"Mario with portals"

Drew threw out this suggestion in the Mario discussion on the last Bombcast. It just so happens I made a proof of concept rom hack for this very idea a while ago, replacing Bob-omb Battlefield with a small portal playground. I never ended up fleshing it out into a larger project, but I figured it might be of interest to some of you.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/698c7fwoz69jyac/portal64.zip?dl=0

I've only tested it on Mupen64, other emulators may require more configuration.

You know when they were talking about "new" game play elements of Mario I was thinking of not portals, but mirrors.

Now stay with me here, what if the game was like that A-Ha video "Take On Me". Meaning on one side of the mirror and game play you play as normal Mario; but in the mirror world you play as a like a 'Sketch World" Mario. (What you thought I as going to say a fully human Mario?...NO! That would be weird.) In the 3D sketch world there are special physics, not that you are 2D like paper-Mario but more like you are more fluid in size and shape because you are a sketch.

I just think a new art style that was like a pencil sketch and maybe even some elements borrowed from Epic Micky would be cool. Moreover, I think the juxtaposition of the more solid Mario colorful world with the more subtle and sober "Sketch World" could be interesting. Like I said, I really imagine the squiggly sketch "Take on Me" sort of rendering. Also, I don't see any of the color in the world of Epic Mickey at all, the Sketch World is just it own world with its own look.

Jeff was talking about wanting a fresh look and feel and I think THIS is one way to do that. It is also a way to do it without killing the old Mario look or feel totally.

It already exists. It's called Mari0.

http://stabyourself.net/mari0/