Wet-Dry World: Mario 64’s Strangest Stage | Level By Level 

Honestly wet dry world feels like a play test level they decided to make into a full fledged one

Stephen Georg has probably said one of the funniest descriptions of wet dry world. He said something along the lines of " it looks like all the scrap pieces leftover from the home depot were thrown into a lake"

This level, along with Hazy Maze Cave and Shifting Sand Land Cave give me really creepy and weird vibes, and that's what I love about them

Ok hot take: This is the best level in the game for platforming Yes Rainbow Ride and Tick Tock Clock have platforming, but if you fail you are punished with death. Also, the layouts are designed for very specific platforming which leaves less room for experimentation. Wet Dry World on the other hand has so many options that allow you to conquer it in different ways. Don't want to raise the water level? Just be a wall kick god. Can't do that? Make your way up with the heave hos. You can literally have fun getting higher in the level with technical jumps, or just skip it all with the water or cannon. Also, the random and bizarre design of the main area creates a perfect jungle gym for your moves, probably second only to the castle yard. The weird shapes and blocks allow you to execute all your jumps to your hearts content. And because there's no bottomless pit to fall into, failures are minor setbacks that encourage you to try again. The town is the cherry on top, but you covered that in your video. If I want to just have fun in a chill atmosphere playing with the moveset, I always go to wet dry world in a heartbeat :)

I think the most creepy stage in 64 is peach’s castle itself, even if it is just the hub world. It is even creepier in the beta

When I was a kid, I had a dream that the caged off area had a tunnel beneath it, but when I went in, it was clogged full of ghosts. When I finally actually got in in the level, I found the exact same tunnel, but no ghosts.

You know, I never really found this stage all that creepy, and would always be confused whenever someone found it to be that way. Thank you for finally explaining it to me. But it still has nothing on World of Nothing from Super Paper Mario lmao (In case you're wondering: It's basically a level where you walk through the remains of an entire universe that you failed to save. It's about as pleasant as it sounds)

9:27 Speaking of Chuckiya, the devs actually put in a mechanic to *escape* being grabbed by one. Just wildly mash the joystick in any direction or mash the A button will do. (there’s a hidden counter that checks for these inputs when a chuckiya is rotating, and if the number of inputs reaches 11, the player eecapes)

The sky in this course always gets me. The background city is clearly underwater (thus the course itself is in a lake or under the sea). But there's plenty of air in the course. So your somehow in a airtight city under the lake/ocean, and it's not shown how the rest of the water is being kept at bay. Something I always thought was strange...

Honestly I really like Wet-Dry World.

Honestly Wet-Dry world was probably my favorite or second favorite level in SM64

I think the Elevator Express Hurry Up! Star was pretty cool! It was memorable as a kid, especially having to wall jump sometimes for the platform.. and the star within the cage was so tempting!! Catches your attention immediately

*another fun fact* the water level is affected by the height at which you enter its painting! 🌊

ive personally never really found wet dry world unsettling, per se, but ive always thought it was kinda confusing and bizarre. when i was a kid, i was actively terrified of big boo's haunt and unnerved by hazy maze cave, but wet dry world mostly made me feel like i didn't know where i was or what i was doing. me personally, i think the otherness of wet dry world comes from the fact that its theming is so vague compared to the rest of the game (and mario levels in general). honestly, i never even got the idea that it's probably meant to be a sunken city until people pointed it out. it's strange that the rest of the game has very clear-cut themes like ice level, water level, desert level, lava level, etc, but wet dry world doesn't have any quickly identifiable theme other than "that one level where you make the water go up and down". honestly, my personal theory as to why it's so out of place is just that it's a half-baked gameplay idea they tried basing a level around. i figure they probably had the idea of changing the height of the water first, and then tried to throw together a level around it but didn't know how.

I'm so glad that you actually continue the Level by Level series despite it not performing well. Most RU-vidrs would drop it if it didn't perform well, but not you. There's a reason you're one of my favorite RU-vidrs (if not my favorite).

This level was Weirdcore before Weirdcore even existed and I respect that

idk if it's cause I first played it on SM64 DS but wet dry world has never felt even slightly eerie or mysterious to me. it always just felt like this almost sandbox-esque world with the main area being so open and being so chaotically filled. VERY interesting hearing other perspectives on it! makes me realize how many things I saw as wacky and fun are really disjointed if you start thinking about it

Odyssey’s editing is getting too powerful! Great video, as always.

1:33 was so unexpected😂

Today I learned that people find this level eery

For me this level always felt like Mario is an unwilling part of someones experiment.

1:06 please NEVER stop doing these character transitions, I love them!

I always watch SM64 videos, it's one of the most fascinating Mario games

From the "Abandoned Mine"-like atmosphere of Hazy Maze Cave, to the "lonely" dark-greenish filter of Jolly Roger Bay along with its sad but calming music and to the downright disturbing "Flooded City" atmosphere of Wet Dry World, SM64 is full of unique and mysterious worlds. Truly one amazing game

Everytime i played 64DS i always hated to go into Wet Dry World with all 4 characters It's long, annoying, confusing and difficult to 100%

This stage feels like a construction site right next to an Atlantis system of a town.

Never thought of it as eerie, but it is my favorite stage and it is kinda strange. It just feels so free and playboxy. You can move around in so many different ways, its so fun. If there was a stage I would just open after getting all the stars, its always this one at the top of the list.

What’s really interesting is that it was my favorite level and I was never super bugged out about it. I even felt like an urban archaeologist when exploring the abandoned town

I just realized, Big boos haunt is the only level in super Mario 64 that has original music.

The section of the castle heavily contributes since its so empty and then you go into an unsettling world. Gets alice in wonderland uncanny

This is the closest we will get to a odyssey central explains lore video🔥🔥⛽️

Genuinely one of my favorite levels. Not because ohh it’s creepy or anything but because it’s plain fun, the objectives are fun to do and the town area is fun to run around and(if you play EX Coop like me) roleplay with friends in

I genuinely love this level. Aesthetically beautiful and the town is really pretty and fun to run around.

No idea why I've only just seen this video now but something about finding the town in this level freaked me out a little as a kid. I had no idea what on earth it was, it felt like something I wasn't supposed to see. Heck I felt the same way about inside the pyramid or the volcano, it felt almost liminal.

Just tried out a couple of stars on this stage and I'll be honest, it's probably one of the more nostalgic areas for me. Despite looking cluttered and eerie in some respects, I've always loved the mechanic of raising and lowering the water, and a lot of the stars aren't difficult either. I've never liked the Heave-Hos, since lining up Mario can be a chore and I always find them to be more of a nuisance than useful. So, I'll always opt to take the longer route and raise the water instead. The level music is quite relaxing, but it does make for an uneasy atmosphere when combined with the chattery nature of the Heave-Hos and the single Chuck-Ya at the top, which can catch you off-guard if you're not paying attention. I used to despise this level as a kid but having played it again, it's a joy to come back to.

I haven't played very many official Mario games apart from Mario 64 and Mario Kart, but I do agree that Wet-Dry World is a mysterious stage. When watching this, I thought about how this level would feel if the music from JRB and DDD was used instead of HMC. I think it would be interesting that way, but I'd like to know what others think of that idea. I remember that I used to have a hard time getting to the pink Bob-omb on that floating platform since I wasn't all that good at the side-flip then, but knowing that I can determine the height of the water before going in by jumping at a certain height in the water makes it so much easier. It is interesting how you point out how the 100 coin star can be collected without entering the town since in most levels I do the 8 Red Coin mission at the same time I am getting the 100 coins. The exceptions to this would include this stage, as well as LLL and SSL since both of those stages have their 8RC missions outside of an enclosed area that you can't get out of once you're inside. But in WDW's case, I don't do 100 coins and red coins at the same time because there's quite a lot of coins I can collect in WDW without the red coins. While I could save collecting the red coins for last, I usually choose not to. The town has been quite mysterious for me as well such as who lived in the town or if anybody had ever lived there, or if nobody lives there because they evacuated or just drowned when it got flooded. So many questions we'll probably never have the answers to.

Wet-dry world feels like a submerged/sunken city and not enough people talk about it. Like the buildings and houses under the water. Like a flooded city....

Wet dry world just gives me an eeriee strange creepy feel if being alone in it with no one else its like i was just abandoned there alone forever

wet dry world is just as strange as my life

I like Wet-Dry World for its Atlantis-like theme & its water mechanics used to solve puzzles...

I remember hating that level at first but over time it grew on me and became one of my faves. You could actually mess around a lot with all the random stuff that was in it and kinda improvise with it more than other levels which were more regular.

This isn’t exactly a Mario game, but I feel like when you complete a mission in Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and just walk around, it’s really creepy. Like, you’ve completed a mission, there are no ghosts, but you’re still allowed to wander around a bit in most missions. I feel like that, combined with the music, how you’re supposed to leave but don’t, and my nostalgia for that game? It’s just really creepy to me.

The Fire Spitters always creeped me out with that breathy "HYAH" sound

I never knew about the warp point in Wet Dry World (for the first star), omg!

i love how the star select refers the actual world as a town signifying you are in the town you see with the best representation being underground

YESSSSS THIS IS MY FAVORITE LEVEL IN THE GAME

I think with the unique mechanics and features, this might have been a tech demo or sandbox level that ended up being put into the game. The lack of the overt path and the metal cap seems like it also fits that.

I loved shooting Mario through the pipe in the sky for first time in Wet Dry World.

it only seems to be people younger than the game itself who find it creepy for some reason. it just seemed like a normal level to me when the game was new

A water level that doesn't require a lot of swimming. Doesn't sound too bad.

4:29 Coming back to this, Wet Dry World honestly feels like a B3313 level

This thumbnail looks like it could interrupt a conversation about cheese

I never thought Wet Dry World was all that scary. I really enjoyed the water mechanic and the arrow blocks in the corner. And I loved the random 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 challenge. I love just finding weird shit so that was the most fun mission the first time I played it. The worst star to me is the elavator one, simply because it takes so long, and not in a fun way. First you have to lower the water, then smash the brick, then run ALL the way back up, hope you can get in before it goes up again and make sure you don't miss the star. If you don't make it you have to repeat the last 3 steps. It's just frustrating.

This is one weird level for sure I got into the hidden town by backflipping with luigi early

I actually really enjoy the vibes of this level

Wet Dry World is a Limnial Space in Mario 64.

This was always my favorite one for reasons I could never explain. It felt like you were in some weird dystopian post apocalypse city in the future.

Mario falling scared me i didn't expect the vine boom

Wet-Dry World is probably my favorite sm64 level

really cool and well edited. also interesting theme

I remember as a kind thinking it was interesting that the doors in the town section looked like the doors from OOT, tho that couldve just been my old analog crt tv making it hard to differentiate them. Also I remember thinking that the people were hiding in their houses from Mario, just watching him from the window. And this creeped me out

1:34 literally every single climbing level in the game:

honestly i think almost every part of mario 64 is unsettling, not saying all the levels, just something with the game has always had me on edge, which is weird cause my first ever video game was 64DS, and to this day i love that game, but specifically the original 64 just irks me the wrong way, strangely enough wet-dry world is on the low end for the levels, while sand land, hazy maze cave and the other two water levels i just hate, and peach’s castle as a hub world seems fine, but its just…. off, i think the problem with 64 comes from: the music, which some levels like sand land have very strange grading music, the old graphics (not saying they cant look good) , the emptiness of the levels at time, especially peach’s castle, and then finally the amount of creepypasta that exists, wario apparition or the infinite staircase that kind of stuff, it also stems from how nowadays since hardware can handle having tons of stuff, we dont get barren areas like in 64, and areas always have something around the corner like odyssey

The lvl is like a combination of the OoT water temple and open sandbox

I never found this level creepy. To me it always felt like a bunch of child's bathtub toys. I blame the music for people thinking it was creepy.

The WDW town is also eerie because the spooky horn part comes in in the music when you enter

are we also going to talk about how from up above, the level looks like the cross section of a human brain?

Big Boos Haunt next please! That stage always creeped me out as a kid but is so memorable.

I never actually found that stage stange i love it

I will always support my goat Odyssey!!!

I never found that level unnerving although it was definitely out of place, although I'd say in a pleasant way. I always wanted to know who lived in the little houses behind the doors

Ive never felt that Wet Dry world was unsettling. It was just a random level.

I always wanted to know where the water comes from, or goes?? Like, the pumps required must be massive. And being anywhere near them must be devastating

I love these transitions haba

On the topic of the Metal Cap, I feel like that was put there if the player wanted protection from the fire spitters in town…except they’re completely inert because they’re in water, rendering the Metal Cap pointless

My pick for the “most unusual” level in the series is probably special 4-5 in Super Mario 3d land. Aesthetically and musically it uses a fabric aesthetic which you would expect to have peppy music, but it uses the ghost house music. Which I find really odd. The stage itself is a remix of an earlier level, world 3-3 specifically. but now instead of donut blocks, it uses the crumbling terrain seen in the final levels of the game. The enemies are also replaces stingbys and the like with ghost house enemies, boos, dry bones and peepas. And much like the other special worlds in the game, items are very sparce. As far as i’m aware there’s only 1 statue leaf in this level, hidden in a brick block. The star coins i suppose are also worth noting. The first is toward the beginning of the level behind some terrain near a row of blocks with a poison mushroom. The second one is after a wall jump section not long after the checkpoint. And the last one is extremely close to the second, being over a pit by the last enemy of the level, a giant boo. Overall. I really like this stage, mainly for it’s juxtaposition. As i’d said, you’d expect it to be an upbeat level. But it isn’t. It’s eerie, peculiar, challenging, filled with enemies much different from the level’s first go-around and while other levels in the special worlds are similar to this. None are as unexpected as this one.

This stage has the most funniest glitchs with the tunnel and the chuckya. The city has no sky and no conventional exit. It is very clostrophobic, is should have no light in theory. The glitchs allow access to the tunnel without water. But half the tunnel will be in the water. This makes the place even more unique and bizarre. If we go back and forth, the water will gradually rise in the city (which is not possible with crystals). For some reason. The glitch of the chuckya allows to have any object of the stage in the arms (including platforms) it is very fun. The level seems cut off from the world and time. This gives it a mysterious aura (underlined by the music). We are under water near a large abandoned city. But in a square filled with air. There is no explanation for this mystery. It reminds me the world of Poseidon in Saint Seiya

This course feels like a ninja challenge run, and some of the stars feel like a mario equivalent of zelda dungeon puzzles

Wet dry world is so weird, but in an iconic way

Wet Dry World....wow I remember, it really was the trippiest strangest stage in the game.

Nothing happened in Wet Dry World. None of the worlds in the paintings existed before hand.

I feel like the dry town OST from B3313 would work pretty well here. I mean, there's a flooded town, it's creepy, lonely, melancholy.

That's funny, 'cause my immediate response is "all of Pipe World from SMB3."

UNDERRATED RU-vidR ALERT

5:40 this actually made me kinda want Wet-Dry World to have the Jolly Roger Bay theme…

The only reason I give this level any sort of respect is based solely on the fact that the water level corresponds to the height at which you enter the painting. I get that isn't the only way to change the water level, but I still thought that was so cool, and it opened up so many possibilities when I was completing the game.

10:32 "but the problem with these secret *moons* "

I feel bad for sleeping on this series before, i actually really enjoyed this video

This level feels like the backrooms

1:34 damn near gave me a heart attack lol

If I could change the music for WDW I would choose "Ocean Floor" from Mario paint studio, it matches the theme of WDW so well. And possibly "Jellyfish" for DDD also from Mario Paint studio. That way each water stage gets its own theme.

Hey Odyssey Central, I love your super mario videos, can you do a video showing the palette of the course maker and actually all the course maker in super mario Maker 2 ?

Awesome Video!

I don't know what it is, but his level always creeped me out for some reason.

Wet Dry World feels like it was the last level they made and Miyamoto just said "f**k it, we have 14 levels, just take everything we made and make it work if you want I dont really care"

I love how we have to theorize how things are in this game and how they came to be. Unlike other 3D Mario games, this doesn't give away the answers to people's questions. It's like imagining a picture based on the words from a book with no illustrations.

This video made me go “EEP!”

The elevator star was interesting at a time most players weren't used so to 3D games yet, as it isn't so easy to control Mario. A player that enjoys coordination challenges would have enjoyed it. Back then I was only able to get the secrets right using a game walkthrough, but now I would say this is an interesting challenge to players that enjoy exploration, and Mario 64 had stars for different types of players. I kind of like that the game had a mix of different challenges, but some players would have preferred a less diverse experience.

certainly has "journey to the center of the earth" city vibes

I don't think it's creepy necessarily. I'd say it's very odd for a Mario game. That being said, I think this game is nearly perfect, and every world (yes, even Rainbow Ride) goes into making this game amazing.