happydolphin said:
Mandalore76 said:
I think that you are looking at the history of Mario through "nostalgic 80's goggles" and misconstruing things to support your argument that aren't really the case. For example, the level design of Donkey Kong being in a construction site was not chosen to give it a "appeal to adults theme" but instead had a far more practical purpose:
"Miyamoto had high hopes for his new project. He lacked the technical skills to program it himself, so instead came up with concepts and consulted technicians to see if they were possible. He wanted to make the characters different sizes, move in different manners and react in various ways. Yokoi thought Miyamoto's original design was too complex. Another idea Yokoi suggested was to use see-saws to catapult the hero across the screen; this was too difficult to program. Miyamoto then thought of using sloped platforms, barrels and ladders. "
The choice of colors as well had far more practical purposes than simply to remain neutral so as to appeal to adults:
"Shigeru Miyamoto designed Mario wearing a hat because he found drawing hair difficult. He also drew Mario with a mustache because a mustache was easier to see than a mouth with 8-bit graphics. Miyamoto designed Mario with overalls that contrast with his sleeves to help in the animation of his arm motions. The sleeves are of the same color of his shirt and without the overalls the arms would disappear during the movements. Overalls: Stylish and practical."
The choices that were made in game design for Donkey Kong or the original Mario games in the 80's were born out of necessity rather than what you saw as a conscious choice to appeal to all ages.
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I like this post, thank you for posting substance that helps me better understand where I'm wrong.
Can you send me a link to the article you quoted, I am so very interested.
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Those quotes were snippets from a couple of articles I have read in different places. I believe them to all have originated from (or can be confirmed by) this "Iwata Asks" interview between Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto though. In the interview, Miyamoto explains that the game was originally supposed to take place in a scrolling maze. But, since arcade boards didn't allow scrolling at that time, the 4 separate level screens were chosen to progress the game. Also, Miyamoto goes into in depth explanation of the design of the original Mario (Jumpman) with choices made according to the restrictions of how many pixels that could be used at that time. I figured the actual interview would be of more value to you than directing you to an unproperly sourced wikipedia page or random unsourced fan site.
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/nsmb/0/0
Also, sorry for the delay! I was much busier at work yesterday than I am today, lol
