Yu-Gi-Oh 5D Wheelie Breakers

I still remember that day, around a year ago, the day that I had gone onto eBay.

Around that time a game that came out into Japan, and it wasn’t making it to America, so what I needed was a Japanese system. I’m terrible at modding things so I don’t even try.

Going to the best site, that I can come up with, eBay, I went online to find a good priced Japanese Wii. As I went through the auctions everything seemed to be a bit too pricey to me, until I came across one that came across my eyes one that peeked my interest.

What I came across was a little more expensive (an estimate of ¾ more if I recall) more than the cheapest that I came across. With the Wii it came with two Wii-motes, a Nunchuck, a Classic Controller, and the best part: it came with 20+ games, most I couldn't make out as they were strewn about. Now, like anyone else, I was suspicious as I checked out his profile looking through his past auctions, it even said he had a 100% positive feedback.

Thinking back now, I shouldn’t have done it, but I remember leaning back in my chair thinking it over. “It sounds a little fishy” I said to myself, but in the end, curiosity won over me. I went over to my “fun”-funds, seeing if I had enough to waste. Seeing that I did, I went back to my computer and went to auction, it was odd that I was the only one betting, considering the time was almost up.

Upon winning the auction, I preceded to the fill out, and after that all that was left was to play the waiting game, I always lost that damn game. A couple of days had gone by, as I went to my email to clean out spam, I noticed an email from my auctioneer, which is odd as I don’t usually get that from many people. I opened it up, and read:

To XXXXXX

Thank you for buying my product, I have been wanting to get rid of it for a long time. I’ve been putting it up quite a few times, but no one wanted it, thanks once again.

From XXXXXX

As I read that, I thought it was weird, I kept asking myself why anyone would pass up such a great deal when someone has such a great background. Then it passed as I thought “well, their loss.”

Almost a week had gone by, the UPS truck was pulling up my driveway and I came out and retrieved my package.

Upon opening the large box, it seemed very weird, in the box were two smaller boxes more than likely one for the Wii, the other for the games, its not that it was weird, I just didn’t expect it. Opening one of the inner boxes, I found the system itself, taking a quick look over it, it seemed to be in near perfect condition with a couple of smudges and a scratch, nothing that I couldn’t fix. Opening the second box, what I saw was what really took my breath away in shock.

In the box were the 20+ games that was promised, the weird part was more than half of them they were still in the original packaging plastic. Picking up a couple of games, I carefully looked them over, as I thought they were brand new games still in their seal.

Looking at the pile of games that were in the small box, I had a really bad feeling for some reason. Looking over the games, I saw a couple that I already had, I even saw some that I had been wanting that I just didn’t get yet. Going down the list, one used game caught my attention; “Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Wheelie Breakers”. I easily recognized it as I already had an English version. For some reason, I was looking over it a few times, why I did, I don’t know, I figured it was that lightning bolt that appeared over the stadium, it just always caught my eye.

Worried about some kind of mistake, I tried to email my auctioneer.

To XXXXXX

Hey, XXXXXX, if you remember a week ago I had ordered something off of you from eBay. Now I’m not disappointed with my purchase, but there seems to be a mistake I had order used games from you, but I think you may have sent me some new games. It just feels odd that is.

From XXXXX

A week went by, after sending many messages and receiving no replies, I had given up.

So, taking out the games, I began playing. A few weeks had gone by, playing numerous hours on the Wii, getting bored, I got up to switch out games. While going through the box to look for another game, that game once again caught my attention. Picking up Wheelie Breakers, even though I completed the English version, I finally decided to play it.

Looking over the game itself, the disc was probably the best condition of all the used games, I knew people didn’t like the game, but come on. Booting up the game, I came across the “press a button” menu, at this time it was strange. Out of all the used games this was the only one that didn't have an already saved game on the system. So starting a new game, I used my name from my English version: Breaker.

Playing the game, it was how it was when you usually play this game. Completing both sides of story mode, I worked my way up through the cups of the tournaments. As I unlocked all the cards in the shop, I began buying them, in order to make any deck. After collecting 3 of every card, I noticed that it seemed that when you buy a certain number of a card the card then becomes “SOLD OUT,” so I decided that I probably should try to make every card sold out.

Officially completing the game, this took me about a couple of months to do that (maxing out DP as well). Because I was finished with it, I wanted to do something big that I’ve never done before. I came up with an idea: beat both paths of Story mode, and complete all 4 cups, all within one sitting to finally beat the game.

Upon completing the credits of the Fortune Cup, something came up that I didn’t expect. A message came up, like those that would pop up for when cards would unlock in the shop. I couldn’t read Japanese but I recognized one symbol, it read “4,” I found that weird, but a pressed A in order to continue, and everything faded to black as usual.

As I was getting up to turn the game off, the screen faded back to normal. Instead of it being the main menu, my character was at the starting line of a race. As this had never happened before I had sat down, and waited for the starting countdown. A few seconds had gone by and nothing, I took the controller and saw that I could move.

So, Boron I began riding off, passing the starting line, when I noticed something immediately, my screen was nearly blank. I looked over the screen, and the icon which showed my life points wasn’t there, the icon that showed my deck was also missing along with my hand, the only thing that was there was the map and the lap number but instead all it showed was “1/” no indication of the number of laps needed.

Going through the track, I noticed right away that the track I was on was the one where you duel Rua in story mode. Aside from moving the bike, I couldn’t do anything else that you would normally do, even when going over the AP or DP icons nothing would happen. Looking over at my map I noticed that there was only the red dot that represented my character, and the track was eerily quiet.

Starting the next lap, I could have sworn that I heard something, of course there was no battling so it may have been part of the game. Going through the empty race track once more, I came across something else that was strange. Stopping so that I could “Check it out” I could see Satellite across the water, but it was different, the smog/fog that use to cover the city was gone and it looked different then I remembered from other times that I passed by.

Continuing through I reached the start of the “3rd” lap, that time I could have sworn I heard something, but I wasn’t so sure. There wasn’t anything that I noticed this time around, except for that is was just as emptied as I passed by earlier. It was about halfway through this track when something different happened.

According to the map, all the way back at the starting line a blue dot appeared moving down the track. The speed of the dot itself was moving faster than any other of the characters would, especially Jack, and it was closing in to my very own dot, closing the gap in-between us.

Coming up to the finish/starting line, the blue dot was near, that was until it started slowing down as it got close to my dot. Reversing my view, the blue dot got into my view, A strange, white motorcycle was behind me, and the one riding it had long white hair with a long coat blowing in the wind, but I couldn’t make out his face.

For one reason or another, the blue dot man wouldn’t pass me, he would just stay behind me. As I crossed the line, the screen changed again, this time everything was there, except that the lap icon reset itself to “1/”. The life point icon showed that the man behind him was wearing some kind of mask and had a scar over the left eye.

The duel started, I kind of felt a chill, having my dragon deck I quickly special summoned Stardust Dragon from my hand. I spun around, I was going to meet who ever this guy was head on, I had Stardust attack the man. The man reversed the damage to my monster with magic cylinder, then he summoned a monster I was shocked to see.

“Blue Eyes White Dragon” I recall saying to my self, but I noticed there was something being said, this was not new as the MC spoke in the game, I couldn’t make out what he spoke of. I was caught off guard and my opponent had his monster attack, with the combined damage of his attack and the reversed damage from earlier caused Stardust to be destroyed. I felt something, as once again that voice spoke, all could make out was “My.”

I came across AP, as I wanted to go on the offense, I summoned Red Daemon Dragon and I placed a trap card on the field. Coming across another AP I had RDD attack blue eyes, it connected as it destroyed one of the cards in my opponent's hand. I heard some laughing from my Wii-Mote, the masked man attacked with Blue-Eyes activating my trap “Scrap-Iron Scarecrow.”

“Stupid AI,” seriously, I had RDD attack once again, destroying Blue-Eyes White Dragon and destroying another card in his hand. “Hatred,” the voice came again, suddenly he activated a spell card destroying RDD.

Following the destruction of Red Daemon Dragon, we came up to the second lap, a lightning bolt appeared in the sky background, which I didn’t think this game had. I saw a couple of cards under his icon, I wanted to get rid of his cards so I summoned Black Rose Dragon.

At the time I summoned Black Rose Dragon, the man behind me summoned a monster of his own, Stardust Dragon. I gritted my teeth, he protected his cards, I quickly had Black Rose Dragon attack my opponents Stardust. I heard a laugh again, I ran into a trap, he activated his own Scrap-Iron Scarecrow. “Our future” he once again spoke.

The guy had Stardust attack my monster, taking out half of BRD health. He once again had Stardust to attack my monster, destroy it. “4 to 4” this I didn’t understand what he said, was he referencing what the game said before this started. I had aimed to get the next AP icon, but for the first time, he cut me off causing me to go into a wall.

After spinning out, I got myself back on the track, but not before that guy attacked my life points. “Desperation” this time, I was getting irritated, I was being mocked by a video game character. I summoned my own second Stardust, but this time the animation was different: his wings were drooping more, and didn’t seem to be flapping as fast, I ignored it and placed a trap on the field, and a spell to recover some life.

The two of us attacked each other simultaneously with both Stardusts, and as both attacks hit each other, both our trap cards activated, but my trap negated its attack and sent the damage at him, his trap stopped my attack, so the damage was sent back at my monster, in the end his Stardust was destroyed. As that he lost a monster, he lost speed, I passed him, my Stardust animation changed again this time its limbs and tail began drooping and his color was slightly faded.

“Pain of others,” okay, by now this guy was really getting on my nerves, he activated a spell card which destroyed the rest of Stardust’s life, the destruction animation seemed a bit more dreary then what it was.

Trying to get the upper hand, I quickly special summoned one of the Synchro’s in my hand, my second Black Rose Dragon. This time the animation was also different, a few of the petals were missing, and others looked like they were wilted. Using Double Attack, I had Black Rose Dragon attack the masked man, with no need of AP.

“Hesitation makes four” the voice once again came from my Wii-mote, he activated a trap, he must have placed it between my summon of BRD and its attack, it didn’t negate my attack but damage was sent against my monster, he did take direct damage. He just laughed.

We came across the third lap, “A door has opened” he spoke of he summoned a new monster

“That’s not right,” at least, the monster isn’t among the 126 cards available: “Rainbow Dragon!”

I remember the winged serpent dragon even had its own roar. Getting some AP the man attacked me, destroying BRD and its petals seemed to burn away.

“Damn it,” I can recall myself saying.

“…the others…” was what I could make out from what came from my hand.

As I was ahead of the man, I activated Nightmare steel cage, causing my opponent to not attack. Using Dragon’s Mirror I special summoned a dragon from my hand. My 2nd Red Daemon Dragon appeared, its appearance was different as well, it seemed like the red began reaching around its body, its wings seemed deteriorated. Having Red Daemon attack, he destroyed Rainbow Dragon in one hit, probably because of its weak defense.

We were coming up to the end, attacking once again, I reduced the person’s life points down to zero, but my attack didn‘t reach soon enough as he used a card to destroy RDD…spinning out, I took this second before he recuperated, using a speed spell to get the upper hand.

I then crossed the line, I remember the sudden change in the field, as the words “SURVIVE!!” came to the screen and the lap number once again reset to “1/”. The sky itself had become darker, the buildings around us seemed to become ruins, the side of the roads seemed to be covered in flowers.

I remember knowing it was odd, I looked up at the map seeing that the blue dot was once again on the move, which was too soon for him to recuperate. I could hear his laugh, coming from my hand.

The duel seemed to turn into a survival, looking at the life points, he was at an advantage since his life points reset back to 4000. Looking now, I realized his mask was gone…I could barely make out his face, it just seemed his one visible eye was just staring blankly ahead, as if at me.

Realizing what has happened so far, I needed to get ahead, and destroy more monsters. Crossing over a long path of AP’s, I spun around this time summoning Black Rose Dragon, destroying his trap cards on his field. Looking at Black Rose Dragon, there was a significant change this time: there were no roses, it just looked like a root and nothing more, its own body seemed to be barely moving at all.

I didn’t know what was going on, but at the time it was exciting, I had Black Rose attack this man directly, the attack animation seemed slower than usual if I remember correctly.

I looked up into the corner to see that he indeed took the damage, I was sort of relieved, that was until he summoned his own monster. He summoned Red Eyes Black Dragon.

At that point, I wasn’t surprised, I knew I had played games before where the AIs could use moves that the regular player wouldn’t be able to. The man preceded to attack me with Jounochi’s rarest card, with my withered Black Rose Dragon barely hanging in there, that was until the guy played double attack to strike once more, I remember seeing what was like pieces of its body hitting the screen.

“Life” the voice once again spoke up through the speaker, with the extra stored up AP he was able to attack me one again.

At that point I was on my last little life, down 7 monsters, and only taken out 3. Thinking it over, how could my perfect Power House deck not work in this game? I knew I was going to beat this guy one way or another, but I wasn’t going to reset the game at any cost.

Drawing a spell card, I activated it, special summoning one random Synchro monster from my hand, with only the one in my hand, I brought out Red Daemon Dragon. Looking at the summoning animation the once powerful Daemon with its head lowered down, its wings seemly completely gone, the dark part of its body seemed to be missing as it was filled with red, its claws hanging to its side. Placing one card down, I had my Dragon begin my counterattack.

“…help it…” I can’t put my fingers on what he said exactly though. He tried to attack me, I was able to dodge, he just laughed. Waiting to bring my AP, I was able to strike while my opponent began its attack, canceling its attack and destroying Red Eyes.

“Reachable!” he spoke playing a magic card, special summoning a monster from his hand.

The monster he summoned was Cyber End Dragon, I still remember its mechanical shriek. The man brought the battle close, having all three heads attack my monster at the same time activating my trap, though not negating the attack, it sent damage back at his own monster.

Little more than halfway through the track, I did something that really screwed me over, not looking where I was going I ran over one of his field spells Dark Hole, destroying the rest of Red Daemon Dragon’s life, with what seemed as dust blowing into the air.

“Hell!” He once again attacked me, but with Negate Attack, it was nullified. Looking at my hand, I saw my last monster in my deck. I needed to make the last monster count.

Coming upon the next lap, I was capable of summoning my last monster, my third and final Stardust Dragon. Looking at its animation, my breath was stolen. The color was gone, the wings were to the floor. It was as if it was not looking forward to what would happen to it, almost sorrowful. Of course the opponent would not allow me to wait, as it stuck at my monster, taking away more than half of its life.

Finally making it to the last lap, the track once again changed. The field itself wasn’t too different, but the sky had become lighter. Though it seemed as if there were wavy shadowy figures on the side of the road. My character's animation had once again changed. The white color seemed to have vanished and seemed to be somewhat transparent. Attacking my opponent's monster, I took notice of its life points. My icon’s image had changed as in itself the picture seems to have been disappearing. As I noticed this, I had also noticed that the background was getting lighter and whiter.

I tried to pay no more attention to it, as I had a duel to win. Coming across the long row of AP once more I was able to attack again, causing more damage to the mechanical hydra. The masked man attacked me as well, causing me to use my last defensive trap card in my deck to protect my remaining monster. When I used rear-view, which I hardly ever used, I noticed that a trail of red tears were coming for his now being transparent face.

I came up to what would have been my monster’s last attack. Using it, it connected with CED, destroying it for good. It was then that at that moment of destruction a new monster took its place. As that happened, Double Attack was activated, wiping out my last monster the shock messing with my speed going forward.

“Future,” laughing, as if knowing that at this point I had nothing left too beat him with. Looking back to see the monster, it was a long serpent dragon. It looked like it was a Rainbow Dragon. Noticing my character's facial expression, the trails of red was flowing more like a river at this time.

We were half way at this point, I had nothing left, I just had to make sure that I got first place and that was it. Continuing on, I had immediately noticed that the background had definitely gotten whiter, and the black shadows on the side were even more noticeable in their movements.

Looking once more at the life points, I noticed that my icon was nothing more than just an out line, but it too had the river of red in full color. But the facial image above it was still staring, and still seemed the same.

At this point, all I was doing was dodging, the monster behind his attack was like a large Synchro summoning animation, but purely black. It was simple to tell exactly when it was attacking and where it was from. The person was close to me, following right up behind me. I used a maneuver using my spinning animation to make him crash out, making sure that he would not cross in front of me.

Using my last speed spell, I gained one final speed boost, hoping that this would be all that I needed to win. Noticing that the blue dot behind me was still far away, I figured that I could still be able to beat it.

I was coming up on the last bit of the track, at this point there were more shadowed figures as if they were all just watching me. At this time I could see the finish line ahead of me, the background behind it was white, as if there was nothing there, but what was surprising was what was at the starting line.

At the starting line, every character that you could face off against was on the other side of the finish line. All the riders themselves were standing by their motorcycles like in the character select screen from Yuusei to Jack, from Jaeger to the gold knight guy, from Ushio to Fat Albert police man. All around them, were a group of those shadowed figures that were along the road, as if they were all waiting for me to cross over the finish line.

Well I wasn’t just about to disappoint them, and lose my perfect winning streak on the game today. It was then that I was seconds from the end, I was going to win, I was going to show my awesomeness in front of everyone…but…

With one dark blast, my life points reached zero. I had lost, my motorcycle spun out of control, just in front of the finish line. Looking at my life point counter, there was nothing. Inside the emptied red box was nothing, as if the river of red was overflowed.

“All Gone,” the voice once said. At that point, I saw over to the map as the blue dot came up closer to my red dot. As the dot reached me it just disappeared, no one appeared beside me, behind me, or in font of me, all I saw ahead was the warmth white light that I almost had.

I then remembered what happened next, everything that was own my side of the finish suddenly turned black except for my character. What was remaining of light suddenly shrunk away, leaving, I could feel as if everyone was leaving me, going on to where ever they were going, I was left alone in the that lonely dark.

After a few seconds, I was about ready to turn off the game, I stopped as I saw what happened on the screen then.

My character’s motorcycle had burst into flames, engulfing him alive. He made no movement to even try to put out the fire, as if he wanted this to happen to himself. The river of red from his face was visible, as the sound of 3 monster destruction noises could be heard over and over again.

The cries continued for a little while, until they began to fade away themselves. As the sound of their cries disappeared, my character was all alone again… burning… crying. I couldn’t help it but feel a little sorry for him, and maybe a little bit for me.

It was then that the flames began to die down, the animation itself began to die down, fading away into the background of darkness. It was then that he disappeared that he was no longer visible. I was finally about to go off to finally turn off the game, as a lightning bolt once more covered the screen, becoming very bright.

As the light faded away, I came a little closer to the screen to see if anything else were to happen. Nothing happened, except that as the light faded, a part of it didn’t fade. As everything else was dark, I could see the reflection of my self in my TV, the light below my image once again read that word “4”.

The screen once again turned black, I once again waited for it to do anything else, but it didn’t. As natural, the game returned to the “Press a button” menu. Just out of curiosity I continued, and went onto the loading screen, but as I got there, a new message popped up, one that I have seen in many video games that I knew what it said.

“The game data has been corrupted!”

Seeing that, I knew exactly what that meant, and turning off the game I sat down thinking over what I had just played. A few minutes had gone by, and I wondered if this was what that guy wanted to sell really badly that nobody wanted. Going off to my computer, I brought up my email in order to talk to him, of what exactly just happened. Though to no avail, there was still no reply to my message to him.

A few months had passed, I still ended receiving no replies from him, even after sending another message to him. I had gone to see his eBay account only to find that it was deactivated. Going to the forums, I had found a topic about him, it apparently spoke of how he deactivated his account, and how during the middle of some his auctions he dropped them. Even some that already bought stuff from him were complaining about never receiving it, and the normal death threats against his life.

I had gone over to my Wii, never once touching it since then, those images once more coming to my mind.

Looking down, I saw that game. I never got rid of the game, it just didn’t feel right to me to just get rid of an already used game.

Picking it up, and looking it over once more I remember saying to myself, “Just what was happening?” My eyes once again went to that lightning bolt over the stadium, as that it seemed to still stick out to me. I was about to put it down as then my attention was caught, taking the box once more and looking at that lighting bolt, I saw it once more.

Behind the lightning bolt, I saw it, I saw that man’s face its same glassy stare that I never got out of my mind, only this time, it was no longer staring at me, as if there was no need to stare at me.

After a time, I spoke to others about this game, and about the image that I had found. People that had the game thought I was imagining it, many people couldn’t even see the image that I was speaking about. Then that is when I came here, to share my story, along with this writing. I had also placed the image that I had found on my box, perhaps someone knows...

* * *
[I give up - Owner]

Starfox 64 (Sacorguy79)

STARFOX 64 (Sacorguy79)
======================

Most people would probably be aware the paranormal activity knows no bounds when it comes to certain stories about video-games. This story comes from an incident that never should’ve occurred.

It was around early spring when the weather was getting warm and the snow was all dried-out. I was playing some old Nintendo 64 games, two of them in particular being Goldeneye 007 and Starfox 64. When I was playing Starfox, Slippy Toad was, of course, annoying the hell out of me for wanting me to destroy an enemy fighter that was on his tail. I was exhausted of doing the same routine over and over again, so instead I made pointless attempts to shoot him down. But this was odd, because I actually shot him and it hit through the glass of the cockpit. I then saw frog guts spilling out, and a very disturbing red substance that began to form into what looked like Giygas from Mother 3. The game then proceeded to give me an answer from Peppy who remained sitting there. Suddenly, his eyes began to bleed and soon, I only saw black sockets. I could hear the blood-curling moans coming from him as he attempted to tell me to “do a barrel roll”.

This scared the hell out of me, but it only became worse: Falco came up and started hurling insults at me as if Peppy’s death was my fault. My jaw dropped, and I proceeded to shout at the game to stop what it’s doing. Then, Falco’s eyes began to bleed and his stomach split open, revealing the internal organs that almost made me hurl. I immediately ripped out the game cartridge and smashed it with a hammer, and I sat down on the couch. I literally began to shed a few tears due to the gruesome result. Why did those characters suffer like that? What caused all this to happen? But most importantly, I then realized that I bought this game off of Ebay, and the seller seemed a bit strange.

About a half-hour later, I emailed the person who sold me the Starfox 64 cartridge, writing:

“Hello, “TheBloodKiller”. Recently, I ordered a Starfox 64 cartridge and received it, but the game was messed up with a very disturbing scene that occurred while I was playing. What the hell is wrong with the game? Did you hack into it and replace some parts of the game with those bloody videos and images?!? If not, I am sorry to accuse you, but I must know where these came from!

-Sacorguy79"

I waited all day for a reply, because when I ordered the item I received an email from him just 15 minutes later thanking me for purchasing his game. But no reply whatsoever, not even a quick note. I ate supper and decided to go to bed. Before I climbed in, I looked at myself in a mirror and my eyes were bloodshot. I was extremely stressed, and I knew that this incident couldn’t drag on forever. Soon, I found myself sleeping and having a dream.

In my dream, it was dark and stormy, and I was approaching a broken, ruined house. Apparently I was in a suburban territory in a place I didn’t recognize, but I didn’t want to disturb anyone in their homes. So I wandered into the house, and found most of the furniture tore up and ruined. One odd thing, however, was that I saw a statue of Slippy Toad from Starfox 64 in the center of the dining room, as well as a small model of an arwing. Lightning flashed after I noticed and both disappeared at that direct moment. I blinked, thinking that all of this was real, and decided to lie down on the couch. That’s when I began to hear strange noises emitting from the upstairs bedrooms. I slowly descended the staircase, and I was seeing shadows that looked like Falco and Peppy, so I raced up the stairs more quickly. I found the youngest member’s bedroom and found a television on playing the same videos I saw when I was playing Starfox earlier, and a sticky-note on the television that only read this:

“Run”

At that moment, I was beginning to hear voices, whispering to me as if they were coming out of the shadows, saying “Get out of here!”. They sounded just like the voices from Batman: Arkham Asylum! I then got the hint as I raced down the stairs and briefly glanced into the dining room as I ran, seeing those shadows of Peppy and Falco and that statue of Slippy! Once I ran out of the house however, the sky was red and I saw in front of me an executed Fox Macloud with Slippy, Peppy, and Falco standing by his body. They were all missing eyes and holding large axes! Not only that, but the houses were all broken into, tons of dead bodies burning on the ground. Falco slowly approached me, saying “This is all your fault.”

That’s when I woke up sitting up straight with a MP5 in my hand (I usually have that gun in my hand when I sleep, in case of something unexpected), glancing around my room nervously. It was morning, so I proceeded to get up and go to my television. I turned on the news and saw a broken home located in New Jersey that looked exactly like the one I saw in my dream. The name of the owner was Harold Whinshlow, but the news reporter said “Most people refer to him as “TheBloodKiller” on Ebay, where he formerly sold tons of old video-games. Inside the house was a statue of a video-game character that looks like a Toad dressed up as a space pilot from Star Wars.” I noticed too, that on my coffee table was the Starfox 64 cartridge, and it was repaired from the hammer smashes I gave it the other day. I looked at it, and decided to send it to a distant country so I wouldn’t have to see the bloody thing again.

I now live in peace, along with the rest of my Nintendo 64 games, and I can only hope that no one stumbles across that cursed Starfox cartridge ever again.

Glitchy Red (RED:)(Pokemon)

GLITCHY RED
===========

About a month ago, I bought a second Pokémon Red cartridge off eBay so I could start a new game

and screw around without messing up my save file. As soon as I compared it to my old one, I knew it was either a bootleg or produced somewhere else. You can see in the picture how the sticker doesn't fit the front of the cartridge, and the red plastic is cheap and almost see-through (if you look close, you can see the internal battery on the second, while the first can't be seen through at all). When I started it up, it only had one option - New Game, and unlike the well-loved cartridge I'd been using, it didn't have any wear marks from being inserted into the GBC or anything indicating it'd been used.

Well, what the hell, I figured. I'd poured plenty of money into the franchise and one bootlegged game wasn't going to kill me. I popped it into my GBC and started playing.

A couple of weeks ago, I lost my GBC for a while, so I had to play it on my SP. No huge deal, I thought.

When I started the game up, oddly enough, the backlit screen of my SP went out, like I was playing on an old Game Boy Advance or a Color. I thought that was pretty weird, considering the lower setting of my SP's screen was brighter than the "high" setting on all my friends' SPs, as I took good care of it, and it was unlikely that the backlight would be going anytime soon. But as soon as I switched to playing Sapphire, the screen lit back up. I'd played my other Red on this SP plenty, and it'd never dimmed for an old Game Boy game, so I just attributed it to the game itself being poorly made (which makes no fucking sense, I know).

About now, you're probably wondering when I'm going to start telling you about how there were Unown in my party and the Buried Alive guy in Lavendar Town started eating my player character, because any preowned bootleg game story is bound to be some creepy hacked ****. Well, it wasn't that simple. I played through Lavender Town, the Pokémon Tower, all of that, and nothing unusual happened. I didn't go mad from the music and feel suicidal, my Pokémon never turned white and started crying tears of blood, or anything like that.

However, as I continued playing, it became apparent to me that this game had some glitches. Just like the cheap plastic casing and sticker that barely stuck, the game itself was flaky. I've never played Pokémon on an emulator before, but if I had to guess, I would say that when it was copied, a lot of the data was corrupted, and I had to be careful when playing or it would freeze.

For example, sometimes the graphics around the player (I'm going to call him "Red", as that's what I named him. I'm a bit of a Red fanboy) would turn into big colored bars and the game would stop, and the background music would stop on whatever note it had hit and play this high-pitched, staticky whine until I restart. This happened whenever I tried to get on my bike inside a cave or building.

I was almost sure this was just a normal bootlegged game until I examined the SNES in the Celadon department store. Don't judge me, but, being a Red fanboy, I've always liked when the game said things from Red's point of view, like how he says "Dad would like this!" when you examine the SNES, or "I should get going..." when you examine the TV, since you never get to see the player say anything, to the point where, as a joke, the developers made Red say nothing more than ellipses when you encountered him in G/S/C.

Anyways, when I examined the SNES where Red would normally say, "Dad would like this!", instead, I saw the text, "Where is DAD?"

I examined it again, and, same thing. I kind of laughed it off, thinking, for some reason, it was poor translation (don't ask how I thought that made any sense). In the back of my mind, I was kind of hoping for a hack game, because hey, if I got some screencaps and posted them on 4chan, I'd be able to at least kill an afternoon laughing about it.

I went to the next floor, then went back down and checked the NES again. To my surprise, the message had changed. Now, Red said, "Who created me?"

At this point, I was pretty sure this had been added in by some hacker, and I thought that was kind of AWESOME. Hell, Red finding out he was really just a video game character. That's pretty funny.

After that, and after failing to find any other added-in dialogue, I continued on in the game's story. At that point, I was about near the part where you surf to Cinnabar and the Seafoam Islands.

But the glitching was getting worse. Sometimes, the map would get distorted, like Glitch City, and Red would be surfing on a tree or a house or some **** and I couldn't move. I had to Fly out and try again. As a kid, I'd always liked doing MissingNo. and Glitch City, and I had a Gameshark back in the day, so the glitches were kind of cool. Eventually, I made it to Cinnabar.

Now, being an avid glitcher way back when, of course the first thing I did was fly back to Viridian and do the Old Man trick. But no matter how many times I tried, I could never get MissingNo to appear. I thought maybe the ROM had been edited to prevent glitching, but that clearly wasn't the case, as the thing had more bugs than the fucking Viridian Forest.

Instead, when I entered the Pokémon Mansion, I was greeted by the following text window:

RED: Nice try, Red.

It was obvious that where "Red" was would be the name of whatever you named your player. What freaked me was "RED", in all caps, as the speaker.

At this point, I know I had to have an edited game. The ****ing player character was telling me "nice try" after I'd failed to do a MissingNo.

The game froze then, and I restarted. I hadn't saved since before I tried the MissingNo glitch, but when I turned the game on again, I was back in the Mansion, exactly where the window had popped up. I could move again, so I went ahead and played through the Mansion. Call me a pussy, but despite my excitement, I was scared, so I played slowly and with all the lights on. I was still playing on my SP, and the internal light still didn't work, so I used that as justification for my being a massive pussy.

Things only got weirder. After I left the mansion, I got a message:

PA: DING-DONG! Time's up! Your safari game is over!

Having done Glitch City in the past, I knew this happened whenever you flew out of the safari zone. As expected, I was outside the Safari Zone gate the next time I hit "A", with the attendants asking me if I got a good haul.

I had an immense feeling of forboding when I went to leave the gate, scared I'd be in Glitch City or even worse. I had a flier, but you have to understand, this is all a little unnerving.

Instead, I was in Pallet Town, but there was no music, nothing. Another text window appeared:

RED: This isn't where I'm from. I've been lied to.

I couldn't move my player after that, so I went to reset, but something stopped me. Instead, I opened the Start menu and went to Fly the **** out of there, but to my horror, the Pidgeot I used for Fly wasn't there. Just my Blastoise, Exeggutor, Kadabra, Mew (from the Nugget Bridge glitch), and Kangaskhan. In Pidgeot's place was a level 16 Raticate with 1 HP. It was poisoned. I checked its stats, and it had the OT "BLUE" and knew Hyper Beam, Quick Attack, Glare, and Skull Bash. I don't even know if Raticate can learn all of these moves. I've since heard that Gary's Raticate died (seriously) in the game, but I had named Gary "DOUCHE" in this game for a few laughs. I guess the OT name "BLUE" came from the fact that Blue is the opposite to Red version, like maybe it was supposed to have come from a Blue cartridge. I know Rattata doesn't evolve until level 20, so this was a pretty obvious hack.

I had some Antidotes and Potions in my bag, so I figured, what the hell, I'd heal it. But when I left the POKéMON menu, the entire Start menu closed, and I couldn't open it again. I tried walking, and this time I was able to move. I took a few steps, forgetting about the poison until a box popped up again:

RED: We killed it.

At this point, I was getting a little freaked out (no ****ing ****). I went to my party and Raticate wasn't there at all. Neither was my Pidgeot. The slot was empty. I closed the menu and tried to move again, but nothing. I didn't want to turn the game off in case it had somehow saved again, so I just kept trying to move before remembering that my Kadabra still knew Teleport. When I hit Start, ntohing happened. I kept trying to move, but I couldn't move. No... Red wasn't letting me move.

RED: This happened to me. Why?

At that point I just shut the game off. I took the hacked Red version out and put in FireRed. Like with my old game, I'd named the player "Red", and for some reason it still kind of scared me. I started it up, and, to my horror, the screen was still dimmed. I hit "CONTINUE" on the main menu, but when I tried to open my game, I got the message saying that my save data had been lost or corrupted, and when I started, the game froze, with the music just being a staticky whine.

At this point, I was really desperate to play some ****ing Pokémon where no weird **** was going on, and I was pissed that my FireRed version was broken, so I threw in Sapphire and started it up. The screen lit up normally. I thought for a moment that maybe something was wrong with my SP that broke my FireRed, and ****, I didn't want that happening to my Sapphire with the Jirachi from Colloseum and the Feebas it'd taken me an hour to find, so I shut it off and pulled it out.

I started playing what I call "Glitchy Red" version again about a week ago. When I started it back up, I was still in Pallet Town, and there was music and things seemed normal, except for the empty slot in my party and my SP screen no longer lighting up. I biked to Viridian and found Pidgeot safely in my PC, so I figured, what the hell, and took it out and flew to Cinnabar to fight Blaine.

When I went to unlock the gym, surprise, another text box.

RED: No.

No matter how many times I tried, the game refused to believe I had the ****ing Secret Key despite it being right there in my bag. Red wasn't letting me in.

RED: Everything that happened to me, happened because the world let it happen to me. I didn't become a hero on my own! I was manipulated. I never unlocked that door. The door was unlocked because the game let me in. Everything you do, you do because the GAME lets you.

Because of how the text boxes were, it took a really long time to scroll through, and the whole time I was writing down what he was saying so I had it on reference. Things were getting a little too Silent Hill for me, and, once again, I tried to move, but Red wouldn't let me.

RED: I'm going to show you how it feels to be unable to chose your own fate.

I gave up and opened the Start menu again, glad that I could, and used Pidgeot to fly out of there. I knew now that this was only because Red was letting me fly out. He was toying with me.

I flew to Lavender, because, shockingly enough, nothing weird had ever happened there. From Lavender, I walked down to try and go to Fucshia, but as soon as I left Lavender, Red was at it again.

RED: No.

Well, fuck, I thought. I opened the menu and flew to Fucshia. When the I got there, I nearly shat my pants and dropped my SP.

It was the Glitch City you get when you surf along Cinnabar's coast. Immediately, the menu popped up, the way it does when you do the Mew glitch, and it was asking me to save the game. There was no option for "No", and pressing B did nothing. I shut my game off.

When I started it back up, I was still in Glitch City. I checked my party, the way Red wanted me to - Pidgeot and Kadabra were there, but instead of "TELEPORT" and "FLY" appearing when I selected them, there was only "CURSED". Not "CURSE", like in that ****ing retarded Creepy Black Pasta, but "CURSED". I was smart enough not to select it. I hit B until I was out of the menu, and Red was telling me shit again.

RED: You're staying here with me, Red. They replaced me because I was GLITCHED and not good enouigh (sic). I thought this was my story, but I'm just a character in a video game. They took everything from me. My VOICE. My FREEDOM. My LEGACY. They replaced me with the brown-eyed kid.

I understood now that he meant FireRed version, and the Gold, Silver, and Crystal versions where he'd been demoted to final boss.

He let me move, and, to my surprise, the game never froze, even as I was walking on water and stepping onto houses.

Eventually, I suppose I went too far, because the screen turned black around my player.

RED: Am I a joke to you?

A YES/NO option popped up. I can't tell you how fast I hit "NO".

RED: Then why do you do these things to me? Why do you corrupt my world and show me GLITCHES that aren't meant to be? Why do you want to hurt me with MISSNGNO.?

I never wanted to hurt Red. It was just for fun. The game had bugs, and we've all just exploited them for fun, right?

RED: Why did I have to die? Just because I'm a hero?

I shut my game off. That night, I had a dream where I was a Pokémon Trainer - the player from FireRed, who I will never again think of as "Red". I was being chased by a white-pale body. While I can't feel pain in my dreams (I know some people can), the pale figure eventually caught me and ripped at my chest and sides with his nails. The last thing I saw before I woke up was the face of my attacker - a little boy with bright red eyes, black hair, and a red and white hat.

For the next few days, when I played, it was because I had to. I was trapped in the blackness because Red refused to let me go. Because he was forsaken and forgotten, left to just be abused by players who come back out of nostalgia and to exploit the bugs. Because I played so much, I almost always had a headache from the high-pitched noises the game makes. I had to call out of work sick. I could never move, but I found comfort in staring at the screen with the black background and my player. Red didn't say anything to me.

I couldn't play FireRed again, even though it worked on my DS. Yesterday, I finally got to Mt. Silver on HeartGold, and I couldn't bring myself to battle Red. I don't know what he'd do to me if I beat his replacement. Would he be angry? Happy? Would his defeat put his spirit at peace? I don't know. No matter how many times I play through the games, Red will suffer the same fate, because he is a hero, and because the games let him only go so far. Red will never again be able to experience the glory of being the hero, and neither will we. No matter how many times you start a new game, it will never be the same as the first time you played. You know what's going to happen, and you play for nostalgia, because it's just a game to you now.

I killed Red, and so did you. Unlike Ash Ketchum, he's never going to be the hero of another new game in a brand new region. In HeartGold, Gold's successor, Ethan, had even taken his accomplishments from him, being the one to catch the Pokemon Red had fought so hard for - Mewtwo, Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres. His life is over for him. He became such a legend that there was nothing left of him to even be proud of himself.

I finished "Glitchy Red" yesterday, when I finally checked my Trainer card. There was a sprite of Red as he appeared in G/S/C, but in the game's same monochrome color scheme, just red and green. When I looked closer, the red pixels making up his shirt looked darker and arranged oddly, almost like he was bleeding from the chest. None of my Badges or time played or Trainer ID, just that sprite. When I returned to the menu, instead of my name appearing as "Red", there was the word "GONE" for my Trainer card. I selected it, and this time, the card was blank.

RED: Go ahead and forget me now. Goodbye.

The game reset, the way it does after you beat the Champion, and this time, there was only one option - NEW GAME.

I found my GBC earlier today and started playing it on there. When I played on my SP, the screen lit up and everything was normal. I had to start a new game on my FireRed, but it's working again. Even the bootlegged Red version plays normally, no glitches. But I can never see Red's silence the same ever again, or even the hilarious MissingNo. and Glitch City bugs. I have a much deeper respect for the "silent protagonists" in the game, for all we put them through. Lavender Town used to creep me out, but now I find it very peaceful, as even Red, who wanted revenge on a world that had treated him horribly, could never mess with the resting place of fallen Pokémon.

Someday, I hope I stop waking up with scratches on my torso.

* * *
[What does this author have against Creepy Black? That was a good pasta all over, and there are so many horrible, atrocious abominations categorized as Pokemon Creepypasta that are far better to bash on. Anyway. - Owner]

NiGHTS into Dreams

NiGHTS INTO DREAMS
-The Downward Spiral-
(Auth, date unkn)
==================

I am what you call an obsessive NiGHTS fan. NiGHTS into Dreams, for those not in the know, is a game for the SEGA Saturn that was created by Sonic Team. One of the only worthwhile titles worth playing on the system, it’s become a cult classic. The simplified version of the storyline is that you play as NiGHTS, a renegade nightmare creature (though he doesn’t look like it). Throughout the game, you help two human children reclaim stolen dream energy (Ideya) from his creator (Wizeman)’s minions, and fight other nightmare creatures. It’s pretty cut and dry in that regard.

I’ve been a fan of the series since I was a little kid. I’ve held onto my SEGA Saturn for just this reason. It’s worth noting that only diehard fans will actually spell the game’s name out with the weird capitalization of the title. I own countless versions of the full game, according to region, as well as demo versions and the Christmas editions of the game. In some circles, there’s a call for beta versions of the game, not that any seem to be available to the public. Most people want them for research purposes; I however want one to see for myself the things that were left out of the final.

Particularly, I was after a lost level and boss. People who’d cracked the data format used in Saturn games had dug up information about a boss named “SELPH”, as well as an unused level. In the data format, it was labeled as “CLARIS-TOWER”, obviously being meant for the female character, Claris. There are 7 levels total in the entire game; the 7th being shared by both characters at the end of the game, and playing exactly the same for both aside from the different character models. Most NiGHTS fans are DYING to play this level and its boss, though a version with them both intact has proven to be nonexistent. Nevertheless, I hoped against hope that I’d find copy where both were playable.

One day, I stumbled upon a listing on ebay marked “SEGA SATURN NIGHTS DISC”. It was a pretty mundane name for a listing. I took a peek, expecting to find one of the overly marketed US versions that you find scattered all over the place. What I saw wasn’t THAT. The photos on the listing shown that it was a gold, CD-Resque disc with the word “Nights” marked on it in marker, underneath of it, what appeared to be Katakana (or at least I think it was: I haven’t taken a Japanese course in five years). It was listed for incredibly cheap, so I hit “buy it now” and awaited it to arrive. I noted after buying that the seller had absolutely no feedback. Regardless of whether or not they might be a crook or a new user, I just decided I’d wait for it to arrive.

Less than a week later, it arrived in the mail. I remember the packaging: manila envelope, no return address. The disc was exactly as it had appeared in the photos. My heart soared. I quickly confirmed that it booted it, albeit to a slightly different title screen than the original, and went to leave feedback for the seller. It appeared, when I got there, that they’d deleted their account. I thought it strange, but disregarded it, as I was more than ready to dive into the beta version of this game.

I went back to my Saturn and booted up the game again. It lacked the final game’s opening video, but the title screen looked similar, aside from NiGHTS being in a different pose. The logo was the same, and it lacked title screen music, much like the original. I hit start and made a new save file on my Saturn. The menus were pretty much identical to the final version, but eager to find the differences, I selected Elliot as my playable character and started playing. Elliot’s story played out exactly identical to the final version. Same level layouts, ant the same bosses. It seemed like nothing was different until I got to Twin Seeds, the final level. The layout was the exact same, but when I got to the end of the level, there was a noticeable difference. You see, in the final level, you can’t join with NiGHTS at the beginning, and have to fly through the level as the kid you selected. At the end of the level after you retrieve all the ideya, the kid you weren’t playing as shows up as an NPC and helps you break the barrier over NiGHTS so you can join with him and fight the final boss. Claris didn’t show. There was no barrier. Elliot joined with NiGHTS and went to fight the final boss alone.

I figured they hadn’t programmed in the in-game cutscene I described, for this version at least. I beat the boss, and the credits rolled, though without the cutscenes from the final game. After the credits ended, I started on Claris’ game. Like Elliot’s, it played almost exactly the same as the final. That was until I played through her first 3 levels. I was expecting the final level for Claris to be Twin Seeds, but when I went back to the level select, the symbol for her final level was different than the Twin Seeds symbol. It was the shape of a downward spiral. My heart almost leaped out of my chest. It was the lost level! I hoped it was fully playable, and it was right there in front of me. Without a second thought, I hit the A button and proceeded to play it.

That’s when Claris did something that surprised me. She changed the expression on her face. As the character select transitioned into the beginning of the level, her normal cheerful and optimistic face changed to display a fearful frown. A title card for the level was not displayed. As the level started, Claris touched down on a platform outside of the Ideya Palace holding NiGHTS. Below the platform, was a set of dark, foggy ruins; they seemed to make the shape of a spiral going downwards. Before I could examine the level any further, a creepy laugh unlike one I’d heard in the game before sounded, and Claris was flung off of the platform, into the air. She floated there, suspended, as the platform holding NiGHTS and the Ideya Palace plummeted into the dark depths below. There was no music, only silence.

Claris’ character model clenched herself into a fetal position, and floated shivering in the air for a moment. It was then that I regained control over her. There was no time limit in this level. You merely just flew down the spiral toward the bottom. As she flew further down, the creepy laughter from before started up again. It grew more intense the deeper you flew. At points, I could make out speech. It would say things like “God has abandoned you” or “There is no delight in dreams, only sweet death”; morbid, terrible things. I began to hear crying. After a short while, I realized it was Claris. This continued on for what felt like hours.

When I got to the bottom, there was a small transition. Claris touched down in a spotlight area in the middle of a black nothing. She looked around as NiGHTS floated down in front of her. Except something was different. NiGHTS didn’t look right. He looked greyed, almost rotten. The laughter intensified even further, and NiGHTS fell to the ground like a ragdoll. The voice stopped laughing. Then it spoke. “She is ours now. Soon he will be, and then you will be as well. We are them, we are you. We are all that will ever be, and all that will ever perish. We are the Self.”

As it ended its monologue, the shadows rose and wrapped around Claris. She let out a scream, as the disembodied voice cackled, only to be silenced as the darkness impaled her through her mouth. The screen faded and the game reset.

NiGHTS was no longer present at the title screen. I returned to the character select to see that Claris was no longer selectable as well. Her name text was grayed out, and she was completely absent from the menu. Elliot however was still selectable. I noticed that in selecting levels for him that the cursor would cross over to the icon for Claris’ last level. The look on Elliot’s face changed when I moved the cursor over the Spiral level icon, as if to beg me not to select it. I felt like I had to. Almost like I had to go back for Claris. So I hit the A button and took Elliot into the level.

There was no sequence with NiGHTS, no wait to gain control over the flying kid. I had Elliot fly down into the abyss as Selph’s laughter started back up. The things it said got more abusive, more demeaning than before. The words “faggot” and “queer” were mentioned several times. Like before, Elliot too began to sob as I neared the bottom of the spiral. As he reached the area Claris had been before, I noticed NiGHTS’ remains, more rotted than before. The voice ceased laughing and spoke again. “Now he belongs to us too. You will join us soon, as well. There is no God to save you. You will join us in oblivion.”

The shadows rose around Elliot and swallowed him in the same manner they’d swallowed Claris. The screen faded to black, and the voice spoke again, almost tauntingly. “We’ll see you soon.”

The game reset to the same empty, NiGHTSless title screen I’d seen before. I went to the character select, and both characters were missing. Yet the icon for the Spiral was still selectable. I knew who it was for.

Maybe one day, I’ll face it myself.

Strange Super Mario 64 Cartridge

STRANGE SUPER MARIO 64 CARTRIDGE
(AKA "Haunted Mario 64")
================================

I always liked Super Mario 64 when I was a kid. I remember playing it at my aunt’s house all the time. Well, one day, a pop-up appeared out of nowhere as I was watching gameplay footage on Youtube. I was a little startled, and was about to close the window, until I realized that it was showing a mint condition copy of Super Mario 64 for sale. There was a picture and everything. I usually don’t trust these things, but the feeling of nostalgia overpowered me, and I wanted to buy it.

The whole business was peculiar, seeing as how the owner of the game wanted the buyer to send an envelope containing ten dollars to an address listed on the site, instead of using something like PayPal. What made things even more strange was that when I tried to gain access to the website (I wrote down the URL) after encountering…problems with the game, the page was nowhere to be found.

A few days after the ten dollars was mailed, I got a package containing the new copy of the game. The first thing I noticed when I opened the small box was that the ‘official sticker’ with Mario flying in the air was apparently peeled off or something. In its place was a piece of duct tape with ‘Mario’ crudely written on it in permanent marker. I felt a little ripped-off, but as long as the game worked I didn’t care.

I got out my Nintendo 64 and put the cartridge in. The screen turned on with the familiar Mario face that you could stretch and twist aimlessly. I remembered laughing all the time at the results as a kid and decided to mess around for old times’ sake. I moved the cursor over to Mario’s ear and pulled it to Elven proportions. I was going to do the same to the other ear, when the TV suddenly produced loud static. Mario’s whole head started deforming and twisting in ways I didn’t even know were possible for the model. Random sound effects from the game started playing along with the static. As all this was occurring, I could hear a faint voice whispering in Japanese. The voice was stammering and whimpering.

I immediately shut off the game and tried again. I didn’t bother with the Mario head this time. I just selected a new file and started playing.

When I selected the file, the game skipped the opening monologue with Peach and the courtyard outside. Mario was just placed right inside the castle. Creepier still, Bowser didn’t say anything either. I tried to ignore it and played it anyway. However, I also noticed there was no music. There was only dead silence. There weren’t even any Toads around to talk to. The only door I could enter was the one that led to Bob-omb Battlefield. The other doors wouldn’t respond to my button commands.

The portrait to Bob-omb Battlefield wasn’t the usual picture. It was a stark white canvas. I was still trying to convince myself that these were just minor glitches, and that they wouldn’t affect the gameplay at all. Once I entered the portrait, the image suddenly changed from a blank canvas to the Lethal Lava Land painting. You know, that slightly unsettling image of the flame with the evil smile? That’s when I started getting really suspicious.
The mission menu came up, and yet another weird detail was present. Instead of it being “Big Bob-omb on the Summit,” the mission was called “TURN BACK.” I have no idea what drove me to press A, but I did.

The level seemed fairly normal. Everything was how I remembered it. I thought I could finally enjoy my favorite childhood game, but then I saw him…Luigi. I was absolutely shocked. He was never in this game. His model wasn’t even a Mario palette swap. It looked like he had a completely original model. Luigi just stood there until I tried to approach him. He started running at unexpected speeds. I followed suite and went through the level. Strange things happened as I pursued him. Each time I would pick up a coin, the enemies and music would get slower and the scenery would look darker in color and more morbid. It kept gradually getting worse until I collected a fifth coin. That’s when the music just stopped. The enemies lay down on the ground like they were dead. I was seriously freaked out, but I kept chasing Luigi.

I went up the hill, and no cannonballs rolled down trying to knock me over. I really wasn’t surprised at this point. Luigi was always just out of my sight as I ran. Once I reached the summit, I saw yet another object out of place: a small cottage, and it was all that was seen on top of the hill. Luigi was nowhere to be found. The cottage was certainly odd looking for a Mario game. It was old, plain, and broken down. Regardless of my fears at that moment, I had Mario enter the cottage.

As soon as the door closed, a disturbing picture of a hanged Luigi immediately popped up along with a very frightening scare chord. It sounded like a violin screech accompanied by a loud piano banging. Mario fell to his knees and sobbed for roughly five minutes before the screen irised out.
I returned to the castle. Mario just slumped out of the painting. The image switched from the Lethal Lava Land portrait to the image of Luigi hanging himself. The room was different this time. It was now a small hallway. Toads with blank expressions and white robes lined the sides of the hallway. There was another painting at the opposite end that completely and utterly scared me. It was a picture of my family. It wasn’t a photo from the time Super Mario 64 was released; it was a very, very recent photo. I remember posing for it the weekend before. I reached for the on/off switch on the N64. There was no way I was going to play any longer, however, when I flipped the switch, the game was still on. I flipped it back and forth, to no avail. I tried unplugging the entire system, but the game never left the screen. I was still able to control Mario, too. I couldn’t just leave it on forever, so I kept playing. I went to the photo of my family and jumped in. Only one mission was available. It was called, “Run, Don’t Walk.” I selected the mission. Let’s-a-go!

The level started in a flooded hallway with platforms floating on the water. Mario landed on one of these, and the camera turned to show what was behind. A silent black void was slowly approaching Mario. It didn’t look like anything, not even like finished graphics. It was just a giant, blocky, black blob. I started jumping from platform to platform. With no goal in sight, I kept running; the darkness slowly but surely kept gaining speed. This kept going on for what felt like hours, and I began to doubt there would ever be an end. Mario was going in circles. Finally, the black blob/void/thing caught up with Mario and enveloped him in darkness. He didn’t scream or resist at all. It simply consumed him.

Mario fell out of the painting and back into the castle. I lost one of my three lives. The room was different now, too. Some of the Toads were gone, and the painting looked different. My family and I were in the same positions, but our bodies were partially decomposed. It looked too real to be photoshopped. It looked more like someone took our dead bodies and posed them.
Regardless, I jumped into the painting again. There was still only one mission available. It was called, “I’m right here.” I selected the mission and prepared for the worst. Mario landed in a small dark room. There was no visible way out. The room was empty except for a piano in the corner. I knew what that meant. I was stuck in there with the Mad Piano. I approached it and it started chasing me as always. There was no way to damage it, so I had no choice but to let Mario take damage.

When he lost all of his health, the usual death animation didn’t happen. Mario was simply mauled by the piano. He fell as his blood and guts spilled onto the floor, and the camera panned to a top-down view of his corpse. A distorted version of the merry-go-round music from Big Boo’s Haunt played as the screen slowly transitioned from the in-game shot to a photo-realistic sketch of Mario’s dead body in the same view. It was very unsettling. I was crying softly as I gazed upon the image. I lost another life.
The photo of my family was shown again. We were even more rotten than before. The view zoomed into the painting, as if I was warping again, but I was greeted with a shot of Peach’s Castle from the outside. It was crumbling in ruin. The fields were on fire. The sky was pitch black. Bowser’s laugh played on a loop in the background as children mockingly chanted, “You couldn’t save her!” This went on for a long time until a close-up of Peach’s face accompanied by an extremely loud screech interrupted the loop without notice. Peach’s mouth was wide open as if she were screaming and her eyes were empty, black holes.

Mario fell out of the painting again. All of the Toads were gone, and my family and I looked positively repulsive. Maggots were wriggling around in holes in our flesh. Guts were spilling out of our bodies. My dad’s eyeball was hanging loose from its socket. It was too much to bear, but something still urged me to trudge on. I jumped into the painting, only one life remaining.
This time, there was no name for the mission, only a blank space where the title would be. I selected the mission and Mario landed on a very small island in the middle of the ocean. There was a solitary sign that read, “DIVE.” I did just as it said and entered the water.

The ocean was dark and empty. There were no fish, and I wasn’t able to see anything besides Mario. I swam downwards, and even though I kept going for quite some time, Mario never ran out of breath. I counted roughly ten minutes of swimming before I decided to go back up. Just as I turned Mario around, it came. A huge Unagi the Eel came out of nowhere and swallowed Mario whole. It went by so fast I wasn’t even sure what I saw. The Game Over screen didn’t appear. All that happened was a fade-out.

The photo of my family and I was shown again. We were skeletons at that point. Once again, it looked very real. I couldn’t move the camera, either. It stayed focused on the picture. I shut it off and turned it on again. I chose my file, but it went back to the skeleton photo of my family. I tried this about three more times before giving up. I desperately wanted to stop, but some force kept me from walking away. With nothing else to do, I decided to select the only other saved file. The camera once again focused on the skeleton picture, but this time they were in a different position…almost as if they were a different family.

Tails Doll (Sonic R)

TAILS DOLL
==========

Sonic the Hedgehog is my favorite Video Game character of all time. Fast and cool, who wouldn`t love him? Well, there was still something odd about one of his past games. Sonic R. Sonic R is a racing game featuring the cast of Sonic along with two new characters:

Metal Knuckles is a neat character introduced. Obviously, the metal Doppelganger of Knuckles the Echidna.

Tails Doll is, well... just creepy. He`s an orange doll with some white like Tails, has stitches, lifeless black eyes, and a blood-red gem attached to a piece of wire.

What`s creepy is that someone unknown began an internet fad of curses that will cause you to see this dreaded demon and will get you murdered. Apparently, if you tag Super Sonic with the Doll, he`ll turn around and come out of your TV to kill you. Another curse says that if you play the songs "Can You Feel the Sunshine?" or "Livin` in the City" in a locked bathroom with the lights turned off, you`ll see a red light. In another few accidents, some people have said that their Tails Doll character is missing from the character screen.

I wished to see if this would be true. It sounded really fake, but I had to try it out. I searched for a copy of the game on Ebay with a SEGA Saturn to go with it, and I found one from a seller named "BuyMahStuffplz". The price was $35.67 counting the GST, so that`s not so bad. When I got it, I invited my friend over and we each had an airsoft gun by eachother. But as soon as I booted up the game, there were a few graphic glitches here and there, and as soon as I picked the first race, I was playing as Egg-Robo, in some sort of hellish world. It wasn`t a race, but it was like an adventure field. After walking around a bit, there was a weird cutscene. We saw Egg-Robo`s front, but then a knife was stabbed through him. He then actually began to bleed with guts spilling out, which made my friend and I stare at the screen in a real jaw-drop fashion. Then the screen turned very black only to see a pair of red-glowing eyes and a red-glowing gem.

The Saturn immediately began to smoke and pretty much crashed. My friend and I were panacked and we checked the box that the game came in. We saw a note that read this:

"I have set the Saturn to do an emergancy crash in case you do anything reckless in the game: like tagging four characters."

We went back to the TV, but it showed a picture of the Tails Doll on the screen, and it said, "Thank You for playing with me!" The TV then turned off by itself.

I don`t know what to say about this rouh game copy, but as far as I`m concerned, it`s now in a better home... burning in my fireplace.