My Favorite Gaming-Inspired Media

Unsurprisingly, I love video games, and after spending enough time in related circles, I came across some really interesting media related to the hobby. There is so much to discover, and I find that many of these things are sadly underrepresented.

Grandpa Carp is an album by artist Karpfengold, which is heavily inspired by SoundFonts from the 90s, more specifically from the Super Nintendo gaming era. Grandpa Carp is an incredibly comfortable, synth-heavy album that would fit beautifully into a classic RPG of the era. Many of the songs match the energy I would expect from 90s Water Levels, with a relaxing and slightly melancholic feel to many tracks, emulating a warm feeling. This is what inspired me to write this piece, because the music made me incredibly nostalgic for a time I had never experienced, which inspired me to take a deeper look at other things which reflected similar feelings. On the music pipeline, one of my favorite albums of all time, Fullmetal Kaiju from Kill Bill the Rapper, uses many game samples, such as BlazBlue: Cross Battleand Sega Saturn-style box art, including the physical disc, which is an incredible way to pay homage to that era.

Beyond music, artists often find their inspiration in the field of video games. One of my favorites is Plastiboo, who does a lot of art inspired by dark fantasy media and has a very interesting book duology known as Vermis. This series acts as a gameplay guide, full of art, characters, and world design features inspired by classic dungeon crawlers. While this is a guide, the game itself doesn’t exist, making this an incredibly strange but creative proof of concept. As I’ve mentioned in other articles – see my Itch.io series – I incredibly love the PlayStation aesthetic, and I’m not the only one, as seen by artists such as Lee Griffin (@its_lit_lee on Instagram ) and Victor Estrella (@vicestrella.psd on Instagram). While the latter regularly creates more fantastical pieces, inserting his character and doing incredibly unique things with his style, the former seemingly draws more inspiration from the real world. Vic Estrella regularly takes landmarks, or just mundane real-life objects, and transforms them into low-poly pieces reminiscent of early gaming. silent Hill securities.

As for more specific tributes, there is a lot to say. On YouTube, I regularly come across silent Hill-inspired vibe, and there are some absolute gems that mimic the same feeling as the games. Among these more direct influences, my favorites are the two Radio Jet Set-albums inspired by Memories of Tokyo-To and Sounds of Tokyo-To Future, both produced by 2 Mello. These albums both manage to showcase the well-established sound of Radio Jet Set soundtracks while adding a more personal touch and style, keeping it distinct.

This isn’t even close to anything out there of this nature, but I implore you to take a look at the creators and artists mentioned and share whatever you might find; Today, too much art is undervalued and deserves more attention!