Pokemoana? Moanamon?

I have a friend who's a professional movie critic, and one of his favorite movies last year was Disney's Moana, a Hawaii-influenced take on a traditional Disney movie. One of my favorite games last year was Pokémon Sun, a Hawaii-influenced take on a traditional Pokémon title. Like mooshing chocolate into peanut butter, here's something we can both enjoy. 

Korean artist Hallpen is responsible for the sketches, which combine some of the movie's most iconic characters with appropriate, island-themed Pokémon. Moana herself hula dances with a Bellos??som, while her Gramma Tala stands before a self-satisfied Mantine. Half-god M??aui needs a link cable to trade his Graveler, and comic relief character Heihei is stuck with a Magikarp.

I love this kind of mashup, and the ar?twork on display here is pretty impressive. I'd like to see Tamatoa mixing it up with a Crabrawler or Pua standing with a Tepig, but maybe those would have been a little too on-the-nose.

H4llp3n [Twitter]

The post Check out these great Pokemon/Moana crossovers appeared first on Destructoid.

Interview with his voice actor hints at a new video in the works

It's no secret I'm a big fan of Overwatch, and Lúcio is my favorite character of the bunch. His voice acting is a big part of that, so I was happy to see this interview with the voice of Lúcio, Jonny Cruz. If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and revisit the video of Cruz walking around Blizzcon and interacting with his fellow voice actors.

_{Lúcio by Sinclay on DeviantArt.}

In the interview, Cruz discusses several topics including how he got the part. "I looked at this picture they had, it was basically a Latino boy with a skateboard…just that and a few lin??es of description. I was like “Hey, you know what? I think all I have to do is go in and be me on this.” In some way, Lúcio is a part of who I am, and I think that?’s why it rang so true in the audition.”

Most of Overwatch's other heroes have had their backstory filled in with comics or short films like the one that gave us our first look at Sombra. When asked where the Lúcio short film is, Cruz deflected, saying “Apparently it’s coming! They’re working on something! I don’t know what though, they always keep me in the dark, so who knows? (laughing)” It's hardly confirmation, but Lúcio is one of the most picked characters in Overwatch, and his?? fans would probably like to know a little more about him.

_{Lúcio by Raichiyo33 on DeviantArt.}

?I got the impression that Cruz and the other voice actors don't have much input into the character?s:

_{“They’ve got all this stuff planned way in advance, but they don’t tell me anything! (laughing) They just tell me “Hey, say these lines!” and I say “You’ve got it, baby!”. They know what they’re doing…I’m sure they’re going to be dropping more [heroes], too. I don’t quite know but I’ve heard talks of all kinds of things. This game is just going to constantly grow, y’know? They’re really putting a [lot] of time, effort and love into this thing.”}

Voice actors wanting to know more about the roles they'll be playing in games is one of the major sticking points that led to the SAG-AFTRA strike earlier this year. Cruz was asked what he thought of the negotiations. "I’m always thrilled to be behind a mic, voicing a character…it’s just that there’s ??a lot that goes into ?it, a lot of strain on the voice, it can be taxing. But yeah, we just need to find out what works. And y’know, I’m down, I’m easy to work with. So let’s figure it out!”

The interview touched on several other topics, including Overwatch's remarkably diverse cast of characters. “I really love the way they’re going about it, by bringing in all these different ethnicities…and all these robots (laughing). You know, you can be anything! And that’s what I really just love about voice acting, that you can play anything, and that it doesn’t matter about your skin, as long as the voice matches... That’s so important for me, not just playing stereotypes. And that’s what I love about Overwatch.”

Interview: Overw?atch's Jonny Cruz talks Lúcio, Fandom and Fair Pay [CulturedVultures]

The post Lucio may be featured in the next Overwatch?? short? film appeared first on Destructoid.

You can't be serious

Ever since Overwatch's winter event started last week, unfrozen Chinese cryogeneticist Mei has been the center of attention. Her first new skin since the game launched turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for some folks, though the winter them?ed brawl that features 12 Meis firing snowballs at one another?? has been pretty popular. 

That brawl features some great new voice lines from both Mei and Soldier: 76, and every time a Mei pauses to reload a snowball, one of the new lines has a chance to play. One line in particular stood out to Devin Ryan, who coded up a quick website to show it off. It's reminiscent of some older websites like Nyan Cat, where the viewer is challenged to see how long they can stay on the page without wondering if there's something better they could be doing with the precious gift of life. How long can you stand the cold?

Since that's not?? much of an article, please enjoy some A-Mei-zing drawings collected from Deviantart. Happy Mei day, Qposters.

Mei by Mvalentinus

Mei by XephrosART

Mei by RossDraws

Mei by Reivash

Mei by Krysdecker

[Thanks to Aaron for the tip!]

The post Mei is the new Nyan cat appeared first on Destructoid.

Pokewatch: Revival

_{Header image by ElStrawFedora on Deviantart.}

Pokémon Sun and Moon released today, and the word is no matter which version you choose, they're both excellent. Pokémon and Overwatch have been in the news a lot recently since they both had a huge game launch earlier this year. Last week, Overwatch players got a giant patch that introduced a new character and lots of other modes. This week, Pokémon players will finally get to explore the Alola region and check out some new characters of their own. Coincidentally, today marks the beginning of a free weekend in Overwatch??, so those who'd like to check out the new features can do so even if they haven't bought the game.

Back in late May when Pokémon GO and Overwatch were just starting out, I started a series of articles looking into what might happen if these two franchises were to cross over. What Pokémon would the Overwatch agents use against one another? One of Overwatch's strengths is that you can tell a lot about the attitude and background of its heroes just by looking at them. Overwatch and Pokémon have a lot in common, with large pools of diverse, iconic characters. They even form into groups of six to battl?e other teams!

_Source.

The rules I set for myself were as follows. Each of Overwatch's heroes will be assigned a group of three Pokémon based on their lore, their abilities, and their personality. No two agents can use the same Pokémon. None of the new Pokémon were available when this was written, so creatures like Mimikyu won't be showing up on anyone's team just yet. I'll explain why the Overwatch character might select these Pokémon, provide analysis of the trainer's team including strengths and weaknesses, and then the characters will?? battle.

When I initially finished the series, two of the characters that are available now hadn't been released yet. Today I'll be taking a look at these new characters, Ana and Sombra. There's a complete set of these posts for all of the other heroes??, including a battle royale that ended with a surprising victor. If you're interested in seeing more like this, you can check out the earlier entries below.

Part one: Genji, McCree, Pharah
Part two: Reaper, Soldier: 76, Tracer
Part three: Bastion, Hanzo, Junkrat
Part four: Mei, Torbjörn, Widowmaker
Part five: D. Va, Reinhardt, Roadhog
Part six: Winston, Zarya
Part seven: Lúcio, Mercy, Symmetra
Part eight: Zenyatta and remaining battles

I added quite a bit of crossover artwork I found at the end of the article, so if this subject matter interests you, take a look at the bottom of the page for some work by talented artists on the ?same topic.

Ana

_{Ana image and the header are both by ElStrawFedora. They've done a whole series of Pokémon/Overwatch crossovers. Check it out!}

Lead Pokémon: Kingdra (#230)

Type: Water/Dragon

Reason: Ana is the Overwatch team's sniping support, and uses her Biotic rifle to heal allies and harm enemies. Kingdra and its evolutionary line can all share the Sniper ability, and Kingdra is the strongest of the line. One of Ana's defining characteristics is her age and experience, and you can tell just by looking at Kingdra that it's lived through some tough times. If you try and snipe Pokémon with a real gun though, you're probably doing it wrong.

Support Pokémon: Dusknoir (#477)Type: Ghost

Reason: Duskull and its evolutionary line all share a design element in that they each have one eye. Ana shares this trait; she hesitated once while on a mission, and it cost her one of her eyes. Ana was one of the original members of the team, but was thought dead and went into hiding when the world turned against Overwatch. She's been on the run ever since, but couldn't stop helping people -- sort of a one-woman A-team. She's referred to by other characters as a ghost, and Dusknoir is one of the strongest Ghost types around. Much like Kingdra, it's the most highly evolved version in its line, implying that it's lived for a while and gained considerable experience. Coincidentally, it takes a Reaper cloth to evolve Dusclops into this final form, and we've seen that Ana has some history with Reaper herself.

Finisher: Mega Kangaskhan (#115)

Type: Normal

Reason: Ana doesn't share fellow oldster Soldier: 76's disdain for new ideas, but has an appreciation for the classics. Kangaskhan was one of the original 150 Pokémon, and it gained the ability to Mega Evolve in the sixth generation. All Kangaskhan are females, and each of them is a mother. Ana wasn't around while her daughter Pharah was growing up, but kept a memento, a holographic photograph, as a reminder. Now that they've reconnected, Ana and Pharah seem to have bonded, just as Kangaskhan forms a Parental Bond with its joey.

Analysis: Ana has a strong team that'll be difficult to overcome. Her complementary Ghost and Normal type Pokémon can deal with almost any situation, and Kingdra's typing means it resists or takes normal damage from everything but Fairy types and other Dragons?. All three of her Pokémon have decent defenses and high HP, so she'll be able to take a few hits while assessing the situation, then react accordingly.

Sombra

Lead Pokémon: Rotom Normal form (#479)

Type: Ghost/Electric

Reason: Sombra's best known as a hacker, and her ability in Overwatch disrupts enemy players, keeping them from using their abilities. She's been in hiding for a long time, keeping to the shadows, collecting information and waiting for the most strategically advantageous moment to reveal herself. Rotom's a literal ghost in the machine, a Pokémon that possesses electrical devices and takes them over, sort of like the hackermagic employed by Marcus in Watch Dogs 2. Although Rotom can change its element type and form to one of s?ix, I think Sombra would want her Rotom to stay in Ghost form, ready to assist her in taking over any machinery she needs help with.

Support Pokémon: Porygon-Z (#474)Type: Normal

Reason: Sombra moves as easily in cyberspace as she does through the real world, a trait she shares with the Porygon evolutionary line. Sombra's origin story shows that she was nearly caught once, which is why she decided to give herself a hardware upgrade. Porygon-Z requires not one but two upgrades from the standard Porygon before attaining its final form. It's a highly evolved digital creature used to working with all sorts of computers, though occasionally it messes up.

Finisher: Mega Gengar (#94)Type: Ghost/Poison

Reason: Sombra's moveset in Overwatch includes invisibility, the ability to be in two places at once, and the tools to prevent opposing players from using their abilities. They have more in common than just their shared spiky purple hair, as both Gengar and Sombra love to play combat tricks. Gengar can use Disable and Toxic, and it was depicted in the show and the original games as staying invisible most of the time to aid it in playing pranks on people. The player required a Silph Scope before they could even see any of the ghosts in Lavender town. What's more, Gengar is a highly up?graded form of Gastly, and it requires a fair bit of technology to get one, since you have to trade a Haunter electronically to make it evolve.

Analysis: Ghost types, like Dragons, are super effective against themselves, and Sombra's team may be hurt by having two Ghost types featured so prominently. That said, having Porygon-Z as her support means she may be able to bait out a Ghost move and switch it in to counter, since its Normal type gives it immunity to Ghosts. Rotom's ghost form is weak but has the Levitate ability, meaning it gains a useful immunity to Ground damage. It also has access to lots of combat tricks, and should be able to paralyze and confuse an opponent before it gets taken out. Porygon-Z tends to be underrated and has the stats to tank an attack and return fire with a wide variety of elements. Gengar's Poison type has always been trouble and gives it an unwanted weakness to Psychic moves, but gives it access to Toxic. Fortunately, it also has the Levitate ability, though this changes to Shadow Tag and prevents the opponent from switching their Pokémon out when it evolves to Mega Gengar. Doing this means Gengar?? will gain a weakness to Ground type moves, so Sombra should make sure the opponent i??sn't packing any before she triggers the evolution.

With the teams set, these ladies are ready to?? battle. 

Ana's Kingdra is more than a match for Sombra's Rotom, but Rotom uses Confuse Ray as sort of a judo move, causing Kingdra to become confused and hurt itself. Rotom manages to land paralysis on Kingdra as well before Kingdra connects with enough Water moves to take it down. In its weakened state, Kingdra falls quickly to Porygon-Z, and Ana switches in her Dusknoir to counter. Dusknoir can't hit very hard, but has high defenses and is good at stalling while damage over time moves like Will-o-wisp and Curse damage the opponent. Curse cuts Dusknoir's own HP by half when used though, so both Dusknoir and Porygon-Z go down in the same round. It comes down to the final creature for both trainers, and Sombra thinks she has the advantage when she sees Ana throw down Kangaskhan. Her plan is to hit it with Gengar's Toxic and just run out the clock, since Normal types and Ghosts can't usually hit each other. Unfortunately for her, Kangaskhan can learn the Dark type move Crunch, and its Parental Bond means that it hits twice, dealing massive damage before Gengar can Disable it, ending the?? battle with a win for Ana.

And that's that! There's been a lot more fan art combining these two franchises since I?? first started writing these, and I thought you might like to see some of the mashups ??I found while doing research for the article. If you liked this or think one of the trainers should have used a different Pokémon, let me know in the comments.

_{Mercy's team, by Vy!! Source.}

_{Symmetra and Pikachu by Qichaowang. Source.}

_{Mei's team by Calvanitas. Source.}

_{Bastion's Team by Risachantag. Source.}

The following are all by a Korean artist named Han Seok-bum. There's a few more on their page if you like thes??e.

3DROD made this back when Ana first came out, well before Sun and Moon released.

Finally, here's D.vaChu, by Frankie Franco.

The post Overwatch and? Pokemon mash up better than you might think appeared first on Destructoid.

The Bit.Trip series came to a close on Friday with the release of Bit.Trip FLUX in Europe. I'm sad to see to the series come to an end, but I'm also excited to see what Gaijin Games and their subsidiary Robotube games will come up with next.

Maybe this collection of Bit.Trip concept art will give us some clues as to what their next project could be, like the very different version of Bit.Trip FATE seen above. It looks like in the original version of the game, it's central gameplay hook, "the Fate line", is totally missing. Instead you get a 2-player co-op shmup featuring two characters named "Parasite" and "Dominator". As much as I love Bit.Trip FATE, I think I love the idea of this early version of FATE just?? as much. If this game every does come out, I totally have dibs on Dominator.

More concept art from the Bit.Trip series can be ??found at the link below. Some of them are new, some of them are old, but they're all suitable for fra?ming.

These Target Renders Reve?al Gaijin's BIT.TRIP Visions

The post Bit.Trip con??cept artwork reveals very different games appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm currently planning an episode of Constructoid about constructive criticism for gaming's famous female protagonists. The idea is to talk about how they can be more effective and positive role models without ali??enating gamers in the process. 

Two of the characters I was just jotting down as examples of awesome female role models (in gaming or gaming-like media) are Kumatora from Mother 3, and Marcelline from Adventure Time. That's why it was double-weird to have this artwork sent my way in the midst of that process, as it almost mashes the two characters into one. This art is great, but? Marcelline would have made a way better Kumatora. I guess Princess Bubblegum is OK though.

And yes, it's the weekend. News is slow. Plus, I'll take any chance I can get to talk about Adventure Time and Mother 3.

Thanks, Daryl!

The post Mother 3 Adventure Time mash up gets me giddy appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.]}

Today's Art Attack Friday features the art of peachifruit. She's a talented artist who is able to make everythin??g she draws extremely adorable.

Her main videogame pieces revolve around the Persona series, Metal Gear Solid and Legend of Zelda. Her most impressive piece of art is the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker Quilt. There are 60 panels depicting the events of Wind Waker from start to finish.

Of peachifruit's work, my favorites are The Beauties, Peach kissing Mario and the Ocelot birthday party surprise. Just look at that c??at!

Check out peachifruit's deviantART and her Tegaki E blog for the rest of her impressive art collection.

The post Art Attack Friday: peachifruit appeared first on Destructoid.

_{Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.}

Today we're looking at the antics of TheBourgyman. Bourgyman's videogame related art focuses heavily on the Super Mario universe. From Prince Peach and Daisy harassing Rosalin, the Koopa Kids being up to ??no good, to Mario gaining Beaver powers -- Bourgyman simply loves Mario and company.

My favorite of Bourgyman's work is his 21 years of bosses and the mistaken Shine Get piece. It's always fun looking at images where Mario is about to get destroyed by all of the bosses he has ever fought (that would make for a great new Mario game concept, actually.)

Check out Bourgyman's deviantART for all of his art collection.

The post Art Attack Friday: TheBourgyman appeared first on Destructoid.

_{Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.}

Mega Man 10 was announced a couple of days ago much to the delight of many Mega Man fans. Only a small amount of detail was revealed about the new game including one of the new bosses, Sheep Man. Fans seem to have taken an instant liking to Sheep Man as a bunch of fan art on deviantART and PIXIV of Sheep Man has already been made.

Some of the images are your standard, "Oh look at me! I'm a badass Sheep Man doing an awesome pose. I can transform into clouds that make Kracko jealous!" kind of a deal. But, there are some rather hilarious ones such as Mega Man and Proto Man equipped with Sheep Man's "power", Proto?? Man riding Sheep Man like there's no tomorrow and Proto Man leading his flock of Sheep Mans.

You? can check some of art be??low and visit the dA and PIXIV links above to see the ever growing collection. Man, there had better be a Shark Man boss or so help me God I will say ... not nice things about Capcom on the Internets ... lots of not nice things.

[Rockman Corner, via Capcom-Unity]

The post Art Attack Friday: Sheep Man fan art aplenty appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.]}

Back in February (which, if you'll recall, was the internet Stone Age), Hamza featured Andy Helms' Dude-A-Day project on this very column. Dude-A-Day is exactly what is sounds like: Andy wants to draw 365 Dudes in his distinctive art style. He should've wrapped up the whole project a month ago, so I figured it was time to check in with him. Unfortunately, he's a bit behind schedule: his most recent piece, characters from Fatal Fury and King of Fighters, are labeled as June 12 through 17.

"I generally only get to draw in my free time, sadly," writes Helm??s, adding that he's not sure when he's going to be finished. Seeing as how I had my heart set on on a dudely installment of Art Attack (and already had the header image made), I suppose it won't hurt to check out his newer stuff.

I've gone through Dude-A-Day's archives and pulled out the gam??e-inspired Dudes, but there are examples of all levels of nerd-dom. It's times like these that I wish that Destructoid wasn't just a videogame blog. If you like Dudes, sci-fi movies, cultural ephemera, and quirky art with a three-color palette, it'd behoove you to give it a look. While Helms' Dudes are little more than sketches, I think he manages to capture something essential about each of his characters.

Anyway, if you dig on Helms' silly sense of humor and distinctive style, be sure to check out some of his other work—Fearless Griggs, Buttlord, and OMFE—on his site, Atomic Toy.

The post Art Attack Friday: Andy Helms’ Dude-A-Day project appeared first on Destructoid.

_{Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.}

Today's Art Attack Friday is all about Mitch Loidolt and his outrageous art style. Mitch has drawn up a bunch of retro videogame characters with some slight additions to them here and there. The blue Ice Climber looks a bit on the crazy side, Woodman has some cute acorn shoes going on, the Gologo 13 guy has a long neck for some reason and Dig Dug is ... well, you should go check it o??ut fo??r yourself.

If you like what you see in the gallery, be sure to go check out Mitch's Flickr as there are a few more pages of crazy art.

[via Tiny Cartridge]

The post Art Attack Friday: Mitch Loidolt appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

People that have been following UDON Entertainment and the Street Fighter/Darkstalkers tribute books know exactly who Omar-Dogan is. His work has graced many pages of the official Street Fighter comics ??and his art is some of the best in the tribute book.

His inking and coloring skills are simply superb. He's able to capture the characters personalities perfectly, from series battles to just goofing off. If you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of the female art pieces and Oma??r has plenty of great ones on Chun-Li and Ibuki. 

Be sure to check out Omar-Dogan's deviantART as there is plenty more art including some of his work from the Street Fig?hter comics.

The post Art Attack Friday: Omar-Dogan appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

Prepare to have your heart broken as today's Art Attack artist shows no mercy to your favorite Pokemons. Jublin created a series of portraits to show how Pokemon recuperate after? a hard painful battle. We love to use Pokemon, but we never think of the horrible pain these poor creatures go through.

Most of Jublin's videogame artwork is violence against Pokemons, but he does have some nice Mario pieces as well. There's a few portraits the Mario brothers and he designed this Mario Retirement home shirt that you can pick up right now. 

For more of Jublin's work, check out his official site and Flickr page. 

The post Art Attack Friday: Jublin appeared first on Destructoid.

[Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.]

Mario & Luigi 3: Bowser's Inside Story was rece?ntly released here in America, but the game has been out since February over in Japan. So that's given Japanese artists plenty of time to create fanart for the game.

GameSetWatch caught the work of Masa, an extremely talented artist as you can tell by all of the images in the gallery. It captures some of the scenes from Bowser's Inside Story and throws in Bowser Jr. for fun too. It's actually rather adorable seeing Bowser and Bowser Jr. enjoy their time together as they play guitar?, race through the castle and do other father/son activities.  

Check out Pixiv for more of Masa's work. Which piece?? did you really like? 

The post Art Attack Friday: Masa appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

Over 40 deviantARTists joined forces to bring about this giant Mario Kart collab. The project started close to a year ago and was finally completed a couple of weeks back. Th??e piece was a huge undertaking and features a ton of different Mario characters all drawn up in unique and diffe??rent styles.

The Birdo image was made by nosleepjinx who details the project over on The Autumn Society. Check out Autumn Society for?? the full list of?? artist or hit the break for the list too. 

What do you all think of? the massive collab? Which character design do you like the best? 

Driver artists:

Toad-Mike Jungbluth
Baby Mario-Patricio Betteo
Dry Bowser-Robb Mommaerts
Luigi-Dirk Erik Schulz
Funky Kong-Hugh Freeman
Yoshi-Henry R. Frew
King Boo-Grim-Amentia
Princess Peach-Makani
Baby Luigi-Adrián Pérez
Mario-Andrew Kauervane
Donkey Kong-Fubumeru
Baby Peach-Basakward
Waluigi-Dapper Dan
Bowser jr.-Erin Hunting
Bowser-Richard J. Smith
Dry Bones-Neilando
Birdo-nosleepjinx
Daisy-Vernavulpes
Diddy Kong-Becky Dreistadt
Wario-Zach Bellissimo
Toadette-Kyle A. Carrozza
Petey Piranha-Sam Mckenzie
Koopa Troopa -Mario González
Shy-Guy-Benjamin Anders
Para Troopa-Emma Särkelä
Rosalina -Der-shing Helmer
Baby Daisy -Chris E.
Lakitu-Sabrina Alberghetti

Background Characters:
Luismario
Michael Perez
Explosiv22
Emily Jayne Weber
Frobman
Yves Bourgelas
Cotton-Gravy
Lindsay Smith
E. D. Thweatt
Adrian vom Baur
Psycho Time
Cheezadiddle
Evanatt

The post Art Attack Friday: The big Mario Kart collab appeared first on Destructoid.

Here's the final act of our three part behind-the-scenes on the creation of Braid. Part one focused on Tim, part two on devising the game's enemies, and part three is, well, everything else?? I could get my hands on. Highlights include dinosaurs, the prince??ss, a boss, and the knight.

Probably my favorite thing about this weeks post is the picture Edmund McMillen (the artist behind this series) sent me of his wife, to show that Braid's princess was based on the way she looked on thei?r wedding day. Though the resemblance isn't exactl?y uncanny, it's cool to see that a bit of the man's real life managed to sneak into an amalgamation of Jonathan Blow's dream-like world. 

Another favorite is the file called "Princess3" where the differences between the drawings are so incremental that detecti?ng the tiny va??riances between them almost feels like a Professor Layton puzzle. For instance, princess 1 has arms down to her knees, where princess 2's arms end closer to her ass.

See? Fun, right?

Like the last two weeks, there is also a kick-ass flash file after the jump depicting Edmund's drawings in motion. This week's animated showcase displays just how "final" Edmund's work on Braid really was. Makes me hope that someday a playable version of Braid will be released with al?l of Edmund's original stuff intact. David Hellman's a great artist as well, but as I've said in previous weeks, Edmund??'s stuff just sits better with me.

What do you guys think? Would you want to play Braid again, but with these graphics?

The post Exclusive look: The Braid tha??t almost was part 3: NPCs appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

Typically, Art Attack Friday is all about very detailed artwork. This time though, we’re taking a minimalistic approach to videogame art. Flickr user Infinite Continues was inspired by these minimalist movie posters and made some minimalist videogame characters pieces. The pieces are all extremely simple, but if you live and breathe videogames, then y??ou can recognize every character from his work:

It’s a testament to t?he details of these character designs that they can be recognised when reduced to a few simple shapes and colours.??

Indeed it is. Be sure to check out his Flickr page for mo??re of his minimalist videogame pie??ces. 

[via GameSetWatch]

The post Art Attack Friday: Videogame Minimalism appeared first on Destructoid.

Last week, we gave you an exclusive look at the design process which led to the creation of Tim, the protagonist of the award winning 2D platformer Braid. This week, we've got artwork that led to the creation of the game's enemies. Just like last w?eek, the designs here are by?? the game's initial artist, Edmund McMillen, whose work was later altered by the game's second artist, David Hellman.

Feelings seemed to be mixed about Mr. McMillen's style versus Mr. Hellman's when it came to Tim. I have a feeling that the same will be true with these designs, as Edmund's concepts are for the most part a total departure from what ended up in the final game. Also like last week, I prefer Edmund's preliminary stuff when it comes to Braid's "g??oombas". The little lion-headed guys that made it into the final game are great and all, but they don't compare to the middle-aged man-head above,?? or some of the severely depressed looking fuzzballs found in the gallery below.

What's your favorite design here? Do you think any of them beat out what was used in the final version of Braid?

Tune in next week for the final installment of this inside peek at the creation of Braid, and don't fo?rget to hit the jump for a animated look at these designs in action. 

The post Art Attack Friday: The Braid that almost was part 2: F?oes appeared first on Destructoid.

It's good news/bad news time again. Bad news first: for the next few weeks, I'll be borrowing Art Attack Friday from the infinitely more sexy and attractive Hamza"CTZ" Aziz. The good news: I come bearing gifts -- namely, an exclusive look at some original artwork for Braid, by none other than indie darling Edmund McMi??llen.

Edmund did all the near-final character design and art for for Braid except for the game's first boss. At some point, Jonathan Blow (Braid's creator) hired?? the game's other fantastic, amazing artist, David Hellman, to paint over or otherwise alter nearly all of Edmund's work ?so that they would match the games backgrounds.

Personally, I like Edmund's style a lot more. David's version of Tim was (and still is) a big turn-off to me. He's realistically rendered enough to give me that "??uncanny valley" feeling, while remaining baby-proportioned and pseudo-cute in a way that comes off as generic. Worse still, his blank, permanently optimistic expression actually gives me the creeps.

In contrast, Edmund's designs for Tim are clean, expressive, and far from generic (by videogame standards, anyway). His Tim is clearly an adult, not a doll?, yet he remains "cute" and easy to relate with. Not only does it look like I could draw Edmund's version of Tim, but I sense that I know how this Tim really feels. Where Hellman's Tim is Chucky, Edmund's Tim is Charlie Brown.

That's my opinion, anyway. What do you think? Which Tim do you like the most? Also, hit the jump for an exclusive look at Edmund's version of Tim in motion, and tune in next week for more exclusive, never-before-seen Braid art from McMillen.

The post ?Art Attack Friday: The Braid that almost was par??t 1: Tim appeared first on Destructoid.

Ashley Davis is someone you all should be very familiar with. She contributes fantastic features on the site and she’s also our resident drawer of all things super cute. She first burst onto Destructoid in April 2008 and her first handful of Monthly Musing blogs were instantly promoted. After a few months, she finally became part of the Destructoid editorial team and has been ?filling the front page with awesome things ever since.

She’s done a ton of great original features, most of which have usually has at least one bit of original art from her. Items on the menu include Donkey Kong Junior’s identity crisis, looking at the history of videogame-themed cereals, Toadstool’s ???, videogame birds to plenty more original pieces.

As for her art, well, what is there to say that hasn't been said already? Ever since she was youngin, she's been drawing and her skills have just gotten better and better. Her Once Upon a Pixel that took the Metal Gear Solid story line and tr?ansformed it into a children’s book has received the most attention, and rightly so??.

Ashley also stays pretty busy over on her Community Blog where she shares some of her art work. Plus, she takes requests from the insatiable Community and has drawn Dtoiders such as Krow, Molotov Cupcake, atheistium, Yojimbo and more.

For more of Ashley Davis's art, just keep an eye on her front page features, her Community Blog and her deviantART.

The post Art Attack Friday: Ashley Davis appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

I just love it when we can feature Community Members on Art Attac?k Friday. We have a ton of talented artists around here and I want to showcase each one of you at some point. And that brings me to today's artist, Suitcoat Avenger.

Suitcoat has been on a drawing rampage over the months as he’s been taking requests from the Dtoid community over on his Community Blog. And ??if he’s not taking requests, he’s still brining the awesome with his art pieces.

Lately, he’s been working on a series called New Challenger made up of Street Fighter fighters. My favorite from Suitcoat is his Prototype and inFamous bro love piece and the very cute Big Daddy Caution sign. He’s also made a Destructoid Children’s book page which hasn’t been shown off ye?t on the front page. Several new pages were made and there will b?e an update on the book soon.

For more on Suitcoat Avenger’s art, just keep an eye out on his Community Blog and his Blogspot.

The post Art Attack Friday: Suitcoat Avenger appeared first on Destructoid.

[Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.]

Art Attack Friday this week is all about TWULF. Most notable from TWULF’s collection is his Hylian Hero pieces. TWULF says it’s “perfectly logical that perhaps somewhere along the time line, the chosen hero is a daughter of Hyrule and not a son.” I have to agree and would gladly play a Zelda game starring a female hero if she looks anything as good as TWULF’s concepts.  

My favorite thing about TWULF's drawing style is how he draws faces. The Lara Croft, Samus and especially Banjo and Kazooie pieces are all great and?? their facial expressions really make the pieces shi??ne. 

For more of TWULF's work, check out his official Web site and deviantART page. 

The post Art Attack Friday: TWULF appeared first on Destructoid.

[Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.]

Are you sick of Street Fighter art yet? I'm not and that's why today Art Attack Friday is all about lastscionz. Most of lastscionz's work is Street Fighter related as he has done a ton of work for Udon and his work has been featured in Udon art books. He has a ton of group pieces of the Street Fighters plus some wonderful individual pieces such as this Evil Ryu piece. 

lastscionz has plenty of none Street Fighter pieces as well, ranging from Pokemon, Battletoads and some pieces for other fighting games. I'm really digging the Morrigan picture, mostly because I just love the character more ?than any other Capcom fighting?? character now. 

For more of lastscionz work, check out his deviantART page and his Blogspot. 

The post Art Attack Friday: lastscionz appeared first on Destructoid.

[Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.]

Let's be honest here: calling Jalonso's pixel pushing "fan art" is a bit misleading. Looking at his work, you can tell that he's a fan of games for sure, but his art is a little different than just drawing pictures of Link and Samus (not that there's anything wrong with that!). To boot, unlike many of the artists featured on Art Attack Friday, Jalonso has done a bit of commercial art -- and it shows, since his pixelart is incredibly badass.

There's more from Jalonso after the jump: why he only works on games he's invited to join, pixel art as a hobby, and some of his commercial projects (featuring The Protomen, of all people).

Before you go any further, I should warn you that our gallery has a bad habit of squishing and squashing pixels. To get a real idea of how good Jalonso's art can be, you'd do well to check out Bugpixel, his personal site and gallery.

What originally attracted me to Jalonso's work was his Gameboy RPG mock-up for Plagued, based on the life of Hieronymous Bosch, a 15th century Netherlandish painter. The mock-up was originally created for a weekly challenge at Pixeljoint to celebrate the 20th anniversary fo the Ga??meboy.

"Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights was a good alternative because the painting has so many details that lend themselves to game sprites, enemies and other gameplay elements," explains Jalonso. "I envisioned the game story to follow some unearthly quest for higher knowledge of some kind. Although Bosch did not create the art during the Plague, I set the game in this context because it added an air of gloom." Although it's just a mock-up, Plagued fi??ts Gameboy ?specs to a T, except for the main character sprite.

Jalonso has also made a Salvador Dali-inspired platformer mock-up called Ledali II: The Crystal Egg that meets Gameboy Advance requirements.

Jalonso started doing pixelart as a hobby on his Mac Classic, and the hard??ware and software limitations had a direct impact on his art: "The software limitations forced me to focus on pixel placement and precision and this has never left my pixelart," he explains. He got his start making icon sets for Iconfactory, but eventually started getting invites to do game art. Pixelart's status as a hobby hasn't changed over the years, even though Jalonso has been pretty successful with "pixel pushing," as he calls it: "[T]o this day I only get involved in projects by invitation exclusively. I treat pixelart as a hobby even on commercial projects and will only get involved if the game specs are attractive to me and its something I would enjoy making," he says.

His commercial endeavours include the album art for The Protomen's Make Up and Vanity Set Present: The Protomen album, Chariot Chasedown (a promotional game for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), and art for a Reader's Digest article about Asia's "noise epidemic," as well as maps for Sunset Jamaica Grande resorts.

Jalonso's work is very technical, and it rubs off on how he perceives and appreciates other artist's work: "When I look at other's pixelart I don't re??ally care for idea/concept but tend to look and study the techniques used and the technical aspects of the art."

For better or worse, this applies to the games he plays as well. "I have always been a huge fan of the Castlevania series. The pixelart in Castlevania games is some of the best ever made. Naturally, Metal Slug is an inspiration and aspiration to all pixel pushers but I hate playing the games themselves since I can only ever focus on the art itself so death comes often," he explains. He's also playing Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, which he seems to enjoy -- of course, it conatains pixel-perfect versions of Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. "I got the game for these titles but have found the non-pixel game great too..."? 

No word on what his next project will be, but I'll be keeping an eye out. Again, I encourage you guys to check out Bugpixel.com ??-- it's got all of his art in their native resolution as well as links to all sorts of pixelart projects.

The post Art Attack Friday: Jalonso’s pixelart appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

This week’s AAF artist is Markovah. He has a very stylized unique look to his art and his coloring is superb. His videogame related artwork mostly focuses on fighting characters form the worlds of Darkstalkers, Street Fighter and Guilty Gear. Still, he has some non-fighting game art such as this Tomb Raider piece.

I’ve had a big love affair with Darkstalkers as of late mostly due to the Darkstalkers tribute album that’s in the works right now so his Darkstalker related pieces are my favorite. This Cammy piece is also pretty damn hot.

For more of Markovah's work, just check out his deviantART page. 

The post Art Attack Friday: Markovah appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

GENZOMAN has been making the rounds this week due to his adult Link drawing. Wouldn't it have been hilariously awesome had Nintendo gone this route instead when people were all up in arms about Wind Waker's style? 

Anyway, GENZOMAN's art rocks. The styling is great and I just love the coloring in all of his pieces too. GENZOMAN has a big thing for Street Fighter III's Elena and thanks to all of his fan drawings of her I have a new found appreciation for the charac??ter. 

For more of GENZOMAN's art, check out his deviantART page. What do you all think of t??his week's Art Attack artist? 

The post Art Attack Friday: GENZOMAN appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

Art Attack Friday is all captainosaka today. Usually I'd wait until the artist pumps out more videogame related art, but I've been waiting to feature captainosaka for a long time now. There's only five pieces in the gallery from him, but they're all pretty amazing. Plus the Super Smash Bros. Brawl one could totally be like three images, man!

I ad??ore his Samus slapping five with Snake. Everything about it is amazing. Plus, they're slapping five in front of an explosion and we all know that explosions make every image better! 

There's also a ton of Gurren Lagann fan art over on captainosaka's deviantART. That has nothing to do with videogames, but it's Gurren Lagann. Best anime ever. SPIN ON!

The post Art Attack Friday: captainosaka appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

Art Attack Friday is all about DW3Girl today. DW3Girl's art shows that she really loves two things when it comes to drawing: Dynasty Warriors and beefcake. Lots and lot??s of beefcake. In fact, all this beefcakeness should make up for all the times that tits 'n ass pictures have been featured on Art Attack. DW3Girl likes drawing the lovely ladies as well so there's something for everyone here. ??;

I'm really digging the Ada, Rinoa, Taki and Vergil pieces from DW3Girl. The attention to detail on her Dynasty Warrior images are especially very good. 

For more of DW3Girl's artwork, check out her deviantART and her Web site. 

The post Art Attack Friday: DW3Girl appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

Art Attack Friday is taking a different approach this week as we take a look at Jin-Saotome, master custom toy maker. Jin has an amazin??g talent here. He's kind o?f like Dr. Frankenstein in that he takes body parts from other toys, fuses them together, re-paints them and creates a new, better figure. 

Jin-Saotome has a gigantic collection of custom figures over on his deviantART page. He dabbles in a little bit of everythi??ng nerdy from videogames, Marvel heroes, Transformers and more. What's really impressive ??is the fact that the figures all turn out so well. In most cases, better then what an actual toy company has or can make.

Check out his official Web site and deviantART for more of his figures. Any particular figure you guys really lik??e? 

The post Art Attack Friday: Jin-Saotome appeared first on Destructoid.

Art Attack Friday is your weekly look at videogame fan art created by a talented artist.

Today's Art Attack Friday is on agentscarlet and it is long overdue. Last year, the above zombie Peach and zombie Samus pictures were making the Internet? rounds. For good reason too, as no one has really done zombified videogame icons this well before. In fact, no one has really touched it since agentscarlet did the originals. At lea?st, not to this level of awesome anyway.

agentscarlet is also pretty good at giving the Team Fortress 2 fighters a nice sex change. There's some fantastic 1940s pin up style drawings of characters like the Soldier, Pyro, Spy and more. This Portal tribute is also very hot. 

Check out the gallery below and agentscarlet's deviantART for more of his fantastic artwork. 

The post Art Attack Friday: agentscarlet appeared first on Destructoid.