As we count down the day to Nintendo’s reveal of Chris Pratt’s voice acting talent in the upcoming Super Mario Bros movie, we got an early treat in the form of a slightly different, albeit impressive take on the actor as the titular plumber, and it gives us an absurdly hilarious glimpse at how he could look in a live-action adaptation of the beloved franchise.
In an age where video games from before the turn of the century are getting remade left, right, and center, it was simply common sense for the original Super Mario Bros. from 1983 be remade, right? And while we’re at it, for the character model of Mario, who better to draw inspiration from than the actor offering up his voice for the role in the upcoming movie? …Right?
Well as it turns out, that’s exactly what one fan, YouTuber Re-Imagined Games has come up with. They have painstakingly recreated the first four levels of the original classic in Unreal Engine, and in three dimensions. It looks genuinely good, with a sweeping vista in the background of World 1-1 and 1-3 and an appropriately dank and spooky dungeon for 1-2 and 1-4.
Particularly impressive is the three-dimensional platforming in world 1-3, which ditches the two-dimensional camera angle in favor of third-person view. This fan project made by seemingly one person is weirdly close to doing as much justice to the NES classic as an entire production team over at Square-Enix did for Final Fantasy VII.
The character model of Mario with Pratt’s likeness also, surprisingly, doesn’t dip into uncanny valley, with the Parks and Recreation regular turned Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy star turned plumber looking ready for action and moving about the world quite smoothly.
Needless to say, this is something we’d love to play for ourselves, provided we lived in a world in which Nintendo would ever play nice and not issue DMCA takedowns of fan projects at the drop of a hat as soon as they get released.
As far as Pratt’s future as our mustachioed hero is concerned, we’ll get our first glimpse of what that officially looks like on Oct 6. 2022 at New York Comic Con, with the film slated for release on April 7. 2022.
