Ready Player Two

The following game-inspired illustration was produced by artist Glen Brogan of the Albino Raven blog for his just-closed Gallery1988 show.

The focus of this stylish piece isn't a tanooki-suited Mario, by the way; it's a fox-suited Luigi--or whatever the hell it is Mario's main bro turns into when he grabs a Super Leaf power-ip in Super Mario 3D Land.

Why did Brogan devote an entire canvas to the most famous "player two" in all of gaming? Here's what he had to say in a recent blog post:

"As a kid I often found myself playing video games as player two, usually either because the other kid was older or because I was (and am) pretty shy and non-assertive. Because of that I still to this day have a fondness for Luigi, the ultimate second player character."

For those who may be interested: Brogan's selling 8-by-10-inch digital prints of this piece via Gallery1988's website for $35 each. (Mounted versions of the print can be picked up here for $55.)

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.

BREAKING NEWS: I finally let someone visit my Animal Crossing: New Leaf town

OK, so I'm being kind of silly with the header above. Only kind of silly, though, as it's true that since I started playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf I've yet to let another human visit Animachi.

I haven't kept people out of my New Leaf town because I'm a big jerk, by the way. Rather, I kept them out (until now) because I was feeling bashful about Animachi's status as a "work in progress."

I still am, to tell you the truth, but my shyness has softened a bit thanks to the fact that Animachi's main street is nearly full--Kicks just opened and Club LOL will follow this weekend--and its trees now feature every kind of fruit a visitor could desire.

Anyway, the point is that I welcomed my first human visitor--Terry, aka Zaphod65--last night. Of course, me being the numbskull that I am, I didn't nab any screencaps while we roamed about Animachi.



Thankfully, Terry did. Not only that, but he made a little comic out of said screencaps for his New Leaf-focused tumblr, The Dunwich Hoarder, and published it (above and here) earlier today.

Would you believe I'm now starting to second guess my decision to allow Terry to (attempt to) woo away Hamlet?

Oh, well, at least if he succeeds I may finally get to meet one of the game's many deer villagers (especially Fauna or Erik).

See also: 'He likes Animal Crossing: New Leaf and he loves to abuse the screencap function'

Who wouldn't want to wake up to one of these slimy suckers?

I don't know about you, but I start every day by downing a couple of steaming mugfuls of coffee. Unfortunately, the mugs in question are about as boring as you can get--completely unadorned and white.

That may help explain why I'm more interested in acquiring the following Dragon Quest-themed mug than I probably should be.

Of course, I'm a Dragon Quest fan from way back, so that may be partially to blame for my curiosity, too.

Regardless, I'm intrigued--and I'm seriously considering buying one (for $22.90) once they become available at ncsx.com.

The question is: should I buy the one above, branded with the long-running RPG series' smiling mascot, or should I go with the one that features a similarly grinning metal slime?

We both (still) love Mega Man

Although Mega Man joined the "game series I haven't cared about in years" party currently being hosted by Final Fantasy and Sonic the Hedgehog, I still have a bit of a soft spot for this classic Capcom franchise.

As such, I couldn't help but go a little gaga when I saw the following Mega Man-focused photo pop up on Flickr user Danny Yama's photostream over the weekend.

To see more evidence of Yama's mean Perler Bead skills, check out his Flickr photostream at your earliest convenience.

See also: more Perler Beads posts