There are no signs Nintendo plans to change their ways. 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.
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. While it's faster than drawing each frame of animation by hand, the results are usually disappointing, and often very ugly. In addition the same 3D model can be used in a sequel, and in 3D games with few or no changes. Afterward the 3D model can be manipulated and posed in infinite variety and 2D sprites created in rapid-fire, assembly line fashion. In order to maximize the value of new artwork created for new games, characters like Mario are first drawn in 3D. 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. Softer, rounder, with more personality owing in part to the graphics power of the NES and the growing experience of Nintendo's artists.
Super Mario Bros 2 first introduced us to a radically different looking plumber. 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. 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. '04 issue)īack in the day Nintendo was constrained by hardware. (note: parts of this article appeared in Nintendo Official Magazine UK, Sept.
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