Blaster Master

[Derek]

Jason Frudnick and SOPHIA 3rd Nora MA-03 (with new paintjob)

Found a little free time to pixel, so I thought I'd do something I've wanted to do for a while now... Blaster Master!  I always thought it was a shame that they never made a decent sequel for the original, which is a classic.  What do you think?  I'd like to work my way up to a full mockup of a new BM game.

Also, I'll just throw this Sega Genesis I pixelled in here:

(based off of this image)

[JonathanOfDrain]

I really like this! I think blaster master was one of my favorite NES games.
I really like your choice of colors. The little guy's gun holding arm is kind of hard to read, I think you should have redesigned the wheels only because they look kind of funky. Maybe get rid of that "tail" on the back of the tank.

P.S.
I think the original wheels look like a poke' balls.

[philipptr]

nice genesis. I wuould add some AA to some of the lines but other that than that I think most of it works very well.
Ah that brings back memories

[Derek]

Thanks, guys!

Fixed the wheels and tweaked the spoiler.  And did up a mutant for the hell of it.

[dille]

This looks cool!

But i would like to see some stronger high-lights!

[AdamAtomic]

Hey Derek!  welcome back   I'm loving the shading on the interior of the chassis, but the heavy outlining, bland colors, and fluffy shapes on the wheels are really hurting this piece.  The mutant is pretty good but I think relies too heavily on outlines as well.  Great start, and you're right, its a total shame!

[bengo]

I think on your purple guy it needs more selout, I think the black should be replaced with a dark purple and like Dille said, you should use some stronger highlights.

[smiker]

note about the genesis:
at that pixel resolution, you should be able to make more readable letters for the genesis logo, i think...
any other icons, very nice! i like them all!
^^
long life to nostalgics!

[Helm]

Went ahead and gave it a 16 color palette instead of 19 (I think it was). I don't think gray is a color that should be used lots in video-game protagonists, but others might disagree. Anything from a slight tint to a whole secondary ramp (as I've done here) I think unifies the colors much better than 'green + gray parts'. It gives you the chance to suggest the hue of the lightsource as well as portray a more pleasing range of volumetrics, I think. I went ahead and added much contrast, cleaned the design a bit, changed things I thought would look better (strictly personal thing. I never would put the cannon of the vehicle behind the cockpit, though that might have been the original idea for the NES sprite for all I know). I changed the wheels dramatically, which I think were the biggest fault. I made the protagonist sprite much simpler because I think the NES sprite had a certain charm that must be retained. The smaller the sprite generally, the less colors and detail there should be pushed in there.

I hope this helps. If you keep anything from my advice, make it 'more contrast, more distinct colors'. 

[Derek]

Thanks, guys.  I've been making some small tweaks to the vehicle and the mutant.  I'll post them once I've done a little more.  Much of your advice makes a lot of sense, I'm just trying to figure out how to integrate it.

Sweet edit, Helm!  I agree with you about the contrast and a bit of tinting, although I feel like your edit goes further than I would want to in this case.  It's a little grittier looking than I was aiming for.  I'll definitely take your advice to heart, however.  You can see if I improved it in my next post.

By the way, in the actual vehicle the cannon and the cockpit are like two hemispheres of the upper part of the vehicle.  Take a look:

http://bmunderground.chaosr.com/gfx/02_images/ads/NP_BM_poster.jpg

It would make doing a remake a little annoying, because to be accurate you couldn't just flip the sprite.  Still, I think it's a unique design and I'm sad that they changed it for the Genesis sequel.