The Lore of Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64 has been around for over 24 years, with an initial release all the way back in July of 1996. Even after all these years, it would be hard to argue that this game has ever become completely irrelevant, thanks to its milestone status in the world of 3D gaming. But, recently, it has come back into common consciousness with the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which collects Super Mario 64 along with Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy.
After a recent playthrough on the Unsupervised Nerds Twitch channel (VODs available here), it got me thinking. In all these years, though it has always been one of my favourite games, I don’t remember ever doing more than just skimming (or skipping) the signs or dialogue in this game. And this realization led to a wonderance:
Is there a deeper lore to Super Mario 64?
I went off and did another playthrough of the full game. This time I read everything there was to read. I discovered that there is definitely a deeper lore to this world, but it is a far more implicit one; one built almost entirely out of level design and only a few written lines that build it up along the way.
Setting Expectations
Before getting into any possible lore in Super Mario 64, it is worth talking about how the opening moments of the game sets expectations.
There are certain things that were often just true in Mario games. For an example: in nearly all the preceding Super Mario games, Mario is on an adventure to save Peach from Bowser. You start Super Mario Bros just walking right and have no explanation for a purpose until you reach the first of Bowser’s castles. Contrasting this norm, Super Mario 64 starts with a letter that Mario has received from Peach. It tells him to come to the castle because she is baking him a cake.
This isn’t a huge reveal, it doesn’t hold any particular meaning on its own, but this is only the start (literally).
After Mario arrives in front of Peach’s castle, the player is free to run, jump, and generally just mess around, until they decide to head toward to castle door. At this point a Lakitu floats down on his cloud holding a camera and explains that they are here reporting on the news of what is happening inside the castle. Basically, that they will be filming everything Mario does to keep this news up to date.
The game camera is something that is taken for granted. It is a necessary part of a video game, and not often given any kind of diegetic reasoning. “Diegetic” referring to something existing within the world of the game rather than simply being there for the player (unlike something like the health meter, which is purely for the player and does not exist in any real way inside the world of the game).
Not only does this moment with Lakitu explain the camera that follows Mario throughout the game, but it is also the explanation for why it can’t be moved into certain angles (which becomes incredibly frustrating at times, but, I digress).
So, before entering Peach’s castle, we learn Mario is there because he was promised cake, and that there is a news camera following him around. But why is any of this important? And, more to the point, why bring it up if it isn’t directly related to the possible lore of the game?
Super Mario 64 spends its opening moments giving explanations for things that exist because they need to for the game to happen; things that if they went unmentioned, very few players (if any) would question. Of course Mario would arrive where the something is happening with Bowser (otherwise there would be no game). Of course there is a camera following him (how else would the player be able to see anything?). These small touches set up an expectation that there is a purpose behind everything going on, even if it is a silly one like Mario just arriving to eat some cake.
This kind of beginning puts the player into a particular mindset. One that seems to imply that the player can and should read into everything that is happening rather than assume anything is there just to be there. And with this mindset in place, we head into the castle.
The Power of the Power Stars
Upon entering the castle, Mario finds a Toad to the immediate left of the door. This Toad gives us a key piece of information as far as lore is concerned:
“Am I glad to see you! The Princess...and I...and, well, everybody...we're all trapped inside the castle walls. Bowser has stolen the castle's Stars, and he's using their power to create his own world in the paintings and walls.”
Everything that be gleaned from the lore of this world can be traced back to this statement to some degree. The idea that the power stars are able to create entire worlds brings with it many implications that affect this game and possibly even prior ones.
For one thing, it creates the question as to whether Peach is in possession of these stars because she is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, or if her family used the power of the stars to become royalty. On top of this, the existence of stars with such power offers up more of an explanation as to why Bowser is constantly kidnapping Peach. It isn’t just that she is the Princess, he is after these powerful magical artifacts.
The vast majority of the worlds that Bowser creates are entered into through paintings. What’s interesting here, is that it seems to be demonstrating either a lack of imagination or even laziness to an extent. If the stars give those that possess them the power to create worlds, it stands to reason that those worlds must come from somewhere, most likely the mind of the one creating them.
When the player reaches the second floor, they find themselves inside of an art gallery. There are paintings covering all the walls, some of which are copies of those found earlier in the game. This little bit of level design seems to be there to tell us how Bowser came up with the worlds that he created. He found the art gallery and used the paintings there as the inspiration for these worlds.
Moving back to the beginning, there is a room on the first floor with no paintings, and instead has three stained glass windows. In this room is a sign left by Peach, describing how the hidden stars around the castle are in places that Bowser couldn’t find. None of these hidden stars are found within paintings. So, this all tells us two things: first, that Peach has used the power of the stars to created worlds herself (though, much smaller ones, it appears); and second, a painting is not necessary in the creation of these worlds. This furthers the theory that Bowser uses the paintings just as inspiration.
These created worlds are incredibly finite, though can vary in size. The majority of them seem to be floating in the sky with an endless void beneath them. Take, for example, Tall, Tall Mountain. This level is, as the name suggests, a tall mountain that Mario has to scale. You would expect a mountain to come up from the ground, but jumping over the side of this mountain will reveal that the whole thing is floating.
Now let’s take this fact in concert with another message left on a sign on the first floor. This one is found in the room containing the painting for Whomp’s Fortress. It states, “Sometimes you’ll bump into invisible walls at the edges of the painting worlds.” Just like with the camera being held by Lakitu, Super Mario 64 is taking the concept of invisible walls and giving them a diegetic reason. In this case, the existence of the invisible walls reveals to us that these worlds that appear to be floating in the sky aren’t above anything, but rather exist only within this finite space. Though the walls are invisible, they are solid boundaries that suddenly end. These aren’t locations that can be travelled to by other means, but instead are like their own pocket dimensions.
While on the subject of Whomp’s Fortress, let’s talk about what is going on inside of it. For the first star in this level, Mario must reach the top of the fortress and fight against Whomp. He is a large slab of concrete who wants revenge for people walking all over him, and the other slabs like him. Let’s keep in mind the fact this whole world is one created by Bowser using the stars. Not only does Whomp’s existence show that these stars have the ability to create sentient life, but Whomp’s speech implies a history. These beings created by the power stars don’t just pop into existence but have a memory that seems to expand beyond when they would have come into being.
The life created in these worlds isn’t even limited to the worlds in which they are created. Koopa the Quick is a great example of this because he is first found in Bob-Omb Battlefield looking for a race. Later, in Tiny-Huge Mountain, the player can find Koopa the Quick again. In this world he explains that this is his home course. The idea that he is from this world also explains why he is huge compared to the koopa’s found elsewhere. Similarly, while the game never explicitly states, it stands to reason that the red Bob-Omb Buddies found in nearly every level, are all originally from Bob-Omb Battlefield.
The power stars don’t only have such crazy abilities in the new worlds created by them, they can alter reality even in the “real” world. For a small version of this, there is the way they magically lock doors. But, for a much bigger example, there is the infinite staircase that goes from the third floor to the final level. If you don’t have 70 stars, you can run up it forever, but still only be a few steps from the bottom. It is an M.C Escher painting kind of logic, built using this power.
The Exceptions
After a look at what the power stars are capable of, at least in the context of this game, there are a few places where things don’t add up quite so neatly. Here is a complete list of levels that aren’t entered using paintings:
Big Boo’s Haunt
Hazy Mazy Cave
Shifting Sand Land
Dire, Dire Docks
Rainbow Ride
There are arguments to be made about Snowman’s Land and Tick Tock Clock, but they can still fit into the same idea as the normal painting worlds. The former does have a painting that can be seen through a mirror, and the latter is a world in a clock that is entered into from a clock’s face (essentially the same as entering a painting that depicts a world).
First things first: there is nothing to say that Bowser is in any way incapable of making worlds without paintings. Peach’s small worlds with hidden stars prove as much. It simply seems to be a case that it may have been easier to create worlds based off a painting. So, none of these are out of the question. But they are still worth looking at to decide why they might be the way they are. Let’s remember how this all began: we were shown that everything has a reason.
Big Boo’s Haunt seems to be the most straight forward. The idea behind these painting worlds is that Bowser hid the stars in them to keep Mario from getting them back. So, a level hidden in a bird cage guarded by a ghost probably makes more sense than the rest of the entrances. And if the idea is that he is using these paintings because of a lack of imagination, building a haunted house world after deciding it will be guarded by ghosts is just as 1:1 as the paintings.
We can make a similar connection as to why Bowser would hide Shifting Sand Lands in a regular wall with no discernable hint at it even being another world. Though, this time there is no obvious explanation as to why he would make it a cursed desert.
As a bit of an aside, with no real lore connections, it is interesting to note how many players find this level. There is a yellow rabbit, Mips, who scurries around the basement and can give Mario a star if they are caught. Many people find Shifting Sand Lands after attempting to dive at Mips and falling into the world when they miss. Here is a shortened version of what Mips says when caught, “I'm late, so late, I must make haste! […] Now let me be! I have a date! I cannot be late for tea!” Mips plays the part of the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland and chasing them often ends up being the cause of Mario falling into another world. Just a little fun fact.
Jumping ahead to Rainbow Ride, much like Peach’s hidden level on the opposite side of the third floor, it is easy to imagine Bowser creating a world in the sky based purely on the fact that he is up this high up in the castle. The existence of the cruiser inside harkens back to the airships used by him and his minions in Super Mario Bros. 3.
While those three can almost be shrugged off for why Bowser might not have used paintings, the next two seem to have a little more going on.
First there is Hazy Maze Cave. This one is entered by jumping into a metallic liquid in the floor. This is the only level in the game with a hidden star’s world is hidden within it. Not only that, but the metal cap switch world’s entrance is the same metallic liquid as the entrance to Hazy Maze Cave. This could imply that Bowser was trying to trick Mario, but in a way where the player doesn’t have the context to be tricked themselves.
It is safe to assume that Mario has been to the castle before. While there is no way to know if he has ever seen a single one of these hidden star world entrances, it is at least possibility. Bowser would no doubt assume the same thing. So, he happens upon the entrance to the metal cap switch world (because, let’s face it, it isn’t at all hidden). What better way to trick the enemy than to take the entrance to a small, helpful place, and change it into a maze with gas that can kill him?
The actual entrance is still fully functional inside of this level. The fact that Bowser would create a kind of world inception rather than outright destroy this other world could mean a couple things. Maybe these worlds can’t be destroyed once built. Or it could be that Peach used more power stars than Bowser has in his possession, making it too strong to fully get rid of. So, he builds a maze around it. Either of these could make sense and aren’t too huge of leaps.
All that remains is Dire, Dire Docks, which might require the biggest leap of all.
When the player reaches 30 stars, a message pops up to tell the player that they can enter Bowser’s second big star room. This message includes the statement, “they say that Bowser has sneaked out of the sea and into the underground.”
Now, this could be taken in two different ways. One of which is that it refers only to where Bowser has gone into hiding since the first fight with him. But there was no connection to a sea with that level, so the most obvious answer might not be the one that makes the most sense. Could it be that this is not only referring to where Bowser currently is, but also how he got into the castle in the first place?
Much like Hazy Mazy Cave, and the metal cap switch world inside of it, Dire, Dire Docks is entered by jumping into a shimmering liquid (this time, water). But it has something else in common with the metal cap switch world, as well the small cloud world up on the third floor: these levels all secondary exits. In both hidden levels if the player falls (either out of the waterfall or down from the clouds), they wind up in front of the castle rather than outside of the level’s portal like usual. In Dire, Dire Docks there is a large square tunnel that if the player swims through, the exit the level and end up in the lake outside of the castle.
So, why is this important? Well, outside of Dire, Dire Docks, the only levels we see with secondary exits are ones we know were created by Peach. If Dire, Dire Docks is one of Peach’s worlds, these similarities make more sense. Not only that, but it she created it, than it would mean that it was in the castle all along, and thus Bowser could have used it to sneak in originally with his submarine.
It’s notable that Dire, Dire Docks is the only one of the 15 main levels that has none of Bowser’s usual kinds of minions. There are a couple enemies in the level (a shark, and a couple of fish who can hurt you, but don’t actively come after you), but not a single goomba or koopa, or even a bully. If this were a level fully created by Peach, this would make sense. Why would she fill it with Bowser’s minions? The shark could have been her idea of a natural security system.
This whole concept begs the question of why Bowser would choose this level to hide 7 of his newly gathered stars in though. And I think the answer comes from the same sentiment that had him use paintings for his basis of his worlds: he is lazy. This was a fully developed world of a decent size, ready to be used for his purposes. If the idea that he used it to enter the castle is correct, then it proves he knew about this world, so why not use it?
Conclusions
Looking at all this, it builds out a much larger story than what we see on the surface of Super Mario 64. A story that starts because of the existence of powerful objects that can alter reality itself, leading to Bowser using a pocket world created by Peach to break into the castle and steal nearly all of them. He creates worlds, and an army that can move in and out of them. And all of this is hidden inside a game where Mario just needs to save the Princess, again.
If we want to read into the lore of the game, nearly all the vital information is front loaded into the beginning. Once that information is given, it seems to let the player decide if they want to make any connections or not. In the end, does it change anything when there is the in-universe explanation for much of what Mario must do is that Peach and Bowser are actually the level designers?
But what do you think? Is the situation with Dire, Dire Docks taking too huge a leap? Does any of this change the way you see Super Mario 64? And if these stars have the power to change reality itself, what are the odds the Peach’s family are wholly good and not using this magic to give themselves this royal power? Is it possible that the Kingdom, as well as all the Toads and other beings, are their own creation? Let me know in the comments!
