Best Level from Super Mario 64

wonder how much of Mario 64's creepiness is related to the fact that it was the first N64 game and that a lot of it was essentially made as a demo? there's a good article from the developers of Crash Bandicoot talking about all the challenges in making those early 3D platformers. theres a lot about the looming shadow of Mario 64 and how they were in competition with it without necessarily knowing anything about the game or how they solved all the problems they were facing. apparently the technical limitations of the N64 and forced everything to be as simple and open-looking as it was, which I think is where a lot of the creepiness stems from. like all those weird-ass skyboxes which often looked like stock images superimposed onto clouds and what not. Wet-Dry world has this entire abandoned city in the background doesn't it? there's nothing in a modern game that looks anything like it.

all this got me watching some videos of Majora's Mask, if you wanna talk nightmare fuel. I remember getting to the final boss fight and nearly having to leave the room once the thing started singing and twirling around.

i cannot finish majora's mask it is too scary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq8HZmN0zMs

I wonder if that was inspired by House.