Nintendo Discontinues ‘Rugged’ Mario for Lacking Iconic Traits

Our mission was to create 3D visuals that would truly capture the distinctive charm of the Mario & Luigi series, setting it apart from other Mario games. Honestly, at the beginning of the project, we weren’t entirely mindful of this, which sent us on quite the wild goose chase. In our quest to carve out a new style for Mario & Luigi, there was a moment where we even toyed with the idea of giving Mario a tougher, more rugged look… (Laughs) Then came some invaluable input from Nintendo, urging us to ensure that the art direction would resonate with fans as unmistakably belonging to the Mario & Luigi series. From that point, we honed in on merging two delightful aspects: the captivating style of illustrations with their bold outlines and striking black eyes, together with the whimsical pixel animations that have the two characters comically darting around in all directions. It was at this juncture that we began establishing an art style that’s truly one-of-a-kind for this game.