RipTen Videogame Blog » Art

Dr. Mario Wants Princess Peach to Bend Over, and Cough?

Michael Futter — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:30:34 +0000

OK… I almost went with, “Close Your Eyes and Say, ‘Aaahhhh’ for Dr. Mario,” but thought that a family site like RipTen just wouldn’t tolerate that level of vulgarity. What’s that? I’m wrong? I’ll keep that in mind the next time we get a peak at some dirty gaming art.

For now, feast your eyes on the work of Donald Kennedy, a Nintendo fan with a flare for custom toycrafting. His work was recently featured in the Iam8bit store. Unfortunately for Mr. Kennedy, his piece featuring a lecherous Dr. Mario and a micro-skirt wearing Peach, didn’t sell. Fortunately for you, though, you can win the unique work by visiting the artist’s website at www.kodykoala.com and following a few simple instructions.

All you need to do is comment on the sculpture giveaway post with an idea for Donald’s next custom work. Only one entry per person, please. The winner will be chosen at random on February 27th.

Feel free to suggest all sorts of crazy things like Link and Sheik kissing or Kirby eating King Dedede or Diddy Kong walking in on Donkey Kong naked (without his tie, I mean). Sky’s the limit, really.

Five O’Clock Fan Art: A Very Mario Halloween

Dave Oshry — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:36 +0000

In case you’ve been living under a pumpkin, you’re probably aware that today is Halloween! In celebration of this spooky celebration of sugary snacks, we bring you some very Mario Halloween fan art.

Five O’Clock Fan Art is perfect for wrapping up the work day. You don’t want to think anymore, you just want to look at awesome things. And there’s nothing more awesome than a well crafted piece of videogame fan art. If you don’t agree, what the hell are you doing at a gaming blog?

BOO!

New RAGE Developer Diary Discusses Art and Sound

Chris Carlson — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:20:52 +0000

id Software has released their last entry in their developer diary series for RAGE. This time, the team focuses how the music, sound effects and voice acting come together to create an unforgettable, immersive experience. RAGE is set to release on October 4th for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Five O’Clock Fan Art: Electric Honda

Dylan Duarte — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:00:23 +0000

I like Street Fighter, at least more so than other fighting games. I also like E. Honda, his hundred hands, and their slapping. But I love Electric Honda, more than I like those other things.

NIW is a man with some good ideas.

Batman: Arkham City Two-Face Art and Bio

Garrett Hartman — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:26:49 +0000

Rocksteady has released a character bio on everyone’s favorite Batman Arkham City two-faced villian – Harvey Dent. Read it below:

Real Name: Harvey Dent
Alias: TWO-FACE
Occupation: Professional Criminal
Base: Gotham City
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown/Grey
Height: 6 ft
Weight: 182 lb
First Appearance: Detective Comics #66 (August 1942)
Attribute 01: Hideously scarred on the left half of his face, which he plays up with clothing that’s differently styled on one side.
Attribute 02: Extremely skilled with his weapons of choice: twin .45 automatics.
Attribute 03: Psychotic obsession with duality, designing crimes around the number two.
Attribute 04: Defers to his half-scarred coin in choices of life or death.

Background Story: District Attorney Harvey Dent was one of Batman’s strongest allies in Gotham City, until a criminal threw acid in Dent’s face, hideously scarring him. The wounds fractured his psyche, and he was reborn Two-Face, a schizoid criminal mastermind obsessed with duality. His former good-luck charm, a two-headed trick silver dollar, was damaged on one side in the attack, and Dent has seized on it as a reflection of his half-scarred visage. He flips it to decide the fates of his victims. Two-Face is thriving in Arkham City, rallying inmates to join his gang using tried and true campaign tactics.

Is it just me or does this game look better than good? As a fan of almost everything Batman (including the 60′s camp series) Batman: Arkham Asylum blew me away. Make sure to check out the full sized Harvey Dent picture below!

You know what I’ll be playing when Batman: Akrham City launches on October 18.

Games Now Legally Considered An Art Form in the U.S.

Bryce Wilson — Mon, 23 May 2011 05:07:08 +0000

In what could be the biggest blow in the Art v Non-art bout, Forbes has reported that the National Endowment for the Arts has reclassified their defintion of ‘art’ to include interactive games.

The 2012 art reclassification was amended to include our favorite pastime possibly amidst growing discussion over whether games were in fact art or not. The reclassification reads:

“Projects may include high profile multi-part or single television and radio programs (documentaries and dramatic narratives); media created for theatrical release; performance programs; artistic segments for use within an existing series; multi-part webisodes; installations; and interactive games. Short films, five minutes and under, will be considered in packages of three or more.”

Interestingly, this now opens up video game developers for large government grants, however as is duefully noted, $200,000 isn’t likely to put much of a dent in the budget of large AAA titles, but it could definitely help out indie developers.

Are you pro or anti games as art? Let us know in the comments below.

Image Credit: [PlatformNation]

New Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D Art

Justin Berube — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:31:51 +0000

Nintendo has just released a bunch of “new” pieces of art for the upcoming game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS. If you want to get technical, not all of the pieces of art in this batch are new, but they are still cool to look at to get hyped for the re-release of one of the most acclaimed games ever made. Enjoy the pics below!

Want to stay up to date on the latest Nintendo news, information, editorials, and more? Follow me on Twitter @KingNintendoFan or Like Me on Facebook. Be sure to let me know what you think about these new pieces of art!

Pandora’s Tower – New Screens And Art

Justin Berube — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:52:47 +0000

Some new screenshots and artwork for Pandora’s Tower have surfaced. Please keep in mind that at this time Pandora’s Tower hasn’t yet been confirmed to be coming out in regions outside of Japan. Enjoy the screens and art below!

Source

Marvel vs Capcom 3 – Cheats and Unlockables Guide

Ripten Staff — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:32:58 +0000

MvC3 is the latest in Capcom’s famous fighting series where Marvel heroes and villians take on various Capcom video game characters. So, you have the game and are looking for a little more insight? Check out this guide to Bonus Characters, Alternative Costumes, Easy Player Points, Artwork and more!

Other Ripten MvC3 Guides

Bonus Characters – unlock by earning Player Points to purchase locked characters:

Akuma: Earn 2,000 PP.
Hsien-Ko: Earn 6,000 PP.
Sentinel: Earn 4,000 PP.
Taskmaster: Earn 8,000 PP.

Alternate costumes

At the character selection screen – press A, X, Y, (X, Square, Triangle) or RB (R1) when choosing a fighter. Characters can have up to four diff costumes.

Start match with 2nd or 3rd character

At the versus or loading screen – hold LB (L1) to start as Partner 1 or RB (R1) to start as Partner 2.

Easy PP

Complete Arcade mode on the Very Easy difficulty as many times as you’d like to earn easy PP.

Art – complete tasks to unlock art

Stage Art

Asgard: Complete Arcade mode eight times.
Danger Room: Successfully complete Arcade mode.
Demon Village: Successfully complete Arcade mode four times.
Fate Of The Earth: Successfully complete Arcade mode ten times.
Hand Hideout: Successfully complete Arcade mode six times.
Kattlelox Island: Successfully complete Arcade mode five times.
Metro City: Successfully complete Arcade mode three times.
S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier: Successfully complete Arcade mode seven times.
The Daily Bugle: Successfully complete Arcade mode two times.
Tricell Laboratory: Successfully complete Arcade mode nine times.

Character Art

Character 3-D model: Land the final hit on Galactus with any character.
Character Bio: Land the final hit on Galactus with any character.
Character Ending: Land the final hit on Galactus with any character.
First piece of Character Art: Successfully complete a Mission mode assignment with any character.
Galactus’ Ending: Lose to Galactus, and then do not continue.
Second piece of Character Art: Land the final hit on Galactus with any character.
Special 3-D model: Successfully complete Arcade mode with every character.
Special Bio: Successfully complete Arcade mode with every character.
Third piece of Character Art: Land the final hit on Galactus with any character.

Special Art

Special Art 1: Earn 10,000 PP.
Special Art 2: Earn 15,000 PP.
Special Art 3: Earn 20,000 PP.
Special Art 4: Earn 25,000 PP.
Special Art 5: Earn 30,000 PP.

Cinema – complete these tasks to unlock movies:

Credits: Successfully complete the game.
Opening Movie 2: Earn 15,000 PP.
Opening Movie 3: Earn 30,000 PP.
Opening Movie 4: Earn 60,000 PP.

License card - complete these tasks to unlock license cards:

License Card #1: Successfully complete Arcade mode with any character.
License Card #2: Successfully complete Arcade mode with any character on the Very Hard difficulty.
License Card #3: Successfully complete five missions with any character.
License Card #4: Successfully complete all missions with any character.
License Card #5: Use a character thirty times.

Normal license card titles - complete the task to unlock license card title:

Airborne Fighter: Perform an air combo.
All Nine PP Titles: Earn 100,000 PP.
All Ten Online License Titles: Win 200 matches.
Bring It On!: Land 30 counter-hits.
Burnin’ Up!: Win 50 times with a Hyper Combo.
Cooling Down: Win once by chip damage (opponent must be guarding).
First Hit Wins: Get the first hit bonus 50 times.
I Ain’t Done Yet!: Win with X-Factor activated.
Just As Planned: Win 10 times by judgment.
Reading Your Mind: Perform a Team Air Combo.
Schemer: Win ten times by chip damage.
Win With Experience: Perform a Team Air Counter.

Did we miss anything!? Let us know!!

Source

The Worlds Greatest Super Nintendo Cake Is Not A Lie

Aaron Alexander — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:59:25 +0000

Wow, just wow. Finally I’ve stumbled across something that our own Justin Berube would be proud of.

Found in a Reddit thread, we now have a glimpse at the most realistic, authentic Super Nintendo cake ever created by man. Such detail has been poured into each section of the controller, from the M&M buttons, Licorice D-Pad and Start/Select buttons and authentic Nintendo grey icing. Fucking Bravo to the artist who made this.

Link to the full glorious cake here.

Five O’Clock Fan Art: Gears of MOAR, Am I right?

Dylan Duarte — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00:31 +0000

So I’ve been bending the rules of “fan art” and including “professional illustrator art” in these features. Some might say it doesn’t count, I say it does. And I’m the King of Fan Art, so off with your head! Anywho, here’s a little number that goes out to a special dude I know. This one’s for you, Chaddy!

This piece is the work of LiamSharp.

Limited Edition Mass Effect 2 Lithographs Go On Sale

Bryce Wilson — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 02:39:25 +0000

I was never much of a Mass Effect fan. I don’t know if I just didn’t play the game enough or I simply just didn’t like it, but either way there’s hundreds of thousands of fans out there who love the game and its art, and I can respect that. Well BioWare is giving their fans a treat as they put a Legion and Miranda lithograph pack on sale tomorrow between 10 and 11am MDT, and then a further 150 for sale between 5 and 6pm MDT.

The lithographs are signed and numbered and are literally limited editions, with only a small amount being made. If you’re interested, go to the BioWare store tomorrow and pre-order them as they will sell like wildfire!

Five O’Clock Fan Art – Halo

Dylan Duarte — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 00:00:42 +0000

With the weekend within Reach, it’s now socially acceptable to put your responsibilities aside and kick back. For the next few days, you can stop reaching for the stars and instead reach for your favorite video game. Maybe even the game pictured above, whose name I can’t remember at the moment. I’m pacing around in circles, burning a halo into my carpet as I reach for the answer!

The picture above comes from Rahll. Enjoy your weekend everybody! I’m getting a headstart, listening to Halo by Beyonce as I reach for a cold one. I just wish I could remember what this game is called!

Five O’Clock Fan Art: Space Invaders

Dylan Duarte — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:10 +0000

While Space Invaders may bring back heartwarming memories of quarter-fueled gaming for most of us, government officials don’t find the potential invasion of a hostile extraterrestrial species very humorous.

This eye-opening piece is brought to us from artist Chris Rowson. Keep fighting the good fight and keep the people informed, Chris!

Going Rogue with Paragon Studios

Andrea Emmes — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 02:32:30 +0000

As a huge fan of MMORPG games as well as Comic books, I’m pretty excited about City of Heroes: Going Rogue. As you may already know, in City of Heroes, you have the chance to create your own hero or villain and live your virtual life the way you chose. I had a chance to speak with lead artist David Nakayama while he was sketching some concept art in Prismacolor markers waiting for fans to finish playing the demos and come say hello.

AE: When did you get started with City of Heroes?

DN: I got started with CoH a couple years back as a Concept Artist and this year became the Art Lead.

AE: What exactly does an Art Lead do?

DN: I’m somewhere in between a Concept Artist and a manager. I have a team of artists that include Environment, 3 Dimensional Character/Artists, FX, Particle FX, Animators, Sound Guy, and a Concept Team and all of these guys create art and I check it out and make sure it’s consistent with our vision and make corrections where necessary. Yeah, the buck stops with me. I have to put my stamp of approval on it.

AE: So do you get to contribute your own artistic skill within your job position besides just being the manager?

DN: Yup, as a Concept Artist sometimes the original artistic idea for a given thing, a new environment or new character may start with me as a 2 dimensional drawing and then it gets passed on to one of the other teams and then they flush out into 3D and then it gets animated and all that stuff.

AE: When you were a kid, did you ever picture yourself as a game concept artist?

DK: Not at all. In fact, when I was a kid, in sixth grade I was drawing Mega Man 2 levels because that’s what was hot at the time but as an American, and everything being in Japan, I just kind of gave up on games because I didn’t know how to get started. So I became a comic book artist over the next 15 years and then fell backwards into games which was something I’ve always wanted to do since I was a kid.

AE: What are some of the comics that you’ve worked on?

DK: Sure, I previously worked for Top Cow, I did Witchblade for an issue and some other random stuff there, and I did the City of Heroes comic for a long time, for about two years which is how I got started with Paragon in the first place.

AE: What was it like translating comic book design into video game style?

DK: It was interesting, when I first started as a Concept Artist I was doing a lot of line art like the stuff you see here (Dave shows me a drawing he is working on at the moment) and coloring over it, very comic book style, it looked like a comic book cover. That was cool, but concept art in the game industry is very painterly, you know a lot of digital painting that kind of material and so on, it was something that I was interested in anyway and something I wanted to learn, so I slowly migrated my style over to paint and now I pretty much digitally paint all the time.

AE: I love the work that you’re doing right now, I love the whole traditional, 2D hand drawn aspect of art, but how do you find it moving into the 3D world, with Maya, 3ds Max, etc. Do you incorporate that within your own art work?

DK: I’m pretty much strickly 2D, but as Art Lead I think it’s really important what the artists working under me are doing, to understand their tools, to know if I make a request, how long is that going to take them or how hard is it going to be? I need to understand the tools that they use well enough to understand what I’m asking.

AE: Well, now let’s get to the game. Tell me about City of Hero’s Going Rogue.

DK: Well City of Heroes started back in 2004 and in 2005 we came out with City of Villains, which was an independent game where you could make a villain. It had a brand new city and a brand new concept. Those got merged together and along the way we’re releasing free issues of free content that comes free with your subscription. We’re up to issue 18 free issues of new content, and to correspond with that we have the expansion; City of Heroes Going Rogue, which for the first time, finishes the story and lets you move your character from a hero or villain alignment to the other side, so you could become from a hero to a vigilante and from vigilante become a villain. And from a villain become a rogue and from a rogue become a hero.

AE: Kind of blur the moral lines a little bit.

DK: That’s exactly what we’re doing. It’s the gray area in between and you get to explore who your character is more so than they ever have before and certainly more so than any other game out there. There is no other game that lets you do this.

AE: What is your tag line?

DK: Our tag line is “Walk the line between good and evil, or cross it”.

AE: Haha sweet! Thanks so much for speaking with me!

DK: My pleasure!

City of Heroes: Going Rogue expansion pack will be available August 17th!! You can pre-purchase it now . The manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $29.99 USD (€19.99 / £17.99), and the City of Heroes Going Rogue: Complete Collection, which includes City of Heroes Going Rogue, has an MSRP of $39.99 USD (€29.99 / £26.99).

Junkboy’s Pixelated Demakes Make For Incredible Fan-Art

Demi Adejuyigbe — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:44:19 +0000

Despite the heavy focus a lot of gamers tend to put on graphics in this day and age, I will always stand by the idea that games can be fun and enjoyable without having flashy, realistic, “next-gen” graphics. Way of the Pixel member & pixel artist Junkboy can probably back me up on this too, as he has created over twenty pixelated video game “demake” pieces that support such an idea.

While he says these were all made for the Swedish publication LEVEL, and that many were rushed, they all look incredible. Many of them even look like games that I would prefer to play over their original iterations. The only one whose original game I can’t figure out is the racing game, though I want to say it’s Blur. In any case, Junkboy is a terrific pixel artist, and you can see more of his art over at the Way of the Pixel forums.

Check the gallery to see all of the pixel art. Which one is your favorite? It’d be too easy for me to give it to Sunset Riders, because I have super fond memories with that game, but I think the LittleBigPlanet one is my favorite. Tell us yours in the comments!

[nggallery id=153]

New Shogun 2: Total War Screens and Artwork

Sam Naylor — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:27:05 +0000

Sega have today released some new screenshots and artwork from Shogun 2: Total War, the latest game in the Total War series and the sequel to the first game in the series.

The gallery below has all the new stuff. There’s not much, but to a Total War fan, this is plenty. The detail on the soldiers is incredible- notice the reflections in the soldiers’ helmets and the warm glow from the solitary lamp. It looks really great. Fans of feudal Japan will surely be loving this too, with some beautiful artwork to go with the screenshots. Enjoy- and let us know what you think in the comments.

John Carpenter Disagrees with Ebert on Videogames; Enough With This Art Talk

Dylan Duarte — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:56:36 +0000

Iconic filmmaker John Carpenter has come out in defense of videogames, saying he disagrees with Roger Ebert that they can’t be art. Ebert made the claim back in April and the internet promptly exploded, unleashing a violent wave of anarchy upon the world. Droves of sweaty nerds took to the streets, smashing in windows with keyboards and tossing optical mice like hand grenades. No, I made that stuff up. But Ebert’s comment did cause quite a shitstorm.

Plenty of people disagree with his opinion. Now you can add John Carpenter to that list.

“I think you’re asking a videogame to be something it isn’t. So there’s great writing in every medium – comic books, videogames, movies, literature. So it depends on what the purpose of it is. There’s a lot of great writing in videogames, just don’t ask it to be what it isn’t.”

Just to clarify my personal position: I don’t give a rat’s poopchute that John Carpenter approves of videogames, just like I don’t care when Ebert says they can’t be art. My enjoyment of videogames does not hinge upon these things. However, I really love the point Carpenter is making. Videogames are what they are. To be honest, I hate all of this “art” talk. I absolutely think videogames are art, but I sure as hell don’t want people focusing on that concept, especially not developers. Not only does it force games into a box, it encourages comparisons to other mediums that are traditionally thought of as art, such as literature and film. And these comparisons shouldn’t even exist, especially when they could potentially influence the development process. I wasn’t around when motion pictures became a thing, but I’d bet my bottom dollar that nobody said “these are like books that you look at.”

Videogames are videogames. They are entirely unique, and the more we insist that they belong in the same category as other art forms, the less unique they become.

And as a final thought: when Roger Ebert said “no video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form,” why didn’t anybody just point out that he is not a time traveler? That would leave much less room for debate.

Kane & Lynch Get DC Comics Covers By Ben Templesmith

Sam Naylor — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:22:51 +0000

Comic artist Ben Templesmith has created two superb Kane and Lynch comic covers. DC’s WildStorm imprint, IO Interactive and Square Enix have sanctioned two Kane and Lynch comic books written by Ian Edginton, with this new art on the cover.

Ben Templesmith is “mostly known for his work on 30 Days of Night and Fell.” Ian Edginton is known for his work on many different comics, notably 2000 AD.

The first issue of the Kane and Lynch comics is scheduled for release on August 4.

The art can be found below, and as you can see it’s really excellent. I think it captures the madness of the characters really well. I’m not usually a comic guy, but these do actually look interesting, if only for the artwork. It’s a shame the game never lived up to the characters, but I hope that Kane and Lynch 2 will be able to pull that out of the bag.

Assassin’s Creed Comic En Route? Non-Game Related Image Offers Clues

Bryce Wilson — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:56:27 +0000

Comics are awesome, right? They’ve spawned iconic figures like Spider-Man, Batman and The Incredible Hulk. So when you take an established video game series, that has been met with critical acclaim, and transfer it to another medium with a track record of super-hero stardom, one would think that you’re sitting on a sure fire recipe for success. Well, Ubisoft might be doing just that.

The creators of the Assassin’s Creed franchise recently launched a website called UbiWorkshop, which contains a singular mysterious image featuring a dark looking figure in the center of the screen holding a severed head in one hand, and the presumed beheading weapon in the other.

The image contains a few subtle clues (in my opinion), including a very suspicious looking red sun that bears a harsh resemblance to the one on the Japanese flag, and an eagle, which used to be a symbol of spirituality in olden times.

After coming across a Ubisoft issued statement which claimed the image was part of a “non-game related project”, I searched around the net for a bit, contacted some friends, and eventually had Dan Webb from Xbox360Achievements inform me that, to the best of his knowledge, the image was referencing a comic. I then received this Tweet from Dan saying;

The guys tied to the project are comic book artists as well =)

So, it seems to be a comic at this point. Would I call it concrete? I’d say its about as solid as an unofficial concrete foundation gets. We’ll bring you more information as it comes.