For my last entry of this year’s Spooptober celebration, I wanted to take a look back at the original gaming nightmare fuel for most of us older gamers: Big Boo’s Haunt from Super Mario 64. For all the talk of video games corrupting the youth going around back in the 90s, gaming was (mostly), much, much tamer than its modern iteration. So much so that what is just kinda spoopy today was actually kinda legit terrifying, and it managed to be so entirely through its atmosphere.
It’s not as though the mario games hadn’t strayed into spooky territory before. Super Mario Bros. 3’s World 8 was pretty foreboding, and the ghost houses in Super Mario World definitely had those chilling vibes, but neither were actually scary in the proper sense. And neither was Super Mario 64 most of the time.
Right up until Mario literally dove headfirst into Big Boo’s Haunt, Super Mario 64 was shaping up to be just another bright and colorful Mario romp, but in 3D for the very first time. The levels before it were all either warm, chill, pleasant and happy or a combination of mysterious and exciting. Big Boo’s Haunt was a complete departure from that, making for an immediately unpleasant surprise.
Immediately upon dropping into Big Boo’s Haunt, you’re greeted by haunting winds, absolutely ominous background music and a jeering invitation to enter the very imposing mansion before you. But, should you try to explore a little first, you’ll find that the stage outside is practically empty and is just this caged…space floating around in a blue void surrounded by dead trees in the distance.
Go below and you’ll find the equivalent of a sewer with a very out-of-place carousel (complete with music), again empty except for flames spewing out from the center. The mansion itself throws out the normal camera rules too, swapping the free camera for fixed angles in every room, no longer allowing the player a clear view of Mario at all times.
The Boos inhabiting the place are defeated easily enough, but take special care to taunt Mario and point out that they are in fact dead and therefore cannot die. Which implies that Mario is actually killing the other baddies he’s been encountering up until now, adding a whole other layer to the horror of this whole situation. Let’s not forget the traps, secret doors and the haunted killer piano that gave an entire generation of gamers their first jumpscare! Is it scary now? Not even a little. It’s just a quaint little spoopy feature of a beloved classic. But, back then? Back then that thing might as well have come straight out of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s!
I did myself no favors in the years afterward either. One of the first video game remixes I found (on a website called OC Remix) was something called “Haunted Hell”, which blended the Big Boo’s Haunt music with frantic EDM samples and bits from old horror movies (“This place is cursed! …cursed!” still echoes around in my head to this day!) So, for me, the level remained an unsettling experience even long after I got good at clearing it.
Is Big Boo’s Mansion still a scary level in 2026? No. I doubt it would scare even a first-time gamer these days. No, today it is decidedly spoopy. But, it’s still the original scary level. The one that came completely out of nowhere and left its mark on every 90s kid who just wanted to enjoy their very first 3D game on their brand new N64. I’d say kudos to Big Boo’s Haunt, but then I still haven’t forgiven it for that minor heart attack I suffered at the, uh, keys of that killer piano.
What was your first experience with Big Boo’s Haunt like? What was your original scary level? Let’s talk below, and see off this year’s Spooptober together! Thanks for hanging out with us throughout and be sure to check back with us this December for our next event!
Image by Hatmonster and TheDuckofIndeed