You should talk about the skyboxes in Sunshine and Galaxy, especially the no-FLUDD/platformer-focused levels, I always thought they were so dreamy in a very good way
Perfect Dark another game suggestion and one I remember you distinctly saying you liked the sky in on a particular level when you doing Eggbuster glitches/ trying to discover Easter Eggs.
@@any_austin hickjacking to say you should check out those in NiGHTS into Dreams on Saturn, those are very good, same year as SM64 (and you'll be tripping playing the game walking instead of flying, that's right up your alley, there are so much unintended places)
@@cosmiccreaturefan yea it really does. Games especially on the SNES and genesis specifically designed the shading of textures and effects of water with an odd shading that was designed for CRTs and the way they blur repeating patterns
@@snorchill3170 Part of why people say they remember games looking better when they were young. Part of it was the games being new and more cutting edge, but a lot of it is that we aren't actually looking at the games the way they were seen back then.
@@cosmiccreaturefan the games where designed only with the developers have crts themselfs so its easy to imagine that a dev would make the game as good looking as they can how it looked on their screen.
I gotta hand it to you, man, this is some of the most minutiae-focused, odd, unique, yet also relatable and genuinely interesting content I've seen. This applies to your whole channel. Found you a few minutes ago and couldn't help but instantly subscribe.
I thought of every level in Super Mario 64, and after nearly giving up hope cuz I could only count 4 levels with that skybox, I realize the complexity of this brain teaser. There are two exterior areas of the main hub, the front yard, and the back yard. And technically, those areas/levels are completely separate from each other as maps. So logically speaking, the Peach's Castle Courtyard is the 5th SM64 level that uses that skybox. EDIT: I forgot about Thwomp's Fortress trying to figure this out 💀 EDIT 2: Ooooooh, Dire Dire Docks... Oh well, I tried lol
This seemed like one of those inevitable things. I think anyone who's spent years observing and appreciating a certain thing would at some point go, "man, I want an outlet to keep talking about this."
Also, great presentation on this. It seems to me that you were trying to structure and present this video in a way that's more inviting and/or accessible to outsiders of the channel, which I think can only be a good thing. Keep it up, Austin.
AUSTIN I love this direction for the channel. I remember you talking about skyboxes during Eggbusters and I'm glad to see your appreciation for them hasn't changed. I'd love to see another video like this talking about out of bounds and low texture places like the trees from Ocarina of Time. Keep it up man! 👍
I love these quirky observation videos for retro games, Austin! If you're trying to keep your channel active but don't wanna do glitch stuff all the time, this is a good way to do it, I think. On a related note to this, I'd love to see you make another video like "Unremarkable and odd places in Mario 64". That one really inspired something in me, at least; it made me wonder what other places exist in the game that are just places that nobody really ever walked upon or camera angles people never have seen? There's gotta be other places in the game that fit those bills; it's ripe for a sequel video. For instance: I bet there's some weird places/angles in Wet-Dry World's that you could point out; that level has always been seen as a really creepy/negative place by a lot of people too, so I imagine people would be interested. :3 The town in that level could especially be ripe for this idea; while many find it creepy, it is not a place you spend very long in; grab a star and leave. But it's quite a detailed town, so I bet there's some bizarre places/camera angles you could find in there alone. (Sorry if my comment posted multiple notifications, TH-cam was having some sort of seizure on me...)
@@any_austin Ooh nice! That's totally fair, I'd love to see that later on. Maybe you could give the skybox appreciation/odd places treatment to other N64 games? Like you said in this video, N64 games definitely have a certain charm to them when it comes to graphics and locations and what they do with them. Would be interesting to see what other N64 games you are fond of, too.
@@CharemTheShadox thank you so much! I actually just got a fursuit head made. It took the artist 4 years to finally get to, but it's finally done. I'm so happy, and relieved!
Lethal Lava Land and Bowser in the Sky are my two favs, because they're basically sunset skies that remind me of summertime as a kid; playing N64 at a friend's house, a cool evening breeze coming thru an open window, and the feeling of not having any school for a long while made it a magical memory.
Whenever I would play the first bowser level as a kid I always wondered how bowser physically got there. Like he clocked in every day for work at the castle and had to go through the obstacle course to get to his spot
Skyboxes always freaked me out as a kid. I can't really explain why. Maybe because I knew they were just a fake outer boundary - they're like painted walls. Outside them is only darkness. It is pretty scary when you think about it lol.
My favorite Super Mario 64 skybox is Big Boo's Haunt. The silhouetted trees are awesome. The N64 and PSone era had the best skyboxes. Maybe that's nostalgia but I really feel that there is something magical about the time where developers were figuring out what works and what doesn't in 3D that produced some darn good/weird/neat/unforgettable skies.
I loved the somewhat realistic look of the skyboxes blending with the cartoony objects in this game as it presents a surrealistic look that, when combined together, adds a layer of visual depth and size. The warping, stretching and blurring of Mario 64’s textures has this effect too, because you end up with an environment that feels bigger than it actually is.
hey austin been watching for almost a decade now and your content and music just keep amazing me!! you and skyboxes are already associated in my brain because one of your first videos i watched was shadows of the empire eggbusters where you walk out of the map in an atst, your enthusiasm for seeing the big boxy cloud wall was just so genuine and infectious i knew i was gonna be watching for a long time :) anyway just wanted to comment on part of what makes mario 64 skyboxes so interesting and dreamlike - unlike ocarina (and most) skyboxes, which are actually big cubes in space that the camera sees just like the rest of the world, sm64 is simply scrolling around a big flat image and pasting it as the background. you really notice it hard at 3:30 in jolly roger bay; there is a very distinct difference in the parallax between the wall and the sky and how their movement/"rotation" doesn't quite match up. i think that's the source of your snow globe feeling! so the parallax is one part, the other is perspective, where distant objects get smaller. ones like the islands and desert pyramids have some perspective built-in, but ultimately they're all being rendered without any in-engine sense of depth where your brain can tell which part of the sky is closer than another part, so it's very image-dependent on which feel more open and which are super claustrophobic. anyway thanks for continuing to make such great content!! sources used: www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=77986
i cant even put into words the hit of nostalgia i got while watching this video. i grew up playing this game and it will always be a part of me. great content dude!
Honestly as someone just now getting into 3D art and wanting to maybe incorporate some retro elements to it I'm really enjoying these in-depth looks at skyboxes. I'm glad you've made this a series and I will be watching them all.
Some of my favorite skyboxes are in the Chameleon Twist duology for the Nintendo 64. It feels a little cheap since both games are fantastical in nature already, so anything outlandish can be handwaved with "oh, what a magical journey!" or something similar, but when I'm falling into the abyss I always note how cool it looks before I grumble about how much I have to backtrack.
Man I got food poisoning and I spent about 75% of this video zoomed in to the top right corner of the screen and never questioned why I only had a little bit of the guy's fore head on the screen with his computer screen taking up most of it.
I love these!! I'd love sometime to see a video on the sky boxes in Mario Kart. Not any specific one, they're all really wonderful. When you really stop and pay attention to them you find that each one looks really interesting, despite rarely being able to see most of them due to the camera angle. Keep up the great work man!
Big Boo's Haunt is the best one in my opinion. I've always really loved the creepy atmosphere in Mario games that have them, especially Twilight Town in The Thousand Year Door which is incredible. I really wish that town existed in real life! Wet Dry World's comes in second for me. There is a lot going on in that one with all those buildings. It really makes you want to go and explore all of them. Shifting Sand Land would get third place. It's similar to Wet Dry World's in that it makes you want to go out and explore those pyramids.
This video is special to me. It connects me to the core feelings and memories I want to keep alive when I regard this game and how it feels in my soul having played it in my extremely early development years (i was literally 3 when i first played this game by myself)
I love skyboxes. I love the Mario 64 ones in particular. But yeah, one of the big things skyboxes always give me is this sense of a greater world outside of the game I'm playing, sometimes so much so that it creeps me out. Like you pointed out, what we see in the skybox and what we see in the level are so vastly different, that dissonence is unnerving and creepy. That and the sense of isolation, being in a tiny place in the middle of an empty, dead world. Even modern skyboxes can be cool, though. Like, did you ever look at the skybox when you're in Hell in Doom 2016? It's weird, it really reminds me of Mario 64 again, where you're in a place that is clearly a "level" and the world beyond the level seems so detached and unrelated to it. And this one is a bit of a cheat just because this game's skybox is sort of the opposite of what we see in Mario 64, but I am in love with the skybox in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The Midgar plate above is so sickenly realized, so overwhelming present througout the game. So yeah, skyboxes are weird and cool.
This is such a good idea for a series, the sheer number of games with awesome skyboxes is insane. You definitely have a lot of possible episodes to make for this series!
Man I love this video so much. When I was a kid I would also gaze out into the skyboxes of the different games I'd play. Imagine this whole other world inside the game and wondering what type of people and places were out there in the distance. One of my favorite game series is Resident Evil. And a lot of that love came from playing Re2 & 3 and hearing the moans of the zombies out in the distance while walking around racoon City really hit a weird spot for me. The Marshalling Yard in Re2 is my favorite. It has this huge moon in the sky that lights up parts of the city in the back and just an awesome creepy eerie soundtrack that gives off this feeling of desolation and being all alone in this world that has gone to hell.
@@any_austin Thatd be awesome man! There's some differences between the ports. Idk if fixed camera angles and static background images count as skyboxes, but they both convey the same exact feeling lol
My favorite level in Odyssey is the Wooded Kingdom, and after watching this video I think it's because it's the first Mario level in a long time that's given me that kinda weird vibe. There's those huge mountains in the background, the post-apocalyptic vibe, the separate section of darker woods below the main part of the level where the T-rex roams around... good stuff.
This is a great idea for a series my dude, I have never really stopped and looked at skylines for appreciation....impatiently waiting for the day/night cycle is the extent. But you bet your ass ima be looking at every skybox from now on! Love you bud
The biggest and scariest thought that goes through my head (and I wonder if it goes through other's heads) when looking at skyboxes in Mario 64 and also in Mario Galaxy (more on that in a second) is a terrifying feeling of emptiness (as kinda mentioned in the video), a feeling of infinity, a feeling of falling in a couple, and lastly (for me at least), a feeling of being forgotten which really drives home the horror of it all. As a late teen, I played Mario 64 DS and in that, everything felt more lively so I didn't really think about it, but when I watched a video on the skybox comparisons between 64 & 64 DS, the DS skybox with their redone images had me feeling more uncomfortable, especially the 3 bowser stages, big boo's haunt, shifting sandland, and of course, wet dry world. Another thing that doesn't help with the supposed falling or possibility of falling feeling, namely in bowser stage 1, is the fact that i have a fear/phobia of heights, and darkness. These feeling and emotions are also prominent, if not even more abundant in Super Mario Galaxy 1&2 (more often in 1, but happens a couple times in 2), I mainly got this perspective on them after watching Jacob Geller's video on "The Quiet Sadness of Super Mario Galaxy", since then I have been too uncomfortable to look directly at SMG1's skyboxes for a long time. Another thing about SMG1&2's skyboxes is the intriguing appeal and petrifying fear of being alone drifting through space endlessly with no hope for survival, or the idea of entropy (that all life will eventually die out). In the end, a skybox is just an image imported into a video game that is flat and has almost 99% of the time, literally no impact in gameplay, but the feeling that a skybox can give off, when edited right, or put into the right scenario can be whatever the player receives it as, whether it be liminal, beautifully crafted, or purposely creepy.
The thing that always got me with Big Boo's Haunt's skybox is that the game tries to sell to you that the level is this tiny caged diorama in the castle courtyard that Mario jumps into, but the skybox looks nothing like the castle courtyard. As a kid that always *really* set me on edge, like it felt profoundly evil that this cage could distort the view of the sunny, grassy area outside into a dark, dead, moonlit forest
Love this channel, I can’t believe somebody went ahead and dove into something that I’ve been thinking about for years. Thankyou! Also please do Pilotwings 64
That background in the intermission where you asked for subscribes had also a really nice mood, sort of a relaxed melancholy, i love those angled repeated stuff :) makes me even happier to have found your channel! It sort of reminds me of the intermission levels in Super Mario Sunshine where you don't have the sprayer. I'd assume you like them as well?
Love the idea for this series and while they aren't techincally a skybox, I've always loved the backgrounds to the Octo Expansion campaign stages of Splatoon 2
Loved this. Skyboxes has always been a great part of the eggbusters universe. I thought about what you said about the kind of scaryness not present in Mario anymore, and I just want to say that I think the black holes in SMG definitely have that feeling of unintentional scaryness. Even though they are meant to be frightening obviously, I feel like the uneasy feeling they give you is out of scale compared to the rest of the game. Just a thought.
the part where you said that the skyboxes implied a bigger world is something that i used to think about as a kid. when i was 7 or 8 i used to think that all those mario games on the n64 were all in the same world. i remember once swimming into the invisible wall of the dk64 overworld in the hopes that i would eventually break free and reach "the mario continent" and go to peach's castle and all those mario kart 64 tracks. This whole series on skyboxes made me realise that they're a huge reason as to why i used to believe that
The DIre DIre Docks skybox freaked me out as a kid. Because you can stand at the edge of the level and look through the walls to see just an endless deep blue ocean. That drove me crazy in a bad way as a kid.
Nobody ever seems to talk about the fiery goomba image in Lethal Lava Land's/Bowser in the Fire Sea skybox. It's as if some hellish entity is peering down at you as you struggle to survive.
it's that funny little level with the silver stars under the castle courtyard in the ds version. you know, the fifth level with the island skybox ok fine, dire dire docks. a level in the actual game. whatever I absolutely adore mario 64 for this exact bizarre feeling you mentioned, about it seeming like there's life just off in the distance but you can't reach it. the desert civilization, or the wet dry town, or the island just past the sea in the courtyard. drove me crazy thinking about what might be out there when I played that game. or peach's castle, which has this cheery theme but feels so weird and empty. looks nothing like a place that people could live in. but there's so many parts of the castle, from the outside it looks like it should be a normal place. I like the theory that bowser twisted the insides with the power stars. But I also get a kick out of the idea that peach wanted the castle built like that. exactly as it appears in the game.
I’m not sure if you still read comments on old videos but Half-Life 1 feels like a fantastic candidate for this. Almost exclusively superimposed, compressed photos
Definitely. I played Half Life recently specifically to do videos about it, but then the unemployment thing happened so I’m playing with that for a bit first. But those Skyboxes are unbelievable.
There was like a marble game for the Wii I played as kid which kinda played like Monkey Ball that had very similarly dreamlike skyboxes, especially the horror-themed one reminded me a lot of Big Boos Haunt (or because I played the Marbles game first, BBH reminded me of that one)
Dog please do more of these retrospectives I'm like 1/4 the way through and I know I'll be casually letting autoplay reroll this one again here and there.
Honestly, my favorite Mario 64 skybox has got to be the one from the hidden underwater red coin room. Looking around and seeing what looks like several different times of day all at once is one of those things that always fascinated me as a kid! Each window felt so surreal to look out of.
Mario Galaxy‘s ghost Level skyboxes are totally haunting tho, even though you picked that as an example for that kiddish athmosphere. It has one singular glowing point on the horizon and there’s creeping souls slowly moving towards it, like they’re transitioning to the next world. Way more ominous than the N64 ghost level. Can‘t remember whether it’s Galaxy 1 or 2 tho.
New subscriber, really appreciate your videos. It’s refreshing to see videos focusing on the small details without trying to come to some pretentious, pseudo-philosophical point like many video game “video essayists” do. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos.
As a kid, I had dreams about traveling to the islands in the distance. It's just a blurry jpeg, but I thought that if the invisible wall wasn't there, Mario really could fly to the island and discover a new world. I'm shocked to find a video on this very topic, but considering how strong nostalgia is for SM64, perhaps I shouldn't be. I sincerely think the skyboxes of SM64 had a strong impact on my childhood brain. The illusion of a full, real world, the land just out of reach. It informed my worldview, the excitement of the unknown. Maybe that's giving it too much credit, but I was young and malleable. Anyway, Half-Life 2 has some good skyboxes. Obvious choice, maybe, but notable for the 3d elements, the Citadel, and the fact that it takes place over three days, and the sky changes accordingly. The sunset skyboxes are especially spooky. Ethereal.
I bet nobody ever thought of this, but to me, revisiting SM64 today is like revisiting the old playroom you used to go to as a kid(the stuff with a slide, ball pit, etc). The one thing that crosses your mind is "God damn, this place is smaller than I remembered".
7:55 not only are those the pyramids of giza, but they're taken at the one angle that literally everyone takes photos from because it's the one angle that hides the city of cairo reasonably well
It may not be your cup of tea, but I think some of the backgrounds/skyboxes from the Kirby games made by Flagship (Squeak Squad, Amazing Mirror, Nightmare in dreamland) have some great detail to them that has some interesting feel!
I know it’s not a main course but the secret star room in the jolly rodger bay has my favorite sky box, something about being in a submerged room in a tower in the SKY so good lol
Certain skyboxes really give me the feels because I always wonder what is out there, despite it just being an out of bounds area. Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts was definitely the worst for me because there's so much to wonder about. The distant mountain that looks oddly like the top Grunty's Castle, the seemingly normal freight ships and oil rigs in this wacky universe, etc.
Finally someone mentions that creepy hallway in Big Boo's haunt! I remember it being one of the creepiest things in the game for me as a kid back in the day.
The cherry on top of Wet Dry world´s uncanniness is the abandoned city area with houses trees and even a temple like structure. As a kid I wondered if there´s still skeletons of those who drowned inside their own houses xD
If you want beautiful skyboxes then definitely check out Jet Car Stunts. I just love having incredibly detailed skyboxes paired with basic level geometry. There's also no music in the game which creates such an unusual atmosphere. It's almost ethereal.
I feel the same way about the spooky level's in Mario games, the older games just feel more creepy. It's also how I feel about the first Luigi's Mansion compared to the third (haven't played the second) I think part of it the graphics. Super Mario 64 has the realistic skybox, while the level textures are vague enough that the mind processes them as scarier than the ones in the newer games, where the better graphics make it feel more cartoony, if that makes any sense.
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jolly Roger Bay's skybox reminded me a lot of foggy early mornings, and as such it was always very cozy to me.
You're spot on with the clash between the cartoony level and the very realistic looking skybox. I like old 90's/80's cel based anime for the same reason, very stylized characters in a painted nearly realistic looking world. Hunter x Hunter 99 has some scenes in it with backgrounds that look pretty realistic. Its the same aesthetic and its my absolute favorite. After the N64 its never been done again. You missed talking about the best skybox though, Bowser in the Sky :(
Maybe you should do a video on the Super Mario Galaxy games skyboxes. There are so many cool ones, the clock tower of Flash Black galaxy, the massive towers of Slipsand and Clockwork Ruins, the massive castle halls of Bowser’s Galaxy Generator, the ending of Slimy Spring galaxy, Melty Molten galaxy, the ever infamous Shiverburn Galaxy, Boss Blitz Galaxy, Hightail Falls galaxy, Freezeflame galaxy, Melty Monster Galaxy and it’s chimp minigame, if there’s any game as capable of invoking the same array of feelings as SM64, it’s Galaxy and Galaxy 2
One thing that confused me about the Wet-Dry World's skybox is that there is water in the skybox, but there's also water in gameplay. This painting world runs on spongebob logic haha
Nobody has attempted to answer the pop quiz. As punishment you have to join my patreon www.patreon.com/any_austin
Austin you may have a small fanbase but it's the most loyal youtuber fanbase I've ever seen
it's gotta be tick tock clock
Dire Dire Docks
You should talk about the skyboxes in Sunshine and Galaxy, especially the no-FLUDD/platformer-focused levels, I always thought they were so dreamy in a very good way
Perfect Dark another game suggestion and one I remember you distinctly saying you liked the sky in on a particular level when you doing Eggbuster glitches/ trying to discover Easter Eggs.
Hi Austin, I would like to recommend the skyboxes of the original Spyro trilogy. They are mesmerizing. Much love!
THEY ARE SO GOOD
I was gonna comment the same thing! I really enjoyed this.
i second this, those are enchanting. i really missed them in the remake
@@any_austin hickjacking to say you should check out those in NiGHTS into Dreams on Saturn, those are very good, same year as SM64 (and you'll be tripping playing the game walking instead of flying, that's right up your alley, there are so much unintended places)
Best of the best
I loved how crts blurred the skybox’s making them more fuzzy and less detailed to give a sort of mysteriousness to it
Never had the experience of seeing the game with CRTs and it really gives the game a whole nother vibe, huh?
@@cosmiccreaturefan yea it really does. Games especially on the SNES and genesis specifically designed the shading of textures and effects of water with an odd shading that was designed for CRTs and the way they blur repeating patterns
@@snorchill3170 Part of why people say they remember games looking better when they were young. Part of it was the games being new and more cutting edge, but a lot of it is that we aren't actually looking at the games the way they were seen back then.
@@cosmiccreaturefan the games where designed only with the developers have crts themselfs so its easy to imagine that a dev would make the game as good looking as they can how it looked on their screen.
I gotta hand it to you, man, this is some of the most minutiae-focused, odd, unique, yet also relatable and genuinely interesting content I've seen. This applies to your whole channel. Found you a few minutes ago and couldn't help but instantly subscribe.
I thought of every level in Super Mario 64, and after nearly giving up hope cuz I could only count 4 levels with that skybox, I realize the complexity of this brain teaser.
There are two exterior areas of the main hub, the front yard, and the back yard. And technically, those areas/levels are completely separate from each other as maps. So logically speaking, the Peach's Castle Courtyard is the 5th SM64 level that uses that skybox.
EDIT: I forgot about Thwomp's Fortress trying to figure this out 💀
EDIT 2: Ooooooh, Dire Dire Docks... Oh well, I tried lol
omg lol, come on, dire dire docks? YOu can barelly see any skybox in that level lol
AH! I knew he was gonna pick the one where you can't actually see the skybox
Half-Life 1 skyboxes always stuck with me. You don't go outside for quite a while so they make an impact when you do.
When you come out on the cliff. Mind blowing at the time.
This seemed like one of those inevitable things. I think anyone who's spent years observing and appreciating a certain thing would at some point go, "man, I want an outlet to keep talking about this."
Also, great presentation on this. It seems to me that you were trying to structure and present this video in a way that's more inviting and/or accessible to outsiders of the channel, which I think can only be a good thing. Keep it up, Austin.
AUSTIN I love this direction for the channel. I remember you talking about skyboxes during Eggbusters and I'm glad to see your appreciation for them hasn't changed. I'd love to see another video like this talking about out of bounds and low texture places like the trees from Ocarina of Time. Keep it up man! 👍
A Metroid Prime Skybox appreciation could be fun! They had some really interesting ones that were sadly hidden most of the time.
Chozo Ruins had a great one
1: dire dire docks
2: I can’t wait for the spin off series, tree wall appreciation
I love these quirky observation videos for retro games, Austin! If you're trying to keep your channel active but don't wanna do glitch stuff all the time, this is a good way to do it, I think.
On a related note to this, I'd love to see you make another video like "Unremarkable and odd places in Mario 64". That one really inspired something in me, at least; it made me wonder what other places exist in the game that are just places that nobody really ever walked upon or camera angles people never have seen? There's gotta be other places in the game that fit those bills; it's ripe for a sequel video.
For instance: I bet there's some weird places/angles in Wet-Dry World's that you could point out; that level has always been seen as a really creepy/negative place by a lot of people too, so I imagine people would be interested. :3 The town in that level could especially be ripe for this idea; while many find it creepy, it is not a place you spend very long in; grab a star and leave. But it's quite a detailed town, so I bet there's some bizarre places/camera angles you could find in there alone.
(Sorry if my comment posted multiple notifications, TH-cam was having some sort of seizure on me...)
While filming for this video I filmed stuff that I may use for one of those but I’m kinda overloading on Mario rn so I might switch gears first
@@any_austin Ooh nice! That's totally fair, I'd love to see that later on. Maybe you could give the skybox appreciation/odd places treatment to other N64 games?
Like you said in this video, N64 games definitely have a certain charm to them when it comes to graphics and locations and what they do with them.
Would be interesting to see what other N64 games you are fond of, too.
@@CharemTheShadox random compliment, your profile pic is adorable!
@@Bandrik Oh thank you! ^_^ Nice Sergal fella you got there too!
@@CharemTheShadox thank you so much! I actually just got a fursuit head made. It took the artist 4 years to finally get to, but it's finally done. I'm so happy, and relieved!
Lethal Lava Land and Bowser in the Sky are my two favs, because they're basically sunset skies that remind me of summertime as a kid; playing N64 at a friend's house, a cool evening breeze coming thru an open window, and the feeling of not having any school for a long while made it a magical memory.
Whenever I would play the first bowser level as a kid I always wondered how bowser physically got there. Like he clocked in every day for work at the castle and had to go through the obstacle course to get to his spot
Skyboxes always freaked me out as a kid. I can't really explain why. Maybe because I knew they were just a fake outer boundary - they're like painted walls. Outside them is only darkness. It is pretty scary when you think about it lol.
My favorite Super Mario 64 skybox is Big Boo's Haunt. The silhouetted trees are awesome. The N64 and PSone era had the best skyboxes. Maybe that's nostalgia but I really feel that there is something magical about the time where developers were figuring out what works and what doesn't in 3D that produced some darn good/weird/neat/unforgettable skies.
what’s your fav ps1 skyboxes?
@@any_austin I think I'll go with Twisted Metal 2. The color gradients alone make them top tier.
I loved the somewhat realistic look of the skyboxes blending with the cartoony objects in this game as it presents a surrealistic look that, when combined together, adds a layer of visual depth and size. The warping, stretching and blurring of Mario 64’s textures has this effect too, because you end up with an environment that feels bigger than it actually is.
hey austin been watching for almost a decade now and your content and music just keep amazing me!! you and skyboxes are already associated in my brain because one of your first videos i watched was shadows of the empire eggbusters where you walk out of the map in an atst, your enthusiasm for seeing the big boxy cloud wall was just so genuine and infectious i knew i was gonna be watching for a long time :)
anyway just wanted to comment on part of what makes mario 64 skyboxes so interesting and dreamlike - unlike ocarina (and most) skyboxes, which are actually big cubes in space that the camera sees just like the rest of the world, sm64 is simply scrolling around a big flat image and pasting it as the background. you really notice it hard at 3:30 in jolly roger bay; there is a very distinct difference in the parallax between the wall and the sky and how their movement/"rotation" doesn't quite match up. i think that's the source of your snow globe feeling!
so the parallax is one part, the other is perspective, where distant objects get smaller. ones like the islands and desert pyramids have some perspective built-in, but ultimately they're all being rendered without any in-engine sense of depth where your brain can tell which part of the sky is closer than another part, so it's very image-dependent on which feel more open and which are super claustrophobic.
anyway thanks for continuing to make such great content!!
sources used: www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=77986
Appreciate this comment
i love CRT filters for older games, it really makes low res textures pop
big fan of the half life 1 skyboxes, being underground for the entire first part of the game really makes you notice them more
i cant even put into words the hit of nostalgia i got while watching this video. i grew up playing this game and it will always be a part of me. great content dude!
You know what I will hit the bell icon cause this guy, is a personal favorite of mine.
you’re a real G Jacob
Yeah, I've been subscribed since the good ol' eggbuster days! 😄 I loved using the DataDyne Central glitch to skip the whole level.
Honestly as someone just now getting into 3D art and wanting to maybe incorporate some retro elements to it I'm really enjoying these in-depth looks at skyboxes. I'm glad you've made this a series and I will be watching them all.
Been watching these videos for a little while, and this one made me subscribe.
I gotta make more of these
I enjoy this greatly, though I will say you should’ve mentioned Bowser in the Sky’s box, that one is one of my favorites
Some of my favorite skyboxes are in the Chameleon Twist duology for the Nintendo 64. It feels a little cheap since both games are fantastical in nature already, so anything outlandish can be handwaved with "oh, what a magical journey!" or something similar, but when I'm falling into the abyss I always note how cool it looks before I grumble about how much I have to backtrack.
I think that the backgrounds of the game "Another World" were often good storytelling.
Man I got food poisoning and I spent about 75% of this video zoomed in to the top right corner of the screen and never questioned why I only had a little bit of the guy's fore head on the screen with his computer screen taking up most of it.
I love these!! I'd love sometime to see a video on the sky boxes in Mario Kart. Not any specific one, they're all really wonderful. When you really stop and pay attention to them you find that each one looks really interesting, despite rarely being able to see most of them due to the camera angle. Keep up the great work man!
Big Boo's Haunt is the best one in my opinion. I've always really loved the creepy atmosphere in Mario games that have them, especially Twilight Town in The Thousand Year Door which is incredible. I really wish that town existed in real life! Wet Dry World's comes in second for me. There is a lot going on in that one with all those buildings. It really makes you want to go and explore all of them. Shifting Sand Land would get third place. It's similar to Wet Dry World's in that it makes you want to go out and explore those pyramids.
This video is special to me. It connects me to the core feelings and memories I want to keep alive when I regard this game and how it feels in my soul having played it in my extremely early development years (i was literally 3 when i first played this game by myself)
I love skyboxes. I love the Mario 64 ones in particular. But yeah, one of the big things skyboxes always give me is this sense of a greater world outside of the game I'm playing, sometimes so much so that it creeps me out. Like you pointed out, what we see in the skybox and what we see in the level are so vastly different, that dissonence is unnerving and creepy. That and the sense of isolation, being in a tiny place in the middle of an empty, dead world.
Even modern skyboxes can be cool, though. Like, did you ever look at the skybox when you're in Hell in Doom 2016? It's weird, it really reminds me of Mario 64 again, where you're in a place that is clearly a "level" and the world beyond the level seems so detached and unrelated to it. And this one is a bit of a cheat just because this game's skybox is sort of the opposite of what we see in Mario 64, but I am in love with the skybox in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The Midgar plate above is so sickenly realized, so overwhelming present througout the game. So yeah, skyboxes are weird and cool.
This is such a good idea for a series, the sheer number of games with awesome skyboxes is insane. You definitely have a lot of possible episodes to make for this series!
Already know this gonna be a great series! Would love a tree wall appreciation too 🌳💚
Man I love this video so much. When I was a kid I would also gaze out into the skyboxes of the different games I'd play. Imagine this whole other world inside the game and wondering what type of people and places were out there in the distance. One of my favorite game series is Resident Evil. And a lot of that love came from playing Re2 & 3 and hearing the moans of the zombies out in the distance while walking around racoon City really hit a weird spot for me. The Marshalling Yard in Re2 is my favorite. It has this huge moon in the sky that lights up parts of the city in the back and just an awesome creepy eerie soundtrack that gives off this feeling of desolation and being all alone in this world that has gone to hell.
I’ll add RE2 to the list for this series. PS1 version?
@@any_austin Thatd be awesome man! There's some differences between the ports. Idk if fixed camera angles and static background images count as skyboxes, but they both convey the same exact feeling lol
My favorite level in Odyssey is the Wooded Kingdom, and after watching this video I think it's because it's the first Mario level in a long time that's given me that kinda weird vibe. There's those huge mountains in the background, the post-apocalyptic vibe, the separate section of darker woods below the main part of the level where the T-rex roams around... good stuff.
Anyway cheers man, came here cos I saw your MarioKart 64 odd places vid and I'm subbing to see more of that sorta thing.
Dire Dire Docks, had a dream about the level. The dream occurred after intense Love Making with a Cuban Girl.
This is a great idea for a series my dude, I have never really stopped and looked at skylines for appreciation....impatiently waiting for the day/night cycle is the extent. But you bet your ass ima be looking at every skybox from now on! Love you bud
The biggest and scariest thought that goes through my head (and I wonder if it goes through other's heads) when looking at skyboxes in Mario 64 and also in Mario Galaxy (more on that in a second) is a terrifying feeling of emptiness (as kinda mentioned in the video), a feeling of infinity, a feeling of falling in a couple, and lastly (for me at least), a feeling of being forgotten which really drives home the horror of it all. As a late teen, I played Mario 64 DS and in that, everything felt more lively so I didn't really think about it, but when I watched a video on the skybox comparisons between 64 & 64 DS, the DS skybox with their redone images had me feeling more uncomfortable, especially the 3 bowser stages, big boo's haunt, shifting sandland, and of course, wet dry world. Another thing that doesn't help with the supposed falling or possibility of falling feeling, namely in bowser stage 1, is the fact that i have a fear/phobia of heights, and darkness. These feeling and emotions are also prominent, if not even more abundant in Super Mario Galaxy 1&2 (more often in 1, but happens a couple times in 2), I mainly got this perspective on them after watching Jacob Geller's video on "The Quiet Sadness of Super Mario Galaxy", since then I have been too uncomfortable to look directly at SMG1's skyboxes for a long time. Another thing about SMG1&2's skyboxes is the intriguing appeal and petrifying fear of being alone drifting through space endlessly with no hope for survival, or the idea of entropy (that all life will eventually die out). In the end, a skybox is just an image imported into a video game that is flat and has almost 99% of the time, literally no impact in gameplay, but the feeling that a skybox can give off, when edited right, or put into the right scenario can be whatever the player receives it as, whether it be liminal, beautifully crafted, or purposely creepy.
The thing that always got me with Big Boo's Haunt's skybox is that the game tries to sell to you that the level is this tiny caged diorama in the castle courtyard that Mario jumps into, but the skybox looks nothing like the castle courtyard. As a kid that always *really* set me on edge, like it felt profoundly evil that this cage could distort the view of the sunny, grassy area outside into a dark, dead, moonlit forest
Love this channel, I can’t believe somebody went ahead and dove into something that I’ve been thinking about for years. Thankyou! Also please do Pilotwings 64
That background in the intermission where you asked for subscribes had also a really nice mood, sort of a relaxed melancholy, i love those angled repeated stuff :) makes me even happier to have found your channel!
It sort of reminds me of the intermission levels in Super Mario Sunshine where you don't have the sprayer. I'd assume you like them as well?
Love the idea for this series and while they aren't techincally a skybox, I've always loved the backgrounds to the Octo Expansion campaign stages of Splatoon 2
Loved this. Skyboxes has always been a great part of the eggbusters universe.
I thought about what you said about the kind of scaryness not present in Mario anymore, and I just want to say that I think the black holes in SMG definitely have that feeling of unintentional scaryness. Even though they are meant to be frightening obviously, I feel like the uneasy feeling they give you is out of scale compared to the rest of the game. Just a thought.
love the chill vibes of this video. I'd totally watch more skybox appreciation vids, but I'd watch just about anything you do cuz you're a cool guy 👍
the part where you said that the skyboxes implied a bigger world is something that i used to think about as a kid. when i was 7 or 8 i used to think that all those mario games on the n64 were all in the same world. i remember once swimming into the invisible wall of the dk64 overworld in the hopes that i would eventually break free and reach "the mario continent" and go to peach's castle and all those mario kart 64 tracks. This whole series on skyboxes made me realise that they're a huge reason as to why i used to believe that
The DIre DIre Docks skybox freaked me out as a kid. Because you can stand at the edge of the level and
look through the walls to see just an endless deep blue ocean. That drove me crazy in a bad way as a kid.
castle garden, the place in the back where the boos are. that's where the skybox is for the pop quiz question
When I was a little kid I always thought the skybox in Bowser in the Dark World was a bunch of throats
I always thought these skyboxes were so interesting too! My fav might be Bowser in the Sky though, colourful clouds and all. Nice content!
Never stopped to think about the skybox in the first bowser level, got some actual megalophobia feeling to those spikes
Nobody ever seems to talk about the fiery goomba image in Lethal Lava Land's/Bowser in the Fire Sea skybox. It's as if some hellish entity is peering down at you as you struggle to survive.
it's that funny little level with the silver stars under the castle courtyard in the ds version.
you know, the fifth level with the island skybox
ok fine, dire dire docks. a level in the actual game. whatever
I absolutely adore mario 64 for this exact bizarre feeling you mentioned, about it seeming like there's life just off in the distance but you can't reach it. the desert civilization, or the wet dry town, or the island just past the sea in the courtyard. drove me crazy thinking about what might be out there when I played that game. or peach's castle, which has this cheery theme but feels so weird and empty. looks nothing like a place that people could live in. but there's so many parts of the castle, from the outside it looks like it should be a normal place. I like the theory that bowser twisted the insides with the power stars. But I also get a kick out of the idea that peach wanted the castle built like that. exactly as it appears in the game.
Skyboxes in Pikmin 2 caves for some levels are pretty neat
The "infinite landscape" thing actually fits, because Bowser created worlds using the power stars.
you are the only youtuber i enable alerts for, and for damn good reason
I remember how when I was a kid I would try to go towards those far away buildings or mountains in the skybox
I love the switches from jaded dub to you with a mic swinging around in chair. There’s something oddly charming about that
I love you and your work so much, thank you.
I’m not sure if you still read comments on old videos but Half-Life 1 feels like a fantastic candidate for this. Almost exclusively superimposed, compressed photos
Definitely. I played Half Life recently specifically to do videos about it, but then the unemployment thing happened so I’m playing with that for a bit first. But those Skyboxes are unbelievable.
@@any_austin Glad to hear its on your radar, looking forward to it. The unemployment stuff has been fun
There was like a marble game for the Wii I played as kid which kinda played like Monkey Ball that had very similarly dreamlike skyboxes, especially the horror-themed one reminded me a lot of Big Boos Haunt (or because I played the Marbles game first, BBH reminded me of that one)
Dog please do more of these retrospectives I'm like 1/4 the way through and I know I'll be casually letting autoplay reroll this one again here and there.
Honestly, my favorite Mario 64 skybox has got to be the one from the hidden underwater red coin room. Looking around and seeing what looks like several different times of day all at once is one of those things that always fascinated me as a kid! Each window felt so surreal to look out of.
Mario Galaxy‘s ghost Level skyboxes are totally haunting tho, even though you picked that as an example for that kiddish athmosphere. It has one singular glowing point on the horizon and there’s creeping souls slowly moving towards it, like they’re transitioning to the next world. Way more ominous than the N64 ghost level.
Can‘t remember whether it’s Galaxy 1 or 2 tho.
I really love the filter that you put over it, you're right, makes it much better
New subscriber, really appreciate your videos. It’s refreshing to see videos focusing on the small details without trying to come to some pretentious, pseudo-philosophical point like many video game “video essayists” do. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos.
As a kid, I had dreams about traveling to the islands in the distance. It's just a blurry jpeg, but I thought that if the invisible wall wasn't there, Mario really could fly to the island and discover a new world. I'm shocked to find a video on this very topic, but considering how strong nostalgia is for SM64, perhaps I shouldn't be.
I sincerely think the skyboxes of SM64 had a strong impact on my childhood brain. The illusion of a full, real world, the land just out of reach. It informed my worldview, the excitement of the unknown. Maybe that's giving it too much credit, but I was young and malleable.
Anyway, Half-Life 2 has some good skyboxes. Obvious choice, maybe, but notable for the 3d elements, the Citadel, and the fact that it takes place over three days, and the sky changes accordingly. The sunset skyboxes are especially spooky. Ethereal.
I bet nobody ever thought of this, but to me, revisiting SM64 today is like revisiting the old playroom you used to go to as a kid(the stuff with a slide, ball pit, etc). The one thing that crosses your mind is "God damn, this place is smaller than I remembered".
The call of duty 4 skyboxes in the Chernobyl missions are so cool and eerie. Check them out. You can easily see them in spectator mode on split screen
Wow great shout
7:55 not only are those the pyramids of giza, but they're taken at the one angle that literally everyone takes photos from because it's the one angle that hides the city of cairo reasonably well
This is the kind of creative content I love that you make. Keep it up!!
My favorite sky box is definitely bowser in the sky. Those purple tones, man! Especially when you fly off when you beat the game? Very cool.
spent the entire video trying to remember where that skybox shows up and cant remember for the life of me
8:27 "and implies slave labor" 😂 loving this interpretation
It may not be your cup of tea, but I think some of the backgrounds/skyboxes from the Kirby games made by Flagship (Squeak Squad, Amazing Mirror, Nightmare in dreamland) have some great detail to them that has some interesting feel!
I know it’s not a main course but the secret star room in the jolly rodger bay has my favorite sky box, something about being in a submerged room in a tower in the SKY so good lol
Great video! I'm really anticipating seeing where this series ia going
Certain skyboxes really give me the feels because I always wonder what is out there, despite it just being an out of bounds area. Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts was definitely the worst for me because there's so much to wonder about. The distant mountain that looks oddly like the top Grunty's Castle, the seemingly normal freight ships and oil rigs in this wacky universe, etc.
Finally someone mentions that creepy hallway in Big Boo's haunt! I remember it being one of the creepiest things in the game for me as a kid back in the day.
I absolutely love this game and it’s skyboxes, skyboxes are a very underappreciated thing.
I feel that this video has done the most to convince me to finally play super mario 64
It’s okay not as good as galaxy
Mario Galaxy is such a great 3D Mario game. Maybe the best.
That cut at 8:40 was brilliant 😂
The cherry on top of Wet Dry world´s uncanniness is the abandoned city area with houses trees and even a temple like structure. As a kid I wondered if there´s still skeletons of those who drowned inside their own houses xD
skyboxes are awesome, i always look forward to more skyboxes
ooooh this reminds me of the art appreciation you used to do. great vid :)
If you want beautiful skyboxes then definitely check out Jet Car Stunts. I just love having incredibly detailed skyboxes paired with basic level geometry. There's also no music in the game which creates such an unusual atmosphere. It's almost ethereal.
YYEEESSS i remember you talking about spyro skyboxes and i'm glad to see more skybox love
CRT filter for classic games is important!
I knew you loved skyboxes, but this... This is a masterclass in skybox appreciation. Beautiful
I feel the same way about the spooky level's in Mario games, the older games just feel more creepy. It's also how I feel about the first Luigi's Mansion compared to the third (haven't played the second) I think part of it the graphics. Super Mario 64 has the realistic skybox, while the level textures are vague enough that the mind processes them as scarier than the ones in the newer games, where the better graphics make it feel more cartoony, if that makes any sense.
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jolly Roger Bay's skybox reminded me a lot of foggy early mornings, and as such it was always very cozy to me.
Loving the content. Please keep it coming.
That end track sounds like something out of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes. Got a neat vibe to it.
You're spot on with the clash between the cartoony level and the very realistic looking skybox. I like old 90's/80's cel based anime for the same reason, very stylized characters in a painted nearly realistic looking world. Hunter x Hunter 99 has some scenes in it with backgrounds that look pretty realistic. Its the same aesthetic and its my absolute favorite. After the N64 its never been done again.
You missed talking about the best skybox though, Bowser in the Sky :(
Pleaseeeee make more of these. As always, your videos make my day 💜 thank you!
Id never guess that I would want to watch a 14 minute video about skyboxes in Mario 64...But here I am and actually really like this idea
Maybe you should do a video on the Super Mario Galaxy games skyboxes. There are so many cool ones, the clock tower of Flash Black galaxy, the massive towers of Slipsand and Clockwork Ruins, the massive castle halls of Bowser’s Galaxy Generator, the ending of Slimy Spring galaxy, Melty Molten galaxy, the ever infamous Shiverburn Galaxy, Boss Blitz Galaxy, Hightail Falls galaxy, Freezeflame galaxy, Melty Monster Galaxy and it’s chimp minigame, if there’s any game as capable of invoking the same array of feelings as SM64, it’s Galaxy and Galaxy 2
Finally. The series I've always wanted you to make.
The only skybox you’ve missed is Bowser in the Sky’s skybox.
Answer to pop quiz: It’s in the courtyard?
One thing that confused me about the Wet-Dry World's skybox is that there is water in the skybox, but there's also water in gameplay. This painting world runs on spongebob logic haha