'Dreamy Mushroom Munchers'

Sorry for the art inundation as of late. I guess I've just been in an artsy kind of mood. (Another possibility: the headlong sprint into winter--here in Seattle, at least--has temporarily sapped me of the energy that's usually reserved for writing blog posts.)

Anyway, the focus of this particular art-centric post is the following illustration, created by a deviantartist who calls himself "Luce in the Sky."



The piece's title is "Dreamy Mushroom Munchers," appropriately enough, and it was produced in honor of Luigi's 30th anniversary.

To see more of Luce in the Sky's stuff, check out his deviantart gallery or his brand new (and as such still sparsely populated) tumblr.

Cherry on top

Dublin-based Twitterer (and YouTuber) MechaGamezilla made my night (no, not in that way) last week when he drew Animal Crossing: New Leaf villager portraits for five of his followers.

My favorite of the bunch was his rendition of the punk-ish pup, Cherry:

His Ankha and Snake portraits (below and, er, below-er) are pretty awesome, too.

As for how they were created: MechaGamezilla shared with me that he began with pencil drawings on paper, then scanned them and colored them using Photoshop's pen tool.

To see his takes on Gaston and Muffy, check out the "photos and videos" section of MechGamezilla's Twitter page.

I'd rather own a Hello Kitty Dreamcast, but this pink 'DUX 1.5' one is pretty rad, too

I have to admit, I didn't even know a game called DUX 1.5 existed until I came across this post (on artist Oskunk's blog) about a Dreamcast custom-painted to look like the title's cover imagery.



Is it my favorite of Oskunk's custom-painted consoles? No, but it deserves kudos both for introducing me to a curious-looking shmup and for bringing the world yet another pink console.



In a perfect world, though, I'd play this game--and maybe its sequel, too--using the pink Hello Kitty Dreamcast that I don't yet own (but hope to acquire sometime in the not-too-distant future).

A handful of titillating trailers from this year's Tokyo Game Show

Tokyo Game Show 2013 is underway, and although it hasn't been as thrilling for me as some past events have been, I'd still say it's been all right so far.

Would I still deem it "all right" if Square Enix hadn't used the venue to unveil the first trailer for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call? Probably not, but since that's really more of a hypothetical question I think we should ignore it for the time being.

Anyway, speaking of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, here's the upcoming 3DS title's trailer that I eluded to earlier:

Pretty slick, don't you think? Well, except for that segment (beginning at :50) that shows a bit of the game's multiplayer mode. That was just scary.

Another Tokyo Game Show 2013 trailer that's piqued my interest in the last 24 hours: the one the folks at Capcom produced for their PS4 Dark Souls clone, Deep Down.



Wait, it's not wrong to call Deep Down a Dark Souls clone, is it? Regardless, I don't mean it in a bad way. The more Dark Souls clones the better, I say. (And, yes, that's coming from someone who's yet to even play the real deal.)

Next up: a teaser trailer for the game that's sure to excite a bunch of Vita owners (yes, all five of them--just kidding), Gravity Daze 2 (aka Gravity Rush 2).



I don't yet own a Vita, of course, but I'm giving serious thought to buying one sometime next year--along with a copy of the first Gravity Rush. And maybe a copy of the sequel, too--assuming it's localized by the time I pick up a Vita, I mean.

Last, but not least, here's a trailer for what I'm guessing is the world's first RPPG (role-playing picross game), Pictlogica: Final Fantasy.



Would you believe me if I told you Pictlogica is a Square Enix production, and that it'll hit an app store (yes, that means it's a mobile affair rather than a 3DS or Vita one) near you ... uh, at some future point in time? Unless you've been living under a rock for the last year or two, I'm willing to bet you would.

Do any (or all, or none) of the trailers above titillate any of you? If so, which ones, and why?

No joke: I'm pretty jazzed about both Wii Fit U and Wii Sports Club

I have a feeling I'm in the extreme minority in saying the following, but I'm going to say it anyway: yesterday's out-of-nowhere Wii Fit U Direct broadcast has me feeling pretty jazzed.

Now, I'm one of those weirdos who've been interested in Wii Fit U, which will hit the eShop on Nov. 1 and store shelves on Dec. 13, since it was first announced--due mainly to the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed both the original Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus--so I guess it shouldn't be too surprising to hear that I'm looking forward to owning the Wii U iteration, too.



As for why I'm "jazzed" about it, though: that can be pinned on the fact that I completely forgot--until watching the aforementioned Wii Fit U Direct, of course--that this version will make use of a special Wii Fit-branded pedometer that will track and display all sorts of important information (from steps taken and calories burned to time, temperature and even elevation).

Oh, and it features a pixelized representation of your Mii. Which I think is kind of cool.



As excited as I am about the possibility of having a pixelated Mii strapped to my hip all day, every day, I'm far more excited at this point about the Wii U game that was revealed at the tail end of this latest Nintendo Direct: Wii Sports Club.

I know a lot of folks likely yawned when they heard that an updated version of the mini-game collection that made the Wii a worldwide phenomenon would hit the Wii U eShop in early November, but I wasn't one of them.



Why? Because I absolutely loved the bowling and, especially, the tennis games that were included in the original Wii Sports. In fact, my only quibble with the title was that it didn't allow players to compete against others on line. Wii Sports Club fixes that issue and also introduces Miiverse functionality and a few other bells and whistles.

The question I'm asking myself (over and over and over again) as a result of all of the above: when am I finally going to pick up a Wii U so I can play both of these games?



Sadly, I think that's not going to happen until Christmas, at the earliest. I'll tell you what, though--whenever I do bring home a Wii U, I'll be bringing home copies of Wii Fit U and Wii Sports Club along with it (or I'll be buying them off of the eShop as soon as the system's hooked up--should Wii Sports Club not receive a boxed release).

How about you? Are any of you thrilled--or at least mildly interested--in either Wii Fit U or Wii Sports Club?