Super Mario Bros.
|
This article is still yet to be completed due to stress. We get a lot of stressful torture in our lives that makes us crash into slumber. Given that inspiration is a big variable, and we may have been lacking of it, this article will be completed as soon as possible, at our own pace... HONEST!
|
Super Mario Bros. (Often referred to as the Mario series) is a Japanese video game franchise owned by Nintendo and created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Most of the games in the series feature the adventures of Mario, an Italian plumber, on his quest to save the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom from a villain named Bowser. Acting as the company's mascot, as well as being the eponymous protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation.
Chris's relationship with Mario
Despite his brand loyalty, the fact that his former icon, Sonic the Hedgehog, was made to rival Mario, that he hated Harry Potter precisely for this reason (except with Pokemon), and how he reacted when he felt that said icon was being defaced, he oddly never showed any grudge towards the plumber. In fact, Chris actually owns a good chunk of his games.
Chris's email address for much of the 2000s was ItsameCWC@aol.com, a nod to Mario's catchphrase "It's-a me, Mario!"
Mario Kart 64
Mario Kart 64 Lego Raceway is a video series featured on Chris's "Yep, I'm on TV" DVD. It was filmed using a Game Boy Camera in 1998 when Chris was still in Manchester High School. The Game Boy Camera is a bulky Game Boy accessory cartridge with a camera built into it, which can be placed into a Game Boy and be used to take grainy black-and-white pictures. Afterward, these pictures can be edited in various ways; they can be drawn on, turned into sprites for a handful of minigames, be printed out with another expensive accessory called the "Game Boy Printer", or strung together to make an animation as Chris did. Using the camera and his Lego collection, Chris made a stop-motion animation of the cars racing around his Lego city and firing shells (or in this case, Star and Circle shapes) at each other, then added some appropriate music.
The Game Boy Camera can only hold thirty pictures at a time; that isn't nearly enough for even half a lap. What Chris did was take the thirty pictures, edit them appropriately, string them together into an animation, record the animation, and then repeat the process over and over. To make the sudden starting and stopping seem more "natural", Chris put a second of static at the end of each set of pictures. This didn't do anything to change how the twenty-second music clip Chris used for his animation gets more grating every time it is used.
It is impressive that Chris expended so much time and effort at such a complex and frustrating task, especially considering that years later, he would draw Sonichu comics without any planning or practice and upload YouTube videos without bothering to check them over first. Despite this, the actual animation is jerky and erratic, presumably due to the extremely low frame-per-second count (the average stop-motion production has 12 frames per second).
In the actual race videos, it's near impossible to tell what's going on, since most of the racers look exactly the same in poor quality black-and-white pictures. It doesn't help that the racing is regularly interrupted by confusing sequences where outsiders attack the racers.
The sequences also appear to have been transferred onto VHS tape at some point, as evidenced by the vertical stabilization problems, the noise at the bottom of the picture at the beginning of the first video, and the general picture quality of the video. Chris got the video on VHS by putting the Game Boy Camera into a Super Game Boy and hooking up his SNES to a VCR to record it from there.
Mario Kart 8
In May 2014, Mario Kart 8 was released worldwide on Wii U and later on in 2018 Nintendo Switch although Chris does not own this port, and soon thereafter, Chris started uploading some videos of his gameplay. Chris bought the game the same year, despite the fact that he and his mom were suffering through financial hardship. It is worth noting Chris has at least the second DLC pack for the game, so it can be assumed he has the first as well. On 17 July 2014, Chris created a video by using the MKTV editor and uploader. He posted it onto Miiverse and Youtube, officially confirming that the Miiverse account was owned by the TRUE and HONEST creator of Sonichu. Chris must have enjoyed making them because he made five more.
In the comics
There have been Mario inspired things within the Sonichu comics, such as SUPER Chris-Chan Sonichu's weeb wings, this takes inspiration from Chris's Anime Mid-Atlantic wings given to attenders (Note that this was primarily meant for women) and most likely the Wing Cap from Mario 64, This was used once or twice and then never again.