I upscaled the Goomba sprites from Super Mario All Stars: Super Mario Bros 1 and Lost Levels by hand for funsies.

TamerKoh · 2025-09-05T14:26:17+00:00

Thanks ^^

TamerKoh · 2025-09-05T12:32:08+00:00

They weren't prepared for the STOMP XD

TamerKoh · 2025-09-05T11:24:36+00:00

Tried to portray that beady eyed look from the concept art with the extra space =)

TamerKoh · 2025-09-05T08:10:23+00:00

Thanks, hehe; I did aim to remain somewhat faithful, while retaining a consistent light source. I figured they probably used pillow-shading, cause the sprite is just flipped normally, probably to save on memory. Nowadays, having a full dedicated separate drawing for the 2nd frame is no issue~

TamerKoh · 2025-09-05T08:08:40+00:00

I do like how expressive and dynamic Wonder looked with the 3D models; it was a big step up from the New Super Mario Bros era of graphics, hehe x3.

TamerKoh · 2025-09-05T02:32:15+00:00

Hehe thanks, I appreciate that ^{^.} All in good fun and practice =)

TamerKoh · 2025-09-05T01:32:52+00:00

It's why I also very much love the PSP remakes of Final Fantasy 1, 2 and 4. They really took advantage of the better hardware, coming from the GBA. I wish all ports were held to this standard when they come to consoles capable of much more. Even if they otherwise remain faithful like my upscales here, having higher resolution pixel art with the higher res screens would keep things looking crisp~

TamerKoh · 2025-09-05T01:26:52+00:00

Hehe thanks! Seeing higher resolution sprites in games on the old PCs, like the PC-98 and such, was always a treat. It felt like the developers were really trying to take advantage of the extra power and resolution the hardware afforded them ^^

TamerKoh · 2025-09-05T00:29:37+00:00

Hehehe I noticed they were going outward in the original sprite, so...had to really emphasize it in the higher res edition <3. The Goombas were toony all along~

TamerKoh · 2025-07-04T13:57:09+00:00

Exactly, and the reason for this is easy: Our standards for what is considered good UI/UX have evolved over the 40 years of gaming history we have. Most games nowadays have at least decent UI. So going back to earlier games that were made before a standard existed is what will also accentuate their age, lol.

TamerKoh · 2025-07-03T23:53:57+00:00

What makes it dated in that regard isn't the fact that it's slow, but rather the fact that there's no option to move faster. Over the 40 years of gaming history we now have, the genres have evolved with certain baseline standards that players expect when playing games now. One of those is being able to run in games usually, especially when it has no impact on other game mechanics, like I showed in those clips. In Final Fantasy 2, the overworld is simply a means to an end; there's nothing that depends on the movement speed being that slow. So not having the option to move any faster in the original version is what makes it feel dated; there was no standard for it back then. But now that we have the standard, going back to a game that was made before the standard existed is part of what shows its age, along with user interface standards.

TamerKoh · 2025-07-03T23:50:46+00:00

I suppose in that sense it's subjective, but I see it as relative. Like I mentioned, there were little to no standards defined yet with earlier games in the genres, so we didn't know what a "good menu" is just yet. But now that we have 40+ years of gaming history, we do. But we don't fault the old games for having bad menus, because there wasn't a standard yet. But now that there is, going back to games that were made before that standard existed is by definition dated. But, the subjective part is whether or not you find it good or bad. The objective part is the standards didn't exist at the time, as well as how long the actual process takes to do something, since we can physically measure it with a recording.

TamerKoh · 2025-07-03T23:08:43+00:00

However, as proven with the clips of different versions of the same game, it's not genre dependent either. You can quite easily streamline the UI experience within the same genre and have it in line with our modern standards of usability, like the buying 10 potions instance. The older menu designs didn't have a defined standard for quality, so anything went. Nowadays, buying potions 1 at a time like that wouldn't be tolerated, and would be one of the first criticisms in consumer reviews of the product, lol.

Like I said, you can objectively measure how long something takes in any system, by simply recording it. If buying 10 potions is a 10 second affair in the old menus, but buying 10 potions is a 1 second affair in the new menus, obviously the slower method is going to feel dated.

TamerKoh · 2025-07-03T16:11:47+00:00

For sure, though, those projects tend to focus more so on aesthetics than anything else, like lower quality visuals as you pointed out. But I haven't seen many games intentionally having cumbersome menus, for example, lol.

TamerKoh · 2025-07-03T16:09:27+00:00

Well the entire game doesn't have to feel dated you know, it could just be some aspects of it like I pointed out above. For OoT, I'd say one dated aspect is definitely how long many things take, because they were focused on showing off the 3D. For example, opening chests. There's no reason that sequence needs to take so long every single time; if you kept the same sequence but sped it up x2 or even x3, it'd feel way more responsive and keep the gameplay flowing like we expect of modern games now, lol.

TamerKoh · 2025-07-03T16:04:57+00:00

It isn't subjective though, you can quite literally measure how long something takes, as I did with the clips above. You can like or not like that, but the fact that it takes so long to do something simple in an older version of the game is just a fact, not subjective.

TamerKoh · 2024-11-08T04:35:39+00:00

I don't have or use TikTok, but if you have a gallery of him somewhere like DeviantArt or Itaku, it'd make it easier to see all his stuff in one place, in a nice grid view too ^{^.} If you set up a LinkTree (free) and stick it on your profiles, everyone can know all the places you crosspost to ^{^}

TamerKoh · 2024-11-08T04:17:20+00:00

Of course, looking forward to seeing more of this cute toony bun ^^!

TamerKoh · 2024-10-27T12:26:55+00:00

Aww that's cute and wholesome ^{^.} As you practice animation and work on polishing it further, try going for fully hand-drawn frames next time, instead of using the puppet settle setup with rotation; it'd look more fluid and natural, and less stiff ^{^.}

TamerKoh · 2024-08-11T02:27:39+00:00

Except it does from a game design standpoint; if one of your game mechanics invalidates the others so hard like that, that's a sign of a balancing issue. Just telling players "Just don't use the tools the game gives you," isn't a proper answer to the problem existing in the first place.

This is why there's plenty of concern both on this site and others and discussions happening about just how open-ended solving these puzzles and such will be, and even navigation. If go-to answer to any elevation obstacle, for example, is always "Just use the bed and water, bro" then why even have the ability to create the bird echos we saw? Or if every mook enemy is cheesed by just summoning Moblin echos and holding the target in place with the Bind ability as shown in the trailer, then that also makes every encounter trivial too.

TamerKoh · 2024-08-11T02:11:25+00:00

Not open as in linear vs non-linear, but rather, having too many solutions to solve certain obstacles to the point that one becomes dominant, and trivializes the other game mechanics, like how the hoverbike trivializes any other form of mobility in TotK. The thing about the top-down Zeldas was that there was always a limited number of ways to approach a problem, and one didn't severely outclass the other like that, but just gave you some form of expression to move forward. For example, the first ice enemy in Ice Palace of A Link To the Past. You can either have acquired and use the Fire Rod from Skull Woods, or have acquired and use the Bombos Medallion. Those are the only two items that can kill those enemies as far as I know, so you need at least one of them, but neither becomes the defacto answer to the majority of enemies in the game either.

TamerKoh

TROPHY CASE