Classico sounds a bit like a jar of tomato sauce, but I suppose the man on the shirt is Italian, so it’s not completely ridiculous. I was never very big on Popeye, the super power up of spinach never captured me (the way a similar power up did on the Gummi Bears).. maybe it had to do with it being spinach. Also, let’s be fair, his girlfriend was not attractive and pretty annoying. Bluto can have her, as far as I’m concerned. Mario, of course, as I’ve well documented, is my guy. Well, he and his brother. I’m not sure if there’s a connection between being a sailor and being a plumber, and, similar to spinach, I was never a huge fan of mushrooms growing up, but I would rock this shirt for sure. (Available at Threadless)
Link! Link linking things! I can’t say there’s a kind of Legend of Zelda shirt that I would pass up (this looks to be Ocarina of Time era Link, no?), and this is no exception. A Link made of HTML links is something that speaks to two things I hold close. I know, you don’t have to tell me. (Available at Threadless)
Classic video games, traditionally one of my biggest weaknesses, and this shirt is no exception. You see the ubiquitous four-brick blocks falling from the sky while playing Tetris, but where do they really come from? This shirt proposes that perhaps their origin is more sinister than a clumsy mason dropping the tools of his craft. Sawblades cut apart classic video game icons (a space invader, a ghost, and a Koopa Troopa are featured, and their alarm is palpable) into the familiar shapes for our Tetrical amusement. Ouch! (Available at Threadless)
Cook-Man. Or something. I love Pac-Man, I love Cookie Monster, and this shirt combines the two of them. And has cookies. So, what else does a shirt need? Nothing, I say. C is for this shirt. (Available at Threadless)
Mario, you’ve come so far! To see Nintendo‘s most faithful characters of Mario, Princess Peach, and Yoshi “reconstituted” into some strange kind of medieval realistic image is strange, even for a Threadless shirt. But strange and creepy or not, it’s an awesome shirt. (Available at Threadless)
Oo! Pac-man (or is it Pacman or Pac Man?) shirt and a hedge maze, all in one. While I think a corn maze is more impressive than a hedge maze (you have to re-maze it every year after the harvest!), I’m not sure ghosts would share my viewpoint. And as evidenced in the past, I like any Pac-Man (I’ll go with that version, I guess) shirt almost inherently (he’s doing better than when Mario was crushing him, at least). So the ghosts flying their way through a hedge maze, haunting it in their own colorful style, that’s an awesome shirt. I just wonder where they hid the power pellets.. (Available at Threadless)
Oh, Street Fighter, how you govern the fighting games to this day. To say Street Fighter II was ground breaking and foundational to the genre doesn’t even quite cut it, that style of game wouldn’t be what it is today without it (thanks, Capcom!). This shows your standard SFII fare.. kick, dragon punch, fireball.. with a new addition. Apparently if you hit the correct buttons in sequence, your favorite Ken/Ryu character will play some sort of piano piece. It looks to be a terribly hard move to pull off, but imagine the look on the face of your opponent! The ultimate combo, indeed. (Available at Threadless)
Oh, Space Invaders. How you redefined alien invasion. Also, blowing things up, as seen in this shirt. Puns are always/never fun, but given that pixels are indeed ever so square, one that does think pixels are for squares might want to blow them up. And we’re back to the old school explosions. I probably should have just let this shirt speak for itself, but where’s the fun in that? (Available at Threadless)
I wasn’t sure that the Pac-Man ghosts really grew up or had any kind of family structure – I guess a familial connection would explain their names being so similar – but I certainly never pictured them growing up. I’m not sure if the ugly duckling or ghostling or whatever is actually the bag (and it sees that it kind of looks like the ghosts floating in line) or if it’s something else that put the bag on to look more like its surrogate undead family, but the resemblance is certainly there either way. I’m not sure if that bag is going to grow up into much of a swan, though – and the ghosts will become pretty colors. (Available at Threadless)
Poor Mario. I’m not sure what’s keeping him down so far, but he’s definitely got the 8-bit blues on this shirt. Playing his Nintendo cartridge (yes, you can actually buy Nintendo cartridge harmonicas, btw) like a sad sack, I bet a mushroom or nice star would make him happy again. Maybe it’s that his girlfriend keeps getting kidnapped? I mean seriously, Princess, do you even lock the door of your home? Maybe you should get a restraining order against Bowser? Sorry, the girl kind of annoys me. But Mario clearly loves her, so I can see how his heart is tormented so. Play it on, Mario, sing those 8-bit blues. (Available at Threadless)
This guy is pretty sweet. A bomb holding a traditional boom box atop his head (as was a common pose, the deviation from the traditional shoulder shelf pose is excused since this little bomb doesn’t really have shoulders). I assume the reference to Super Mario Brothers Bob-ombs is intentional, given the other Nintendo references on the shirt (the boom box has a mushroom on it, the sneakers have the invulnerable star on it, etc.). All in all it’s old school even aside from the NES stuff – the boom box itself and the bomb is wearing converse! Great references, and awesome shirt. (Available at Threadless)
I think the title of this shirt pretty much says it all. While I’d never blame video games for ruining my life, getting two extra lives out of the deal seems like a pretty fair trade-off. (Available at Threadless)
Oh, Nintendo. How you’ve changed our view of fungi. Once mushrooms were simply lovely to eat and sometimes experiment with substance-wise, but now they’re an important piece of video game lore. Here little mushrooms learn from experienced ones (even one with an official-like mustache) about the power of mushrooms! See the mushroom cloud, learn the power within, and go help some plumbers battle uh.. evil plants and dinosaurs? (Available at Threadless)
It’s hard for me to resist a clever video game shirt. Classic Donkey Kong, recast as expressionist artwork t-shirt. Sometimes you don’t ask questions, you know? (Available at Threadless)
Pretty awesome shirt here. I’d definitely prefer this kind of target at a target range than your standard target practice paper cutouts. Let’s go for the list- Darth Vader, The Terminator (T-800), a zombie, Freddie Krueger, a space invader, Megatron, Gojira, Agent Smith, and a Goomba. My favorite part, though, is that the target on the zombie is centered on his head. Awesome! (Available at Threadless)
I’m not sure what the Russian on the side of the boat means, but this shirt is hilarious. I can hear the Tetris music playing in my mind, and it reminds me of the clip from the Simpsons where the car is parked in similar fashion. Great stuff. (Available at Threadless)
Clearly the t-shirt that Mario would wear if he were a fan of surrealism. I think this is absolutely hilarious. Magritte would be proud, or at least if he were a Nintendo fan, he would. A video game and modern art mashup. (Available at Threadless)
I agree, after everything that they have been through (while we vicariously went through them, too), such video game characters wouldn’t have very much fun playing a real life person in a cube, going about his lackluster life. Let’s see what we’ve got here: Mario, Pac-Man, Q*bert, Frogger, Sonic the Hedgehog, Link, Donkey Kong, Blanka, Mega Man, and .. is that Speed Racer? I’m not 100% on that one. Either way, anything with all of them is great, in my book. (Available at Threadless)
I read this and think “they’re heeeeeerreeee” from Poltergeist, but I suppose this is more of an alien thing. Having just watched the pilot of the new V series the other night, that’s what comes to mind, but you can feel free to choose your own alien invasion situation – the video game shadows are really what’s important. I only hope it’s just as easy to take down these space invaders when they arrive. (Available at Threadless)
Viva La Revolution! Okay, sorry about that, but this shirt is pretty sweet. We’ve got pretty much all the consoles, let me know if I miss any:
- Nintendo Wii
- Nintendo Gamecube
- Nintendo 64
- Super Nintendo
- Nintendo Entertainment System
- Nintendo DS Mini
- Nintendo DS
- Nintendo Game Boy
- Sony Playstation 3
- Sony Playstation 2
- Sony Playstation
- Sony Playstation Portable
- Sega Dreamcast
- Sega Genesis
If you can’t tell, I’m a bit of a Nintendo fan. Speaking of which, is that missing a Game Boy Advance?
