Amazing might be an overstatement...

This should kinda make sense to anybody that saw the movie. This was all I could think about during the big action scene at the end.

I thought it was okay. Not really very much different from the Raimi movies, I don't think. I do feel like they severely downplayed Peter's nerdiness, though.

Okay, that's it. Maybe something tomorrow.

More Comic Goodness

Today's random bit of comic goodness, featuring Dillon's Rolling Western! I thought it would be fun to do a game that was relatively new, and there's a sad lack of attention for this wacky little gem. I've done Dillon fan art before, twice, as a matter of fact, but this is the first time I think I actually got him more or less on model.

This was actually pretty hard for me, because Dillon has a very abnormal body type. Animal people are always sorta hard for me to draw, particularly when they're more animal than people. I'd like to draw more of Dillon in the future.

I desperately want to do a feature on Deadly Towers, as I've found it to be one of the most sadly misunderstood games of all time. It's basically Dark Souls for the NES, and is actually pretty innovative, structurally speaking. I might throw some art together in the next few days highlighting some of the game's cooler elements.

More Super Mario & Luigi coming sometime this week as well!

The Nintendo Comics System

Anybody remember that? It was the goofy label that the old Mario and Zelda comics had in the 80's, along with the Nintendo Cereal System... it was weird times.

Anyway, I sorta miss the days when we got all sorts of weird comic adaptations of games. I have such fond memories of the Super Metroid and Star Fox comics from Nintendo Power, or the amazing Ishinomori Link to the Past comic! It's a feature I think is sorely missing from modern publications, and I like to think here at Doki Doki Arcade I strive to channel those magical days... when I actually post anything, that is.

In keeping with today's headline, here's some new Nintendo themed stuff.

Some cover art type stuff for Super Mario and Luigi. I wanted to post this up with the pages yesterday, but it looked god awful. I reworked it today, and I'm thrilled with the results.

 Not part of a bigger comic or anything, but I wanted to have a go at doing a colored comic. In this case, it's an adaptation of the first boss-ish encounter from Link to the Past. I'm pretty happy with that bottom panel. I loved the ball and chain knight when I was a kid.

Okay, that's it for today. I feel like in my head all of this stuff is building up to some awesome project. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Okay, well that's it for today!

NEW COMICS AND SUCH!

A few things today. First of all, I'm gonna try to be a little more on the ball with putting art up here. Not just game related art, but just general stuff as well. I'd also like to start doing somewhat more substantial stuff, like comics with ongoing stories that people could actually follow. I'd like to keep doing Doki Doki Arcade as well, but those are totally dependent on me thinking up jokes...

Anyway, one of the projects I've been working on for a little bit actually IS video game related, and so I'm going to introduce that now. Presenting SUPER MARIO and LUIGI!

More to come very soon, but this seemed like a proper resting point. Any Pauline fans out there (does such a thing exist?) don't worry! She won't be like this the WHOLE time.

Also, just for laughs... I'm playing Deadly Towers. More on that later.

New Projects + E3 Impressions

Things have been a little hectic, and I've been drafted into a few projects which have taken up a fair amount of my time. First and foremost, I've been asked to do a full graphical overhaul of Flip Industries' Super Kid Icarus flash game. It's basically a Mario All Stars style upgrade to the original, with recolored and reshaded sprites and backgrounds to upgrade the game to 16-bit style. Think Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for SNES, but better.

Here's some samples of the new enemy sprites:

It's coming along nicely.

In other news, e3 has come and gone. Anybody that knows me (or has even taken brief glances at this blog) probably knows I'm a big Nintendo fan, and there's a fair amount of debate as to how they fared this year. Although I can totally see how this year was somewhat underwhelming, I walked away fairly pleased for a few reasons. With a new Pikmin game (finally) a new Warioware, exclusive access to Rayman Legends, a quirky return to insanity from Platinum games, and the first FPS roguelike in the form of ZombiU, I found plenty to catch my interest. Quite frankly, even Nintendo Land, which I initially dismissed, looks like tons of fun.

The big event for me, though, was seeing Castlevania finally make its way to the 3ds in the form of Mirror of Fate. I wasn't totally enamored by the approach Lords of Shadow took to the franchise, but I think that the 3ds followup is looking like a solid game in its own right. I quite like the new designs for Trevor and Belmont, and can't wait to see more of the game as it draws closer to release.

Since I haven't had much art on here as of late, I thought it might be good to seize on this opportunity to get some fan art done. Here's a little piece based on the upcoming Castlevania goodness.

DokiDoki Arcade: The Comic + Kid Icarus: Downsizing Continued...

 So first off, a new comic. I can't help but feel that I'm never going to find any measure of success, like there is something wrong with me that tells people to keep me out of whatever secret club gets you anywhere in life. I guess I'm somewhat socially awkward, and have been the odd man out practically everywhere I have ever been...

Next up, another demake screen shot of Kid Icarus: Uprising. Oddly enough, my last screenshot found a small measure of popularity on the internet after being featured on sites like Pixel Art Guild, GoNintendo, TinyCartridge and Zelda Informer. Pretty cool, but some people expressed concerns that I had passed over the sidescrolling gameplay of the original.

I had always planned on doing an air battle shot, and a land battle shot, but didn't have the time or motivation to finish the land shot until now. Tried to keep the general look of the old game, but with the cool fast paced action of Uprising.

Of course, there's really no telling if this screenshot will ever get the same attention as the previous one (probably not, given that the novelty is gone), but this was something I really wanted to do.

An Unusually Batman Heavy Update

Okay, first things first, everybody should go watch Holy Musical B@man! as soon as possible. I know it's practically impossible to sell somebody on this kind of thing, so I'm not going to bother. Just know that if you have even a passing interest in Batman, super heroes in general, the Very Potter musicals, musicals in general, or even just comedy, you will UNDOUBTEDLY like it. If that isn't enough of a sell...

I think I've done my part.

Anyway, moving on! All this Batman talk got me in a Batman mood, and since reading any of the modern comics is basically pointless, I decided to more appropriately nerd out by playing Batman for the NES. Developed by then powerhouse Sunsoft and (allegedly) based on the 1989 Tim Burton film starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, Batman is one of the best action games on the NES, up there with Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. It also has NOTHING to do with the movie outside of a few cutscenes, unless I somehow missed all the scenes of the film where Batman punched tiny robots, biker ninjas, and enormous frog monsters before bursting into flames. It's like they just dropped Batman into some random anime NES action game, and it's pretty damn cool. Best of all, they couldn't even wait for Batman Returns to make a sequel, so Sunsoft went ahead and made Return of the Joker, which features EVEN MORE nonsensical bullshit. Was also called "Dynamite Batman" in Japan, which is amazing.

All this crazy nonsense got me thinking about how anomalous those games really were, and about what someone with no prior knowledge of Batman would think of the character based on those games. Can you imagine? Of course, it got me to work right quick on an insane, re-interpretation of the character. I'm still working, but I thought some of these drawings were just too fun to leave on my floor.

Right now, the plan is to do this as a six page mini-comic, which I'd like to actually print and give out for free. I'll keep posting neat stuff as it happens, but for now here's a preview of the cover (maybe) and the first page.

 

And, just for fun, here's a REALLY OLD Batman drawing from when the Dark Knight came out, to illustrate exactly what I'm NOT going for with this new comic...

THE END!