SODWA Honorable Mentions 4

Judge Woody from "Super Omega Deathbattle Warzone Apocalypse" announced his final round of Honorable Mentions today on the game's Facebook page. For your convenience I am re-posting them here as well, but for the most up-to-date results you should really follow them on Facebook. Tomorrow is the big day when he reveals the nine final winning selections.

Ladies and gentlemen, your final batch of Honorable Mentions, along with Woody's comments. Congratulations to these folks on jobs well done!

The Knights Ballistic

Ximero’s “The Knights Ballistic” is just an overall incredible piece of art. Forget the actual character design, the entire piece is just amazing to behold. I love how the black and white color scheme makes it feel like he is actually in space, standing on the moon. I think everything about this piece is awesome, from the transparent clockwork shield to the rectangular head to that weird device on his right should (his right, our left). If this had been a contest of pure artistic awesomeness, then there would have been a place in the winners’ circle for The Knights Ballistic. Unfortunately the actual character design was outclassed by the 9 winning submissions.

GeneralFallout

Another great design from MarquisSamedi, General Fallout is definitely an eye-catching design. Weirdly, there was quite a lot of competition when it came to green glowy effects, and I decided to limit our final design to only one such character (hint, that means one of the winners did include green glowy effects…). There is just so much to love about this character, though. The helmet, the customized chain-gun, the green pulsing veins, the vials sticking out of him, and the enormous green tubes coming out of his shoulders. The fact that the huge green tubes have ventricles is severely disturbing to me for some reason. Very nice work, MarquisSamedi!

Desert Star

The 2nd Honorable Mention for Abominal401, Desert Star in the same boat as Ximero’s Knights Ballistic: it’s a cool design, but it’s the artistry of the entire piece that makes it so mesmerizing. I’m not sure if any part of this design was used how it was meant to be used. For instance, notice the gun-based arms, or the shoulder-pad-based elbows. Even the central core of the chest is made out of shoulder-pads! Though the piece does exhibit exceptional creativity on the part of designer Abominal401, the actual character design itself was not quite strong enough to stand up to the 9 designs chosen to represent SODWA in our official promo artwork.

Killbert

Another phenomenal design from Headlessgeneral, Killbert was a last-minute submission but quickly became one of my favorites. I spent a very long time trying to figure out how he could fit into the final design, but finally realized I would have had to switch out too many of the other fantastic designs to make it happen. This is another guy I could totally see in an episode of an old Saturday-morning action cartoon, if not for the fact that he’s like a child nightmare machine. I think the glass-plated torso is such a cool design, and the head is bizarrely awesome. The presentation makes it look like Killbert’s superpower is hyper-digging, which just catapults the character to a whole new level. He and Hellborg should have their own comic, cartoon, or videogame series together.

Bounty Hunter of the Abyss

Rhinoman presented a number of high-quality last-minute submissions. This guy, the Bounty Hunter of the Abyss, actually managed to make it into the “Winners” folder, replacing another brute who had taken up the slot for about a week. I ended up flip-flopping a few times, and finally decided to stick with the other design. I still can’t begin to express how awesome I think this design is. Just like JohnnyGear’s Ninja Assassin and AMS’s Iron Eagle, the Bounty Hunter of the Abyss looks like he actually has weight to him. I’m not a huge fan of the “Soul Edge” sword from Soul Calibur, but I love the huge club, the bestial face, and the oversized spiked armor pieces.

Flux

Yet another one of DiCicatriz’s designs, Flux was one character who I constantly had to stop and consider, but who never actually made it into the “Winners” folder. I think in the end it was the orange fohawk and goatee that turned me off to the design, but I still love just about every other aspect. The color scheme is just really cool, with the gold armor and glowing blue accents. The red chest design that runs down the legs is also really cool. What I really love about this design are the 2 completely robotic arms. There’s just something about having 2 robotic arms in addition to his normal arms that I think is just a really awesome and original design choice.