Video Game / Super Mario Dolor

Super Mario Dolor is a horror Super Mario Bros. fangame made by Gamejolt user Ziggity.

One day, while Mario is relaxing on his house, he receives a letter from Bowser telling him that he's kidnapped Princess Peach again, prompting Mario to go save her. It is up to the plumber to venture through five levels and save Peach at the end.

Unfortunately for our favorite plumber, things start getting ugly when the world around starts falling apart and turning into a hellish landscape where he's constantly chased by eldritch horrors.

While the game was originally on Gamejolt, it has been sued out of the site by Nintendo, and can now only be found in the Internet Archive right here.

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This game contains examples of:

• All Just a Dream: The game is a nightmare Mario has as he remembers his brother’s death.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: All of the bosses are this, as all of them dwarf Mario in size easily. Specially the black Mario that serves as the final boss and its Good Ending counterpart, the giant Luigi.
• Beard of Sorrow: In the Normal and Best endings, Mario, who is in a deep depression after Luigi lost his life, is shown with a beard.
• Big Bad Ensemble: King Bowser has once again kidnapped Princess Peach, and sends his minions to stop Mario from saving her. But Mario also has to deal with the Shadow Mario/Luigi, a Humanoid Abomination warping the Mushroom Kingdom into a nightmarish hellscape and stalking Mario. It is revealed to be an embodiment of his depression from the death of his brother Luigi.
• Big Boo's Haunt: The Ghost House, as is typical of Mario games, is filled with Boos and Big Boos. However, it's played with in that every level, including this one, has a Dark World horror section — this one involves Mario having to hide from monster-like tall Marios and floating mummies.
• Bilingual Bonus: Dolor is the Spanish and Italian word for pain and suffering, and likely refers to the pain Mario experiences through the game as the world turns into a nightmare and he frequently finds himself bleeding. It could also be referring to the mental pain Mario is suffering after the death of Luigi.
• Blackout Basement: The Dark World section of the Ghost House is nearly pitch-black, with Mario needing to navigate it with a flashlight he can shine in any direction. There are also tall Mario-like monsters and floating mummies in the dark.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The canon series is a family-friendly, bloodless affair. In here, getting hit in Dark World areas causes Mario to bleed heavily, and the levels are often filled with blood and blood-like textures.
• Dark Is Evil: The Black Mario, an evil monster that torments and stalks Mario and whose body is completely black with the exception of its red eyes.
• Dark Reprise: Nearly every level theme has a slower, more horror-themed remix that plays in the Dark World sections. The only exceptions are the Bob-omb Battlefield theme (as that is a Secret Level which lacks a dark world), Athletic, and Bowser's Castle (the Dark World version instead plays a remix of "Bowser in the Dark World" from Super Mario 64).
• Dark World: The main gimmick of the game is that every level looks like a typical Mario level on the surface, but turns into a nightmarish horror version about halfway through.
• Death by Adaptation: Luigi died prior to the events of the game and has left Mario with depression.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Unlike many 2d Mario games, you have infinite lives here. The one time that you are presented with a game over screen, it's a fake-out.
• Disguised Horror Story: At first, it seems to be a typical Mario fangame with the same Excuse Plot of Mario rescuing Princess Peach from King Bowser. Then in the first stage, he reaches the exit only to abruptly run out of time, and when retrying the stage, it suddenly turns into a nightmarish hellscape of blood, red textures, and eyes. The rest of the levels jump between typical Mario fare and Surreal Horror.
• Earn Your Bad Ending: The Worst Ending requires the player to mess with the game's files to let them be able to move on the title screen, something that is never once hinted at or even something that the player would be expected to do.
• Green Hill Zone: The first level is a typical Mario grasslands first level. At least before it turns into the Dark World version.
• Guide Dang It!: Getting the Best and Worst endings is far more obtuse than getting the Normal Ending.
  • To get the Best ending, you have to find all 5 Green Stars, which the game never hints at the existence of, hidden in each level — and they are often hidden in seemingly-innocuous locations. The worst offender is the one at the end of a Secret Level that is also never hinted to exist — and to find it, you need to beat the third level and then go back to the first level, which will then take you to the secret level instead, something that is counter-intuitive. Once you have all 5, you then need to go to the Dark World version of Bowser's Castle and ignore the path that leads to the normal final boss, instead finding a hidden door near the beginning that will take you to the True Final Boss.
  • Even knowing that the Worst Ending exists is one thing, as the game gives you no indication that there is a third ending, and it requires you to hack the game itself to make it so you can move Mario on the title screen, which ordinarily no player would be expected to do.
• Fission Mailed: The game does this a lot, as a transition to the Dark World segments.
  • The first level does this twice. At the flagpole area, there is nothing that can be done to avoid Mario's time from running out, killing him in the process. You are then transported to what seems like the same level again, only for it to turn into the Dark World version. And whenever Mario reaches the flagpole again, he will bleed out and die, yet his body will proceed to slide towards the flagpole because of the blood.
  • The Underground level seemingly ends at a pipe leading back above ground — but it is a trap that drops Mario down a bottomless pit, and the death jingle plays. Then you wake up in the Dark World version and have to get through it.
  • Upon reaching the end of Bowser's Castle, Peach is not there and you have no choice but to either let time run out or jump in the lava, apparently getting you a game over — but choosing the stage again warps you to the Dark World version.
• Hailfire Peaks: The Underwater Level is split into three segments with contrasting themes. The first third is, as the name would suggest, an Under the Sea level. Then, Mario is eaten by a giant Unagi and it turns into a Womb Level. Finally, Mario ends up in a Level in the Clouds when the Unagi flies him there.
• It's All Upstairs From Here: Bob-omb Battlefield, the Secret Level, has you climbing a big tower to reach the top and fight King Bob-omb.
• Level in the Clouds: The last third of the Underwater Level has Mario jumping through clouds after escaping the inside of Unagi.
• Mood Whiplash: Happens a lot due to the nature of the game. Every level will start out like a normal Mario level only to abruptly turn into a horror version of itself halfway through. It also happens the other way around in Level 4 — one moment, Mario is sitting atop the giant Unagi, flying through a scary thunderstorm. Then he is suddenly dropped into a Level in the Clouds with a remix of the happy Super Mario World level music "Athletic".
• Ominous Floating Castle: The Dark World version of Bowser's Castle is flying in a windy storm.
• Multiple Endings: There are three — a Normal, Best, and Worst Ending.
  • Normal Ending: If you play the game normally, Mario faces the Shadow Mario as the final boss, then defeats it and wakes up from the nightmare — it is revealed he has been taking pills, hinted to be anti-depressants, for some reason.
  • Best Ending: If you collect all five Green Stars and take them to the secret door in Bowser's Castle, then Mario instead fights Shadow Luigi — after beating him, he wakes up from the nightmare with no anti-depressants, and having beaten the incarnation of his depression, takes a bouquet of flowers and drops them off at a grave — it turns out Luigi has been dead the whole time, and Mario was struggling from depression as a result, but now he is able to move on somewhat.
  • Worst Ending: If you hack the game to get Mario to move to the right on the title screen, then the game breaks the fourth wall to begin Addressing the Player. It expresses disappointment in how you are apparently unsatisfied with the game itself and want to peek behind it, then describes the story as an "allegory" of some sort. It leaves before asking: "What am I supposed to do, if I'm not supposed to die?"
• Stealth-Based Mission:
  • The Underground level's second half involves you hiding from a giant Mario head that pops up in the background every few seconds behind walls. The final part of the boss battle has it pop up too, as does a part of Bowser's Castle.
  • The Ghost House has you hide in closets from tall Marios that will dismember Mario if they see him.
• Underground Level: The second level is modeled after 1-2 from the original Super Mario Bros, though like the others it has a Dark World version.
• Under the Sea: The Underwater level has you swimming in a lake. Or at least, the first third does, before Mario is eaten by Unagi and it becomes a Womb Level.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Bowser's Castle, as usual, is the fifth and final level. It is split into two parts — the first part is modeled after the castle levels from the original Super Mario Bros., while the subsequent Dark World section is an Ominous Floating Castle.
• Womb Level: There's a point in the underwater level where Mario gets swallowed by Unagi and has to traverse their body to escape death.