Original DA Upload Date: February 27, 2021
Another Pokemon Day/National Retro Day hybrid artwork. Because the universe knows that I love both Pokemon and retro things.
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Nintendo vs. Sega is perhaps the silliest feud to come out of video gaming. Ever since the Genesis came onto the North American market in 1989 to challenge the older and less-powerful NES, people have delved into petty arguments about whether Nintendo or Sega was/is the better company, especially after Nintendo put out their own 16-bit console to challenge Sega. And with companies such as Phillips, Atari, and The 3DO Company putting out their own systems claiming to be more powerful, it was a period in gaming history known as ‘the Bitwars’.
Which were stupid then and it’s even more stupid now. Anyone who spends any amount of time researching would know that there’s much more to a console’s power than bit count. In fact, if we measure a console purely by CPU bit count, the N64 and PS5 are both 64-bit consoles. Of course, the PS5 runs on hardware far more advanced, and contains 256-bit components. Bits were and are mostly just a marketing thing, and I’m glad nobody in the 21st century is still trying to push them as a selling point.
As for the SNES vs. Genesis war, well, SNES has the better graphical effects and sound, but the Genesis both runs faster and is better at sprite handling. Both of them are great consoles with tons of great games, but putting down one or the other is just pathetic, especially in 2021 when the games are easily accessible through emulation.
Speaking of Sega Genesis, I’m gonna plug my YouTube account, where I mostly speedrun that console’s version of Lemmings. I even hold the current world record on the Fun difficulty, with a time of 31:31. I’m gonna try to get it down to 30 and possibly even 29 soon, as well as run some of the higher difficulties. My WR run is at this link for your viewing pleasure!
Now to the artwork!
As part of my recent effort to draw better-looking environments, I used a lot of different brushes and textures to create the living room, as well as add some outlines to the environments to make them look more like something that the characters are actually in, and not just placed on. Also, like on the 700 followers special, I added a few ‘paintings’ to the walls to dress up the scenery. Which are actually last year’s Pokemon Day/National Retro Day artwork, my personal favorite artwork of Dolly, and a color-distorted artwork of Margo, all pixelated beyond recognition (although AnimationFan15 noticed the Zigilda and Wendirisu easter egg when I showed off the first panel in private).
For the retro theme, Dolly’s sisters are all dressed as characters from retro Sega and Sega-owned franchises. Roz is Blaze Fielding from Streets of Rage, Maddie is Gilius Thunderhead from Golden Axe, Wendy is the classic version of Amy Rose from the Sonic the Hedgehog games, and Nicole is Jack Frost from Megami Tensei. As for Dolly herself, her outfit is both retro and Pokemon… she’s a shiny Mawile from the Gen III Pokemon games! Surrounded by fireflies trained by Gregory to follow her around, because the term ‘shiny Pokemon’ comes from the sparkle effect around the differently-colored Pokemon when they appear on the battlefield. I thought about drawing her as a Bellossom or a Spinda (the latter being a reference to the shiny Spinda I found in Pokemon Emerald, the only shiny I’ve found against the original 1/8192 shiny odds), but I thought a Mawile would be more appropriate, due to their feminine appearance and being found rather early in Ruby. Which, if Grunvale is strictly placed in 2017, Dolly would have grown up with (a 2017 setting would mean she was born between October 22-November 21 of 1993). It’s halfway between a Disneybounding style (Pokebounding?) and a full-blown cosplay, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t see Dolly as a full-blown cosplayer, anyway.
That’ll be all for this one. Happy Pokemon and National Retro Day!
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Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it.
Pokemon is owned by Nintendo.
Sonic the Hedgehog, Golden Axe, and Streets of Rage are owned by Sega.
Megami Tensei is owned by Sega through Atlus.
Both panels of this artwork were made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
The Gallery of Stormy Adler 