racketboy.com » Game Art

A Fan Art Tribute to the Sega Dreamcast

racketboy — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:42:48 +0000

With the 10th anniversary of the Dreamcast’s North American launch quickly approaching, I thought it would be a wonderful time to share some fan-created pieces of art that capture the colorful and imaginative worlds that the console shared with us. Vote for your two favorite pieces below and also check out the previous Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, and Sonic collections.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The Most Stunning Metal Gear Solid Artwork

racketboy — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:53:11 +0000

It’s hard to believe that the original Metal Gear Solid was released nearly a decade ago. Now that Metal Gear Solid 4 is ready for release, I thought it would be fitting to see some artistic interpretations of this famous franchise. (If you haven’t already, check out some of the past Game Art collections)

The Most Stunning Samurai Shodown Artwork

racketboy — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:57:13 +0000

Since I’m having such a great time playing Samurai Shodown for the Together Retro game club, I thought it would be fun to highlight the game in this month’s game art post. Hopefully it will help spark your interest in the game if you haven’t given it a chance quite yet. (If you haven’t already, check out some of the past Game Art collections)

The Most Stunning Final Fight Artwork

racketboy — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:28:12 +0000

For this fan art installment, I thought we would take a trip to Metro City, best known for being the home of the Final Fight franchise. I have to admit I cheated just a bit for this art compilation as most of the main characters have shown up in some of the Street Fighter installments, so some of the pieces are a result of those cameos. However, if you are a fan of this brawler series, I’m sure you’ll still enjoy these selections. (If you haven’t already, check out some of the past Game Art collections)

The Most Stunning Metal Slug Artwork

racketboy — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:06:11 +0000

I wanted to follow up Space Channel 5 with another franchise that you wouldn’t expect to see an art gallery devoted to. The Metal Slug series has always had a unique personality and visual style of its own. Even though I think there is still a lot of unused fan-art potential out in Metal Slug Land, I enjoyed these fan pieces that I discovered along my journeys. (If you haven’t already, check out some of the past Game Art collections) (Digg this!)

Finding The Best 8-Bit Nintendo Art From Japan

racketboy — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:15:42 +0000

Japan always gets the best videogame artwork. I’m not bitter, but it definitely makes decorating a grown-up-friendly game room more challenging. Since we can’t just wander into your average gaming shop and expect to find a wide array of frame-worthy artwork, we have to be a bit more creative in finding suitable pieces.

This time around, I just happened to be browsing around some Nintendo-themed photos on Flickr and found a collection of framed Famicom Disk System posters belonging to djdac. Considering how pathetic most of the NES-era art is here in the US, I was amazed by how much some of them reminded me of epic posters you might see in a movie theatre.

It turns out that these posters were distributed in Japan either at game stores and on the streets for advertisements or folded up and included with the actual Famicom Disk System games. They measure up to about 11.75 x 8.5 cm, so they aren’t very large, but when matted and framed, they can be a great addition to your wall. Even though there are some good Nintendo Power posters out there, these Famicom posters (sometimes referred to as handbills) typically have a more artistic look to them in addition to the Japanese charm that intrigues us foreigners. I did an eBay search for “Famicom poster” and found a handful of other excellent examples that I didn’t see on Flickr.

The Metroid poster is my personal favorite (especially when compared to an American alternative) due to the finely detailed drawing, beautiful color work, and the creative use of animation frames accenting the background. You can see the rest of my favorites below including the epic, old-school Link saving Zelda and the geeky Japanese kid pwning a terrified adult at Tetris.

If the original prints are too pricey or hard-to-find for you, you can pick up a few reproductions for a low price from “i heart yuna” on the FamicomWorld forums. From the 8.15″ x 11.6″ dimensions he mentions, it sounds like he enlarged them, so these may actually be a better solution for hanging in a game room. If you know of any other sources for these posters, let me know in comments section below.