History VideoGame / the

*** [[http://youtu.be/6ReJlqlar0Q?t=13m48s Alternatively]], [[spoiler:there's a Mario silhouette that you can position Mario in, which causes a message reading "the heart" to appear. At this point, walking back towards the start and pressing Start while on the first bridge causes it to break. This takes you back to what appears to be another reset, but entering the level reveals the forest is on fire this time, while some message boxes say what appear to be lines of poetry. Inputting a button code takes you to a white area with various messages apparently relating to ''some''thing that happened on July 31st, 1992]].

* ShoutOut: The song featured in the ending of the [[spoiler:Burning Forest]] was [[{{Sampling}} borrowed]] from the soundtrack of the Brazilian PornWithPlot movie ''Um Pistoleiro Chamado Papaco'' (''A Gunman Named Papaco'') that reached some memetic status.

* MindScrew: A major part of the horror comes from how little sense everything makes, [[WordSaladHorror including the text]].

MinusWorld: The cave is an incomprehensible mess of glitchy and mangled sprites.

** Every song in the game has a title, scrambled within the game's coding. In alphabetical order, they are called "a rage"[[labelnote:*]]Plays during the Burning Forest[[/labelnote]], "beginning"[[labelnote:*]]Plays during the Peach section[[/labelnote]], "crawl"[[labelnote:*]]Plays on the map screen[[/labelnote]], "death"[[labelnote:*]]Plays in the area after being caught by Ghost Peach[[/labelnote]], "dark"[[labelnote:*]]Plays during the Pink Forest when approaching Demon Peach[[/labelnote]], "memory"[[labelnote:*]]Plays during the "I Watch" ending[[/labelnote]], "mistake"[[labelnote:*]]Plays in the cabin building area[[/labelnote]], "mystery"[[labelnote:*]]Plays when approaching the black screen[[/labelnote]], "recall"[[labelnote:*]]Plays while being chased by Ghost Peach. Also speculated to possibly be named "Caller" or "Cellar" instead.[[/labelnote]], "world"[[labelnote:*]]Plays during the "again?" screen, as mentioned above"[[/labelnote]], and a final track without a proper name[[labelnote:*]]Plays in the area after the Burning Forest[[/labelnote]].

** There is ''one more'' ending to find should the player decide to hack the game to find the secret forest. It can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1uhaLp_j4 here]]. (Fair warning, the Pink Forest takes the hack's blood and gore factor ''[[ExaggeratedTrope much further then the rest of the game]].'')

** There is ''one more'' ending to find should the player decide to hack the game to find the secret forest. It can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1uhaLp_j4 here]]. (View at your own risk, this level makes the rest of the game feel ''[[UpToEleven relatively tame in comparison]].'')

** Every song in the game has a title, scrambled within the game's coding. In alphabetical order, they are called "a rage[[labelnote:*]]Plays during the Burning Forest[[/labelnote]]", "beginning[[labelnote:*]]Plays during the Peach section[[/labelnote]]", "crawl"[[labelnote:*]]Plays on the map screen[[/labelnote]], "death"[[labelnote:*]]Plays in the area after being caught by Ghost Peach[[/labelnote]], "dark"[[labelnote:*]]Plays during the Pink Forest when approaching Demon Peach[[/labelnote]], "memory"[[labelnote:*]]Plays during the "I Watch" ending[[/labelnote]], "mistake"[[labelnote:*]]Plays in the cabin building area[[/labelnote]], "mystery"[[labelnote:*]]Plays when approaching the black screen[[/labelnote]], "recall"[[labelnote:*]]Plays while being chased by Ghost Peach. Also speculated to possibly be named "Caller" or "Cellar" instead.[[/labelnote]], "world"[[labelnote:*]]Plays during the "again?" screen, as mentioned above"[[/labelnote]], and a final track without a proper name[[labelnote:*]]Plays in the area after the Burning Forest[[/labelnote]].

* DummiedOut: The game contains an unused pink variation of The Forest. Should the player hack their way to this stage, they will be greeted by a level that manages to take an already [[DarkerAndEdgier dark]] and [[BloodierAndGorier bloody]] Romhack ''UpToEleven.''

[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the.png]]

* AGodAmI:

** Whatever the hell [[spoiler:Ghost Peach]] is, it’s not normal.

* PaletteSwap: The Forest has various incarnations that usually boil down to different colors and sometimes entities. The most radically changed variations are the [[spoiler:Burning Forest and Pink Forest]].

* ShoutOut: The song featured in the ending of the [[spoiler:Burning Forest]] [[{{Sampling}} was borrowed]] from the soundtrack of the Brazilian PornWithPlot movie ''Um Pistoleiro Chamado Papaco'' (''A Gunman Named Papaco'') that reached some memetic status.

* BloodierAndGorier and DarkerAndEdgier: Than the orignal ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', obviously.

* EldritchAbomination: Whatever the hell [[spoiler:Ghost Peach]] is, it’s not normal.

--> [[AC:I BELIEVE I AM THE GOD OF THIS FOREST]]
--> [[AC:ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME?]]
--> [[AC:I AM THE ONE THAT]] ''[[OminousVisualGlitch (glitched letters)]]''

* DarkerAndEdgier: Than the orignal ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', obviously.

* DevelopersForesight: If you manage to lockpick the ROM, open it in Lunar Magic and discard the overworld's custom palettes, you'll be greeted with hidden text reading "HACKING IS A SIN YOU KNOW?"

* BigBad: [[spoiler:Ghost Peach. [[MindScrew Probably.]]]]

** [[spoiler:Whatever is described in the Burning Forest is likely to be this.]]

* GuideDangIt: Getting some of the endings can be obtuse, and the in-game hints are cryptic. In particular, one ending requires you to [[spoiler:stand in place and do nothing]], and another requires hacking the game.

* MultipleEndings:

** MindScrewdriver: Heavily downplayed, but putting everything together does cause a ''very'' vague, yet still noticeable, narrative to form.
* NoEnding: Pretty much all of the "endings" described above count as this, though together they seem to form a vague outline of events.
* NothingIsScarier: Part of the game's scariness is that half of the time, it's just you and the background noise.

* ShoutOut: The song featured in the ending of the [[spoiler:Burning Forest]] [[{{Sampling}} was borrowed]] from the soundtrack of the Brazilian PornWithPlot movie ''Um Pistoleiro Chamado Papaco'' [[MemeticMutation that reached some memetic status]].
* SurrealHorror
* WordSaladHorror: It can be seen as this if one doesn't try to connect any of the scattered pieces.