Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Haggar the Horrible

During my recent three-week stint in Madison, Wisconsin, I discovered the magazine below--Vol. 28 of Nintendo Power--while digging through a pile of old gaming publications sitting in the corner of my childhood bedroom.


That in and of itself isn't all that noteworthy, I admit--unless you're a huge fan of Super Mario World, of course--so why am I mentioning it here? I'm mentioning it here because of what I found on page 78 of said magazine.

If you click on the scan below and then zoom in on the guy standing in the left-hand corner of the page, you'll see what I consider to be one of the most hideous illustrations of Final Fight's Mike Haggar ever created.


Nintendo Power's take on the same game's Cody--apparently he's a mononymous person like Cher and Madonna--isn't much better, sadly:


I tried to wipe these despicable drawings from my mind by finding some filthy fan art featuring this dynamic duo, but all of my searches came up short. Thankfully, this GameSetWatch article--about a pair of rather roid-y Cody and Haggar figures--popped up just in time.

See also: 'Hubba hubba, part deux'

8 comments:

LottieTwintails said...

Arrgh you've reminded me how purely AWFUL a lot of those Nintendo Power illustrations could be! I still have nightmares about the Final Fantasy IV ones... *shudder*

Really makes me wonder why they didn't just pull official art from the manuals or Japanese sources, unless there were legal reasons or they just didn't have access to them.

I still have this issue around the house somewhere, I should go find it to relive some of my less noteworthy childhood memories xD

Robert said...

I know if I had pants that tight it would be hard to walk let alone throw high kicks!

Viewtiful_Justin said...

Yeesh! That is one ugly Haggar! I still have that issue, BTW. I actually tok a photo with it and the ending screen of Super Mario World when I beat it.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Kamiwoo: YES! Some of the old Nintendo Power issues definitely had truly awful illustrations. I can't help but kind of like most of them, though -- although I think nostalgia might have something to do with it.

BTW, thanks for reminding me of the hideous FF IV illustrations! Now I've got to track them down on line somewhere...

As for why the folks at NP didn't just use official art: I would guess it's either because they couldn't (rights issues) or because they just wanted to create their own, strangely enough.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Robert: You know, I have to agree! :P

Bryan Ochalla said...

Justin: What a cute story! Do you still have the photo??

Viewtiful_Justin said...

I'm sure I have it somewhere. It's SO nerdy. HA!

Bryan Ochalla said...

I think that's awesome, Justin!