pitched feminine crying was layered on top of the voices after a while. It sounded like it was supposed to be Peach's cries. This really disturbed me, and I found myself fighting back the urge to unplug the console and to let out a few tears. It was already 1 am, and I didn't want to be alone on a dark autumn night, and the depressing atmosphere of the game didn't help that. For reasons I couldn't understand, this was affecting me on an emotional level. The voices and aimless wandering went on for several minutes, until it all stopped when I spotted a light gray speck in the distance. I moved towards it. It took a very long time to reach, and grew closer at a much slower rate than it should have, with things beginning to render in the empty black void such as faded faceless toads, goombas, booze and even the strange humans from earlier. Objects such as small mushrooms and even a few trees began to render too. When I was close enough to make it out, I saw that it was a tombstone. It was a very detailed one, with cracks in several places and a lot of noise in the texture. When I got right next to it, I could see writing on its surface. It simply displayed a single word. In a sense. I turned off the system right after reading it. Whilst at first it seemed like an overreaction, in the moment, I saw something that made me react fast. From the void, I saw something sprinting towards Mario with the sounds of bob-omb explosions and stopping getting closer and closer. Without any hesitation, I turned off my Wii. I couldn't even get a good look at the thing. From my memory, I remember it slightly resembling Mario's model, though it was stretched out to an inhuman length. The only thing colored on the model were its gloves and the emblem where Mario's M should be on his cap. It seemingly didn't even have any animations or a walk cycle, to instead of sprinting, the model appeared to move like a statue sliding on ice. What was it supposed to even be? What lies beyond this point in the game is beyond me, but for the sake of my sanity, I think it's best for me that I don't know what lies beyond that point. As for the media fire link, to be expected me Nintendo took action and struck it down. It was for the better to be honest, I'd rather stay as innocent as I can for the time I have left, and never have the opportunity to see what would have happened if I had not turned off my console in time. Though I still ask one question about the ending, whilst the rest of the game was gritty and dark, it could arguably have been swept under the rug by Nintendo. What was in those last few minutes or even hours of gameplay that made Nintendo wish to scrub the project?