How Fandom Adds Meaning to Mario (and Other Characters): The Legacy and Impact of Fan Art
By Matt O’Keefe
A lot of games are fun , though entertaining, lack a sense of exploration. That probably indicates a lack of an “open world” to most, but in my eyes can also indicate an absence of exploration of character, theme, or purpose. Nintendo games are more susceptible to this trait than most. 2D Mario games, for example, usually take you from Point A to Point B to Point C, without much in-between. The same applies to Kirby and Yoshi and Star Fox titles. Even Zelda games are primarily dedicated to a core mission, though Breath of the Wild certainly deviated from that pattern. This piece is by no means a vilification of that style, but, because of the Nintendo properties’ straightforward A-to-Z progression, those franchises often don’t get the opportunity to explore the ways other games can. So that’s where the fans come in.
Deeply invested in the characters and worlds they grew up with, fans want to enrich what has already been put before them. Because Nintendo characters are often less developed on a character level, they receive the biggest [upgrades]. That’s why fan artists, whether they be illustrators, musicians, columnists, or another type of creatives, have been able to add so much to Mario and his Nintendo brethren. Keep reading to learn the many ways fans can and have supplemented and enrichened what so many gamers already love.
Character Development
Though the mainline Mario games are mascot platformers, they feature a mascot without much of a personality, especially compared to successive characters like Sonic and Ratchet & Clank. Mario is not someone to get to know over the course of your journey. You control him but never identify with him, which is why he’s often referred to as a cipher. Nintendo is putting his identity, along with his fate, into fans’ hands. Since the release of the first Super Mario Bros on the NES, maybe even earlier, fans have done their duty forging the red-clad plumber and similarly blank canvas Nintendo characters over the past 35 years.
The best example of the sophistication of simple ideas is perhaps the work of Zac Gorman. Gorman creates GIF comics featuring all kinds of video game characters. His Mario pieces are particularly poignant because they breathe life and purpose in a character who essentially has none.
Art by Zac Gorman
Messages, like pursuing your passions and overcoming fear, aren’t inherently complicated, but they can be poignant, especially aligned with artwork filled with emotion. The work Gorman and others have affected my own thoughts while playing, giving me new reasons to care. I trek across the Mushroom Kingdom knowing Mario loves his new gig, making his constant smile so much more meaningful. I sympathize with Luigi for being under the shadow of his more popular brother, which deepens his arc in Luigi’s Mansion as he sets out on his own for the first time. Just because a game doesn’t have a script on the level of The Last of Us doesn’t mean it can’t endear you to its characters, with a little help from the fans.t
This kind of enrichment can also be done for characters with a little more agency. Link, the hero of Legend of Zelda, usually has some kind of backstory and motivation, but fans do a great job instilling more of both in him through their art. Zac Gorman has made over a dozen comics doing exactly that. Here are some of my favorites.
Art by Zac Gorman (again)
He’s not creating an amazingly rich and complex backstory, choosing instead to pinpoint the moments in stories that resonate and demonstrate fundamental ideas, foremost why Link is a hero.
Worldbuilding
The various games in Nintendo series were probably never meant to have cohesive histories. But fans wanted them, so they got them. Nintendo itself released Hyrule Historia due to the demand for a continuity to the Zelda series, but more often the worlds of video game characters are fleshed out by fans. There’s the Super Mario Timeline, a video tracking all the Mario games and trying to somehow make sense of how they all fit together. Artist Bill Mudron even sells gaming maps, depicting some of our favorite fictional worlds as cartography. One that hangs on my wall combines all the known parts of the Mushroom Kingdom from the NES and SNES eras.
Art by Bill Mudron
You can debate whether the map perfectly matches what’s laid out in the games and their manuals (many have), but it’s a testament to the dedication of fans that things of this kind even exist.
Mudron has also created multiple maps of Hyrule. They’re a bit easier to get right people of the way Zelda games are _________, but still might not be exact. But there’s something special about that imperfection, which allows Mudron’s interpretation of the worlds of classic Nintendo franchises to [shine brighter].
Art by Bill Mudron (again)
Mudron’s maps and the timeline are examples of creations that require a lot of time, research and effort. But sometimes worldbuilding can be as simple as picking out the moments you don’t see in a game that make the world feel like a bigger and realer place, like this piece of art featuring a certain Italian plumber taking a lunch break on his construction job.
Art by ________
Or fan art can make us rethink parts of the world just by pointing out silliness we don’t think twice about when we’re immersed in the game.
Art by Zac Gorman (last time, promise)
Whatever the method, artists have enriched the world these characters inhabit in ways developers didn’t or couldn’t within the context of their games, and we should be grateful for it.
Style
The most obvious thing fan art can do is add a unique flair to the characters and worlds of video games. It’s a lot easier and a lot quicker for an artist to do a drawing of a character in their style than for a video game developer to create a game with a groundbreaking design choice. They’ve tried it on a few occasions, Nintendo recently with Yoshi’s Wooly World, but it’s more time consuming and risks alienating audiences that are already satisfied with the original molds.
My favorite cartoonist, Scottie Young, sometimes spotlights a Nintendo character with his Daily Sketches.
Art by Skottie Young
But there’s no shortage of examples of great, unique interpretations of game characters in media. I have a sketchbook of my own filled with artists’ takes on various Nintendo characters that I hope to share with you later. For now, here are more polished illustrations.
Art by Chrissie Zullo
Art by Nick Derington
Art by Riley Rossmo
Depth
Most Nintendo games aren’t trying to say something, but fans can say it for them. Talents across the world instill meaning within the games through their art. They can, for example, use satire to point out prejudice.
Art by Eduardo Salies
They can use a captivating image to advance social awareness.
Artist unknown
Or even force us to reflect on uncomfortable but important subjects, such as violence in video games.
Art by Nick Derington (again)
[Wrap up article here]
There are so many artists and creators that want to have an influence on the things they loved, and there’s very little that inspires more fandom than Nintendo. Keep in mind how they can change perception, add layers and bring the worlds alive when you’re scrolling through recent fan art. You’ll be glad you did.
Do you like what you just read? Do you know fan art that similarly enriches video game characters and worlds? Sound off in the comments below!
Cover image art by weremole