Why do I bring that up? Because I want you to understand at least a bit of why I'm so drawn to Barcelona-based and Sega-obsessed (or so it seems) artist Vandrell's digital illustrations--beyond the fact that they're drop-dead gorgeous, I mean.
Here (and here), for instance, is a piece he created to honor Sega's earliest "Mario killer," Alex Kidd:
And here is a piece that pays respect to Namco's 16-bit shoot 'em up, Burning Force:
The classic brawler Golden Axe gets the "Vandrell treatment" in the following concoction:
While Telenet Japan's Valis series gets a well-deserved nod in this one:
If you're looking for something even better and more fabulous, by the way, be sure to check out Vandrell's blog, which features, among other things, a number of mock-ups that turn the illustrations above into full-fledged Sega Mega Drive (aka Genesis) box arts.
Yep! It was supposed to run on Monday, but I eventually pushed it back for some New Leaf stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks for turning me onto his work, by the way. It's amazing! The Valis one above ESPECIALLY turns my gears...
You're welcome, of course!
ReplyDeleteHave you played any of the Valis games? I don't remember how many I tried but never really liked any of them, as much as I wanted to love a game with bikini armor, it just wasn't happening. It's a great illustration anyway!
I've played all of the PC Engine ones, and I can't say I liked any of them :|
ReplyDeleteOh, I liked the idea of them, and the aesthetics of them, but the gameplay always seems to be a bore. Yawn!
Too bad, really, because the premise is pretty interesting--or was back when the series was introduced.
Yeah it's pretty hard to think now that I could be missing out on something by not playing these games more than I did. The anime/fantasy aesthetic certainly doesn't do anything for me, not that I don't like it, but that I know I can get it from so many other places now. In 1991 it was definitely more novel!
ReplyDeleteJust out of curiosity, have you played El Viento? I always associated it with Valis because it was on the Genesis at the same time, was from Telnet, and had a another bare-midriffed protagonist. ;) But I liked El Viento a lot and it's still one of my favorite games!
ReplyDeleteI will, don't you worry. It may take me a while to get there, though.
ReplyDeleteBTW, have you looked at that game's Japanese box art recently? It's amazing!
Oh, and have you ever played Annette Again/Anetto Futatabi? I've long been curious about it, although it doesn't look as impressive (visually, at least) as El Viento, IMO.
El Viento is fantastic! I love its characters, I love its music, I love its fast-paced action (which alternates between serious and silly), and I love its crazy aesthetic, what with the big pixellated explosions and washed-out "WE'RE FIGHTIN' IN THE 1920's" color palette.
ReplyDeleteIt's the best thing Wolf Team ever released, at least as far as US-released games go. I love it so much!
(PS - Anet Futatabi has nice cutscenes, but otherwise isn't good)
Oh, so it gets a big thumbs up from you, Zigfried? Sounds good to me! I'm sad to hear that Futatabi isn't very good, though :(
ReplyDeleteI would go a step beyond Zigfried's comment and say that Futatabi is actually terrible and we should avoid being tempted by it at all. Like, try to imagine the most uninteresting, boring, and unfair brawler you can, make sure it only supports one player, and then make it so enemies will often stay off the screen for minutes at a time making it impossible for you to proceed until they decide to come back. It really feels like they got halfway done with it and then ran out of time. :(
ReplyDeleteHoo boy, well, that's too bad. Good for me/us, though, in that we can avoid buying it in the future :) Thanks for all of the commentary, guys!
ReplyDeleteToo late for me! ;)
ReplyDeleteOh! Sorry to hear that :( Hey, one more question for ya: have you played Earnest Evans? If so, what do you think about *that* one?
ReplyDeleteLuckily I really like El Viento, so owning its lousy sequel doesn't bother me too much. ;)
ReplyDeleteI know some people do like Earnest Evans but I'm not one of them. I bet it was really something with its Vectorman-ish character animation back in 1991 but I found it too weird and hard to like it very much.
Ah, so El Viento is the only one of the bunch that you'd recommend, eh? Got it!
ReplyDeleteEarnest Evans is my hero, so I naturally love his game even if they did render him as a disjointed alien from the planet Zurba. EE is a creatively inspired game, but unfortunately lacks Viento's crisp execution. But still... it's EARNEST EVANS!
ReplyDeleteHa ha! How could I have forgotten that he's your hero, Zigfried? :) Anyway, does this mean you'd recommend the game or not?
ReplyDelete