Game Art: Manuel Kilger

Hailing from Germany, Manuel Kilger is a digital artist that has created a wide range of fun and vibrant artworks, reflecting games, fantasy, popular TV shows and more. 

Looking through his gallery has been a treat, so I have posted a few of my favourite game-inspired artworks below. (Click to enlarge)

Please be sure to visit his gallery to look at the rest! 

Dead Space

Old Link (The Legend of Zelda)

Samus (Metroid)

Got any great game artwork of your own to share? Please feel free to get in touch! 

NintyFans: Smash Bros. Competition Winners

My Nintendo deviantART art group (NintyFans) recently held a competition to create a piece of art based on a character the entrant would most like to see in a future Smash Bros. game. They were encouraged to draw some of the characters move-set if they wish.

We had a lot of excellent entries, but these three were by far the best, and were awarded our three winners!

Ridley by BonnyJohn

Tetra/Toon Zelda by Icy-Snowflakes

Wart!! by Dominosaur

Congratulations to those who won! If you wish to enter future NintyFans competitions, please keep an eye on the group page.

Kirby/Skyrim Crossover by Michael Edstrom

A while ago I was asking for Kirby art for an anniversary themed piece that I was planning to run on 8-Bit Girl. Unlike my previous features (Metroid, Resident Evil and Zelda), I wasn't swamped with artwork, comments and other things that people wanted me to feature. I am not too sure why Kirby didn't get the love that the others recieved!

However...I did get one fantastic piece of art sent to me during that time.

Above you can see the Kirby and Skyrim crossover piece that Michael Edstrom, a graphic designer, podcaster, gamer and 8-Bit Girl reader created. I love Skyrim, so it was brilliant to open this email and see Kirby dressed as the dragonborn doing the 'Fus Ro Dah!' shout!

Thanks for sharing Michael!

Rockin' Android To Release Bunny Must Die

Rockin' Android, a Los Angeles based group that publishes a wide range of titles for the PC and Playstation 3 have just released information about their next title. Bunny Must Die: Chelsea & the 7 Devils is an action-platformer game, where Bunny must brave the depths of the Devil's Labyrinth and overcome the powerful 7 Devils. 


Players will traverse through an expansive, connected map that contains a whole host of enemies, traps and puzzles, whilst magical items will guide Bunny along the way. 


“Bunny Must Die: Chelsea & the 7 Devils is from Platine Dispositif, the talented developer behind the Gundemonium Collection.”, says Enrique Galvez, CEO of Rockin’ Android. “It's an incredibly charming and nail-bitingly difficult action-platformer that mixes a warped sense of humor, unique gameplay mechanics, and a bit of that old Metroid and Castlevania magic.” 


Like their other Japanese releases, Rockin' Android's release of Bunny Must Die: Chelsea & the 7 Devils will feature a full translation, a full remixed soundtrack by Woofle of Gundemonium Collection fame, and optional graphical tweaks.


Check out the trailer and download the demo via the games official site.

Dynasty Warriors Vs Japanese Trailer

A few days ago I announced that Link and Samus will be featured as playable characters/costumes in the upcoming Dynasty Warriors Vs for the Nintendo 3DS. The latest trailer for the game shows these popular Nintendo characters in action.


The trailer shows The Legend of Zelda's Link and Metroid's Samus Aran battle against hoards of enemies in this huge Japanese series. Technically, they're costume sets, which can be unlocked and set on your chosen Dynasty Warriors character when you play the games tutorial mode. 


Skip this Japanese trailer (sorry, no subtitles) to the 1.57 mark to check out a Mii, Link and Samus in action. 

Jak and Dexter's 10th Anniversary!

This year has been full of gaming anniversaries, from Tomb Raider to Zelda, Mario and Metroid. Now, here's another one. The 5th December signalled the 10th anniversary of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, which this time ten years ago earned a release on the Playstation 2. 


Now I am sure that there are plenty of my readers who are fans of Jak and Daxter, and I'd love to do a special blogpost to celebrate this latest gaming anniversary. A retrospective look back at the game, in a way. 


I've done a few of these previously, including the Zelda Retrospective. 


If you'd like to be included in this blog post, then please email me with your comment on the series. It can be anything about it at all! I'll pick the best from the bunch to display in the post.


Also, I'm looking for any great Jak and Daxter fan-art, so again, please get in touch if you have anything you think I should include.


Thanks everyone, and I hope you enjoy the anniversary celebration blog when it is eventually up!

Review: Celestial Mechanica

I was recently contacted by Roger Hicks to try out a game (and listen to it's soundtrack) which he had worked on, entitled Celestial Mechanica for the PC. Created by indie developers Roger Hicks (one of the creators of rComplex) and Paul Veer (animator of Super Crate Box), Celestial Mechanica combines action, puzzle, exploration into one short, but sweet game.


The first thing I noticed about Celestial Mechanica was the cute pixel graphics which carry a nostalgic retro feel. I was instantly reminded of old platformers on consoles such as the SNes when I first loaded this up. For me, I found that these cute little pixel characters were what made me want to continue playing the game until the end. The game reminds me of a Metroid-style platformer, so fans of this particular type of game play should have an indication of what the game is like already. 

As for the game play, in short it looks straight forward, but unfortunately, it isn't always the case. In fact, Celestial Mechanica can be horribly frustrating at times. The difficulty definitely heightens as you progress through the game, due to the increase in enemies and environmental hazards. At least Celestial Mechanica is forgiving to the player in one aspect. Players are giving an unlimited amount of lives. When you do die, spawn points are normally quite close, but sometimes they involve completing that frustratingly hard labyrinthine that you have only just traversed after repeatedly dying in the process of completing it. However, this does not spoil the game as a whole. In fact, once you have completed those sticking points, it actually makes for a satisfying and rather fun game. 

A great aspect is that the controls are relatively easy to pick up. Combine this with the endless lives and a generous amount of power-ups does make the elements of frustration feel worth it Celestial Mechanica. The game is unfortunately rather short, and can be completed in around 2 hours. Personally I enjoyed this game, and would have liked to have become involved in it a little longer than this, but only if the levels of frustration were toned down a little. 

Summary
Overall, Celestial Mechanica is an enjoyable, but somewhat frustrating platformer. You'll die a lot, probably curse a little too, but the pay-off at the end is as much rewarding as it is satisfying. The retro look and feel of the game creates a fun, nostalgic and cute atmosphere which I had no problems playing through, and the retro music fits in nicely with the action also. You can purchase the game for the low price of £3.06 (or $5.00), and complete it within 2 hours. Not bad, I say. 


Still undecided? Watch the trailer below-it may help.

Metroid Celebrates it's 25th Anniversary

The 6th August marked the 25th Anniversary of Metroid. Nintendo had already celebrated The Legend of Zelda's 25th anniversary this year, as well as Mario's at the end of 2010. No news has been announced on how Nintendo plan to celebrate this as of yet, but no doubt something will be in the works soon enough. You can read more about this via my article that I posted on MCM BUZZ.


The Metroid series follows the adventures of bounty hunter and protagonist, Samus. Samus helps to save the galaxy from the sinister Space Pirates, as well as attempt to harness the power of the Metroids. So far, the Metroid series spans 11 games over a host of Nintendo consoles, with the latest addition gracing the Wii. The game play combines the platforming aspect that is evident in hit Nintendo games such as Super Mario with the exploration aspect of The Legend of Zelda.


Shinesparkers.net created a 10 minute video to celebrate the latest Nintendo anniversary. The video comprises of members of the Metroid fan community, as well as some notable names in the games industry, such as Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya who I had the pleasure to interview for 8-BIT Girl on Monday.

You can watch the entire video below:

So why is Metroid so well loved?

 I managed to collect several fan's opinions on my Nintendo fan-site NintyFans, as well as my own deviantART profile on why they enjoy playing the role of heroine Samus in this series. Some of which are detailed below:


segawarrior: 
"1: The games have a big map to explore, and even if you got through all the places in the map, you still haven't done it all!
2: The weapons are awesome and the abilities are great. EVERY single one has a usage! I like screw attack, besides the space jump being hard to use...
3: The super reason! The characters AND the story! Samus, the one we all know and love, Ridley-he is almost always there, and the story; A-MA-ZING!"


Shiori500: "The Metroid game was my first FPS. It's what got me into that genre of games, but besides that, the games are just so involved. Everything is really detailed, so it feels like you're actually in the world yourself. 


Another thing I like is that you don't just go through an area once, and then you're done with it, which is what a lot of games today do. There's always something new to explore and/or be discovered wherever you go. The enemies you have to fight in these games are also pretty challenging. It often takes several tries before you can beat one of the bosses. Also, the equipment is just awesome! I wish I could turn into a ball and roll around. 


Lastly, when I first played Metroid, I didn't know Samus was a girl. When she took her helmet off, I was a little stupefied, but that made me love them even more, because it was a chick kicking everyone's butts!" 

PrinceCharmander: "It's this great atmosphere that is created that makes the games so amazing, with that unique sense of isolation. That keeps attracting me to the series."


SuperSaiyanKidGoku: "My love for Metroid started when I played the first Prime, and kept exploring the vast regions of Tallon. The music and graphics are kick-ass. My favourite creature is Ridley because he can come in many different forms: regular, meta and omega. I was a bit surprised when Prime 2 came out because of Dark Samus, but I eventually took care of her until Prime 3 came out, and she was more powerful than ever. Metroid: Other M is a pretty cool game, and I especially love the way they introduce Samus' story throughout the game. 


The Queen Metroid was the hardest boss I ever had to face. My favourite track is "Dark Samus' Theme" from Echoes because it is so catchy, and brings out my alter-ego, Metroidhackerz. The most shocking experience I had in the Prime series was when I landed on Phazee and immediately went into Hyper Mode."

LordGavinMacLean: "Some of the best Metroid games I've played were able to evoke a sensation of total isolation, leaving me alone to survive upon an alien world with little more than my skills as a bounty hunter to depend on. Driven onward, I delved deeper into the strange worlds, not only exploring every last corner for power-ups, but to satisfy my own simply curiosity at the seemingly limitless details of these worlds. The pleasure found whenever you stumble across such surprising secrets truly makes you feel like you're discovering something new and exciting, or perhaps adrenaline charged whenever you're ambushed by an aggressive foe. Metroid quickly became a staple of Sci-Fi gaming for me, beyond any simple gameplay mechanic, and more so due to it's consistent quality in detailed design and inspiring imagination."


SheikfreakIvan: "I had just started playing Metroid a little more than a year ago. My brother, who was 6 at the time, introduced me to Metroid Prime. I completely fell in love with the game and the character (not romantically). Samus is a strong, independent woman who can overcome anything despite the consequences..." 


groundzeroace: "Probably the biggest reason why I love the Metroid series is the feeling of total isolation. Depending on nothing but your quick reactions and skills. There's no experience system or a "hold your hand" mode.


...when I first played Metroid 2 on the Game Boy, it blew me away. It was a completely different gaming experience and I fell in love with it instantly. Finding power ups, exploring every nook and cranny of the stages-it was pure bliss.


Some of my best memories I've had has been in the Metroid games..."

Metroid-Tamer has written a detailed journal entry expressing her love for the series.


More fans opinions can be found via the responses on the NintyFans poll.

Fans Get Artistic

To conclude this extensive article, here are a few excellent examples of the art, etc fans have created to honour this series:

By groundzeroace

By Yukilefay

By noprips

By Rundash

Happy 25th anniversary Samus! May there be many more games over the years to come!