Nostalgia and the GBA-SP

Yeah, it's a bit late to be blogging, but I felt like geeking out and coming out with this confession: I am not a gamer. Shocking, given how I am a 21-year old college student in the 21st century. Of course, one would have to define what a gamer is: my idea of a gamer is someone who is up to speed on the latest and greatest, has their own private library of titles, and of course has at least one or two consoles of their very own that hook up to the tv (i.e. PlayStation, XBox, and Wii systems). Heck, I haven't even got all that much into PC MMO's, despite the fact that I've got Old Republic and Star Trek Online downloaded into my laptop, courtesy of my good mission buddy, Aaron Thomas (not that I wouldn't play those games; living on BYU-I campus means that you can't access any website having to do with games whatsoever. Not even kidding; I wrote an essay on violence in gaming and you would not BELIEVE how hard it was to find quotable material with that filter).
Don't assume, however, that I'm completely out of the loop. I do possess a Game Boy Advance-SP, and that brings me to what I desire to speak on.
Just yesterday, I finally broke out my silver-colored Game Boy from it's plastic bag confinement, and played a few of the titles that, years before, played the tar out of, and it was a serious nostalgia moment for me--not to mention a dark, clumsy search for footing down a weed-ridden memory lane. Even though I've been back from my mission since Christmas 2012, it took me a long time to get back to my games. Like I said before, my gaming palette is actually very limited, and is dominated by one thing: Pokemon. Good grief, Pokemon was a major figure in my childhood. I still remember the day when I received my copy of Pokemon Red (my brother got Blue) for the Game Boy color, and on that day, my life was revolutionized. I've still got that copy of Pokemon Red with me today, but I haven't touched it in a long while, but since then I've acquired Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen, and even the Red Rescue Version of Mystery Dungeon. It was really weird to see where I left off and have absolutely no clue what in the world I was doing back then to put me there ( I now have suspicions that one of my younger siblings tampered with my Emerald Game. Whether that suspicion is unfounded or not may never be known in this life). With that, I've wondered whether or not I should just clear the save data and start all over again, but something holds me back. Is it the fact that I've got Pokemon from FireRed traded over to LeafGreen, or something else entirely? I dunno. Admittedly, I haven't been putting very much attention on those games, anyway; Mystery Dungeon, for some reason, has proven to be the more addictive game thus far.
Playing those games also made me mull over some potential Christmas gifts that I could ask for; it's been a running theme in my youth to see the Sunday Ads show off the flashy new handhelds and their games, and feel a little jealous, and sad that I was left in the dust with my older gen game. Well, now that I'm officially an adult, I should just be able to go and get a 3DS from the store and reserve a copy of X or Y (nice to see them branch away from color schemes, by the way), right? If only it were that simple.
But seriously folks, have you seen the trailers for those games? YEESH, I can't believe how far the games have come. I've got to get my hands on a 3DS one of these days and relive the glory days.
Well, enough pointless ranting, how about some art?

This should dispel any ideas that Pokemon was the ONLY thing going on for me. I had the 1st Super Mario Bros. in Game Boy form growing up (don't know where it went, though), and I've still got the GBA form of Super Mario Bros 3. Plus I've done my research, so I'm quite familiar with the franchise...as well as, unfortunately, the movie adaptation. I saw THAT piece of dumpster fodder when I was a kid, and good grief, the scene where the prisoner was being turned into one of their Goomba footsoldiers gave me nightmares. It's only years later that I recognize how absolutely terrible the rest of the movie was (seriously, what the heck was up with Dennis Hopper and that haircut?) It just got everything so WRONG about the games.
 Anyway, about the piece: it's basically my own spin on the classic characters that I drew back in the mission, giving them a more or less realistic spin. I had the most fun with Bowser; the closest analogue I could get to him was a carnosaur, more or less along the lines of the abelisaurs and so that influenced the design of the head. I also tried to make the shell segmented, giving him a greater amount of flexibility, but I don't think it showed very well in this rendition.
Well, anyway, enjoy!