Donkey Kong Mash-Ups Take Sci-Fi Into The 8-Bit World
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Sometimes the world seems like it’s just a little too complicated. During those times, it’s always best to lower your life’s resolution down to about 8 bits, and jump from platform to platform in an attempt to rescue a princess from a giant monkey. It’s the simple things.
While that tactic may not work for you, it certainly worked for a bunch of fictional chracters across science fiction, as depicted by game artist/T-shirt designer Baz, whose talent for 8-bit design is gloriously evident in his collection of Donkey Kong-inspired prints. Baz supplanted Mario Jumpman and Donkey Kong with the main protagonist and antagonist from a group of films, and designed the game levels around each inspiration. Thankfully he avoided Planet of the Apes, otherwise we might not have been able to tell the difference.
Though the location-specific elements like platforms and ladders remains constant, everything else is changed, even the platforms and ladders themselves. Each is almost immediately recognizable, however, both from the big enemy standing on top and the array of clever context clues filling in the scene. A blue police box and a bunch of Daleks? Gotta be the Doctor. Ghosts and Nazi flags? Dr. Jones, I presume. Facehuggers and hatched eggs? Ridley Scott’s Alien. Scott’s Prometheus also gets its due, which you can tell mostly from the character with a question mark by their head.
Check out the rest of Baz’s work on the Tumblr link above. He’s got a lot more 8-bit material, as well as a slew of other great designs. If my closet was the TARDIS, I could fill it with these T-shirts and still have room for my pants.
