Nintendo Power Mentions Me!

Just got a comment from a reader alerting me to my presence in this month's Nintendo Power! It's been months since I sent my work in, so I had actually forgot about it altogether! It's a shame they only printed one image to go with the text, but oh well...

To celebrate, I thought I'd post some of my recent work I've been holding back on!

First, some Castlevania goodness! As part of Game-Art HQ's Castlevania Tribute, I've created two pieces. The first is a tribute to Castlevania 64 hero Reinhart Schneider and his vampiric love interest, Rosa.

I've talked about Castlevania 64 on this blog before, and I still feel that for all it's flaws, this was the last Castlevania game to really nail the atmosphere, challenge, and spirit of the classic games.  With this piece, I wanted to create a sense of drama and sadness. I'm not sure that everything turned out as well as it could have, but I'm generally pleased with the palette and lighting.

 The second piece is a tribute to another black sheep from the Castlevania franchise. Castlevania: The Adventure was the first game in the franchise for Nintendo's Gameboy, produced between Simon's Quest and Dracula's Curse. The game is ludicrously hard and pretty sparse on features, but has some genuinely cool level designs considering it was 1989. Christopher Belmont is possibly the slowest Belmont in the history of the franchise.

 Next up, a tiny piece of Mario fan art. I've recently been playing an absurd amount of New Super Mario Bros. 2, and while many gamers have lamented the lack of innovation, I have to say that the level designs are absolutely awesome. There may only be a handful of new powerups and enemies, but the new stages are intricate and quirky, and I've loved every minute of coin hunting goodness. The biggest draw for me is probably the Coin Block power up, which turns Mario into a fountain of golden goodness. The sensation of speeding through a stage as coin's erupt from your head is truly satisfying. I've cleared every stage and found every Star and Moon coin, but hopefully I'll have time to download and play some of the DLC stages in the future!

 Next up, some more Konami handheld love. I've always been a fan of the Mystical Ninja games, so when I saw the Gameboy game on the eShop I downloaded it instantly. It's a fun little action RPG, but goddamn is it ever hard! The mini-games are absurdly difficult, and the unforgiving nature of the game means that perfection is absolutely necessary. You'll see the Game Over screen so much, it might as well be a character.

Now on to some TV love! I'm about half way through exposing my girlfriend to the joy and horror of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, decided to do a bit of fan art! I've always dreamed of what Buffy would be like as a manga series, so this is my take on a title page. Someday, I may even do a few pages of the actual comic!

Adventure Time is a series I've been catching up on lately, and very much enjoying. My favorite would have to be the Ice King, but generally speaking it's a series with great characters and a surprisingly involved world. I'm eager to find out more and more about the world's history, and the most recent episode has only opened up more questions!

Okay, that's enough new stuff for now.