Video Game Artwork

[GaijinPunch]

Think anyone's ever jerked it to that ass?

[BIL]

I was beating off to KOF '94 before I knew what beating off was I blame EGM and their publishing of the accursed BOOB CODE

Speaking of SNK in 1994,



Sam Sho II, one of those arcade productions that just radiates fire and passion. Charisma forever and a day.

[GaijinPunch]

Only BIL can get me to go digging through my hard drive and add new shit to gamengai.

80's Japanese game checklist:
-Cybernetic hyper-weapon
-So many kanji in catch phrase native speakers do a double take thinking it could be Chinese
-Title misspelled / makes no fucking sense

[Sumez]

My reaction when playing PC Engine

[Squire Grooktook]

80's Japanese game checklist:
-Cybernetic hyper-weapon
-So many kanji in catch phrase native speakers do a double take thinking it could be Chinese
-Title misspelled / makes no fucking sense

Honestly I chose my shmups name to stay true to that last one.

[SnotShot]

Always loved the artwork Capcom produced for 19XX:

[BIL]

^ very cool - I particularly like the old-timey American comic style of the last page. I wonder if they were deliberately evoking the 1930s/40s? Goes perfectly with the series' Neo WWII aesthetic.

Looking up SST Band's customarily shaweet bass-slapping OST, I was 99% sure someone had thumbnailed a Porky's poster to get clicks. But no, this is apparently Thunder Blade's arcade flyer. Tres cerebral.



Konami x Toaplan:
NO WAY OUT! HYPER VIOLENCE SHOOTING



Respectable alt. ver:

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Flyer back:

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Overseas ver: Nowhere as intense, but notable for an apparent Raiden prefiguring and that badass black dragon logo variant.

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Dayona USA Japanese arcade flyer. Utterly classic, much like the game itself. The tight, clean polys have aged flawlessly, and its use of primary colours is irresistible. Even the operator-geared spread is alluring.





Here's SNK's Genshitou aka Prehistoric Isle in 1930. Holy fuck this is rad.



Shameful confession time, this game's attract mode made me jump as a little kid, shit was loud. Now that I think about it, master of rotary shooting Obada-san mentioned he deliberately cranked Ikari's PCB loud as fuck to drown out the rest of the arcade. I wonder if this was the same deal.

Overseas ver loses the sha-weeet JP logo but gains a cool tagline. I think you mean THE ISLAND IS FULL OF MOTHERFUCKING DINOSAURS, old bean!

Flyer back:

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Some nice official artworks of Jenova LIFE and DEATH I'd not seen before, from Mobius Final Fantasy. I have a certain fondness for FFVII, mostly for Jenova being pretty much John Carpenter's The Thing in a fantasy setting. I'd not seen that classic film at my first playthrough BITD, and was infatuated with the now-familiar wordless virulence of the fiend. Makes planetfall, hungry hell creeps forth. I dig alien terrors inexplicable on a human level but horribly apparent on the primal.

"A malformed beast hailing from the distant stars."



LIFE is more robust than I'm used to seeing with its sleek carapace and musculature, but I think it goes great with the theme of a pestilent predator in full horrid bloom. I like the contrast of its Giger biomechanics with the creature's characteristic chaotic asymmetry. DEATH is magnificently malign with its sickly, bloated, overripe aspect and carpet of bleached bones stripped (and no doubt SUCCED) clean.



Concept art for the classic reveal, a pitifully ruined human form.

[Hornet]

Shadow Dancer MD - Japanese cover / artwork
The pure awesomeness that this GOAT game deserved (unlike the crappy western cover).


Phalanx - X68000 cover / manual artwork
With respect to "Banjo guy", this is what the SNES cover should have looked like. So damn classy and beautiful.

Dayona USA Japanese arcade flyer. Utterly classic, much like the game itself. The tight, clean polys have aged flawlessly, and its use of primary colours is irresistible. Even the operator-geared spread is alluring.

YES.

I absolutely LOVE the "low-poly" and "boxy" look of Hornet in the original Daytona. This may be nostalgia talking, but it's just so unique and charming IMO. The Dreamcast version of Hornet is too glossy and bulky and the 2017 model is just wrong.

[BIL]

Phalanx - X68000 cover / manual artwork
With respect to "Banjo guy", this is what the SNES cover should have looked like. So damn classy and beautiful.

"Real Hangar" STG artwork rocks Silpheed's PC-88 cover is another stately beaut.



I almost wonder if they were going for crossover appeal with the flight/space sim crowd

[cj iwakura]

Shadow Dancer is still the best Shinobi game.

I love how all the US arcade flyers are full of profit puns, lol.
YOU'LL BE RACKING UP HIGH SCORE PROFITS!

[SnotShot]

The concept artwork for the Legend of Zelda series back in the NES and SNES days is superb and has that storybook/fairy tale quality to it, this is the stuff you'd find in strategy guides and game manuals of the time, this artwork was done by Katsuya Terada:

[Bassa-Bassa]

Always thought those were made specifically for a US mag (and therefore, not really "official").

[cj iwakura]

That drawing of Agahnim is incredible.

[SnotShot]

A couple more:

[BIL]

Such a charming reification of the classic scoot/shoot setup - particularly love the cogs!

[GaijinPunch]

I always imaged they got the title from this when some dev asked his US counterpart the name of the biggest dick head he went to high school with.

[Eaglet]

I can't believe no-one posted this amazing, epitome of the cool 90's, artwork before.
Excellent game as well.

[FinalBaton]

Yes! Yes! Yes! finally I get support in my Shadow Dancer MD crusade.



So damn cool to see all the Zelda illsutrations together, I've seen most of them here and there. Incredible.

[BIL]

Cross-post inspired by ING's excellent movie pick



THIS BATTLE WILL MAKE YOUR BLOOD BOIL MOTHERFUCKER

[BIL]

What a beauty Great game, too!



From the other side of the decade, an archetypal space shooting game with nothing to prove. Looking tantalisingly like a Famicom port's box, come to think of it. Nearest to that is probably Hot B's Over Horizon.

[BIL]

Badass Virtua Fighter artwork by Katsuya Terada. <3

[Marc]

BiL, what's the one above Thunder Cross II with all the blocky people?

[BIL]

SNK's Sasuke VS Commander, a very early Space Invaders-style scoot/shoot. Cool game! I wonder if it's the first "character STG," as opposed to aircraft/tanks.

[Mortificator]

Badass Virtua Fighter artwork by Katsuya Terada. <3

Hot damn, they have so much personality in Terada's art! Working more of that into the game's presentation would allay the common complaint that the Virtua crew is boring.

[BIL]

Indeed! His renditions easily stand up to Capcom, SNK and Namco's contemporary works - and without losing VF's signature quasi-groundedness, either. Couldn't have hurt to give his artwork pride of place on the Saturn covers - actually, typing this, I recall that this is precisely what VF Remix did in Japan (along with all regions using his art for its Player Select screen). A VF2 ensemble piece:



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Forgot I'd followed よしはらもとき@Yoshihara_Game - the chap who does the incredibly striking artwork for Game Newton's (amazing) FTG tournaments. This mahfucka can draw Ultra-tight and clean with 110% insight and passion.



^ last thing they see before heads hit the floor.



^ same!

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[Rastan78]

Digging this Gain Ground piece.

[BIL]

Very cool, way grittier than the GG art I'm used to seeing. I wonder if that's by the same artist as Phantasy Star II's Japanese cover? Both dudes like their leggy broads in PVC hotpants, at any rate. Mah bois FLAME KNIGHT, MUD PUPPY and THE PROFESSOR lookin' sharp, with good ol' ROBOCOP cosplayer front and center.

On the GG tangent, is it just me or does the poster girl (Betty, IIRC... brunette w/ red bandanna, pistol and "potato masher" grenade) also appear in Sega's Last Survivor? I could swear there's some cameo or even direct tie-in there. LS also has a similar timeline mashup thing going on - WW2 commandos vs armoured knights and futuristic cyborgs, etc. Not easy to find scans, it seems; this is the FM Towns boxart:



Like a lot of people, I didn't hear about LS in its day. Title leapt out at me though, it's also the name of Shun's BGM in VF4. Ah, Sega arcade lore.

[Sengoku Strider]

The little-known predecessor to Mahou Daisakusen, Gorby no Pipeline Daiskusen, let players experience Gorbachev's fun adventures in glasnost-era Russia first-hand. Just like they were really there!

[dojo_b]

Yess, serious verve from that Gain Ground. Good example of how "rough" painterly technique, muddle, and imperfect draftsmanship can enhance a work's impact.

In the videogame world, the prime example coming to mind is Yoshitaka Amano and his Front Mission artwork (seediness, genuine danger, eroticism; echoes of Klimt and Schiele in some of his work; underworld heroin chic à la Peter Greene). Seems harder to find professional examples in gaming these days, fortunately there's shit-tons of expressive amateur art online for anyone who cares to seek.

[BIL]

TAKE OUT YOUR ROD



Daww. :3 Druaga and Ishtar have such cute flyer arts. Not sure where this was from exactly (estimable Dempa's name in the bottom-right makes me think it was a home release), but it's totally 1:1 to the AC materials. (via ShaneWatch, always was a good lad )