"You do it." My younger sister would say when we got to these guys in world 4. Oh yeah, I still remember the level they appear on. I dreaded it each time I played the first Super Mario Bros. game. The Lakitu stage. Drifting back and forth across the top of the screen, dropping spiked balls, it was task enough to avoid. But then the balls would become into little spiked creatures, things you couldn't jump on, and come crawling after you. Sage advice in a Mario game is usually to slow down, to concentrate. But if you did that here, the screen would just fill up with more and more with the little red monsters.
Now that graphics are so much better, the guys in the clouds just look dorky. Okay, so they're still throwing spiked balls at you, but they're bright eyed with a friendly smile. I wasn't having that when it came to drawing them. So I gave this Lakitu a look of concentration. It's exactly the same character, I didn't change it to be more monstrous, I just narrowed his eyes to show the moment he takes aim. And it makes a big difference.
I kept the cloud smiling. I don't know. I feel like the cloud can get away with it.
Spiny and Buzzy Beetle. When it came to drawing these guys I thought "How do you make such simple designs have any sort of pose, or personality?" Because look at them, they're mostly just shell. Turns out, it's all in the legs.
