DKC Atlas Forum

[Valerius Dover]

So, I haven't been here in a while, but I decided I might as well announce this project I have in the works. Not sure if this is the right section, since it does technically involve DK, but the majority is other stuff so I figured it could go here. I was going to announce this the other day, but Iwata's passing made me change my mind. However, I guess I could dedicate most of this to him, even though I've had this in my mind for a lot longer.

This concept is an animated sprite series adaptation of a few key gaming franchises, such as Mario, Sonic, and Kirby, the three main ones I'm starting out with. The adaptation is primarily story-based, containing changes ranging from minor to major, depending on the arc. The series will have a greater emphasis placed on story rather than action, though the latter will still certainly be present. Just saying it will usually not be handled like in other sprite series. I'd rather not have this compared to other series, either, since my aim and goal are very different here.

The episodes themselves are planned to be 24 minutes long each and have full voice acting. There will also be a fully remastered soundtrack, with all tracks debuting in their appropriate arcs. I chose the name Retold (Super Mario Retold, Sonic Retold, Kirby Retold etc) because it's quick, tells you exactly what it is, and can be used for everything, allowing for the recognizable name to be used for all series.

There's even a big crossover arc which I refer to as the Galaxy Adventure. This is the arc that everything builds up to, and it shouldn't be hard to guess what that adapts from. It's not a finale though, just the arc that will tie up the majority of character arcs and loose ends.

Ambitious, I know. Now, I know what you're thinking. "How can he possibly handle this if he gave up on those walkthroughs he was going to do?" I was going through some tough times back then, and I also realized that wasn't really what I wanted to do. Now, I've found something that I'm really passionate about and want to do.

That being said, it's certainly not a one-man project. My goal is to gather up a team of fans who would really like to do this, too!

So, I'll be taking questions, encouragement, and points in the right direction regarding other good places to announce this. I'd rather not have discouragement here.

[JadeRose]

Intriguing!

Do you have an outline of some sort ready?

If you're dedicated, you'll do fine. Try not to over extend yourself too much, getting in over your head. Also, keep in mind you owe nothing to anybody -- have fun with it if you do get this going. Then, you can allow yourself to take your time and let the creativity flow.

I'm personally not familiar with your previous efforts or anything, but I COMPLETELY empathize with enduring tough times (and those trials interfering with personal/ambitious projects. T_T) Therefore, on a personal note, I do hope your life is going better.

Good luck, friend.

[Valerius Dover]

Thanks! It was nothing too worry about too much in hindsight. I'd say everything's fine now. It was just family issues, but I have long since found coping methods.

The plot outlines up until the end of the Galaxy Arc are in their final stages at the moment. Not a script with dialog or anything, just the plot outline. I'm still at a point where I can take some last minute ideas, however. I'm definitely doing this because I want to, but I'm definitely going to need help with something this big. I'm still looking for places where I could find find other fans to team up with. It'll have to be a whole bunch if this is going to come out a decent pace.

I'm keeping characters with established personalities as in character as possible, while taking creative liberties with those who literally don't have any of it (like most boss characters). I want it to be likable, but I'm already aware that it'll have haters. Bring it on. Everything does. Especially anything Sonic related.

The idea for the arc layout is to go in chronological order and adapt the existing storylines, while changing things for narrative purposes, as well as consistency. Here is some extra miscellaneous info in a spoiler tag, though that's mostly for space purposes. The stories are known, but there plenty of twists added. Now, prepare for the wall of text if you dare.

Spoiler!

All of Them
-24 and a half minute episodes, including anime style opening and ending sequences. They won't always have vocal songs, though, especially in the Mario series which has somewhat of a shortage of them.
-Full voice acting. Aiming for it to be as good as possible by fans.
-Will have remastered soundtracks. This means the tracks will be redone with different or similar instruments, but remain faithful to the originals. Not like OCRemixes. Every track from the games adapted will be remastered and used. This includes different variations of tracks. Such as the NES and SNES versions of the SMB Overworld theme. They would both have their own separate reversionings.
-The music is franchise and arc appropriate. You won't hear Mario tracks in Kirby Retold or Kirby tracks in Sonic Retold. You also won't hear Paper Mario tracks before the Star Rod Arc. You will hear them again afterwards, however. Tracks will be reused more than in the games, generally.
-Regardless of the above, vocal songs will be left as is.
-Regarding the term "elements" as used below, it means I use characters, locations, and remastered music from those sources.
-There will be NO fan characters....sort of. Certain characters who are talked about but never seen will be given original designs and even names in some cases.
-There will be no fan pairings, only ones with canon basis behind them.

Super Mario Retold
-Will have influence from non-story spin-offs such as Mario Kart.
-Will use influence from the Japanese movie and OVA.
-Will NOT use any influence from the DIC Cartoons or the live action movie.
-Will NOT have the recent announcement of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam affect the placement of the Paper Mario games in the same continuity as the rest. The story was simply way too far along and tightly woven for me to write those into a separate continuity. The Paper Jam storyline itself, when we get there, will most likely be heavily rewritten. Either way, it's Post-Galaxy, and I haven't planned that far yet.
-Mario will talk.
-Peach Toadstool is the Mushroom Kingdom Princess's full name, but she will almost always go by Peach.
-King Bowser Koopa. Koopa is the clan name, and Bowser is his name that he goes by.
-The Goomba King, King Boo, King Bob-omb, Wart, and their troops are allied with Bowser, but don't work for him. Only the Koopas and Hammer Bros. directly serve Bowser.
-The Koopalings are not Bowser's children. This fixes Bowser's age inconsistency.
-Toads ARE gendered. Hey, I don't have to listen to every word of god out there. It's an adaptation, and changes are liable to happen.

Sonic Retold
-Will use elements from the OVA and anime.
-Will not use any elements whatsoever the DIC Cartoons or the Archie Comics. This decision will turn away a fair amount of the fans who grew up with those, but it's for consistency purposes, as well as them not being actual Sega productions. I'm leaning more towards the Japanese side of things in general, storyline-wise.
-Related to the above, Sonic lives on Earth, not Mobius, not Freedom, and not some random unnamed parallel Earth.
-Sonic Boom will have a separate adaptation, Sonic Boom Retold, and be treated as a separate continuity.
-The name Dr. Ivo Robotnik will be used for Sonic's archenemy, but only for the classic era. It's his real name, but some name calling leads to him taking on the Eggman name.
-Metal Sonic will speak when he feels like it. He will also occasionally use his full name from the OVA, Hyper Metal Sonic, as well as the nickname Metal.
-The Classic to Modern design shift is explained by a 4 year time gap.
-The storyline for Sonic 06 will be kept, but with changes to fix the glaring continuity errors. It will also not be erased.

Kirby Retold
-Will use elements from the anime.
-Will NOT have Kirby talk aside from his usual POYOs and attack phrases.

Galaxy Crossover
-Based on Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, the Subspace Emissary, the 3rd Season of Sonic X, and the the finale of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
-Follows Super Paper Mario, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, and Kirby: Squeak Squad.

Sorry about that wall of text. That's why it was spoiler tagged.
I think I covered most of the info I could at this point. Any further questions are welcome, of course. Also, any advice on which places to take this concept would be greatly appreciated! I think I'll do Deviantart as well.

[JadeRose]

(For the record, I've never seen a reason to apologize for a wall of text in a forum. People too busy to read it can just scroll down to the next post or whatever. So, no worries. ;D)

You have put a lot of thought into these reimaginings, and I must say I'm quite impressed.

If I may, I have some questions/comments.

Spoiler!

All of Them

-24 and a half minute episodes, including anime style opening and ending sequences. They won't always have vocal songs, though, especially in the Mario series which has somewhat of a shortage of them.

Once you finish the script for the first one, you should totally go on Newgrounds and enlist some help with the animation process. Also keep in mind that you can totally be flexible with the episode lengths. (Of course, I don't doubt you had considered that.)

-Will have remastered soundtracks. This means the tracks will be redone with different or similar instruments, but remain faithful to the originals. Not like OCRemixes. Every track from the games adapted will be remastered and used. This includes different variations of tracks. Such as the NES and SNES versions of the SMB Overworld theme. They would both have their own separate reversionings.

I definitely understand the intent, here. Do you plan on scouting for faithful fan renditions? There are plenty on youtube that are absolutely a treat to listen to. I could link you to some if you want.

-The music is franchise and arc appropriate. You won't hear Mario tracks in Kirby Retold or Kirby tracks in Sonic Retold. You also won't hear Paper Mario tracks before the Star Rod Arc. You will hear them again afterwards, however. Tracks will be reused more than in the games, generally.

-There will be no fan pairings, only ones with canon basis behind them.

These are things I can, indeed, appreciate.

Super Mario Retold

-Will have influence from non-story spin-offs such as Mario Kart.
-Will use influence from the Japanese movie and OVA.

Very interesting. The Japanese movie and OVA's aren't something that get cited very often, so it'll be fascinating to see how elements from both of those will be integrated.

-Will NOT have the recent announcement of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam affect the placement of the Paper Mario games in the same continuity as the rest. The story was simply way too far along and tightly woven for me to write those into a separate continuity. The Paper Jam storyline itself, when we get there, will most likely be heavily rewritten. Either way, it's Post-Galaxy, and I haven't planned that far yet.

...The whole concept of Paper Jam bothers me, so I am fine with this. These retellings are your fan adaptation -- an alternate universe essentially. As long as everyone's personality stays in tact (something you're obviously striving for), you can take as many creative liberties with the setting as you want. It helps that this is Mario we're talking about: There's a lot of room for imagination since continuity isn't really the focus of the series itself (save for a handful of titles).

-The Koopalings are not Bowser's children. This fixes Bowser's age inconsistency.

I see you're borrowing heavily from the Japanese continuity in this interpretation. That could strike a chord with fans of the American media, but I am, personally, okay with this. People can just deal with it. You're taking this in a different direction than most in the fandom would, and that'll be fun to see.

-Toads ARE gendered. Hey, I don't have to listen to every word of god out there. It's an adaptation, and changes are liable to happen.

Ha ha ha! Hey, why not. I don't think you'd need to feel obligated to spending an entire episode on Toads contemplating/explaining to other races what gender they are when that's never been the focus of any of the games anyway. (By the way, are you perchance a troper?)

Sonic Retold
-Will use elements from the OVA and anime.
-Will not use any elements whatsoever the DIC Cartoons or the Archie Comics. This decision will turn away a fair amount of the fans who grew up with those, but it's for consistency purposes, as well as them not being actual Sega productions. I'm leaning more towards the Japanese side of things in general, storyline-wise.
-Related to the above, Sonic lives on Earth, not Mobius, not Freedom, and not some random unnamed parallel Earth.
-Sonic Boom will have a separate adaptation, Sonic Boom Retold, and be treated as a separate continuity.
-The name Dr. Ivo Robotnik will be used for Sonic's archenemy, but only for the classic era. It's his real name, but some name calling leads to him taking on the Eggman name.
-Metal Sonic will speak when he feels like it. He will also occasionally use his full name from the OVA, Hyper Metal Sonic, as well as the nickname Metal.
-The Classic to Modern design shift is explained by a 4 year time gap.
-The storyline for Sonic 06 will be kept, but with changes to fix the glaring continuity errors. It will also not be erased.

Ah, so I was correct about you consciously keeping to the Japanese continuities.
As an avid Sonic fan, I'm fine with the direction your taking this. As much as I love the western cartoons and comics, the OVA doesn't get nearly enough representation. And the 4 year gap is something I can get behind, as that's always been a personal interpretation of mine anyway. Interesting on your take on Sonic 06. If you can rewrite it into something that makes sense, than you'll be a hero.

And, the Kirby side of things seems fine.

That's pretty much all I have to say.

If you need a voice actress, I'd be more than happy to audition once you get a script done.

One question: Will we see anything Donkey Kong related? (If that's not your main focus right now, please don't feel pressured to go that direction. I'm just curious,
Anyway, good luck, and have a great day!

[BlueTronic]

I'll lend my voice to this project. I'm a film major

[Valerius Dover]

Thanks! Always glad to hear somebody actually likes these ideas!

Here are my responses to some of these answers.

Spoiler!

-I am keeping a uniform anime-like format. The episodes will always be 24 minutes long, even if it means ending in cliffhangars. There will be a lot of those.
-I don't plan on using existing remixes. All of them will be made specifically and only for the series. Something akin to the stuff that King Meteor Studios has done is what I'm doing for.
-Regarding pairings, yes, there will be some of that romantic stuff in there too, but it will mostly be ship tease. It's pretty much the obvious ones one would expect.
-I was originally going to have the Koopalings be his adopted children and then later find out that they were adopted (which would've explained their disappearance for a while). I decided to change it because Bowser is much younger than he appears, being closer to Mario's age, and Ludwig doesn't appear to be any more than 10 years younger....
-Nah, not a troper. I've considered doing it, though, since there are a lot of mistakes that need cleaning up on that site.
-Yes, I do plan on doing a Donkey Kong Country Retold, as well as a few other things. These are just the main three. There definitely will be.
-Yeah, it's true I want to primarily go in a Japanese direction, though I am still using English character names where they apply. And Birdo and Vivian are still female, too.

So, yeah. Glad both Jade Rose and BlueTronic are interested in this! Voices are probably furthest down the line, though, as they are the last thing that needs to be done. So, that'll be a while. How long? Depends on how long it takes for me to gather up a team.

[NES Boy]

Do you accept storyline ideas? If so, here's mine:

The storyline I have in mind is based on Super Mario Maker, with a plot similar to Metal Gear Solid 2's Snake Tales episode, "External Gazer". Some of the plot points are the same (a VR training simulator figures into the storyline, strange beings from a parallel universe show up, the VR scenarios are actually real locations from the alternate universes, the death of a singularity causes the universes to be stuck in convergence, the main villian wants to avenge his alternate selves, etc.), but of course there will have to be changes in order to keep it from being too derivative. Some notes:

• E. Gadd would be the creator of the VR system, and have a bit of a preference for scenarios involving Boos and Ghost Houses.
• The main focus of the VR system is to simulate time periods (Super Mario Maker has game styles based on four Mario games).
• Mary O. (from the digital manual included in the game) would be an assistant for E. Gadd specifically for the VR system.
• In External Gazer, the villain was a Solidus Snake from a parallel universe who wants to undo the deaths of his alternate selves. In the "Retold" take on Super Mario Maker, the villain would be the prime universe Bowser, who teams up with his alternate selves as they attempt to erase their defeats by Mario.

That's my idea. Again, there will have to be refinements in order to keep it from ripping off External Gazer too much. As Albert Einstein wrote, "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

As for the established plans for your series, since the Galaxy Crossover adapts the Subspace Emissary, I wonder what roles the characters from the lesser Retold series (such as DK Retold) would play in the overall crossover.

[Valerius Dover]

Oh, I thought everybody had forgotten about this! I've kept quiet about my work since my initial announcements.

As far as Super Mario Maker goes, which came out after my initial soft announcements on here, I don't have any intention of doing a separate adaptation of it do the lack of plot. Elements from it, such as the music (remastered of course, in the way explained in the above posts) would be included in the respective SMB, SMB3, SMW, and the much later NSMBU arcs to add variety.

That being said, I do like the idea of delving deeper into time travel and parallel universes. I haven't planned anything post Galaxy, so any of that is pretty much fair game. I foresee that Galaxy won't be the only one with big changes done to it, so I could definitely see something like this coming in at some point.

I'm still in the process of writing at the moment, so I haven't gotten much further with this yet. I'm also working on the music database that lists every BGM track. I'm sort of stuck as to where I should go for help with something like this. Deviantart, perhaps, but I have very little presence there.