I don’t read a lot of comics, so I’d never heard of Wizard (a comics magazine) until today. But anytime someone hosts a Bayonetta art competition with results like whatever the hell is going on up there, I sit up and pay attention. I mean, seriously, what the f*ck. Vagina dentata, indeed.

Salvador Samano’s entry won the 10th runner ip position in Wizard’s “Bayonetta Re-envisioned” competition and it’s by far the most arresting. The entries were judged by Platinum Games boss Hideki Kamiya, who preferred Niccolo Balce’s brightly colored version (the first image in the gallery below) to Samano’s (appropriately) hellish and demonic vision: Balce won first place.

All 11 pieces, from winner to 10th runner up, are in the gallery in descending order. Here’s a list of the artists: Balce, Darren Geers, Jamine Tyndall, Jason Meek, Jessie Lam, Levi Somerville, Eric Huang, Feliciano Mario Mora, Jesse Elliott, Autumn Lorne, and Samano.

While I might quibble with Kamiya’s defintion of “re-envision”—most of the entries seem to mimic Bayonetta’s original style with very few actual changes—I’m certainly not going to scoff at a chance to a.) call attention to one of the most brazenly over-the-top and openly sexualized games of current memory or b.) post gratuitous photos of cartoon cleavage.

[Via 4 color rebellion]

Via Destructoid

It was inevitable, but it’s good to get it confirmed, right? Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors-style take on Fist of the North Star has been confirmed for release outside of Japan. Even though Koei has yet to issue an official announcement, a newspaper interview with Koei Tecmo CEO Kenji Matsubara said implicitly that the publisher has plans for a worldwide sale.

This is the same interview in which Matsubara stated that his belief that the game will sell at least a million duplicates in Japan alone. The article also states that, following news of the game’s development, Koei Tecmo stock raised by 17%. Looks like things are looking up for what was once two rather niche companies.