27th April 2003, 2:47 PM
The sprites aren't as detailed though in those other games, or at least it doesn't matter as much. The reason for the cutting is so the RATIO is maintained. The resolution for the SNES video output and the GBA screen is not the same. However, when you slice off the top and a little bit of the side (you may have noticed that some of the side is also cut off, if not then take a look at the vertical corridors of Mario Bros. 2 and notice you have to scroll from side to side to see all the way to the left or right, whereas in the SNES/NES versions you didn't have to do that), the RATIO is perfectly maintained. Otherwise, you notice some weirdness like when you look at the direct ports of those Animal Crossing NES games to the GBA, how the image is slightly warped due to bad ratio.
GBA: 240x160 pixels
SNES: 512x448 pixels
In any case, I just played some DKC to compair. You should as well. It doesn't look NEARLY as good as I remember, and I know why. At the time, those were the most stunning sprites ever (pre-rendered and everything), but now after all the far superior stuff I've seen, I now see that DKC just doesn't look that good. When I compaired with this in mind, the port does look pretty much exactly like the original. There are two reasons they look worse. The first is the colors are too bright. The colors were darker and sharper in the original. The second is, as I said, the resolution kinda takes away a little of the sprite detail.
GBA: 240x160 pixels
SNES: 512x448 pixels
In any case, I just played some DKC to compair. You should as well. It doesn't look NEARLY as good as I remember, and I know why. At the time, those were the most stunning sprites ever (pre-rendered and everything), but now after all the far superior stuff I've seen, I now see that DKC just doesn't look that good. When I compaired with this in mind, the port does look pretty much exactly like the original. There are two reasons they look worse. The first is the colors are too bright. The colors were darker and sharper in the original. The second is, as I said, the resolution kinda takes away a little of the sprite detail.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)