Back from holiday (and with slightly better internet), I thought in order to look at the forefront of what it is I am trying to do with this game that I'd look at Nintendo's upcoming Paper Mario Colour Splash game.
I dont presume to think that I can recreate their level of polish or graphical integrity, but regardless of if I can or not, analyzing their way of creating graphics and laying out their levels will undoubtedly be beneficial.
Holy moley! It seems that Nintendo has really embraced the paper/cardboard aesthetic here. If you compare this picture to one from one of the first two paper mario:
Then it's clear that it was quite a graphical paradigm-shift. I read an interesting point about the first two games, which was that, while the characters were supposedly made of paper, it didn't define the game in any way or fashion, nor was it 'thrown in your face'. The characters just happened to be made of paper. Of course, in the sequel, Paper Mario could transform himself into a paper-plane and a roll, but more than anything it was simply an adventure RPG. In the first picture above, from Color Splash (the lower is from The Thousand Year Door), everything looks like it is constructed out ofpaper - from the bends in the staircase, the bricks that look like they are glued on, to the cardboard-y texture on everything. Mario has a white outline that looks like he was cut out of paper, and if you watch a video of the gameplay, he sways gently as he walks. The attention to detail is staggering, and a personal favourite is the cardboard-wall to the right that is held together by wavy-paper.
Before going on, I'll just quickly remark on the interface - in the first two Paper Mario games, you had 'flower power', which acted like mana in most games - you could use it to employ special moves and powers, but once it ran dry you had to find more. In the last couple of games this has been replaced with an 'ammunition'-mechanic, - in Paper Mario: Sticker Star it was stickers, and here in Color Splash it is paint. This looks similar to the previous games at first, but really isn't - in the previous games, the 'ammo' was reserved for special moves, while in the latter two, it is used for everything. Sticker Star was criticized for employing this kind of ammunition-mechanic, and from the sparse look of the interface - devoid of flower power or equivalents - it doesn't look like Nintendo took the criticism to heart.
Back to analyzing!
The thing that strikes me most here is the water and the small patch of grass next to Mario - the water is in many different layers, and even moves independently from each other in clips. Furthermore, it looks made of especially shiny paper, while the grass looks like it was placed on top of whatever the beach is made of. I like the little shadow it makes - in contrast to most of the other graphics, it is subtle.
An interesting thing I noticed is the tooth-textured platform to the right: in the first two Paper Mario-games, such platforms usually acted as waypoints between different areas - I presumed that was their setup mostly due to memory shortage. From the looks of it, it seems like Nintendo decided upon this aproach again, which would be a welcome surprise (although, looking at the videos, the 'tiles' that the game takes place on are decidedly larger than previously).
("Ah, the worn-out jump, what no-one wants to find").
This picture gives us a better look at the tree, complete with holes and textured cardboard. The grass looks like it is physically made of lines of paper on top of each other, like the bushes, and the bridge is made out of glossy paper (the bridge reminds me a little of Micro Machines). The texture detail is staggering, and I wonder how they tiled and added their textures together - but that is for another time. One thing I will note before this blogpost comes to an end, is another look at the bushes, because I recently played Paper Mario 1 for inspiration.
Here are a bush from the first Paper Mario, and one from the latest juxtaposed.
I just thought the comparison was amusing - I remember in the original, that when you searched a bush or piece of shrubbery, it would fall over - revealing that it was paper. In the new version however, no one is really doubting that anymore!
Till next time!
Pictures copyright:
Paper Mario, 2001, Nintendo 64 [Game], Intelligent Systems
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, 2004, GameCube [Game], Intelligent Systems
Paper Mario: Color Splash, N/A, Intelligent Systems
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