Breaking the Barrier is a combination web series/Game Mod for Super Mario 64, created by Marionova64
, also known for his work on the beta recreation The Preservation Project. It's a Lighter and Softer take on the Super Mario 64 "iceberg" (see the original game's YMMV page for more information.)
Depicting several VHS recordings of a single cartridge seemingly personalized to hell and back by the AI, the series revolves around Mario (and Luigi) exploring an over-complicated, maze-like version of Peach's castle created by Bowser, hidden in a trapdoor behind the one that normally goes to "Bowser in the Dark World."
The first playable build of the series was released on August 5th, 2020, and currently covers the rooms explored up to "The Man Dressed in Green," but is planned to be updated until the entire area can be fully explored.
See also the Super Mario 64: CLASSIFIED, another series in a similar style, but with an opposing tone which takes a much more cynical approach to the iceberg than most other recreations.
Tropes:
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- In the series, Mario encounters a switch that unlocks all of the cap blocks automatically if pressed. In the ROM hack, it can be used to unlock the Vanish Cap for use in the mirror room if the hack wasn't patched over a save that already had it.
- The ROM hack specifically replaces Bob-Omb Battlefield in the game's level index, making it very easy to return to the maze if a glitch kicks the player out.
- Bad Boss: Bowser starves and otherwise abuses his construction workers for even the slightest thing in the maze that doesn't go according to his tastes.
- Cliffhanger: "Breaking the Barrier" and "The Man Dressed in Green" both end with Mario/Luigi entering a new area, only for the video to cut out.
- Dark Reprise: All of the songs used in the series are songs from past Mario games prior to and including Mario 64, but with the key altered (and the tones inverted, in the case of the File Select remix that plays in the Clockway Internals) to remind the player that despite the maze looking like some kind of (literal) dreamland, they're in enemy territory as far as they're concerned.
- Distressed Dude: Like in Super Mario 64 DS, Luigi is stuck in a painting, which Mario enters to free him in "The Man Dressed in Green." However, the method of unlocking him (using the Vanish Cap to go through a mirror) is more akin to the method of unlocking Wario.
- Lighter and Softer: The only sinister undertones encountered throughout the series are in-universe and related to the fact that the maze is still Bowser's lair. Additionally, while it's implied the series is recorded off of a personalized cartridge, it mostly manifests as the maze itself, which is more akin to a dream about the original game rather than a disturbing secret or addition.
- Mind Screw: The maze is designed to look like what someone dreaming about Super Mario 64 might see, and is thus filled with a bunch of doors and pathways that don't make any sense but are still planned to form a coherent map.
- Missing Secret: All of the doors in the ROM hack that lead to an area not explored in the videos are sealed by Bowser's magic, and cannot be opened by any means (this is actually a means to prevent Mario from falling out of the world). Invisible walls are used in place of this if the area in question doesn't require a door to access.
- Shout-Out: There's a patch of flowers in the Greenhouse Framework that happen to be arranged in the shape of a minimalist "Loss" meme.
- Word Salad: All of the videos have some of this vaguely relating to the main focus of said video as the description.
