With all the madness of switching hosts and transferring the brand new forums over, we can finally get back into working action, and what better to start us off by seeing this new crossover in one of our favourite games?

Last week, Nintendo’s most recent collaboration with Aardman, the creative lot behind ‘Wallace and Gromit’, and ‘Shaun the Sheep’, came into fruition. Grab the Mystery Mushroom in the new ‘Shaun’s Mossy Mole Mischief’ Event Course, and you’ll be clad in a fleecy wool just like Shaun the Sheep.

What’s this? You don’t know ‘what’ Shaun the Sheep is? Shaun the Sheep is a BAFTA winning children’s television programme which has also spawned a feature length movie. The show follows the life of Shaun, a mischievous sheep from Mossy Bottom Farm, where every day is full of excitement and chaos, all behind the back of Mossy Bottom’s farmer!

Check out the press release after the break!

IS THAT ‘EWE’ MARIO?

haun the Sheep Mario Maker

NINTENDO PARTNERS WITH AARDMAN TO INTRODUCE A FLEECY NEW SHAUN THE SHEEP COSTUME – AVAILABLE TO PLAY IN SUPER MARIO MAKER FROM 3RD JUNE

2nd June 2016 – Nintendo today announces a new partnership with Oscar-winning studio Aardman and welcomes Shaun the Sheep into its award-winning game, Super Mario Maker for Wii U.

The action takes place in a brand new Event Course called Shaun’s Mossy Mole Mischief, inspired by Shaun’s home, Mossy Bottom Farm, where Mario encounters mischievous Monty Moles, crazy contraptions and silly secrets. Once completed, the player unlocks a Shaun the Sheep costume that allows Mario to take on Shaun’s appearance!

From head to hoof, the costume completely transforms our hero and gives him the woolly look of Shaun the Sheep. He’s not guilty of pulling the wool over players’ eyes however, and with a special pose hints at his true identity by remaining dressed in his iconic blue dungarees, red cap, brown shoes and white gloves.

Responsible for creating some of the world’s best-loved and most recognisable characters, Aardman worked closely with Nintendo to carefully bring Shaun’s Mossy Bottom Farm into the Mushroom Kingdom, and the final result presents players with un-bleat-able fun and frolics.

Never before has an Aardman character appeared in a Super Mario game, but the brand’s most recent release Super Mario Maker – available exclusively on Wii U – breaks the traditional rules of gameplay, making it the perfect title to introduce something new and unexpected to delight fans.

Daniel Efergan, Digital Group Creative Director at Aardman said: “Having grown up in a generation of technology that, due to its nature of exposing its inner workings, allowed you to build and adjust your own games – it’s what inspired me and many here in Aardman’s interactive team to do what we do. Super Mario Maker harks back to that age, inspiring a new generation of happy creators. To have one of our icons hanging out with one of our idols, and for such an exceptional project, is a dream come true.

Shaun the Sheep Triva- Did Ewe Know

  • Shaun is 11 years old in sheep years!
  • Shaun lives on Mossy Bottom
  • Shaun first appeared in Wallace & Gromit short film, A Close Shave, 20 years ago.
  • Shaun got his name after an accident with Wallace’s invention ‘knit-o-matic’ left him ‘shorn’
  • Shaun was voted the nation’s best loved BBC children’s TV character of all time in a poll by the Radio Times
  • 130 x 7minute episodes of Shaun the Sheep have been made for TV
  • It takes a week and a half to make a Shaun puppet from scratch.
  • A Shaun puppet stands 17cm tall and weighs 100g
  • Shaun the Sheep episodes are on TV in over 170 countries
  • Shaun has even starred in his very own Movie which launched around the world in 2015
  • Shaun the Sheep has won 2 Baftas
  • Shaun the Sheep has over 6 million Facebook fans
  • The total number of puppets used on the Shaun the Sheep Movie was 354 (157 humans and 197 animals – of which 116 were sheep!)
  • The puppets need constant maintenance. It takes 45 minutes to re-fleece one sheep.
  • The sheep’s fleece has to be stiffened with a spray of diluted PVA glue, to stop it ‘boiling’ under the studio lights and moving around when the animator touches it
  • The costume for Shaun was made using real material to be as faithful to Mario as possible while remaining in Shaun’s world.
  • It took 3 days to make the costume including the Mario hat!
  • One of the subtle changes we made to the costume was to lose a couple of fingers on the gloves! Although Mario has 4 fingers and a thumb, Shaun only has 2 fingers and a thumb so we made him Mario style gloves with the correct amount of Shaun fingers!
  • We also didn’t include a red t-shirt as we wanted Shaun’s lovely woolly coat to come through.
  • The hat has a ‘S’ instead of an ‘M’.
  • The stills took a day to shoot all poses in the studio and then 2 days to clean up in post production.
Leon Fletcher

I am a huge Nintendo fan, hence why NintyBuzz exists. I especially love all things Zelda and Metroid. NintyBuzz was started by me back in the Summer of 2014, it started out mainly as a hobby, though the site has gradually grown, and I hope it grows for many years to come!