Sprite Comics – Season 4

Episode 7: Crossover

Alright, let’s talk about various things from this comic.
Three singers at a poster again, like in episode 3–7. (Of course, these are not the same singers as last time.) And again, the outfits are based on the ones in certain music videos.
For the first and only time, I included myself into the Nintendo comic. Not only into the moderation section, but into the normal plot. But, as I pointed out in episode 2–0, I hate fourth wall breaks. And that’s why you won’t find one here either: My comic self isn’t aware that he’s in a comic and he doesn’t speak to the real audience, but he tapes a documentary for his fictitious audience in his world. So, basically you now know three instances of myself: Me from reality who created the sprite comics and who is the one who wrote this comment. Then the moderator in front of the cyan background, in the comic called “real me”, who does the same sketches, but in his world they are drawn, animated films. And then the one from this comic, “sketch me”, who originally planned to do a movie, but went with sketches instead which, in his world, will be created with real persons who play themselves. When my moderator self says that the sketch is about him visiting the Nintendo characters it is of course a joke. In his world, the following comic is just an animation, not a real scene from the past. So, the fact that the other guy responds that the Nintendo characters are fictitious is still not a fourth wall break.
In episode 3–7 I demonstrated the final opponent’s inactiveness. This time it’s a similar topic: Too simple and monotonous plot lines.
The room I’m in in the regular comic (not the introduction scene) is the same as in episode 2–4, but I resized everything so that it matches the sprite size since last time the room was used with a larger Lara Croft sprite. However, I exchanged the floor. That’s mainly because I wasn’t able to resize it in the correct proportions while still looking good, so I changed it completely and used other colors so that people know it’s intentional and not a mathematical error.
I also changed the screen’s color which again was for practical reasons because otherwise it would have had the same color as the background of the poster.
The poster displays Pamela Anderson from 1995. This is the image in full color:

And here we have it a bit bigger:

I recycled the room because I recognized that it doesn’t really fit into episode 2–4 because it was the only time ever that I used a self-made background and in a scene with a concrete videogame character. It’s not even based on a room of Lara Croft’s mansion. So, I reused the background to make the impression that, if the comics were sketches played by real persons, we just would have shot the Lara Croft scene in our studio instead of an authentic location.
For the “Super Mario Bros.” scene, I recreated a part of the first level of “Super Mario Bros. 1” with the graphic style of “Super Mario Bros. 3” while keeping the original colors. The reason is: In my “Mario” comics, every flashback scene from the time of 1985 is shown in the graphic style of “Super Mario Bros. 1”, every dream scene or scene that plays in a dream world is drawn in “Super Mario Bros. 2” style and the default style for everything else is from “Super Mario Bros. 3” since it’s the most recent game. And this time I wanted to display the current time, or rather: The time the comic plays in, which means: “Super Mario Bros. 3” style. But I wanted the characters to be in the Mushroom Kingdom, not in the Mushroon World.
Since the Mushroom Kingdom is a land of giants, as I already explained in the comment for episode 3–7, I at first have to use a Super Mushroom before my size matches the one of the other characters.
This time I finally included Princess Toadstool who was never seen in any of my previous comics, except for her image on the letter in episode 3–2.
Some time after I had already finished the comic, I realized that this scene actually contains an error: It looks like Mario jumped against the now empty question mark block. But if Super Mario jumps against it, a Fire Flower appears, not a Super Mushroom, since the appearing object always refers of the status of the person who jumped against the block. And since Mario is already big, this would mean a Fire Flower. So, to explain the error, let’s just say that I jumped against the block and while the Super Mushroom was moving, Princess Toadstool, Mario and me walked some steps to the right.
The sky in “The Legend of Zelda” has a nice skin color.
The plot that I talk about in the “Castlevania” part is of course the one from Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula”.
Nothing special to say about “Pac-Man” and “Bomberman”.
My vacation with Samus Aran in the first level of “Contra” could be considered some kind of fan service author service, so, as the other guy said, this scene really has no purpose, but if I get to include myself into the regular plot, I can’t waste this opportunity.
Sitting Samus is an edited version of one of her running animations with the hair of her standard standing sprite.
The table and the chairs are drawn by me.
O.k., “Final Fantasy”: If you think this game has an elaborated plot, think again. The only exception might be the first area before you cross the bridge. There we have a bit of a dynamic story. But after it, it’s again just collecting items to be able to reach the four main opponents and when they are defeated, you can go to the final bad guy. The status quo, the overall situation in the game world when you cross the bridge is exactly the same as shortly before you enter the final dungeon. The only changes during the game affect yourself and your level of experience, but the general situation just changes once in the beginning and once in the end. And all the non-playable characters don’t do anything except giving you hints or tasks. But they don’t really play an active part in the story.
Now, “Final Fantasy Adventure” (“Mystic Quest” in Europe) for the Game Boy on the other hand, the game where the hero dressed in blue comes from (the colors of his sprite are of course chosen by me since it’s a black and white game), is a completely different thing: The story is ever-changing. In the beginning you don’t know where the game will take you. It’s not about finding a certain number of items, so you never know how far you have already advanced. This game has a real plot with unexpected twists, interesting and interactive side characters who don’t just stand at the same spot for the duration of the game and a bad guy who makes and works out plans that are dependent on the situation you’re currently in. And this game has really emotional scenes where people get hurt, are killed or where they sacrifice themselves for other people. Where do you find that in “Final Fantasy”? If you don’t know the story of “Final Fantasy Adventure”, I’d really suggest you to either play the game or to read a plot summarization or to find a walkthrough that has all in-game text listed. Then you will see what I’m talking about.
Unfortunately, my comic self never got to hear the story of this truly terrific adventure.