 Hi, my name is Kyle. When I heard about a strange Super Mario Brothers NES bootleg made from an unknown designer that was up for sale on eBay, I was intrigued. I wasn't a collector, but he figured I could pay the asking price, and turn a profit if it was rare enough. The item arrived with some fanfare. The box was covered in glowing symbols and strange characters, unlike any other Mario game. Excited, I opened the game and popped it into my NES system, and mentally braced myself for the weirdness of the bootleg. But nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced. The levels were strange, almost surreal. Super Mario turned into a creature of nightmares, hopping and stopping on gruesome creatures, from horrifying jellyfish like mollusks to giant spiders dripping venom. Everything was cruel and distorted, and there was something very wrong about the entire experience. What's worse, throughout the game, I found various references to the dark web, Illuminati-like symbols, and other cues suggesting a sinister presence at work. Even scarier, the closer I got to the end of the game, the more impending sense of doom seemed to seep into the atmosphere. The ending of the game was what traumatized me the most, a giant golem with the face of Bowser appeared, and mercilessly pounded Mario with clenched fists, until he lay motionless on the ground. The credits roll, but I refused to watch, as my curiosity and excitement had been warped into fear and dread. I ultimately sold the game on eBay, luckily to a collector who would appreciate this strange and grotesque bootleg. But I will never forget the experience, the feeling of horror and dread that the game had inspired in me.