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Character Redesigns


Cortez

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I usually like a good character redesign. I always have fun seeing new takes on old stuff, assuming it's decent.

The problem is that so often it isn't.

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From the perspective of someone who's never played a Banjo-Kazooie game in my life... uh, I actually like the redesigns a lot better. HD Banjo has a bit of a douchey Dreamworks look to him, I guess, but it doesn't look nearly as bad to me as the original's awkward giant-eyed derpface. Both Kazooies look fine to me.

Like, I get why people have a problem with Spyro and Dante's redesigns despite not being all that familiar with either of their series, but I honestly have no idea what the issue here is.

Having played the originals, the issue I have here with their redesigns is that I really dislike the overly blocky look they gave Banjo. He looks like he'll shatter into a million legos if you hit him. Kazooie looks like she was strangled and dragged across the road--or sick. The placement of her feathers looks extremely clumped together and it looks like she fell asleep without rubbing off her eyeliner.

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Over a page in a topic about character redesigns and no Green Eyes jokes? What the hell, SSMB.

I thought everyone was just being a bro and not wanting to get into that at all. But nope!

Anyone else think the Monkey Ball series was in desperate need of the redesign it got for Banana Blitz? The old design of the characters is barely different to the new one, but the small changes make everything much better. Most obvious is the leap to far more modern CGI and the new pastel colour scheme, which really helps the series to look a thousand times cuter. The detailing on the monkeys was simplified to the point where facial expressions are mostly just drawn on, they're chunkier, only have one toe and all have rubber-hose limbs. Seriously, compare them! (old = top, new = bottom)

super-monkey-ball-deluxe-20040913033629349_640w.jpg

super-monkey-ball-2-iphone-2.jpg

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pete_burns_spinning_you_right_round.jpg

pete_burns_02.jpg

Mayve change isn't such a great idea =\

Edited by Rawpowered
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Yeah, Kazooie really lost something in N&B. Half of the appeal of her snarky wit was because she looked so innocent and wide-eyed while saying it all, giving simultaneously the impression that what she was saying was utterly coming to her naturally - AND that she was pretty damn pleased with herself at the same time.

Now she just looks like a bitch.

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Am I only one who thought Banjo and Kazooie's redesigns were fantastic?

I loved them, apart form Gruntilda. The old designs needed some kind of modernising but I can understand why they hit a bum note with so many.

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It does not matter if a character's design is changed or not. People need to stop throwing a fit about such little things and start getting used to the new. Nobody cares if you like the tall, green-eyed modern Sonic or the pot-bellied classic Sonic better. Nobody cares if you like Toon Link, young Link or "realistic" adult Link better. Nobody cares if you like the classic designs, the modern designs, or heck, the Super Smash Bros. Brawl/Melee designs of characters better. It's all good.

What the heck is all of you so obsessed with nostalgia? Geez.

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It does not matter if a character's design is changed or not. People need to stop throwing a fit about such little things and start getting used to the new. Nobody cares if you like the tall, green-eyed modern Sonic or the pot-bellied classic Sonic better. Nobody cares if you like Toon Link, young Link or "realistic" adult Link better. Nobody cares if you like the classic designs, the modern designs, or heck, the Super Smash Bros. Brawl/Melee designs of characters better. It's all good.

What the heck is all of you so obsessed with nostalgia? Geez.

What is it with always bringing up how people complain about petty and stupid things? Isn't that of itself, petty complaining?

And while gameplay and having fun are among the most important parts of a game, all of the other aspects help as well to bring out the most enjoyment and immersion possible, and that includes character designs. They may not be the single most-defining things upfront, but good character designs are key to making a product much more appealing, identifiable, awesome, and interesting to people that you're trying to sell to. That's why people complain; granted, some of it's from nostalgia, but there's also another reason, because they find (some) re-designs fucking ugly and may be possibly offensive or completely against what they initially represented for to people.You wouldn't be able to enjoy something highly displeasing to your senses, right?

It detracts from the overall experience, and if you're not going to bother to make characters look as good as they can be just because they're not the most important things that matter, why even bother with putting in effort in all the other aspects of the product? I'm not asking to throw everything else and focus solely on making pretty looking avatars or characters, but that effort should be put in making them as well made as everything else or if they're already adored enough, not change them to be eyesores upon everyone else whom happens to look at them. Why would, or rather should anyone settle for a product where effort is put to the bare minimum of where it counts and leave everything else to neglect, or have them outright pitifully and detestably constructed?

There's a reason, why people haven't made "Green Eyes" jokes so quickly; that shit got old, and was blown out of proportion, to an extent. And you know bringing up people bitching about his design change is irrelevant when the very person whom kick-started it all got over it even since before he pulled the plug on his own fan-film.

Edited by Treacher
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It does not matter if a character's design is changed or not. People need to stop throwing a fit about such little things and start getting used to the new. Nobody cares if you like the tall, green-eyed modern Sonic or the pot-bellied classic Sonic better. Nobody cares if you like Toon Link, young Link or "realistic" adult Link better. Nobody cares if you like the classic designs, the modern designs, or heck, the Super Smash Bros. Brawl/Melee designs of characters better. It's all good.

What the heck is all of you so obsessed with nostalgia? Geez.

In this thread, opinions are not allowed unless they decry the stating of opinions.

Edited by Tornado
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What the heck is all of you so obsessed with nostalgia? Geez.

It's not always about nostalgia.

It's about what aesthetically looks better. Character redesigns aren't a dealbreaker to me, but I think it's fine to prefer an older design if you genuinely think it looks better without being branded as being blinded by nostalgia.

One example for me is the Joker: I prefer his appearance in the comics/animated series the most. Ergo, when I hear "The Joker," I think of this:

joker1994-sm.jpg

Not this:

heath_ledger_joker.jpg

Don't get me wrong, I liked TDK's Joker. But it just... never really gelled with me, and ultimately I found it so incredibly different from the classic portrayal of the character that it was kind of distracting. It was still a great performance, and I enjoyed every bit of it, but I still prefer the original zany clown prince of crime from the comics.

A lot of people act like I'm obviously blinded by my nostalgia for "classic Joker," but I feel that's unfair. There are many cases where I do​ like newer re-imaginings of characters more than the original; This just isn't one of those cases, and I don't think I'm wrong, stubborn, or clinging to nostalgia just because I honestly prefer an older character design.

tl;dr - Fans who prefer newer designs should be respected for their preference, but fans who prefer the older designs deserve the same courtesy without the baggage of "nostalgia" as their only supposed reason. Some of us genuinely prefer the older designs on their own merits, not just because they're older.

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It's not always about nostalgia.

It's about what aesthetically looks better. Character redesigns aren't a dealbreaker to me, but I think it's fine to prefer an older design if you genuinely think it looks better without being branded as being blinded by nostalgia.

One example for me is the Joker: I prefer his appearance in the comics/animated series the most. Ergo, when I hear "The Joker," I think of this:

joker1994-sm.jpg

Not this:

heath_ledger_joker.jpg

Don't get me wrong, I liked TDK's Joker. But it just... never really gelled with me, and ultimately I found it so incredibly different from the classic portrayal of the character that it was kind of distracting. It was still a great performance, and I enjoyed every bit of it, but I still prefer the original zany clown prince of crime from the comics.

A lot of people act like I'm obviously blinded by my nostalgia for "classic Joker," but I feel that's unfair. There are many cases where I do​ like newer re-imaginings of characters more than the original; This just isn't one of those cases, and I don't think I'm wrong, stubborn, or clinging to nostalgia just because I honestly prefer an older character design.

tl;dr - Fans who prefer newer designs should be respected for their preference, but fans who prefer the older designs deserve the same courtesy without the baggage of "nostalgia" as their only supposed reason. Some of us genuinely prefer the older designs on their own merits, not just because they're older.

Arkam city joker though....sad.png Nah i'm just kidding! Opinions are opinions!

Anyway Yah i'm fine with the new banjo and kazzoie. They look cool. but i preffer the originals.

As for Character re-designs in general I think as the generations go on so do the standards for looks Soit's perfectly fine to improve characters looks. Some more than others some times.

Also....Did anyone ask for a CLAYSSIK BANJO?!!It's So cute!!

rolleyes.gif !fat-banjo-and-kazooie-relaxing.jpg?w=500

Edited by the hedgehogs boost
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I'm not too bothered by re-designs unless it's for games I truely care about.

I loved the change to Lara Croft when Legend came around but I simply loved Lara's original design in Angel of Darkness which I felt modern while maintaining the classic Lara design which change of clothes and looking fresh.

AngelofDarkArtwork.jpg

Then Eidos switched developers from Core Design to Crystal Dynamics after AOD's flop which came the redesign of Lara Croft.

LaraLegend.jpg

At the time Tomb Raider was being switched to new developers, a new design was born which most Tomb Raider fans call her Barbie Lara but I feel that while there is a new design it keeps that classic feel on her face, the pointy nose, the beautiful full of life brown eyes while trying to be modern but lets fast forward to 2012 for Lara's next reboot and start of her adventures because I don't mind this design I love it but not as much as TR1 - AOD Lara.

Tomb-Raider-4.jpg

Enter 2012, A new era of Tomb Raider games begins with the latest reboot named "Tomb Raider" Lara has been redesigned for this game to making her younger (around 23 years old) and is embarking on her first adventure but when I look at her in this screenshot. it just doesn't feel like Lara when I look at her, sure she looks like Lara in artwork and is younger but in game it doesn't look like her at all to me but not all redesigns are not bad as the TR Legend example shows that Lara can look good after a re-design to look modern.

(I really had to do one on Lara didn't I XD)

Edited by Shaddix Leto Croft
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It's like you really want a flame war in here by writing a post like this.......

You're not helping.

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You're not helping.

Sorry about that I was about to edit my post once I saw your warning about to Vup.

Sorry about that hehe.

Edited by Shaddix Leto Croft
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Arkam city joker though....sad.png Nah i'm just kidding! Opinions are opinions!

Arkham Asylum/City Joker is close enough to the comic version, even though there are some subtle differences. The design evokes the same basic feel, overall, so I'm fine with it.

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Funnily enough, Dr. Mechano, TDK's joker is actually a lot more like the Joker in his first few appearances than his modern appearances in the comics.

In The Joker's first few pictures in the comics, he didn't make many jokes, was a straight homicidal serial killer and used conventional weapons. The crew even stated that they were inspired by them.

As for redesigns, I'm fine with them if they're done well and keep to the style and spirit if the original designs. I personally love both designs for Banjo-Kazooie as they still evoke the same feel to me despite their differences.

There isn't really any redesigns that come to mind, other than the Spyro one, that I dislike.

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I quite like Pac-Man's new redesign. The previous 3D model always looked... dead for some reason. I dunno, maybe it was the eyes.

pacman01-Render_63377_640screen.jpg

02.jpg

And to think all it took was blue eyes and custom SOAP shoes. ;)

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I quite like Pac-Man's new redesign. The previous 3D model always looked... dead for some reason. I dunno, maybe it was the eyes.

pacman01-Render_63377_640screen.jpg

02.jpg

And to think all it took was blue eyes and custom SOAP shoes. wink.png

ARE...ARE THOSE....PURPLE EYES???!!!

dreamstimeweb_angry374345_1.jpg

I JK I JK. It looks cool.

Edited by the hedgehogs boost
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Actually, I found myself going "WHAT THE HELL WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU?!" At the re-design of the Pac-Man characters. But now that I look at them, it looks a lot more lively and inviting to me. It reminds me of the Classic-Modern Sonic change. Where there are minor tweaks, but you can still identify the character very easily, and both designs have perks without many negatives (Well, for me.)

I just wonder if anyone would dare and try to take Pac-Man to the next level, give him a big platformer game on Next Gen console-...

Then again, if it didn't work for Sonic...

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