Four Swapnotes for the new year, plus a very special message from Mare Odomo (click for larger images). These awesome sketches from Cory Godbey, Ashley Davis, Jonathan “Persona” Kim, and Hef helped me get over Nintendo not sending its Japanese New Year Swapnote — and its special stationary — to the rest of us.

Nintendo also posted an official QR code for Swapnote mascot Nikki in Japan. If you’d rather have her name in English text, IGN’s Lucas Thomas re-created her Mii here.

Do you know how you can tell that Swapnote and Nikki are really taking off? There is now foot fetish fanart for the fictional character. Is no Nintendo character safe?

Buy: Nintendo 3DS console (Flame Red, Black, & Blue)

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Swapnote news

[Thanks, @Nintendaan!]

A Persona 4/Mother 3 mash-up, found on Danbooru (sorry, I have no idea who the original artist is, though I’d definitely love to know and give proper credit). Like JC and Eric, I adore fan art, and because I’ve been asked to pass along a taste of my usual stomping grounds during my tenure, here are a few recent favorites!

Hope no one minds more Persona, which happens to be like my all-time favorite JRPG, btw. Like this lovely, and massive, piece (be sure to click the image for the full-sized version)  by “Celery” that features every major character from Personas 1-4. I have no idea why everyone’s holding a household appliance; I’m assuming it’s a meme that I have zero familiarity with:

Via some random Japanese image board comes a ton of anime/game character mash-ups, including Yukiko and Chie from P4 as Morrigan and Hsien-Ko from Darkstalkers:

Though my absolute favorite costume swap would have to be Peach and Samus:

Speaking of princesses, Peach gets plenty of attention, whereas Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy gets hardly any (well, she is new after-all). Expect for the following, and it somewhat confirms many people’s suspicions since day one:

As for the Mushroom Kingdom’s greatest champion, check out “Mario, Patron Saint of Brooklyn” by Butt Johnson:

Sticking with Nintendo, and back to Pixiv once again, a pretty neat-o Pokemon piece from Tomioka Nirou that’s also a bit different from the norm:

Time for more Darkstalkers and yet another random Japanese image board. Most are from Udon’s Darkstalkers Tribute book, though I’m not entirely sure about this one (Update: readers are saying it’s by Alex Ahad —jc):

Finally, here we have a bunch of Street Fighters setting aside their differences and lending a helping hand. Some will find the following endearing, some almost offensive. Hence why I find it rather fascinating:

BTW, I should mention that in addition to my own site, I also try to curate the best in video game fandom and artistry over at the Life Meter Comics blog!

Guest post by Matt “Fort90” Hawkins