Thursday, October 18, 2012

Mario & Luigi Tribute pieces

I recently did a couple tribute pieces for the Mario & Luigi RPGs.
These drawing will be for sale as a poster at my art stand at APEX in January. For info on the event go here - http://www.apex-series.com/


This is my tribute to Mario and Luigi - Superstar Saga, which along with Mother 3 and Warioware, inc. makes my top 3 GBA games. Now that I've got a new computer I'll be back in business. I've actually had the idea for this picture for years now, but I didn't get around to doing it until now. I originally had some different plans, such as the background showing two different scenes on top and bottom but I ultimately decided there wouldn't be a good transition between the two so I scratched that. I'm a little displeased with the end result. All while I was coloring the characters I loved the way it was coming out, but just as I finished the background last night I found it didn't turn out as I planned. There just seems to be far too little space being consumed by the foreground and too much empty background space.
Well, whatever, I guess I'm never pleased with my own work. Here we have the heroes of the game, the Mario Bros. and the debonair Prince Peasley going after the wicked Cackletta and her assistant, Fawful.


And here's my tribute to Mario & Luigi - Partners in Time. I'm pretty pleased with how this one came out. The only thing that kind of bugs me is all the work I did on the Shroob army in the background mostly ended up being blocked by Princess Shroob. Fear not, though, as I have uploaded a process work of the BG below.
I wanted to put E. Gadd in this picture because he's such a cool looking character but there wasn't really any place for him.
Here we have Mario and Luigi backed by their infantile selves taking on the ghoulish Shroobs and their lovely, curvy queen, Princess Shroob. This game may not be as awesome as Superstar Saga, but it's still a freaking awesome game with an incredebly fun and interactive battle system. It's major flaws in my mind are it's lack of an overworld, making the game seem very short with little exploring to be done (I still think we should have at least been allowed to play all the locations in present day as well). It also introduces far less new interesting places and characters than it's prequel. With the exception of the Shroobs, most new characters aren't terribly interesting (Toadburt and Kylie are just a couple of this game's unoriginal character concepts, and that stupid talking suitcase takes the cake for worst character ever). The game is also too damn easy. Even the final battles are incredebly easy as long as you keep your bros. items in a steady flow. The time theory in the game also makes no sense at all. I know the game is a comedy, but how the hell can the Shroobs take over the past Mushroom Kingdom and have no effect on the present. Ah, whatever. All bitching aside, this is an awesome game definately worth checking out.