Princess Peach 1977?

I don’t know how to explain this woman’s resemblance to Princess Peach when this flyer is from 1977. (The character art also appeared on the bezel of the upright cabinet.)

I illustrated the cover for indie game Apple Jack 2, which came out in June for Xbox 360. Most gamers will instantly recognize it as an homage to / parody of Super Mario Bros. 2…but did you know it’s also an homage to the original Super Mario Bros.?

In Japan, the Famicom version of Super Mario Bros. had a beautiful widescreen illustration drawn by Shigeru Miyamoto himself (for later Mario games, most of the illustration has was handled by Yoichi Kotabe). 

“Ever since we made Donkey Kong, I had made many rough sketches of Mario in pencil and then given them to an external illustrator to polish up. When we came out with Super Mario Bros., I was thinking about asking a professional manga artist or a well-known illustrator to do the art, but time was running out, so I drew the original art for the package myself.” – Shigeru Miyamoto

The US box art for Super Mario Bros. 2 is actually a flipped and (poorly) redrawn version of Miyamoto’s Mario. Particularly noticeable is the lack of attention paid to lineweight in the traced version. With my drawing of Apple Jack, I tried to emulate Miyamoto’s more professional use of lineweight (though whether I succeeded is for you to decide).

Incidentally, the iconic clay image on the cover of Nintendo Power’s first issue was imitating the same pose. What I find interesting is that it uses elements from both covers: Mario holds the radish from the SMB2 cover (though apparently mistaken for a carrot), but the cover also features the starry fist-burst from the original illustration.

Mushroom? Radish? Carrot? Washing machine trumps all.

Video Dames: The History Of Playable Female Protagonists

The prelude episode to my new 50-part series on the history of playable female characters from the ‘80s!

Have you ever wondered what was the first game that let you play as a woman? The answer is in my new video!

Famicom 40th Anniversary Website

Nintendo has just opened a special Japanese-language website celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Famicom, that it sounds like they’re going to continue to update throughout the month (or possibly year?).

Which is super cool for gaming historians like myself. But also kind of horrifying, because I was born on the exact day the Famicom was released. So I get to spend the next month (or possibly year) being reminded that I just turned 40.

How The X-Men Logo Got Fixed

Did you know there are five different versions of the X-Men wedge logo? In this article I explain why they exist and how to identify them. (And then I create a sixth variation to test a theory.)

Also, which one was the basis for the ‘90s cartoon’s title screen (except they cut off the bottom!).