Video Game / Another Princess is in Our Castle

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Another Princess is in Our Castle is a fan-made Super Mario Bros. horror game by CM9 Animation which started development in 2023. You can download a demo here.

You play as Mario, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, who is visiting Peach's Castle a few years after the princess' untimely death, but something is wrong. You quickly discover that Peach's ghost is haunting the castle grounds, and she has become monstrous after her demise. Mario now must avoid Peach and collect the "souls" of Super Mario 64 characters to go deeper into the abandoned halls, and hopefully unravel the mystery of Peach's Castle...

This game contains examples of:

• Adaptational Villainy: Peach is normally docile and sweet, but after her death, she's willing to kill Mario on sight. Same goes for the normally friendly and cheerful Toads.
• Alone with the Psycho: On the Invincibility Leaf (Very Easy) difficulty, it'll be only you and Peach inside of the castle (the subsequent difficulties will add more and more ghost Toad underlings).
• Ambiguous Situation: How has the Mushroom Kingdom been doing since Peach's death? How did Peach die? Why are Peach and the Toads suddenly hostile to Mario?
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The castle is the one from Super Mario 64, but a few new doorways have been added so you don't get cornered easily.
  • The game also enables checkpoints so if you do die, you can go back to the point you left off.
• Awesome, but Impractical: You are able to hide in chests when the ghosts are chasing you — provided, on Fire Flower difficulty and up, they don't actually see you go in.
• Boss Battle: The demo as of 0.3.0 adds a boss battle that begins upon acquiring all the "souls" on the ground floor, where Mario has to interact with Peach while she's praying in the middle of the foyer, while avoiding the hordes of Toads she summons to attack him, and then fleeing before she gives chase. Doing this enough times will defeat her and cause her to relinquish the Toad soul, allowing access to the star door with the key to the basement.
• Came Back Wrong: What happened to Princess Peach and the Toads.
• Cliffhanger: The demo as of 0.3.0 ends with Mario temporarily defeating Peach, allowing him access to the star room that normally has the trap door to "Bowser In The Dark World" (instead having just the key to the basement), with the painting instead changing to a more demonic-looking Peach, implying she was somehow corrupted. Mario then heads into the castle's basement, finding Luigi poking around, Poltergust 3000 in tow. Though it seems to be implied that he's been trapped inside, as while he still recognizes his brother, his eyes look really weary to where they look blank. Previously, it was an abrupt, unavoidable Jump Scare from Princess Peach.
• Easier Than Easy: The Very Easy difficulty level known as Invincibility Leaf.
  The Other Princess is patrolling the castle. She can't see very far and never sees you going inside a chest. She also doesn't hear at all and doesn't chase you very fast.
• Eat the Camera: When Peach catches you, the camera will zoom into her open maw.
• Harder Than Hard: The Extreme difficulty level known as Mini Mushroom.
  The Other Princess and four Toads are patrolling the castle. They can see and hear extremely far and see you going inside a chest if they are close. They also chase you extremely fast. Do you care about your sanity?
• Have a Nice Death: The words "TOO BAD!" appear on the screen in red if you get caught by Peach.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: There are 6 difficulty levels, affecting the number of enemies and the skill of the enemies as well: P-Wing, Invincibility Leaf, Super Star, Fire Flower, Super Mushroom, and Mini Mushroom.
• Incurable Cough of Death: The logs imply that Peach (and possibly her attendants) died from an unspecified illness that left her bedridden and coughing regularly.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: There are now chests scattered over the castle; you can use them as hiding spots, as long as nobody actually sees you go in on Medium difficulty and up.
• Jumpscare: Getting caught by Peach will have her roar at the camera and eat it. In earlier versions of the game, it would end with an inevitable attack from the princess.
• Meaningful Name: Each of the Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels are named after Mario power-ups, with the harder the difficulty translating into a worse item; on both extremes, the Sandbox Mode is called P-Wing (a Power-Up known for allowing Mario to outright skip levels), while the hardest difficulty is called Mini Mushroom (a Power-Up Letdown).
• Nightmare Face: All the enemies gain glowing red eyes and More Teeth than the Osmond Family upon seeing you.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning:
  • All the enemies gain this whenever they're chasing you.
  • Even when Peach is in her normal ghostly form, her eyes are still red.
• Sandbox Mode: You can explore the castle as you please on P-Wing (Practice) difficulty.
  No one is home. Explore the castle as you like, nothing will bother you.
• Support Party Member: There are ghost Toads patrolling the castle too on any difficulty above Invincibility Leaf. While they can't kill you, they will latch onto your face and you have to mash "E" to shake them off, and Peach will likely be drawn towards your location as well, forcing you to hide immediately. They become this even more explicitly during the boss fight, as Peach summons six Toads at a time to try and stop you from purifying her while she's getting ready to attack.