Samus-without-suit NES artwork?

[Tazy_10]

Originally Posted by DRW

Well, I have a certain amount of videogame theories that I could post in another thread if you and the others here are interested in it.

As long as you dont start claiming Remakes to be Prequels, it's all good.

[DRW]

Originally Posted by Horsehead XVI

Keep in mind, though, that the GB, SNES, and NES all had different ways of rendering sprites, due to their graphical capabilities and such. Mario doesn't look exactly the same from SMB to SML to SMW.

O.k., in "Super Mario Bros." and "Super Mario Land" the sprite looks more abstract, but in SMB2-3, SML2 and "Super Mario World" it looks quite similar. And after all, all sprites are based on the same artwork, so you definitely recognize Mario when you see him. But it's not the same with Samus Aran. And I don't even talk about the in-game-sprites. I'm talking about the big images at the end of the game. In the NES game she's a simple 2D drawing that everybody could create. In the Game Boy game she looks quite realistic, as if an actual woman posed for the image. And in the Super Nintendo game she's some kind of an anime-like character. (They could have used the Game Boy image and turned it into 16 bit, but they didn't.) Her face never looks the same. She has no attributes that are always consistent. So, if you don't know that it's Samus, you wouldn't recognize her by looking at her face.

Originally Posted by Horsehead XVI

Link doesn't look exactly the same from LoZ to LA to LttP [Pink hair, anyone?].

That's because these are different Links. "Zelda 1"-Link and "Zelda 2"-Link are the same, but "Zelda 3"+4-Link is another person.

Originally Posted by Horsehead XVI

I, myself, think that both of you are at least a little right. I'm pretty sure the hair color on the NES was unavoidable due to the color limitations like AI said, but I also think that her hair color changed due to popular opinion, like DRW's been saying.

Also if I risk to be picky, I want to point it out again: It has nothing to do with color limitations. It's no problem to display Samus as a blonde on the NES. (Yes, it's yellow, but yellow was also used on the Super Nintendo for her bond hair.) If this looks good, one has to decide himself, but it is possible. Especially if you consider that the Japanese version of "Metroid" didn't have the possibility to play as suitless Samus, so originally they didn't even have to think of gameplay issues since in the Japanese version there's only the image at the end, not the sprite. And McSARS' final argumentation was not about the question if it is technically possible to have a blond Samus on the NES, but if the artist would have liked it.

Originally Posted by Tazy Ten

As long as you dont start claiming Remakes to be Prequels, it's all good.

Did anybody really ever do this? If yes, when?

[DZ hates life]

Well, we know that Samus was a brunette in the first game:

However, why she was changed to blonde in later games is mostly unknown. Perhaps it could've been clashing opinions. Maybe someone wanted blonde hair and someone else wanted a different color. To compromise, it was made brunette. A similar situation was in order when Kirby's Dreamland was being made. America wanted Kirby to be pink, and Japan wanted "Popopo" to be yellow. So that's why he was white in the first game.

We don't really know why there was a switch, though. It could just be because it looks better.

[CaptHayfever]

^I always thought he was white in the first game because it was on the Game Boy.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Tad Venture]

Originally Posted by DRW

Did anybody really ever do this? If yes, when?

There was a member a while back who claimed that Metroid Zero Mission was actually a prequel to the NES Metroid, and not a remake. If I remember correctly, his main argument was that an elevator shaft didn't line up to the original map.

Also, could you find these "end-of-game" pictures so I could see them? I've never seen I and II's pictures--sadly, I've never managed to beat Metroid II, and I've never played Metroid on the NES.

[DZ hates life]

Originally Posted by CaptHayfever

^I always thought he was white in the first game because it was on the Game Boy.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

Well, obviously. But if you look at his artwork from back then, he was white.

[DELICIOUS POISON]

^^ Yeah, but he was clearly insane, and continued to argue that Zebes didn't blow up in Super Metroid. He said it was "reforming". How you could possibly "reform" a planet without blowing it up in the first place is anyone's guess. He seemed to have missed the point where it takes millions of years for a planet to form.

Samus has changed a lot from game to game, each time in subtler ways. Her face and her persona beneath the suit was never important - it's not representative of her. If they made a decision based on a whim to change her appearance, I honestly just think it was a difference in artists. You're right in that the yellow probably shouldn't have mattered, if they wanted to make her blonde. The real question is still who wanted her blonde, when the artist for the first game made her a brunette.

ML (Horsehead) has a good point in that Link's hair was actually pink in LttP as the result of a glitch that was apparent only after manufacturing had begun.

None of us can know for sure why Kirby's color was different on the boxart for the different countries, but I've read that it was because of miscommunication. I think we've all seen how often people can screw up colors in printed products - I was born in the 80's, afterall.

[DZ hates life]

Originally Posted by McSARS DOUBLE SARS

None of us can know for sure why Kirby's color was different on the boxart for the different countries, but I've read that it was because of miscommunication. I think we've all seen how often people can screw up colors in printed products - I was born in the 80's, afterall.

No, the reason is mainly because America wanted Kirby to be pink and Japan wanted "Popopo" to be yellow. The decision wasn't decided before the deadline, so the designers kept him white for neutrality. Of course, this discussion probably doesn't belong in this topic.

[DELICIOUS POISON]

I'm the mod and while it's getting off subject, no one's stopping anyone from talking about color schemes in Metroid as well as other Nintendo series. It's actually a good example of how convoluted the decisions that go into something as simple as a character's color design can be:

According to Wikipedia:

As Kirby's first appearance was on the monochrome screen of the Nintendo Game Boy, his "true" color could not be represented in-game. Sakurai intended Kirby to be pink. However, Shigeru Miyamoto had envisioned him as yellow.[3] Because of this ambiguity, Nintendo of America was left with some confusion when the game was ported to the West. The American box art, cartridge label, instruction booklet, and even the television commercial for Kirby's Dream Land features Kirby entirely white in color. The Japanese box art, however, correctly depicts Kirby as pink.

So according to that, it was just Miyamoto's preference that Kirby be yellow. Apparently, he never appeared as yellow.

Here's another few sites that support that story:

Welcome to Kirby's Rainbow Resort!

Welcome to KirbyPlanet!

[DRW]

Originally Posted by Horsehead XVI

Also, could you find these "end-of-game" pictures so I could see them? I've never seen I and II's pictures--sadly, I've never managed to beat Metroid II, and I've never played Metroid on the NES.

You can see ending screens for many games at the site vgmuseum.com.

[DELICIOUS POISON]

For ML:

This is a video of the end of Metroid. If you haven't played the game and don't want the end spoiled, I strongly recommend you don't watch it.

Click to view video.

This is a video of the end of Metroid II: Return of Samus. Same deal.

Click to view video.