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Forewarning: Long blog entry ahead, but don't feel discouraged, I talk about boobs halfway thru.

While I was drawing this strip, I mused upon the various topics it touches upon. (yes, other thoughts beyond tiny bikinis!) Nintendo was the trendsetter when it came to making spin offs of its flagship franchise, Mario. Ever since the 16 bit Mario Kart, Mario and company have appeared in countless other titles beyond platforming. Nearly every major sport has been passed thru the colorful and cheerful filter of the Mario universe.

From Golf, Tennis, Soccer, Basketball, even the Olympic Games (sharing the limelight with Sega's main mascot, but that is blog material for another occasion), the excellent RPG Paper Marios and the puzzler Dr. Mario or the curiously creative Mario Paint. Also lesser profile activities such as the Party titles (which have outlasted their welcome), to one-of-a-kind experiments such as Dance Revolution, Picross or even Pinball have been rendered under the Mario brand.

No, I'm not gonna talk about those other titles, that were so horrible, that not even Nintendo would acknowledge their existance, but it proofs that Nintendo was willing to put Mario on just about anything. Mario Hotel anyone?

The most recent announcement of this series of spin offs is Mario Sluggers... Ok, just to make it clear for anyone that is reading this and doesn't live in The United States, Japan, Cuba or Venezuela, that means Baseball. That's right, Baseball. The only people in the world that would actually give a damn about this game live on the countries previously mentioned. There are not enough happy clouds, coins, pipes, smily stars or hallucinogenic mushrooms in the whole Mushroom Kingdom that would make baseball NOT boring. ( hmm... Mushroom Kingdom, maybe that is why everything is so colorful and happy). There is not another way around it, Baseball is not a very entertaining sport to play or even watch. And I'm talking from personal experience since I used to play it both, in real life and in video games. The fact remains, the “King of Sports” for the rest of the world is Football (and no, not the one with the helmets!) and that has already been done as Mario Strikers.

Has Nintendo done one spin off too many? Either they keep rehashing the Tennis,Golf and Kart formula or they tackle other sports for Mariofication ( said that way kinda sounds painful ).

American Football? too American, Rugby? too Aussie, Cricket? too British, Hockey? *pictures Yoshi pulling Luigi's jersey over his head and punching his face in* fun, but too violent and Canadian, eh.

What other sport with international reach can Nintendo coat with the Mario essence. Wait! I know!! Volleyball!!! ... oh wait, there is a small problem. To make volleyball apealing to most gamers(read males), it would have to be Beach Volleyball.

If there is a name that is linked to Beach Volleyball, either for better or worse, that is Tomonobu Itagaki. Yes, the most media attention grabbing developer this side of Dennis Dyack.

Tecmo's former employee, creator of one of the best action games ever: Ninja Gaiden as well as one of the most solid fighting games series around, Dead or Alive.

Althought Dead or Alive is sorely overlooked over other more established fightings series such as Virtua Fighter, Tekken or Street Fighter, it was a well executed series of fighting games. Too bad the little respect that that series had was smothered to dead by the overflowing cleavage of its female leads. And that which drove the proverbial nail into the coffin of that series respect was, of all things, a spin off: The Xtreme Beach Volleyball games, after that, no fan of the DOA games would readily admit being one. And don't think for a moment that it was the "Boobs Factor" of that series what ruined the reputation of the franchise. (Hey, I'm all for boobs, ... there, I said it again ... BOOBS, BOOBS, BOOOOOBS!!!) There is nothing wrong with a game having sex appeal, the problem arises when the game relies almost entirely upon sex appeal, now that is a game in trouble. That was the main problem with the Xtreme games, the Volleyball simulation it offered was pure garbage.

And example of a great Beach Volleyball game was Beach Spikers. What made Beach Spikers great was the fact that it was indeed a solid and highly playable arcade Volleyball game. The fact hat the cast was all female and happened to wear bikinis was just an added bonus, but in no way it was lewd or excessive, it was just a natural part of the game. Another thing that made the game good was that it focused ONLY on playing Volleyball!(imagine that Itagaki, Wow, what a concept)

What screwed over the Xtreme games was that, for some God forsaken reason, Itagaki and Team Ninja diluted the Volleyball part of the game and added a collection of activities that distracted the developement time away from the sport's simulation: Lousy jetski racing, frolicky poolside events, shallow casino games, pseudo tamagochi partner pandering, dress up doll fetiches, vouyer in engine cinemas and, to top it all off, strip club pole dancing. No kidding!

Itagaki once said that he considered the DOA girls as "his dauthgers" if that is the case Itagaki, you are one messed up, sick pervert of a parent!

Now that Itagaki is gone, someone else (prefereably with much more common sense and talent) will take the helm of the Ninja Gaiden and the DOA series, and maybe even the Xtreme games. And I would advise to said person to look at Beach Spikers as a template upon which to build the series. Oh, another thing: make sure that the physics engine should mainly be used for the bounce of the damn ball!!! And why the hell not? make the game attractive to the female and gay demographic by adding the male cast of DOA too. I believe in equality 100%.

Now, back to Nintendo. There is no doubt that they are perfectly capable of developing a Mario themed Volleyball game. The gameplay would be a guaranteed. But should it include also the beach variant of the sport? And if so, should the cast wear, gasp, bathing suits?

Nintendo has had no problems in the past when it came to shortening Peach's dress or having her wear short pants. But bathing suits are still an off limits terrain, but for how long? I'm pretty sure we won't see things as extreme as the designs I drew, but something more adequate may arise in the future, her Strikers outfit was quite unprecedented and it could be a good indication of where things may lead.

Also, if the females of the cast are allowed to wear short pants to play sport, why is Mario and Luigi wearing the same old, ugly overalls? Wouldn't Mario look better wearing a basketball uniform while playing basketball? There is an unfair disparity right there, whichever way you look at it. You may be thinking that Nintendo would never risk to soil the image of such iconic characters. Well Nintendo doesn't need to worry about that, because that is what deviantArt is for! (I've hanged around deviantArt long enough to know that there is nothing untouchable or sacred when it come to fanartist).

And finally, if you think that Nintendo would not deal with sexually ambiguous concepts, let me remind everyone that it was them who introduced to the world to Birdo; a pink transvestite dinosaur that shoots eggs out of its mouth... Go ahead and try to wrap your brain around that concept!

Just a quick update to show you guys my last illustration as well as to inform everyone that I've been working on Loose Buttons No4 and that it'll be up next week. My intentions were to have it up before the weekend but the panels of the strip got really "visually busy", hence it got me a bit more occupied that ussual. Man, that is the thing that kills me, not being able to do this stuff faster. I guess that that comes with practice . Well, see you next week and enjoy the piece.

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By DERRIK J. LANG AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -

Stan Winston, the Oscar-winning special-effects maestro responsible for bringing the dinosaurs of "Jurassic Park" and other iconic movie creatures to life, has died. He was 62. Winston died at his home in Malibu surrounded by family on Sunday evening after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma, according to a representative from Stan Winston Studio. Working with such directors as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Tim Burton in a career spanning four decades, Winston created some of the most memorable visual effects in cinematic history. He helped bring the dinosaurs from "Jurassic Park," the extraterrestrials from "Aliens, the robots from "Terminator" and even "Edward Scissorhands" to the big screen, and was a pioneer in merging real-world effects with computer imaging.

"The entertainment industry has lost a genius, and I lost one of my best friends with the death Sunday night of Stan Winston," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "Stan's work and four Oscars speak for themselves and will live on forever. What will live forever in my heart is the way that Stan loved everyone and treated each of his friends like they were family."

Winston won visual effects Oscars for 1986's "Aliens," 1992's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and 1993's "Jurassic Park." He also won a makeup Oscar for 1992's "Batman Returns." Winston was nominated for his work on "Heartbeeps," "Predator," "Edward Scissorhands," "Batman Returns," "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and "A.I." He last worked with director Jon Favreau on "Iron Man." "He was experienced and helped guide me while never losing his childlike enthusiasm," Favreau said in a statement. "He was the king of integrating practical effects with CGI, never losing his relevance in an ever changing industry. I am proud to have worked with him and we were looking forward to future collaborations. I knew that he was struggling, but I had no idea that he would be gone so soon. Hollywood has lost a shining star." At the time of his death, Winston was in the process of transforming his physical makeup and effects studio into the new Winston Effects Group with a team of senior effects supervisors. Winton's most recent projects included "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins," "G.I. Joe," "Shutter Island" and Cameron's "Avatar." "He ran at full throttle, in both work and play, and was a man of kindness, wisdom and great humor," Cameron said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "He was a kid that never grew up, whose dreams were writ large on the screens of the world. I am proud to have been his friend, and I will miss him very deeply." As a child growing up in Virginia, Winston enjoyed drawing, puppetry and old time horror films. After graduating from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville in 1968, Winston moved to Southern California to become an actor but instead worked behind the scenes and completed a three-year makeup apprenticeship program at Walt Disney Studios in 1972. Winston is survived by his wife, Karen; a son, daughter, brother and four grandchildren. (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

And we all as gamers should keep a moment of silence and salute a man whose works have inspired not only countless movie makers and FX spetialist, but to many more videogame developers that have used Stan's works as source of inspiration for their games, (He is thanked directly by the Blizzard developers on the StarCraft's credits) How many others have knowingly or unconsciously become character designers or game makers after seeing his movies as kids. I salute you Stan Winston, your memory and your creations will live on for generations to come.

Little know trivia: The creatures featured in the game "The Suffering" were of Stan Winston's own creation, it was his firs collaboration ever on the making of a videogame and the first time a game would feature his work, without it being first featured on the movie screen.

Ironically enough, MTV Studios adquired the rights of the Suffering back in 2005 and the movie is "in production" status but it is not yet clear if it'll see a release later in 2009 at best.

Now seriously, the in-game legs on those thigs creep the hell out of me

EDIT: I've decided to take the watermark off the image since it already has plenty of markings that give faith of my authoship, besides, I felt that it decreased the impact of the piece. So go ahead and click on it to see the image in its 800pixel wide preview (The really detailed 13.6Mpixel original is for prints only)

Hey art lovers in general. I've been quite busy the last few days working on a new illustration that I finished just today and it was done as my first try out piece for the print program available at deviantArt. I know one print is not gonna pay my bills but hey, it is a start. I'm gonna keep working on other illustrations of this kind over the next few months, so any critique and sugestions are welcome.

Click to visit the deviantArt site and view a larger version of this image.