Cute Furry Animal in Sneakers 27
Everybody here likes Nintendo games, right?
Those of you who answered ‘Yes’ to that question might just recognise some of the fellows below, but for the ones whose gaming knowledge doesn’t extend beyond the Playstation or whatever failed console Sega had out last (or who just don’t like video gaming much), some explanation might be in order. Keep on scrolling...
Are we all here? Right. The big lizard bloke and the gorilla should be pretty obvious even if you’ve never played a Ninty game, as they’ve both been around for decades. The reptilian rumbler is Bowser, chief nemesis of that Super Mario chap, while the simian stomper is Donkey Kong, the once-villainous ape who began his career trying to brain Mario with flying barrels, but who now seems to have reformed and makes a living in his own pretty-but-vacuous platform affairs.
The other two are a bit more obscure, but they should still be recognisable to anyone who was playing games during the big console boom of the early 90s. The toad is Pimple, one of the eponymous protagonists of the Battletoads series, a string of games that had some of the most memorable and splendidly-designed characters ever seen, and then blew it all by being mind-addlingly terrible. (Except the arcade one, which was tremendous, but nobody except me played it in the whole world ever, and the franchise died on its arse shortly afterwards. Tch, eh?) As for the portly rat, he’s one of the major recurring villains in the Battletoads universe and goes by the excellent name of Big Blag.
At this point, you may be wondering why I decided to draw all of these pixelly persons. The reason is this: in e-mail conversation, top arty bloke and fellow Bowser-and-Blag fan Zexyz suggested that it would be an entertaining thing to have the two brawny baddies team up, and terrorise the good guys of the world. This sparked an idea for a drawing which has just been completed (but which you’ll have to wait until the next CL site update to see, you young scamps), and the sketches above were my attempts at figuring out how to draw the characters. I thought I’d include them here as a kind of teaser trailer for the finished thing, and also (as was hinted at a couple of posts ago) to demonstrate what my sketches look like when they’re at their sketchiest.
Wasn’t that interesting?
Just as an aside, while we’re on the subject of console games (and should anyone be at all interested), I’d like to recommend Wade Hixton’s Counter Punch to all Game Boy Advance owners. (It’s been out in America since May, or thereabouts, but it’s only just arrived on these shores and been criminally ignored by the gaming press.) Usually, of course, boxing games are utterly hopeless, but this one is quite the most entertaining thing I’ve played in months - I was enticed by the spiffing cartoony graphics, and discovered that it not only boasts superlative animation, but oodles of imagination, humour and - Blimey! - genuinely crafty strategy. The end boss is rubbish, obviously, and it’s perhaps lacking in longevity, but it’s such fun. It’s like a Don Bluth game that, by some heavenly miracle, isn’t a pile of old cack.
Those of you who answered ‘Yes’ to that question might just recognise some of the fellows below, but for the ones whose gaming knowledge doesn’t extend beyond the Playstation or whatever failed console Sega had out last (or who just don’t like video gaming much), some explanation might be in order. Keep on scrolling...
Are we all here? Right. The big lizard bloke and the gorilla should be pretty obvious even if you’ve never played a Ninty game, as they’ve both been around for decades. The reptilian rumbler is Bowser, chief nemesis of that Super Mario chap, while the simian stomper is Donkey Kong, the once-villainous ape who began his career trying to brain Mario with flying barrels, but who now seems to have reformed and makes a living in his own pretty-but-vacuous platform affairs.
The other two are a bit more obscure, but they should still be recognisable to anyone who was playing games during the big console boom of the early 90s. The toad is Pimple, one of the eponymous protagonists of the Battletoads series, a string of games that had some of the most memorable and splendidly-designed characters ever seen, and then blew it all by being mind-addlingly terrible. (Except the arcade one, which was tremendous, but nobody except me played it in the whole world ever, and the franchise died on its arse shortly afterwards. Tch, eh?) As for the portly rat, he’s one of the major recurring villains in the Battletoads universe and goes by the excellent name of Big Blag.
At this point, you may be wondering why I decided to draw all of these pixelly persons. The reason is this: in e-mail conversation, top arty bloke and fellow Bowser-and-Blag fan Zexyz suggested that it would be an entertaining thing to have the two brawny baddies team up, and terrorise the good guys of the world. This sparked an idea for a drawing which has just been completed (but which you’ll have to wait until the next CL site update to see, you young scamps), and the sketches above were my attempts at figuring out how to draw the characters. I thought I’d include them here as a kind of teaser trailer for the finished thing, and also (as was hinted at a couple of posts ago) to demonstrate what my sketches look like when they’re at their sketchiest.
Wasn’t that interesting?
Just as an aside, while we’re on the subject of console games (and should anyone be at all interested), I’d like to recommend Wade Hixton’s Counter Punch to all Game Boy Advance owners. (It’s been out in America since May, or thereabouts, but it’s only just arrived on these shores and been criminally ignored by the gaming press.) Usually, of course, boxing games are utterly hopeless, but this one is quite the most entertaining thing I’ve played in months - I was enticed by the spiffing cartoony graphics, and discovered that it not only boasts superlative animation, but oodles of imagination, humour and - Blimey! - genuinely crafty strategy. The end boss is rubbish, obviously, and it’s perhaps lacking in longevity, but it’s such fun. It’s like a Don Bluth game that, by some heavenly miracle, isn’t a pile of old cack.