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Classic Games (Games) GameCube (Games)

The Evolution of Mario 33

Posted by Zonk from the mama-mia! dept.
Decaffeinated Jedi writes "NFG Games offers an interesting look at the visual evolution of Nintendo's Mario from his humble beginnings as a monkey-chasing carpenter to his more recent incarnations as a Koopa-stomping plumber. The retrospective doesn't stray into 3D Mario territory, but it does include every 2D version of Mario released between 1981 and 2004 -- including early consoles like the Atari 2600 and Colecovision."
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The Evolution of Mario More

The Evolution of Mario

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  • Definitive versions (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gkelman ( 665809 ) on Friday October 08, 2004 @10:06AM (#10469708) Homepage Journal
    From the article:

    The SNES versions of Super Mario Bros 1, 2 and 3 are considered the definitive Marios.

    By whom? Heathens perhaps. SMB 1, 2 and 3 were for the NES. The cart for the SNES was the same games just touched up a bit. So surely, the NES versions are the definitive ones...

    Quite why he chose not to include Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine, I dunno, but he looks pretty cool in them.
    • I believe he's refering to the sprites in the games as "representing" Mario more accurately than the originals, not the games themselves.

      However, I agree with you that he is still wrong.
    • Quite why he chose not to include Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine, I dunno, but he looks pretty cool in them.

      Perhaps he is focusing on the 2D style games where Mario is still (for most purposes) a sprite.
      Mario64 and Sunshine he is rendered in game. I will agree though, Sunshine he looks really nice (of course you can't really compare a gamesystem of now to a system built 20 years ago).

      Actually now that I re-read the article:

      Below is every 2D Mario ever released...

    • I can see the point he is making here. The SNES versions looked better, you didn't have to deal with the NES crapping out if you bumped the console, you had the bad-ass new 6-button controller that didn't poke you in the hands, and a lot of people bought the All Star collection even though they already had an NES and the old carts. Oh, I think he left out Mario 64 and Mario sunshine (shudder...) because they are 3D. He is totally writing an opinion piece though, and some of them are pretty dumbish. Super Ma

  • Well.. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Idealius ( 688975 ) * on Friday October 08, 2004 @10:06AM (#10469711) Journal
    "In order to maximize the value of new artwork created for new games, characters like Mario are first drawn in 3D. This is the only time consuming part. Afterward the 3D model can be manipulated and posed in infinite variety and 2D sprites created in rapid-fire, assembly line fashion. In addition the same 3D model can be used in a sequel, and in 3D games with few or no changes. While it's faster than drawing each frame of animation by hand, the results are usually disappointing, and often very ugly."

    He writes it as though it's widely accepted, but from my perspective it's more 50/50. I wish he would throw a few "IMO"'s in there, but oh well.

    For instance, if you blur your vision while looking at some of the screens of the 3D rendered-to-raster Marios they look much better than the Marios with the black outlines. This is a better judge because he scales the size of the Marios up VERY large making them look pixelated which supports the view the new raster Marios look like crap. Alternative to blurring your eyes you could just scale them down and see what I'm referring to, as well. As most artists know, blurring your eyes is an effective way to view the picture as a whole instead of focusing on little details (such as huge blocky pixels). Monet's paintings are famous for this due to his near-blindness (look at his art scaled down/blurred and it looks near-photographic.) This becomes a valuable tool for beginner and experienced artists for keeping track of the "whole picture" (pun intended :)
    • Well, it all comes down to scanlines and televisions. I'm pretty much reiterating your point, but adjusting it a slight bit to the side.

      When you take these prerendered images in question and display them on a TV, they're going to appear slightly darker because of the black scanlines interlaced with the images. Also, you're going to get a bit more of a blur effect (exactly as you describe) making them look just fine on a TV. Modern monitors generally don't get that effect, so they're not going to look anywh
    • was it near-blindness, or was it that he had a specific form of blindness that pretty much sapped him of depth perception? I vaguely recall a brief piece on the Dallas Morning News about an artist (whose name escapes me, as I can't seem to find it on the DMN site) who suffered this same affliction... from what I understand, this lack of depth perception is beneficial to an artist, as it gives them a natural inclination towards depicting realism beyond the ability of others..

  • Mario Clash (Score:3, Interesting)

    by zenintrude ( 462825 ) on Friday October 08, 2004 @10:09AM (#10469751)
    There seems to be absolutely no mention of Mario Clash or Mario Tennis for the Virtual Boy. While Tennis falls under the realm of the cameo (I guess), Mario Clash is a stand alone Mario game with an interesting remake take on the old Mario Bros. games.


  • Original MARIO:

    0
    -{}- /\

    Pre rendered, pixellated mario ... ...
    . .....
    . .
    . .

    MARIO ON JENNY CRAIG:

    0 ---- I'm so weak and hungry!
    -|- /\

    Atari 2600 Mario: :-0

  • "We are retro, therefore we are 1337" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 75th Trombone ( 581309 ) on Friday October 08, 2004 @10:34AM (#10470027) Homepage Journal

    Paraphrasing the article:

    Pre-rendered 3D marios look aliased and terrible!

    When you show them as 80x160 images on VGA resolution monitors, of bloody course they do.

    Quoting the article:

    The 1996 release of Super Mario RPG ... saw the first appearance of a pre-rendered, aliased Mario. Notice the dark colours around the edges.

    Dark colours around the edges. As opposed to his lovely hand-drawn sprites, which have BLACK FRICKIN' OUTLINES. More consistent, perhaps, but not inherently better.

    Bleh. Dumb. This isn't the evolution of Mario, this is some kind of retro artist elitism. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, but when you call your article "The Evolution of Mario," it'd be cooler to talk about the changes in his visual style than to flaunt your wicked cool retro-gamerhood. Please. That's, like, all of us.

  • Mario Sprites and so on (Score:4, Informative)

    by NEOGEOman ( 155470 ) on Friday October 08, 2004 @01:15PM (#10472330)
    Glad you're all checking out my little article. Thought I'd respond to some criticisms, some good comments, and some ridiculous whinging (I shant get into which is which...)

    75th Trombone had some issues with basically everything... Let's start with the size: When comparing the appearance of an object I think enlarging it makes it easier to see. If you want it smaller, stand away from the computer. In fact, go for a walk. While you're out, think about the difference between aliasing and a black outline surrounding a sprite. As for your last paragraph, I ask you: What the hell?

    zenintrude asks about the VB versions of Mario. This is a very good question, I never even thought of the VB as a 2D system, though in this respect they were more or less 2D sprites in a 3D world. My humblest apologies for the oversight.

    Idealius writes "He writes it as though it's widely accepted, but from my perspective it's more 50/50. I wish he would throw a few "IMO"'s in there, but oh well." I'm not sure what exactly you're referring to that isn't as widely accepted as I suggest, care to clarify?

    gkelman questions my selection of the definitive Marios. I am not, as zenintrude later mentions, talking about the games themselves but the appearance of the main protagonist, our buddy Mario. These AllStar Marios maintain the same character and appeal as the originals, but are remade without (IMESHO) negatively affecting their appearance.

    And yes, to those who didn't read the whole article, I didn't include 3D Marios 'cause they're not sprites. I didn't include cameos or other appearances where Mario was not the main character, there are plenty of other webpages that already detail Mario's every appearance.

    I thought it was interesting to see how Mario had changed and I put the page together to detail the progression. It's universally agreed that the most recent Mario is pretty f**king ugly, and anyone who disagrees seems only to be playing devil's advocate. (This is good logic, everyone agrees with me except people who don't 'cause they're broken somehow).

    • Re:Mario Sprites and so on (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You want Devil's Advocate? I'd be more interested if it were a PCE pinball game, but okay:

      Do some research into who the names behind MvDK. A Kyoto rep was the art director, but check out who was under his direction, compared to those on the art teams for all the Nintendo-produced/-published games in the "Mario game" canon that you cited in the article.

      This wouldn't neccessarily lead to the clear conceptual differences, but damn if it doesn't open the door for the possibility.

      And "Jumping the Shark?" P
      • "And "Jumping the Shark?" Please. A JTS point is a point of no return, which in this business is clearly impossible."

        Of course there's nothing I can do to write this article in the future, so I had to write it now, based on what has come before. Obviously there's plenty of room for Nintendo to improve, and if any game company has the resources and potential to regain my favour (as if they care) it's Nintendo. The game industry is a dynamic thing, but this article is static. In my humble opinion they hav
    • Dear NEOGEOman,

      I just read at your article. Very interesting, good work. It took me on a trip down memory lane.

      I offer you some constructive criticism regarding the drop shadows on the graphics. I think the drop shadows are totally inappropriate considering the context of the article. Thanks for your time, and keep writing.

      Sincerely,
      DrunkenTerror
      • Personally I thought the drop-shadows elevated the sprites from the flat page a bit like cardboard cutouts, and IMO it made the whole page a little more dynamic. It was necessary too in some cases to ensure the white parts weren't lost in the background.

        I know it's a bit of a contentious issue, some people are quite vehemently against it, but... Choices had to be made.

        Glad you liked the rest of it.

    • When comparing the appearance of an object I think enlarging it makes it easier to see.

      I agree, and were we dealing with "objects" per se that would work. But we're not dealing with objects, we're dealing with low-res raster images. Low-res images are meant to be viewed at low-res. The fact that enlarging them makes one type appear more disorderly is meaningless; it's all about how they look on a TV in gameplay. Those SMRPG sprites all look fantastic on a TV in gameplay.

      "The hell" with my last par

  • Anybody remember Hard Hat Mac!? Mario stole his gig (well, changed it from construction to plumbing at least).
  • My kids have been playing Mario Vs Donkey Kong a lot lately on the gba and emulated, and it's amazing how well they've taken the whole Donkey Kong control scheme and rules and make it very modern and enjoyable. My kids recognize Mario more than any other character I think, they've known him since they were very young as so had I.
  • I had Mario vs. DK, and let me tell you; Sprites look a lot better on the screen/resolution they were intended to be in. Stop playing the ROM.
    • Yes yes, if you put any kind of crap on the GBA's awful screen you can hide a multitude of sins.

      Never mind the fact that their official product, the GameCube-attached GameBoy Player, offers the chance to play the game on the large screen of your choice, the fact remains though that even on the sad little GBA screen the Mario sprites animate well, but don't look as good as they could.

      Having had the astonishing good fortune to be responsible for some previews in a print magazine Nintendo's unfortunate choic

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