Ken Sugimori (you know, the guy that designs Pokemon) posted this on Twitter today:
It’s original artwork he did back in 1986, a mash-up of The Return of Ishtar with Mario and Peach replacing Ki and Gilgamesh, the game’s two playable characters. The Return of Ishtar is a Japanese arcade game that never made it over here. Well, technically, it did; it appeared alongside Pac-Land and others in Namco Museum Vol. 4. It’s part of the Babylonia Castle Saga, which are a bunch of brutally difficult games I’d probably never have heard of if it weren’t for Chrontendo or GameCenter CX. Ishtar is the sequel to Tower of Druaga and the prequel to The Quest of Ki, which took Arino about 39 hours across two episodes and a live special to beat.
Ishtar is a top-down action game that reminds me a little of Alien Syndrome. Strange for an arcade game, it has RPG elements and a password system, so you could return to a cabinet at a later date and pick up where you left off.
I’m not sure if I can recommend the game or not, but I think we can all enjoy Sugimori’s illustration and the killer flyer above.
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