Video Game Artwork

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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Shelcoof
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by Shelcoof »

GaijinPunch wrote:I should remove the water marks on these... It's been like 8 years since I scanned them. :)
I doubt the JSRF one is most people's cup of tea here but I've always loved the series, and this poster.

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I never noticed blood on the Final Fight art before
This is a first :shock:
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Jonny2x4
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by Jonny2x4 »

Shelcoof wrote:I never noticed blood on the Final Fight art before
Probably because you likely saw a version that had the blood on Cody's fist edited out. They did the same thing with the SF2WW flyer art.
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BIL
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Post by BIL »

I'm trying to recall (at work and can't look up ULTRA VIORENCE :oops:), is that Final Fight artwork cropped? If not, it's excellent use of Cody and Guy sans Haggar. Killer "giant slayer" aesthetic with a brutalised Andore at Cody's feet. Size don't count for much when you get your fuckin wig split by a lead pipe. :mrgreen: Very Cluedo! Always loved the feral pugilism of J's pose.

Y'ALL READY?

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Viewpoint, sprezzatura art deco style. The Neo produced some great flyers.
Last edited by BIL on Tue Oct 15, 2019 7:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jonny2x4
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by Jonny2x4 »

The X68000 version of Final Fight pretty much the same artwork they used for the JP arcade flyer for its packaging art. Haggar was always left out from the JP flyer unfortunately.
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On that note: I do like the proposed concept that they suggested for the Super Famicom version's packaging art.
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BIL
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Post by BIL »

Are those dog tags on Cody? Come to think of it I never looked up any official backstory on him. Would explain his mad knife skills, assuming he didn't pick them up on THA STREETZ

I never knew what to make of the final SFC cover, to be honest. I headcanoned it so Cody's taunting the Mad Gear with his huge fuckoff Crocodile Dundee knife, Rolento (EDIT: I mean El Gado!) is promising to show him who the REAL knife maniac is, and Andore's too dumb to get it so he's just waving back. :lol: Or maybe he knows Haggar from their WRASSLIN' days...

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Although I generally dislike SNES-style universal borders, I'm fond of the early Capcom SFC stuff's front text followed by "ON... [game name]" Makes their boxes feels like mini arcade flyers, haha.
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Jonny2x4
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by Jonny2x4 »

Cody wears some kind of gold necklace thing in some of the official art. I always thought it was an extra detail that they added for the new promo art made for the SFC version, but it seems that the character art they made for the arcade version also had him wearing a similar gold necklace.

Super Famicom art
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Arcade art
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BIL
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by BIL »

Aha, I'd totally forgotten about those artworks. Guess they were trying to jazz him up a bit... I always found it hilarious how blatantly Axel's Bare Knuckle II design copied Cody. At least BK1 put him in a vest! There's also Paul, I mean HAWK from Crest of Wolf who, again, at least had a fairly unique outfit in the arcade Riot City, only to go full blue jeans + white T for the PCE incarnation.

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"Blonde white guy in jeans, sneakers and a white T" isn't exactly world-shaking character design - motherfucker's practically one ascot away from Fred Jones - but ripping it off?!

For Cody's part, I think his SFZ return remains one of the canniest ever for a stock "one man army" character. Anyone who beat the living shit out of that many thugs, knifed god knows how many more, then kicked a cripple off a skyscraper probably would have some issues rattling about afterward. Even if it's just a bit of chronophobia. Image

MAD AS SHIT AND OUT 2 KILL
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What need for the shepherd when the wolves are all gone...?
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Dunno how accurate it was to the original Japanese, but I liked his antiheroic win quote "Just remember, this could happen to you again! And again!"

Fuck Final Fight Streetwise and its giving Cody arthritic knees, though. That's not a cool riff on KILL EM ALL vg heroism! That's just lame-ass IRL Bullshit™! Also its emulation of the arcade game choked fucking balls!
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cj iwakura
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by cj iwakura »

GaijinPunch wrote:Image
They used Mew, truly graffiti artists of culture.
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heli wrote:Why is milestone director in prison ?, are his game to difficult ?
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by GaijinPunch »

cj iwakura wrote: They used Mew, truly graffiti artists of culture.
Always hated that name, but I'm a default whore...
RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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GaijinPunch
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by GaijinPunch »

Again, will remove these watermarks soon...

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RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by BulletMagnet »

I picture the guy on the ladder briefing the pilot, "Okay, she can only ever face in one direction, but is equipped with an unlimited supply of weird energy waves; we have no idea what part of the plane they actually come from, just roll with it. Oh, and remember that enemy fire passes harmlessly through your wings and other extremities. While you're up there, keep an eye out for a huge floating medallion..."
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BIL
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by BIL »

Love the composition on this. Juxtaposition of super-cute player characters and godawful monsters is always cool, too! Image

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AMERICAAA Image

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GaijinPunch
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by GaijinPunch »

The names on the flip side are even better than the image...
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RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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GaijinPunch
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by GaijinPunch »

Behold... the first thing I've added to gamengai in over 6 years. I actually have some shit on the hard drive I should add...

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RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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BIL
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by BIL »

Good stuff, that VHS cover remains one of the more blistering renditions of STG action. Compared to the arcade flyer it's like a "here's how it really went down" depiction of Black Heart mkII's hellsweeps n' booster burns. Image
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GaijinPunch
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by GaijinPunch »

Scope: Check
Impact: Check
Animu Tits: Thankfully (at least most of the time) no check
RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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Stevens
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by Stevens »

GaijinPunch wrote:The names on the flip side are even better than the image...
That game destroyed hands.
My lord, I have come for you.
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BIL
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Post by BIL »

A vivid scene, but mostly posting on account of the flyer and its elegiac prose being in-lined with the AMAZIN Space High. What a plaintively fiery little tune!

NO WAY OUT!!
HYPER VIOLENCE SHOOTING!


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The planet was utterly destroyed
by the final war.
The war was so terrible,
The surviving inhabitants chose to erase
the horrible memory of their planet's
devastation from their minds.


I know them feels! Image
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FinalBaton
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by FinalBaton »

You gotta be kiddin' me

That's so badass : Hyper-violence shooting? devastated planet and inhabitants? doom-ladden future?

One of the best flyers Ive seen so far. caters perfectly to my tastes :lol:
-FM Synth & Black Metal-
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6t8k
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by 6t8k »

Vimana is awesome!

And features some bangin tunes to boot, as BIL mentioned (SPACE HIGH is my favorite as well):

MAX POWER UP ( STAGE 3 )
BACK TO THE EARTH ( ENDING )

Composed by Toshiaki Tomizawa (!)

Might complement that with the Truxton II flyer on this occasion :)

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BE A KING RATHER THAN AN EXPERT!! Image
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copy-paster
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by copy-paster »

That Vimana poster is so damn GAR! :lol:
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Jonny2x4
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by Jonny2x4 »

Double Dragon II: The Revenge's main illustration (which was apparently drawn by a manga artist named Kazumi Kakizaki) is probably the most iconic imagery related to the series, even though it doesn't accurately reflect the plot of the second arcade game that well when you think about it. The game is supposed to be about avenging Marian's death, yet there she is clinging onto one of the Lee brother. Makes me wonder if that was part of the reason they changed the plot and ending in the NES version, where they also even went through the trouble of having the demo scene's artwork match the cover art's style.
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Marian's buttocks was apparently too hot for Nintendo, so they lengthen her skirt up. Also, they change the color of her tank top, but still kept the colors of the Lee brothers swapped out.
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BIL
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by BIL »

Genuinely an excellent piece of artwork... incredible sense of violent action, not just the combat but also the chopper roaring in from behind, the Lees' and Marion's precarious footing, and the three armed enemies outnumbering the Lees, just like the AC game likes to do.

DD2 AC is legitimately one of the more tragic stories I've come across in gaming. There's no DBZ Bullshit™ here, Marion is dead at the hands of the evil bastard the Lees probably should've killed when they had the chance. It's my headcanon that they actually do kill Willy this time around, along with anyone dumb enough to get between them, caving skulls and stomping throats left and right, with the finale's doppelgangers mere manifestations of the futile violence. They even laugh when they're destroyed, if that's what happens... it's more like they slip away like a passing rage.

Not surprised they lightened it up for the FC game, it's a total downer. I dig the commitment, though. If one thing can be said for the series' aesthetic bedrock Hokuto no Ken, it's that death is absolute.

Kinda touching how DD Advance nopes out of the whole matter by pointedly noting the Lees and Marion GTFO out of town at the end. Image
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Jonny2x4
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by Jonny2x4 »

The same artist did the main illustration for the JP version of GB Double Dragon, but unfortunately they did not used it for the US boxart. I wish there was a clean version somewhere since both, the actual boxart and the flyer, have way too much text in the way.
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The way he draws Marian (who goes from being a blonde in II to a redhead here) with the red guy in both illustrations makes me wonder if the artist thought Billy was the red guy all this time. The arcade versions of Double Dragon I and II never actually mentioned the Lee brothers by name within the game and since the manual art for DD1FC identified Billy as the black haired-brother and Jimmy as the blond-haired one, it's easy to think that Billy might be the red guy and Jimmy is the blue guy.
BIL wrote:DD2 AC is legitimately one of the more tragic stories I've come across in gaming. There's no DBZ Bullshit here, Marion is dead at the hands of the guy the Lees probably should've killed when they had the chance. It's my headcanon that they actually do kill Willy this time around, beating his skull in, and the doppelgangers are just manifestations of futile violence. Things even laugh when they're destroyed, if that's even what happens... more like they slip away like a passing rage.
That was likely Kishimoto's intention, since I remember reading that he intended Double Dragon to be a one-off thing, so maybe killing off Marian was his idea of dissuading the idea of any further sequels (which didn't quite pan out). Either that, or he just wanted to set the second game apart somehow, since he was basically just making a better version of the first game. Incidentally, the FC/NES version had a completely different director (Hiroyuki Sekimoto, co-director of Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari/River City Ransom), so that may had been a factor as to why the plot for the NES version turned out to be so different.
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BIL
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by BIL »

I was wondering if he did the GB art as well! Instantly recalls that sense of violent melee. I like how he captures the personalities of the various enemies, too (Roper with his usual barrel, Linda and her whip, midboss Chin hanging back, conspicuously un-armed), as well as the treacherous spirit of Technos brawling (Williams coming in with the cheap shot). My ideal boxarts, particularly for earlier stuff with relatively limited graphical detail, are those that really illuminate the games' contents in a way their technological limitations prevented.

I'm quite fond of the GB game itself, too. Put some neat spins on the NES version's stage design, and added a few interesting mechanics like Chin's new roll attack. Also thought it was cool how (AFAIK) it's the only game where you can hear the "Mission Start" BGM in full, with it being the soundtrack to the last stage's cliff ascent.
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Jonny2x4
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by Jonny2x4 »

BIL wrote:I was wondering if he did the GB art as well! Instantly recalls that sense of violent melee.
I'm not 100%, but the style is way too similar. You can see the artist's signature behind the Game Boy logo (the lower left corner) on the version of the illustration used for the packaging. A similar signature with the same name (Kazumi Kakizaki, so it's possible it might be a female artist) is also on the flyer for DD3AC.
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I've actually downloaded raw scans of one of the artist's manga titled Paradise LADY, but unfortunately I had a hard drive crash and the blog where I downloaded it from no longer exists. She also did a Waterworld manga adaptation, now that I brought that movie up in the other thread.
I'm quite fond of the GB game itself, too. Put some neat spins on the NES version's stage design, and added a few interesting mechanics like Chin's new roll attack. Also thought it was cool how (AFAIK) it's the only game where you can hear the "Mission Start" BGM in full, with it being the soundtrack to the last stage's cliff ascent.
They play the "Mission Start" theme in full in the GBA and iOS versions if you linger during the conversation demos, but the GB version was definitely the first one to play in full (during actual gameplay too) at any rate. I think it's quite an underrated version that isn't brought up as often as the AC and NES versions. It definitely takes some cue from DD2FC too, like the disappearing bridge in Mission 3-2 and the sucking trap doors in Mission 4-2, and of course Abobo's grab and punch move that he copied from Burnov.

I didn't like DD2GB as much though, despite the fact that it was by the same director (Shinichi Saito). You can beat the entire game simply by approaching every enemy downward or upward and then spamming the crouching uppercut. But I do like how the plot is basically lifted from The Warriors. Makes me wonder if having the same subway areas recycled for the first two stages was deliberate homage to the movie (where they filmed all the subway scenes in the same place).
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BIL
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by BIL »

Totally forgot about Abobo's Burnov grapple! I remember his st1 boss incarnation giving me a surprisingly rough time, fought at point-blank like his FC version, until I figured out... something that shut him down. Came in handy during Mission 3's tunnel battle. If that even happened. It's been forever, haha.

I hope DD3 AC gets an Arcade Archives release. I know it's got a horrible rep on account of the Overseas version's microtransactions, but from what I understand the JP one wasn't like that. I hope its being outsourced to East Technology won't complicate matters any.

Just want to rock out to that soundtrack, mostly. Image (my favourite rendition of st1's street BGM to date... what a tune, emblematic of SADNESS & REVENGE)

Absolutely blazing R9 illustration by IREM/Nazca luminary Akio:

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Got that R-Type II/Geostorm/Undercover Cops dirty metal look! Straight off his personal site, also appeared in Shooting Gameside Vol.4.
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Jonny2x4
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by Jonny2x4 »

BIL wrote: I hope DD3 AC gets an Arcade Archives release. I know it's got a horrible rep on account of the Overseas version's microtransactions, but from what I understand the JP one wasn't like that. I hope its being outsourced to East Technology won't complicate matters any.
The JP revision of DD3AC is pretty peculiar. It was clearly made after the overseas version, so there are still remnants of its design like the fact that the item shops on the background still have their door animations when you start a level, but they're completely inaccessible. The actual weapons are just found on the ground in certain areas. The item shops were actually supposed to be featured in the JP version too, but they were removed (I'm guessing because they weren't well-received during loctest).

Being able to play as any of the four character types from the get-go (Lee, Urquidez, Oyama and Chin) is a definite plus over the overseas version, even if it's kinda absurd that each fighter in the game just happens to be a set of two or three identical brothers (especially Sonny, the third Lee brother, who never showed up in anything else until DD4 recently).

I seriously wonder how Hamster would handle an Arcade Archives release of both, DD3 and Combatribes, since neither game has a scoring system and all of the ACA releases tend to have a score attack mode. I know the JP version of DD3AC was included in some officially licensed plug 'n play that has a bunch of games from third-party developers
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BIL
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by BIL »

Jonny2x4 wrote:I seriously wonder how Hamster would handle an Arcade Archives release of both, DD3 and Combatribes, since neither game has a scoring system and all of the ACA releases tend to have a score attack mode. I know the JP version of DD3AC was included in some officially licensed plug 'n play that has a bunch of games from third-party developers
For better or worse, ACA tends to be pretty ad-hoc with its special features. I do wonder how they'd get around games with literally no scoring, but I'm pretty sure they'd happily just not bother. :mrgreen: Or maybe make extra-sure to include multiple region ROMs, something they'll frequently but not always do.

It'd be particularly interesting (morbidly interesting, I guess) to play arcade DD3's US version with unlimited "money" for in-game microtransactions. Actually, just thinking about it blows my mind. :shock: Yo they better not try some direct debit shit! Image Image :lol:

God, what a horrible concept that was.
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BIL
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Re: Video Game Artwork

Post by BIL »

Deserves its own post tbh. Pixel art literature. Image Take that, you unfeasibly sexy man!

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