DP’s Gaming Wallpapers

April 30th, 2008

Oh boy, this is somewhat embarrasing. As mentioned in the previous post I am interested in graphic design and also photography, you can find some of my work on my deviantART page and on my flickr account. Many years ago I created a few video game based wallpapers when my design skills weren’t too crash hot. Even though it is painful looking at these pieces now, some of them, the more recent ones (2 years ago) aren’t too bad. Since I don’t have anywhere to upload these wallpapers to, I thought that I could make this site their last resting place. So below are the wallpapers that I am talking about. Also I apologise for scrolling on the main page, Wordpress’ awful formatting has my hands tied.

You will find that some of them are tagged, I should explain this. Firstly Raven is an old screen name *giggles*, some of the wallpapers were volunteraly made for the Advanced Media Network, a site in which I use to post at quite a bit (the forum that is) and Nexus and Ravens Domain is something of a portfolio site with work from myself and my twin brother. Anyways, I think that the majority of these wallpapers are quite crude but if you like them then…yeah, let me know. Click the titles for a full view.

Advanced Media Network Wallpaper - 1024×768

advanced media network wallpaper

Bowser Sprite - 1024×768

bowser sprite wallpaper

Day of Disaster - 1280×1024

Fierce Deity 2006 - 1600×1200

Gamecube Advanced - 1024×768

Kirby - 1280X1024

Lost in Blue - 1600×1200

Super Mario 64 DS - 1024×768

Mario Kart DS - 1600×1200

Playstation Portable - 1600×1200

Paper Mario 1024×768

Paper Mario #2 1024×768

Paper Mario Dragon - 1600×1200

Pokemon - 1024×768

Raven (Fire Emblem) - 1600×1200

Super Mario - 1024×768

Wario Ware - 1600×1200

Winona (Pokemon) - 1024×768

Zelda - 1280×1024

Zelda #2 - 1024×768

Zelda #3 - 1024×768

Posted in Visual Connection | Comments (7)
Tags: day of disaster, fire emblem, gamecube, konami, lost in blue, mario kart, nintendo, paper mario, Pokemon, super mario, wallpaper, Wario Ware, wii, zelda

Why You Should Buy the Original Metal Gear Solid over Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

April 3rd, 2008

metal gear solid the twin snakes compare

With the pending release of Metal Gear Solid 4 for the Playstation 3 and the recent release of the 20th Anniversary pack discussion has reignited about which version of Metal Gear Solid should players new to the series pick up. On one hand there is the original PSone classic and on the other hand there is the Gamecube remake; MGS: The Twin Snakes.

It’s a fair question and one that has been met with some confusion. So as a fan of this franchise I wanted to share my thoughts in the hope to level out any confusion. Personally I dislike the Gamecube remake; The Twin Snakes. I feel as though between the conversion from PSone to Gamecube many of the original game’s strongest assets were simply lost in translation. Which is why new players ought to experience the original game in all its low resolution glory. Thats not to say that TTS is a bad game by any means because it’s not, I just feel as though it does not provide the full, 10/10 Metal Gear experience. So to further back this up I want to elaborate on what I feel is wrong with The Twin Snakes.

Lacking the Polish

When developing the original Metal Gear Solid game for the PSone, Kojima and team wanted to make their game the best game on the console. Which is a tough call considering the number of AAA titles on the PSone. This drive ensured that Metal Gear Solid was arguably the most polished game on the system. The story telling, mood setting, stealth action gameplay were all so finely tuned that the original stands as a testament to the team’s effort and a testament to what the PSone is capable of in the right hands.

So when Silicon Knights stepped in to transfer this legendary title onto the Gamecube they had a difficult task ahead of them. Having any developer, let alone a recognized developer like Silicon Knights attempt to remake such a classic would undoubtedly lead in some disappointment. Although, realistically The Twin Snakes really is a faithful port of the original game one thing remains vividly clear as you make your way though the story. The polish and sheer perfection of delivering such a story is just severely lacking. The impact is weakened, effectively losing the game’s strongest assets in translation.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Critique | Comments (6)
Tags: 3rd party, konami, metal gear solid, nintendo, playstation, psone, silicon knights

Super Mario World:: The Pinnacle of 2D Plumber Platforming

March 15th, 2008

super mario world

Theres been plenty of hearty debate over which 2D Mario game rules them all. With the release of Super Mario Galaxy this brought about even more discussion. I was never really interested in these debates despite being a lime long Mario fanboy. But after reading the Super Mario World page in The 100 Best Video Games I thought that they mentioned a few good ideas that I want to expand upon.

The Rules

Okay, a few things need to be made clear. We are only referring to true Mario platformers, so this doesn’t include:

Yoshis Island
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Land 3
Hotel Mario
the Edutainment Mario games
Super Mario All Stars (no compilations)
Lost Levels (or Japanese only games)

Now, the question at hand is “What is the best 2D Mario platformer?”.

So with these rules in mind, here are the list of possible candidates:

Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2
Super Mario World
New Super Mario Bros

To kick thing off we can cross off New Super Mario Bros. The game just didn’t live up to the other games in the series. The level design wasn’t as clever, the game was overall far too easy and although it introduces those giant mushrooms it lacked the better abilities from the other Mario games such as the cape, frog suit and Yoshi.

Although they are awesome games and generally do get overlooked during these arguments, I’m going to have to disregard the Gameboy Mario games. Their main strength comes from miniaturizing the console titles rather than pushing the series forward. Gunpei Yokoi also headed up these titles, although I liked how his games didn’t feel like conventional mushroom kingdom games, it did make the games feel somewhat out of line with the Mario universe. Plus they introduced Princess Daisy which made things way too confusing. But then again the sequel did introduce Wario. I guess we can overlook this then ^_^

So we are down to the lastthree: Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World. Out of these three games SMW is the least innovative. Super Mario Bros started it all, Super Mario Bros 3 took it to an all new level and Super Mario World polished it to perfection.

As the rules state, we are after the BEST game. Therefore Super Mario World must win. Despite how ground breaking the other games were, SMW is the most polished and perfected game in the series. It is bigger, better and more refined than its predecessors. Which ultimately makes it the best 2D Mario platformer in existence.

Posted in Retro Gaming | Comments (6)
Tags: 2d platformer, gunpei yokoi, nintendo, super mario world, super nintendo

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