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Artist Updates Classic Game Characters

Over at a blog named Plan to Fail, there dwells a Canadian illustrator named Tom Rhodes. When Reading Week temporarily sprung Tom from the shackles of higher learning, he decided to celebrate by “updating” classic video game characters.

His first revisions centered on the characters from Earthworm Jim and Star Fox:

”I've never played [Star Fox] for more than 20 seconds, because I'd been spoiled by flight simulators I liked a lot more, but I always thought the character looked cool, so that's probably why he came to mind.”

The introduction of Krystal may have turned Star Fox into generic furry pin-up material, but in my heart, Fox is the last stand for genuinely cool animal-men.

A few more examples of Rhodes' work follow after the jump.

Posted Feb 26 2009, 09:18 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s)

Filed under: street fighter, earthworm jim, star fox, sonic the hedgehog, art, fan stuff, nadia oxford

Why Am I Playing This: Star Fox Assault

Star Fox is undoubtedly Nintendo's own Sonic the Hedgehog; it's an increasingly irrelevant series saddled with a creepy furry vibe and plagued with "innovation" instead of being designed with a thoughtful reflection of what made the first two games so great. And because my GameFly queue was so overloaded with in-demand games like Sly 3: Band of Thieves, you get to read about Fox McCloud and his friends.

I am a bad person.

Star Fox Assault gets a bad rap for a good reason; it starts you off in a level very similar to that of the original Star Fox or Star Fox 64. It's not quite as well-designed as Nintendo's own handiwork, though it's a reasonable facsimile. But when you get to the second level, the fine people at Namco decide to make Star Fox the on-foot shooter it apparently always wanted to be--and the third level's not much different. Just like with Sonic the Hedgehog, you'd think it would be so damn easy to make a Star Fox game; put me on rails with limited range, give me some optional paths, and BAM! You have what may be called Star Fox. But--as the similarly-wonky DS Star Fox proved to us all--there's a time and place for needless creativity, and Star Fox isn't it.

Because Nintendo can't seem to get their shit together when it comes to Star Fox, I've compiled a list of tips that just may save the series. I hope they appreciate the minutes of work that went into this.

Posted Oct 15 2008, 10:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 5 comment(s)

Filed under: nintendo, gamecube, star fox, namco, sonic the hedgehog cartoon, bob mackey, star fox assault, why am i playing this

Top Ten: Favorite Bosses part 1

The first game to sport a bona fide boss fight was dnd, a computer role-playing game released in 1975. Since that time, boss encounters have become a mainstay of video games. The very best sorts of boss fights are ones you remember long after the game is finished and I thought I'd highlight some of my favorites. Dipping into my game library, it became apparent I had a lot to choose from so with difficulty I limited my choices to one boss per game; enemies that offered up a fun fight, or were hard and interesting without being cheap, or simply scared the piss out of me.

!! Spoilers Ahoy !!

Posted Sep 19 2008, 11:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments

Filed under: super metroid, devil may cry, amber ahlborn, star fox, yoshi's island, top ten list, soul reaver

Fun Fact: Dylan Cuthbert - The Genre Masher

So you think PixelJunk Eden is a deliciously freeing, genre defying romp through psychadelia but that the whole experience is vaguely familiar somehow? Maybe that's because Eden was designed by the same dude who programmed Star Fox back on the Super Nintendo. In fact, a quick look at Dylan Cuthbert's history in game design shows a pattern of smashing game genre conventions, all the while producing addictive works of beauty.

Way back in 1992, Dylan designed and programmed X, a first person shooter/puzzler that showed off wireframe 3D graphics on the Nintendo Game Boy, a feat that had never been achieved on the clunky grey box before OR after. Based on this exciting new style of gameplay, Nintendo hired Dylan's team at Argonaut Software to develop a 3D arcade shooter for the brand-new Super Nintendo.

Posted Aug 11 2008, 02:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 3 comment(s)

Filed under: playstation 3, game boy, derrick sanskrit, playstation 2, star fox, super nintendo, eden, pixeljunk, fun fact

Personal Firsts: My Gaming Scrapbook, From A to Wii

Written by Amber Ahlborn

At some point in the 1980s, the year nebulous in my memory, my mom bowled with her team every Thursday night. I loved Thursday nights because dad let me stay up late to watch M.A.S.H. and Benny Hill. Sometimes he and I would hop in the car and go visit mom at the alley, and that was the best. Dad would sit and watch mom bowl. Me? I would squeeze every last quarter I could get out of him. With a fist full of change and dollars soon to be converted into change, I’d walk down to the alley’s hamburger bar, snag a stool, and drag it through the glass doors into the arcade. Without deviation, I’d position my stool in front of the “Ostrich Game” and stay planted there until I ran out of money. I’m speaking of Joust of course, but at that age I could neither reach the controls without a stool to sit on nor read very well.

Posted Jun 02 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments

Filed under: pac-man, metroid, wii, legend of zelda, snes, nes, ico, mega man, atari, gamecube, amber ahlborn, kaboom, katamari damacy, chrono trigger, firsts, pikmin, Playstation, joust, pitfall, star fox, ps2, frogger, super mario bros, ds

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.