Star Wars: The Original Trilogy, low-res pixel style!
Inspired by me playing some Star Wars games, I drew up the cast of good guys for each movie of the trilogy, plus a bonus all-villain pic. Star Wars is pretty cool.
A New Hope: Luke Skywalker (farmboy), Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2
The Empire Strikes Back: Luke Skywalker (pilot), Yoda, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, Lando Calrissian
Return of the Jedi: Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight), Wicket, Han Solo, Leia Organa (Ewok village), Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, Lando Calrissian
Villains: Darth Vader, The Emperor, Grand Moff Tarkin, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett
I have lots of good memories of playing the co-op campaign of Halo 2 with my brothers. I’m not really happy with how most of these drawings turned out though. Alien anatomy, miniature humans, and some of the colour choices are really hard! And there’s no way I was going to try drawing the Gravemind.
Master Chief/John-117, Cortana, Sergeant Avery Johnson, Commander Miranda Keyes, the Arbiter/Thel ‘Vadam, 343 Guilty Spark, the Prophet of Truth, Tartarus
Playing the Dracula X Collection on the PSP, it’s a really nice set of companion games going from Rondo of Blood to Symphony of the Night. So here’s the goodie team and the baddie team, with a mix of designs from both games. I even threw in Victoria Fortescue from the Japanese pachinko game based on Rondo of Blood! (It’s execrable but hey, new characters for the headcanon.)
Alucard, Richter Belmont, Maria Renard, Victoria Fortescue, Death, Dracula, Shaft
After drawing 64 and Melee, I wanted to have a go at my favourite in the series. This game holds lots of memories for me and the roster is pretty great. I’m happy with how this turned out too, my process is improving! Don’t expect a pixel art of Smash 4 though, ever.
Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi, Wario, Link, Toon Link, Zelda, Sheik, Ganondorf, Pikachu, Lucario, Jigglypuff, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Charizard, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Samus, Zero Suit Samus, Ness, Lucas, Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Fox, Falco, Wolf, Captain Falcon, Ice Climbers, R.O.B., Olimar, Pit, Mr. Game & Watch, Marth, Ike, Snake, Sonic
The Star Fox series has had a broad and rich cast of characters. These goofy animal people are fun and I wanted to celebrate the whole cast of good guys, past, present, and future, and their shared history. I’m trying not to slag off Zero’s obnoxious rebooting too much—oops. Anyway although I’ve done some of these characters before it’s always fun to try out different outfits. Not pictured: the unnamed sheep from one of the Star Fox 2 builds. Sorry sheep.
Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi (Command’s Star Falco ending), Peppy Hare (Command, General outfit), Slippy Toad (Adventures), ROB 64, Fara Phoenix, Saru (from a Star Fox 2 early build), Miyu, Fay, Krystal (Assault), Bill Grey (Command), Tricky (Assault), Katt Monroe (Command), Amanda, Lucy Hare, Marcus McCloud (Command’s next generation ending), Peppy’s unnamed grandaughter (ditto), Slippy and Amanda’s unnamed son (ditto), James McCloud (Command), Wolf O’Donnell (Brawl), Leon Powalski, Panther Caroso (Command), Dash Bowman
I had to make lots of compromises for this picture. The scale is way off; the Prince should be vastly smaller than the King, who is slightly larger than the Queen. Due to the shape of their heads I also drew them all front-on. Plus the non-standard body shapes. And I couldn’t fit the Kings’ facial hair in a way that looked good. Anyway it’s the best I could do with the royalty of the Katamari series!
The King of All Cosmos, The Queen, RoboKing, The Prince, a Katamari, The Princess
I really do like this movie. The main Mario games do little for me, but I feel the concepts were well developed and delivered in this film, and the characters are a lot of fun. I highly recommend the site Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive as a haven of fandom and analysis, with information on the production, merchandise, and cut content gleaned from the script, novelisation, production stills, etc. I know the movie is considered a “flop” but its combination of cheesiness and interesting design makes it very enjoyable for me. Also check out the aborted semi-official sequel comic.
Mario Mario, Luigi Mario, Daisy, Yoshi, Iggy, Spike, Toad (Goomba form), Koopa, Lena
Loosely inspired by me playing Lego Batman recently, here’s what I think of as the Justice League, ie. the version from the animated series that I watched as a young’n. There are two GBA games based on the animated series, but I haven’t played them… yet.
Animal Crossing has so many truckloads of characters, they have multiple waves of trading cards to cover them all. Which ones have been amiibo-ised is a good way to boil down some of the important characters of the series. Plus they fit in a nice grid. I replaced the second Isabelle variant with the “default” female villager design from Wild World & Smash, which I saw speculation was supposed to be based on Ai from the movie, or the other way round. I can see it. Anyways they should have made her the Smash amiibo instead of number 1 guy. They should also make a game that uses all these amiibo. You know, a good one.
I was watching a speedrun of this game and it made me nostalgic for SNES-era Square. Even though their releases in my country were very sporadic, I caught up with them later and they’re consistently good quality, with great music. I found out that ideas from Seiken Densetsu 2 were split off into Chrono Trigger, and it shows through some of the designs and such. I’m not sure I did the best job with these sprites but hopefully someone will enjoy them.
Remember when Smash Bros. was good? Well, one game before that we had Melee. trollololol Seriously though, there’s some solid additions in this game, rounding out the cast and only bloating it slightly. Having drawn some of these characters multiple times now, I have to decide between lazily porting the sprite, tweaking it, reworking it… it’s fun. Popo is supposed to be jumping or something, and Game & Watch’s nose doesn’t translate too well. Eh, enjoy.
Mario, Dr. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi, Link, Young Link, Zelda, Sheik, Ganondorf, Samus, Donkey Kong, Fox, Falco, Kirby, Pikachu, Pichu, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Ness, Captain Falcon, Ice Climbers, Mr. Game & Watch, Marth, Roy
The enthusiasm of I.M.Gibbon of DKGirder inspired me to do a cast portrait of “Mario’s Brooklyn Years”, or “Mario’s Blue-Collar Period”. In the time before Super Mario Bros. and the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario had many jobs, and a set of friends and foes in our world. You can see them in Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Mario Bros., Wrecking Crew, and many of the Game & Watch games (such as Bombs Away and Cement Factory). The colours were chosen based on official art from the pre-SMB period, except for Stanley who uses his NES sprite to stand out more, and Spike who is a combination of his Wrecking Crew ‘98 and Mobile Golf looks for the same reason.
Mario (Jumpman), Luigi, Pauline (Lady/Louise), Stanley the Bugman, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong (Senior), Foreman Spike (Blacky)
Team Avatar (The Last Airbender), low-res pixel style!
I love this group of characters. I’m playing through the games now so I wanted to draw the “full” team, including Haru who adventures with them for most of the first game (which I view as the equivalent of a miniseries or TV movie between Books 1 and 2). I really love how Appa turned out.
Hyrule Warriors Hopefuls, part 3! Speculation about the Hyrule Warriors Legends DLC once again got me interested in fantasising and concepting possible characters for the game, even if they don’t fit in the revealed DLC structure. I had some fun ideas for characters, their weapons, how they would work… and maybe some rather phoned in ideas too. Oh well, bite me.
The Photographer (Link’s Awakening). Antique Picto Box -> Modern Picto Box -> Deluxe Picto Box (Light). The Picto Box emits bright flashes of light, and I guess it can fire laser beams maybe. Costume: to look like Wolf Link from Twilight Princess.
Tarin (Link’s Awakening). Odd Mushroom Bag -> Magic Mushroom Bag -> Glittering Mushroom Bag (Darkness). Tarin throws mushrooms that he’s collected, which can explode into clouds of spores. Costume: Link’s Uncle from Link to the Past.
Agahnim (Link to the Past). Wizard Staff -> Sage Staff -> Staff of the Gods (Darkness). It’s your basic dark magic stuff, but he can hit things with his staff too. Throw in some bolts of lightning for good measure. Costume: Nightmare from Link’s Awakening.
Fishman (Wind Waker). Lord Jabu-Jabu Saddle -> Ocean King Saddle -> Wind Fish Saddle (Water). The Fishman rides on the back of a massive aquatic deity, not unlike Link’s Great Fairy weapon. The whales obviously have big clearing attacks with their bodies, water, etc. Costume: classic River Zora.
Ezlo (Minish Cap). Mage’s Staff -> Picori Staff -> Light Force Staff (Lightning). Ezlo transforms into his cap form momentarily to peck at enemies, and to end his combos reverts to his Minish form and summons wind and lightning spells. Costume: to look like Vaati from Minish Cap.
Pinkle (Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland). Hand-me Down Tingle Tuner -> Fairy Tingle Tuner -> Kooloo-Limpah Tingle Tuner (Fire). Causes Tingle and his brothers to swoop down quickly, and also drop bombs. Costume: the Great Fairies from Wind Waker.
Alfonzo (Spirit Tracks). Engineer Wrench -> Royal Wrench -> Lokomo Wrench (Fire). Leave it to Alfonzo. He’ll smack enemies around with his wrench, and summon trains to steamroll groups of enemies. Costume: Gonzo from Wind Waker.
Anjean (Spirit Tracks). Rail Cart -> Golden Cart -> Spirit Cart (Light). Anjean tootles around in her little Lokomo cart thing, ramming enemies and shooting off light magic. Costume: Tetra from Wind Waker.
I wanted Jolene in but she’d just be treading on Tetra and Impa’s toes. Maybe as a costume for Nabooru or Impa. I also wanted Malo here, but I just can’t imagine him doing… anything!
See also: other concepts in part 1 and part 2, and my pixel art of the actual characters in the game here (third revision of that coming when they announce all the new DLC characters).
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past companions, low-res pixel style!
Link to the Past is cool. But one thing I like about it is that it has at least four licensed adaptations to comics, each of which has its own additions and changes. The latest one, Akira Himekawa’s for the GBA port, even uses the design of Ganon’s Tower from Shotaro Ishinomori’s Nintendo Power comic (among several other visual references). I think that’s a nice touch. Anyway between the different adaptations, these are the characters that accompany Link on his quest, more or less.
Link (the pink-haired version from the game sprite)
Mitchell (fairy companion from Junko Taguchi’s manga published through Takarajima Comics. That’s how her name is spelled… I think they were going for Michelle maybe? Also I had to make up the colours.)
Roam (a rival character from Ishinomori’s comic who can transform into a bird-man in the Dark World)
Rahska/Rasuka (Link’s best friend and rival, and kung fu badass from Ataru Cagiva’s manga published through Enix)
Captain Arjuna/Leader (captain of the royal knights who accompanies Rahska and Link in Cagiva’s manga)
Ghanti (bandit with a mysterious past from Akira Himekawa’s manga published through Shogakukan)
