Why Mario's Triple Jump Animation Is So Good

hello and welcome to new frame plus this is a series about game animation and today I would like to look at just one animation from Super Mario 64 technically three animations I guess depending on how you count we're going to look at Mario's triple jump but first for context a brief history lesson [Music] Mario's jump is the most important action in his moveset and in prior games the animation of that jump had always been simple in the original Super Mario Brothers the jumping animation consisted of just a single key pose one frame of animation that Mario would hold on from the moment he left the ground to the moment he landed that jump got its first animation upgrade in Super Mario Brothers 3 now if you were small Mario the jump was basically the same but if you were big Mario then that jump was given an additional frame of animation one pose for ascending and then a second pose with his arms tucked back in for the descent still simple but this is a nice addition it lends the move a hint of physicality it also adds a subtle visual indication for when Mario has reached the peak of his jumping arc by Super Mario World not only did both versions of Mario now have those two frames of animation but that second pose was sweetened with some nice extra detail this time Mario's descending pose actually suggests some overlapping motion with his hat feet and other hands trailing behind his center of gravity which is not bad for a 16 by 24 clump of pixels so how does this jump translate to 3d well the jump didn't evolve so much as multiply one of the biggest fundamental changes Nintendo made to Mario style platforming when they adapted it to 3d environments was to give Mario a variety of jumping actions backflips long jumps wall kicks a whole kit of verticality tools each with specific strengths and situational utility even the standard jump became 3 a succession of jumps that a skilled player could use to reach even higher ledges this is the triple jump press a and Mario will do his standard jump press a again the instant Mario lands and he'll follow that up with a second even higher jump if you happen to be moving forward when you land and you press a one more time Mario will do a third even higher jump and each of these jumps has a unique animation so let's just go one by one the first jump in the set is basically Mario's classic jump animation adapted to 3d it's not exactly the same pose but it's pretty close and the animation is even structured somewhat similarly to the classic jumps in that it's fundamentally built from just two poses first this kind of awkward anticipation pose that Mario snapped to as soon as he leaves the ground and then this final pose which he reaches at the top of the jump it's still just to keep oh zzz's only now the 3d character is able to smoothly interpolate between them and Mario will hold on that second pose until he hits the ground then comes the second jump Mario starts out a little hunched over with his elbows raised and then he extends his entire body as if he's reaching for every inch of air he can get and this time he shifts to a third pose as he descends his arms and one leg trailing behind the body as he looks down toward where he's about to land and extends a leg to catch himself now if you don't press a to keep this chain going after either of these jumps Mario will either play a short landing recovery animation when he hits the ground or if you happen to be pressing in any direction on the stick Mario will snap into his running animation almost right away but if you do keep that chain going you will get to the third jump which is my favorite a triumphant double front flip or technically a front layout front tuck i I don't know gymnastics I'm sorry but I do love the variation here having Mario's first flip be a layout with his body fully extended and then having him tuck into a ball for the second lens this third jump this wonderful midair texture that keeps it visually interesting throughout and if you happen to land without running on this third jump you will get a new landing animation a flourishing gymnast salute just so you can recognize how good he did now there are some nitpicks worth making here and most of them have to do with the first jump in the set I like that this animation is trying to evoke the feeling of Mario's classic jump at least in theory but I don't really love either of these two poses the starting pose feels especially weird like this is an awkward pose to hit left leg raised torso twisted to the right right arm in the air head tilted down the upper and lower body seem to be doing two disjointed things the line of action on this pose is non-existent as far as I can tell and I recognize that this is meant to set up the main pose later like it's sort of a wind-up before he punches his fist in the air kind of but it's not really working for me and honestly the main pose could be stronger too the silhouette is pretty muddy here the right arm is almost lost behind the head and his left arm gets lost in the leg things do look a little better if you have the camera rotated around to his side or to his front but the silhouettes still aren't great there and besides the gameplay camera is gonna be positioned behind Mario most of the time so that is the angle you are most often going to be seeing this animation from ultimately it's fine like this pose being a little bit weak isn't gonna have a negative impact on gameplay or anything it could just look a little nicer as all and really that minor flaw is far outweighed by everything this animation does write one of my favorite things about this triple jump is that it is intentionally not animated like a person jumping on solid ground it's animated like someone jumping on a trampoline each successive jump gives Mario more height the second jump is like textbook posing for I'm jumping on the trampoline trying to get as high in the air as I can this animation is operating on pure cartoon logic but it's cartoon logic that perfectly reinforces the mechanics of how this triple jump works in game and I love that I also love how the landing animations can sort of double as a crouch leading into the next jump in the chain which gives them the feeling of an anticipation kind of without sacrificing responsiveness and I love how each jump builds and excitement going from basic jump to trampoline bounce to a big acrobatic flip and with Mario himself audibly having more and more fun to higher up he gets seriously despite its age and despite how primitive these graphics might be this animation succeeds on just about every level it's visually appealing to look at it gives the player all the we'll feedback they need it feels pretty darn good to control and on top of all that functional stuff it even manages to express character personality even factoring in my little nitpicks before this animation succeeds in just about every way I would expect an animation to in a game release today it is so successful that the triple jump became a mainstay of 3d mario games after this it even found its way into some of the 2d Mario games and I think the greatest testament to how strong this original animation was is the fact that they have changed so little about it even 20-plus years later look at the triple jump in Super Mario Odyssey sure there is a lot more detail in there now Mario's got animation on his hands and fingers there's some bounce on his nose and his hat can flop up and down on his head which looks awesome but underneath all of those policy details it's the same three jumps classic jump trampoline jump double flip the biggest change they've made is to that first jump which actually fixes all the problems I had with the original it still succeeds in evoking that classic jumping pose but this final pose reads way clearer than the Mario 64 version and it's pretty appealing from just about any angle this anticipation pose is less awkward and it works way better for the end pose he's headed toward having Mario's feet spread wider apart in midair looks great and having him reverse which foot is in front as he punches his fist in the air helps to tie everything his body's doing together in a really nice way other than that basically the exact same move working just as well decades later it is amazing to me how many of Mario's animations in Super Mario 64 worked this well and that Nintendo pulled this off on their first attempt at building a 3d platformer is pretty incredible but I think that'll do it thank you very much - Zack Valle for suggesting this topic if you would like to suggest an animation for a future analysis video then consider supporting the show like all of these lovely folks here thanks for watching and I will see you next time [Music]

Channel: New Frame Plus

Views: 316,708

Keywords: Super Mario 64, Mario 64, Mario, triple jump, Mario Odyssey, history, animation, explain, explained, compare, breakdown, gameplay, New Frame Plus, New Frame +, New Frame+, Animation, Game Animation, Animator, Video Games, Daniel Floyd, Dan, Extra Frames, Extra Credits, PlayFrame, animate, Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario World, jump, jumps

Id: zCxpzIiUJIg

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Fri May 22 2020