Gallery: Game Characters from Memory

Kole here! This past weekend, Gary and I had a booth set up at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee. Tons of people came out, and you'll hear us talk about it on the shows in the coming months. What I'm here to share is the fruit of our booth activity.

Each year we want to make our table interactive. In addition to meeting fans and telling new people about the show, we try to find a memorable activity that relates to the topic of our panel. Since this year's panel was about Creative Games like Mario Paint, we decided to get a small sketch book and a bunch of Sharpies, and we asked visitors to draw video game characters from memory.

If you haven't tried this, give it a shot. Don't google or look up other reference material. It's challenging, and the result is almost always entertaining, as you'll see below. Over the course of the weekend we accumulated 35 great drawings by saying "Hey, draw _____". They had to draw what we asked them to, so they didn't come in with a character in their pocket.

I will do my best to credit the people who drew these as I share them. However, most of the artists didn't sign their names. If you recognize your work and want credit, just comment and I'll update the post.

Enough preamble, let's do this.

Derek got us started off with a Mega Man who looks positively deranged.

This little Link by Dan F. is super Christian, super cheerful, and super here to help.

Jon F. was told to draw Sonic, but ended up drawing Fast Lisa Simpson instead.

I asked Gary to draw Jak and Daxter. He took his best guess, which was that Daxter was just a much smaller version of Jak.

Because Jak and Daxter were curveballs, I asked Gary to draw Wario. I would like to draw your attention to the stink lines emanating from the belly button, which I feel really brings the image together.

Gary then asked me to draw Cloud, but the sketch pad wasn't big enough for the Buster Sword.

This is Crash Bandicoot, as depicted by the ancient Egyptians.

This Bowser was clearly drawn by a professional illustrator.

Noted Good Artist Jeremy Parish of Retronauts stopped by and drew this sassy King Dedede, even though he doesn't remember what King Dedede looks like. I think he captured the spirit!

No, this isn't a character from Life is Strange. Notice the asymmetric pants... That's a Tidus!

I wanted to draw a blobby little Mario. I drew a blobby little Mario.

Miles is here to help.

The booth got a little slow, so I drew a realistic Toad.

We're pretty sure whoever drew this Mario cheated.

Gary saw my Cloud, and raised me a Sephiroth.

Bring Back Chubby Pikachu!

What makes this Yoshi bad? He's a prolific Reply Guy.

Chubby Belmont won't be chubby for long if he doesn't figure out how to whip that wall meat.

We asked this person to draw the Prince from Katamari Damacy, but the King of All Cosmos upstaged him.

Gary drew a realistic Conker. The urgency is palpable.

This Spyro is the last thing you see before you die.

Is it just me, or does this Bomberman have hell of Big Roast Beef energy?

This Parakoopa is RAD, which stands for "Raiding All Dreams". Sleep tight.

This Cubone is transcendent, primarily because its entire body is apparently covered in a bone sleeve.

I drew a Lara Croft, mid jump. She'll never land.

Anatomically Correct Donkey Kong emcees the Dispensary Olympics.

This is either Solid Snake, or Ryu took up a filthy habit.

Kratos grew killer chops.

Gary thinks the cigarette makes his Chocobo look cool. I think it makes him look like a bad influence.

We asked this person to draw Master Chief, but we got a Doom Marine instead. Same difference!

Gary asked me to draw Pepsi Man, so I drew him the Marvel Way.

Bob Mackey of Retronauts drew us an extremely vexed Parappa.

Guybrush Threepwood has had it up to here with these sinks!

Chris Kohler provided us an eminently huggable moogle.

Luigi sees you. Luigi sees me. Luigi cannot stop seeing.

Finally, before we packed up, I drew a serviceable Samus with a bonus Metroid.

I hope you've enjoyed this tour through our communal sketch book! The show was a lot of fun, thanks entirely to all of you who came out and said hi.