aled lewis: 8-bit art & toy stories

my original version of this post had been sitting in the SNT queue for quite a bit, but now i’m actually glad i waited.

stumbling upon TWO awesome sets of work from the same artist in two separate situations – and really digging both without even realizing they were done by the same person – certainly means something.. 1) i spend too much damn time on the internet, and 2) that artist is pretty damn awesome. (potentially 3) – but this is a kid’s show so i can’t share that with you. sorry.)

without further ado – ladies & gents, UK designer & illustrator ALED LEWIS! not only does he fashion quite sick and perceptive designs for fun, clients, prints, and t-shirts, but he also created two of my favorite series in recent times, which feature old school video games and plastic toys/figurines (go fig).

how did it start? via tumblr, as most things nowadays do. my xmas/new year’s pac-man obsession (..colored lights & techno still send me reeling..) had me instantly fall in love with this:

Pinky by Aled Lewis

after a click here and a click there (yeah, you know how the internet works – what do you want?!), i found his first series. this is one of my favorites:

Koopa Beach by Aled Lewis

XBOX FAIL

Yeah Kinect’s cool, and custom soundtracks are pretty cool too, good way to get rid of those whiny emopunk bands on all the racing games.

-E

pac-man 2010 = rainbow crack

so it’s nearly 1am on xmas eve and we are STILL playing the spankin’ new pac-man championship edition DX on ps3. and i say STILL because after playing the demo over and over and over and over and OVER, we finally bought the game for a measly 10 bucks, and by god is it worth it.

this game is a RAINBOW CRACKASAURUS REX. the mightiest of insane technicolor hypersonic crackalicious entertainment. if you don’t have this game, PLAY THE DEMO and tell me you won’t be shaking in a few hours when you try to sleep. it’s like going to a rave with pac-man where the LSD NEVER RUNS OUT.

the speed is INSANE. the music is hot. the colors are brighter than a radioactive bag of skittles. you can BOMB the ghosts away from you if you get into a jam, AND pac-man does this ridiculous prince of persia/matrix-type slow down of time when he does a near-collision with a ghost (?!!!!?!??!). there’s also a bunch of different courses, views, character styles, music, time attacks, and high-speed shiz that makes you THINK before the super ADD gameplay turns you into a drooling, psychotic mess.

nuff said, i love this game.

ps.. if anyone knows where to download the song on the course select screen, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. i wanna bump. that. shiz. ALL. NITE.

and oh yeah.. MERRY XMAS!!!

– da leopard