New Super Mario Bros. Bros. Rip

[Dazz]

Quoted from Ragey's site:

Some people don't realise it, but 3D and 2D graphics are entirely different things! 2D graphics are what's been talked about for the whole thing and unless they're layered sprites, are stored so every frame of animation is viewable (layered sprites have them in pieces). 3D graphics just have the model itself saved and the animation data stored in such a way that it's probably kind of impossible to see unless you did a hell of a lot of reverse engineering. Or something. Don't quote me on that one!

In simpler terms, here's New Super Mario Bros.

Here we have Mario and a Goomba. Both appear 3D, but one is actually 2D. Confused?

Zooming in by a disgusting amount, we see that the Goomba is dithered, leaving grey spots on his edges and heavily blurred eyes, while Mario is relatively sharp with his blue eyes shining bright. That's because Mario is a 3D model, while the Goomba is just a sprite. It's all in prerendered graphics: A 3D model, positioned in frames and made into sprites either to save space (NSMB), to get past system limitations (Donkey Kong Country) or just to pretend to look cool even though it makes the art style look contrasting and ugly (Mario vs. Donkey Kong).

Mario, on the other hand, is 3D. He's stored in the DS 3D graphics file style, he isn't ugly and pixelated when enlarged (in-game, of course), and can essentially have unlimited animation. You could rip his graphics or any of the other 3D characters, but you could potentially do it forever, as there are all kinds of things to take in like angle, lighting and just about everything. Quite simply, sprite ripping should be kept to what are sprites, and 3D stuff should just be ripped by their models. It's only common sense!