#But for some reason it was really tough to get Shovel Knight holding his shovel horizontally.

[stardestroyer81]

If one of my first few art posts on this blog is any indication, I love making sprite art. While I didn't necessarily consider myself much of a sprite artist back when I first joined tumblr in April of last year, the progress I've made in improving upon what I could do with pixels since is considerable.

Up until very recently, however, most if not all of my sprite pieces were done in an 8-Bit visual style, seeing as NES-Styled sprites are the easiest for me to make— there's just something so fun about working with limitations and seeing how few colors one could use to make a visually stunning sprite.

With this, the thought of attempting something in a 16-Bit visual style didn't cross my mind for quite some time. I was convinced for a bit (Pun absolutely intended) that my skill in sprite art was limited to a faux NES visual style, though with the unveiling of Override a little bit ago, it was pretty clear to me that my skillset exceeded eight mere bits.

And to see if it really did, I wanted to challenge myself with a task: sprite something that looks like it'd fit right in with Mega Man 7 on the SNES, cartoony yet solid visual flair and all. At first, I wasn't sure what I could attempt making a 16-Bit sprite of...

But a fellow practitioner of shovelry was all I needed for inspiration!

With a franchise like Shovel Knight bearing an iconic faux NES visual style, it was only a matter of time before fans began to wonder what the titular spade-spinner would look like with a double the bits, and because of this, quite a few SNES-esque iterations of Shovel Knight and company are out there.

My goal, however, wasn't to create the definitive 16-Bit styled Shovel Knight. As I mentioned, I wanted to really take into consideration how Mega Man 7's sprites looked in particular (I.E. size, colors, shading styles, etc.) and reference Shovel Knight's original sprite to ultimately concoct an upgraded, SNES-ified Shovel Knight.

Keeping these limitations in check, I managed to draw a sprite of the blue burrower using only eleven colors in contrast to Mega Man's twelve— a whole color less! At one point in the sprite's creation, I used twelve colors, though swapped out a dark grey for a dark blue. It isn't very often in my sprite posts that I provide a step-by-step process on how I go about spriting, though for this post...

I've made a gif of the process using the various pieces I had on my workspace! You'll notice a few things change as the sprite is shaped, the most obvious to me are his legs, which go from a solid placeholder color to fully shaded and then fixed a bit in the span of a few frames.

My end result really does prove that I can sprite whatever I can set my mind to, doesn't it? I was NOT expecting the turnout to look so clean and faithful to the style I was going for, and it was really fun making it! Perhaps in the future, I could try my hand at a 16-Bit King Knight, or even SNES-ifying some of my Mega Man robot master OCs! Until that happens, though, I hope you've enjoyed my deep dive into the creation of what Shovel Knight may have looked like in the mid-90s!

[prcloroxington-blog]

The Blue Wizard Project Game 1 - Mega Man

*A quick note. I stole the format of this, as well as the entirety of the last paragraph from my Blue Wizard compatriot Ian’s (better) blog. If you like this, like Castlevania, or need more gaming reviews, check out his blog at  http://eedreah.tumblr.com/

Year released in the U.S : December 17, 1987 System : NES Overview

Mega Man (or Rock Man in Japan) is a robot tasked with saving the world from the evil Dr. Wiley and his six robot fiends.

Story

The plot to Mega Man differs from the Japanese and North American releases. As I am a born and bred ‘Murican, I will stick to the story as it was told in the greatest country that ever was and ever will be. The year is the distant year of 200X. Futuristic stuff is happening all over the place, buildings look like Deathstars on popsicle sticks, and the world has entered into a new golden age largely due to the engineering, genius duo, Dr. Light and Dr. Wiley. Their improvements in the field of robotics have revolutionized the world. Their first creation, Rock, is a boy-like robot that assists them in the lab. One day, the news breaks that several of Dr. Light’s creations have gone rogue, they are: Gutsman - A construction robot with an ass of gold. Cutsman - A gardening robot that cuts with its head for some reason. Iceman - He freezes stuff...like a portable refrigerator, I guess. Fireman - Who doesn’t fight fires. He shoots fire out of his hands. Safe. Bombman - Presumably for excavating? Nobody thought a bomb robot could be a bad idea? Electricman - He shoots lightning out of his hands. Again, not sure why this was needed as we have power outlets. Everyone blames Dr. Light instead of the guy who worked with him whose name literally means tricky. Left with no other options, Dr. Light is forced to convert Rock into a power stealing, ass kicking machine. And thus, the legend of Mega Man begins.

Graphics

For its time, Mega Man was probably a stunning looking game. The characters are large and detailed, the levels were colorful, and the game ran pretty damn smooth for what it was attempting. There was a bit of flicker, but we were far more forgiving of that kind of thing back then. Compare how big and bright this game is to say Castlevania (which came out earlier the same year). The level of detail and vibrancy in Mega Man is the clear winner. To be honest, the graphics still hold up. Modern indie games that shoot for the NES era often land in the general ballpark of Mega Man (I’m looking at you, Shovel Knight).

Music

Mega Man has always been known for its strong music library, but the tracks in Mega Man 1 never quite reached the legendary status of its descendants. All of the score and sound effects were done by Manami Matsumae (credited as "Chanchacorin Manami"). According to everything I’ve found on the internet (by which I mean a cursory glance at Wikipedia), she had a difficult time arranging the music because she could only use three sounds at a time. Considering the limitations of the equipment and her inexperience with it, I’d say she did a great job. While none of the tracks really hit Mega Man 2 tier, there are still some gems in there. My favorite being the iconic boss select ditty. That seven second track is a piece of gaming history. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgwvD2-TYCc&index=10&list=PL2F9FC2ABF7FDAF43

Gameplay

The Mega Man formula is pretty well known these days: -eight robot masters, each with an attack that is strong against one of the other   bosses - an eyebrow wiggle cutscene - a dickishly tough, skull shaped, Wiley’s castle - a short boss rush mode, - a final battle against the traitor himself, Dr. Wiley  That being said, most people forget that the first game only had six robot masters (until they remade it on PSP). Honestly, not much changed in the Mega Man franchise until about game 7. However, being an early game, some key features are missing. There are no E-tanks, sliding and charging your weapons are non-existant, and there are no special rush/number items to cheat your way past jumps or cliffs. After all these years, the game still feels pretty good. The controls are a tiny bit more slippery than I remember, but platforming still feels tight and manageable. The only thing that they failed at with this game are the FUCKING GREEN PLATFORM GUYS!!!!! Seriously, fuck these guys. The programming on them is bullshit. Watch this video. Seriously, skip ahead to the 1:57:53 mark. Look at how hard this game trolls me with these broken ass enemies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inoLxKeKsFw&list=PLslxKoHaZj9vBFF9emoBfsP9hMgW80lt0&index=1 I could honestly say more, but I have raged so many times about these guys that I don’t think my heart can take anymore.

Is it fun?

If you are patient, get lucky with the green platform guys, and don’t mind some major oversights in game design, then yes. I could see this game potentially being fun. If you are me, no. This game angered and infuriated me so many times it was ridiculous. I love the series (for now), I love what it grew into, but I don’t know that I can recommend this one. If you want to play through these games, do yourself a favor and play Mega Man Powered Up. It is longer, better, and just an overall better representation of what Mega Man done right can be.

Overall 4/10 – I consider a 5/10 a perfectly average, playable game, with numbers past that going pretty good, good, great, fantastic, phenomenal.

Thanks for reading, and remember to check out our fundraiser, The Blue Wizard Project, where we are playing games to raise money for the Mid Ohio Food Bank. 100% of the money raised goes to the charity, we keep nothing from it.

https://www.facebook.com/bluewizardproject/