I’ve always been vaguely curious about From Software’s Bloodborne, but I’ve never commited to the game because it just creeps me the heck out. Gothic architecture, cackling priests and nightmare fuel that defies conventional thinking makes for a game that would probably result in me straight-up having a bad time. Yo.
And then there’s a video game franchise even more frightening, even more horrifying in every single way conceivable: Super Mario Bros.
Don’t believe me? Think of this way: A portly Italian and his lanky brother, rampaging across a kingdom of mushrooms (the games pretty much take place in the same universe as The Last of Us), chasing a dragon that has kidnapped a princess. The only way past all those fungi troopers? By crushing their spins with a well-timed stomp. Then there’s ghosts, bastard dragon children, and karts. Truly the stuff that nightmares are made of, no I’m not weird you’re the strange one for not being scared.
What if the worlds of Nintendo and Sony’s greatest games were merged though? You’d get a Mario Bros. game that I’d actually want to play, as imagined by David Romero. Using Bloodborne’s Gothic Victorian aesthetics as inspiration, Romero created several masterpieces that’ll have you yearning for someone to mod them into existence:
I think the end result can only be described in a Ron Simmons meme:
You can check out plenty more of Romero’s amazing artwork on his Artstation page. And yes, a picture is worth a thousand “DAMNS!”.
Last Updated: November 9, 2020
Original Heretic
November 9, 2020 at 15:12
That…looks… AWESOME!
I’d play anything made by From Software.
But this, I’d play twice.
Insomnia is fun
November 9, 2020 at 15:23
Mama Mia!