Even a series as fun and adventurous as Mario & Luigi isn't without its share of unsettling moments.
Games with their own pages:
Bowser's Inside Story
- Much of the game takes place inside Bowser's body. Which is strangely maze-like and platformer-esque. You have to manipulate Bowser's organs at times to get Bowser moving or affect him. The idea that Bowser has these characters running around inside him affecting his bodily functions and messing with his insides is very grotesque. Plus, some of the enemies are odd, virus-like versions of regular enemies such as Goombas. Enemies that Bowser inhales can damage him internally by attacking his body, and all the Toads are infected with a disease that makes them inflate in size and roll around uncontrollably.
- Giant Battles always start with the soon-to-be-fought Humongous Mecha crushing Bowser. For a few minutes, he literally dies.
- Super Peach's Castle in particular is a very creepy boss. It looks decidedly monstrous, with bright red eyes resembling Fawful's glass lenses, many sharp protrusions, and a mouth that looks more than capable of destroying things. It also spawns a black hole behind Bowser that can pull him in (although it also ends up with an additional void behind it which it can similarly fall into) and constantly attempts to push him into it, trying harder and becoming more difficult to prevent as the fight goes on. The fight ends with both it and Bowser being pulled into the holes behind them, and Bowser must leap out and smash it repeatedly while making sure to time it correctly, lest he be hit with its spikes. The creepiest part of the fight, however, is what happens if Bowser loses all his HP in the black hole - It just closes, enveloping him entirely within an instant. Either you just witnessed Bowser, and by extension the bros and everyone else stuck inside of him, be erased from existence, or trapped in some hellish dimension created by the Dark Star's powers. Neither is pleasant.
- You wanna know the worst part? Even if you do well the whole fight, it is very easy for the castle to deplete your HP and kill you towards the end. Between the slow damage of being trapped in the black hole and leaping out to be hit by its spikes, which it raises even before the final part of the battle, does an immense amount of damage, and if you're not careful in the very final phase (which only begins once its HP is down to a sliver), it's easy to go from having a solid amount of HP to having none and getting enveloped by the black hole, even if you've been doing well the entire fight, and you can't heal once the final act of the boss begins.
- Super Peach's Castle in particular is a very creepy boss. It looks decidedly monstrous, with bright red eyes resembling Fawful's glass lenses, many sharp protrusions, and a mouth that looks more than capable of destroying things. It also spawns a black hole behind Bowser that can pull him in (although it also ends up with an additional void behind it which it can similarly fall into) and constantly attempts to push him into it, trying harder and becoming more difficult to prevent as the fight goes on. The fight ends with both it and Bowser being pulled into the holes behind them, and Bowser must leap out and smash it repeatedly while making sure to time it correctly, lest he be hit with its spikes. The creepiest part of the fight, however, is what happens if Bowser loses all his HP in the black hole - It just closes, enveloping him entirely within an instant. Either you just witnessed Bowser, and by extension the bros and everyone else stuck inside of him, be erased from existence, or trapped in some hellish dimension created by the Dark Star's powers. Neither is pleasant.
- The final boss fight. Literally EVERYTHING in the Mario universe is on the verge of destruction, Fawful has transformed himself into some really freaky spider-like/bug-like thing, and is inside Bowser's body, transforming his stomach into something mutated looking. And his face... It's really disturbing to think about.
- Said mutation is made even worse in the remake, where there are numerous holes in the background structure... most of which are arranged in the shape of Fawful's deranged grin, aimed right at the camera.
- The song that plays in the grounds of the Fawfulized Peach's Castle
is incredibly ominous. - The Dark Star in general is creepy - it is literally an embodiment of evil that can absorb other beings to use as a source of power, as it does to Fawful. Then he turns into an evil version of Bowser sporting a mohawk that even shrieks.
- When tracking it down in the Airway, the bros encounter it several times. On at least two of these occasions, its aura envelops the two and causes them to start gasping for air.
- The Airway in general is quite creepy, thanks to the Dark Star. Besides its occasional appearances and boss fight, its influence visibly affects the area, with several odd, black features that aren't present elsewhere showing up, such as around the pipes, and every enemy encountered sans the Airnapses are visibly influenced by its presence, with enemies like the Air Cheeps sporting a similar color scheme, an image of a black star on their bodies, and glowing red eyes.
- The Dark Star's potency for nightmare fuel comes to a head when it manifests itself as Dark Bowser. Put simply; imagine an Artifact of Doom, with no altruistic qualities to speak of, desiring only to bring darkness and despair upon the entire world and perhaps even beyond - and its physical form is a copy of one of the strongest, and, in-universe, scariest characters in the franchise. Basically, if it were not for the original Bowser himself, the Mushroom World would be lost in a flash.
- Fawful might seem hilarious at first, and... well, he is, but he's by far one of the most disturbing villains in the franchise when you think about it. For one, he actually managed to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom, and took over both of the main royalty's castles (Peach's and Bowser's). Then, he awoke the Dark Star and absorbed its power, and even when he was defeated, he only turned into a creepy dark spider thing that ends up fueling Dark Bowser. During the final battle, he's extremely creepy, what with his jumpscare when he grows huge, and he has several creepy attacks, such as this one. Finally, even when both he and Dark Bowser are defeated, he blows himself up in a last ditch effort to kill the Mario Bros., which also makes him one of the only recurring characters in the franchise to actually die, and one of even fewer to die on-screen. That, coupled with the fact he is almost completely evil with no redeeming qualities and the fact he rose from being a lowly dragon to a threat to the world, arguably makes him one of the creepiest villains in Nintendo's history, beaten only by Giygas, 0 and Dimentio in this department.
- The effect of Malatone Formula:X from Bowser Jr.'s Journey. Those that take it become much stronger, gaining a purple aura and increased stats at the cost of losing their mental faculties, much like some actual steroids. Dieter outright states that it alters 97% of the user's DNA.
- Somehow, it gets worse when the BFF take it in the final battle. Before that, when they used Captain abilities in battle it was preceded by a small quip (Dieter's "I am here to play games with your lives." before he uses his Doppleganger Attack, for example). Now? Nothing but zombie-like groans and murmuring.
Paper Jam
- Bowser - and his paper self - finally manages to become a genuinely terrifying villain, seeming more of a Knight of Cerebus than usual even in spite of his humorous moments. Through several of his lines, he seems to invoke a sense of Tranquil Fury, which seems remarkably eerie compared to his Large Ham roaring. He and his Alternate Self engage in various crimes such as having numerous Toads work as slave miners to have his castle go airborne later on, cannonball Peach's castle to hell and attempt to do it again right after, incinerate all of Toadette's papercrafts, and get rip-roaring pissed once they see their sons beaten half to death. Their ultimate endgame is that, once the Paper Mario world is devoid of all life, they can safely seal the Mario Bros., Paper Mario and Starlow inside and burn it to cinders right there, absolutely guaranteeing the end of their arch-enemies. Doubles as a Moment of Awesome in that Bowser's come a very long way from Superstar Saga to become The Unfettered tyrant he is now.
