Mario is trapped in hell, where he belongs

In Jelly Mario, a new browser game from programmer Stefan Hedman, something horrible has happened not only to Mario but to the entire Mushroom Kingdom. When Mario attempts one of his famously crisp and precise jumps, he floats and rotates away, his legs wriggling uselessly beneath him. When Mario collides with an enemy, no matter the angle of attack, both explode into a shower of pixels, occasionally leaving the plumber’s decapitated head to float off into the ether. Perhaps most disturbing of all, Mario no longer warps, but instead wriggles his way through pipes like an intestinal parasite. When he emerges on the opposite end, his attempts to collect coins cause them to bunch up like a swarm of terrible red blood cells, hideously distorting his face in the process. There is only one conclusion to draw from this waking nightmare: Mario has died and gone to hell—punishment for his constant sins of avarice, mushroom abuse, Koopa murder, and princess neglect.

The game, which is still in an early alpha state and currently includes just the first couple stages of the original Super Mario Bros., makes great use of physics to constantly undermine everything you hold dear about the Mario series. Watch as Mario is forced to slither along the ground as he is tormented by a piranha plant:

Recoil in disgust as bricks that were once solid break apart at Mario’s cursed touch: