200 Gaming Characters as Mega Man Sprites

About a month ago, Chris Bringhurst – aka big_dirt – posted a rad collection of 100 famous gaming icons remade into Mega Man sprites. Since then, he’s been itching to add more to his collection, especially after the receiving countless requests to represent even more classic characters in an 8-bit fashion. Today, he delivers 100 more, combined with his original batch, to make one old-school masterpiece. Click the picture below to see the full version:

We had a chance to catch up with Chris, and decided to ask him a few questions about his borderline-disturbing infatuation with Mega Man spriting. Read our interview below:

Piki Geek: Howdy Chris! Thanks a lot for taking the time to chat with us.
Chris: It’s my pleasure!

PG: Alright, first and most importantly, what’s your favorite candy bar?
Chris: That’d be the Almond Joy, 100 percent.
PG: This interview is over.
Chris: (laughs) Excellent, thanks for having me.

PG: Ok, fine. So, Chris, tell us a little about yourself.
Chris: Well, I was born and raised in the adequately interesting state of Utah for starters. I was fortunate enough to have a dad who was absolutely obsessed with video games, and from day one he had me playing games.

PG: That’s awesome. So I take it that’s why you’re a fan of the Mega Man?
Chris: Oh yeah. Mega Man, Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog – I feel like I have an almost eerily intimate relationship with those franchises.

PG: I realize how unfair this question is, but can you pick a favorite game?
Chris: Geez, that’s like asking which of my children is my favorite… but we all know every parent has a secret favorite child. I’d say as far as games that have influenced me the most, I think it’s a toss-up between Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Half-Life.

PG: Now, I remember seeing your original batch of cross-gaming Mega Man sprites on Reddit a while back. What got that whole thing started?
Chris: Well, I work at a call center that has some pretty long stretches of nothing, and I get bored pretty easily. I had thought before how cool it would be if Master Chief and the Halo franchise were given the Mega Man treatment. So I took about two days – yes, that long – and tried to create the best Master Chief Mega Man sprite I could in between calls at work.
People liked it and asked me to do others, so I tinkered with Mortal Kombat a little, then Nathan Drake from Uncharted, and I realized that there were literally hundreds of characters in the video game universe who might really work with that retro look that we all love. Two months later, here I am.

PG: Do you have any characters that were particularly fun to give the 8-bit treatment?
Chris: Pretty much every single Valve character. I love Valve with a fiery passion, and recreating Half-Life and Left 4 Dead was a blast.

PG: Yeah, those are definitely some of my favorites in this batch. So, not to open up the floodgates here, but do you take requests?
Chris: I do, actually. This second batch I did was originally started to respond to the dozens of requests I’d gotten after that first hundred I’d done.

PG: If you ever get tired of Mega Man, do you think you’ll pick a different old-school gaming icon to replicate hundreds of times?
Chris: (laughs) Good question. I’m not totally sure where to go from here. It’s really still just a hobby – I know one can’t get too far in life mixing and matching other people’s ideas. However, some of my friends have encouraged me in making a few sheets of famous levels and scenarios from some of these games in the style of the old Mega Man games. Sort of create little pixel-sets to put the characters in.

PG: That would be seriously cool.
Chris: Yeah, I’d love to do a Left 4 Dead No Mercy level.

PG: Finally, do you have any advice to offer young artists who might be looking for a good used car?
Chris: Definitely. Pay attention to the mileage. Could have saved me hundreds.

PG: Thanks a bunch, Chris.
Chris: Hey, no problem at all!

Be sure to check out the rest of Mr. Bringhurst’s collection on his Deviant Art page, and keep him busy with plenty of new requests.