10 Terrifyingly Dark Implications In Otherwise Cheerful Video Games

Back in the days of "classic Mario" there was a surprising amount you could learn about the world from the booklets you'd be given with boxed copies of the game. Details about character's personalities, about the various levels you'd be travelling through, and about Mario himself became clear through this handy little guide.

Oh, and also that all the bricks you encounter are people. It also told us that.

Turn a measly two pages to the fourth page of the manual and you're casually told that the Mushroom People, during the Koopa invasion, were "turned into mere stones, bricks, and even field horse-hair plants".

Now, while your initial, panicked thought is that all those bricks you broke equalled murder, that isn't actually true - because it's much weirder than that.

These guides also imply that the bricks you get power ups from are Mushroom People attempting to reward you and send you on your way to save the day, suggesting that you only "destroy" actual bricks, not the secretly sentient ones.

Either way, the idea that you've accidentally witnessed countless suffering individuals on your way to save the princess and never even known is likely more than a little unsettling for most players.