Let's Talk About HAZY MAZE CAVE
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
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Daily Super Mario 64 Stage Analysis Videos ALL DECEMBER. Check back here every day at 11 AM E.T. Until Christmas. Super Mario 64 Hazy Maze Cave.
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I'll be honest I thought I had pretty much every level memorized from playing so much as a kid but I recently started playing again and kept going in circles in the maze
I believe it. This one could easily fool you after a long hiatus lol
I think this is the best testimony for this map, the fact that Hazy Maze Cave has done this not only to you, but to me as well means that it does, in fact, work as a maze.
SM64 had some strange but great level design.
It's a surprisingly large map, with multiple loading zones, and rare sightlines. It actually reminds me of one of the child OOT dungeons.
Probably the most fascinating and polarising course in the game.
I like this level, it reminds a lot of Aztec from goldeneye , the music too
This level scared me as a kid
I always loved that the music is a remix of Mario 1-2, the "Underground" theme, but Dorey did and still does creep me out. Something about the eyes? I swear when she's off screen, she transforms into some kind of multi-hinged mouth Shoggoth :D
@@zaxlor It's not just the eyes... A part of you subconsciously recognizes that she shouldn't be alive because of its environment. It's the only life form in the room until you arrive, there's no exit it can take and no way it could have gotten in from outside to begin with, there's nothing for it to eat, and it spends its whole life swimming in circles. The environment is dark and enclosed with the only light coming from holes in the ceiling which is impossible considering how far underground you are. You even had to take a long and lonely elevator with no safety guards on it to descend slowly into the depths of an already underground lost maze to find it. It looks like nobody has visited this place in AGES, and yet this one creature feels like it's been here the whole time and hasn't starved to death.
In a game where up until now, you haven't met anything like it and almost everything other than Toads is an enemy, you find this massive potential hostile lurking in the shadows of an eerily empty huge room with a path that takes you straight into the water where it would have the advantage. You cautiously don't want to approach it but the path basically tells you "This is the only direction to proceed".
Then when you reach it, you find its face is nearly lifeless and it takes jagged turns through the water like an animatronic at a theme park. By the time you finally start treating it like an object, you ground pound it's back and it vocally responds almost as if in pain! Now you stop looking at it as an object again and see it as a tortured soul...
The unspoken context of it all. That's what scares me.
EDIT: Also, the music intensified all of it. In fact, I think this is the same song that playes on the OTHER eeriest stage in the game, Wet-Dry World 😅
This entire game scared me as a kid. It was a different world back then. LOL
@@zaxlor It's not just the eyes... A part of you subconsciously recognizes that she shouldn't be alive because of its environment. It's the only life form in the room until you arrive, there's no exit it can take and no way it could have gotten in from outside to begin with, there's nothing for it to eat, and it spends its whole life swimming in circles. The environment is dark and enclosed with the only light coming from holes in the ceiling which is impossible considering how far underground you are. You even had to take a long and lonely elevator with no safety guards on it to descend slowly into the depths of an already underground lost maze to find it. It looks like nobody has visited this place in AGES, and yet this one creature feels like it's been here the whole time and hasn't starved to death. In a game where up until now, you haven't met anything like it and almost everything other than Toads is an enemy, you find this massive potential hostile lurking in the shadows of an eerily empty huge room with a path that takes you straight into the water where it would have the advantage. You cautiously don't want to approach it but the path basically tells you "This is the only direction to proceed". Then when you reach it, you find its face is nearly lifeless and it takes jagged turns through the water like an animatronic at a theme park. By the time you finally start treating it like an object, you ground pound it's back and it vocally responds almost as if in pain! Now you stop looking at it as an object again and see it as a tortured soul... The unspoken context of it all. That's what scares me. EDIT: Also, the music intensified all of it. In fact, I think this is the same song that playes on the OTHER eeriest stage in the game, Wet-Dry World 😅
I keep trying to submit a reply but every time I do, it just vanishes but youtube's history says it's there 😅
EDIT: But this post shows up just fine? 🤔
2:23 i never understood why falling into the pit wouldnt take you to the underground lake, but game mechanics
Was anyone else scared of Dorrie as a child?
I thought she was an enemy, had unagi flashbacks, and noped out of there
I was because of the sign saying “watch her head”. I thought it was a warning about how she’d eat Mario if you got too close to her mouth. And the music is creepy. I didn’t like having to be in this level when I was little.
She will eat you
@ I knew it.
Nah I loved her, my favorite Pokemon when I was a kid was Lapras and she looks just like that. Loved this level.
@@Flowerbarrel Exactly why i was so nervous going up to her as a kid for that reason
I adore HMC so much, it’s so much fun traverse and I love the metal cavern, I’ve been wearing my “I Love HMC and the Metal Cavern” shirt all day
That's a lot of text for a shirt 😅. It is a fun stage to explore tbh. Without the objectives too, just wandering and messing around
When I was a kid, discovering Dorrie was the scariest part of this game. The area is isolated, I’m already afraid of deep water, and *the music.*
It took me way too long to trust her. Especially with that “don’t become her lunch” sign. That was just uncalled for
That sounds similar to most people experience with the nice big Eel lol
As an old dude I find the comments on here rather amusing.
It’s interesting to see how younger folk look at things
Mid-30s and I feel like a dinosaur here sometimes 😂
@ mid 30’s?
Now I feel really old lol
I never got lost in this level.
But only because this was a Christmas gift and my parents bought the official walkthrough, which had maps.
Yeah a walkthrough would certainly help 😂😂
This is my favorate sm64 level because of the music, and the theme
The music for HMC is very underrated.
I used to think this level was really cool as a kid, especially the metal mario area. The marbled spiders, random longneck, music and the weeeird sound the door makes going into the elevator room. Very memorable
This is one of those levels for me where it gave me so much trouble (specifically the 'watch for falling rocks' and 'a-maze-ing emergency exit') that by the time I finally beat it I had it fully memorized. I can still navigate all those corridors in my mind. Every part of the level has something cool... the area with the lifts, the toxic maze, of course Dory and the underground lake, the endless rocks and the abyss they tumble into. It was almost like no matter where in the level you were you might be one step away from death, but it added a thrill and an atmosphere to this map that I don't think any other course in SM64 quite lives up to.
Very similar experience I'd say. I wish I could've clocked the time spent on each stage the first time playing this game because I'm pretty sure this stage took me the longest
You know what they keep in the basement of Castles? The dungeon.
You know what they do with prisoners in the Castle? They get to go have fun in Hazy Maze Cave...
I have never once in my life thought that going back to the castle after each star was a problem. Not in any level, and not for any star. The thought of staying in the level and collecting more stars without leaving is not something that would even occur to me. It's just not the way the game works, and that's not a problem, because it is the game working as intended. I actually found playing Odyssey weird because I was collecting moons and staying in the level, which made collecting moons feel less special - more like getting a red coin than getting a star. Getting a star feels like completing a stage. It's a big deal. It ends the level, mission accomplished. Getting a moon in Odyssey and staying in the level just feels like I might as well have collected a coin. I love the structure of Mario 64, and going back into a level to complete another mission is never a chore. It's a new mission, of course I'll have to start the level again. It just makes sense and would never be an annoyance, and definitely not something to hold against the game.
So I mostly agree with you. Not sure if this is my first video you watched on M64 or if you've been keeping up, but the whole point of me keeping a tally is that I'm arguing that this game is for the vast majority, BETTER because it kicks you out of the stage after each star. Just so happens Hazy Maze has a few stars where I can agree with those that claim otherwise lol.
In think it makes sense in the beginning (you can only enter one level and after you beat King Bobomb, immediately you get access to another level, then quickly to 3 more, then quickly to bowser and wing cap) but later it might be cool to stay. Like with the 100coin star.
But like you, I didn't question it at all. But when you completed it once or even more often, you might like it more to continue immediately instead of watching the same cutscene 105 times.
This is exactly how I feel about Super Mario 64!
So correct about Odyssey, i hate the format. Like you said doesn't feel rewarding at all. I got bored in minutes. The game feels so small aswell.
I always found the swimming beast in this stage really cute. The area I always dreaded was the clouded haze maze. So many deaths from back in the 90's.
Yeah, I liked dorrie lol. She was a friendly face
@@NintenDeen Also wanted to know your general opinion, what's the hardest 100 coin star you've ever collected? Mine was without a doubt in Tick Tock Clock.
Shifting Sand Land. Rainbow Ride used to be a pain until I figured out the blue coins though
@@NintenDeen Okay, I absolutely enjoy these breakdown videos of the courses btw.
Thanks! Glad you've enjoyed
I'm pretty sure that I had to use magazines and strategy guides to find some of these stars back in the day. I just aged myself. Lol
I'd argue that Star 5 did have its name be a hint. It wasn't labeled "Amazing Emergency Exit" it was spelled as "A-Maze-Ing Emergency Exit". Even as a kid I worked out that it must have been in the poison maze somewhere. Backed by the fact that Star 4 was in the poison maze, I think it was meant to create a mental link, at least, it did for me.
I think that helps a bit, but if you view the entire stage as a maze, it doesn't help at all lol
If you weren't kicked out of a level after grabbing a star, the 'Navigating the Toxic Maze' star would probably have had a switch next to it that opened the gate since the elevator to the Depths is on the other side of that gate.
Yeah i mean I think all stars could have been adjusted, or at least contained warps to move you somewhere else. But AS IS it's best to be restarted in a lot of cases
Good quality content, man. Found it on my feed and I'm going back to watch the others!!!
I remember being very very lost in this stage.
And i struggled with getting any star at all
Yeeeeaaaahhhh. Same
I loved this level as a kid, csuse I felt it had a lot if hidden secrets. But the thing that is really annoying about this level is the Kaizo Mario 64 version of it, because during the red coin mission in the Kaizo Mario 64 version, the red coins are placed and hidden all over the level in different areas making them really annoying to find, and there's also a secret unused hole area in this level where a red coin is hidden also.
But what really makes this level harder in the Kaizo Mario 64 version is the big boulders, they appear three by three and can be really hard to avoid being hit by them, and in the toxic gas area, it's even a higher risk of dying, cause there's no metal cap, and you have to avoid some flame throwers, it's a pain in the butt!
The kaizo version of this stage is hell
Bros main complaint is that Hazy MAZE Cave, is in fact..... a maze.
Was it a complaint? I think I said I liked the stage lol.
so many late nights here
I wouldn’t say that this stage is serious. More so abstract! Like a Salvador Dalí type of Level.
Abstract is probably a better word to use tbh
When I was new to the game, I had trouble finding the underground lake for some reason.
It's a maze lol. Finding it is meant to be hard the first time
I just played it in the Render 96 PC port with the mod that doesn't kick you out. Was dreading it, but it's so much better that way.
I've been meaning to give that a go just to change things up a bit. Glad to hear it's enjoyable
@@NintenDeen Took me a long time to setup, but it's been a blast!
Parallel universe where Hazy Maze Cave does the level changing mechanic every few stages and makes the visit even more tedious but even more fascinating.
Would've been something. I actually think there's a lot of potential for the stage layout if it was redone with a modern twist
Parallel universes of Hazy Maze Cave…
Ironically people know of parallel universes BECAUSE of Hazy Maze Cave.
🟡🟡
6:18 it's called amazing emergency exit because it is a hidden exit in the maze.
I did this with half an A press
Hazy Maze Cave is the reason I don't mix my courses and special stages when I randomize them in SM64 Randomizer. I've ended up with actual levels on the Metal Cap stage portal
Valid reason haha
Took me an hour of exploring to give up on Watch out for falling rocks. I had to look it up, so I strongly disagree about that one being easy.
Oh nooo, another scary dark mazy cavy area 😢 Those spiders freak me out because of their broken and awkward animations! A lot of enemies in N64 games are animated weirdly!
Polygonal panic 😅
I never had any problems navigating this level.
I did play the DS version, but i don’t think it has any major differences, especially in regards to navigation.
I always though the ”maze” part of the name was very unfitting.
I think the DS version having a map ALONE makes this stage much more bearable lol
Yeah same
Some things I thought about as I was replaying this today that make me like the vibe behind this level, because to me it suggests that something really terrible happened here before you arrived.
1. There are signs that warn you about getting eaten by the monster in the flooded cave, but the monster is Dory and she's friendly. So, they were wrong about Dory eating people, but why were they assuming she ate people to begin with? I think this is meant to imply that the workers that came here to mine it had people disappear and they never found the bodies, so they assumed something must be eating them and blamed the wrong thing.
2. That sinkhole is growing. Part of that area has a metal wire-frame built into a natural path that ends in a spot where it looks like it should continue. This means that there was a natural path at some point, but it collapsed and the miners had to build a new path to navigate the cave.
3. There were people here even before the miners. There are a couple of doors here that are completely unique to this level: the doors with the star and sun (or possibly spider) motif on them. There's something almost ritualistic to those designs and the place where you find those doors are the sinkhole area (and I think one other, but now I can't remember where). And you can tell where people came after, because all the construction that came later has the look of being hastily put together to give easier navigation in the cheapest way possible.
4. One of the doors in this area is specifically sealed. The miners found something, didn't like what they found and closed it off. And they went so far as to make the trigger that opens it underwater and not easily accessible without a highly specialized power-up. Whatever was in that cave, they did not want it getting out. And what is actually in that cave when you finally open it up? More bottomless pits. Anything could be hiding down there in the dark.
And you opened the door.
Oh, and a final bit linking it all back to point one, where is this located? In the flood cave with the monster they assumed was eating people. They found out too late that they were wrong about Dory.
While you never actually see what happened and the hints are all so vague you could interpret them any way you like, it's clear that whatever happened, it was not good. This level is a really subtle horror map. In a kid's game.
Comments like this are proof that I'm not nearly as focused as others when I play video games
@@NintenDeen I'm a big fan of environmental storytelling, so I'm always looking for clues like this in levels. A lot of levels in SM64 have details like this where you can kinda piece together a story, or at least get a sense of what the level is meant to be. Even stages like Whomps Fortress as a weird floating island in the sky kinda work. It's an enemy fortress with defenses meant to keep you from breaching it (blocks that come out of the wall to knock you off, a cannon, a bullet bill blaster) block based guards (whomps and thwomps), with the piranha plants getting lazy and going to sleep because they don't expect the fortress to be invaded because it's a floating island in the sky, which is actually established in Mario Lore as a thing (Bowser constantly makes flying ships and flying fortresses).
Hazy Maze Cave just stands out because it's the only one where all the environmental storytelling details have unsettling, creepy implications. I looked to see if anyone else noticed this and there are a couple of theory videos that also catch onto these implications, but come to different conclusions (the clues are pretty vague, so you can interpret them different ways), but apparently the game files refer to this level as "horror cave," so that seems to be intentional.
I don't think it's that you're not focused, I think it's that you're focused on different things. I don't focus nearly as much on the structure of the level in terms of how it presents its obstacle course challenges, for example. I never would have noticed that Bob-omb Battlefield actually is a linear level in disguise, even though I've played it a hundred times and follow the same path nearly every time. It never occurred to me to think of the game in those terms. Neither is wrong, but the hallmark of great design to me is that you do both, which is why best games are made by teams with different skill sets working together or a common purpose.
nice
Who ever is playing in the footage cannot play this game.
😶
Ngl hazy maze cave is probably my favorite level in the game, just because of how rewarding it feels to memorize everything in the level and be able to run through the stars in 10 minutes
I still remember every inch of this game lol. I periodically revisit old games for the nostalgia value.
I do like the atmosphere in this level.
I don't mind how big and winding this stage can be. I enjoy the atmosphere and scenery, so I like exploring around at my leisure. It is not a downside. It adds to the stage's charm.
It probably says something really strange about me that I read the sign in this level warning not to let Dorrie eat you and spent hours trying to induce her to eat Mario, but at the same time I avoided swimming in Tiny Huge Island as much as possible because I was terrified of Boss Bass eating Mario.
I've spent almost 30 years trying to process these feelings, and the weirdness echo chamber of the internet has made it worse rather than better.
Lol that's funny. low-key boss bass is probably the most nerve wracking thing in this game
Great video, keep up man
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it
Honestly this stage is really easy and simple to navigate if you’re playing on the DS version of this game thanks to the map in the bottom screen
I already *hate* 100 coin star in this stage. I got 98 coins and then died to poison gas
@RavenGamingOverLord yeah it could be very obnoxious lol
To this day I still have trouble with this stage , especially the toxic maze
Don't bash my favourite level please :(
I really enjoy this confusing cave
I think I was actually pretty kind to it lol
@@NintenDeen True but I love this cave. It is the more complex nature of Mario 64
I actually did this level before lethal lava land cause i couldn't navigate lethal lava land as a kid, so I got so intimidated I went to an easier level which was this. I only found out there was a third level when mips appeared, the classic hit the wall when trying to grab him.
In the Metal Mario can move star, you can actually ground pound the switch that opens the gate without the use of the metal cap
Can’t help but feel bad for Dorrie. Also, out of every version of the SMB underground theme, this song might be the most unique
Yeah, and I think it suits the stage so well too
I really like the aura of mystery in this level. Which is further enhanced by the music and the video of Pannenkoek2012. I don’t think it’s a maze once you know the level. It’s always a pleasure to return to the same places for other missions
This level is amazing.
I like the game until you hit around 35 stars.
Past that, your options are just too few and too awkward.
I would argue that you are supposed to feel lost. Sending you to the start after each star ensures this. But i like getting lost in levels lol
Really?? Hazy Maze Cave was my favorite course in the game.
I didn't find it frustrating or tedious to navigate. It's more complex structure was what made it a lot of fun to explore. This isn't meant to be bragging. I missed the star in the toxic maze and spent forever down there too. Got annoyed after falling off the red coin lifts one too many time. Worst of all, when I finally got 100 coins, the star spawned above the grate you hang from and was impossible to get as a result.Still, there's no other level I enjoy running through so much. Even memorized, it still has a feeling of mystery to me. Like there are still secrets waiting to be discovered and there always will be. Also I liked the giant boulders since they solid and not sprites. solid. crunchy.
Lol @crunchy. I think it's a great stage to explore, and I enjoy going back to it! It just gave me a lot of struggles many years ago
Should be the most common experience. That stupid "emergency exit" that you ran by 50 times and didn't notice and the stupid moving platforms. But overall such a great and unique stage.
Also, no matter the course, the 100th coin must be well planned😅
in all honesty, i dont think i even got a star at all when i used to play this damn level as a kid lol😭😭
I don't really mind getting lost (in games). I am more about immersion, exploration, and discovery. I rather liked having that kind of challenge. Then again I like RPGs.
watch for falling rocks ⭐️ was my last star😂
Yeah it can be obscure haha. It took me a while at first I think
That one stage which I would get through ASAP and get it out of the way.
Can honestly say there wasn't much in HMC that I liked.
There are paint spiders and where the hell is the exit?
I certainly had some troubles with this one.
For the third star I never use the metal cap. I just time a ground pound because I found trying to use the cap there more frustrating
Yes, that's a viable method, I didn't mention it in the video though. I think most ppl will use the green cap because that's the "intended way" though, until they learn you can ground pound at least.
For the final world when you get to it. Just letting you know half of that level is a slog. You are riding platforms through the course that are slow and pace killers. But the other half. The actual platforming. It's quite fun.
Are you speaking to me, or in general? I've been playing this game since it launched lol
I wonder if people got Dorrie confused with Lapras from Pokémon?
I did. I used to call her Lapras lol
Probably one of my least favorite courses, but still challenging after all these years.
I appreciate the content and video, but some constructive feedback. It might be because you are talking so fast, but you end up mumbling a lot. It is sometimes very difficult to understand what you're saying. I recommend slowing down when talking. Keep the videos going though!
Oh that's good to know. Thanks for the feedback! I'll try and annunciate more. Maybe take a few more breaths between sentences lol
The goop looks a lot like the paint from Super Mario Sunshine 😂. Perhaps there is a connection 🧐🤔
Uhhhhh what... Ground pound does what... To dore. So long never knowing... Wow