The Evolution of Mario
A QuickBit published on February 23, 2005
The Evolution of Mario
A sprite history of the evolution of Nintendo’s Mario. Interesting to hear that Shigeru Miyamoto made him look the way he does because of hardware limitations of the time. He was given a mustache to separate his nose from his face, overalls so arm movements were visible, and a hat because hair was hard to draw.
Via What Do I Know.
Lanny Heidbreder → 75thtrombone.com/weblog/
This went around Slashdot a while back, and I had some things to say about this guy’s conclusions. Since you’re a bit of a pixel-art expert, I’d be interested to know if you think I’m off the mark. :)
My initial reaction. (In one of my overly-cynical modes.)
His reply and my counter-reply. (I deserved the “whinging” accusation, I’ll grant him that.)
Kris → www.cinnamon.nl
Sweet! I used to do this kind of stuff during my MSX years in the 90’s. I should still have that stuff backed up somewhere in my parent’s attic.
Carmelyne Thompson
Was Mario in Game and Watch? I know Parachute and Donkey Kong were. I am dating myself but hey now I am curious.
Dennis Stone → www.middlestone.com
The fact that Shigeru Miyamoto had the vision to create character that we are still talking about roughly 23 yrs later is a true testament to his ability. Remember that not only Shigeru Miyamoto but Mario in particular saved the gaming industry and gave it a platform to build upon. Before Nintendo and in particular Mario came on to the scene, video consoles and games were on the way out.
Another true testament to Shigeru Miyamoto’s vision is that companies, namely SEGA, attempted to build a character like Sonic that could related to individuals the way Mario did and still does. If you ever played Super Mario brothers on the first NES in 1985 I can almost guarantee that could pick it up today as have as much fun as you did when you first picked it up.
Dan Cederholm → www.simplebits.com/
Lanny - I agree, the screen captures of the later versions are critiqued out of context. They look blocky because they’re blown up so large. Just fun to look at how the character has evolved, etc. And also how even the original version has all the characteristics intact at that low resolution. That’s a darn good use of the few pixels they had to work with.
Carmelyne - You’re taking me back there — I had a Q*Bert (he was using the * waaay before *NSync) Game and Watch way back when. Wish I still had it.
L-Mo
I don’t really like the new marios but I do like the new games, but I sometimes I can’t resist going old school and going and blowing on the nintendo cards so they read.
Randy → randywalker.net/
I think the * looks better in *NSYNC :) I <3 their music and their moves…
Dustin → www.dustindiaz.com
Great stuff. I’ll be looking forward to see the evolution of my true nintendo (Shigeru) favorite too…
Link from The Legend of Zelda!
Nathan Smith → www.sonspring.com/
Man, great article, though I agree that retro was better than their sprite attempts at 3D. I remember back in the day of SNES, when I first got Mario Paint, the original console game that came with a mouse.
I used to make Mortal-Kombat style fights with Mario & Yoshi, using what little frames of animation were allowed. After that, I knew I’d be hooked on graphic art. Long live the Mario series. :)
Andreas Graulund → www.andreasgraulund.com/
Heh. That surprised me too. Pretty fun to think about.
Jessica Lopez → journal.8p.org.uk/
Wow! Great stuff!
Thanks for posting this.
Soleio → soleio.com/
This reminds me of another investigative Mario article I came across recently: The Case for Super Mario as Communist Propaganda
vinny
im mario no.1 fan. did mario once been called jump man
jordan
yes, Mario used to be called “jumpman” ah…the classics. my old haircutting place had a donkeykong game with jumpman in the classic arcade things. it ruled. screw haircuts, i just wanted to play.
oh and vinny, if you really are “mario no.1 fan” then you would have already know he was called jumpman.
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