Mario 128 is such a unique part of videogame history. It was a tech demo for hardware that's long since obsolete, yet people still remember it and talk about it over two decades later. Tech demos aren't usually meant to be remembered, they're just advertisments for hardware. The experience of a tech demo isn't something you look back fondly on; you look back on the console and the games on it, which the tech demo sold you on but was never meant to be the product. Mario 128 stands out as an example of Nintendo's showmanship. It was never meant to be a finished game, it wasn't what they were selling you in the end, but they knew how to put on a damn good show. Nintendo has never been the front of the line when it comes to hardware capabilities; they've pretty much always lagged behind their competitors in that area. And you'd think that would mean no one would choose Nintendo over the more technologically impressive options; and yet, they're still known as one of the biggest empires of the video game industry. This is because they aren't just selling you impressive hardware; they're selling you the _experience._ Mario 128 is no longer an impressive tech demo. I don't know if it was even especially impressive at the time. But it _was_ an excellent show. You can tell the devs had fun with it, with all the silly details that didn't have to be included but were. They didn't have to make it Mario themed, but they did because it was more fun that way. They didn't have to include goofy features like the way the little Marios flail around when they're being tossed around, and how they commit Mario on Mario violence by pushing eachother off, but notice how the audience LOVES it whenever the camera cuts to a Mario rolling another one around before shoving them straight off the edge. It's all so charming, and that's why it's still remembered over 20 years later. I wish Nintendo would focus more on their original design philosophy, that videogames aren't just a product; they're a performance. They still try to do interesting things with the Switch, but it just doesn't feel nearly as memorable as their previous consoles to me. (Nor is it even close to being as indestructible.) But that's just my opinion on it I guess.
not even in my best dreams did I imagine seeing mario 128 in good quality! my friend you are the best! thank you for posting this wonder here on youtube
BREAKING: In a recent interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, Masamichi Abe, Shigefumi Hino and several others in preparation for Pikmin 4, they revealed that the Pikmin 1 dev team wasn’t even aware of the Mario 128 demo’s existence, and that the game had been partly inspired by both Tim Burton and a French animated film titled “The Wild Planet”, which looks like a Monty Python style. So Pikmin DIDN’T come from Super Mario 128 after all like Miyamoto claimed at GDC 2007. The demo just proved that the GameCube could finally render the Pikmin concept Nintendo had been wanting to try since the N64 days.
Wow had to look it up myself shout out Burton. "Kando: We didn't know about the existence of Mario 128, so it's not like Pikmin was influenced by Mario 128 in terms of planning or technology,"
I already have a question for Charles Martinet once I see him at his Q&A panel at my local Fan Expo this year: “You know that Mario 128 GameCube tech demo from Spaceworld 2000? The one with all the Mario’s running around the giant Monopoly platform? I noticed some of your pitched-up Mario voice clips in it sound extremely similar to the voices of the Pikmin. Since Mario 128 supposedly became Pikmin 1, do you know if Nintendo used any of your voice clips for the Pikmin themselves?”
Can you imagine if they ever brought back this Mario fever dream in a proper game? With different world hubs, game modes, minigames, party modes, free open areas full of things to scramble with, lobbies, different map events, adjustments, rules, survival, objectives, rewards, unlockables, achievements, community events, just mindless yahoos all over... All online. Or with AI Marios. Who cares about quality just drop in and have a blast! ...'cause I can't. Nintendo? No way man. Would be crazy though.
@@GuyWithThePie @GuyWithThePie I could have been clearer! 50fps source is expanded to 60fps here using Premier frame sampling only (duplicated frames, not blended frames or inserted mid frames), so the "ghosting" effect is not resampling related, but exists in the the raw DV source footage, i.e. just the way it was shot... perhaps in part because PAL(50) cam I used on those days cam was used to shoot NTSC(60) screen (though you can still pick up "ghosting" even when shooting NTSC on NTSC!). Basically, if we had direct feed of these Spaceworld demos, you would not see ghosting. Unless we are talking about Luigi's Mansion one, which definitely has some ghost effects.
@@AdamDoree oh interesting! I'm part of the Super Mario Galaxy Modding Community so seeing some brand new beta footage would be pretty awesome actually.
To clarify, these particular recordings of the demo (the video contains more than one session), are the highest fidelity currently know to exist, and were “lost” in the sense that they have never been publicly available until this upload. Sure videos of the demo have always been available but generally much lower quality, and never these particular recordings - from both the press conference and the showfloor area after the conference.
