Panflute

Note: This is meant to be a retake of the SMB3: Blood Whistle creepypasta.
== First Look: Super Mario Bros 3 – Modified Whistle ROM ==
==== Date Published: June 5th 2012 ====
Today’s ROM hack I’ll be taking a look at today is apparently (according to the anonymous creator, at least) “something special”. It isn’t depicted as some big texture swap or anything, but it does modify the warp whistle powerup in order to make it “dynamic”, whatever that means. The warp whistle is already powerful enough as it lets you warp to any available world on a unique map, so I don’t quite get what needs to be changed in the first place. But as you know I tend to put good faith into whatever I play, so I’ll give it a fair shot. Will edit this entry when I test it out.
Edit: Not very impressive unfortunately. When I got to where the warp whistle would be located in the World 1 Toad House, I noticed a rather fitting visual change: the whistle sprite was replaced by that of a panflute. I’d like to add some points for making the whistle visually distinct, but when I attempted to use it…it just ended up crashing my emulator. As far as most crashes go it was much cleaner than usual, but I don’t know if I could consider that a factor worthy of praise. While I’d hate to call this a disappointment, considering how vague the ROM’s description was I can’t say that I expected much.
== Re-Review: Modified Whistle ROM ==
==== Date Published: June 6th 2012 ====
So, about that ROM I took a look at yesterday…
It turns out there’s actually quite more to it than just updating (or breaking) the whistle, but the way I was able to discover this was…unintentional, to say the least.
When I restarted my emulator it immediately showed me the Toad House where I first got the panflute. Right off the bat I noticed how off everything felt: not only was the background pitch-black, the Toad who would usually tell me about the chests was nowhere to be seen. The chests were still openable, but none of them had anything inside. It was pretty unnerving, even if it left me feeling a tad cheated on. But before I could make any sense of it the game automatically exited the house in order to transition into another modified area: the warp zone. The altered island had its surrounding sea replaced with a void similar to the one in the Toad House. I was also unable to access all but one of the pipes, its name consisting of only a single question mark.
The level itself was uncomfortably barren, having minimal platforming and zero hazards besides a few scattered pitfalls. The background and terrain were a dull beige color, and the only music that could be heard was an offbeat rhythm that’d stop and start again at completely random intervals. I initially considered this to be an amateur attempt at a custom level, though it didn’t make me understand why something like this had to be included in a simple item modification hack. When I got to the end of the level I saw that the usual goal post was replaced by a larger (most likely original) sprite depicting another Toad House. With no other exit in sight, I went inside.
This house was somehow even more barren than the last, as the chests that would usually be present were completely absent. There was a visible Toad, but he took on a unique back turned sprite I didn’t recognize. As the offkey music stopped dead in its tracks, I wasn’t sure of what could happen next.
Until the toad spoke.
"Welcome back." it said through a dialogue box. This took me by surprise, but the NPC’s rambling was far from over.
"Was this your intended destination?"
"If so, I might as well commend you."
The toad’s sprite shifted to him holding an item that resembled the panflute up high while its back was still turned. Before I could wonder if the Toad had somehow stolen it from me while the game was on standby, one last dialogue box popped up.
"But the time for fast travel is over."
Dissonant music began to play, which I immediately recognized as a broken version of the usual Warp Whistle jingle…but when the distorted sound of cracking interrupted the melody as the screen cut to black, I came to understand that last message a little too well.
After a few seconds of silence the game faded into a freeze-frame of the barren level, where the only thing that could be heard was a droning ambience. When I pressed a button in order to find out where my character was, all I did was trigger another dialogue box.
"THIS PLACE WILL BE YOUR GRAVE. NOW LIE IN IT."
From this point on the game was pretty much softlocked. No button I pressed could affect the screen or close that cold-blooded stinger. All I could do was stare, wondering what the point of all that even was. It was at least something much more interesting than what I saw beforehand, that’s for sure.
== Creator’s Email ==
==== Date Published: June 11th 2012 ====
A while ago I received a pretty weird email…and I’m 99% sure it came from the creator of that Modified Whistle ROM I played a while ago.
I wasn’t surprised at receiving one considering that my personal email is listed on the blog for general inquiries, but the tone of whatever I got didn’t sit right with me. I asked them if they were willing to elaborate, but it’s been days since I asked them that with no further reply in sight. They’re practically anonymous regardless, but I can’t help but feel a bit worried for them. Who knows, maybe whoever gets to read what’s below will be able to decipher anything from it.
...
Hey! Thanks for getting to play my mod.
It’s nothing special, I know. I’m not really big in the emulation or ROM industry, but I couldn’t put the idea of a simple modification test behind me. So I decided to turn it into a piece of playable art—and for starters, I also thought it’d be cute to replace the iconic whistle with another iconic musical instrument. Clever, right? I hope it was.
When it came to putting the mod together, I won’t lie that things kinda spun out of control. At first I thought I'd just be working on a simple sprite replacement, but then I got…inspired. Think about it—a panflute could do so much more compared to an old-fashioned whistle, y’know? If you played it at the right moments, it could take you to worlds you'd hardly dream of imagining!
They’d be wonderful. You’d never want to leave.
So what if I got carried away with the whole "making your game suspiciously crash" kicker? At least I made something fun out of it. I know you weren’t 100% satisfied with the mod I made, but I’m sure you’ll be able to find interest in the stuff I'll put out in the future. One thing’s for certain—this won't be the last you’ll see of me and my work, that’s for sure!
Just you wait.
–CJ
Category:Mario
Category:Retake
Category:Internet
Category:Video Games