Iconic Horrorbrew
In-Game
Victim #1. Eyeballs were unable to be found. The victim was found lying on the carpet. Causes of death unknown, handmarks with unidentifiable fingerprints were found all over the corpse.
MARIO, After the Castle explodes
Victim #1 is a character mentioned briefly in "MARIO," a Super Mario World ROM hack developed by the titular user, "M A R I O." It was removed from the site shortly after once the users felt that the novelty had worn off, but was re-added to the site on 16th March 2014 for legacy sake.
Victim #1 is part of larger ARG filled with media besides Mario.
Biography[]
The description of the victim can be found after beating the first and only castle of the hack. The ROM hack comes with a txt file consisting of completely random characters, the words "find me" scattered around. Later investigation into the hack suggests it could be decrypted with a few medications.
Many have speculated the "find me" image is connected to the description of the victim.
Appearance[]
The description implies the eyes were absent from the corpse. The image presents the unnaturally red face of a woman in shadows, seemingly in a screaming or pained expression. Looking closely reveals the faint glow of an eye in the left socket.
ROM Hack[]
MARIO consists of modified levels from the first world of Super Mario World, most of which have been emptied of enemies and items.
Yoshi's Island 3 is replaced with a short level named "Yoshi's Island 7" consisting solely of a small walk to the Giant Gate. Yoshi's Island 4, renamed "leave now", has had its moving water layer removed with invisible blocks allowing the level to be navigated.
The first room of Iggy's Castle, renamed "#1 Go Back", is completely redesigned consisting of flat ground with grey water on the ceiling that kills the player if they swim high enough within it, and four lines of Message Boxes followed by a sole box before the door. The second autoscrolling room consists solely of an invisible bridge leading to the boss door. The boss room is completely unchanged, but the following dialogue is altered to an apparent autopsy of a murdered woman labelled Victim #1.
"The final level" is an empty version of Donut Plains 1 with the bar for the Giant Gate removed, however an invisible wall near the start of the level forces the player to move through an invisible Warp Pipe. They are taken to a long black room filled with non-functional small doors, and dropped onto a Super Mushroom to make entering them impossible. The stone wall at the end of the room contains another invisible pipe leading to the final room of the hack, containing nothing but a pit. The bottom of the pit can be stood on, and is filled with invisible pipes that take them to room 0 of the game. The room is overloaded with autoscrolling commands, crushers and Big Bubbles, ensuring that the rom crashes upon attempting to load the room.
List of Horrorbrews[]
Being one of the first horrorbews, Victim #1 has inspired multiple later works:
Trivia[]
- Original image is an edited photo of a cosplayer of Kyo, vocalist for heavy metal band Dir En Grey, which was discovered on 1st September 2023.
- Victim #1 is one of the first instances of a Horrorbrew, being created as early as 2010.
- A Creepypasta can be found documenting a player's experience with the ROM hack, thought this isn't canon to the ARG.
Gallery[]
