Long term impact certain characters have on another? Mario and related series (e.g. Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong) wise.

[winstein]

Inspiration can come in many places, but some might be more fun to know than others because they are not as obvious. So like how Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto influences the dynamic of Mario, Pauline, and Donkey Kong in their first ever game. I'll start with a couple.

One example would be Ella for Daisy. While not outright stated, Deanna Mustard auditioned her part for a "young golf enthusiast" in about 2003, which we can infer is Ella since there is only one young golf enthusiast between both Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Golf: Advance Tour, as other women characters were older like Helen, Grace, Sherry, and Azalea. I imagine that Ella has the energetic look that I imagine would fit Deanna Mustard. She didn't get that part, but instead got something greater: she got to be Daisy's current voice actor! It could be inferred that the ones who held the audition were so impressed that they gave her a bigger and more long-term role. At the age of 23, she already got a secure role, and it's indirectly thanks to Ella.

It doesn't have to be Mario characters impacting other Mario characters! For this case, there would be Lina and Papa from Doki Doki Panic (in the left image above, the 5th and 6th characters respectively). Both of them have unique characteristics, where the former has a temporary mid-air hover, while the latter has faster running speed and ability to pluck vegetables faster. Both of them became characteristics possessed by Peach and Toad respectively, especially Peach who still retains Lina's mid-air hover to this day.

What are other examples of characters influencing another character in the long term?

Thank you for reading.

 

[Ray Trace]

I think the addition of Baby Mario playable in Camelot's sports titles have absolutely influenced the influx of baby characters in later entries, though I think Double Dash is the defining moment where Baby Luigi was brought in playable. I don't think Baby Peach, Baby Daisy, Baby Rosalina, Baby DK, and Baby Wario would have existed otherwise.

Speaking of babies, Bowser Jr. was absolutely influenced by Baby Bowser and he needs a mention in this thread. I guess Nintendo liked his design so much they transferred it to his son and like to use him in these games. Bowser Jr's design in Sunshine eventually got carried over to Baby Bowser in the Yoshi's Island games and even has him using his own voice clips.

 

[Borp]

The thing that bugs me about them recycling Bowser Jr.'s model for Baby Bowser is.... Baby Bowser has had 3D models before. One in Yoshi's Story, and another in Melee. The one in Melee in particular is clearly in the style of then-recent stock Mario character models, so I dunno what was stopping them from doing similar for the Wii and DS era onward.

 

[Koopa con Carne]

baby bowser's early 3D models were from a time when the entire mario cast looked different from what we know today, and would have likely been updated to something similar to Bowser Jr. regardless

remember that Melee was developed and released when the characters of the Mario franchise had yet to fully transition to their modern look

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Neither of these 3d models probably are optimized for live-rendering animation (the one in Yoshi's Story is made out of NURBs, not polygons, which NURBS is standard for the N64 models). Could they retopo and re-UV? Perhaps. But I feel the period between N64 nurbs and the GCN polygons is pretty much a period where all characters went through a redesign to better fit the technology, so I think Bowser Jr. IS Baby Bowser to the same extent that Peach is still Peach.

 

[Koopa con Carne]

Neither of these 3d models probably are optimized for live-rendering animation (the one in Yoshi's Story is made out of NURBs, not polygons, which NURBS is standard for the N64 models). Could they retopo and re-UV? Perhaps. But I feel the period between N64 nurbs and the GCN polygons is pretty much a period where all characters went through a redesign to better fit the technology, so I think Bowser Jr. IS Baby Bowser to the same extent that Peach is still Peach.

They could have just approximated the in-game polygonal model to the nurb model, creating a different asset, no?

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

They could have just approximated the in-game polygonal model to the nurb model, creating a different asset, no?

Yeah, that's retopo (in terms of converting nurb to poly), which I covered in my post. NURBS however is still basically relativley simple geometry. It lends to these characters looking pretty fragmented. It's not ideal for animation or deformation, not ideal for texturing. I guess it's the go-to for high res art at the time vs polygons but once polygons better represented character designs, the 3d art changed to reflect it.