Of course this is in honor of the long-awaited release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, bringing the Green Machine (and friends) back to the pixelart-based beat ’em up format for some arcady good times. Just got it as a gift from a friend before I could even buy it myself (thanks, Z!) and I’ll be digging into it this weekend!
There’s a new killer-looking 2.5D platformer on the horizon, and the name of the game is Slave Zero X. Yes, it’s connected to the Dreamcast game, and here’s the first taste of the action: Slave Zero X – Announcement Trailer
Look at that crisp, beautiful pixel art and animation. No surprise that I wishlisted this as fast as I could. Here’s the Steam page for it if you’re in the mood to do the same:
Reminder: the Ninja Baseball Spirits comic book Kickstarter campaign, officially based on the Ninja Baseball Bat Man beat ’em up, is still going on with 16 days to go! Both physical and digital versions of the comic (as well as the BPM comic) are available in the campaign, so please check it out and pledge if you dig it and can afford to do so!
I’m still working on the Yo Joe June update, stay tuned!
This update has new and updated Capcom sprites, some fixes and additions to earlier updates, and a new video!
Mega Man – Roll (Classic) Street Fighter – Chun-Li (in her brand-new Street Fighter 6 outfit), Street Fighter 2010’s Kevin Straker Final Fight – Mike Haggar Final Fight 2 G.I.JOE – updated Cover-Girl, Doc, Quick Kick (made taller). Also added some section links at the top of the gallery so you can get to the sections more quickly.
Mini-Logos:
– Capcom: Street Fighter 2010
– DC Comics: Wonder Twins
As usual, all these new things have been added to the main Image Generator, where you can make (and right-click save) your own images like the one at the top of this news post!
I also made a video that recaps what I’ve posted and made during the first half of 2022. This includes some things I haven’t shown until now, including animations and video project previews (though I’m still holding back a bit here). This just might turn out to be a yearly thing, so I gave it the name of HalfTime.
Those G.I. Joe sprite updates and that G.I.JOE HQ clip you saw in the HalfTime video’s “lab” are prep work for the “Yo Joe June” update later this month, which will include a few more G.I. JOE sprites! Currently working on more replacements of the old Capcom sprite edits and more “Original 13” (the original 13 members of the G.I.JOE line-up). Stay tuned!
There’s currently a Kickstarter campaign for a Ninja Baseball Spirits comic book! Yes, the Ninja Baseball Bat Man beat ’em up legend is fighting get it’s due right now, but the campaign still needs help to reach its goal. The comic has an all-star line-up of people who appreciate beat ’em ups, including Drew Maniscalco (the original creator of Ninja Baseball Bat Man), writer Dave Cook (“Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat ‘Em Ups”), and artist Steve Gregson (BPM: Beatdowns Per Minute). The comic will be available in digital and physical forms and there’s a wide array of extras for higher tiers, some including the beat ’em up-based BPM comic as a bonus. There are sample pages and artwork on the Kickstarter page, so check it out and give ’em a pledge if you’re interested (yes, I’ve got my pledge in already)!
My commission work is done (for now), so it’s time for a site update!
Custom Sprites:
– Friday the 13th: an all-new sprite of Pamela Voorhees’ knife ready pose, a reshading of the 2018 “power lurk” pose sprite, and FINALLY the Jason sprite from my old “Horror vs. Horror” pixel art print has been added in a modified form.
All new sprites added to the site’s image generator, and so has a new Marvel Legends 20th Anniversary package tribute. Oddly enough, while the only one I have (so far) is Cap, I made a pixel version of Iron Man’s figure stand background. Don’t worry, there are also options to use backgrounds from various Marvel games by Capcom and a few that I’ve made. This ML card is MOSTLY finished, there’s another thing that’d require modding the whole engine to do, so that’ll have to wait for another day.
My commission work isn’t done yet (see bottom of post for details), so it’ll still be a while before I can post a full site update. But here’s something
Custom Sprite Downloads:
– name graphics for Darkstalkers 3 (link fixed, sorry about that!) and X-Men Children of the Atom. These were made from WinKawaks screenshots of the original names and includes the names from the game lineups and a lot of customized names from their respective universes and some crossovers. These are the exact same files I use in this site’s image generators, including characters who aren’t even in the generator yet.
The ToyBoss section was updated with new group shots for the heroes (playable) and villains for Captain America and the Avengers by Data East. The heroes pic only has 3 out 4 four accurate figures, because I still need to replace the retro/vintage Iron Man (the Neo-classic armor) I lost in ’20. The pic features the brand-new Marvel Legends 20 Years version of Cap, easily the best figure of him I’ve ever owned. The custom Red Skull I made late last year is front and center of the updated villains pic that also adds the long-awaited ML classic Ultron that hit the Marvel Legends line last year.
I can finally reveal that the commissions I’m working on are for Fight Forever, a beat ’em up fan game by the legendary Mr. Q! Two of the portraits I’ve made are in this preview video where the REAL star is that select screen music, which should make any Final Fight fan feel right at home:
I’m not sure when I’ll be done with everything, but I’ll try to at least get a small update together for May, and I’ll share links about the Fight Forever project and any other work I get into until I can get back to working on the site again.
I’ve just started working on some pixel art commissions, so I’ll be very busy for a while. I’m not sure when I’ll be done and have enough time for site updates, but I’ll be back as soon as possible. There’s some new video stuff in the works, to the point where I’ve made pixel remakes of some old-school TV overlay fonts:
Other plans (besides sprites) include a frequently asked questions video (because people have been asking more questions), some new screen layouts for the Image Generators, and a ToyBoss section update.
Couldn’t let Black History Month end without an update like this, so let’s get into it!
Custom Sprites:
– Sega: B.D. Joe
– DC Comics: Nubia (original armor)
– Marvel Comics: Bishop
They weren’t alone, as new sprites of Balrog (Street Fighter) and Doc (G.I.JOE) were added to the gallery earlier in the month!
It’s time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 80s-born A Real American Hero toy line with more G.I.JOE sprites!
Custom Sprites:
– G.I.JOE: all-new sprites for Cover Girl, Doc, Grand Slam, Gung-Ho, Zap, a new Big Boa (made from the same base sprite as the scratch-made Balrog I added earlier this month), and a v.4 (1991) version of my scratch-made Snake-Eyes – fight stance sprite was added.
(also, Tomax and Xamot were added two days ago during the Twosday 2022 update)
– Street Fighter: Vega (G.I.JOE figure, a headswap and repaint of Banzai)
Trivia: this specific version of Snake-Eyes appears in both the Konami arcade game and G.I.JOE the Atlantis Factor for NES, and most of the mold was reused to make Nightfighter Guile in the Street Fighter: the Movie toyline. These v.1 versions of Gung-Ho and Zap both appear in the 1-on-1 combat section of Epyx’s G.I. JOE game, easily my favorite toyline-based game made when the toyline was still new.
All these new sprites were also added to the main image generators, along with that new background based on the G.I. JOE Headquarters Command Center playset. Yes, finally, a G.I. JOE background! NOTE: if you don’t see a character’s name in that section, they’re either in the G.I. JOE or Cobra character slot. Snake-Eyes has his own character slot, the others (except Vega, he’s in Capcom/Street Fighter) appear in their team’s slots.
There will be more G.I.JOE sprites in other updates this year, so keep checking in to see who gets added!
Hot dang, that’s a lot of twos! This site is going to celebrate that with some new Double Dragon sprites, along with some other twins, including another pair of Technos game twins!
Double Dragon: Billy and Jimmy Lee (Double Dragon Advance cover art pose), Skullmageddon (Double Dragon Neon), an update of my 2017 Chin Taimei sprite Kunio-kun: the Hattori Twins/Dragon Twins (who are based on the Lee Brothers) Streets of Rage: Onihime and Yasha (a.k.a. Mona and Lisa) had their standing and crouching sprites redone DC Comics: the Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna (sorry, you’ll have to wait for Gleek) G.I.JOE: Tomax and Xamot, evil twin brothers!
All new sprites have been added to the main image generator, where you can create graphics like the one at the top of this post!
Finally, because I couldn’t let this day happen without doing this, here’s the Double Dragon Sprite Showcase video!
Stay tuned, there’ll be a “Yo Joe!” update later this week!
There’s going to be a lot of twos February 2022 (02/2022), so I thought the 2nd would be a perfect day to lay out this site’s plans for the month and demonstrate with a few sprites.
Custom Sprites
– Double Dragon: Billy and Jimmy Lee nunchaku stance (Super Double Dragon pose)
– Street Fighter: all-new scratch-made Balrog (Boxer) in Street Fighter V and G.I.JOE outfits
Those sprites have been added to the GFX Generator, where you can make shots just like the one at the top of this post! The Lee Brothers’ sprites have far more extra palettes there than in the gallery.
Plans for the month:
1.) It’s Black History Month, which is when I make more sprites of Black characters, and that starts here with Balrog.
2.) February 22nd: Double or Nothing day – twos everywhere. Expect twins and Double Dragon-related things. More info soon.
3.) Expect a G.I.JOE update to drop sometime this month to celebrate the anniversary, including some sprites to replace the old sprite edits.
