Nintendo is no stranger tocelebrating anniversaries, and with the release ofSuper Mario 3D All Stars, which has combined three classic games not yet on the Nintendo Switch, they’ve given the mascot the biggest celebration yet, and it now has fans arguing aboutwhich franchise should get the same treatment.

RELATED:10 Mario Games That Still Aren’t Available For The Nintendo Switch (But Should Be)

Article image

As the classic games have come back in to style,Mario 64’sstrange content is making the rounds in meme form. Whether it’s making light of Mario being a brutal penguin murderer or Peach’s baking skills, fans have been quick to jump onSuper Mario 64’smore quixotic moments.

10Me And The Boys

Mario 64is one of Mario’shighest ranked games on Metacritic, and though overalls tend to be back in style, one thing the game is not is full of badass heroes. The protagonists are literally plumbers, and this meme makes fun of the similarities between Mario and company’s stance to those looking for fights. Holding their arms out like they are carrying rolled up carpets on each side, these lads are ready for some bowser bashing.

91UP Mushrooms

Something that has long been a hot topic in the Mario world is Wario’s apparition, which is an anomalous entity that appears only when it is triggered by something the player does in-game. The thing is, nobody knows what triggers the apparition to appear. The legend has inspired numerous memes of the few screenshots that exist of it, and this one is completely on point, as players desperately chase the 1 up mushroom as soon as it is revealed on screen.

8TikTok

Using the classic Drake meme but replacing his head with the Italian plumber’s, this meme throws shade at TikTok, the video sharing app that has practically taken over the world, favoring theMario 64level also called Tik Tok Clock. Though the level is one of the hardest in the game and completely infuriating, it’s infinitely better than mindlessly scrolling through endless videos of Tik Tok dances.

7The Piano

The top image is fromMario 64, a level of the game that has haunted kids for years and given them a strange fear of pianos. The bottom image is fromSuper Mario Odyssey, wherein Mario lovingly embraces the same piano that he once dreaded.

RELATED:The 10 Best Bosses In The Super Mario Franchise, Ranked By Most Satisfying To Beat

Approaching the piano in 1996 triggered a jump scare that genuinely rivals any scare fromSilent Hill, as when players enter the room it is just an ordinary piano, but step closer to it and it suddenly and erratically starts gnawing at Mario. It’s great that the two let bygones be bygones and have made amends after all these years.

6Mario vs. Sonic

The fight between which is better, Mario or Sonic, is afeud that rages on forever, and though there’ll never be an all out conclusion, and fans coming together to enjoy both is even less likely, at least there will always be some funny memes to come out of it. This list of initial thoughts gamers had of each game shows how players startlingly revise history, asSonic Adventurewas way ahead of its time, but is now looked at as underwhelming. AndSuper Mario 64was mediocre and buggy, but is now seen as a landmark in 3D gaming.

5Restoring Balance

Mario might not be asreal and honest as fans think, as there was once a time when the plumber was a cold blooded murderer, and cold in the most literal sense. InMario 64, there is a moment when Mario is asked to save an infant penguin by its mother, but players had the ability to shove it off the platform instead, and of course that was most players’ immediate action. Mario being a happy-go-lucky plumber is all just a facade.

4The Cake Is A Lie

There are a lot of things wedon’t know about Peach, but there might be more secrets about her than players suspect. Strangely enough, Peach promises Mario a cake once he has saved her, and this has triggered players to compare the game toPortal.

RELATED:The Mushroom Man: 10 Weird Things You Didn’t Know About Toad

InPortal, an evil computer named GlaDOS promises the player a cake upon completing all the levels, only for her to reveal at the end that, “the cake is a lie.” The promise of cake after completing a game is so strangely unique that it makes the similarity between the two games eerie. Maybe Peach is actually GlaDOS…

3Grove Street

One of the most iconic moments in video games is inGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas, when CJ notoriously walks to Grove Street and proclaims “ah sh*t, here we go again.” It let players know that they were in for a rough ride for the next twenty hours and that the game wasn’t going to be any old walk in the park.

As almost every Mario game requires saving the princess and finding her in a castle, with each consecutive game getting incessantly harder, and combined with the fact that Mario would never utter a swear word in his life, this meme is right on the money.

2Giant Calculator Hack

Every kid on Planet Earth has most likely been told to turn off a video game and work on homework instead, or that they can only play video games once their homework is finished. Well Nintendo allowed kids to do the math homeworkandplayMario 64. The giant calculator might not be able to convince players’ parents to stick to the game to “study,” but the game is certainly a great way to mitigate boredom while working!

1L Is Real

L is Real is one of the most intriguing conspiracy theories surroundingMario 64and has spawned dozens of the game’s best memes.As players were perturbed that Luigi wasn’t a playable character at the time, they were convinced he was unlockable.

At this water fountain, the inscription underneath the star is believed to say “L Is Real 2401,” which fans thought was relating to Luigi and that there were 2401 stars in the game. Fans believed that once the 2041 stars had been collected, they could return to this fountain and Luigi would appear.

NEXT:5 Things Crash Bandicoot Does Better Than Mario (& 5 That Mario Is Superior At)