Yes, it’s a me party over at Joystiq, with two weeks in a row of Playing Dirty. Today you’ll find part two of my look at the changing gendered art of Castlevania, “Dracula Wears Eyeliner.” Whips, widowers, and way too much compact powder: these guys have it all.
Bonnie Ruberg is a sex, technology, and video games journalist who contributes regularly to publications like The Economist, Forbes, and The Village Voice. By day she's also a comparative literature PhD student at UC Berkeley, where she studies French, English, gender, sexuality, surrealism and perversion. You can reach her at [her first name and last name, all one big word] AT gmail DOT com.
|
|
Can Online Sex Heal Emotional Trauma?
Debating Race in Resident Evil 5
Hot for Teacher: Cybersex With a Professor
Kirby, Consumption, and Eating as Fighting
Life Is Short. Have an Affair, New York.
Portal Is for Lesbians
Pretty Pretty Princess: Link as Gender-Bender
Sugar High: Why Gamers Love Crafts and Cakes
Will Online Porn Withstand the Recession?
Women Monsters and Monstrous Women
Debating Race in Resident Evil 5
Hot for Teacher: Cybersex With a Professor
Kirby, Consumption, and Eating as Fighting
Life Is Short. Have an Affair, New York.
Portal Is for Lesbians
Pretty Pretty Princess: Link as Gender-Bender
Sugar High: Why Gamers Love Crafts and Cakes
Will Online Porn Withstand the Recession?
Women Monsters and Monstrous Women
Bound, Not Gagged
Forbes
Gamasutra
Game Politics
Gaming Age
Gay Gamer
Heartless Doll
IGDA’s Sex SIG
Joystiq
Laughing Squid
Lesbian Gamers
Macworld
Morbid Anatomy
Nintendo World Report
Numberless
PC World
Salon
Sexerati
SexRev 2.0
Sexy Videogameland
SF Weekly
Slate
Terra Nova
The Economist
The Onion A. V. Club
The Village Voice
The Weekly Geek
Tom’s Guide
Wired
Wonderland
Forbes
Gamasutra
Game Politics
Gaming Age
Gay Gamer
Heartless Doll
IGDA’s Sex SIG
Joystiq
Laughing Squid
Lesbian Gamers
Macworld
Morbid Anatomy
Nintendo World Report
Numberless
PC World
Salon
Sexerati
SexRev 2.0
Sexy Videogameland
SF Weekly
Slate
Terra Nova
The Economist
The Onion A. V. Club
The Village Voice
The Weekly Geek
Tom’s Guide
Wired
Wonderland
Entries Made Available in RSS.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Doesn’t seem to be up yet?
December 22nd, 2006 at 6:44 pm
The piece is up now. Check for it
(ps: typed this on my wii!)
December 23rd, 2006 at 11:51 am
I remember the original Castlevania artwork inside my Nintendo Power magazine. It was sort of that vintage 80s painting style that we might see for He-man or Conan. Nothing truly romantic or surreal about it, more of a gritty sword-and-sorcery theme.
Since it shifted, the games have also gotten better (with a few exceptions). Though I’m sure they’re unrelated, it seems the “bish” art motif goes hand-in-hand with the development of the game, going from simple fantasy noir to romantic, gothic fantasy.
There are a few others that did this too. Yoshitake (sp) Amano developed the art for Final Fantasy for quite a while. In Final Fantasy 6 we see the cast as pixels rendered somewhat close to his art – Terra in esper form, Setzer and Locke coming to mind. When we get near FF7-8, more of a smooth anime or modern look gets in there, making for gentler and more feminine figures (at least in the case of FF8).
I’ve noticed most Nintendo titles stay original, with a few deviations that never last.
December 26th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
I've noticed most Nintendo titles stay original, with a few deviations that never last.
Let’s just hope, for the sake of prettiness, this one eventually decides to come back around ;).