Video Game Artwork

[BIL]

Oh gosh



Its legit baby!

[options]

funny how the 'pow' mark emphasizes the least dynamic word of the title.

(as an aside, I completely forgot King made her debut in that game. ...I'm assuming that's supposed to be King.)

[cicada88]

never knew David Bowie was in AOF. RIP

[Hagane]

Its legit baby!

Oh, for a moment I thought Capcom would be remaking Art of Fighting on Street Fighter V's engine.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Just sold Battalion Wars 2 with only one regret - I'm gonna miss that boxart.

[BIL]

Was just browsing Colored Points Of Light, a relatively small but very nice selection of animated gifs from a variety of games and platforms.

R-Type III's Bydo Mother is a cooler design than I'd given it credit for. I was unconsciously interpreting it as having eyes and a grinning "mouth," but looking at it properly it's quite the Faceless Horror.



A fucked-up battleship "X-MULTIPLY ST2" is approaching fast:

Spoiler

How I felt when I finished my MD collection, via the medium of GB Contra:



Also Bare Knuckle II



Genocide 2 opening

Spoiler

Really cool Harmony of Dissonance dimensional comparisons here. I dislike much about HOD, but when it's good it's good!

[Obiwanshinobi]

I don't have them screenshots handy, but was thinking the other day how monochromatic Game Boy R-Type reminds me of Alien 3 for GB - even that gen handheld games rarely display such excellent micro pixel art (mostly due to the tyranny of demand for biggest possible sprites).
It's hard to overestimate the seriousness of that condition - I for one never minded puny sprites terribly, but my (severely short-sighted) cousin remembers aesthetic contrast between lavish artwork accompanying games and the actual games bearing fuck all resemblance to the former as the most disappointing thing about gaming in general.

[Squire Grooktook]

As a kid I always interpreted Bydo Mother's multi-armed nature as being a kind of twisted take on a hindu-esque god.

The venus fly trap head is also awesome.

[BIL]

a kind of twisted take on a hindu-esque god.

Very cool, I can definitely see that!

I love the scabrousness of it. Gradius, Contra etc have endbosses that look like giant brains or hearts, "evil" in story context but really quite benign-looking. This thing truly looks like a malignant growth that's hijacked its host - as if, even amongst themselves, the Bydo persist by brutally appropriating whatever tissue is within reach. If you rotate it 90' clockwise, I notice the "chest" resembles a grimacing skull, making the "head" look even more like some ghastly mutation.

So rad. Even this dude looks more salubrious:

Spoiler

(anyone else think the artist was implying a bit of muff-diving on the lower-left there? >__> This part's DEFINITELY a wiener, trust me I'm a doctor ;3 ;3 ;3

Spoiler

[Squire Grooktook]

^^^Indeed. Gotta love how uncomfortable that uppermost arm on BM looks. The sprite work on the arms in particular is fantastic. They really have a great "recently birthed/formed" mucous-y look to them.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

[BIL]

Recently picked this up - surprisingly smooth and involving Pole Position clone from the FC's second year. I love Nintendo's nascent "off-brand" attempts, ala Balloon Fight vs Joust. Box is a treat too, one of those unfettered early works that could just as easily herald a jigsaw puzzle or playing cards as a TV game. Classic shameless trademark stealing in effect, haha.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Why does it remind me of this?

If you can think of anything else following the pattern, please share.

[null1024]

Recently picked this up - surprisingly smooth and involving Pole Position clone from the FC's second year. I love Nintendo's nascent "off-brand" attempts, ala Balloon Fight vs Joust. Box is a treat too, one of those unfettered early works that could just as easily herald a jigsaw puzzle or playing cards as a TV game. Classic shameless trademark stealing in effect, haha.

Having played the shit out of this game on a pirate Famiclone years ago, I only recently found out that it was never actually released on the NES in the west. Feels kind of weird.

edit: same with Sky Destroyer, which I noticed a page back
Used to play the crap out of it.
and today, I found out why the plane shot slower when the sky changed color --you need to deal with the red airplanes, and I never made the correlation

[BIL]

Haha, I know! It feels every bit the archetypal black box NES game, down to the spartan "chunky logo on black bg" title screen with EASY/NORMAL/HARD selector. I love Nintendo's early, arcadier FC years. A bit like Sega's pre-Sonic MD output.

[Obiwanshinobi]

[copy-paster]

Not really an artwork, but this ad got me

Spoiler

[BrianC]

Box is a treat too, one of those unfettered early works that could just as easily herald a jigsaw puzzle or playing cards as a TV game.

Or a game & watch game.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I wonder if the (supposed) "Marlboro" inscription can be deciphered/proven to be on there (doubt it).

This Kick Man cab's side!

[BIL]

I wonder if the (supposed) "Marlboro" inscription can be deciphered/proven to be on there (doubt it).

It's definitely legible on the front of the car, curving over the "7." Click the second image for the full resolution - even on my current horrendously blurry stopgap screen I can see it. Check out the partially obscured logo on the back spoiler, too!

[Obiwanshinobi]

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Ladies love Bomberman.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Irem's Vigilante arcade flyer, or do owe it to Data East?



Even if the silhouettes' projection is not 100% academically correct here (not George Kamitani-bad; only just a little flattened, or maybe the projection IS correct but the models were posed awkwardly?), the whole picture is so striking I won't be surprised if it's already been posted here.

[BIL]

I've always liked the PCE cover - it's a simple composition that fits a jewel case nicely, and moreover it's just brutally suggestive. Kinda giallo-esque.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Looks like a vinyl LP sleeve!

[BIL]

Haha, I was just thinking looking at it that yeah, I'd be totally down with an LP-sized version!

[Stevens]

Vigilante is my favorite Kung Fu knock off, in some ways I prefer it.

Love knocking the first boss down and then punching the shit out of him. Bonus points since his head actually gets knocked around.

[BIL]

"Hey cmon! Bahaha - uuugh!"

It's actually Kung Fu's sequel. ;3 Kung Fu Master was the original arcade game by Irem, with Nintendo developing its NES port under a slightly different title. In Japan both the AC and FC versions actually use a Jackie Chan movie license, Spartan X, making them early-ish examples of Licensed Game That Don't Suck.

There's also FC and Game Boy Spartan/Kung Fu sequels, but neither's as good as the aforementioned unfortunately.

[Stevens]

Holy fuck how did I never put 2 + 2 together (Irem)?

First boss is fun. Stage 2's bosses were great, especially for the time. 10 year old me was blown away by the fact that they flipped. 3 and 4 are monotonous as fuck, Sweep, walk away, repeat. Stage 5? Some terrible collision on that asshole. They wanted you to feed quarters:D

I do love the music though.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Famicom MagMax cover.