3 came out and apparently ditched all that, it felt like a betrayal to me, a little kid who *loved* SMB2. I talk about it a lot, including in this post, where I discuss the strangeness of this game hitting at the height of Mario mania in the United States, with all the tie-in merchandise capitalizing on the SMB2 version of Mario, turnip in hand. Looking at the development timelines, it seems perfectly understandable that not only did the extra time pay off aesthetically but also the SMB2 sprites seem like improved versions of their SMB3 counterparts, rather than entirely new sprites. I suppose some people might disagree, but I feel like it’s hard to argue that the SMB2 pixels don’t look better than the ones in SMB3. The SMB2 version of Toad seems like an original sprite, unrelated to anything in SMB3, and we can’t do a comparison for Luigi because SMB2 is the only 8-bit Mario platformer where he’s given a unique sprite. Again, it’s only two white pixels added to her eyes, but it makes a remarkable difference: With just pink to suggest her eyes, she either looks possessed or high. It’s explained in this video.Īs for Peach, the addition of a few flesh-toned pixels give her a larger head and less of a weirdly low hairline. This explains the tendency for the white pixels to flicker in the exact same way that Mega Man’s NES sprite does, since that sprite was constructed in a similar way. I also wondered why Nintendo decided against white pixels on his hands to suggest his iconic gloves until a commenter on this post pointed out that these extra white pixels are actually an entirely separate sprite sitting atop the previous one. And moving his hand just slightly shows off his torso in a way that makes it very clear that he’s wearing overalls like we see in his official art. The addition of a single white pixel above his left eye makes his face appear to be turned at an angle rather than fully in profile. You can also appreciate how some slight changes make the SMB2 version of Mario look so much better. Googling around, however, I did find this tweet from artist and retrogaming enthusiast Philip Summers noting the strangeness of Mario’s SMB2 sprite looking better than the in SMB3 version: more colors, more accurate colors (even if the colors of his overalls and undershirt are swapped), and the addition of whites in his eyes, making him look overall more like the bright-eyed Mario you saw on the box art than some beady-eyed weirdo. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t been able to to find the article that initially brought it to my attention - it was something I learned before the age of social media, and for all I know, it might have been on a message board that no longer exists. I recall reading about a connection between Mario’s sprites in SMB2 and SMB3, with one being based off the other in some kind of observable way. Sure, graphics can be revised and updated as a game moves through production, but I’m going to present some evidence that suggests Nintendo had already finalized Peach’s look for the ending of SMB3 - and then, while turning Doki Doki Panic into a Mario game for the west, used that pre-existing SMB3 sprite. Based on the way game production works, it’s possible a lot of the graphics design for SMB2 were desigend after similar work had been done for SMB3. Meanwhile, Doki Doki Panic was released on July 10, 1987, and the game it became - SMB2 - hit American shelves on October 9, 1988, less than a month before Japanese gamers were getting their hands on SMB3. Production on SMB3 began in 1986, not long after the game we westerners call The Lost Levels was released, and it hit shelves in Japan on October 23, 1988. 2, and not the other way around, despite their release date order. 3 influenced what Peach would look like in Super Mario Bros. That might still be true, in a sense, but what is more likely the case here is that Super Mario Bros. Nintendo had not forgotten about the one game where Peach was playable, because the SMB3 version of her looked the same. Given that SMB3 chucked nearly all of the elements introduced in the previous game, this read to me as a subtle acknowledgement that it all somehow still counted. For me, an American kid who played SMB2 for years before I beat SMB3, Peach looked almost exactly as she had in SMB2. I mean, come on - black overalls?įor players outside Japan, however, the SMB3 ending scene played out differently. Even the sprite for Mario himself, if better than the original SMB one, leaves a lot to be desired. After all, the spritework in SMB3 is actually not Nintendo’s best from its 8-bit days. I’ve always assumed the graphical limitations of the NES are to blame for this brunette travesty of a princess.
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