More unremarkable and odd places in Mario 64 

Correction, the waterfall WAS remarkable. Insanely remarkable. It made it very clear that the sound got louder as you approached, and at the time, it was magical as hell.

My favorite part about the Bob-omb battlefield unintended corner space, is that the developers realized its existence as well. They put the little arrow sign in to indicate to the player that "yep, this space exists, but you don't need to be here. Follow this sign to return to the action."

Because you drain the "P-trap" room, you've now unintentionally caused the entire castle to smell like sewage.

13:06 This has made me realize something kind of fascinating about Peach's Castle. It doesn't seem like there's anything that actually provides light inside. The closest it gets is the castle basement, where there are inexplicable balls of fire on the walls. That's probably another thing that makes Peach's Castle so bizarre to look at. All the light is just... There. No natural light or even torches. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Probably total coincidence, but the fact you uploaded this just hours after Charles Martinet announced he was stepping down from doing Mario's voice is rather fitting. He has been doing it since Mario 64.

This game feels like one big unremarkable place and somehow that makes it beyond remarkable

As a child, the entrance to the metal cap room left me perplexed, because it was the same as the entrance to hazy maze cave itself. Levels within levels? This game is endless! That vibe probably made me want to explore these unremarkable spaces more carefully

The explanation of the corner that "just happened" was dope man. It actually made me realize that some aspects of design are borne out of the rest of the design. It reminds me of white space in graphic design.. it's a design element, but you can't really manipulate white space directly. Nice job!

Because you mentioned it. I think the real thing people want when they ask for games like Mario to be open world is to have more spaces to "goof off". When I was a small child one of my favorite activities in 3d platformers was going to levels that had certain objects with no purpose other than messing around, one of my favorite things being to piss off the bears in Sly 2 and then run away. In Mario 64 you could go to bob-omb battlefield and just koopa shell skate through the level and it was really fun, or fly with wingcap etc.

What I love about these videos is how often they end up bringing to attention the "seams" of video games, the little bits that only exist out of necessity and don't contribute to the appeal of the games in any way, but acknowledging them just reinforces his love for video games as a medium. Too often I see people complaining about "immersion" every time they're forced to contend with something that reminds them that what they're playing is a simulated experience and not a window into another reality, but here it's those reminders that make the games so fascinating.

I actually used to visit the Metal Cap room as a kid because I just loved the way those metallic crystals look.

part liminal spaces, part asmr, part college art discussion, part high thoughts, part meditation… this show has everything. 🧑🏻‍🏫

One other thing to note about the Metal Cap aqueduct - it's pretty much pointless. The waterfall is flowing above the canal, this just serves to divert the water for maybe a minute. How many Toads died for this, Peach?

The point of the space outside Peach's castle is to act as a diegetic tutorial for basic gameplay concepts. While it's true that it's not the first 3-D game, it is the debut for its genre and introducing full 3-D to the general public. They start the game by putting you in a wide open space without any stakes or objectives, but a lot of interactable setpieces and some simple vistas so you can learn the basics of handling the then-new 360 degree analog controls and dynamic controllable camera, or how Mario can interact with stuff like slopes, climbable objects, and water, before they start testing your actual skills with more challenging geography and enemies in Bob-Omb Battlefield.

Your talk of accidental/incidental 3d geometry as a way of a game expressing itself feels like one or two small steps away from really high-end, big-brain intellectual video game thought and I'm here for it. It's an incredibly interesting way to think about 3d design.

Sometimes the waterfall alone is enough. There doesn't always need to be a treasure chest behind it.

8:42 I really loved this part. The way you explained it just made everything click for me, and I had a moment of realization that I had just been going along a pre-determined path every time I play a 3d game. I can't wait to explore some of these areas in other 3d games

If you notice, there is a dirt path leading to the waterfall outside Peach’s Castle. This means that the princess or the guards would likely go there to relax and listen to the water. I could imagine a bench or two being placed there if there ever was an HD reimagining of this game.

The first spot actually does have a reason to be visited, the third closest tree to that corner of the map contains an extra life when doing a handstand on it. The third also has one if you visit all four corners of where the water lingers.

Your p-trap discussion felt like a real version of the wet-dry world brain diagram, that's a cool observation about what the actual purpose of a feature of the castle and might be. And it makes perfect sense that since Mario's a plumber, he'd also have to explore the water systems of the castle

i love this, its basically the opposite of a speedrun

I wish I could capture the feeling of playing Mario 64 for the first time in a bottle. I didn’t even enter the castle I just ran around the courtyard and the sensation of controlling Mario in a 3D space was transcendent. This video gets pretty close to that though and for that I thank you.

When I was a kid, I had no idea that you could actually jump into those paintings. I would just jump around, look at the paintings, and be mesmerized that some of them kind of rippled a little when I walked right up to them. I was learning to read by this point, and the instruction manual said that these rippling paintings were gateways to other worlds. I felt like a whole new game just opened up for me! Looking back, I was treating the rooms with the paintings in them as destinations when I was a kid, and they turned from destinations into liminal connecting spaces when I learned about the true nature of those paintings. I discovered Shifting Sand Land for myself this way because the dead end to the left of the Lethal Lava Land painting had that same rippling effect when you walked up to it. I didn't find Snowman's Land because in that mirror room, the non-rippling wall you jump into matches with the rippling painting in its reflection. I thought I couldn't jump somewhere unless it was a rippling surface.

Austin, your channel is such a breath of fresh air. You're casual about it, but you're basically writing little art analysis papers and present them really well. That is just so cool and enjoyable!

Always thought of the “two pillars” room as the pump room.

Liminal spaces are part of what always made playing the N64 so special to me. I am the kind of person who, while in a Disney ride for example, studies every corner and prop, daydreaming about how I'd like to wait until the place is vacant after the crowd leaves so I can explore. Getting locked in a department store or mall after hours would be a dream to me. I thought when I was a child that maybe I would outgrow this, but nope. Being old enough to have experienced depression, loneliness, and nostalgia, only feeds this experience stronger.

Accidental or incidental spaces are so cool because they are so mundane and random that they look like abstract places someone would rarely come up with just from creativity. Like itd be a waste of their time or theyd be crazy to purposefully design this little random space with no remarkable purpose from scratch. Im so glad we have them from video games and this is why vg preservation is important

This video kind of ends where it starts with the castle waterfall, which is pretty cool

I'm surprised you haven't considered the little lobby area for the 30 star door. It was the first thing that came to mind. It fits the definition of this series to a T. they didn't have to add those stairs and that small circular lobby, but they did, and now there's a small transitional area that didn't have to be the way it is, but they made it that way. If you another video on Mario 64 please include it, would love to hear your thoughts. Love the series and your videos in general, keep it up!

I find it really really interesting that a lot of the places you’ve shown are places that have unlocked very vivid memories for me. I have stood around in so many strange places in this game as a kid and I can remember just walking around and feeling out every little piece of the map. I don’t think I do it nearly enough in games anymore but this video was what felt like a trip down memory lane in a way. Thank you, this was a good way to start my day

I love this kind of analysis. Game worlds (especially ones I experienced countless times as a child) feel like actual places in my memories. Dissecting them and making sense of the senseless is tickling a part of my brain that rarely gets action.

When I was younger, I was terrified of the water bombs that would fall on you in the first level, so for the first couple years that I owned the game I would just run around outside the castle, swimming in the water, drowning mario, etc. Such a nice, serene area. I’ll always have such fond memories of that game that have nothing to do with actually playing it.

An odd place I used to visit often was the roof of the lowest part of Peach's Secret Slide. With a good jump, you can reach that giant, empty platform. It was crazy the first time I went there to find out the floor was very slippery

Dang, this is perfect material for me. I'm a professor teaching a class called "Intro To 3D Game Design" this fall semester, and there's so much in here that I hadn't thought about when introducing my students to the things you have to consider when building a 3D world versus a 2D world

9:27 I'm surprised you never pointed out while describing this weird spot that some designer thought to put that arrow sign in a desperate attempt to not make us think about that fascinating area too much.

Man, this is great. As a kid i used to spend hours in this game just in the courtyard and the castle, walking around looking at things, and trying to explore every nook and cranny. I spent a lot of time trying to get over the waterfall.

Surely somebody pointed this out, but true 3D games such as Descent and X-Wing predate this game by a number of years, and there are surely a number of games that predate those. You might be thinking of 3D platformers specifically.

Come to think of it, I rarely notice electricity in Mario games. I think the Beanbean Kingdom has it, if only because of that sequence in Mario & Luigi where you use water to knock mechanical rodents into spaces in broken wiring to complete the circuit.

I interpret the metal cavern area wall texture as more of a moss-covered stone wall, but this is still the first time I'm consciously realizing it's an artificial texture and not just generic cave wall. It's one of my favourite spaces in the game. The crystals are really cool and it's got a really calm and peaceful atmosphere, once the metal cap music stops at least.

This video is amazing and bizarre. its like a philosophy video disguised as a videogame video, but its meant to be, but telling it in a metaironic way.

I'm assuming Austin has definitely listened to that really old episode of "radiolab" about memory and forgetting.. it literally changed my worldview.

Im only 25 seconds in but 1996 is flooding back to me and all the core memories of me wandering around in this game just to be in places. I dont think I had many 64 games either so I could never super duper nostalgic from your videos before

I resonate with this series, because it's a similar feeling like when you just decide to stand in a spot in your house, that you never frequent. Everyone goes to the bathroom, but have you ever stood in one of the corners and felt like "Never been in this corner before..yupp it is here."

I love what you said about 3D sort of encouraging pointless spaces to exist by geometric necessity. It’s a lot like how holes (for example in Swiss cheese) are physically nothing, but still inexplicably part of the object

I love commenting when there's no possibility of having watched the entire video already

That corner is quite a convenient way of getting up to the path up the mountain, I recognized it instantly! I can't believe I never realised that HMC's wall was supposed to be pipes...

I kinda love how there's only one way from the starting area into the castle, but a few ways back to it. The Metal Cap exit, the submarine door, falling from the rainbow course...

An addendum regarding the metal pool (close up @14:10), which is definitely "Did You Know Gaming" material, but also odd and (un?)remarkable, is that the texture used for the pool (and metal Mario) is a real-life photo of pink flowers. This embedding of something from our reality in a hidden sort of way, distorted so much that we need to extract textures to even realize it, is odd to me. Just as is the well-known Wet Dry World skybox in your Skybox Appreciation video. Except in this case it's more deeply distorted than that skybox, which for me expands my curiosity whenever I see any suitably deformed texture in games from this era, and I have to ask myself, "I wonder if that abstract effect is actually something more grounded and real, like a bunch of flowers".

As a kid I would often let Mario stay near the waterfall and left the game running: It was really relaxing with the sound of the water and the birds chirping. I never knew video games could be like that.

Ah, this really reminds me of my childhood. I'm pretty sure that as a kid I saw every inch of this game I could, I just loved exploring 3d games and seeing all the unusual places off the beaten road (I still do!). Mario 64 was definitely the game I did this the most in, I found the Whomp's Fortress 1-UP, I relaxed by the waterfall, I scaled Tall Tall Mountain dozens of times. I think that was the reason why I subscribed to you in the first place, because I felt like I found someone who also understood and shared the appreciation for the little things like that. Thank you for making these, sincerely.

One of the coolest things Nintendo does is fill a lot of these unremarkable or liminal spaces with secret rewards. Like there's actually a hidden 1-up you can spawn in the drained p-trap if you touch the four corners of the water. Same with the beginning room of the slide in Tall Tall Mountain. (You know, that room you spend 1 second in before running forward and sliding down?) If you touch the four corners of that room you spawn a hidden 1-up as well.

God actually looking at the metal cap rooms riveted walls just gave me the first hit of ‘peach’s castle is a real place’ since I played the game as a kid. For years all the playable space has been in a similar category to mario sunshine’s bonus levels: a series of disconnected dreams. Seeing the rivets in the walls just slotted a ton of facts about hazy maze cave into place and now I can’t stop thinking about the cave and the metal cap aqueduct thing being physically underneath the castle.

Miyamoto was inspired to make Super Mario 64 watching his hamster run around in his cage. This series makes me realize that while the levels in SM64 feel like big open spaces, they are surrounded by invisible walls, much like a hamster is surrounded by its cage. However, due to the fact that there are so many interesting things inside of those walls, it never feels like you're trapped so you don't attempt to get outside the bounds of the level. You want to keep your hamster inside the cage so they don't get hurt, and you don't want your player going outside the invisible walls for similar reasons.

Something I appreciate about Mario 64 DS is that it found some of these spaces and put a thing in it. And it gives a unique feeling. Like, there wasn’t supposed to be something here. Now there is. Some good examples are the star at the top of the Metal Cap switch waterfall, another one on the other side of the large room in the secret under the moat, and the little hedge maze in the castle grounds

An interesting thing about the hazy maze cave ceiling lights is that that room is at least partially directly below a few of the upper pathways - a few of the lights are 'roughly' in the same place as pits from those, but if that's on purpose it means those lights aren't daylight but from the in-cave installed lightning

Yes, love the longer form vids in this series!

Evolutionary biologists would call the sort of corners you talk about spandrels, after Gould and Lewontin's The Spandrels of San Marco

This is a fitting upload for the day

I absolutely loved that first spot by the waterfall. I used to go there when i was a kid and just chilled because i love the sound of waterfalls and waterfalls in general. So relaxing!

The best part about role-playing in world of Warcraft is the fact that my friends and I would go off on different continents just to search around for really cool places. We searched top and bottom just to find interesting or forgotten places. This is literally the content that I can binge specifically because this is what we like to do in role-playing games. For me, it's literally just the fact that someone designed that place specifically to be like that. And that was literally enough for us to appreciate the area no matter how little.

One of the trees in the castle grounds near the first location in this video has a 1-up in it for those who did bother to go over there, which is a little remarkable for me, but also I think I might've just been so emotionally invested in SM64 as a child that I have inherent lingering interest in even the most trivial details

The timing with Charles retiring and hearing his voice in here briefly. Is very nostalgic and meaningful. Probably more then what AnyAustin intended. A interesting coincidence, but welcome one. Got to appreciate the iconic mario voice again.

Thank you for this upload I really enjoy these types of video. I especially appreciate the scanline-style filter I feel all N64, PS1 and Saturn game capture should have it. Funny that you bring up Mario Galaxy 2 because I was thinking that the Green Stars in that game kinda feel like Nintendo turning our habit for finding unremarkable, out of the way places into a game mechanic/feature. However, in acknowledging and rewarding us for finding those places, the places lose their odd auras that we've become familiar with in these series. And that's interesting to me.

some fun facts about some of these areas. the part of the fence that you were talking about just "randomly extends" was actually because it was a last piece addition to the castle grounds geometry. in older builds of the game, the last piece of the fence was gone and the place that you were standing on near the waterfall but behind the fence was an elevated piece of ground that had no fences running through. also, the area in bob omb battlefield actually has a slippery floor type for some unknown reason.

I always love the way you talk about these things, and you pay attention to things and give thought to things that nobody else ever bothers to think about, that's a big thing I appreciate about you and your videos. Your mentions of incidental geometry was so interesting, that sort of thing makes me sit and think about that sort of stuff when I never really would have otherwise. I think I ought to pop in some n64 games and go look around at places where you normally dont pay attention to. Keep up the fantastic work, Auston. Love these vids so much

In honor of the release of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, I would love to see an Unremarkable and Odd Places video for Jet Set Radio Future. That game is like the epitome of odd places to me.

That first one is an eye opener for me. I make video games as a hobby and when I design levels I tend to fall into the habit of only designing what's necessary because if it wasn't I would just make it background. But that destroyes the seedling to exploration right of the bat. This has taught me a valuable lesson I probably never would've come across otherwise.

Another thing about the p-trap room, is if you touch all four corners, a 1-up appears

I love that P-trap and metal cap stage details because they're the sort of deep analysis you'd only see in something like game theory otherwise but it's way too inconsequential for game theory to care, exactly the kind of thing I come to your channel for

I feel like I would've been best friends with this dude if I ever met him.

2:00 It's a waterfall. There's going to be splashes and moisture closer to it. It's better to have the path away from it as it would turn into mud. The fence is a separation to keep people away from slippery grass. Plants also provide roots to keep the erosion in control, speaking of: you can already see the ledge collapsing near the waterfall. So the fence also is there to stop people disturbing the already unstable ground. It just may be the devs being overly passionate about things that don't necessarily transfer into gameplay or just reflecting real places they've visited with only replicating aesthetics.

4:44. Tbh as a kid I would often use the moat door when I wanted to go directly to Hazy Maze Cave, Shifting Sand Land or Lethal Lava Land upon loading the game. I would often go back to that place but only as a funky hallway towards those three levels. I actually foond it faster than going through the main doors of the castle

Fun fact: The "Hazy Maze Juice" is actually supposed to be quicksilver. It was stated in the game's manual. I remember that fondly because I was a kid, and in around 3rd to 4th grade it blew my mind that this liquid from Mario 64 actually exists in real life.

It's always a treat when you upload, Austin, especially with your deep and thoughtful insight. Keep up the good work.

Wow. I had no idea the waterfall at 15:20 went up so high. I barely even noticed there was a waterfall there at all, and yet you can just look up and see it stretching up into the darkness. Evidently, there's no ceiling on that tunnel either, since otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the top of the waterfall from that angle.

4:20 there's a secret 1up in this room too, probably one of the most hidden secrets in the game

Man listen to Mario's voice, sure glad Charles is still doing his thing!

Is the filter you use in the emulator or added in the editing process?

I would go through that pillar room in the basement a lot when playing. After lowering the water, it's a great short cut to the basement paintings if you don't get through them all in a single play session.

The opening area where the pipe comes out of is my first experience with this feeling, way back when I was 6. Always wondered what was up that hill behind me and just how the hell does one escape this courtyard lol

I would love an episode of this about Ape Escape, I spent SO much time wandering around those levels as a kid. Also, it's got some truly kick ass music.

Feeling melancholy, time for an odd places marathon 😌

The part about the corner in Bob Bob Battlefield is something I would expect from a Media/Game Studies paper that I would read at University, not a RU-vid video that I would just randomly come across

I beleive the waterfall tunnel has metal walls because it was an expansion of an already existing, but smaller tunnel. A lot of work for lanscaping.

memory is relived through imagination.......

Austin do you think you might have a form of synesthesia that triggers these feelings for you so strongly? I definitely sense what you mean but I wonder how much more it's effecting you? Maybe a poll for your audience about it? This channel and these videos are a very interesting look inside how you experience the world/videogames. Fascinating.

Gotta say, just randomly stumbled across this video and this is honestly a really smart and refreshing artistic take on the game. It makes me so happy there are people like this out there that really appreciate primitive 3d media. Super interesting video, I enjoyed every second.

The waterfall serves as a warp point from the sewers where you can find the metal cap in the maze level !

Thta fragment of the video where you talked about the corner, was not only interesting, but it also made me want to go back to my favorite childhood games and look for those "incidental" parts of the world design, thanks

The room at the deepest part of Hazy Maze Cave has always made me feel really weird and cool, it reminds me of the deepest parts under an old Castle or mideval building. It has more detail in the DS version, as well. I really liked it, it was even inspiring at one point. Also, there is electrical things, such as elevators, switches, automatically opening doors, and even Amps, electrical enemies that shock you.

your video editing is improving. those transitions between segments are genius. that’s REAL art.

Hey I'm loving these unremarkable videos of older games. I love seeing these little artifacts of the development process from a time when game developers were still largely pioneers in their field. I'm especially loving the contrast between the incidental spaces you find that sprung up between intentional places and the little pieces of extra effort that those early developers put into place that are intentionaly inconsequential. Please keep it up, you're doing a great job!

i got so excited when i saw the notification for this vid lol, i loved the first sm64 vid u did! just wanted to throw out some weird spaces in sm64 too to get the ol brain juices swishing- snowman's land, the memory i have of finding that very out of the way ridiculously tiny igloo and realising i could crawl into it is unironically a core memory for me lol, and i have no idea why. it is just a very absurd space and very out of keeping given how the rest of sm64 tends to scale things up to create platforming space. it just hit that note of videogame awe for me, and it's probably one of my most vivid memories from my childhood. also shoutout to the entire level for having weird vibes, it feels so hostile and strange at the same time. the sort of place i would have a not-quite-nightmare-but-still-unsettling-dream set in. cool cool mountain, you ever jumped into the cabin chimney and then not gone down the slide? just kinda stood in that box room and had a look around? super liminal, love it. also apparently theres a very well hidden 1up in that room. also- that random section on the end of the slide where its a somewhat narrow ice bridge? that bridge is one of the most beautiful things in the entire game to me. it doesnt even add an extra layer of difficulty- its so short and straight that ive only ever fallen off it once, and i suck big time at slides. they still added it though, and when i was a kid i used to do the slide all over again just to catch another half second glimpse of that room. this is a DS specific one, but in the ds version in the back of the rec room (replaced the princess's secret slide room) theres a window looking out onto an inaccessible balcony. i aint even gonna say anything else, that thing just speaks for itself. go visit it, its like a sacred pilgrimage lol that alcove above the courtyard door which has mips in it. why is that there. what kind of architect designed this castle-- any way thats all ive got off the top of my head. love this series you're doing, by far my favourite esp for the older games. keep being awesome Xx

that transition at the end was perfect lmao

I've looked at some of these same places, and appreciated their aesthetics, too. Sometimes it's nice in a game to spend time as if you're going on a picnic. I get what you're saying about open world games often being linear; I enjoy going to these places when I'm not interested in a linear experience.

If you interpret the overlook by the waterfall as if it was real life, then the little triangle could be fenced off because after heavy rainfalls the river may bear more water than usual, meaning getting too close could be dangerous so the fenced of a little extra portion for safety reasons. Mushroom kingdom OSHA regulations.

I played this game as a kid, I remember would turn on my Nintendo 64 and waste a lot of time in liminal spaces and just jump around and dive around those ramps in the castle basement.

that left over water thingy and how you explained its making things feel physical. i will see those type of things now in every game. such a different look at things than usual. love those.

Final area has got to be one of my all time favourite crack smoking spots. I also STRONGLY suggest an area that's only in the DS version - in the mirror room, if you go through the mirror as Luigi and then go through the door in the back you'll enter a completely white void with a single star in it. Got to be another one of my favourites.

"Much like going off of the course in a racing game, you CAN walk over here and discover.... uh something wonderful for yourself and that is... of course absolutely nothing" Lmfao I was NOT expecting this sentence to end this way 💀