{"id":102654,"date":"2019-10-28T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2019\/10\/feature_luigi_and_video_gamings_other_palette_swap_heroes"},"modified":"2019-10-28T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T18:00:00","slug":"feature-luigi-and-video-gamings-other-palette-swap-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/10\/28\/feature-luigi-and-video-gamings-other-palette-swap-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Luigi And Video Gaming&#8217;s Other Palette Swap Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/ee00089f8fa56\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/ee00089f8fa56\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"LuigiM3\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/ee00089f8fa56\/luigim3.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/ee00089f8fa56\/luigim3.900x.jpg\" alt=\"LuigiM3\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/luigis_mansion_3\">Luigi\u2019s Mansion 3<\/a><\/strong> releases in just a couple of days and rounds out a trilogy of excellent games featuring gaming&#8217;s most famous sidekick in the starring role. Over the years Luigi has grown from mere clone to become a beloved Nintendo character and developed something of a cult following along the way. Perhaps his cowardice and humanity is easier to identify with than the bravado of his older brother, or maybe Luigi\u2019s just smart enough to recognise the dangers these perilous platforming adventures pose. He might quiver at the sight of a Boo, but when push comes to shove Luigi is still there putting himself through hell for the sake of others. In fact, he has to work even <em>harder<\/em> than Mario to pluck up the courage and play the part of the hero. No wonder we love him so.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed right img-\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a title=\"Muigi\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/e340e469223d0\/muigi.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/e340e469223d0\/muigi.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Muigi\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Anybody with even a passing interest in the history of video game design is by now familiar with how Mario took form in the 8-bit era. While Sega\u2019s Sonic evolved from an internal company competition to find a competing mascot, the plumber himself was hewn from tech limitations. The hat, moustache and dungarees all came about in order to make the 16 pixel-high Jumpman readable to the player in <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/arcade\/donkey_kong\">Donkey Kong<\/a><\/strong>, simplifying the animation process and working within the tight sprite restrictions of the day. Indeed, he only got the plumbing gig due to the underground, pipe-filled setting his next game, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/mario_bros\">Mario Bros.<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 hardly an auspicious birth for the &#8216;Mickey Mouse of Video Games\u2122&#8217;.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"left\">\n<p>Palette swapping \u2013 the practice of reusing a sprite with a different colour palette in order to save memory space \u2013 is a relic of an age of limitations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But spare a thought for his poor put-upon brother! Luigi has grown taller over the years and he\u2019s gained a flutter in his jump, but considering where he started out, the <em>other<\/em> brother has done incredibly well to escape the shadow of his iconic sibling and find himself a star in his own right. Long before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PpxDuNFBVj8\">the death stares<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2014\/03\/feature_looking_back_on_the_year_of_luigi\">entire <em>years<\/em> dedicated to the green plumber<\/a>, Luigi was nothing more than a clone; a cheap copy; a pixel-perfect doppelganger created so that two players would know which \u2018Mario\u2019 they were controlling. Now on his third solo ghost-sucking outing, Luigi is arguably the most famous palette swap in history.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"Blinky, Pinky, Clyde and Inky: unique snowflakes.\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/03be4cafa727d\/blinky-pinky-clyde-and-inky-unique-snowflakes.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/static.nintendolife.com\/blank.gif\" data-original=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/03be4cafa727d\/blinky-pinky-clyde-and-inky-unique-snowflakes.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Blinky, Pinky, Clyde and Inky: unique snowflakes.\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">Blinky, Pinky, Clyde and Inky: unique snowflakes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Palette swapping \u2013 the practice of reusing a sprite with a different colour palette in order to save memory space \u2013 is a relic of an age of limitations. Nowadays multi-terabyte hard drives, cloud saving and massive Day One patches are the norm, but in the early \u201880s it was a luxury to be able to have more than a handful of distinct characters on the screen. Many of video games\u2019 most famous personalities were birthed by palette swap and although they may have looked identical, subtle tweaks sometimes imbued them with bespoke characteristics even in the early days. Pac-Man\u2019s spectral nemeses Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde may appear distinguishable only by colour, but each had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/blinky-inky-pinky-and-clyde-a-small-onomastic-study-108669.phtml\">a distinct \u2018personality\u2019 tied to its AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"right\">\n<p>Luigi\u2019s bumbling demeanour and height difference were only added later when technology allowed the depiction of the brothers as anything but twins.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p>Palette swaps were an economic way, in memory terms, to depict characters or enemies with different strengths or abilities without the need to create and store new sprite data. Green Koopa Troopas, for example, march along unthinkingly, falling into pits like lemmings, although their red shell-wearing brethren will turn at the edge of a platform and continue patrolling in the opposite direction. It\u2019s a subtle change, but both enemies act distinctly according to their appearance.<\/p>\n<p>When it came to two players, such as in the aforementioned Mario Bros., the most efficient way to add a second character was to duplicate the titular Mario and change his colour values. It wasn\u2019t until 1988 on the box art of Japan-Only <strong>Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally<\/strong> that he took on the taller, trimmer physique that we\u2019re familiar with today, and gradually that design found its way into the games. His increased height and higher jump were largely the result of inheriting the characteristics of &#8216;Mama&#8217; when <strong>Yume K\u014dj\u014d: Doki Doki Panic<\/strong> was remade as <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/super_mario_bros_2\">Super Mario Bros. 2<\/a><\/strong>. His bumbling demeanour would evolve later but <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/snes\/super_mario_world\">Super Mario World<\/a><\/strong> would be the last time Luigi appeared as a mere palette swap of his brother.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"RyuAndKen\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/6aa12c607a8d0\/ryuandken.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/static.nintendolife.com\/blank.gif\" data-original=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/6aa12c607a8d0\/ryuandken.900x.jpg\" alt=\"RyuAndKen\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Luigi is not alone in the field of clones that outgrew their origins to become beloved characters, though. Arguably the next most famous example is Ryu\u2019s western counterpart in the <strong>Street Fighter<\/strong> series. Created for a second player to control in the original <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/street_fighter_30th_anniversary_collection\">Street Fighter<\/a><\/strong>, Ken Masters began life as Ryu\u2019s friend and rival with an identical moveset and only minor cosmetic differences. As the sequels came, Ken quickly diverged into an utterly separate fighter and evolved a unique personality and style of his own, but again, he started out as a quick &#8216;copy-paste&#8217;.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">OK, let\u2019s settle this once and for all\u2026 Scorpion or Sub-Zero? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MK11?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MK11<\/a><\/span>\u2014 Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NintendoAmerica\/status\/1119269664637325312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 19, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In fact, palette swaps are rife in the fighter and beat \u2018em up genres. Belt-scrollers like <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/snes\/final_fight\">Final Fight<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/megadrive\/streets_of_rage\">Streets of Rage<\/a><\/strong> are filled with repeated and recoloured figures \u2013 how many hundreds of &#8216;Galsias&#8217; and &#8216;Donovans&#8217; have felt the steely justice of your <em>Grand Uppers<\/em>? Sub-Zero and Scorpion from <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/mortal_kombat_11\">Mortal Kombat<\/a><\/strong> are another pair (or trio including hidden character Reptile) that became legends apart. The lore behind this infamous fighting series is <em>incredibly<\/em> in-depth, but just as with Mario\u2019s lanky brother, they were all birthed from simple technical limitations. Beginning as an embodiment of &#8216;fire and ice\u2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.complex.com\/pop-culture\/2012\/09\/ed-boons-12-best-mortal-kombat-memories\/creating-scorpion-and-sub-zero\">designer Ed Boon has spoken<\/a> about how memory restrictions forced the developers to get creative with the resources available:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>Memory was very, very scarce, so if you add more memory to your game, your game costs that much more, and then it costs the company that much more. A lot of attention went into the economics of it, and so we knew that if we could take a character and change their color and use basically the same memory to create two characters, we&#8217;d save a lot of money and we&#8217;d have two characters.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We colored the yellow ninja blue and created this blue ninja. We&#8217;re giving them moves and everything, and blue looked like ice, so that gave the theme of Sub-Zero and freezing people. Yellow looked like fire, and that was like the Scorpion thing. They were opposites of each other, and that prompted the story behind them being these opposing ninja-clan-type characters. Everything rolled off of that.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Memory and other tech limitations of that sort don\u2019t exist in the same way anymore; these days it\u2019s <em>time<\/em> rather than tech which devs are up against. The palette swap is still alive and well, though; it just goes by a different name and more often than not you\u2019re paying for it separately. DLC skins and alternate costumes offer variety without developers needing to reinvent the wheel with every character. Aside from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssbwiki.com\/Alternate_costume_(SSBU)\">eight alternate &#8216;costumes&#8217;<\/a> for each fighter, the shadow fighters and Mii costumes in <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/super_smash_bros_ultimate\">Smash Bros.<\/a><\/strong>, for example, provide a dose of cosmetic fan service but require only a fraction of the dev time compared to an all-new fighter.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"Have you heard the origin story of 'Panjo', the pink Banjo created when Grunty zapped the bear-and-bird and created an alternate timeline where th-- oh-no-we've-gone-cross-eyed.\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/4db7e8365699d\/have-you-heard-the-origin-story-of-panjo-the-pink-banjo-created-when-grunty-zapped-the-bear-and-bird-and-created-an-alternate-timeline-where-th-oh-no-weve-gone-cross-eyed.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/static.nintendolife.com\/blank.gif\" data-original=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/4db7e8365699d\/have-you-heard-the-origin-story-of-panjo-the-pink-banjo-created-when-grunty-zapped-the-bear-and-bird-and-created-an-alternate-timeline-where-th-oh-no-weve-gone-cross-eyed.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Have you heard the origin story of 'Panjo', the pink Banjo created when Grunty zapped the bear-and-bird and created an alternate timeline where th-- oh-no-we've-gone-cross-eyed.\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">Have you heard the origin story of &#8216;Panjo&#8217;, the pink Banjo created when Grunty zapped the bear-and-bird and created an alternate timeline where th&#8211; <em>oh-no-we&#8217;ve-gone-cross-eyed<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And, of course, it\u2019s not just fighting games where we get umpteen wardrobe options. Alternate costumes appear in nearly all games nowadays. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/super_mario_odyssey\">Super Mario Odyssey<\/a><\/strong> put costume changes at its heart and the bizarre combinations available were just one of that game\u2019s many delights (Mario pulls off the &#8216;Mad Scientist in Wedding Dress&#8217; combo much better than we could ever have predicted). Everyone likes playing dress up, no?<\/p>\n<p>And Nintendo is still up to its old tricks when it comes to offering palette swaps for second players. In Luigi\u2019s Mansion 3 it\u2019s Luigi himself getting cloned, with gunge-y doppelganger Gooigi congealing into existence to offer assistance. We&#8217;ve previously seen the <em>even-greener<\/em> one in the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/3ds\/luigis_mansion\">Luigi&#8217;s Mansion<\/a><\/strong> remake on 3DS, and he&#8217;s essentially a Luigi who can walk through hazardous spikes and barred doors like the T-1000. Hmm, perhaps he&#8217;s scarier than we realised&#8230;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"Next Level are employing the same tricks as Nintendo did back in the day. Lazy devs, huh? (JOKE)\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/a12a9d5a5942f\/next-level-are-employing-the-same-tricks-as-nintendo-did-back-in-the-day-lazy-devs-huh-joke.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/static.nintendolife.com\/blank.gif\" data-original=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/a12a9d5a5942f\/next-level-are-employing-the-same-tricks-as-nintendo-did-back-in-the-day-lazy-devs-huh-joke.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Next Level are employing the same tricks as Nintendo did back in the day. Lazy devs, huh? (JOKE)\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">Next Level are employing the same tricks as Nintendo did back in the day. <em>Lazy devs, huh?<\/em> (JOKE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Will Gooigi spawn an entire franchise of his own and break off to develop his own personality, though? Time will tell, and he&#8217;s already got two appearances under his belt, but it&#8217;s hard to imagine. Then again, the same could have been said about Luigi himself, and he&#8217;s become a stalwart member of the Mushroom Kingdom lineup. Despite his cowardly persona he\u2019s always on hand, ever-dependable and ready to rescue whoever\u2019s carelessly got themselves kidnapped this week. Oh no, Luigi doesn\u2019t let a little thing like bone-chilling fear stop him! And on top of that, there&#8217;s a strong argument that he&#8217;s simply <em>better<\/em> than Mario.<\/p>\n<p>No, honestly. Not only does he jump higher &#8211; surely the standard by which we should measure <em>any<\/em> platforming hero &#8211; but nowadays he\u2019s associated with the more challenging, \u2018pro\u2019 version of Mario\u2019s vanilla adventure; the \u2018Second Quest\u2019, if you will. Think of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wiiu\/new_super_luigi_u\">New Super Luigi U<\/a><\/strong> or the adventures that start after Mario has 100-percented <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wii\/super_mario_galaxy\">Super Mario Galaxy<\/a><\/strong> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wii\/super_mario_galaxy_2\">its sequel<\/a>. That&#8217;s just the <em>start<\/em> for Luigi. So, essentially, what Nintendo is not-so-subtly telling us is that Luigi is <em>more hardcore<\/em> than Mario, the \u2018Pro\u2019s pick\u2019, the <em>true<\/em> hero. Not bad for a palette swap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luigi\u2019s Mansion 3 releases in just a couple of days and rounds out a trilogy of excellent games featuring gaming&#8217;s most famous sidekick in the starring role. Over the years Luigi has grown from mere clone to become a beloved Nintendo character and developed something of a cult following along the way. Perhaps his cowardice [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}