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The Evolution of Mario

geekstir.com — A look at how Mario has changed over the years. Look at him now! You can see the denim of his jeans! WOW!

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  • expert01, on 12/31/2007, -31/+19Excellent Pic
    • wtfersk8s, on 12/31/2007, -2/+101990 version > Alll
      Countless hours my bro and I wasted playing that game.
      • Mewchu11, on 12/31/2007, -0/+2That wasn't a game, it was a LIE.

        A well crafted and fun to play lie, but a lie none the less
        • cyberoidx, on 12/31/2007, -0/+2Actually, the LIE was that amazingly coded Mario based Japanese game (Syobon adventures?) posted on digg a few days ago. How come they left him out?
      • rompom7, on 12/31/2007, -1/+3I'm afraid 1985 Mario > all.

        It was the beginning of the Super Mario Brothers series. Mario was actually had a name (previously just known as Jumpman). And it was the first time we saw the mushroom kingdom. SMB3 totally rocks though.
      • RedS0x, on 12/31/2007, -1/+3You mean countless hours with your MARIO bro?
    • pooper, on 12/31/2007, -2/+62I like this older one better
      http://i12.tinypic.com/6u92r21.jpg
    • darkfire532, on 12/31/2007, -17/+3Its inaccurate and poorly done. Its basically Mario pictures on a white background, theres no artistic value whatsoever. But what bothers me the most is that the person did not use the Galaxy version, but instead used the Brawl version. Thats fine and all, but the creator should have used the other Smash Bros Marios as well.
    • barakatx2, on 12/31/2007, -1/+5they forgot the legend of the seven stars mario!
    • error2k2, on 12/31/2007, -1/+3Fails for not having Mario RPG sprite
  • MatchStick, on 12/31/2007, -23/+13where's Galaxy Mario? and where's Jump Man?
    • FoxOrian, on 12/31/2007, -9/+3Galaxy Mario is really only a slightly more detailed version of Sunshine Mario, so, not really worth-while to add.
    • Pritchard, on 12/31/2007, -20/+3You guys are ***** retards. 2008. What do you think? Huh? Tell me.
      • artanis, on 12/31/2007, -6/+14That certainly isn't the mario in my Super Mario Galaxy game. 480i isn't exactly hidef
        • emjaymj, on 12/31/2007, -3/+4First of all, over component video you can play at 480p. Second of all, the Mario in that picture isn't high def. In fact, the entire picture including all the Marios is at a lower resolution than 480p/i. And yet somehow it still looks nice enough that apparently people think it's high def. The Wii displays at a higher resolution than the image. Just goes to show that there is more to graphical power than simply how many lines of resolution are displayed - a number of games look pretty damn nice on the Wii.
        • joshuabowers, on 12/31/2007, -1/+3The Mario in Galaxy looks nothing like the 2008 Mario in that image; Galaxy Mario really did not look like he was wearing denim.
      • Jeffler, on 12/31/2007, -1/+16Fine, I'll tell you. Thats Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
  • poontangpirate, on 12/31/2007, -20/+14the first one is jumpman. And there isnt enough difference between galaxy mario and smbb mario.
    • tas08, on 12/31/2007, -10/+5But where did your 'Reply' button go?
    • MatchStick, on 12/31/2007, -4/+3fine, then where's Mario from Mario Bros.?
    • Dodobutt222, on 12/31/2007, -3/+10Have you played galaxy? I can definitely tell the difference between galaxy and Brawl mario....but that's just me, I guess.
      • moush, on 12/31/2007, -3/+2You already have Brawl? That's some mad hax.
        • Shaflugi, on 12/31/2007, -1/+5There's enough Brawl videos online to judge what he looks like already, you can quit being a smartass now.
    • CurlyMike139125, on 12/31/2007, -0/+2S-S-B-B.
  • mrpink.137, on 12/31/2007, -4/+130Wow. His head was HUGE in 1991.
    • ungamedplayer, on 12/31/2007, -11/+6So was nintendo's.

      Imagine how big it should be now with the current wii sales ;)
    • Jeffler, on 12/31/2007, -0/+26Too many mushrooms?
    • bman784, on 12/31/2007, -2/+2He must have told Barry Bonds something.
    • jbp826, on 12/31/2007, -1/+1its still huge.
    • Rocketbird, on 12/31/2007, -2/+1Steroids :(
    • daridave, on 12/31/2007, -0/+1Indeed, not my favorite Mario look, but Super Mario World was one heck of a [system launch] game, and still is...
  • poontangpirate, on 12/31/2007, -8/+4works for me
  • blurrie, on 12/31/2007, -12/+6where mario ds
  • psplayer6, on 12/31/2007, -14/+146Isn't the last one pre-rendered ?
    • Smwbigboss, on 12/31/2007, -25/+5No, it's from a Brawl screenshot.
      • AmICoolNow, on 12/31/2007, -6/+16It's not in-game. It MIGHT be a render of the character model in Brawl, but it's definitely not during play.
        They should've just used a screenshot from Galaxy so they could get him in the same walking-sidways position.
      • TheTaoOfBill, on 12/31/2007, -11/+1Actually I think it's from Melee.
        • TheTaoOfBill, on 12/31/2007, -7/+1Nevermind you're right. Brawl. There is a similar image of Mario for Melee.
    • gamer_013, on 12/31/2007, -9/+4I thought it was post-rendered.
    • Albo23, on 12/31/2007, -10/+2No duh, it's a wii. The last one should look more like the 2002 mario.
      • Signa91, on 12/31/2007, -3/+4when's the last time somebody said "no duh"?
    • BenKenobi88, on 12/31/2007, -2/+10It's using the ingame model. That's how good it'll look, even if that pic isn't a screenshot.
      Here's a screenshot: http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/characters/images/m ...
    • acanaday, on 12/31/2007, -2/+11Nope. That is either an in-game model or in-game cinematics model. It looks so good partly because it uses ambient occlusion, and a slightly less vibrant color palette. REALLY nice looking - best mario model IMO.

      More info on ambient occlusion here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_occlusion
  • TGMD, on 12/31/2007, -4/+34I'm still waiting for a photo-realistic mario...
    • BudgingMidget, on 12/31/2007, -3/+99http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0905/2.jpg
      There ya go. Also includes Luigi.
    • Soofi, on 12/31/2007, -2/+42.......................................................... __ . __........................
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  • Caspercreep, on 12/31/2007, -3/+203I like how he de-evolved from 87 to 90.
    • patch6, on 12/31/2007, -19/+13Maybe he didn't need a sclera that year.
    • icefairy17, on 12/31/2007, -3/+1Haha, My thoughts exactly.
    • Nanobe, on 12/31/2007, -3/+14In NES graphics, each "tile" can only have a maximum of four colors, one of which may be set as transparent, thus allowing for the transparent region of the sprite. If you notice in the 1987 sprite, right around the eyes are four colors (red, white, blue, and skin tone) *plus* transparency. They managed to pull that off by positioning it just right so the region with white and the region with red are actually separate tiles. Unfortunately, this may be inefficient use of tiles, of which you have a limited number to work with at a given time. It's possible that it would have been impossible to do this in Mario 3 without wasting tiles already needed for other game elements.

      In addition, you only have a certain number of four-color combinations to work with, thus further complicating the issue.
    • ApokalypseNow, on 12/31/2007, -1/+4The 1987 version was for SMB2 - which was really just Doki Doki Panic with some sprites replaced by Mario and company.
    • Dbeneath, on 12/31/2007, -2/+1devolve is a word, ya know
  • razmig, on 12/31/2007, -3/+31what about new super mario brothers? he was pretty different in that.
    • FoxOrian, on 12/31/2007, -1/+18His sprite was pretty iconic in Paper Mario as well.
  • BLyn, on 12/31/2007, -8/+73hey why don't we complain a bit more about why they didn't include a mario from every one of the 200+ mario video games (source: wikipedia).
    • Pikachelsea, on 12/31/2007, -4/+3Mario has cameo'd in tons of games but there really aren't THAT many actual Mario games starring Mario. It wouldn't have been that hard to at least include a Super Mario Galaxy version, since the game just came out and is clearly a "true" Mario game.
    • JCork, on 12/31/2007, -3/+1Wikipedia is a blog! Everyone knows that. Dugg down!
  • PerfektXj, on 12/31/2007, -7/+5Great pic
  • Skanadian, on 12/31/2007, -7/+5'85 looks the best still, but this seems a bit spammy.
  • russianmike, on 12/31/2007, -5/+8Where's Bob Hoskins from 1993?
  • DSai, on 12/31/2007, -9/+2Where the Hell is Captain Lou Albano!? And Bob Hoskins for that matter!
  • sixsidepentagon, on 12/31/2007, -14/+8I don't believe in evolution.
    Aah, digg me down, that was silly.
    • NecroSexy, on 12/31/2007, -1/+15I agree, his mustache is irreducibly complex!
  • banido, on 12/31/2007, -6/+501999
    http://plumberplace.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/im ...
  • sdellboy, on 12/31/2007, -2/+31I wonder why, in 1990, did he take to wearing gloves? I wonder if he's a bit of a closet MJ fan??
    • skyfire1, on 12/31/2007, -3/+2Maybe he just doesn't want to get ***** on his hands.
    • Neem, on 12/31/2007, -1/+3I don't know .. Mario too plays around with kids all days ...
    • mercano, on 12/31/2007, -1/+2He'd always been wearing the gloves in out-of-game art, like the instruction manuals, boxart, the cover of Nintendo Power #1, the cartoon, and the live action show. The SNES was the first time they had a large enough color palette they could afford giving him gloves. (The NES limited sprites to three colors plus transparent. FF got a forth in battles by cheating and always putting them on a black background, so transparent=black.)
      • sdellboy, on 12/31/2007, -0/+3Suddenly my joke seems so less funny.
  • ItsMyWii, on 12/31/2007, -3/+32Does anyone else here like '81 better than '85?
    • Jacksong, on 12/31/2007, -0/+1I think he looks too 'greasy' in '81, if that makes sence to anyone.
      • pikpikcarrotmon, on 12/31/2007, -0/+3It's not his fault. He's Italian.
  • betajippity, on 12/31/2007, -13/+25So the 2008 Mario grew like 100 times larger than the previous ones?

    ... Okay. Lame attempt, I know.
    • Immune, on 12/31/2007, -2/+15You'd have gotten dugg up if you didn't include "... Okay. Lame attempt, I know."
    • eTronicGaming, on 12/31/2007, -11/+1So the 2008 Mario grew like 100 times larger than the previous ones?
  • s0nniez, on 12/31/2007, -0/+51How did Mario change from Red Overalls w/ Blue shirt to Blue Overalls w/ Red shirt?
    • brentinkc, on 12/31/2007, -1/+19Red jeans are pretty queer dude
    • plax3, on 12/31/2007, -1/+2its Bizzario!
    • mercano, on 12/31/2007, -0/+4Its odd that it happens in SMB2, which, as any digger knows by now, wasn't really a Mario game to begin with.
  • slaver, on 12/31/2007, -20/+5Meh, not impressed at all. Looks like they made a very little progress from 1994 - 2008. Just look at the difference between 1985-1994. Nintendo is consistently crap when it comes to graphics. Only delusional fanboys deny this. They seem to concentrate on the gameplay and the fun factor so I'm not surprised. Overall a ***** post and a dupe from reddit.
    • skywake, on 12/31/2007, -1/+8Heaven forbid people play games for the gameplay and not the pretty pictures on the screen. If you are so adamant that Mario games have never been ground breaking in terms of graphics then compare said Mario games to other games of their time. Only "delusional fanboys" complain about Mario's graphical quality.
      • slaver, on 12/31/2007, -3/+3Mostly I was complaining abut the quality of the article. However, I also touched on almost zero progress in terms of graphics quality for more then 10 years. Like it or not it's a part of gaming experience. You conveniently side-step that fact, instead trying to dismiss it by rambling on about how I have no right to judge Nintendo on graphics. Well why not? Cuz you say so? I've had a blast with Mario 64 back in the last century. It was ground breaking in many respects. All that's changed since then is the gimmicky controller it seems. Of course I'm exaggerating but come on. You can't be blindly nuthugging Nintendo and not dare critisizing them no matter what? Or can you? For example they should release more games, they were letting me down in that department since the 64 days. There's more, but you're riding Nintendo's manmeat too hard to acknowledge any of it. Peace out.
        • FujiwaraTofu, on 01/04/2008, -0/+1What article? This was an image submission.
      • skywake, on 12/31/2007, -1/+4"I also touched on almost zero progress in terms of graphics quality for more then 10 years"
        http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d7/Mari ...
        http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/Supe ...
        looking at those pictures can you explain how there has been "almost zero" progress graphically from Nintendo with their Mario games in the last ten years?
        • Orderless, on 12/31/2007, -0/+2I'll see your ten years of progress and raise you. Doom 2 was released on October 10, 1994. ( http://mac.softpedia.com/screenshots/9-1302_2.png ) Doom 3 was released on August 3, 2004. ( http://www.happypenguin.org/images/doom3.jpg )
          Say what you want about gameplay, but THAT is 10 years of graphical development.
          • skywake, on 12/31/2007, -1/+4Apples and Oranges dude. My point was that significantly more progress has been made then "almost zero" with Mario over the last ten years. Plus its Mario, there is only so much they can do to make him more realistic considering that Mario isn't meant to be "realistic" at all.
    • bagboyrebel, on 12/31/2007, -0/+9If it was from reddit then it doesn't count as a dupe because not all of us go there.
      • slaver, on 12/31/2007, -4/+1I didn't say it was a dupe. I said it was a dupe from reddit. Hooked on phonics for you. It's a valid commentary on how digg often follows that cesspool of nuts and wackos known as reddit. But go ahead, defend crap articles like that. Let digg slide into the ***** even further.
  • Funpolice2050, on 12/31/2007, -10/+1Is Mario supposed to be a kid with a fake mustache or a midget?
  • ryanmct, on 12/31/2007, -8/+3Heck Yes.
  • Chucara, on 12/31/2007, -12/+4Wow... this is like watching Nintendo brag at not being able to come up with an original game in more than 25 years.

    No flaming intended, I have a Wii myself, but I really can't understand why SM:Galaxy won Game of the year on gamespot. They should fire whoever decided that. And pick Kane and Lynch instead *nods*
    • ungamedplayer, on 12/31/2007, -1/+3Parent is candidate for sarcasm markup tag.
    • Protoss, on 12/31/2007, -1/+3Maybe because its a great game? And it is called a franchise, they found an iconic character and a great formula.
  • solecize, on 12/31/2007, -1/+4they got the dk mario but forgot mario from mario bros:

    http://www.x-arcade.com/service/Newsletter/2005/Ma ...
  • Bobo44, on 12/31/2007, -9/+8I'd tap that..
  • mooseontheloose, on 12/31/2007, -3/+12I'm just glad he hasn't gotten all super muscular and ripped like every other character has over the past 20 years
    • Bobo44, on 12/31/2007, -5/+5I'm just glad he hasn't gotten all super muscular and ripped like every other Baseball player has over the past 20 years
  • autonod, on 12/31/2007, -3/+10that would make a great t-shirt.
  • banananose3, on 12/31/2007, -5/+4Learn how to be like super Mario at http://howtobelike.com/?n=SuperMario
  • jeffsback2223, on 12/31/2007, -1/+22Hey! He was paper for a brief period of time too!
    • sappysyrup, on 12/31/2007, -1/+5It was on the pic, but seeing as how hes paper and standing sideways, you couldn't see.
    • AmICoolNow, on 12/31/2007, -0/+2If you print it he's there.
  • peejah, on 12/31/2007, -1/+6mario has man hands now....look at all those knuckles....this supports darwin's theory.
    • czechsmex, on 12/31/2007, -1/+8Ron Paul doesn't believe in the evolution of Mario.
  • tlgjames, on 12/31/2007, -12/+3Buried for lameness. This is pretty stupid.
  • diggit23, on 12/31/2007, -1/+16Where's Mario from Super Mario RPG? That was the first 3D Mario!
  • Syphon8, on 12/31/2007, -3/+6Needs the SSBM and Galaxy models.
  • Paulk501, on 12/31/2007, -11/+5he also went from a MANLY MANLY MAN who saved the princess from a monkey(donkey kong) to a plumber who did shrooms to today a retard kiddy character who eats candy for power (mario party 8) his name has been destroyed.
    • chaoswings, on 12/31/2007, -1/+3The irony is that he basically can do anything but I've never actually seen him do any sort of plumber related work. He needs to make princess saving his full time job and stop calling himself a plumber.
      • Zapkiller, on 12/31/2007, -0/+1he did in the series... but he's really bad at it.
  • tehbored, on 12/31/2007, -2/+14He's been losing weight. I guess all that jumping around is paying off.
    • daridave, on 12/31/2007, -0/+2You don't know what he and the princess do after each games, eh ...
  • BlackholeStorm, on 12/31/2007, -4/+6Where's Galaxy Mario? And the last one is the prerendered Smash Bros one.
  • burnin8r28, on 12/31/2007, -2/+3ah...the 80's
    well done
  • ferose333, on 12/31/2007, -8/+1mario is starting to suck
  • viewdrix, on 12/31/2007, -1/+2You could see the denim in his jeans in Smash Bros. Melee. Seems he went down a peg by the release of Sunshine.
  • mlvassallo, on 12/31/2007, -1/+2Missing some.
  • repick3, on 12/31/2007, -6/+6The 2008 pic isn't from 2008... try Super Smash Bros Melee. I remembeer because that pic was the cover of Nintendo Power and I was like WTF YOU CAN SEE THE DENIM IN HIS JEANS OMGOMGOMGOGMOMG.
    • enicholas, on 12/31/2007, -0/+6It's from Brawl, not Melee. Brawl is indeed a 2008 game.
  • LaSepultura, on 12/31/2007, -2/+4Why is Mario casting Frost Shock?
  • jonr, on 12/31/2007, -2/+4Where is the Ron Jeremy version?
  • convoluted, on 12/31/2007, -1/+3Buried for lacking accuracy in the many other incarnations of mario. Like the many parties, tennis, baseball, paper, Superstar Sagas. Why was the Brawl pic added and not the galaxy? And how about Smash Bros Melee?
  • Rodalli, on 12/31/2007, -3/+4Not that accurate due to a lack of Paper Mario. I'd say that's a pretty key rendition of the character due to the return to 2D over 3D. It also would have been useful for filling in the gaps between '96 and '02 or '02 and '08.
  • PurplePants, on 12/31/2007, -3/+17there are quite a few missing. what a lazy compilation
  • E11iphunt, on 12/31/2007, -7/+8buried:
    1) The Mario from Super Mario Brothers should have been 'big' mario 'like all the others.
    2) They should have shown Mario from sunshine withOUT the flood unit.
    3) The '2008 Mario is all ***** up. For starters its clearly the version of Mario from Smash Brothers Brawl (which is not a mario game like the other are), AND its obviously a marketing render and not an in game shot.

    Who diggs up shoddy work like this?
    • Syphon8, on 12/31/2007, -0/+1Actually, that IS exactly what ingame Brawl looks like. Just bigger.
      • Tikkimann, on 01/07/2008, -0/+1The rest of his points have merit, though.
  • 10GunSalute, on 12/31/2007, -2/+5Some stupid douche bag pasted some pictures of mario into a jpeg, and it makes the front page?! What the hell is wrong with you idiots?!
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