8 Crazy Video Game Fan Theories That Actually Improve Games

7. Super Mario: The Play

Like Pokemon, the Super Mario universe has more theories attached to it than I could possibly go into here, so I'll stick with the highlights, starting with probably the most famous. We all know about the weirdness with Super Mario 2 €“ how it was never really a Mario game, and how it was all brushed off as a dream, as if that could account for the acute differences, but it wasn't the only game with a departure from the original Super Mario.

This theory goes that Mario 3 was never real €“ it was just a play. Curtain rises at the start, characters enter stage left, and proceed to navigate a series of levels, which feature some odd artistic choices, like environmentals that seem to be bolted on to an invisible background (as if stage dressings). Platforms are also physically attached to things, unlike in the first game, and everything seems a lot more man-made than before.

Are you actually seeing Mario reliving his greatest adventure? He saved the princess once, and was then forced to go back to his hum-drum plumber life, explaining why he dreamed up a whole new adventure for Super Mario 2, and then engineered a remake in Mario 3.