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Post by Manspeed on May 25, 2010 11:05:59 GMT -5
Miyamoto himself mentioned in a recent interview that the Goomba is based on a Shiitake Mushroom. Seems to me that they couldn't make up their minds as to whether or not Goombas are mushrooms or chestnuts.  EDIT: I just realized that the rounded SMW Goombas (or "Kuribo n" as they're called in Japan) looks more like a chestnut, while the usual Goomba resembles a mushroom. Think this has any significance? |
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Post by The Qu on May 25, 2010 11:14:44 GMT -5
BoweserWhich came first, the Koopa or the King? Well, for once, we know. Bowser was an early creation in the development for Super Mario. Bros. Rather than a turtle, Bowser was originally an Ox rather than a turtle! Miyamoto designed him after the Ox King from the 1961 Toei film Alakazam the Great. based on the Journey to the West. But one of the other staffers looked at it and said it looked like a turtle, so they rolled with it. It made more sense that way, since he was the Koopa King. His Japanese name, Koopa, comes not from the Kappa, as has been thought by quite a few people, but an Korean dish called Gukbap, called Kupa in Japan. Other names based on Korean dishes, such as Yukke (Yukhoe) and Bibinba (Bibimbap) , were considered. For the curious, Gukbap is soup with rice. ================================================================ Might be a bit long winded compared to yours, though, Fry.
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Post by Fryguy64 on May 26, 2010 9:52:33 GMT -5
BoweserWhich came first, the Koopa or the King? Well, for once, we know. Bowser was an early creation in the development for Super Mario. Bros. Rather than a turtle, Bowser was originally an Ox rather than a turtle! Miyamoto designed him after the Ox King from the 1961 Toei film Alakazam the Great. based on the Journey to the West. But one of the other staffers looked at it and said it looked like a turtle, so they rolled with it. It made more sense that way, since he was the Koopa King. His Japanese name, Koopa, comes not from the Kappa, as has been thought by quite a few people, but an Indian dish called Gukbap, called Kupa in Japan. Other names based on Indian dishes, such as Yukke (Yukhoe) and Bibinba (Bibimbap) , were considered. For the curious, Gukbap is soup with rice. ================================================================ Might be a bit long winded compared to yours, though, Fry. I know the whole bit about him being based on the Ox King (and the cover illustration for SMB certainly makes that apparent), but I was - and am - sceptical that Bowser wasn't originally a turtle. Nearly all the enemies are turtles (even the ones that claim to be beetles) and that was based on the Shellcreepers in Mario Bros. Why wouldn't the Big Bad have also been a turtle? Of course, if he was simply sketching Bowser and came up with the idea to turn all the enemies into turtles following that comment, that would make sense... but that wasn't what was stated. Also, they're korean dishes, not Indian  I wonder why he was adamant about naming him after a Korean dish... |
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Post by The Qu on May 26, 2010 10:22:00 GMT -5
I'm just going off the information we know. It's odd, but so is a lot of Miyamoto's stuff.
And yeah, I have no idea why I put Indian.
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Post by Koopaul on May 27, 2010 23:00:28 GMT -5
I wanna know why a lot of Nintendo characters have those snork-like mouths that shoot things.
Birdo, Snifit, Octorok, Deku Scrub...
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Post by Shrikeswind on May 27, 2010 23:11:00 GMT -5
Didn't we talk about Octoroks once? I'm pretty sure we determined it was the Japanese depiction of an Octopus, in which the ink valve is feature much more prominently than in most Western depictions, being that it's a nose.
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Post by Fryguy64 on May 28, 2010 8:30:03 GMT -5
I wanna know why a lot of Nintendo characters have those snork-like mouths that shoot things. Birdo, Snifit, Octorok, Deku Scrub... Snifit essentially has a gun for a face, and we covered the Octorok (and other octopi), but it is a very prevalent theme. Similarly, I am curious as to whether the Shy Guy is supposed to be based on the same source as Gyroids and their like. |
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Post by Flip on May 29, 2010 10:59:54 GMT -5
I wanna know why a lot of Nintendo characters have those snork-like mouths that shoot things. Birdo, Snifit, Octorok, Deku Scrub... Snifit essentially has a gun for a face, and we covered the Octorok (and other octopi), but it is a very prevalent theme. Similarly, I am curious as to whether the Shy Guy is supposed to be based on the same source as Gyroids and their like. We have to remember too that Japan is an island and very water-friendly culture, so they're going to have a lot more influence from ocean creatures and lifestyle than anything else. The snouts are clearly from things like octopus and squid, and that sort of goes into a lot of other goofy creatures they've made over the years. Do you think this is why there are so many insects and bugs too? I always thought it was weird that they paid a LOT of attention to bugs in video games, anime, etc, especially making things like the Bug-type in Pokemon or creating entire franchises around bugs. Do kids just always play with bugs instead of other, more "normal" animals? |
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Post by Johans Nidorino on May 30, 2010 14:40:56 GMT -5
This week's featured Pokémon is Relicanth. This time, the editor narrates the tale of how the coelacanth was discovered in our days.  |
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Post by The Qu on May 30, 2010 15:37:13 GMT -5
Interesting read. I guess we have to have some commonly known ones every once and awhile. Did not know the bit about the shiny Relicanth though.
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Post by The Qu on Jun 2, 2010 9:29:40 GMT -5
Here's another one, this time about the Space Bunnies from the Galaxy series. ============================================================== Space Bunnies Super Mario Galaxy introduced quite a few new races to the Mario series. One of the more baffling of these are the Space Bunnies. What are bunnies doing in space, you might ask? Well, as with many other strange things in video games, it's a "Japanese thing". Well, an Asian thing. A long, long time ago, the Chinese looked up at the moon and saw a rabbit atop a mortar. As the legend goes, the Rabbit belongs to the Moon Godess, and it mixes the elixer of immortality for her. The legend spread throughout Asia, and took root with minor changes. The Japanese, for instance, have the bunny making rice cakes. On the moon no less. These odd legend can be seen in the recent Capcom game Okami, an excellent game based around Japanese myth. So this legend winds all the way to Super Mario Galaxy, which featured bunnies first seen on the opening planetoid, and on several found later in the game. Of course, this wasn't the first time Mario had to chase down bunnies for a star. The Star Bunnies are also based on MIPS, a test model-turned-character from Super Mario 64. He's named after a processor the N64 used- which in turn stands for "Millions of Instructions Per Second"". In the DS enhanced remake of SM64, many, many more bunnies based on MIPS appeared. So, in short, rabbits have a long standing history in 3d Mario games. |
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Post by Johans Nidorino on Jun 2, 2010 10:29:05 GMT -5
Does that possibly extend to the alien bunnies from WarioWare?  I don't think they're ever seen walking on satellites, but still. |
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Post by cheatmaster30 on Jun 2, 2010 12:19:40 GMT -5
I did not know the space bunny thing came from Chinese folklore, so this is extremely interesting (makes a mental note to add it to my future Mario book).
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Post by Fryguy64 on Jun 2, 2010 12:29:35 GMT -5
So this legend winds all the way to Super Mario Galaxy, which featured bunnies first seen on the opening planetoid, and on several found later in the game. And, of course, it would be worth mentioning that the "original" 3D Mario bunny "MIPS" in SM64 was a test model for the SM64 graphics engine. His name stands for "Millions of Instructions Per Second". The space rabbits are also half based on him. |
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Post by The Qu on Jun 2, 2010 14:22:01 GMT -5
Does that possibly extend to the alien bunnies from WarioWare? I don't think they're ever seen walking on satellites, but still. Those guys are a reference to Rhythm Heaven, weren't they? If they are, I guess it could in a round-about way. Of course, this is also WarioWare- standard logic does not apply. I'll add that in Fry- I completely forgot about MIPS. |
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I don't think they're ever seen walking on satellites, but still.
