No literally, it was made in Unreal
Chris Pratt’s casting of the voice of Mario in Illumination’s upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie has been one of the most talked about events of the year in the gaming sphere. Most fans (like me) have been pretty skeptical that he’ll be able to pull off a fitting tribute to our favorite plumber, and every time a new trailer drops, we scrutinize and discuss, scrutinize and discuss. While I’m still excited for the movie as a whole, I’ll admit that seeing an amazing fan project has reignited my enthusiasm a bit. Enter a meticulously made realistic version of Super Mario Bros. with a realistic art style, featuring a lifelike character model of the one and only Chris Pratt.
The creator, known as Re-Imagined Games on YouTube, released a trailer for the project a few months ago, but it’s been gaining more traction online recently. It looks like a fully-playable, hyper-realistic version of some of the most iconic Mario levels — my personal favorite feature is the fully controllable camera to give players a new perspective on the side-scroller. I’m also really impressed at how good the model of Pratt looks, because trying to recreate famous faces 1:1 in games is usually a one-way ticket to Jankville, USA. The fact that a fan did this all on their own without the help of a huge team or budget makes it an even greater feat in my eyes. It’s amazing how far someone will take something simply because they love a game or franchise.
The fan behind this project isn’t stopping there, either — other videos show off Jack Black as Bowser and Charlie Day as Luigi, and there are also plans to include Anya Taylor Joy as Princess Peach and Keenan Michael-Key as Toad. In the description of the trailer, the creator also says that they had no prior experience with game development or Unreal, having learned it all along the way “in an effort to make this a legitimately great action game.” Hats off to you, Re-Imagined Games.
