A history in animation-Yoshi

Yoshi











It’s funny that I’ve always felt Yoshi was humorously never anything more than a glorified power-up or item. Don’t get me wrong, I love the little (and the original big) guy, but he was always just an item like a Mushroom or Fireflower you’d get out of a block. Since then, he’s evolved into a hero in his own right, able to take on adventures solo, and beating Bowser himself many times. In my heart though, I always feel Yoshi’s best when he’s simply rideable, which is why I’m excited he’s going to be in NSMBW and SMG2, and I’m curious, as to why people are angry he’s not playable in his own right. In my mind, the fun of riding Yoshi is greater than playing as him. And that rideable Yoshi, is the one who pretty much starred alongside Mario in the Super Mario World Animated series.







With Yoshi’s animated debut comes a couple of other animated debuts. Namely the animated appearance of the Yoshi egg (exciting, and no, I’m not going to say eggciting…) Anyway, two notable differences (even with something a simple as an egg?) Firstly the Egg Luigi gets turned into, seems to be an inverted version of the typical Yoshi egg. It has White spots on Green as opposed to Green spots on White. Secondly, the egg Yoshi hatches from in ‘Mama Luigi’ is pretty much perfect, yet for some reason they made the spots red, whereas that would be an egg for a red Yoshi, so another mistake?









Next up, we have Baby Yoshi’s animated debut. Don’t get me started on how since Yoshi’s Story, which starred Yoshi as a baby, he seems to have kept this appearance ever since, dropping his original lanky look. Anyway, Baby Yoshi only appears in ‘Mama Luigi’ in flashback form. He’s similar to SMW baby Yoshi in his look, except his eyelids aren’t half closed, and he has no shoes. Personality wise, he’s much more similar to the baby Yoshi’s in Yoshi’s Story, as he can walk around, feed himself and basically move around pretty quickly. In SMW though he would either grow up instantly from the egg, or stand still, relying on the player to pick him up and feed him 5 enemies to grow full sized.












Now for the main part of this article. We have Yoshi himself in adult form. As you can see, Yoshi’s main role in the original game was being ridden by Mario. As such he was usually portrayed as lanky, with small arms. I think that’s really about the only difference between the original art and the animated Yoshi, his arms were slightly more useful in the cartoon, although he still uses his tongue more often to do things. You can judge from the picture on the right as to how much lankier Yoshi was compared to today. Personally, I prefer the original, but I still like modern Yoshi too.









Yoshi’s character was pretty faithful to the game, he is a glutton, and also a slight coward, more so than Luigi (although sometimes they did both agree with each other about how dangerous something Mario suggested was) he actually keeps his fear of ghost houses from the game, and has a fear of water, which as I said in a review, may be reference to how he can’t swim well in the game. He also allows Mario to ride him in a couple of episodes, as well as the princess. In fact Luigi, despite the fact he was the one who first met Yoshi, is the only character to not ride Yoshi. Heck, even Oogtar gets to. The only real problem with Yoshi, is that he’s Yoshi, and that’s it, no mention of any other Yoshi’s is made, despite the fact that the game had about 4. It would be forgivable, if it didn’t result in us having the Cave people instead (urgh)

Finally the voice differences, which are almost always from games made after the cartoon shows. Yoshi has a pretty different voice to his cartoon one, the cartoon ones voice is a tiny bit screechy, however, the game Yoshi only says his name, much like a pokemon. When they speak in text however (such as the original and the Paper Mario games) they speak more intelligently than Yoshi does in the cartoons, using proper words and syllables.

A history in animation- The Koopalings

The Koopaling's

Well with the recent announcement of their new appearance in New Super Mario Bros Wii, I felt it was the right time to do a History in Animation of the Koopalings. Above is their artwork from Super Mario bros 3 on the left is their most recent appearance and on the right are the AOSMB3 versions. We will go through them all individually and compare their animated versions to game versions. Also note that I will not be saying much about their Anime appearances, as they barely even talk, and all are pretty much a perfect copy of their artwork. There’s no need to do individual comparisons for their appearances in the anime films.

The first main difference that applies to the whole group are that each of their names is different to their game names. The reason behind this I believe is that they didn’t have names in Japan. This means the names for them were created by Nintendo of America, thus the names based on various musicians. So when the series was started, the cartoon writers had to write their own names for them. Resulting in the differences.

Secondly they all have at least one difference from their game artwork. The reasons for this I can come up with range from them using the in-game sprites to base their appearances on, to them simply changing certain parts to animate better. I believe they actually did base them off the artwork as otherwise I’m sure the colours would match the sprites. Anyway, onto the individual kids…

Larry Koopa/ Cheatsy Koopa
Larry is, in the games, the youngest, but in the cartoon Hip and Hop are so Cheatsy’s somewhere in the middle. He’s quite often portrayed as weak, which could be said to be in his cartoon character too. Cheatsy has an overbite, squint and shorter untidier hair than Larry. Larry doesn't seem to have much character in the games beyond simply wanting to help his father and kill Mario. From the ending of NSMBW it could be suggested that he has very little stamina being the last one to return to Bowser. So we have Cheatsy who fittingly is the cheating scheming liar, something like a cross between a weasel and an insurance salesman. As such he’s pretty weak, and the sort who would pay the bullies to bully his enemies. He’s pretty small compared to his brothers and sister, except Hip and Hop. He’s seemingly Koopa’s second most common assistant (the name I give to the Koopa Kid he has with him in his schemes) and only Kooky seemingly ranks higher than him. He’s also fiercely intelligent in business and sabotage matters. In his most recent appearance he seems to be practically the same as his original artwork, with the exception of his shell now being blue and him losing two fangs. His voice is higher than the cartoon version but it has a sort of ducklike quality to it slightly... I really am not a good judge of sound...

Morton JR Koopa/Big Mouth Koopa
Morton has always been the odd Koopaling out to me. He’s huge but pretty weak (well at least in the first game) has a weird birthmark and a unique shell. Also he has the least character in my opinion (a real feat compared to his siblings). Larry’s the youngest, Iggy and Lemmy seem to be twins, Wendy is the daughter, Roy’s the big brute and Ludwig’s the oldest and seemingly most like his father in threat levels. Morton’s… the big but weak loser, the runt. That’s why I think the idea of making him a ranting wind bag is pretty good. He’s all bark and no bite and seems almost completely different in the cartoon. For one thing, he’s a lot smaller, and while he still has a unique shell, it’s purple as opposed to black. He still keeps the huge eyelashes and star, but his face is not as fat as before. He doesn’t seem to hang around with Koopa at all alone, and seems to always be with his siblings, most often Kootie Pie. When I said his barks worse than his bite, I didn’t mean just in strength, but in intelligence too. In the SMW cartoon, he seemed to only ever really play any roles as an announcer, beyond that he didn’t do much in the show, much like his siblings. In NSMBW Morton is pretty much the same as his original artwork, with the exception of having a black shell as opposed to a grey one. He's also a lot bigger, even compared to his siblings. Voice wise he sounds very stupid (I mean his character not that he has a stupid voice). Strangely he's actually the second last Koopaling meaning he's stronger than most of the others for once.

Wendy O. Koopa/Kootie Pie Koopa
Well Wendy’s the female, and that’s about it for her character. As for Kootie Pie, she’s a typical spoilt brat. In differences in design, her bow’s bigger, and her lips are smaller. Other than that, she’s pretty accurate. She seems to be smart in getting her way, but beyond that she’s pretty stupid as shown in ‘Venice Menace’. As such she’s usually simply causing Koopa’s schemes by screaming about wanting things which he then tries to get, such as taking over a country. As such she could be considered Koopa’s third in command, or even in command as she can control Koopa most of the time through whining. She looks exactly the same as her original art in NSMBW being the only Koopaling with no changes. Wendy's voice is slightly similar when she screeches and screams, but her regular voice is nowhere near as screechy as the cartoon version. Also in battle she dances around a lot which could perhaps be similar to Kootie Pie's character due to the whole Milli Vanilli episode.

Iggy Koopa/Hop Koopa
It’s funny. Iggy Koopa and Lemmy Koopa always were the twins in my view, but really that whole idea was from the cartoon. Sure they have similar hair colour, and similar strange eyes, but really Iggy has his own character. He looks pretty psychotic and is described in game as ‘demented’. Hop on the other hand, while he’s pretty similar beyond his age, size and eyes, is just Hip’s twin. That’s it, there’s really no unique characteristics. They’re both portrayed as more naïve than evil, but beyond that they have no real character, no funny comments, they’re just there. He was changed the most in NSMBW, now sporting green hair and being taller, he seems to be a more grown up version. I don't think there's a character change as drastic on here as Iggy, not only does he look different, he acts the complete opposite of the cartoon version and sounds completely different. He's insane in NSMBW and is the only boss to use a completely different method to fight, being on a Chain Chomp drawn carriage. His voice is loads of insane screams and insane laughter, but he has a much deeper voice than the cartoon version (of course not as deep as Roy, Morton or Ludwig.)

Roy Koopa/Bully Koopa
Roy is the big brutish thug. He jumps and causes shockwaves and is the third eldest I believe in the games. In the Cartoon, he’s the eldest, yet he really seems to be missing a lot. He only really ‘stars’ in one episode, and even then he loses it to Koopa. As an example of how little he appears, the anime version does more. I mean sure they appear for a few seconds, but at least he uses his strength to fight, Bully only uses his strength against Mario in the SMW episode ‘The Yoshi Shuffle’. Other than that he’s not really there. His design is practically the same as his artwork, except the neck collar and he only has one spike on his shell. He's pretty much the same in NSMBW except his shells Purple rather than pink now. He also has seemingly longer arms in the cartoon and NSMBW than the original games. His voice in NSMBW is slightly lower and he's lost the brooklyn accent.

Lemmy Koopa/Hip Koopa
Lets see. This guy’s the second oldest, the smallest and most seemingly insane Koopaling (a real accomplishment in this family). So how do we make him into a cartoon character? Well you make him a complete clone of his brother. Oh boy. For Hip’s description read Hop’s and replace each Hop with Hip. Got it skip? Anyway, he doesn’t have the cross eyes in the cartoon, and his hair is thinner. Also he has only one spike on his shell. At least his ball appeared for one small scene. He gains a ponytail and a yellow shell in NSMBW. His voice is almost exactly the same as the cartoon version, being the closest Koopaling's voice on here.

Ludwig Von Koopa/Kookie Von Koopa
Easily my favourite Koopaling. Ludwig is the toughest and oldest Koopaling. Often called the cruellest in game descriptions, he has all of his sibling’s abilities, and even his father’s fire. He’s as big as Roy but far more intelligent, even in the games I believe. Kooky kind of disproves my theory slightly, as why they’d use Von in his name without knowing his game name I don’t have a clue. Of course he is a mad scientist in the cartoon so maybe they just coincidently gave him the name Von as a reference to the many German scientists in history? Anyway, Kooky is just as awesome as Ludwig, and while he’s not the oldest now, he’s still the second eldest and more importantly, he is intelligent enough and big enough to beat Bully any day. That’s why he seems to be Koopa’s 2nd in command and is almost always involved in every scheme due to his genius inventions. The most immediate difference is his hair is much messier, and he’s smaller. He also only has one spike on his shell (like Bully and Hip). Luckily he still has the single tooth. He has an awesome voice I feel, especially the laugh and as I said earlier. He's pretty much the same as his artwork in NSMBW with his only difference being his shell is now dark blue. His voice is quite different, yet has similarities. He has a much lower voice (although not like Roy or Morton) but also seems to sound the most refined, especially just before his first boss battle. This fits quite well with Kookies type of speech, although he doesn't have his insane laugh.

And that’s it for now. Personally I think the Koopalings are great, and Bowser Jr being their replacement of sorts for a few years has made me yearn for their return even more. Good job they’re finally coming back. And that's it for the Koopalings.

Fire Emblem

Prince of Aritia
Crimson Warrior‎

Fire Emblem Episode 2

Title- Crimson Warrior‎


I already gave my basic opinions of this show in the first review, so I’m just reviewing this one. This episode is the better of the two, and it’s a great example of how much potential this series had. The characters are fleshed out yet still keep a sense of mystery. The best example of this is Nabarl, who gets a lot more character development than in the game, but still keeps the sense of mystery his character needs. I like Nabarl. He manages to be dark and moody without going overboard as many characters do (#cough#Shadow#cough#) We also get many character developments. As I said in the last review, Shiida wasn’t that good in the last episode, but here she becomes much better, not just thinking about Marth all the time, but also as in the game we learn that she has a history with Ogma and is the one who influences Nabarl to change.

We get a great fight scene, and the atmosphere is really great. I love the cold bleak feeling of the thieves base, and the contrast with the bright sunny port town that the group liberate from pirates. Also it's nice to see that the games towns are so well shown, something that was a town icon on the map is a giant port town in the anime. The characterisations are still great too.

The only flaws I can see in the episode are that the main theme for Fire Emblem doesn’t play till the end of both episodes, and while it is awesome when it kicks in, it would be more fitting to go with the title screen. I dunno if the other music’s actually from the game or not, but it fits in nicely anyway. The other flaw, is that some of the minor characters are ignored who should make an appearance, such as the pirate, Darros who can join you, but equally he wasn't in the SNES remake which this is based on or something. It's funny to think that Darros could of been one of those pirates who ran off, or he could of been one of those many unnamed soldiers with Marth.

And that’s it. Overall a great sign of how good this series was on the way to being. I suggest if you’ve played the game and enjoyed it, watch it. These two episodes are so faithful that it’s worth it.

Fire Emblem Episode 1

Title- Prince of Aritia (although following the new DS game, it would be Altea.)‎


I have to say that without a doubt, this is one of the most faithful game to tv series I’ve seen. Sadly said tv series only had two episodes made, I don’t know if it never caught on, or the production company went bankrupt, but no more were made. It’s an awful shame because this is one of the finest shows based on a game I’ve seen. I guess the real reason, is that this isn’t slapstick fun like most American cartoons (compare to Zelda, Sonic, Mario, Captain N) but rather more mature dark characters. One simple example of this, is outright killing. Now I’ll be the first to admit that the Super Mario Bros Super Show was actually pretty violent. I mean that episode where the Thunder Birdo is fed a bomb by Toad and blows up is pretty sick, as we never see it again, meaning it wasn’t a typical cartoon style explosion, with them stood there after with soot all over. Still, this show has people being sliced up by swords. Nothing really gory is shown, but it’s still much more violent than most other Nintendo animation.

Anyway, I’m the first one to say that violence in movies, games, and cartoons shouldn’t really have an effect on how good something is (my thoughts on Watchmen being a prime example.) but when you have a cartoon based on a game about war, you expect some violence. Anyway, another key point I must mention here is that this is a review of the Subbed Japanese version. The reason why is that Marth’s voice actor from the Japanese version is the same one from Smash Bros. I feel this makes the Japanese version the more authentic one. Anyway, on to the review.

We are quickly put into the middle of the plot, and whilst it doesn’t fit with the DS game, that was a remake which added to the original, so when this was made it fit into the game’s timeline pretty well. We get a good look at Marth’s upbringing through flashbacks, also good is to see that while his father was a good leader, he did beat Marth for not being ‘brave enough’ (due to him freezing whilst he’s meant to be killing a deer when he’s a young boy.) I’m not going to say he’s abused, as really in the time setting (even if it is fantasy) it was probably commonplace. Anyway, we also get an explanation of why Marth has a Tiara. One of my favourite parts of the Fire Emblem series is how each and every character seems to have a backstory and reason for being in the conflict. This does transfer to this ‘series’ but I feel is shown much better in episode two. That said, the meeting Marth has with his knights is a pretty good scene, with various characters arrogance, wisdom and different backgrounds coming into their idea of what should be done. The other two characters who get most of the development in this episode are Sheeda and Jaigon. Of the characters, Jaigon’s my favourite in the games, and is still here. He’s Obiwan to Marth’s Luke, and guides him, but accepts Marth’s plans too. One thing I really enjoyed was the King’s last stand scene, where we get a small view that the King had a similar relationship with Jaigon as Marth has. As for Sheeda, she’s ok. I mean she’s the typical female lead. Sadly, while we do get a lot of relationship stuff with her and Marth, she doesn’t really get much character development in this episode beyond worrying about her father.

The final battle in this episode is pretty damn good. The pirates are the ruthless town destroying brutes from the games, and we get some good scenes of the fights. Jaigon for such a frail looking old man is pretty deadly with a sword. Also good is that Shiida does get to do some damage, however she becomes a typical hostage in the final confrontation between Marth and the head pirate. Still I guess it’s only as she was off her horse trying to help her father and was jumped by him that she was taken, and she did fight back. Finally the appearance of the four mercaneries at the end was cool and unexpected as they don’t appear in game until the next chapter.

The various classes from the games are shown pretty well, but the best has to be the giant armoured knight guy, Draug looking down on the two pirates whilst he towers above them.

Anyway, overall, a great first episode, that serves as a great intro to the characters and plot, but not as good as the second episode.

A History in Animation- Captain N

Captain N














Since this is a character who is not in games, and hasn’t appeared since his last episode, I don’t have much to compare with his future or origin since… well this is it. In fact other than fanfiction, Captain N is still sat in the palace of Power, well other than the rather striking image which was the last ever preview with Captain N in it.



















Anyway, so other than that Kevin never reappears. Of course that is because his whole purpose is to familiarize people with Videoland. As such he’s really meant to represent the viewer, similar to how Dr Who has an assistant who’s usually not travelled with him around the universe before, so the viewer gets a similar experience to the Doctor’s Assistant. However Kevin has an extra part to his character, as he’s played and beaten almost every game out there, and as such he has a lot of knowledge of what to do, but he’s still just one of us, and at the end of the day, even if he knows for example how to beat King Hippo in Punchout!!, actually having the strength to beat him, even with knowledge of his weak points, is a whole other matter.

This is a key point with Kevin that his character is pretty weak, and must use his knowledge to win. That said he also has quick reactions due to his time playing games, so with the Zapper he’s pretty deadly.














One other important point about his character is that he’s pretty much a loser outside Videoland. In the real world, he doesn’t seem to actually have any friends (at least none are ever shown) and the few others from his home we meet either don’t know him, or hate his guts. Mike Vincent is the main one of Kevin's friends shown, and whilst they've grown apart to the extent that Mike now bully's Kevin (is it me or is there a Gary Oak thing going on here?), it's shown in the end that Mike was a decent guy underneath. I think given the chance Mike would of been real and died at the end of the episode, it's only due to the censorship etc that he was an android. This is really an important development in proving that Kevin's bettered himself, and he knows that he can reason with his enemies instead of out rightly killing them.

Also of note, is that one of the biggest character developments is sadly in the unintentional final episode. We get to see here that due to Kevin’s jealousy and need to have Lana like him, he actually is corrupted by evil influence. Of course it’s a typical ‘hero gets hypnotised’ episode, but I do feel it is clever in the way that Kevin is only hypnotised due to there being dark thoughts at the back of his mind which he could be influenced into acting upon.

And that’s about it for this history in animation. This character only appeared in animation, and therefore I can’t do the game to animation comparison.

A History in Animation- Punch-out!!

Punch-out!!!

Well. As Punch-out!! Makes a pretty small appearance in animation, I decided to merge it into this article of King Hippo. Anyway, so as we see Punch-Out!! is a pretty run down gym in some city. Its only appearance is in the episode Videolympics. It’s called ‘the world of Punch Out’ but really it seems to be part of a larger world, that said, it could be that the whole city revolves around boxing, or that I’m over thinking a children’s cartoon. One of the two…

This is a different place from Punch-Out!! As its King Hippo’s dream world he created with a genie in the episode Wishful thinking. It’s got pretty generic boxing backgrounds, and as such it doesn’t really have much specifically from the games. However the games are pretty much just boxing, with larger than life opponents, but other than that there isn’t much fantasy, with the setting as New York City, so in other words, this does pretty much match the game, and they did the best they could to make it fit the fantasy theme, with various traps involving boxing gloves on springs.

Next up we have a quick cameo from a boxer who may or may not be Glass Joe. He doesn’t appear much, but the hair colour and general weakling appearance does make it seem like him. Of course it’s pretty likely it’s a coincidence, but then again, most of the shows characters didn’t look like the characters game depictions (or artwork).

Secondly we have another possible cameo of Von Kaiser, sadly without Moustache, (his ringside sprite is blonde despite how the in game sprite looks) but he does actually get knocked out by his shadow while boxing, so it could be him. Also it would make sense for him to be training with Glass Joe as they’re both in the Minor league. Ironically I believe in the new Punch-out Wii that King Hippo is now in the minor league, meaning that the idea of him in the same place as Joe and Von makes more sense now than it did then..

I thought I'd better mention, that this scene from Metroid Sweet Metroid has King Hippo and an army of boxers invade Mount Icarus. I do believe that these boxers are honestly just the writers creations, and not from the games, but this is NAS and I have fun trying to make out that these cartoons are more faithful than they are. The question marks are next to ones who I think they may be, but could easily not be. Also for those of you wondering (or who care) Hornyguy isn't from the game, and the unnamed boxer… I'm just gonna say is a resident of Hippo Island who came to help the King. Actually, now I noticed, when I changed the various features, there are a fair few similarities between the sprites and the pictures. I mean Bald Bull has that scar, Piston Honda has those giant eyebrows, Sandman's flat top and Don Flamenco is an amazing likeness. I also find it amusing that with glasses and the same colouring, Mr Dream actually looks like the animated version, who I put there as a joke.

Next up we have the main Punch-Out!! character in animation, King Hippo. It’s humorous that King Hippo appears in most episodes, yet Little Mac is never seen outside of this strip in the comic and the game Kevin plays in the intro of the show.

One of the first things you could possibly notice (it is very hard to see though, so you must concentrate) is that King Hippo for some reason has Blue skin now. I guess it’s just an after-effect of the way cartoons were back then, I remember the Spider-man series (with the catchy theme tune) of the 60s had
lots of green skinned villains, who were meant to be human, so it’s just something they seemed to have a fixation on.

Anyway, so other than that, he’s pretty much the same character as the games. He’s a fat moron who’s probably taken a few too many blows to the head and loves to eat. That said, I don’t know why he’s really shown as evil. And Hippo Island never is even spoke of, so he’s not a perfect animated version. However, for the few lines of dialogue he has in the game “Do you like my new trunks? They are size XXX Large! Ha Ha Ha!” he’s pretty faithful to the game. Although I wonder where the patch on his stomach went. I’m glad his shorts never fell down though, for my sanity’s sake…

Finally in our comparison, we have the voice comparison. As often, the voice from the games came later than the cartoon character (in this case, a long time after the cartoon). As there's only one actual character from Punch-out who actually spoke in thier animated appearance, I can only compare King Hippo's voice. This pleases me as the new game, has amazing voice acting, but the thing is... all the characters speak in their native languages, so Glass Joe speaks French, Von Kaiser speaks German etc meaning I'd have to start trying to find translations, and even then I wouldn't know what sort of accents etc they put on. Where does this leave our Island chief? Well he speaks... what I'll call Hippese. Which means that his voice acting (I think) is all done by a hippo... I'm not going to insult Mr Gary Chalk and even begin to compare their voices, so I think the differences should be obvious...