Super Mario Bros. is well-known for being a goofy, kid-friendly series about a plumber and his brother saving a princess from a fire-breathing turtle, but some of the fan works can get really dark.
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Fan Fic
- Fallen Kingdom (not to be confused with the Minecraft animation series of the same name) is a interesting tale taking place in a Bad Future where Bowser finally defeats Mario, with Luigi leading a resistance to take back the Mushroom World from the Koopa Empire. That is until a secret organization is revealed to have been pulling the strings all along...
- With Big Shells and Wings is an example both to the main Mario series and itself. It starts off rather light hearted, and then takes a descent into madness around the time Trowzer is introduced.
Fan Games
- Another Princess is in Our Castle is a horror game in which Peach's ghost has turned into a Ghastly Ghost and is haunting her castle, with Mario needing to go in and solve the mystery of her castle while avoiding her.
- Mario 85 is a game about a haunted copy of the original NES Super Mario Bros haunted by MX, an entity that resembles Mario but clearly is not him, trapping the boy Lucas inside his game.
- (Mario) The Music Box is outright said to be inspired by the Corpse Party series, and it shows. In it, Mario and Luigi find themselves in a haunted mansion- but unlike the more lighthearted ghosts from Luigi's Mansion, here the spirits are frightening and murderous, the Game Over scenes can get gruesome, the mansion and surrounding town has a horribly tragic backstory involving the medieval witch hunts, and even the Mario brothers themselves turn out to have some heavy baggage in their hidden pasts.
- Super Mario Dolor is a fangame where Mario must go through five levels to reach Bowser's Castle, but each level turns dark and haunted halfway through, the enemies become terrifying creatures, and the real plot concerns Mario dealing with the grief of his brother's death.
- Too Late.exe is a Super Mario Bros. 3 fangame where Mario is trapped in a dark realm by Mr. L, the Vengeful Ghost of Luigi, and must escape several levels while being stalked by his brother.
ROM Hacks
- Super Mario World hacks:
- ALPHA SPHERE is a hack that tells an original story with original characters about the last two living survivors of an unspecified apocalypse, with a red-and-black palate used to aid the atmosphere. In it, Dr. Faux Andre wants to force his wife Norma to help him repopulate the planet, and his abuse is so severe that it causes her to attempt suicide, among other things.
- Eyeless is a bizarre hack where Mario has lost his eyes and must traverse a frightening monochrome maze full of strange enemies.
- Game.bps is a hack that takes the typical Ghost House level and turns it into a genuine nightmare with gory imagery and Jump Scares.
- Mario's Mystery Meat is a fanmade Milestone Celebration for Vinesauce that nevertheless contains a massive amount of Surreal Horror in which Sponge, the third Mario Brother, must escape the belly of an eldritch earthworm.
- 'the is a very surreal hack where Mario is forced to wander a spooky forest by Ghost Peach, a Humanoid Abomination, leading to one of several grim and inexplicable endings with little-to-no explanation for any of it.
- Super Mario 64 hacks:
- B3313 is a hack based on the "SM 64 Iceberg" rumors, and as such is a Yume Nikki-esque maze with an unsettling atmosphere and horror elements.
- SM64.z64 is a short hack that has Mario do a time attack in an empty and increasingly dark Bob-Omb Battlefield where something is watching him, and eventually chases you down, with no way out.
Other
- Mario Brothers takes the concept of the first Super Mario Bros. game—Koopa kidnapping the Princess—and plays it deadly serious, giving the events epic scope and a tragic scale, especially by the ending where everyone is dead.
