Super Mario 64 But You Are The Scary Piano
February 06, 2021
Hobbyist ROM hackers and modders have made minor changes to classic video games since the dawn of computer gaming. Well, maybe not the dawn. Perhaps the week after the dawn. When I was first dabbling with console emulation back in the 1990s I saw a glut of crudely changed games clearly altered for shock value such as nude and/or racism-inspired hacks of Super Mario Bros. where all someone did was change a few pixels here and there. Today that scene has evolved, and while I'm sure there are still young teens making trash for their own amusement, most hacks and mods today focus on quality of life improvements, creating new levels, reviving canceled features left dormant in the game data, and even changing the player character into someone completely different. For instance, here's a mod for 1996's Super Mario 64 that removes Mario from the equation and replaces him with the terrifying, sharp-toothed piano from the Big Boo's Haunt level. Once confined to a dingy room, the mad piano is free to explore the world. Ramming into familiar foes with mighty chompers, the piano seems absolutely unstoppable. It's somehow able to grab Bowser and swing him around even without arms and can even don wings to fly free. Go, piano, go! You've earned it.
(via Platypus Comix)