Mario
mario's shame:
To no one's great surprise the consoles of the day were woefully unable to represent Mario in the proper glory. The Intellivision abomination is the worst offender, followed by Atari's distorted versions. Surprisingly the Colecovision nailed it perfectly, and the Commodore 64 version wasn't far behind.
From Left:
Atari 800 (Donkey Kong + Mario Bros)
Colecovision
Intellivision
Commodore 64
Atari 2600
It all started...
(note: parts of this article appeared in Nintendo Official Magazine UK, Sept. '04 issue)
Back in the day Nintendo was constrained by hardware. It's a well known story that when creating Mario - originally called simply 'jumpman' - Shigeru Miyamoto made him look the way he does because of hardware limitations of the time. He was given a mustache to seperate his nose from his face, overalls so arm movements were visible, and a hat because hair was hard to draw.
Super Mario Bros 2 first introduced us to a radically different looking plumber. Softer, rounder, with more personality owing in part to the graphics power of the NES and the growing experience of Nintendo's artists.
Sadly Nintendo pushed too far. In much the same way that early 3D games running on underpowered hardware produced hideous looking graphics (see: 3DO, Jaguar, SegaCD) Nintendo's use of pre-rendered sprites is running the risk of killing what charm Mario held as a lovingly hand-drawn sprite.
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.
Instead of pure colours and clearly defined edges, Mario now has a blotchy appearance - a result of reducing the number of colours in the 3D model. Instead of clear edges Mario's now saddled with aliased fringes, usually black, resulting in the kind of blue-screen border seen in old movies.
There are no signs Nintendo plans to change their ways. The fourth Mario on the right is unclear compared to every other, including the first one made more than twenty years ago. It's a shame that Nintendo, home to some of the world's finest 2D animators, is taking the quick way out and producing these ugly graphics. Many people consider 2D animation to be superior in many respects to the 3D graphics prevalent in modern games. If Nintendo keeps squandering their position as standard-bearer for this declining art form it will lead only to less joyous times for us all.
12/06/2007
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Melbourne [city of stuff, wooo!]