I always loved playing Super Mario Bros. on my NES when I was little, it was so fun to get through all 8 worlds and save the princess over and over again and find all those cool glitches everyone was talking about, it was spectacular. Recently my family did a little spring cleaning around the house. I went up to clean out the attic when, to my luck, I found an old, dusty box containing my old NES and a few cartridges for it, including my Super Mario Bros. game.
I was so excited and jumping around as this could have been a chance to relive my young childhood years. I ran downstairs and hooked up the NES to the television and popped the cartridge in, but sadly it wouldn't turn on. I had a good friend who was a skilled hacker. I handed the old cartridge to him and requested he make the game work, soon enough he came over and gave the cartridge back, it looked brand new. I popped the cartridge in a second time and it booted on.
I was very happy, though the game was a bit laggy at some points. I spent the whole day playing through the game and once I got to the end and saved the princess, I saw her text box and remembered there was a second quest. I never actually played much of the second quest as a kid but I was eager to try it to remember what changed. When I returned to the main menu and booted up the game, there were significant changes everywhere from what I recall playing it as a kid. The sky was completely black and the clouds were a dark grey, as if a thunderstorm were to begin.
There were stomped Goombas pretty much everywhere, and Pirahna Plants weren't coming out of certain pipes they usually come out of. I started walking through World 1-1, which was changed in the way I described, and then soon I noticed the timer wasn't counting down, and it was frozen at 666 in-game seconds, even though the most time you get in an average level is 400 in-game seconds.
I continued walking through the ominous level, while a low-tone Super Mario Bros. theme played in the background, it sounded almost sadistic. Once I got to the end, I arrived at a very large castle, as if you completed World 1-3. I entered the castle and NOTHING was there, no enemies, no obstacles, I was just walking through an empty castle, not to mention a soft static sound was in the background instead of the usual Castle theme.
Once I reached the end, Bowser didn't show up, and there was no axe/button to drop out the bridge with. I normally walked into the area with Toad in it, but I could control Mario freely as he talked. But instead of saying:
"Sorry, Mario, but our princess is in another castle!"
He said, "Sorry, Mario, but you're too late!"
Apparently there was more space to the right of the screen, with a small blood trail following. I walked along the bloody trail as the trail of blood started getting thicker and thicker, and the static sound got louder and louder. Soon I got to the end, and there was Peach, lying down, like she was dead.
I couldn't control Mario anymore, and I just sat there watching for several minutes until a text box appeared next to Peach saying, "Why didn't you save me?"
The screen instantly cut to black and a loud screech came out the TV speakers.
I ran towards the old NES and powered it off. I was exhausted, and everyone in the house was already asleep. It was very late at night, so I laid the game down and got some rest. I woke up at about 7:30 in the morning to the Super Mario Bros. theme a few rooms away, which was weird since no one was home that morning and the NES wasn't on, but I did remember leaving the cartridge in the NES.
I walked downstairs into the living room and to my complete and utter surprise the game was playing and Mario was walking through a normal World 1-1 all by itself. There was no one home and a controller wasn't plugged in. I just sat on the couch and watched the game play itself, like I was watching a TV show or a movie.
Eventually, Mario reached the end of World 1-2, but instead of walking through the normal exit pipe or jumping up into the warp zone, he punched the 2nd and 3rd bricks from the edge of the top of the normal exit pipe and jumped into the top of the pipe, glitching through it and going down the World 4-1 Warp Pipe, but he appeared in a level titled:
"World -1"
I ran over to the study and looked it up on the computer and found there was a place known as the Minus World in which is reached using the glitch Mario performed, and it is a repetitive water level, never-ending. Mario, all alone, swam through the level over and over again, and each time Mario entered the beginning of the level, he looked older. Soon enough, he entered the level again and died. Again, the screen cut to black and displayed a screeching sound and a text box saying:
"You can't protect anyone, not even yourself."
I never played that game AGAIN.
{{by|The-Master-Link10|cpwuser=yes}}