About

Inspired by YouTuber and fellow game developer CodyCantEatThis, I set out to recreate the iconic game Super Mario World in 3D. Following in his footsteps, I decided to remake the visual assets as Voxel based Models (If you’re unfamiliar with Voxels, it’s just 3D pixels). For now the project scope is Just to recreate the first world, Yoshi’s Island.

Why Super Mario World?

Super Mario World was a masterpiece in its time, and it hold up exceptionally well today. It maintains its position as one of the greatest games of all time for many reasons. The team at Nintendo fine tuned the movement of this game to be nothing short of perfection. The bright vivid art style is timeless. It might be because of all the flash animation I consumed in my youth but this design of has always been my favorite. Something about the pastel red and electric blue just get my neurons firing.

Something I never noticed until I began this project is just how well constructed the world is. If you look at the area around a level in the overworld map, it gives you a pretty clear idea of what kind of level you should be expecting. Yoshi’s Island 3 is a romp through the mountains. Vanilla Secret 1 is a vertical level with a top and bottom segment, just like the map. Whether the map was designed around the levels, or if the levels were designed around the map, I couldn’t say. The two are integrated seamlessly. The theming in this game is so good that each individual piece comes together to tell a cohesive story. It truly is a Super Mario World.

This connection between the overworld and the levels is what truly motivates me through this project. To recreate these levels and the overworld separately would already make for an incredible 3D platformer. But before me I have the opportunity to go even further beyond. My final vision for this game is one that plays as a fully open world 3D platformer.

Below you will find video compilations of the models I have created, broken down categorically. As of writing this I have not compiled all of my work; however, I have completed the asset creation portion of this project (for now).

I have yet to compile a video for all the models I made of Mario, but seeing as he’s the superstar of the show, you deserve a sneak peak.