10 Video Game Endings That Totally Trolled Players

As long-time fans will know, Mario titles don’t tend to revolve around the mechanic of our hero pulling vegetables from the ground to throw at enemies. This grabbing and stacking mechanic appears in only game: the brilliantly bizarre Super Mario Bros. 2.

There’s a well-documented reason why this particular title is so jarringly different: it’s a reskinned version of another game, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, released by Nintendo as the second Super Mario Bros. title after they deemed the standard Japanese version too difficult to release in the West.

This is why we have Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad dashing through the peculiar world of Subcon, throwing nutritious foodstuffs at enemies (foes themselves can be picked up and thrown too) as they platform their way to a showdown to the nefarious frog king, Wart, to save the people of the land from his evil warty rule.

In a simple bid to explain all this weirdness, the game’s ending consists of a shot of Mario snoozing in his bed, suggesting that the entire game was just a dream on his part. Or was it?