Death Stranding With Super Mario 64 Sound Effects Is Surprisingly Adorable

Death Stranding has no shortage of Hideo Kojima's oddball sense of humor, but on the whole it appears to deal with fairly serious subject matter. A video from GameXplain takes the edge off of some of that dire seriousness by mixing and matching it with the bright and colorful world of Super Mario 64.

More precisely, it mixes in the music and sound effects of Mario 64, but that's enough to drastically change the tone of the game. Instead of the quiet serenity of nature, we get the Whomp's Fortress song. Sam "wah" and "wahoos" his way up the hillside to make a delivery. There's even a magic mushroom. Of sorts.

An extended gameplay demo debuted at Gamescom Opening Night Live. The event shed a lot more light on how Death Stranding controls and plays, including a surprise cameo from the event's host, Geoff Keighley. Kojima hinted at more cameos in the game, and we may be able to guess some of them based on who has been visiting Kojima Productions.

Death Stranding is releasing on April 16, 2020. The Collector's Edition for $200 includes a ton of extras like a life-sized BB Pod statue and Ludens keychain. Check out our pre-order guide for more details.