Zako Artwork (1 Viewer)

[Watt Khan]

When it comes to classic video game zakos, the dynamite girl from Sunset Riders to me is just second to none. Love everything about her from her fashion sense to her cute little taunt. Everything she does just exudes femininity with that careful balance between sexy and just plain adorable. You can't help but feel sorry when she gets gunned down in the game almost without impunity. With that said, here is my tribute to this oft-forgotten female baddie (with her sprites as reference):

Compared to my last art, this is pretty dynamic. Also, I grew tired of strict cell shading so there is a lot more gradient in the colours here.

 

[wj1905]

Wow, she is sexy and cute! Also, hilarious sprites. Is there really an animation for her getting cartoonishly flattened???
And indeed, her throwing kisses with a heart icon is cute.

 

[Watt Khan]

Wow, she is sexy and cute! Also, hilarious sprites. Is there really an animation for her getting cartoonishly flattened???
And indeed, her throwing kisses with a heart icon is cute.

Yes actually! There are dropping (or rolling?) boulders in the very last stage of the game. If you time it right she can get flattened by them.

 

[Weoooo]

Dynamite girl is great because she's an impressive example of the zako paradox. She IS dangerous, she throws a stick of dynamite and it'll kill you. But she is also completely defenseless after she throws it. If you're paying attention and don't get killed by it, she has no other option but to run away. A bad girl, yet a damsel in distress. Caused by you, the hero.

 

[Watt Khan]

Dynamite girl is great because she's an impressive example of the zako paradox. She IS dangerous, she throws a stick of dynamite and it'll kill you. But she is also completely defenseless after she throws it. If you're paying attention and don't get killed by it, she has no other option but to run away. A bad girl, yet a damsel in distress. Caused by you, the hero.

Very true, I usually feel content to just let her escape when playing the game. Even then, she can still meet her demise via stampeding bulls or the aforementioned boulders. In fact, I can't think of any other zako who's as vulnerable as her.

 

[KeiBree]

When it comes to classic video game zakos, the dynamite girl from Sunset Riders to me is just second to none. Love everything about her from her fashion sense to her cute little taunt. Everything she does just exudes femininity with that careful balance between sexy and just plain adorable. You can't help but feel sorry when she gets gunned down in the game almost without impunity. With that said, here is my tribute to this oft-forgotten female baddie (with her sprites as reference):

View attachment 131279
View attachment 131280
Compared to my last art, this is pretty dynamic. Also, I grew tired of strict cell shading so there is a lot more gradient in the colours here.

This is so good!

She was one of my favorite zako growing up, would often imagine myself as her. so helpless, but still cut down...

You did such a great job, I've tried in the past but this is one of the best fan arts I've seen of her!

 

[Watt Khan]

This is so good!

She was one of my favorite zako growing up, would often imagine myself as her. so helpless, but still cut down...

You did such a great job, I've tried in the past but this is one of the best fan arts I've seen of her!

Thanks! That really means a lot!

As much as like the art, I do feel that there are still rooms for improvement.

But I do consider it as my own personal benchmark of quality. My future art (zako or otherwise) will have to be as good or even better.

 

[ran]

Here is my commissioned zako design.

It was based on Denjin Makai 2 but I changed many details and purposed a different story. The full story vanished with the Ryonani thread data transfer.

Here is the short version:
These armoured female fighters function as grunts in the later stage of my finctional beat'em up game/novel. While as numerous as intial female zakos, they are more aggressive and tougher. They can block or endure the heroine's full combos, giving chances for other elite female zakos and bosses to strike. They can also possess a threat to the heroine if attack in groups.

These brave female fighters are the bulk of the final boss' private forces. These beautiful girls are recruited voluntarily to leave previous poverty and jobless lifes. The final boss' consortium provides them with salary, residence, training and equipment. In return, these girls are willing to give their lives on the battelfield.
Good training gives them not only good fighting skills, but also robust body, with full protective armour closely attached thier skins, those armoured female fighters can survive much longer when confronting the heorine. In the fierce hand-to-hand combat, even wounded and wintessing sisters fallen, they are still brave and dedicated to kill the heroine.

Spoiler: Armoured female fighter

 

[Watt Khan]

Here is my commissioned zako design.

It was based on Denjin Makai 2 but I changed many details and purposed a different story. The full story vanished with the Ryonani thread data transfer.

Here is the short version:
These armoured female fighters function as grunts in the later stage of my finctional beat'em up game/novel. While as numerous as intial female zakos, they are more aggressive and tougher. They can block or endure the heroine's full combos, giving chances for other elite female zakos and bosses to strike. They can also possess a threat to the heroine if attack in groups.

These brave female fighters are the bulk of the final boss' private forces. These beautiful girls are recruited voluntarily to leave previous poverty and jobless lifes. The final boss' consortium provides them with salary, residence, training and equipment. In return, these girls are willing to give their lives on the battelfield.
Good training gives them not only good fighting skills, but also robust body, with full protective armour closely attached thier skins, those armoured female fighters can survive much longer when confronting the heorine. In the fierce hand-to-hand combat, even wounded and wintessing sisters fallen, they are still brave and dedicated to kill the heroine.

Spoiler: Armoured female fighter

View attachment 131435

Cool! Did you commision this from cirenk?
His style is pretty recognizable.

 

[ran]

Yes. He drew a lot of female fighters.

 

[Watt Khan]

In the Japanese version of the Sonic Blast Man game for the Snes (or rather SFC), one of the first enemies you'll ever encounter is a ponytailed lady with a barbie doll-like figure who's probably a hooker. That's not an unreasonable assumption, a lot of the zakos from beat-em-up games are probably also sex workers. But she really wouldn't be out of a place on a fashion runway, so who really knows.

However, whether hooker or fashion model, the fact that you have to fight her in the game feels rather outlandish. In the game's intro, it is established that Sonic Blast Man has superman-esque abilities. Yet he's using his superpowers to beat up random women on the street. Quite bizarre. If this zako takes too much of a beating in the game she will be on her knees disoriented (see sprites below). With the game's rather whimsical tone, it tries to pass this off as something funny that we should all be laughing at. But one can't help but feel that there is something cruel and dark about this whole scenario. This darker aspect is something I try to convey with my artwork below. What would you do if you were in Sonic Blast Man's shoes in this situation?:

With this picture, I tried to be as faithful as I can be to her appearance in the game. I did sort of miss the sash around her waist, but I think I nailed her look in other aspects. I really did not want her to pack extra "meat" so to say. I made her as thin as possible without appearing anorexic. There are also "shaking lines" around her body and speech bubble that might not be visible if you're viewing this with the site's night theme.

 

[Watt Khan]

Just a short announcement, with the holidays coming to a close and January fast approaching, normal life just has to resume. This means that I can't be as active as I have been in these past few weeks. But rest assured, I'll still be posting stuff just a bit less frequently.

With that said, I wish you all have a jolly and pleasant New Year's Day celebration!

 

[osw]

Great drawing!

 

[slayer]

In the Japanese version of the Sonic Blast Man game for the Snes (or rather SFC), one of the first enemies you'll ever encounter is a ponytailed lady with a barbie doll-like figure who's probably a hooker. That's not an unreasonable assumption, a lot of the zakos from beat-em-up games are probably also sex workers. But she really wouldn't be out of a place on a fashion runway, so who really knows.

However, whether hooker or fashion model, the fact that you have to fight her in the game feels rather outlandish. In the game's intro, it is established that Sonic Blast Man has superman-esque abilities. Yet he's using his superpowers to beat up random women on the street. Quite bizarre. If this zako takes too much of a beating in the game she will be on her knees disoriented (see sprites below). With the game's rather whimsical tone, it tries to pass this off as something funny that we should all be laughing at. But one can't help but feel that there is something cruel and dark about this whole scenario. This darker aspect is something I try to convey with my artwork below. (...)

Indeed I saw it rather dark that such a overpowered hero would beat up a skinny girl. Very exciting indeed.

View attachment 131620
With this picture, I tried to be as faithful as I can be to her appearance in the game. I did sort of miss the sash around her waist, but I think I nailed her look in other aspects. I really did not want her to pack extra "meat" so to say. I made her as thin as possible without appearing anorexic. (...)

Well done! I love the skinny look in this zako. I hope we see similar enemies in games in the future.

 

[ran]

In the Japanese version of the Sonic Blast Man game for the Snes (or rather SFC), one of the first enemies you'll ever encounter is a ponytailed lady with a barbie doll-like figure who's probably a hooker. That's not an unreasonable assumption, a lot of the zakos from beat-em-up games are probably also sex workers. But she really wouldn't be out of a place on a fashion runway, so who really knows.

However, whether hooker or fashion model, the fact that you have to fight her in the game feels rather outlandish. In the game's intro, it is established that Sonic Blast Man has superman-esque abilities. Yet he's using his superpowers to beat up random women on the street. Quite bizarre. If this zako takes too much of a beating in the game she will be on her knees disoriented (see sprites below). With the game's rather whimsical tone, it tries to pass this off as something funny that we should all be laughing at. But one can't help but feel that there is something cruel and dark about this whole scenario. This darker aspect is something I try to convey with my artwork below. What would you do if you were in Sonic Blast Man's shoes in this situation?:

View attachment 131618





View attachment 131620
With this picture, I tried to be as faithful as I can be to her appearance in the game. I did sort of miss the sash around her waist, but I think I nailed her look in other aspects. I really did not want her to pack extra "meat" so to say. I made her as thin as possible without appearing anorexic. There are also "shaking lines" around her body and speech bubble that might not be visible if you're viewing this with the site's night theme.

Good artwork, hope to see the female martial artist from the same game!

 

[Tsukachan]

In the Japanese version of the Sonic Blast Man game for the Snes (or rather SFC), one of the first enemies you'll ever encounter is a ponytailed lady with a barbie doll-like figure who's probably a hooker. That's not an unreasonable assumption, a lot of the zakos from beat-em-up games are probably also sex workers. But she really wouldn't be out of a place on a fashion runway, so who really knows.

However, whether hooker or fashion model, the fact that you have to fight her in the game feels rather outlandish. In the game's intro, it is established that Sonic Blast Man has superman-esque abilities. Yet he's using his superpowers to beat up random women on the street. Quite bizarre. If this zako takes too much of a beating in the game she will be on her knees disoriented (see sprites below). With the game's rather whimsical tone, it tries to pass this off as something funny that we should all be laughing at. But one can't help but feel that there is something cruel and dark about this whole scenario. This darker aspect is something I try to convey with my artwork below. What would you do if you were in Sonic Blast Man's shoes in this situation?:

View attachment 131618





View attachment 131620
With this picture, I tried to be as faithful as I can be to her appearance in the game. I did sort of miss the sash around her waist, but I think I nailed her look in other aspects. I really did not want her to pack extra "meat" so to say. I made her as thin as possible without appearing anorexic. There are also "shaking lines" around her body and speech bubble that might not be visible if you're viewing this with the site's night theme.

Could you do the sexy mechanic girls from the obscure MMO brawler game Fighters Club?
Haven't seen fanarts of these (almost forgotten) tomboy hotties in a while

 

[Watt Khan]

Could you do the sexy mechanic girls from the obscure MMO brawler game Fighters Club?
Haven't seen fanarts of these (almost forgotten) tomboy hotties in a while

I'll add that to my ever expanding to-do list.

 

[KeiBree]

Great job on the Sonic Blastman female zako!

There's just something about 90's beat'em up zako's fashion which I'm drawn to. That guardy 80's/90's look, with just a hint of punk in it. Reminds me heavily of old fashion mags like vogue, with those classic 80's looks... which look totally at home in an old beat'em up game.

I never knew about these zako till later, and they never really clicked till I saw your pic, as it really brought them to life. Great work :D

 

[Weoooo]

You've got pretty great zako taste my man, and it's deeply fascinating to see someone new to the community find these old favorites. I'm genuinely excited to see who else you love because I wonder if it'll continue to line up the way it has.

Yeah, the sonic blast man girl had always seemed a deeply bizarre inclusion. Part of the character's fun was his over the top power, the arcade game was a punch pad and you went from punching a Fist of the North Star guy to punching apart a giant asteroid that was gonna collide with the earth. In the beat 'em up a lot of the enemy interactions are about how much of a joke these fights are, he'll swing guys around with one hand or throw them off the screen at hilarious speeds.

And yet here's this unarmed skinny woman who seems to be coded as an addict, or at least a sex worker, and Sonic Blast Man punches her just like he punches an asteroid. I mean, works for us, she's sure vulnerable and effectively powerless, but seems tonally strange!

Great job on the Sonic Blastman female zako!

There's just something about 90's beat'em up zako's fashion which I'm drawn to. That guardy 80's/90's look, with just a hint of punk in it. Reminds me heavily of old fashion mags like vogue, with those classic 80's looks... which look totally at home in an old beat'em up game.

I never knew about these zako till later, and they never really clicked till I saw your pic, as it really brought them to life. Great work :D

Maybe it's just because I spent so much time looking at them, but I think 90s beat 'em up can be honestly classified as a style. It's exaggerated takes on fashion designs, but reconfigured to feel like streetwear. Palette swapping meant it had to have very bold, bright colors, or otherwise the sprite couldn't be reused. I might be huffing the crazy juice, but isn't a style just an identifiable design aesthetic? So if you can look at an outfit and go "she could be an enemy in streets of rage," isn't that by definition a style? It's at least more coherent than Dark Academia or whatever those teens are making up nowadays

 

[Watt Khan]

You've got pretty great zako taste my man, and it's deeply fascinating to see someone new to the community find these old favorites. I'm genuinely excited to see who else you love because I wonder if it'll continue to line up the way it has.

Yeah, the sonic blast man girl had always seemed a deeply bizarre inclusion. Part of the character's fun was his over the top power, the arcade game was a punch pad and you went from punching a Fist of the North Star guy to punching apart a giant asteroid that was gonna collide with the earth. In the beat 'em up a lot of the enemy interactions are about how much of a joke these fights are, he'll swing guys around with one hand or throw them off the screen at hilarious speeds.

And yet here's this unarmed skinny woman who seems to be coded as an addict, or at least a sex worker, and Sonic Blast Man punches her just like he punches an asteroid. I mean, works for us, she's sure vulnerable and effectively powerless, but seems tonally strange!


Maybe it's just because I spent so much time looking at them, but I think 90s beat 'em up can be honestly classified as a style. It's exaggerated takes on fashion designs, but reconfigured to feel like streetwear. Palette swapping meant it had to have very bold, bright colors, or otherwise the sprite couldn't be reused. I might be huffing the crazy juice, but isn't a style just an identifiable design aesthetic? So if you can look at an outfit and go "she could be an enemy in streets of rage," isn't that by definition a style? It's at least more coherent than Dark Academia or whatever those teens are making up nowadays

I may be a new active user, but I've been following this thread waaay back since the Ryonani days. I'm very very familiar with the old favourites.