Vandrell's fabulous Alex Kidd, Burning Force, Golden Axe and Valis fan art

As much as I love many of Nintendo's games and systems, I'm no "Nintendo fanboy." After all, I also love many of Sony's games and systems--and in the past I loved many of NEC's (maker of the awesome PC Engine) and Sega's games and systems, too.

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.