Thor at the Legendary Oasis

Zerimar had a party all ready with Segas Thor at the Legendary Oasis, back on May 24th.  I think Thor wants us to test how supple his pectoral muscles are.  :D   But first I think I would be more anxious to move that towel to the side.    Zerimar delights in teasing me with these images of almost naked studs.  The make my imagination run wild!  It's art like this that reminds me how sad it is that the character has fallen to the way side.  Dude is bronzed!  Sega, what happened?
Thank you so much for this beautiful birthday image Zerimar. ^_^

Samba De Muscle Monkey Amigo

Back before Christmas, Aneroes was very kind in asking me what I would like as a gift.  You know, there was one idea I had on my mind for years, but never really asked about doing.  Something that has a very special Christmas relationship with me.  I started to think back to end of my college days.  The Dreamcast days.  Christmas 2000 was the year I went all out and got my sisters kids the game and the controller for Samba De Amio.  They loved music games.  Parappa the Rappa was a big hit with them.  They loved Sonic to death.  This was made by Sonic Team.  It seemed like the perfect combination.  I was paying for the holidays on a Wal-Mart salary so those controllers and the game took out a huge chunk of my savings, let me tell you!  I think they were $115 each.  But dang, it was so worth it.  From the moment the game started we knew we were about to play something special.  Forget the Wii  for bringing family together.  The Dreamcast that day had 4 generations of my family swinging maracas around, laughing, singing and dancing.  People that never touched a game before were clambering for the thing.  I also remember the same people going crazy for Sega Bass fishing the next Christmas.  Too bad the Dreamcast didn't market itself as well as the Wii.  Anyway...the party raged far into the night.  Friends wound up staying way late and every night for days afterward we had so much fun with the game.  It was one of the best Christmases ever.

I remember running around to get a set of controllers for myself just a few days after.  I never thought I would go crazy for a music game.  They were so hard to get! Sega had stopped producing them already. We finally found one at this mall an hour away.  After we got it, the buddy I had gone with and I watched Dude Where's My Car and laughed our asses off.  That was another great day.  That new years we all raced to play just seconds after midnight.  The first game of the year. We even went out and got the pirate version of Samba De Amigo 2000.  My niece still has a stuff toy of Amiga, Amigos sister that she keeps by her bedside.  This was one of those games that really brought us all a little closer.

Years later I had tons of fun with the Wii version. My nephew didn't care for it much though.  I even wrote a review for it that I never published.  Yeah it wasn't perfect, but it did the job.   A friend of mines sister saw me play it on Christmas Eve and bought a Wii just for the game.  :P  We also had the Eyetoy game with Samba in it, which was surprisingly well done.   I wish Sega had ported the game to PS3 after it's motion controller came out.  Maybe I should post some pictures of my Samba Controllers, but you guys can find that stuff anywhere.  So I will just share what Aneros took so much time and effort to draw for me to share with you all. It's a super Studly Samba De Amigo monkey man.  A hunk totally fitting in with my vision of a perfect Christmas gift. :)  I never doubted for a second he couldn't bring the sexy out of Amigo!  Dang we might need to explore some more characters on day! 
I hope you guys love him as much as I do.  Check out Samba De Amigo if you already haven't.  It's the perfect game for gay men.  What other game lets you wave your arms around like a fairy to Ricky Martin and songs titled Bum Bum? :P Joking! Seriously though it's awesome.

Have A Wonderfully Monstrous Birthday Zerimar

Hey guys! What a messed up weekend. I totally forgot about our Fan Expo we have here each year. Then I almost forgot that my dearest Zerimar was having a birthday today. While I missed the Fan Expo (very little regrets there after last years increased prices and 2 hour lines.), I did not forget my dear friend Frank. I did the e-mail equivalent of a call to arms and I was so thankful that so many of those asked were able to jump into the fray. I say fray, because it was a battle against time. I made the call late last night. By morning we had 5 wonderful images to share with Frank on his big thirtieth birthday. I know full well Franks love of all things Wonder Boy. Lately had been sharing with me his fun and frustrations with 2 games of the series. One of the them being Monster World 4; a game that had been left in Japan for almost 20 years. He was so delighted to be playing it after such long a wait. The other I believe was Wonder Boy 3, the Japanese themed level of which was giving him considerable troubles. Ah, the good old days, when just beating the game was triumph enough!
Frank enjoyed the game so much he wrote a review on it! So I knew we couldn't choose a better subject for some birthday art then the characters of Wonder Boy in Monster World. Franks appreciation was incredible. He was truly moved by our gifts. And so I now present to you the five wicked pieces the team whipped up! I am posting them in order of production! LOL. I hope you will enjoy them as much as Frank and I did.

Aneros chose the classic hero Shion, the successor of the Wonder Boy name after Tom-Tom. I doubt very well that Shion has ever been drawn as sexy, muscular and well endowed as he was last night by Aneros.

Karulox was second to finish his piece. Before retiring for the night, he had super cute image of both Shion and Asha. I think they are rushing for a piece of birthday cake! XD hee hee. They are spot on model and just so wonderful to behold! :D I love Ashas hair!

Early in the morning hours my inbox was blessed with an adorably festive image from FallenAngel. Working with great speed he drew up the warrior Asha. She's slightly petite to match her game sprite. This would make such a great greeting card for the Sega Company. She better be careful, or her pet is gonna steal that yummy cake! XD

Guytoonist was done next. He too took on the Wonder Boy Shion. After seeing Aneros wicked piece, he wanted the challenge of doing something just as sexy, without showing off Shions penis. At first glance I said, mission accomplished! Now Shion looks like he could fit into the more realistic video game worlds of today. The way Guytoonist pens him, this hunks good competition for Link! :P

Sirio was among the first to send a sketch early this morning. She gave me a choice of a sexy, or Chibi image. Upon seeing the unmeasurable beauty of her Asha, I knew my choice before even I realized I had to make a choice. (Okay it wasn't that easy, the Chibi is super cute!!!) I don't think even the Japanese developers thought of giving her so luscious a bosom. One thing that Sirios Asha made me realize is that she needs to take on more female characters. Asha, who was done in a few short hours is spectacular!

Again, Happy Birthday to you Frank from all of us! Many happy returns of the day my friend. :D

Here is some art from the series!

Sonic CD Re-release, Where's The Love?

Okay so this isn't exactly the theme of this blog, but I love Sonic CD, so I gotta share my thoughts on this. It was nice that at the ass end of 2011, just as we were about to forget that it's Sonic's 20th anniversary, Sega decided to squeeze out Sonic CD onto the PS3 and Xbox 360. The game wasn't a straight port, but built from the ground up by a fan. While it's more then satisfactory, it's not with out its problems. The game sprites spasm and slow down often in certain areas, especially at bosses.

Fuzzy graphical issues plague this release from time to time.

Why is it so hard to recreate a game experience from 18 years ago on a super powerful new console, when emulators do it right? I mean if you are gonna be making this thing from the ground up and you want to prove yourself as a competent game designer, isn't a flawless, smooth, recreation of the game play your number one priority? Doesn't someone at Sega step in and lend there expertise to try to fix these things? It's a minor gripe I know, but the truth is, it shouldn't even be there to begin with.

Here's another issue I have with this: If it was made by one guy, why didn't Sega, who must have saved a ton on programming costs, put some extra effort and go the Mario All Stars route? Why wasn't there an alternate HD remixed graphics mode on this thing? Why are so few games given this treatment? It feels like it's another thing started in the 90s, that was a huge success, but game companies ignore for the most part. It cannot be that hard to add a splash of fresh paint to these 20 year old titles. Fans have been attempting it for years.

Fan made HD graphics.

There is some good news. For the first time outside of emulation and the European Sonic Gems collection (I think), you can enjoy both the English and the Japanese soundtracks. That is, minus the vocals of the Japanese Sonic Warrior songs. (But don't worry every fanboy on the net will tell you they never liked that song anyway...rolls eyes.) There was some copyright issue and someone was being friggen greedy. Don't you love greedy artists that ruin it for everyone? Still, that aside, I love the fact that both soundtracks are here, because both are really awesome. Well, except for the boss fight music from the Japanese release. I think I heard Falcon Studios use that more then once in the background of some of their muscle daddy scenes. I mean seriously, have you heard this? Have a listen:


I don't know what comes to your mind, but when I hear it, all I see is big chubby biker guys in S & M outfits, pounding each other, encouraging the tops to fuck harder. With Eggman having that huge mustache, he fits disturbingly well into that scene playing out in my mind. This strange choice in music, coupled with his pink Star Wars Walker rip off from the good future of Palm tree Panic, makes me wonder what exactly they were thinking over there in Japan:

Sonic nailing him in the crotch ain't helping either.

I mean, I thought the 80s were innocent....

Sorry that was random. XD

Anyway the Japanese boss fight music also has some incoherent lines that I constantly strain to make out, that only leads further to my distraction. Epic boss fight music it is not. Now the North American is truly nightmare inducing. I have seen kids be instantly filled with terror when this shit starts playing:



Sends chills down your spine doesn't it? This is the theme of someone you don't want to fuck with. He's insane and loves being so. If he gets you, it's not gonna be pretty. This music is even creepier if you go to face him in the bad future. I find that fascinating. Everything wasn't focused on doing things one way, or being told you couldn't go further if you didn't meat certain requirements. You know, like Rayman Origins, where you need to grab every fucking yellow sperm on the screen just to get to the next stage? This instead was adding more to the consequences you make as a player, without taking anything from your gaming experience. This game fucked with your mind instead. Your actions shaped the effect the villain had on the world. That's brilliant engaging game design. Take a lesson Ubisoft and Retro.


Still the Japanes gets extra points by having a creepy operatic theme for it's last boss. (Is it a nice little jab at the old saying "it ain't over till the fat lady sings", or am I just looking too deeply into this?') Seriously though, it is awesome that both tracks are here, but it would have been even more so, if there was a random option. You know, so that you never know which track would play, the US, or Japanese at the start of any given stage, or time jump. I mean, if Nightwarriors: Darkstalkers revenge could do it on clunky Sega Saturn in 1996, why can't the all powerful Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 do it? Hmmm kinda shows the love game creators had for their franchises in the 90s, as compared to today doesn't it? Shouldn't we be getting even more features at this point, instead of less?

So what did they add? They added in Tails as a playable character. I guess that's cool, cause ever since someone discovered he was on a picture hidden in the disc, people have cried for him to be in the game. I really don't need Tails in the game myself. I always saw this game as happening before Sonic 2 anyway. But if you are gonna put in one of series most beloved characters, then why not go the extra mile? I mean, the second I hit start I noticed he had no intro cartoon, or anything to replace it. You didn't even get to see the animated intro for Sonic anymore. So you know what I did? I hit reset, deleted the file and played with Sonic again. Why would I want to go through everything with no reward? You can be sure as shit there's no ending for him. (Maybe there is, but why waste the time finding out?)

If the game creators can't go put some effort into it, why should I take the time to play the game? Considering there are like a million videos on youtube featuring animated Sonic and Tails sprites made by FANS, I find it sad that the company that makes full CG movies for their tennis and racing games wouldn't put something in for the most beloved game in the franchise. But then, that just brings me back to the point about the soundtrack. Why are we going backward with extras in games? I know the thing is only $5, but if they had to increase the price to do so, then do it and give me something worth unlocking.


What makes me even sadder is if they were going this cheap route with additional characters why not add Amy to the list of playable characters? Again if Fans can splice Amy into Sonic the Hedgehog, why the hell can't Sega? Are they too busy smoking cigars, laughing and pulling on their suspenders as they count their mega bucks? oh..right...XD

Fans not only put Amy in the game, they made a title screen animation using old Sega Genesis hardware. You're telling me Sega couldn't do something like this for Tails? Who's the game makers here?

Amy has to use her Piko Hammer to open up stuff and attack enemies. She's even given a super high spin jump to help her out. This greatly changes and diversifies the way the game is played. It breathes fresh new life into a 20 year old title and makes it exciting to play again. What did tails get in the CD release? The ability to run along with Sonic ala Sonic 2, a tail attack, or Hyper Tails ability? Nope, but he can fly...um..okay.

Amy uses a Sonic sprite that has largely gone unused since Sonic CD. She looks awesome doing this pose. Way to go girl!

Awe! even the enemies are tainted pink in this release. ^o^ Sure, it's probably due to a pallet limitation, but it does add something to the feel of the game.

No, sorry this isn't a screen shot of the game. It's just some fan fucking with us.

You can check out the fan made game here, or just youtube search it if you don't emulate stuff:

http://info.sonicretro.org/Amy_Rose_in_Sonic_the_Hedgehog

Another change I would have loved to have seen was for someone to come in and alter Amy's kidnapping scene. Sonic games have always felt a little rough around the edges, but this is probably the worst offender of things not planned out right. They could have gone back and done an animated scene to show this, or at the vary least, place Amy and Metal Sonic on a ledge you can't get to. Instead your forced to have her kidnapped right under your nose. Sonic doesn't freeze while this is going on. You can helplessly try to attack Metal Sonic, but you don't even come in contact with him. Maybe he's in the background, I don't know. I do know that this should have been retooled. What would it have taken them, 10 mins? Again I point to the example above. If fans can do all that, why the heck can't Sega? The scene lacks any kind of tension, or emotional drama, because it feels so fake and cheap. Who was asleep at the wheel when this was being produced? Thank goodness Sega did a better job during Sonic 3.

So what do I get? They went in and added shit like leaderboards and trophies...(snore.) Really? Am I supposed to care how others are playing Sonic the fucking Hedgehog? That's pretty baffling to me, as this is an action game with a focus on exploration and freedom. Why do I want to play it with restrictions set by people at Sega that no longer know how to make a good game, but decided to change this into a giant dick measuring contest? Now before I start, anyone who knows me personally, knows I don't go in for the whole trophy bull. I play the game to play the game and enjoy it. I got all the trophies in Sonic Generations, which was just one big waste of time and left me feeling empty. (And slightly dizzy from motion sickness.) Since I am analyzing this game though, I gotta question a couple things. For example, who cares if I collect all the time stones, or not? Why is that the most valued trophy? Do the people who made this release not realize how this game is set up? You see Sonic CD is my favorite Sonic game. It was one of the games that just plucked at my heart strings like no other before and I dare say, like no Sonic game has been able to do since. The explosive soundtrack, the awesome opening and endings cartoons and the time travel that allowed you to mold and change the world you played had me falling into a deep video game euphoria.

That's last point is a major factor to Sonic CD's appeal. Back in the day Sonic was a freedom fighter. An environmentalist if you will. Evil Dr. Eggman was ruining the planet. He was enslaving it's fauna and now even it's flora. Every enemy you defeated made a difference in someones life. All this is something that Sega no longer finds a viable plot point and has swept to the side. Sonic isn't so much a freedom fighter anymore, he's just a show off with an ongoing fued. But in 1993 he sure as hell was and he's never been able to do so much as he could here. For the first time ever, you as Sonic could really make a difference. You could travel back in time and destroy Robotniks machines and change the future from a dim polluted grey and brown mess, to a beautiful paradise. Even the music would change. (Heh, kinda ironic isn't it, that Sega CD never took off and Sonic couldn't save video games from a future mired in grey and brown!? Oh zing.)

My point about the special stages unimportance is that even the people at Sonic Team started to question it's role in the series. Someone raised their hand and said,

"But honorable director, what if playa miss time stone in special stage? Then they want reset and to do level over, to get better ending. Frustrating game playa."

And someone at Sega thought this was a just point. Sega had some brains back then. Special stages can be a pain in the ass. Someone thought some random bonus stage should not be the focus of determination in a side scrolling action game. So besides the debug mode to cheat your way to a better ending, something else was added. They allowed you the ability to destroy Eggmans robot making machines and change the future in each zone. It took exploration, learning some tricks, honing your skills, mastering the levels and even a little luck, but if you did it, you got the same ending you did if you got the time stones. As well, you really felt this great sense of satisfaction. You were helping the planet recover from Eggmans abuse. The world squealed with joy in act 3 of each zone if you did this. If not you were shown a nightmarish mess. Mind you, getting all the stones would do the same, but you wouldn't be able to see the early zones recover if you did. What's really great was that if you didn't get all the stones, or change all the past states, the game didn't stiff you with some shit ending. In fact, I always found the 'bad' ending so much more satisfying then the special one. Why punish the player for following Sonics own philosophy of never stopping, that is written all over the Japanese game manuals? Again, you get choices and can play the game as you see fit and enjoy it. People don't make games like this anymore!

Sega of today feels even this isn't enough to reward you with a trophy. Now you must find these machines and the holograms of Metal Sonic tormenting animals as well. This isn't that hard to do, but I question the reasoning behind it. This extra objective never had any kind of repercussion in the game, outside of a few more animal sprites appearing. It was so down played it wasn't even mentioned in the instructions, nor did it have any effect on changing the status of the future. It was such an odd and unexplainable thing, that many people questioned why it was even in the game. It just felt like some neat little bonus that's true purpose never came to be due to time constraints. But now, they want you to find them. I question this, as it was never needed before and even now, does nothing. Why not add something to the game then if I destroy them? A trophy is no reason for me to go after something. I need an in game reward. At the least, an explanation as to what that hologram is exactly would be nice. If I am in the past, why is it a hologram?

Here's another small issue I have with this version of the game. Where's my little animated Sonic waving his finger and sparkling star dust all over the Sega Logo at the start of the game? Why am I forced to look at various titles cards for the programmer? Who is he, Steven Spielberg? I'm a consumer and I want to be entertained, not advertised too by some go no where studio. Don't take out beloved nostalgic content to toot your own fucking horn! >:(

I could go on for days about Sonic CD. Truth is though, I love the game and yeah it's worth a pick up for just $5. It's timeless fun. It's never overly frustrating and you can blaze through it time and again and constantly see new things. It set a standard not only for the series, but games in general. I also want to note how the Japanese soundtrack seems to have echos of Nights Into Dreams in it. I find that 'way past cool' as Sonic would say. I just have to lament at what could have been. It's been almost 20 years. In that time you would think someone at Sega would have thought of some decent features to add to the game, or even rough out the unpolished pieces. Instead we have even rougher edges and a slightly incomplete soundtrack. Hurray for this generation of game consoles...Give me back the spirit of the 90s... U_U

Here is some fan art made for a recent contest held by Sega:

Look at the passion fans have for this game.
Where's your passion Sega?
Where is the love?

Golden Axe Cover Was Very Revealing

I got my Sega Genesis with Sonic The Hedgehog and a few other titles, including a used copy of Altered Beasts. I didn't get Golden Axe till the end of the 90s. My version had the standard 1989 North American cover. I never really researched the games release history until last year. I was extremely surprised to see just how sexy and revealing the Japanese and European box art was. In the scan I found of the Mega Drive version, the speedo donned by AXE BATTLER clearly shows the characters dick head. It's so tight on him I would guess he's cut! :P LOL. I mean wow...if they had this cover here, I would have probably asked my parents for a Genesis in 1989! XD Later images I found make the effect less apparent. Of course I am sure this is just due to the resolution of the scan I found. Still, even the scan of the Japanese version seems to give the impression his dick is visible.

In the scan below of the European cover, the effect is less apparent, but still present in that his crown seems to be pushing through on the right side, due to the shine.

Axe is an amazingly sexy character that made his way into many of my teenage fantasies! XD It's a shame he doesn't look like this in the game. :P

Wish I could find a better scan of the back of the box. This art is so great.

I wonder who the model was here? (And if he ever posed nude! :P )

The Playsation 2 version is supposed to be horrible. Too bad, the art is really sexy. He lacks his speedo. :P

Considering how hot he is here and how popular the game was, I would have hoped to find some decent fan art of him from Japan. I am sure there must be some out there, but all I found at the time was this:

EDIT

Look and you shall find...here are some much better images of the cover and back of the box art I just found.

Fan made Sprites for the 32bit era.

Cover art for the Game Gear RPG game.

Play with me? Out of this World Art by Baralust and Caravaggia!

Some time ago Baralust told me he needed to gather funds for a new pen for his tablet. I wanted to help him out, but I needed an idea. I did come up with a few ideas to start, but I wanted to give him something special also. I sat down at my Wii and started to play the game Ristar. Well...the idea didn't exactly take a long time to hit me. Who else, but a fellow Sega fan would I ask to take this one on? XD I knew he would give him a great muscular body and Huge cock! Ristar's gotta be hung!!! XD LOL. Bet he can stretch it to the sky! Baralust went even further then what I gave for a description. He added cool Star pasties on his nipples and over his belly button! LOL He's a Stripper Star! XD


Years have passed and Ristar has grown to be a great hero!

Baralust kept with the colour scheme already in place. I love the yellow cut penis head. XD very cute! The whole cock is very Fillion like. Lots of great details, huge balls and a strong thick shaft. Just wonderful! I love how he changed the runners to big ass boots! HOT...hee hee. I am gonna make a wish... XD You get bonus points if you can figure out where that background is from. SEGA!!! Thanks Baralust, this is one very creative and sexy image.

Next up we have more outer space fun! Nova and his now named mate Nibiru are going at it under a purple night sky. This is one of my favorite images ever from Caravaggia. I just love the way she drew Nibiru. She is all culry, with big lips and wild hair that has a life of it's own. Caravaggia was the first person to ever take on Nova and it's so great to see her take him on again. He's evolved a bit since then and Caravaggia has made him super buff in reaction to that!!! WOW. I have to admit I was really surprised by this new form. He's so sexy!!! I think this is the biggest beefcake she has ever done. He has an excellent frame. She increased the length of his curly dreads as well. Another tip of the hat to her original vision of him, built on and expanded to new heights. :)


I can't believe how wonderful the background to this image is. The moon, with all the details, the night sky full of starts and the pyramids with the stars at the tips. As much imagination and passion went into it as the characters occupying the foreground. She really wanted to go all out for me and it warms my heart.

She even did a insert-less version. I hope you guys enjoy it! XD