Normally, the Internet is a place of fear, but today, it seems to be a place where neat video game art roams, starting with the above Doom fingernail painting.

So on one hand we have Mario, the genre defining side-scroller still revered today as a classic, on the other, Portal, the genre-defying FPS that gave the scene the shake-up it so desperately needed. What happens when you put them together, you ask? Well, you get Mari0 (that’s a zero). As you can see above, it’s a curious little project that attempts to bring the best of these two incredibly different worlds together, and seems to be doing a pretty good job. For the record, Mari0 is actually a real game that is in development. It’s not a mod, so it’ll run on its own engine and, even better, it’s going to be completely open source when it’s finished. Also: Simultaneous multiplayer. Excited? I bet, but hold your horses because there’s no telling when it’ll come out, but when it does, get ready to start Goomba stompin’ with portals.

(via reddit)

For the Super Iam8bit art exhibition starting in August, artist Darick Maasen hacked together some dead animal parts and created the above realistic-looking Koopa Paratoopa, and by realistic-looking, I mean, oh my god. Adorable flying turtle no more.

(Darick Maasen via GamesRadar)

Artist Mike Puncekar teaches us what would happen if the enemies from the Mario franchise broke out into real life — no, I’m sorry, they’d probably still be adorable little turtles and mushrooms whose greatest weakness is an Italian plumber’s butt, but hey, one can dream, and Puncekar helps that dream along.

Anthony Clark, otherwise known as Nedroid, makes some pretty amusing webcomics with a fairly distinct art style, as well as does the colors for another popular webcomic, The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Clark has a Tumblr for some of his odd doodles and things that didn’t make it to the main site, which is where these really odd one-panel Mario comics appeared. The main theme of these comics is that Mario is insane. Like, clinically. When you think about it, it’s a fairly accurate way to perceive the happenings in the games. Head past the break to delve into the depths of Mario’s insanity and head on over to Clark’s main site, Nedroid.com, for even more delightfully twisted comics.

The above chart documents the evolution of three of Nintendo’s biggest characters, Mario, Link and Donkey Kong. Link seems to have been battling certain body image issues over the years, changing heights and weights with each generation.

(How to be a Retronaut via Bit Rebels)

WIFE GET!

(via BuzzFeed)

Above is a rather amazing video of someone beating Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 3 and the Famicon Super Mario Bros. at the same time, with only one input. Paying attention to the video would reveal a few points where not all of the characters’ actions seem to match up, but there are a few theories regarding this, such as lag, or the mechanics between games, for instance, how the characters in Super Mario Bros. 2 are extremely floaty (not counting Princess Toadstool’s actual floating). Lending credit to the legitimacy of the video, however, is that these runs seem to be an actual genre, as a MetaFilter thread contains links to other such runs being performed across multiple installments in series such as Mega Man and Final Fantasy.

(via MetaFilter)

YouTube favorite Freddie Wong imagines Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 as a 3D first-person shooter, complete with pop-up achievements onscreen. Like most FPSes, it makes me nauseous, but it looks pretty neat. Be sure to look at the picture-in-picture comparison in the top-left corner to see how everything compares to old-school SMB.

(via THD)

Attendees at this year’s South by Southwest were treated to “Mario,” a Jon Nicolosi-directed and -produced indie drama about the existential and romantic anguish of Super Mario.

See previously: God of War: the quirky indie movie; The Fantastic Mr. Star Fox

(via Laughing Squid)