Right... well the point I made and am making is that comparatively, he looks badass. It's not like Nintendo made Mario and suddenly, just this year, went "Hum, I know we created Mario to be a symbol of masculinity way back then, but maybe we coulda done a better job. Let's start with the Strikers cover art."
And for the record, Mario's design was totally chance. He had a moustache because otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell he had a nose (the graphics back then weren't stellar, mind you... everything was made up of rather large pixels.) He wore overalls so you could tell he had pants on. The character that evolved from there was given more detail as time passed, but the main attributes had to remain if he was to be identified as the same character.
And so now we have this admittedly goofy character, who people love because the games he is put in tend to be very fun and well designed, not because the character himself is terribly interesting. That, you see, is the appeal of Mario.
"Whenever you find a man who says he doesn't believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later." -C.S. Lewis
"We all make choices... but in the end, our choices... make us." -Andrew Ryan, Bioshock
Prediction: Wii passes 360 in US between July - September 2008. (Wii supply will be the issue to watch, and barring any freak incidents between now and then as well.) - 6/5/08; Wow, came true even earlier. Wii is a monster.
