#retro redrawn

[pikethorne]

My submission to the RetroRedrawn team's Super Mario Bros 3 Redrawn project. A lot of fun to work on this one whenever I had the time.

[chromegnomes]

Sleepy afternoon at the Safari warden’s house, for Kanto Redrawn

[willsmithx4]

My maps for Kanto Redrawn :0)

S.S. Anne, Silph Co. 3F, and Silph Co. 5F

[fluffytofy]

>REDRAWN<

[OLD]

I had to redo Crash, the old design was a bit weird and I forgot to flip the canvas while doing it, so when I flipped after finishing, everything became disproportionate and this has been killing me inside since then

*I was very inspired by Zembillas' original design*

[synthaphone]

why'd they downgrade it so hard... the belly marking and the orange ear insides were NICE

[darkscorpion19]

My contribution to Retro Redrawn for the Koholint Redrawn project led me to reimagining the area of Tal Tal Heights above the Angler Cave Dungeon.

This was a challenging palette to work with for me personally, but hopefully it looks okay. ☺️

[genebeanz]

Have I posted this? I have no idea. If I have then too bad I’m showing it again - Will Wood’s The Normal Album redrawn in a retro style! Made a couple months earlier this year :]

[catgirl-catboy]

My favorite types of fanart!

Fake movie posters, in-universe or otherwise

Based on tarot cards

Watercolor style!!

highly symbolic and abstract art

art of my blorbo dying graphically

when you can tell the artist had a lot of fun designing the outfit

limited/muted color palettes!

When they have cat ears

"I have no idea what inspired you to draw these two characters hanging out together, but holy shit, I'm so glad you did."

that grey area in between cute and creepy

if this was a fic on ao3 it'd be tagged Crack Treated Seriously

Comics based on song lyrics!

Drawing characters much younger/older than they are in canon

Horny, but not sexually explicit.

Outfit swaps!

Character drawn in a completely different, but recognizable, art style

characters drawn as famous paintings

redrawn memes

Character has a different hairstyle than they do in canon (bonus if its giving a girl short hair!)

retro anime screenshots

pokemon aus! If you've drawn any of these, no matter the fandom, I owe you my life.

[rry2k]

Oh nice, new team member! Now that I think about it, who does what exactly since you've got a big group here? -🎃

ohh yeahh.. we should probably do that, huh?

well, i've taken over writing Tommy! been having lots of fun :)

One and only Gordon Fruitman writer and artist, at your service.

hello chat i write and draw mr giovanni "gay-man" failatta

Hey babes! Happy 1 year! Hope I didn’t miss much~ I’m Mod Retro! Un-she/they-ing my sword at this very moment hehehe >:3

As for what I’m doin’, Mod Eon mentioned it briefly, but I’m just the writer for Bubby now rather than the writer AND artist.

Like Star said, it’s been really fun so far seeing everyone’s ideas and designs come to life!

Mod Yaoi!! Mod Retro!!! Great to see y'all come 'round hehe

I do the writing and art for Forzen and now Benrey as well! I'm having a great time with working on them so far!

What Retro said! I do the art for our Internal Clock, and now Bubby too. I don't really do much writing here, but I am the famed Puzzle Master of the blog! The funny minigames are my doing (:

As for the writing of the internal clock, that's done by me! With input from Eon of course since they've been here longer than I have.

You may also see SOME of my art. I've already redrawn an old picture for the blog.

Hello? Hello, hello? First shift at RRY2K's?

Sorry, little caught up in some traffic. Air travel, amiright? Darnold's the name, and I... write Darnold. Who'da thunk. Whole head of this operation too. Better still be some snacks when I get there, you fiends.

no promises!

Well now I have to eat all the snacks

The snacksssss…

[pokemonheritageposts]

Sry but ur opinions on black and white are ruining my day and I had to speak up- the unova region was such a serve and the city designs were so pretty. Don’t even get me started on the battle animations they were so good 😭 The 3D movements with the pixelated retro feel was just amazing. (also Serperior? Darmanitan? Fusing legendaries? Gothitelle? The spiral staircases?)

in summary you’re homophobic

Sorry I have mixed feelings on something you love. Honestly I think that Black and White have a lot of interesting stuff going on and I'd be here forever if I went into full detail on explaining my opinion in full - I do actually plan on doing video essays on the whole main series at some point, so maybe then.

I feel pretty weird about my position on this one because I love a lot about these games but they're not my personal favourites, which has me in a weird position where I don't entirely agree with anyone on them.

In the meantime, to address each of the points you made here:

-Aesthetically I like Unova a lot. Maybe the most of any of the regions, it's top tier at the very least. My problem with Unova (in BW anyway, it's been too long for me to remember how it was in BW2) is in how you progress through it. I know the linearity of it has been discussed to death but what really bothers me (and this has been true of a lot of subsequent games too) is how little it lets you actuakly explore it. The moment you've hit any major story milestone there is usually someone right there to tell you where your next objective is. I like actually being able to stumble onto my plot progression and find secrets in the process. I also don't like how restrictive the wild Pokemon options are borh in the earliest stages of the game and in how many of the best ones are locked off until absurdly late. This also makes navigating any of the optional areas restrictive because of the HMs required and the lack of water type options. The only gen 5 water type I'd want to use in a regular playthrough is Jellicent, and then I'm either doubling up with the several excellent Ghost types or just deliberately not using any of the others.

-The battle animations are also something I have mixed feelings about. While I do think they're a lot more visually dynamic and interesting to look at than the static sprites of previous gens, as a sprite artist it bothers me a lot how many parts of them are manipulated without any regard for how it warps the sprite. The individual frames of the sprite aren't generally redrawn, they're stretched or rotated, which sometimes leads to some really off-looking animations. The way some of themcare manipulated also conveys the weight of some Pokemon in weird ways. I fully appreciate how much time it would have taken to animate new frames for every single Pokemon and this is a good compromise but I've never actually been the biggest fan of how it looks. That said, applying the same technique to the region allows for some really good scenes, including the whole spiral staircase thing you mentioned (also true of DPP to a lesser degree).

-Every generation has some good Pokemon. I don't know why you'd think pointing out a few of your favourites in this one would sway me. Also, Darmanitan and Gothitelle? To each their own but like. Those are the first ones that came to mind to sell gen 5? (No shade for Serperior tho that guy rules)

-I literally invented homosexuality back in nineteen-aught-seven, thank you very much.

[juanitomedina]

Super Mario Bros. 3 Redrawn - World 1 (Grass Land) My entry for Super Mario Bros. 3 Redrawn by Retro Redrawn This is a recreation of the world map screen from world 1: grass land Limited to NES color palette.

[misscaptainbear]

Emulation

I've been thinking about emulators a lot recently, since getting a retro-handheld and emulating a bunch of games. I'm having a lot of fun with it, and I've been inspired in various ways - I'd love to put together a project that integrates a lot more game improvements into an emulator. Here's some of those concepts:

(Pictured above, Phantasy Star 1 for the Nintendo Switch, showing emulated game and extras like maps and character healths)

(1) Extra-Textual Information

I've seen a few emulators dabble in this with varying degrees, and I always find it a treat. Some things, like providing things like maps or quests that the original game didn't track for the player (due to tech limitations) or more narrative-contextual things like character portraits or illustrations from the manuals. Shout out to the WanderBar plugins developed by Legends of Localization author, Clyde Mandelin.

(Pictured above, Seiken Densetsu/Final Fantasy Adventure showing emulated game and extras like enemy stats or item descriptions and illustrations from the manual)

Additions like this are important for many different reasons; more approachability to a wider audience (Truncated text like LIT3 from Final Fantasy 1 spring to mind), a richer more 'fulfilled' version of the game the artists and designers intended but couldn't represent, and accessibility features that allow differently abled people to enjoy games in an era that frankly didn't make much of an effort.

And, integration with existing walkthroughs wouldn't go awry, since older games sometimes require esoteric requirements to progress that are simply unreasonable to ask in the more modern era of game design. (Though opting in to these systems would be a necessity)

(Pictured above, a screenshot of an Ascii rendering of the title of The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, from GameFaqs. Ascii you can trust!)

Honestly, I could go on and on. Things from concept art to advertisements to additional media like the Link to the Past Comic would give a more fulsome and authentic experience.

(2) Modding and User Generated Content

Really, the above are only possible via community efforts, obsessively collecting data. Thus, the ideal system for this to work within is one that in open source and has robust and well-documented modding tools.

Having used Mesen and Project64 to mess with graphics and textures, this is really powerful, but also feels like a half-measure at times, as it's still restrained within the graphics capability of those systems, and often simply a 'resolution' slider.

(Pictured above, an unfinished Final Fantasy Mod replacing graphical assets with concept illustrations from Yoshitako Amano)

One thing that springs to mind is the implementation of the Diablo 2 Remaster; The developers spoke about essentially having an "API" to reach the important parts of the game's original implementation to then add extra (visual) information on top of. Things like 'player facing direction' can be added on to in order to rotate the rendered model and slerp it smoothly between those angles, something not possible in the original implementations.

Thus, the core of the game is preserved, with only the presentation changing.

This is mentioned for it's structure, obviously there's tons of labor that goes into these graphical assets that just aren't possible for a layman to create a games' worth.

(Pictured above, a comparison of screenshots of Diablo 2 and Diablo 2 Remastered demonstrating the rendering-level improvements)

(3) Creativity and Freedom

The two above points really imply this third one, which is a more collective ownership by the community. Something that a system like this would unlock is the ability to remix and remaster a game in a way that could be anything - respectful to the original intent, or a wild re-imagining of what the game might look like directed by you.

(Pictured above, the Boss Room from Legend of Zelda redrawn with a much higher fidelity pixel art)

(Credit to Zaebucca, apologies for reposting art without reblogging it properly. Link)

(Pictured above, a Dragon Boss Fight from Golden Sun redrawn as higher quality digital art)

(Credit to Sabbitabbi, apologies for reposting art without reblogging it properly. Link)

This sort of preservation-through-community is wildly important in an era of games that have been all but abandoned by their developers (if the studios in question still exist, even) and games that are profound in shaping the genres of their era are fading away; Something that the youtuber Nerrel has touched on in various videos of his.

(4) Actually Making the Damn Thing

There have been some previous work on things like this that I really admire, but haven't really seen (or weren't built for) widespread popularity in the larger gaming sphere.

(Pictured above, the dragon boss from Legend of Zelda, projected oddly into a 3D scene with a sword being thrown sideways at it)

One well meaning but obviously comedic attempt was done by Tom7 (Suckerpinch) on youtube, where an automatic system was programmed to 'convert' NES games to 3D. It's an interesting experiment but honestly proves to me that any automatic or AI assisted route is futile; that this would have to be hand tuned or developed.

A similar attempt to the above is the steam released 3dSen, which is really impressive but has similar pitfalls to other emulators described above - by systematizing the rendering, it imposes strange and unintuitive requirements on graphics that simply don't have to be constrained that way. This is caused by the automatic nature of the game (see water tiles below)

(Pictured above, 3DSen screenshot showing graphical problems when rendering water tiles)

So what the heck does the ideal system look like for this sort of thing?

The biggest parts of those (and I'm omitting a bunch of things, obviously) would be an emulator core with game-specific knowledge built in that's available to a scripting layer. The scripting layer in turn would interact with this and where appropriate interrupt the emulator's rendering to inject models, sounds, menus, etc.

The original game rom would not be distributed in any way, but could easily be md5 checked and verified for correct behaviour with the API. The Data Packs would ideally be a solid file (probably just a renamed zip lol) so they could be easily distributed and 'opened' by the emulator, instead of having to do tedious mod installation.

Within the data packs would be some sort of scripting initialization hooks and file organization such that resources are appropriately loaded and fed to the rendering system as needed.

Now, as for when I actually start working on this...? Whew, we'll see. But I'm hoping this resonates with some folks out there!

[teemoonley]

High On Stress T-Shirt

Channel some retro vibes with our High On Stress Shirt, inspired by the iconic look from the 1980s cult classic Revenge of the Nerds. This design is a meticulous replica of the shirt worn by Booger, featuring the exact messy font style that fans remember. We've carefully redrawn the lettering to capture the authentic, carefree spirit of the original.

Made from premium, comfortable fabric, this High On Stress Shirt ensures you stay stylish while embracing the humorous sentiment of being "High On Stress." Ideal for fans of the film or anyone who appreciates a playful nod to pop culture, this shirt is a great conversation starter. Available in various sizes and colors, it fits perfectly into any casual wardrobe. Whether you're reminiscing about classic films or simply looking to add a unique piece to your collection, this shirt stands out with its faithful reproduction and vintage charm.

Get it for you at: Teemoonley

[jayextee]

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (2017)

The original Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is, without a doubt, the SEGA Master System game ever. It looks, sounds, and plays every bit like the distilled very best of SEGA's 8-bit offerings and is arguably (both by myself and many other fans of the system) the best game available for the console.

Having opened this review with such high praise, I probably don't have to say that if any remake of that game were anything less than absolutely stellar and amazing work, I would not be kind to it. I would hold nothing back, show no quarter, take the gloves off, let rip, and tear it a new one. Luckily, it's absolutely amazing and stellar work.

Essentially that's because this is an emulation of the original Master System ROM with a pretty new skin running over the top of it. Okay, maybe a bit more complex than that, but the game logic running here is basically 1:1 with the SMS version even if, and this includes the game with retro visuals and sounds enabled, there are some changes elsewhere.

Good changes, mind you -- what the kiddies like to call 'quality of life' stuff. Really though, how quality do you need your life if your biggest worries are what creature comforts and conveniences a videogame offers you? But I digress here, there's a whole-ass separate button for special weapon usage and the equipment menu is a much more pleasant-to-navigate affair. And, mercifully, they've got rid of that fucking 'charm point' system that I personally felt was an idea that didn't service this game style as well as it would a more-conventional RPG. And, in essence, all it meant was exiting a shop to remove the Goblin Mail, re-entering, seeing the stuff for sale that should've been for sale anyway. Yeah, that tedium's gone.

There are some small layout changes as well, presumably to even-out the challenge a little. But this is all piecemeal stuff compared to the aesthetic overhaul. Oh, wow, the aesthetic overhaul. Let me, frankly, gush.

Imagine a retro game not just upscaled, not just redrawn, but completely reimagined with the utmost passion, respect, and care for the source material. That's The Dragon's Trap right here.

It. Is. Fucking. Beautiful.

Featureless flat areas with naught but trees are now expansive meadows featuring a memorial to a battle long-since passed, continuing onto a valley with a tower hidden inside a forest by the lake. Standard platform gauntlets across a body of water are now a set of tropical islets in a luxurious ocean that culminates in a shipwreck telling a tale of caution and intrigue before the great offscreen unknown. And there's a little stool outside a hut by a lava lake where the owner has carelessly left some impaled marshmallows to toast in the heat. There is so much attention to detail here, and cute little touches, and visual storytelling, it's tough not to fall in love all over again. The game that was my adventurous escape in childhood, is equally so if not more in adulthood.

Music's amazing, too. Not a single piece feels wrong or updated without the full knowledge of what made the original tunes 'pop'. Particular favourites of mine are the desert and jungle themes, both of which have instrumentation that perfectly encapsulates their host environments and makes the adventure connect on an even deeper level.

I am, however, overlooking some of-its-time "flaws" in this game. I don't care. I even put "flaws" in those scare-quotes because, fuck it, they don't make games like this anymore so there's no reason to change it to be more like games they do make. That one Steam reviewer who says the controls are slippery and the coins bounce over the player's head, you're wrong mate. Couldn't be wronger. Maybe a dragon cursed that guy and he's typing with tiny mouse hands that can barely reach the controller buttons?

Anyway, my recent 2.5 hour afternoon playthrough of this game made me fall in love with it for like the hundredth time. Here's to a hundred more.

5/5

[satoshi-mochida]

Shadow of the Ninja Reborn delayed to summer, ‘Comparison’ trailer

Gematsu Source

Publishers Natsume Atari and ININ Games, and developer Tengo Project have delayed Shadow of the Ninja Reborn from its previously planned spring release window to summer, the companies announced. It will be available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam with English, Japanese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese language support.

In the west, Shadow of the Ninja Reborn will be available both physically and digitally for PlayStation 5 and Switch, and digitally for all other platforms. The console versions will retail for $29.99 / €29.99, and the PC version for $19.99 / €19.99. Retailer listings will soon be available on ININ Games’ website.

In Japan, Shadow of the Ninja Reborn will be available both physically and digitally for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Switch, and digitally for all other platforms. It will be priced at 4,440 yen.

Here is an overview of the game, via ININ Games:

Developed by the Original Team, Carefully Remastered after 33 Years

KAGE Shadow of the Ninja is a ninja-themed side-scrolling action game released by the Japanese game developer Natsume on August 10, 1990, for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). At that time, the game received high praise from players and the industry for its excellent controls, innovative hanging and climbing actions, well-designed levels, and adrenaline-pumping background music, especially in the action game genre and cooperative gameplay. Now, after 33 years, this game, considered a classic by many players, is being remastered once again by the original team. Even though the average age of the team members is now 55, their passion for game development remains strong.

Exquisite Pixel Art and Refreshed Visuals

While maintaining the 16-bit retro art style, this remake utilizes new technologies to enhance the visuals with finer details and richer content. The two ninja protagonists, Hayate and Kaede, have been completely redesigned, and all the level scenes and enemies have been redrawn. It is believed that these carefully crafted characters and scenes will provide players with a visually stunning experience.

Diverse Combat Options with a Variety of Weapons and Ninja Tools

In addition to the usual weapons like ninja swords and chains for direct attacks, this remastered version adds new throwing ninja tools such as the gunpowder gun, cannonball, and shurikens for long-range assaults, as well as powerful weapons like the giant club and machete for close combat, and auxiliary tools like iron caltrops and healing rice balls. Players can make full use of these weapons and ninja tools to engage in battles.

Cooperative Gameplay: Rediscover the Joy of Playing Together

As a brand-new remastered work based on KAGE Shadow of the Ninja, this game continues the classic cooperative mode. Of course, you can also choose to play solo with one of the two characters or team up with a friend to face the challenges and defeat formidable enemies.

Reviving Classic Melodies: Enhanced Music Experience

Regarding the music production, in addition to the contributions of Tengo Project’s Hiroshi Iwatsuki, the renowned composer Iku Mizutani, who has created many excellent music tracks for KAGE Shadow of the Ninja and various classic NES games, once again participates in creating the game’s music. The re-arranged classic melodies will be presented in a more modern way, providing players with a more immersive and adrenaline-pumping experience. As with the original version, Dynamic Pro handled the illustrations! The key visuals/character illustrations are also by Dynamic Productions, as was the case with the first version in 1990.

Dynamic Production – Since its establishment in 1969, Dynamic Productions has been engaged in the management of manga artists, novelists and manga authors, including Go Nagai, as well as producing newly drawn manga, planning various events and managing the copyrights of its artists.

Mikio Tachibana – Born 11 May 1976 in Saitama Prefecture. After working as an assistant to Go Nagai, he made his debut in 2004 and has since published serialized works such as Mazinger Otome and Mazinger Otome Taisen. He continues to publish short manga, newly drawn manga and illustrated works in all genres.

Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.

Comparison Trailer