The first update of 2019 has a lot of “finally” like Cece Peniston as I revive a long-dead site section and add fan sprites based on two of the best mid-nineties Beat ‘Em Ups!

Reviews: dormant for a decade, I recoded and redesigned the reviews section (not the index) and modified just about every full review. They’re probably still full of sleep deprivation-induced grammatical errors, but I fixed a lot of the things that annoyed me whenever I saw the pages again. A few reviews were at least 50% rewritten. I’ll probably modify them even more, partially because the thinner page width makes the layout weird. Will I make new reviews later? **shrugs** This is still a work in progress, and the index page won’t look like the old ugly one once everything is done. For now, the Reviews are part of the Info Center area of the site.

Game Index: fixed as many of the review links as I could find and added Denjin Makai II/Guardians. BTW: the page has a list of the alternate ENG language select screen name graphics found in the OBJ TEST. Does anyone know if they appear in any variant of the game?

Sprites: new Denjin Makai II/Guardians page, including uncropped portraits.

Custom Sprites: The Battle Circuit gallery starts with Cyber Blue and the Denjin Makai gallery opens with Makai and Guardians-uniform Kurokishi. BTW: just in case you’ve never seen them, you should check out 2Dwillneverdie to see the Battle Circuit sprites Kiwi made long ago. Masterpieces, one and all.

Mini-logos: Banpresto, Denjin Makai and Denjin Makai II added to new Banpresto gallery.

The new pixel art has been added to the main image generator, as usual!

One last update in 2018 with a bunch of unused stuff and to set the stage for 2019!

Custom Sprites:
Final Fight: Carlos, Lucia
Marvel Comics: Daredevil, Taskmaster, Mockingbird
DC Comics: the Question

Thanks to actress/martial artist/cosplayer Kimberly Root who came up with the pose during Free Comic Book Day at All American Comics (Warren location)!

Mini-logos: Mockingbird added to Marvel gallery

The Daredevil and Question sprites are in honor of two comic book greats we lost in 2018: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

My plan to have more videos didn’t work out the way I’d hoped (though the really short Black Panther video turned out nicely), but I’ve put together a video with some unfinished work, including something I’ve shown teasers for in TWO year-end videos.

That third part of the video is a big reason why there weren’t that many new sprites added to the site this year. I spent a bit of 2018 working on animations you haven’t seen yet and, let’s be real, if I show them on this site before I put them in a video, they’ll be in someone else’s video before mine (with no credit). Not that I’m bitter or anything. Truth is, getting ripped off is part of what inspires me to want to make videos. Let’s see if 2019 is the year that I finally start finishing some videos!

Public plans for 2019:

• Animation (and showing it this time) and video. I didn’t show everything in that Unfinished Business video, so some long-percolating animation and video projects will show up in 2019.
• The Revenge of 1989: 30th anniversary edition!
• Bring back the missing Crossup Beatdown
• More prints, including the upcoming custom print program where you get to pick what goes into a one-of-a-kind print. Imagine being able to choose who’s in the 2018 Horror Fighter print, including a customized roster.
  
  More info on that next year!

That’s enough of all for 2018! Thank you for coming through to check out the site and I hope you have a Happy New Year!

Custom Sprites: Roxy and Stormer make mischief on the outrageously new Jem gallery page, a new scratch-made sprite of Roadblock (v.1) joins the G.I.JOE page, Man-at-Arms finally appears on the Masters of the Universe page and Buttons McBoomBoom tries to steal the show on the Toys ‘n Toons hub page.

All of this has been added to the GFX Generator, where you’ll find a new “2018 Deadpool” option for the Marvel Legends box and (finally) word balloon options for the Kenner Super Powers tribute!

In honor of today’s food comas, today’s small update shows appreciation for characters who serve up food and induce comas! Besides observing Karnovember, this update also gives thanks to Heavy Burger, the new top-down shooter that combines many of Data East’s greatest hits in a bizarre way that befits the company’s weird, wonderful legacy.

Custom Sprites:
Data East
Karate Champ (new separate gallery)
Karnov (new separate gallery)

All new sprites have been added to the main image generator, which also gained a new Karnov NES box overlay for the “Boxes, Flyer & Posters 160×192” screenstyle!

The DangerTerrorHorrorThon is finally done, and it’s time for the wrap-up post (and a few extras):

Custom Sprites

Altered Beast: Werewolf (new pose), Neff, Aggar (flying head and whole Aggar), Chicken Stinger
Splatterhouse: Rick Taylor (new pose), Jennifer Willis, Evil Cross & Nightmare, Biggy Man, Nobu
Castlevania: Alucard, Queen Medusa, Sonia Belmont
Gauntlet: Demon
Ghosts ‘n Goblins series: Red Arremer/Firebrand
Mario Series: Boo
Zombies Ate My Neighbors: Stanley Decker
Illmosis/ScrollBoss: Ghost
the Horror gallery:
– Halloween: Michael Myers/The Shape (sheet disguise), Dr. Loomis, Jamie Lloyd, and, added today, an improved version of my 2016 Laurie Strode sprite
– Phantasm: the Tall Man (new version of blade-bearing spheres), Mike
– WNUF: Frank Stewart

Mini-logos: Sonia (Castlevania) added to Konami gallery, Carrie and Phantasm (Remastered) added to movie gallery.

All of these things were added to the GFX Generator, along with that new ominous arcade background.

The horror print (available on the shop page) made a cameo in a Destructoid article about some spooky Nintendo Switch games! Mad thanks to Jonathan Holmes for both buying a print and spreading the word! By the way, if you think the reshading job I did for the Laurie sprite looks like the horror print, well, we’ll have to save that conversation for a later date.

Hardcore Gaming 101 just released a new digest called The Guide to Retro Horror. The book includes material by Rob Strangman, creator of the legendary West Mansion Splatterhouse fan site and artwork by the always-fresh Rusty Shackles.

VGJunk has been on a roll with a wide variety of horror and monster game reviews throughout October, including Splatterhouse 3!

Arcade Quartermaster added new shrines, including Konami’s Haunted Castle, a game that’s considered scary for all the wrong reasons, and, to kick off Karnovember in the right way, the original arcade version of Karnov!

The movie became an instant favorite of mine when I saw it on Shudder long ago and I’m proud to own it on DVD (no VHS version for me… yet). There’s currently a GoFundMe campaign to get a sequel made! Consider helping out and supporting independent filmmaking if you can afford it!

Eddie in the City is having a sale on some cute, horror-themed miniatures, including a few game characters you’ll recognize if you’ve been following the HorrorThon!

This shmuplations.com translation of a 1988 interview with the Splatterhouse arcade team is right on time for the spooky season and full of interesting tidbits about the game’s creation.