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stardestroyer81 · 3 months

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My first post of 2024 may have been cited to be the first look at Star Tower, my arcade-centric Pizza Tower AU, though consider this post to be your first real look at both the AU! This is a post I've been wanting to make for quite some time, and I am simply overjoyed to finally reveal the first set of characters for Star Tower!!! ⭐👾✨

This is a long post packed to the brim with art— some of which aren't featured in the above image— so if you're interested, I highly suggest you read on underneath the cut! 💙✨

As an AU, Star Tower dates back to March 3rd of 2023, which is when I first drew the logo for it. A sprite of myself drawn in the Pizza Tower artstyle predates Star Tower as an AU by about a month, so I think it goes without question that the stand-in for Peppino is Star Tower is a representation of myself!

It's just another day for Star Splitscreen at the local arcade, when all of a sudden, the multicade cabinet bugs out and sucks her inside! It's within the cabinet's confines where she meets the omnipotent Sinistar, who claims it'll set her free if she can best its '20-in-1 Supercade Challenge'.

What follows is an arduous adventure that sees Star venturing through arcade games familiar and obscure, and learning Sinistar's secret identity as well as escaping back into the real world all depends on her success... it's a good thing a seasoned arcade expert like her has what it takes!

I knew going into designing for Star Tower that I wanted each floor boss (I.E. Pepperman, The Noise, etc.) to be represented with an actual character from an established arcade game (With one exception...) and trust me when I say that I spent a fair amount of time carefully going through every arcade game I knew of and selecting a character appropriate for each boss's role.

Ultimately, I'm quite proud of the selection of characters I settled with, so let's jump right in and discuss Pepperman's stand-in...

Goro from 1983's Mappy! I find that, in terms of appearance, Goro was a perfect fit to replace Pepperman. Both are predominantly large red characters who are often depicted with wide, toothy grins— it was the perfect match!

Unlike both his canon personality and his personality in the animated ShiftyLook series, Goro in Star Tower is a lot more nefarious and self-centered, and sends out the Meowkies to do his dirty work when his own efforts don't cut it. I wanted to include sprites of the three Meowkies for this post originally, but I decided to save them for a future post (That's tech talk for 'I'm still trying to figure out how to stylize them').

I think of the four main bosses, Goro was the hardest to sprite in the Pizza Tower artstyle solely for the way his head is drawn. There's something about his face that was extremely difficult to draw at such a small scale, but after drawing pretty much every other sprite featured in this post, he was the final character in this lineup that I drew a sprite for, and I'm quite happy with it!

While Goro is certainly an iconic character, the same can't be said for The Vigilante's stand-in who, in spite of starring in one of the earliest known arcade games, is all the more obscure. Enter...

Mr. Jack from 1979's Sheriff! The Vigilante is the only boss of the main four who originally was going to be represented by an entirely different character, that being Kinzo from 1996's Pac-Man Arrangement.

It was when I remembered about Sheriff that I realized that Mr. Jack was the perfect candidate to replace The Vigilante. I mean, both are represented as mostly yellow cowboys armed with guns and a fashionable cowboy hat. How much closer could you get than that?

The real challenge was finding a good image of Mr. Jack to base his appearance in Star Tower off of. For those who don't know, Mr. Jack only has three known images of him that exist despite the fact that the game he hails from is over forty years old, so it wasn't exactly the easiest task.

I decided to base his appearance off of how he looks on Sheriff's bezel as that's the only full-body look we've ever gotten of him. The guy already looks like a Pizza Tower character as it is (A long lost cousin of Burton, perhaps?), and I find that his sprite looks the most like something you would actually see in Pizza Tower!

On the topic of arcade characters that are perfect fits for stand-ins of certain Pizza Tower characters...

Charley Chuck from 1983's Food Fight was, without question, the ideal choice to replace The Noise. One look at this flyer for Food Fight should perfectly encapsulate as to why. He's a little brat who's primary objective is to make the lives of the local chefs miserable. Sound familiar? It should!

Charley has had numerous different designs drawn for him around the time his game debuted, and it was pretty difficult settling on just the right one. I decided to give him a white and red striped shirt which he wears on the Food Fight arcade cabinet, and draw him as similar to the Noise as I could— I even sized him so that he stands smaller than Star, which took a lot more time than I'm willing to admit.

What's particularly interesting is that, fairly recently, Atari announced a Splatoon-like game for their VCS console, and you'll never believe who's the poster boy and what the game is a sequel to. I'm fairly certain that just before the announcement of Food Fight: Culinary Combat, I was the only person who was doing anything with Charley Chuck, and here he is starring in a brand new game some forty years after his initial debut. Not bad, kid!

One must wonder if I was the one who manifested Charley's return into existence...

With Charley Chuck properly introduced, I can move onto who may just be my favorite of this post's lineup...

Crazy Star.

With the success of 1981's Donkey Kong, an officially licensed clone was created for use in Japan only, though found its way outside of the country without the license to do so from Nintendo. This clone's name is Crazy Kong, and to say it's uncanny wouldn't be doing it justice.

Originally, I was a bit hesitant on just designing a 'fake Star' and calling it a day. I wanted there to be some arcade theming to it, and when the idea of a 'bootleg Star' came to mind, I quickly turned to Crazy Kong as a point of reference and Crazy Star is what came out of it (I should also mention that Crazy Kong released in 1981... now that's what I call meant to be)!

Out of everyone featured in this post, I've definitely drawn Crazy Star the absolute most because, as I mentioned before, it's just about my favorite of the Star Tower bunch! My favorite detail about it is that its color palette is made up of colors hand-picked from Crazy Kong itself!

Originally, I had screen-picked its colors from a YouTube video of the clone, resulting in a slightly different color scheme, but once I found a sprite sheet for Crazy Kong, it resulted in the Crazy Star you see in this post! Crazy Star may look unsettling, but in reality it's just as welcoming as Star, and all it wants is to be just like her.

Just like her... just like her... just like her...

Beware... Sinistar from the 1983 arcade game of the same name lives! Yet another instance of the perfect replacement, both Pizzaface and Sinistar are giant evil floating circles, and it was clear to me from the get-go that Sinistar would make a perfect stand-in for the former, especially since half of its name is 'Star'!

Drawing a sprite for Sinistar was both a cakewalk and a challenge. For one, seeing as its sprite is on the larger side, that meant I had a lot more detail to work with. On the other hand, however, I struggled for a while to get a good design drawn for Sinistar. Eventually, my good friend @panurei-derogatory suggested that it would be funny if Sinistar was hyper-realistically detailed compared to the other sprites, and that was something I had a lot of fun with when drawing its sprite!

Anyone who's played Pizza Tower knows that Pizzaface himself is merely a facade, as the true mastermind behind Peppino's misery has been hidden in plain sight since the very start— the comically villainous Pizzahead! I think out of every 'arcade stand-in' I chose for Star Tower, coming up with one for Pizzahead was the absolute hardest, because none of my ideas really seemed to stick the landing.

But then, I thought "What if it was a completely original character?"

And that's where Richard Benito Townsend (More commonly known by his alias 'Richie T.'), the self-proclaimed 'king of video games', enters the scene!

Richie T., who is absolutely not based off of any notorious cheaters in the arcade world record scene, is a washed-up video game master has-been, once highly regarded in his heyday for being an icon in the world of video games before his supposed 'unbeatable world records' were discovered to be fraudulent.

Shunned to a life of seclusion, the ever boisterous Richie T. now pilots Sinistar within a multicade cabinet where he's free to call the shots, daring to go toe-to-toe with Star once she proves herself worthy of being a Supercade Superstar. After all, she's just some girl— she can't possibly trounce the Richie T., can she?

Spoilers: He has no idea.

And with that out of the way, that's just about everything I wanted to touch base on in pertains to this first set of Star Tower characters! As I said before, this post has been a long time coming, and it's ever so wonderful to finally get this out onto tumblr!

You can expect a part two of sorts to this post sometime in the coming months, as there are still more stand-ins I've yet to post... this time, replacements of the supporting characters, such as Gustavo, Mr. Stick, and a couple of others! For now, I hope that you've enjoyed your first real look at the world of Star Tower! 💙✨

#⭐ Star's Art ⭐#Star Tower #Pizza Tower #Pizza Tower AU #Arcade Games #Star Splitscreen #Goro Mappy #Mr. Jack #Charley Chuck #Crazy Star #Sinistar #Richie T.#Aseprite #Sprite Art #Coolness #STAR TOWER WILL BE REAL IN ZERO SECONDS!!!#I spent a solid two or three hours writing everything for this post from the write-ups to the image IDs #I was simply THAT determined to get this post up as soon as I had finished every sprite featured in this post.#For those who have read the entire post I realize I keep repeating how nice it feels to have these sprites out there now...#And I truly mean it! Now I can post all the miscellaneous stuff I've made for Star Tower I wouldn't have been able to post before!#Such as the OODLES of Crazy Star content I've drawn XD #I'm considering on drawing a render for some of the other bosses like I did with Richie T. and Crazy Star #I think it would look particularly cool to have full-sized renders of Goro and Charley Chuck in particular!#Hopefully this post properly illustrates just how big of a love letter Star Tower is to arcade game fans the world over #My best friend Kintsu knows full well of just how many arcade references I've packed into ideas for Star Tower #I again want to give her a shout-out for encouraging me to go all in on this AU— it wouldn't be where it is now without her 💛

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ornii · 1 year

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I have a funny/cute ask for you.

Wednesday somehow managed to fall in love but refuses to compromise any other part of herself. Except one thing: she is the most competitive at the arcade, especially the claw game.

Wednesday Addams does not come in second place.

A Great idea, so here’s: A Game of Life and Death! (Not Really)

Summary: Wednesday likes the crane game, she really likes the crane game.

Wednesday Addams hates a lot of things, Human interaction, Color, Bright things, sometimes you. While you two were obviously dating, she still wasn’t as content with the hugs and kisses you sometimes delivered, still a bit afraid she’s going to bite back. But having a terrifyingly high IQ, you were able to deduce her bluffs which also intrigued her to a certain degree. It all eventually came to a head as a new arcade was opening in Jericho after a few, disasters which included the near death of all students.

Entering the Establishment, like a dark cloud Wednesday was at your side. You two analyzed the room to the machines and games.

“It’s a Nerds Wet dream, isn’t it?” You say with a smile, Wednesday could see how oddly content you were within this place. “I suppose I could understand the appeal for someone of your intellectual feats, yet I still find it abysmal.” She says you casually adjust your glasses a bit higher and motions for her to lead.

“Please, the pleasure is all mine to show you the amazement of video games.” You say and show her around, arranging the clsssic video games, Dig Dug, Contra, PAC MAN. She’s never even seen Pac-Man before. You stand there, rambling on about how Pac-Man revolutionized games and the importance of preserving old games for future generations, and as expected Wednesday just stares into your eyes, she wasn’t very interested in video games or any sort, but she saw the joy in your eyes and as much as she despises joy and such emotion. She couldn’t bear take it from you, but something did catch her eye.

“(Y/n), Mi Amor… what is that?” She asks, and toy Turn your head to see what she’s looking towards and it was a crane game, the crane itself was dressed up like a ravens claw, and the gifts were also very creepy to boot, of course she’d love it. She walks over to it and softly presses her palm again the cold glass, you walk up behind her, seeing both of your reflections.

“It’s a Crane Machine, you use the controls to maneuver the claw to grab the items, standard cash grab game.” You say, “Wanna play?” You say, and show off a large sack of quarters you’ve been saving up, Wednesday scoffs. “Id never subscribe myself Go such mindless drivel.” She says.

An Hour and a Half Later

Wednesdays eyes were glued to the Glass as her hands angrily moved the crane hand around, her jaw clenched as she has spent around 40 bucks worth of quarters. You leaned against the crane watching her obsession slowly burn away her sanity, but as if by the luck of god himself she got one, the crane reaches down and clenches a small black heart plush and lifts it up, Wednesdays watches intently as if drops it down the hatch and to her feet, she takes it, and clenches it hard.

“I.. I did it…” she says, you chuckle and pat her shoulder. Leaning over her shoulder, “Yeah, I’m proud of you Babe. Can I play now?” You ask, Wednesday side steps, as Victory has never tasted so bitterly good for her.

“Of course, I doubt you have the ability to seal the qualms of fate that I have in order to obtain—“ she rambles on, until you insert one quarter, and effortlessly win a plush black bear for her. You hand it to your girlfriend with the most bittersweet smile. She takes it, absolutely speechless.

“Eh? I guess you could say my love for you is Un-bear-able, Eh? Eh?” You say, she looks down at the bear for a few moments but what was probably eons for her, and for the first time in your relationship she looked at you with such terrifying hatred in her eyes. This is the first time you’ve seen her genuinely Mad. She, without much effort tears the bears head off.

“Wednesday?” You ask, your voice shaking a bit as she slowly steps closer and closer to you.

“How? How did you do it?” She says with such scorn in her voice, I’ll vitriolic poison.

“W-what Are you talking about?” You say, slowly backing away as she approaches.

“Your infectious little game, you easily won this bear while I fought tooth and nail inside the gates of hell for this! And you laugh at me?” If words could kill you’d be burned to ash.

“Babe it’s not what you think, I’m just lucky..” you say and end up at the wall of the room, Wednesdays eyes were so devoid of emotion it felt like staring into the void of evil. You were prepared to accept your death, until you felt her palm aggressively grab yours.

“Weds?” You say.

“We, Are going to play, until I get another one.”

“But.. i thought you hated the game.” You respond and she walks with you.

“I refuse to be your lackey, I don’t do Second Place.”

“There’s no leaderboard for a crane game… babe I’m sorry it just comes easy…” you say, but she ignores you, and unfortunately you spend the rest of the day in a Crane game of Life and death. Which you still easily win.

The Day finally ends with you carting around a load of items Wednesday had won, after almost draining your life savings. But for the almost murder that occurred, you didn’t particularly hate it, and you just loved the time you spent with her, as you carry it into the dorm, Enid berates her with Questions and Wednesday answers calmly, but you could see the slightest smile on her face, which made it all with it.

Maybe you’ll bring her back next time, but, avoid the cranes next time.

#netflix #male reader #reader insert #wednesday #wednesday addams x male reader #wednesday addams x reader #wednesday x reader #wedensday x you #wednesday fluff #wednesday addams

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