Over the years, Pokemon has seen a wide variety of unique and imaginative designs, covering animals, household items, mythological creatures, and more. With the development of Pokemon Black and White, the series' 5th generation of games, British graphic designer James Turner became the first Westerner to officially design Pokemon, including fan-favorites like Golurk, Trevanant, and Centiskorch, Gigantamax Gengar, and more.
Now an official art director for the Pokemon series, Turner has begun to express himself more and more on Twitter, sharing loads of concept art in his own unique art style, mashing up different Nintendo franchises, creating short comics of Pokemon, and more. Now, the graphic designer has unleashed his own Wario-meets-Kirby concept onto the video game community, and it has been an absolute hit with fans.
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Over on Twitter, Turner has developed a habit of drawing Nintendo's iconic pink puffball, Kirby. After a drawing a humorous concept that involved Kirby's being produced on a conveyor belt, the graphic designer decided to put a twist on his own work, showing that a "bad one" was accidentally produced, coming in the form of "Wirby," as he called it at the time. Thus, fans were introduced to Kirby's evil counterpart, just as Wario is to Mario.
Turner created several threads of tweets going through a Pokedex-like explanation of his new creation. Taking heavy inspiration from Wario, Turner explained that "Wakirby" came out purple instead of pink, with a rude and selfish personality, being far different from the pure and humble Kirby. Wakirby also shares Wario's greediness, Turner explained, often committing petty acts of theft like stealing money hidden in the back of people's sofas.
It looks like rather than inhaling like Kirby, the graphic designer imagines Wakirby exhaling a large cloud of noxious garlic breath, just as Wario is known to have a strange love for garlic. Additionally, as one more nod to Wario's greediness, Turner explains that the yellow star-shaped pattern on top of Wakirby's head appeared because the puffball always has gold and money on its mind.
Eventually, Turner held a brief poll to decide on the character's name, as he flipped back and forth between a few different ones. After the name "Wirby" won over "Wakirby," Turner then decided to hold another vote pitting "Wirby" against "Warby," since Wario's name is a portmanteau of the Japanese word "warui," meaning bad, and "Mario" in the first place. Incorporating this new portmanteau essentially creating "bad Kirby," the name Warby prevailed, with Turner in turn creating some commemorative art.
While Kirby has taken many forms in the past, fans have taken quite a liking to this new rendition, as many joined in on the fun tweeting their own Warby art, which Turner has kindly retweeted on the social media platform. Since then, Turner has created more Kirby concepts, featuring the character taking the shape of a locomotive, and even an office worker.
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