Mario Brothers 3 - Review

- Add Mario Clip -

Finally, I get to talk to you about my passion: current, classic and retro video games, in this case 'Mario Brothers 3' - but what of it's animation?
This game, down to the illustrated artworks decorating the very boxes and cartridges it came in, was brought to life with hand drawn animation frames. In theme with this module's apt title "Pencil to Pixel", the presence of 2d hand drawn animations in games had often been missed in that original 16-bit games could not accurately raster the original animation frames for their games' worlds and characters - an example of this would be the classic Mario walk cycle. Thus the difference in animation standards in commercial video games and commercial animated films became more apparent; as video game artwork was primarily pixel based and sought solace in the world of digital art. Animators appeared to have come full circle, as renowned animation companies like Disney, with foundations in hand-drawn animations, had taken to the "digital pen" to create 3D feature length films like the successful 'Meet the Robinsons'. Come the 2012 cut-off of analogue signals and analogue televisions, embracing the new digital age may very well bring back the more classical rastering processes of artists and animators: hand drawn illustrations, with a new level of clarity - in video games as well.