Super Mario 64 Big Star Secret

"Title says it all."

- Lotus trying to put on his best troll face possible.

Super Mario 64 Big Star Secret is a partially-lost YouTube screamer video based on the "secret" from Super Mario 64. The video was first uploaded to YouTube by Adam "LotusMan17" Bounds on August 15th, 2007, and was then deleted from the channel in late 2012. Aside from being just a Mario screamer, this is a lost screamer that anyone still searches for. Yet, even the people from Lost Media Wiki started hunting for the screamer from websites, which only lasted a year. A poorly-made screamer about unlocking Luigi was enough to provoke a huge amount of search from everyone with information coming in hand recently. The video had amassed around 900,000 views at its peak.

Content
The video itself, of course, has to do with unlocking Luigi, and it begins with a handful of steps on how to do so; all of this was impressively made with Windows Movie Maker 2. At first, the steps are shown on a black screen, before Lotus begins doing what the steps say at the beginning. One of the instructions includes running around the courtyard statue for a certain amount of time. After the part where Lotus tells the player to kick the Boo, they are then told to press "A" on the wall as being the final step. As the player is about to do so, the K-fee zombie would then appears on the screen, suddenly interrupting the video. However, it is rumoured that if one can see far enough, Lotus can be seen going against the wall before the actual screamer, but this rumour has not yet been confirmed. The video shortly ended with the credits appearing from the top. The video used to have three different pieces of music, including the gameplay and the credits, but it was muted due to copyright issues.

Background
The screamer video in question is one of many that originated during the early days of Super Mario 64 and revolved around an urban legend. This particular video purportedly centered on the "L is real 2046" urban legend, which began after it was rumored that a message on a courtyard plaque contained a code to unlock Luigi, an unplayable character in the game. In addition to using a code to unlock the character, the video showcased other steps to do so. It is worth noting that this urban legend has since been largely debunked.

The video was captured on a flip phone, believed to be a Motorola RAZR V3, showing a computer screen. The creator used the editor "Toad's Tool 64" to make modifications to the castle, including placing a door in the right wall of the main lobby's staircase and altering Mario's clothing to feature a blue shirt and black overalls. Lotus implemented other changes using the level editor.

To avoid copyright infringement, the video's audio was muted and replaced with 009 Sound System's Dreamscape theme in 2010. The original video featured three pieces of music, such as "Whispers in the Dark" by Skillet at the start, and "Those Chosen by the Planet" from Final Fantasy VII during the second half and credits. However, witnesses often misidentified the song played at the beginning as "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence. The video may have been removed due to a copyright strike in 2012. Lotus claimed to have received an email offering to purchase the rights to "Database" by Alexander Pearls for nearly $40, which he ultimately accepted.

Lotus confirmed that the screamer took place primarily in the courtyard of the castle, rather than the Bob-Omb Battlefield as some had previously claimed. He suggested that Mario entered an "alternate dimension," where the textures, which he created using MS Paint, were glitching out, possibly due to emulator memory issues. Lotus also created two screenshots in September 2020 as a remake, depicting Mario standing in front of the courtyard statue and appearing next to the castle.

According to Lotus, the screamer portion of the video was extended.

Availability and concerns
On September 8, 2015, a Screamer Wiki user named SCL (also known as Socoollogos on FANDOM) posted his concern about the screamer on a thread in the Screamer Forum. One user also discovered the screamer as SCL was concerned about. He tried finding the screamer through the Wayback Machine, but only to find that no archives of the video had been made yet. The user also mentioned that an annotation popped up during the video, where Lotus said that he would remove the video because he was receiving hate. The reply had a different link to a reaction video, but it was made private. However, there are many posts about this screamer besides this thread. A YouTuber Mahlv also uploaded his concerns about the lost Mario 64 screamer to YouTube on August 2020. Another documentary was then shortly followed at a later date, where he talks about the screamer being hunted by the Lost Media Wiki and other information.

There are no copies of the video that could possibly be found, which is pretty obvious. The only thing that one could find in searching for the update description and its thumbnail. The updated description says, "The video was done out of complete boredom, and yet people still wish to leave hateful comments. Therefore, commenting has been disabled." So this could be the truth behind why Lotus deleted the video: because of how many death threats and hate comments he had received, rather than saying it was accidental. Both the thumbnail and updated description are more likely found on its Facebook page, which was created in late 2011.

There is only reaction video of this screamer, uploaded on February 5, 2008, featuring someone's brother reacting to the half part of the screamer. It's hard to tell because of the low quality, but one can see Mario climbing up the stairs and opening the door, before the recorder proceeds to skip almost half of the screamer to the end part, where Lotus instructs the viewer to do the final step. After the screamer, the boy then runs away from the computer. Only what's left on the screen are the credits of the video.

A Portuguese user named Nazz uploaded a five-second video featuring a snapshot of the screamer. The uploader was questioned by a user from Lost Media Wiki about the screamer. He answered that it was found by one of his friends and was supposed to be taken from an old phone. Nazz also recorded his full reaction video to the screamer, but it was never found. The screenshot appears to be Mario jumping into the fountain at the back of the castle, where the courtyard statue is located.

Links
NOTE : The following video contains a screamer!
 * Recreation: youtube.com/watch?v=Z7gPkpiKrH4
 * Reaction video containing the screamer (Upscaled): youtube.com/watch?v=hFz4q069E2k