Game Art HQ

The Beat’em Up Genre Tribute: Double Dragon II: The Revenge (1988)

Posted In: Fan Art, The Beat'em Up Genre Art Tribute

Double Dragon II: The Revenge started with a unusual gritty story for a video game. In the prequel, the two main protagonists Billy and Jimmy Lee rescued Marian from the Shadow Warriors gang, just to see her being shot to death by the leader of the Black Warriors at the start of Double Dragon II.

The two brothers go to fight the gang to revenge Marian.

No wonder they are really pissed and start decimating the whole gang.

Double Dragon II was released in 1988 by Technōs Japan for the arcades and a direct sequel to Double Dragon which was released released in 1987. It got ported to around 10 different platorms including the NES, the Mega Drive, the Amiga and the C64 among others.

- You can enlarge most of the images here by clicking on them -

Double-Dragon-II The-Revenge Screenshot Marian Kill

Double Dragon II is divided into four missions which includes a heliport stage which was illustrated for our tribute, a lumber storehouse, a wheat field, and the new hideout of the boss of the Shadow Warriors. The most enemies are just makeovers of the ones from the original Doublke Dragon, some have new attacks however which enriches the variation of tactics needed to defeat them. A big change in DDII were the controls actually. Instead of the Punch and Kick buttons, they were changed to left and right attacks.

Like in the prequel too, the gameplay was not limited to a plain 2d background like in other early beat’em ups. The characters can walk to the left and right but also up and down which gave the games a basically the third dimension already. This concept was used by almost all later sprite based beat’em ups like Final Fight, TMNT, Battletoads and many more until “real” 3D graphics were possible which allowed again a deeper control and movement of the characters in beat’em ups like Fighting Force and years later like in Dynasty Warriors with much bigger 3D based stages.

The NES version of DDII offered not only new stages but also a few new moves and illustrated cut-scenes, as well as a new final boss and a new ending.

The Gameboy version from 1991 is not a port, but a different game (Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-Kun: Bangai Rantouhen), with changed sprites and a different storyline to fit as a Double Dragon game

Double Dragon II got a remake in 2013 released on the XB360 which got very low ratings and has almost nothing in common with the original.

About our illustration of Double Dragon II: The Revenge and the artist behind it

The artist about his submission:

“This picture illustrates how i remember the third level – just throw all of a thugs out of helicopter – maybe this will teach them to check doors condition before flight.
Game wasn’t hard (kill all of your enemies with “supersonic knee” and be carefull with jumps in last levels), level’s bosses were little bit bland (why this helmet-guy even try to dissapear if he not able to fight by being invisible?) but music, enemies’s design, beating’em up animation and level’s backgrounds were awesome, so i have a lot of nostalgic memories about Double Dragon II”

Our Double Dragon II illustration was drawn by ValentrisRRock from Russia who participated in multiple Game-Art-HQ.com art activities now with Stryker from Mortal Kombat 3 for the MK Tribute and a House of Dead submission to our Sega Art Contest in January 2013 which won the competition! In his gallery on deviantART you can find a lot video game related art, mostly about fighting games.

Screenshot Gallery of Double Dragon II: The Revenge

Title Screen

2P Co-Op Mode

Fighting with Punks

Ending

The other Beat’em Up Genre Tribute articles:

└ Tags: Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Made by Russian Artists, Made by ValentrisRRock, The Beat'em Up Art Tribute

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The Barbarian from Diablo III by David Villegas

Posted In: Fan Art

This is the wild Barbarian from Diablo III, illustrated with a ton of time invested by David Villegas from the Philippines back in June 2012. I recommend viewing it in full size.

Did you know that the Barbarian from Diablo III is actually the same one as in Diablo II?

Originally, the game developers wanted to give him a real backstory but sadly that was cancelled during the production of the game =/

Art like this one make me look forward to grab the Playstation 3 version which will be playable offline too.

└ Tags: Barbarian (Diablo), Diablo III, Made by David Villegas, Made by Philipinian Artists

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Dating for Dummies with Morrigan Aensland

Posted In: Fan Art

After a lot articles and featured fan art related to our different Art Projects, finally something different again

The most of you probably know the sexy succubus from the Darkstalkers and Marvel vs Capcom series, but did you knew she needed that Dating for Dummies book to be so popular?

The successful and damn awesome Spanish artist Francisco Rico Torres drew this funny fan art of Morrigan a few years ago already, in 2009 actually but i always hoped i find the time to feature this epic artwork from him!

Morrigan Aensland Painting by Francisco Rico Torres

└ Tags: Darkstalkers Series, Made by Francisco Rico Torres, Made by Spanish Artists, Morrigan Aensland

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Let’s Brawl and Fight! – Our Art Tribute to the Beat’em Up Game Genre

Posted In: The Beat'em Up Genre Art Tribute

Do you remember games like Double Dragon?, Streets of Rage or Final Fight? The stories of Jimmy and Billy Lee, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding, Guy and Cody brawling and battling gangs and gangster syndicates through the streets, bars, trains and elevators? Did you play those arcade games with the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, X-Men or the Simpsons while beating up 3 enemies at the same time with your combos?

…Than you remember an old game genre called “Beat’em Up”

This game genre once was born in the mid eighties with games like Kung Fu Master (1984) and till today we still see new games either playing like traditional Beat’em Ups or going new ways. The Beat’em Up genre changed often during the years, and in this art tribute we try to illustrate the games and their gameplay and also talk about the new and unique elements they added to this game genre. This includes games not everyone of us would even call a Beat’em Up anymore like Castlevania: Lords of Shadows and TRON Evolution.

The Beat’em Up Game Genre is over 25 years old and currently our tribute starts in 1988 and ends in 2010. We hope to give you a big insight about the development of this genre through our art and additional images like screenshots as well as a ton of informations about the games and its characters, have fun visiting this dedicated art tribute on Game-Art-HQ!

Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja

1988 by Data East (Arcade)

Double Dragon II: The Revenge

1988 by Technōs Japan(Arcade)

Golden Axe

1989 by Sega (Arcade)

Captain Commando

1991 by Capcom (Arcade)

Streets of Rage

1991 by Sega (Genesis)

TMNT: Turtles in Time

1991 by Konami (Arcade)

TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist

1992 by Konami (Genesis)

Battletoads

1994 by Rare (Arcade)

Legend

1994 by Arcade Zone (Super Nintendo)

Comix Zone

1995 by Sega (Genesis)

Panzer Bandit

1997 by Banpresto (Playstation)

Castle Crashers

2008 by The Behemoth (XBOX 360)

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

2009 by Vanillaware (Wii)

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

2010 by MercurySteam (XB360 & PS3)

Tron: Evolution

2010 by Propaganda Games (Multi)

About the Beat’em Up Tribute Project on Game-Art-HQ and Fighting-Games-Elite

This art project idea was an idea i had in summer 2012 and asked the FGE community on dA about it via a poll with a few other ideas as well. It got the most votes and feedback and so we decided to make this happen. Later in 2012, in November this project was started on both the FGE and GA-HQ dA groups with the goal to get art together for the games which would not just show a few characters like Haggar and Cody standing around.

Instead the target was more difficult and i knew that not many artists would take the challenge and try to illustrate the whole gameplay…in other words Haggar and Guy beating up some guys of the Mad Gear Gang in the Aberdeen stage as example. Now, in May 2013 around 20 different games were drawn including some games i never expected to see, but they are only enriching our tribute to the beat’em up genre anyway. This project is something still ongoing and i hope i can update this in 3 or 6 months with a good couple of more and yet not featured games which just HAVE to be mentioned here like the Dynasty Warriors and Sengoku Basara series, Final Fight etc.

I hope you like our art tribute to the beat’em up genre, please always respect the artists who are participating with their free time and their dedication

and visit their own websites if you like their art.

Other Art Projects by the Game-Art-HQ Community:

└ Tags: The Beat'em Up Art Tribute

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The Beat’em Up Genre Tribute: Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja (1988 by Data East)

Posted In: The Beat'em Up Genre Art Tribute

Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja is the currently oldest game which was claimed by an artist for our beat’em up tribute. It was developed by the now defunct Data East and released in 1988 for the arcades like the most games at that time.

The game was a popular hit there and was ported to multiple platforms including the NES, the Amiga and it even got a DOS version among other platforms. Its last release was as a part of the Data East Collection for the Nintendo Wii in 2010

Like in many video games of the eighties, the story is relative simple and about the “Bad Dudes” Blade and Stryker who are fighting the “DragonNinja” clan to rescue the president “Ronnie who was abducted by the DragonNinja before.

Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja has one of the funniest endings ever seen in a beat’em up ..at least in the American/Western versions of the game. Blade and Stryker are eating burgers with the President (a gift by him!) while he gives them a statue in the Japanese version.

- You can enlarge most of the images here by clicking on them -

Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja Title Screen (Arcade)

Bad Dudes vs DragonNinja has eight stages and is playable for 1 or 2 players and an early beat’em up without the option to move in the fore or background.

Blade and Stryker can jump, kick and punch, have a few different attacks like spinkicks and also one strong punch which can defeat all normal enemies in front of the player.

Like in later games the protagonists can also get extra weapons like knives and nunchakus. Other power ups recharge life or add time to the counter.

Every stage has a boss including Karnov, an antagonist who appears in multiple Data East games of that time.

The game made appearances in movies and the British band LostProphets actually named a song “Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja”

Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja Title Screenshot

About our illustration of Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja and the artist behind it

Blackorb00 is one of the artists in the Game-Art-HQ / Fighting-Games-Elite Community who participated in multiple art tributes from us already. This illustration is his currently latest one, if you like his art, please either visit his dA gallery and/or check the art by him featured on Game-Art-HQ!

He wrote the following about his submission:

“R U a bad enough dude?

The guys who risked their lives for a cheap cheeseburger, and RESCUED president Ronnie from the evil Ninja organization with nothing but a bad attitude and a bunch of steroids.

lots of fun drawing/painting this, totally brought me back to better times.”

Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja Marquee

Screenshot Gallery of Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja

Title Screen

vs. Karnov

Train Stage

Burger Time

The other Beat’em Up Genre Tribute articles:

└ Tags: Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja, Made by Blackorb00, The Beat'em Up Art Tribute

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Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition Hits the PC this Summer!

Posted In: Video Game News

Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition will be available for PC this summer, with a digital release on July 3 followed by a retail release on August 6, Warner Bros. Interactive today announced.

If that’s no surprise i don’t know. 1 year too late though.

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The Boring XBOX One Reveal is boring.

Posted In: Uncategorized

Seriously..this was the most boring and dissapointing game console reveal i have ever seen. The XBOX One looks like a thing not made for gamers but for grown men who like to play with tech in their living room and show others how cool it is XBOX Star Trek!

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Ongoing Art Projects on Game Art HQ

Posted In: Fan Art Projects

Since August 2011 we are organizing art projects related to video games of different kinds like some related to a specific game or game series, others to a specific part of video games or to a specific video game character type.

Our art projects are organized here and on deviantART at our Game-Art-HQ group there, they are only published here on the website though and not featured as a whole anywhere else. Multiple websites like Kotaku, Eventhubs, Destructoid, Chip, ZeldaDungeon and many more worldwide. Artists are getting credited, and often they are featured with the target to let people know why they participated in our projects and what they have to offer.

On this page, you can see the current art tributes, their rules and targets and you can claim to participate in them here via a comment or use the links to Blogs (Journals) on deviantART and comment there if you want to participate!

The Projects and their purpose and background

Rules and Links

Link’s Blacklist June 2012 – Open ended

Third Round starts on 02.06.2013 – ends on 31.08.2013

This is the probably most popular Art Project by GA-HQ till today. The big target is that somewhen in the future all the many different Monsters and Bosses of the Legend of Zelda will be illustrated by talented artists who are fans of the games.

Over 110 different characters are covered in this tribute so far by around 80 artists, the artworks are parts of articles about each Zelda antagonist where they are illustrated with texts, screenshots and official art as well.

Link’s Blacklist Round III Rules:

The third Round of Link’s Blacklist is open for 40 artists like the previous rounds too. To give new artists a chance, only up to 25 artists who participated in previous Game-Art-HQ Art Projects are allowed to join it.

Contributors have a deadline ranging from the 2nd June up to the 31.st August.

Contributors can also choose an already drawn enemy/boss.

Artists who never participated in a Game-Art-HQ Tribute before have a shorter deadline, ranging from the 2nd June till the 31st July

To make sure that not only bosses are getting drawn, only 10 bosses can be claimed in this round. 5 by contributors, and 5 by new artists. the other 30 spots are for enemies. It is possible that an artist can claim a 2nd character of his choice however after the claimed character is submitted. The deadline is the 10th September for the second claims.

If you want to participate in LB Round 3, either comment directly here or on dA at this journal

The Mortal Kombat Tribute September 2011-till all characters are drawn in all designs

The MK Tribute once started with the goal to draw all different Mortal Kombat series characters.

This goal was reached in january 2012 after only 3 months of organizing this first big GA-HQ project.

In June 2012 we continued this project with the giant target to get all the different designs for the Mortal Kombat characters drawn by fans of the series, this meant around 10 different fan illustrations for characters like Scorpion and Sub Zero.

It meant that 299 different chracter designs are needed to complete this project. Currently in Mid May 2013 around 260 of the 299 are claimed and/or drawn only 33 spots are available. To see which ones, visit this journal on deviantART. To participate, you can either comment here or there.

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Artists in the Spotlight on GA-HQ: Ruthie Hammerschlag and her Mass Effect Character Illustrations

Posted In: Artist Special, Fan Art, Interviews

In December 2012 i stumbled upon the art of Ruthie Hammerschlag from New Jersey on dA, and was impressed by her detailed portraits of the Mass Effect series characters. During February 2013 i thought, they need to be featured on more places and want to know more about the artist behind them. This lead to the artworks being featured on Game-Art-HQ as well as this interview which was made in April already.

In this article you can see all of the Mass Effect artworks featured on GA-HQ and learn about Ruthie , her motives and her art!

Have fun reading and seeing her art!

Hi Ruthie, first of all please introduce yourself to our readers! (are you a hobbyist, student of the arts, (where do you study and what exactly) are you a professional artist..what do you do and since when are you drawing..such stuff)

Hello! My name is Ruthie Hammerschlag, I am 24, I live in New Jersey and I paint as a hobby. I was always into art and I started doing stuff digitally when I downloaded photoshop onto my computer back in high school.

I didn’t really know what I was doing so I tried to mimic techniques I thought were being done in my favorite paintings. In reality, I was just plopping colors down and using the smudge brush. A lot. It wasn’t until college that I started doing it more seriously. I was a fine arts major but I had one digital art class where I did my Eddie Vedder painting.

I used new brushes and no smudging and was really happy with the result and it pushed me to try new things. That’s about when I started doing my first World of Warcraft paintings. Unfortunately, that community college didn’t have any other digital art type classes, and stuff at home needed more of my attention, so I stopped going. I got a part time job in a doctor’s office and did a crap ton of Warcraft fanart that got me a lot of attention.

When I stopped getting commissions (and also when I got a little tired of it) I moved on to other things. Then later when I finally purchased my first gaming PC and got to play other games, I started doing other fanart, the latest being my Mass Effect series. I’ve gotten sidetracked by personal things and now I work full time in that same doctor’s office. But, the series isn’t done yet, I have a couple more portrait I want to do.

Jack / Subject Zero in her Mass Effect 3 Design

Liara T’soni

Javik

Commander Shepard

I was impressed by your series of the Mass Effect characters. While i never played a ME game yet, your portraits made me curious about the designs of guys like Javik and their role in the games.

- Thanks! You should play. DO IT.

What were the reasons why you chose to spend so much time into creating these detailed portraits of so different looking characters?

- I had done a couple portraits before of let’s see… Jack, EDI, and Tali. Oh and Liara of course. At the time I also did characters from other games in the same style. Something happened when the Omega DLC came out. I really wanted to paint Aria, but I wasn’t feeling the style of my old portraits anymore. I wanted to do something serious, clean, and as accurate as possible. I wanted to push myself to try to make these aliens as realistic as I could. And I wanted to do all of them!

Kasumi Goto

Mordin Solus

Miranda Lawson

Which is your most and which your least liked piece of your series (and why) ?

- My favorite one is probably Kasumi. I can’t really explain why, something about how her skin came out. It made me happy. I also really love my Mordin one. Again, with the skin. I like how he looks a little… slimy. This is me trying not to pick based on my favorite character. (LIARA FOREVER) My least favorite is I guess Miranda. I am happy with it overall but something always seems off when I stare at it. I feel like maybe her eyes aren’t wide enough or something. I don’t know…

Do you plan to portray other video game characters in the future and if another Mass Effect game will be released, will you continue your series?

- Yes! After Bioshock Infinite came out I really wanted to paint Elizabeth, Booker and the Lutece’s. I also wanna do some more Dragon Age portraits. Guild Wars 2 has some really beautiful characters as well. I might paint some Defiance folks too. I wanna paint everything, okay?

We have 2013 but female video gamers are still mostly the ones playing Singstar, Wii Sports or Mario Party (own experiences) The Mass Effect series reminds me a lot at Star Trek with the many different races there. I got the feeling that the Mass Effect series seems to be designed for a male audience in general. What were the reasons why you got into the series?

- Yes I am a girl and yes I play video games. Ha. I don’t know what you’re talking about, most of the gaming community I am around are female. There are a lot of arguments that Mass Effect is catered to men but I just like the game, you know? I don’t get involved in complaining about what I don’t like, I just play and enjoy to game for what it is, and I love it. I got into it because of Tumblr. I had just gotten my PC and Mass Effect 3 was coming out soon. Everyone seemed REALLY EXCITED. So I burned through the first two and fell in love.

You are on deviantART now since a relative long time (8 years), how would you rate the development of the community? What do you like there and what do you not like so much?

- I never really felt part of the community, unfortunately. For a long time I didn’t know anyone or have many views. I just shyly favorited and followed people I adored. And then I discovered groups. This was only a couple years ago. I joined all of the Warcraft groups I could find, and later all the Bioware ones, and got more love that I ever thought I would get. Still, I don’t really know anyone solely from DA.

Beside the Mass Effect games what other games and game characters would be your favourite ones? (and why)

- My first love was World of Warcraft. I don’t play anymore but it always holds a special place in my heart. That and Mass Effect are probably my top two. Other favorites are Bioshock, Dragon Age, and Skyrim. I also played a lot of Diablo 3, SWTOR, and Guild Wars 2, but haven’t picked those up in a bit. I have a lot of other games that I started but haven’t invested a lot of time in yet. That’s a bad habit of mine. As far as characters, I always loved Sylvanas from warcraft because she’s a beautiful badass queen. I love love love Sylvari in Guild Wars 2. The whole character design is just beautiful. I also loved Eleanor Lamb in Bioshock 2 once in the little sister suit. I don’t know, I am a very visual person and I like character design more than stories I guess.

Yay! Thanks!