Every Copy of Super Mario 64 is Liminal 

Adding to the dreamlike atmosphere, when I was younger I was always bothered that each level felt like a “room,” even if the level takes place outside. Levels obviously couldn’t go on forever, but when I would play I would run to the edge of the maps and try to jump over, obviously unable to. Nintendo did their best to make it look like the hills or mountains or sky went on forever, but I could always visually tell that it didn’t and that made me feel unnerved. It made me feel even more alone and that Mario was “trapped,” lol.

Holy hell did that intro make me feel old, born 7 years after it came out, mom played the game in stores… 😂 Awesome video!

I remember as a kid thinking parts of the game felt "lonely," especially Peach's Castle and Wet Dry World; but I felt like it'd seem weird pointing it out. So it really was one of those "What the fuck, I thought I was the only one!" type things when all this "liminal space" talk started happening.

5:02 the courtyard is so interesting to me too. its funny bc if u look above the door where u come in from, u should see the back/top of the castle, but u don't. it really adds to the "liminality" too

I know the reddit videos are popping and those numbers might be tempting but please don't give up making content like this, I'm sure I don't need to say this but this is the stuff I die for. Content that means something to the creator, I can hear the interest and joy in your voice when talking about the subtle things in games and media that others might not notice or even really care about, just know I care and so many others do too 🤝

I feel like it’s the childlike nature of the game that makes it feel nostalgic, even for those who didn’t grow up with it. You mentioned the room designs. But Mario’s height, having to push doors open with both hands. Playing in the playground like levels. Frustrating and kind of clunky controls makes it feel clumsy in a fun way. There’s more to say but I feel like this is a good reasoning for the nostalgic and childlike fun of the game.

I remember as a kid when I would run around and not actually progress the game, id always end up lost in the castle basement, it seems so large and maze like when really its just like 4 places 😭

It feels super weird seeing a RU-vidr making the type of content I enjoy while also being the same age. I’m honestly surprised you don’t have more subscribers, so far it seems like you put a lot of work and effort into these videos.

This video kicks ass. I was just in a liminal mood last week and searched directly “Mario 64 liminal” but was kindof disappointed by everyone else’s creepy pasta-esque treatment of the subject. This video is so honest and well researched and personal in a way that other videos on the topic just lacked

It feels so incredible that RU-vidrs I look up to are younger than me now, even though the difference is only like a year here, lmao. Great stuff! Keep up the good work, I believe in you! I love your channel's tendency to cover stuff that's not as discussed as often.

GIVE THIS WOMAN MORE LIKES GODDAMNIT, HER VIDEOS BRING SO MUCH ENRICHMENT TO MY ENCLOSURE

I know why Mario 64 has a lot of water levels. As a kid at that time it was surreal to be able to swim in a game due to the transition to 3D so they used that a lot to give players that amazing 3D explorer feeling that had become normal years later but it makes a lot of sense for a game in that timeframe to explore this so much.

The reverb in the castle definitely painted that lonely feeling. I remember at a Christmas pageant back then, this older boy with an unusually beautiful voice sang a haunting solo in this high-ceilinged old church. You know how music makes strange little movies appear in your mind? His beautiful, lonesome voice transported me to Peach’s night castle, and is probably one of those formative experiences that made me become a songwriter. Interesting how art touches a common depth within us all. We really are never alone

Something about the SM64 and Mario Party 1 soundfont is crazy nostalgic

I love this vid. I legit have dire docks theme in my song playlist. It’s like Pokémon black and white soundtrack, in the sense that it makes me revisit a time more simpler and nostalgic. But not to be dark, the dire docks almost sounds a like alleviating melody that’ll play in serious consequences such as drowning. It makes you stay in a tranquil state even is there is danger.

Im a kid and mario 64. Just makes me feel like im back in the past

Super Mario 64 always came off a little strange to me. Still one of my fav games tho. Love the content!

Has anyone else played the game “Echo” on Sega? It was a game where you play as a Dolphin. I could never make it out of the first level. But that game had an extremely eerie unsettling feel to it.

this was great! you reminded me how, every time i get to wet dry world, it's always the level where I'm like "god this is a bummer, gotta get through asap". great vid

me and my sisters grew up with mario 64, i can recall when i was a wee lad that some rooms in peach's castle would fill me with this weird sense of fear and dread. especially some parts of the basement as well as the long corridor with the painting of peach that turns into bowser. it was like i was trying to perceive something that i shouldn't have been.

The looping stairs really does feel like a Möbius Strip in audio form.

As soon as you were about to talk about the staff credits, i felt like i got hit by a truck. I used to love this song sm. It always sounded like something they'd play on old childrens VHS tapes about random things like road safety or something. I remember i was in my first year of university and i was going through a rough patch. So i started cycling around a basketball court in a park near my home. I would listen to this cycling back to my house. It was super theuraputic. The nostalgic sound, the beautiful spring weather, the mighty trees, it took me back to a simplier time. I wasnt even born when SM64 came out but it always has been a nostalgic tune to me and very special at that

I bet your channel will grow so much more!!!! You present really well and you make great vids 🥰

yo the entire water room where you ride on dorrie in hazy maze cave always gave me a weird feeling. feels like you’re in an empty but slightly flooded grain silo. and then dorrie moves all slow and there’s nothing in the room except that star and the doors to get out

These kinds of videos never get old. Love your content. Keep it up.

dude you make such awesome videos. and hearing Alberto balsalm pop up in your vids is a nice touch! RDJ is tha bomb

As weird as it may sound, another N64 game I played at a kid that has some liminal space feeling stuff is the South Park game. I think it's the N64 graphics combined with the fog and empty areas.

I think you hit everything pretty spot on. I remember getting an n64 as a kid just to play this game because I wanted to mess around and do the glitches. I’ve never really stopped and realized how odd the game is just overall. The entire game seems so much more dreamlike compared to its 2D counterparts. The entire games vibe feels exactly like a dream. Even the lonely feeling you get from playing the game reminds me of how it feels like in a dream. Its almost as if there’s no one there with you and the people who are feel a little off from how they are in reality. Everything taking place in the sky makes it feel so surreal. If there was just a big wall as a barrier it would feel much different than the barrier being falling to you death. The levels that are in the sky make me feel like there’s nothing else out there and I’ve had dreams that give a very similar feeling. The unmoving clouds and blue sky in the background only add to the effect because they feel almost as if they’ve been plastered or painted on a wall. The city background in dry wet world is even more odd in context to the level. After watching this video the only logical explanation is Mario 64 takes place in Mario’s dreams.

Loved the video. I like the longer videos where you can deep dive into these ideas.

Mario 64 was the first video game I ever played growing up. Despite how much I loved it, I would always have nightmares about being stuck in levels. Looking back the isolation was truly palpable.

Like with lots of these videos topics, I just barely am too young to have experienced this stuff naturally. This plus my parents not letting me have video games really put me out of the loop. Even then I didn't exist until 9 years after m64. Nowadays I know most stuff but it's still neat to see stuff about a game I've never been super knowledgeable about. It surprised me how truly liminal it was, and 35 years before it was cool! As usual, excellent video!

This game is almost like experiencing a fever dream at The Overlook Hotel in terms of atmosphere. Very subtle, yet eerie and quite unsettling.

Just found your videos and I absolutely love your channel! I can't wait to binge watch all of them immediately!

This video is so nostalgic! I love your style of content!

I was in the middle of adolescence when this game came out, so it was a technological breakthrough to me at the time. With that being the case, I never thought of the game as being "liminal" (or would anyone from Generation X that was playing those games at the time). It was the first time I got to play a video game that took place in a genuinely 3-D environment, so it was a big thing for me. I also remember that with every Nintendo 64 game that came out afterward, the graphics improved slightly, and by the time the game "Banjo-Tooie" was released by Rare in 2001 (a late arrival for the system), graphics were remarkably improved. However, for people born perhaps ten or more years after I was, this was probably not the first fully interactive 3-D game that they played, so I can see how it would feel "liminal". There would have been a lot less "set dressing" (objects for the scene) to interact with due to technological limitations. In turn, the lack of objects yet the existence of a full environment to run around in would give it an unnatural feeling, akin to a room without furniture, hence the feeling of being present in a "liminal space".

As far as the impact this game had- for me personally it was completely mind blowing and the first time I played it was an experience I’ll never forget. I was 8 years old in 96 when I got the N64. Prior to this I had only ever played on the Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo consoles. All of my prior video game experience was 2-D, and often levels you couldn’t travel backward through once advancing. So- the first time ever playing Mario 64 and the first time experience of being able to freely travel around a 3-D world was so mind blowing to me, and so engrossing that all I did for the first few hours I played was innocently exploring around the outside of the castle, inside the hallways, and Bomb Bomb BF terrain, it was hours before I ever even bothered to start collecting stars.

I was 13 when it came out and it amazes me how timeless this is for several generations. Great video.

I was 3 when it came out and we didn't have an N64 at the time. My only experiences with it were playing it at my friends house and just getting little glimpses of the game here and there, but the thing that always stuck with me until I 100%-ed it many many years later was the music. I never got any anxiety from any of the songs except for Big Boo's Haunt(obviously). The two that stuck with me the most and are two of my favorite songs in all of video games(along with the entire Chrono Trigger OST) are Dire Dire Docks and the wingcap song, they both just elicited a strong emotional response as a child, and whisk me away to a simpler time.

Been sucked into your channel ever since I found it. The content you create scratches a very specific, hard to reach itch for me, so I thank you :) You've gained a new subscriber! Just one of many more to come, I'm sure!

The fact you were born 7 years after release and you're an adult now makes me feel old. I was born the year it came out in 96. I'm glad to see the younger generation take interest in nostalgic media and properties from the 90s and 00s

Awesome video, been enjoying the channel. I apologize as I would assume this has already been commented but the whole Mario 64 sky theme is just the next step in the series. Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Land, Super Mario World, Mario 64 is basically Mario Sky, and then Mario Galaxy. So not sure if that was mentioned, but you did nail it. :)

Just found your channel. And I have been binging your content. I love how you go into depth on such obscure topics!

I just found your channel today and I’ve been binging ALL morning. I absolutely love your content

Really hope your channel grows :) just found this all today at work

I wish i could've experience the whole weird change to 3d videogames, i bet that was super mind blowing! Sadly though i was born a bit after that era already existed so i wasn't able to see the whole "deal" of it being huge. That said.. i used to love playing Super Mario on my mom's N64 and i do have to agree that the game felt strangely .. empty or uncanny?? not sure how to explain. Holy crap though, i never realized how much water Mario 64 had lol

To me, Mario 64 is one of the strongest "Cyberspace" games. Their aesthetics is not cartoony but more like "people should know this is inside a computer". The music also reminded me on 90s era trance music.

Your voice is so soothingggg, the video is great and helps me nod off to sleep like a baby every night

My lifelong goal is to recreate my dream pool rooms in my house. Idk how to do it, but damned if I won't.

I love Mario 64; its like if someone took the essence of childhood into a game. It makes me like 8 again. Also love this channel, the narrator is very soothing

Your videos are genuinely so underrated. I’d love to collab sometime

I am happy that I found your channel :) thank you for making videos for us

Wow, where has this channel been all my life??? Mario, specifically a fascination with Super Paper Mario (One of if not my favorite game!!!), liminal spaces, dreamcore, weirdcore music, paper mario music, omori music.. literally this is such a specifically up my ally niche and I'm so glad I found you!! I agree with every point of this, Mario 64 is definitely some unintentional liminal dreamcore setting, and you went in depth into the aspects of that perfectly! You deserve more attention!! ✨

just found your channel and am binging your videos! just want to say i loove your channel, and this is such a great video!

Same age as me! My memories from this game came from my older brothers and I played the ds version A LOT growing up with it

The reason the levels seem to be in the sky actually has some reason to it. In super mario galaxy 2 whomps fortress is a level and in mario odyssey paintings are transports to other places so from that we can conclude the paintings in 64 are portals to other points in the universe of mario

22:10 i have played sm64 for my entire life. it might have been my ACTUAL FIRST GAME EVER. i know EVERYTHING about this game. i can probably draw every level from memory. i have heard its soundtrack thousands and thousands of times by now. the super mario series in general is injected into my veins, if you asked me anything, ANYTHING about it i would probably know the answer. and this, this video, after my entire life, i have only now noticed that hazy maze cave's song is a remix of the original underground theme. what. the. hell.

Man I just found your channel and I love it.

Just found your channel and DAMN is it so good, really awesome topics and videos

I was noticing some good music in there, most notably during the surreal horror segment....maybe a playlist for us?

This was, and still is an amazing game, and a great video to watch! Thanks for sharing your viewpoint and perspectives on this, really enjoyed the video.

8:25 omg I love those, I have them almost every night and I always have the physical feeling too so it’s like I’m high every time I fall asleep. It also gives me a strange nostalgic feeling

You touched on this when you mentioned your mom's first impressions of the game, but Mario 64 - alongside its eerie liminal-space feel - actually fits the traditional/typical definition of liminal as well: a transitory space between two distinct places (a rudimentary 3D platformer that hadn't quite figured out how 3D platformers should work yet). Regarding the emotional aura, Mario 64 feels very psychedelic and dreamlike (as you talk about), so it's not really that surprising that the old middle school rumor that the game was inspired by psychedelic mushrooms was a thing, even if it feels silly today to think that was a legitimate urban legend in the late 90s.

its funny because when liminal/dreamcore images started getting popular i always connected them to sm64 despite never playing it i was also very young when i first saw gameplay of it and was probably similar to indoor play areas i used to go to as a kid with painted-on hills and clouds on the walls

Wet dry world really gave me the mixture of stress dread and fascination.

Great video, I love all the references to the different aesthetics, especially the poolcore stuff 💙

This game came out 5 months after I was born and it was my very 1st video game I ever played. I’ve loved it since day 1. It’s probably one of the reasons I love surrealism. It’s soundtrack is a masterpiece. The feelings it hits you with along with the visual of the levels is something that I can’t describe. It’s lonely yet peaceful. Scary yet beautiful. Tense yet fun. When I play it it’s like nothing else matter but me and the journey the game is about to take me on. I feel in a weird way at peace. It’s a comfort game if that make any sense. Nostalgic yet the nostalgia never get old and I can still recapture the feelings……there’s just something about this game

New subscriber here. Been binging your videos the last few nights. I don't have a strong attachment to this game as I only played it at a friend's house a few times, but I have always been interested in the concept of liminal spaces and the backrooms. It's strange, but as an adult who has moved away from home, the liminal space images and anything that evokes similar feelings resonate with me so strongly now. Before, life seemed to feel so...lively, and full of people. As an adult, that has changed a lot, in a strange way. I can't put my finger on it, but life has a strange emptiness to it. Everyone has gone, only a few remain. But most of the time...I am alone. This imagery conveys this feeling for me. It would explain why this game and things like it never felt this way until now. I wonder if others feel this same emptiness...

I think the lack of cohesion and submerging you in the nonsensical physics of Mario as you travel to distant lands through magic paintings. You expect the whimsy and wonder of Mario, but what you don't expect is the odd details that tell a weirder story in the level design. I think Mario 64 redefined our understanding of the mario series, not to mention it was the 1st 3d mario game. The limitations at the time was the cause for the awkward looking sky enviroments, I think that's part of the creepiness. The sculper molding the clay doesn't have enough material to have it how they would really want it to be and so we get something different. Human error is all over the game design, that's why its creepy. Things the developers didn't intend due to limitations ended up creating really odd and unsettling things. Like art devoid of the artists' touch, but you can still tell it had human life breathed into it. It was meant to be an experience, it was meant for you... But was it meant for you(?)

I love this video a lot. Being someone who grew up with this game and has a deep love for liminal spaces, this video really hit the nail on the head as to why I adore this game and everything that surrounds it. It feels comforting.

Unrelated to the majority of the video, but I recognize that Toys R Us from anywhere. 0:20 was the Toys R Us in Barboursville, West Virginia. Used to go there as a kid a lot with my dad and actually got to work inside the building when it was temporary remodeled to be a Spirit Halloween a few years ago.

Just realizing “Turok” on N64 is super liminal. I’d say far more than Mario 64. Check it out if you never have

really really good vid. I grew up playing this game with my dad and its ✨️vibe✨️ /still/ affects my dreams to this day. I've always been interested in exploring liminal-feeling spaces in games, especially older 3d ones like SM64 and Sonic Adventure. love your style of editing, the charming visuals, and the music choice especially made me smile :D Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, and PilotRedSun

Wow, this video makes me feel emotions... you did a good job explaining the complicated feelings one has during playthrough, and I kinda agree. I'm only 15 so SM64 was already a retro thing when I was old enough to play any games, but I've always loved it and I've played it a lot on my 3DS. Hope it stays just as known in the future as well :3

I've watched a few liminal space videos today in preparation for making my own on some less talked about aspects, but I really wanted to leave a comment about the "pool room/bathroom" thing you brought up. I haven't heard anyone say that about Mario 64 before and I think you hit the nail on the head perfectly with that. This game does have a crazy amount of water in weird places now that I think about it - IIRC, Lethal Lava Land, Tick Tock Clock, and Rainbow Ride are the only main stages without water in them. Really great breakdown, I'll have to remember this next time I play Mario 64. Sure my fiance would love to hear me ramble about this game some more :P

How it feels for me to and I played it the week it came out! Me and my brother rented an n64 from blockbuster. I was born in '91. :P Incredible video! Very interesting!!

I play this game for HOURS as a kid, but I never completed it, as with many games I had played. Last year on New Years Eve I decided to finish up my childhood save file, hoping to beat it before midnight, and i was successful :) it was such a great feeling. I just discovered your channel from the Frutiger Aero video and from everything I've seen so far, you've got quality content on your hands. keep it up!

Thank you for making this, i cried

I do recall SM64 feeling a bit creepy when I tried playing without the music.

I really like your channel I feel like I got a great find with your channel can't believe your so channel small rn keep making vids there quality and very interesting.

I spent many hours playing the Wii Shop Channel version of this game, and it was the first 3D Mario game I had ever played, and while I can't compare it to sunshine or galaxy as I've never played those, I very much enjoyed this game, and maybe it's just because of nostalgia, but this is still my favorite Mario game even after playing Odyssey and 3D Land. Perhaps it is part of the reason why liminal spaces feel so nostalgic.

God I love this game. I grew up with the ds version, and i just can’t even properly word the way it makes me feel. The liminal feeling of the game, the pretty much nonsensical empty spaces and rooms in the castle, the “hidden” areas like the aquarium, the strange levels, the small details, just the overall uniqueness this game has. All of it just ISGHDJF my brain feels like mush trying to describe it I adore it all so much. This game is just so weird and different and that’s what i love about it. All of it is so oddly comforting to me, and all of it heavily factored into why the game was so enjoyable to me as a kid. I didn’t even care about getting stars then, that job was for my neighbor. My job was to run around and look at stuff and come up with stories in my head

I think all N64 games kinda have this "teetering on the edge of the uncanny valley" vibe because the N64 was just barely able to do "real" 3D. You only have 32K of texture memory, so you have a lot of the same few textures repeated over and over, reused in different colors, and areas with just no textures at all (only solid colors). The textures are generally vague and blurry because they can't be detailed. You don't have very much processing power, so you can't have a lot of polygons or objects. So you have areas made up of a few large polygons and hardly anything in them. Big open spaces that feel like they should be bustling with life, but they're not. There's nothing here. No people, no wildlife, no weather, none of the normal background noise. If you do have them, you have to fake them pretty heavily - the rain is just lines in your view, the people are 2D looping animated images... You don't have much memory, so you can't do a lot of details. Fences have no shadows. Things that do have shadows have them in strange ways, like just a circle directly under them. There's almost no actual plant life. By necessity, the areas don't look like real places - they look like artificial constructs mimicking real places. There's no grass, but there's a flat plane painted the color of grass. Instead of natural boundaries and borders, there's just sheer, flat walls, trying to look not-flat by having a blurry tree texture on them. Everything looks and sounds identical - every tree is the same, every footstep makes exactly the same sound, the fish are in the exact same place every time you look. It feels like an alien trying to create a "home" for a captive human based on only a very rudimentary understanding of what Earth looks and feels like. The pieces are all there, but they're all extremely obviously fake. They're arranged in ways that don't quite make sense (why is there water here?). They're way too sparse and there's no natural variation, wear, or imperfections. They're all missing not just the subtle details, but almost every detail, leaving just barely enough to recognize what they're supposed to be. It feels like a dream because it's such a vague, abstract representation of reality. Your brain knows it's looking at a place that's supposed to be real, but clearly isn't. Dreams are the same way - they're extremely vague, with the normal details either absent, wrong, or in places they don't belong. (This isn't to rag on the developers - it's just what they had to do to make the games work with such limited resources.)

This is an awesome video. I've always loved this game's aesthetic and found it so unique and endearingly weird. Just beat the game for the first time ever a few weeks ago 😊

[gestures to minecraft] similar feeling of loneliness but i don't believe it counts as liminal

I love this game❤ Amazing video!

Love the music you use in the background

I've been fascinated by my own nightmares my entire life and love the dreams I have, good or bad. I've never felt that super Mario 64 was lonely or anything I've always accepted that it just was and now after watching this I wonder if it ties to how I view dreamscapes as positive in nearly every scenario

Oh damn that intro made me realise I was born 5 years after it’s release, wild

I find that most old games and the primitive way they go about creating different worlds are rife with liminal imagery. Especially the earlier 3d video games. I've had dreams about the games I've played.

For me it's weird, I gravitated toward liminal space photos pretty heavily when they started blowing up online a year or two (or whenever). They hit that nostalgia craving in a weird, comforting way. Prior to discovering liminal spaces, I would scratch this itch by playing retro games from my childhood, typically on the SNES or N64. Naturally, SM64 is the big one for me, and being 6 when it came out I was ripe for its influence. I never once thought to apply some of the liminal space ideas over SM64, but after looking at it from that angle with your video, a LOT of stuff makes sense now lol Great video. Taught an old guy in his 30s a new thing about one of his childhood games 11/10

I think the reason that so many of the levels are in the sky is becuase the N64 obviously had very limmited hardware and the developers didn't want to use up valuable processing power to render a convincing level boundry when that hardware real estate could be used to flesh out the rest of the level. So it was easier just to make the levels floating islands and make a sky-themed skybox.

this game is soo nostalgic

I can hear you laugh when delivering some of the lines in your script. This really is a special game, it has brought us all so much joy and I'm glad we can all share in that. Cheers.

This is a fantastic video essay. It's very thoughtful, thorough, fascinating, and convincing. I've seen some other things on this subject, but this one is clearly the best. Good job!

I can’t explain how great full I am for this video you literally said everything I’ve been thinking thank you

Thats honestly my favorite part of the game. It feels so dreamy unlike anything else

I have been binge watching your channel since you showed up on my recomended, there isn't one single topic you mention that I don't find interesting, I vibe with your music choices too, also, there's this horror-inspired channel based on super mario 64 that you might enjoy, it's called "Super Mario 64 Beta Archive"

As someone who grew up with the N64, I look upon SM64 as a technical marvel first and foremost and a big leap forward for games. Wet-Dry World was always my favorite stage and everything! it's really funny to me today to see so many younger people apparently creeped out by it, but I guess that's just what happens when you don't grow up with low-poly as the norm. I appreciate the look into that world!

This is such a good video. It's trippy I also had a dream about a rug flipping me around and that image is the exact vibe. Now my theory is that some 1996 kids are just at that level idk how else to put it ✌

I have a copy, and I'm strongly tempted to pop it in. I read somewhere a study was done regarding Super-Mario 64 and cognitive effects on the aging. Something to do with spatial memory, etc... It had to be specifically Super Mario 64. I always wondered why.