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The Evolution of Mario
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."
"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
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.
- colin
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:
It clearly mentions that it does not include the 3D version.
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).
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 choice of pre-rendered sprites becomes even more disheartening. What looks bad on the GBA screen and worse on a proper monitor looks really dreadful on paper. Nintendo knew their game was good and they knew it would be reviewed and previewed and displayed in giant-size in magazines, but they did it anyway and I, for one, am disappointed.
For what it's worth, here's a review I wrote (Different than the print version) including a brief look at the sprites that encouraged thie larger analysis. Note that it includes pictures of the box or cartridge from both GB Donkey Kong games, which I own. "Stop playing the ROM" indeed.