Jian Guo – A Chinese artist’s take on virtual and sci-fi world

For good reason too, as his rather unique representations of their worlds really stand out. See what I mean?

Gates of Argonath

Deep into Moria

More than simply beautiful illustrations, Jian Guo – 郭建  in Chinese –  reinterprets his favorite fantasy worlds in a style reminiscent of stained glass. He is one of the best Chinese artist of today Sci-FI themes.

Quite impressively, he manages to sum up an entire chapter of Lord of the Rings in a single picture! For instance, look closely at the picture above of the passage in Khazad-dûm, the city of dwarves. From the mines’ entrance to the pursuit of goblins, the appearance of the Balrog and Gandalf’s sacrifice, everything is portrayed! The key moments to depict are carefully selected, all the characters are present, the rendering is rich in details and his use of colors is outstanding.

From Lord of the Rings to World of Warcraft

Jian Guo doesn’t only draw Tolkien’s universe. He also seems to love Blizzard games,  especially World of Warcraft, games that I happen to be fascinated by too!

Chaos of Blizzard

See how Jian Guo decided to represent Blizzard Universes’ most important figures? They might look different but he definitely manages to keep their legendary charisma intact! I prefer Jaina Proudmoore, how about you?

Palace of guardian: Ulduar

This illustration of the different Ulduar bosses is stunning. The hierarchy between the different bosses is perfectly respected and once again, the colors are impressive. I love Kologarn and General Vezax. Boy, does it bring back a lot of good memories!

Excellent traditional artwork, too!

Jian Guo’s style isn’t limited to this Stained Glass technique. He can also produce more traditional-style artwork; which remain nonetheless very impressive:

Fallen Ulduar

This version of Ulduar isn’t bad either, don’t you think? ^^

Eclipse – I have a big crush on this one!

All these are just a few samples of the Chinese artist Mr. Jian Guo’s impressive gallery. Do go check out all his other works, you won’t be disappointed!

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So we started wondering: which video game boss do we remember the best? Who made the most lasting impression on us?

And the winners are

Without any further ado, here’s the Nincha team’s top memorable video game bosses! They may not be very charismatic but their ugly mugs were sure burned into our memory…

Warning: many of these bosses appear at the end of  games; so if you haven’t played the games: spoiler alert!  Also, the choices and ranking we’ve made here are personal and not particularly objective :).

Jean-Rémi, co-founder

Winner: Bowser

The master of the evil laugh and epic Mario torturer, Bowser!

Jean-Rémi says: “The King of all bosses.”

Runner ups

The final evil boss, in Quake 1. A game he started playing at the tender, impressionable, age of 11.

A notable more recent boss: the evil mastermind in Portal 2

Sarah, co-founder

Winner: The mana beast

Secret of Mana’s final boss. Deadly

“The one thing that’s keeping me from finishing the game (I think!). Haven’t even managed to figure out how to inflict damage on it. Keep getting killed first. If you know how to defeat this boss, tell me. Seriously.”

Runner ups

Ganondorf, in Zelda Ocarina of Time

Grimmir, in Magicka

Charlotte, illustrator and animator

Winner: The ugly Mutant

The tiny-headed, big-ribcaged, awful mutant in Tomb Raider 1 was Charlotte’s nightmare for a while.

She says: “Horrible, horrible, horrible”.

Runner ups

M. Stone, in Rayman (PS1)

Manticore, in Golden Sun

Loïc, character designer and illustrator

Winner : Deadbeard

Deadbeard appears in the middle of Golden Sun and is so hard to defeat! He’s a lot worse than some of the bosses towards the ending!

Loïc says “So horrible”.

Runner ups

The giant mantis in Secret of Mana

He played this game when he was 6. Entirely in Japanese. Talk about intense.

Ramirez, from Skies of Arcadia

How about you? Which is your number one video game boss? What is your most memorable evil video game bad guy?

The Nincha Team, who now all really badly want to play video games!

Ninchanese is a new platform where you’ll have fun learning Chinese. We’re still working on it for now, so sign up to try the beta for free when we launch! And stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Weibo.

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One day, I was playing tour guide of the exhibit for a few of my Chinese friends, and they told me that they didn’t know about Sonic the hedgehog! At the time, I was very surprised but, hey, everything is possible so I didn’t really give it a second thought. Besides, who was I to talk? Giving this tour to my friend made me realize I didn’t know much about video game in Chinese or China nor did I know any video game-related vocabulary in Chinese!

So all this got me wondering: what’s the state of video game in Chinese and China? What are all the consoles and games called over there? Follow me as I venture into the world of video game in Chinese…

Video game in Chinese: The Gaming Industry in China

One of the first things that struck me when I got to China is how popular online gaming is, as well as playing in arcades and internet cafés. World of Warcraft is particularly big over there. There’s even an (unofficial) World of Warcraft-themed amusement park in China!

Turns out, that’s all I knew about gaming in China. After researching a bit, I learned that the Chinese government hasn’t allowed foreign video game consoles to be sold in China since 2000 (but you can still buy them on the black market)! Maybe that’s one of the reasons why online gaming is so big in China. To give you an idea, this market was worth a record breaking $9.7 billion in 2012 ( a 35.1% increase from 2011!).

A historical tours of video game in Chinese

Let’s now learn together a little bit of video game vocabulary in Chinese. Follow me!

First things first, let’s start with some words about hardware.

游戏机 : Yóuxì jī = video game console

手柄 : Shǒubǐng = gamepad

卡匣 : kǎ xiá = cartridge

光碟 : guāng dié = optical disc

记忆卡 : jì yì kǎ = memory card

Pong was one of the first real games.

Atari Super Pong, 1975

雅達利 : Yǎ dálì = Atari

“双人网球” : Shuāngrén wǎngqiú = (litt.)Tennis for two = Pong

Of course, from the start, computers were part of the Video Game Race, and will always be

Apple II, 1977

苹果电脑 : Píngguǒ diànnǎo = apple computer

Atari VCS 2600, the first real hit in the game industry_

Atari VCS 2600, 1977

The first name of the Atari VCS was 雅达利 计算机系统 : Yǎ dá lì jìsuànjī xìtǒng, which stood for Atari computer system. They quickly changed the name to Atari 2600.

Magnavox was also note-worthy but can we really say it was a video game console?

Magnavox odyssey, 1972

Magnavox 奥得赛 : Magnavox Ào de sài = Magnavox Odyssey

What about the Philips Console?

Philips N20, 1977

飞利浦 : Fēilìpǔ = Philips

I didn’t find any articles related to the Philips console in China. Did it come out in China?

This was my first console! Do you recognize it ?

Nintendo Family computer and Game & Watch, 1983

任天堂 : Rèntiāntáng = Nintendo

红白机 : Hóng bái jī = Famicon / NES

The Amstrad CPC 464! I coded my first game on it in Basic…

Amstrad CPC 464, 1984

Do you remember Alex Kidd? It was sold with the Sega Master System and was a great game!

Sega Master System, 1985

世嘉 : Shìjiā = Sega

Apparently, in China, the Sega Master system Game console was called Sega Mark III just like in Japan.

Around the same time, Atari and Amiga were in the place!

Atari 520 ST, 1986

Commodore Amiga 500, 1987

This NES Design was the first console I really played on. I will never forget Mario and Zelda…

Nintendo NES 1987

The mega drive with the Speed of Sound Guy (音速小子: yīnsù xiǎozi) Sonic!

Sega Mega Drive, 1988

This was my best friend as a child…

Nintendo Gameboy, 1989

Although, at the time, nothing could surpass the monstro power of the NEO-GEO!

SNK Neo-Geo, 1990

When Nintendo was great! (Troll )

Super Nintendo, 1990

超级任天堂 : chāojí rèntiāntáng = Super Nintendo/famicon or for short 超任 : Chāo rèn

What is this newcomer’s name in Chinese? 索尼 :Suǒní = Sony!

Sony Playstation, 1994

索尼 : Suǒní = Sony

索尼游戏机 = Suǒní yóuxì jī : Sony Playstation

Sega Return

Sega Saturn, 1994

世嘉土星 : Shìjiā tǔxīng = Sega Saturn

Did you know that Zelda Ocarina of Time on the N64 was the best game ever ?

Nintendo 64, 1996

任天堂64 : rèntiāntáng 64 = Nintendo 64

The Dreamcast was clearly a good game console!

Sega Dreamcast, 1998

With for example Tenchu, this game was great. Sega should never have stopped making game consoles…

But you know the Playstation 2 was there to knock down Sega!

Playstation 2, 2000

I liked to transport the Gamecube to play with Friends. 4 game controllers were supported natively!

Nintendo Gamecube, 2001

I’ll finish this tour with the Xbox by Microsoft.

Microsoft Xbox, 2001

微软 : Wēiruǎn = Microsoft

That way, we’ll have covered all the main video gaming manufacturers (PCs aside!) in this historical tour.

The video game console market today

Currently, competitive newcomers in the the Console Market are rare and the market remains dominated by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. However, with the rise of mobile gaming, Android and the iPhone, the market is moving. I hope this renewed competition will make even more good games for our pleasure!

Have fun playing video game in Chinese!

The Nincha Team

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