The 50 Coolest Video Game-Themed Graffiti Pieces

When it comes to art, nothing catches our fancy quite like graffiti. We mean it—we literally don't care about any art that isn't illegal in the first place. Vandalism, defacement of property, you name it—we're just hard like that.

That's why there are few things we love more than when street art crashes headfirst with the other favorite hobby of thugs like us: video games. From oldschool Mario to Halo and beyond, they're all represented here in one form or another. So if you're like us, uncork that bottle of Olde E, lean back and read on.

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This adorable Bulbasaur, painted on the side of a freight train, is straight from artist gameboyone's Flickr photostream. You'll see several more of his pixely video game graffitos in this gallery, including some more Pokemon-themed pieces, but head to the source if you want them all.

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It's not often Wario gets some love in this world (or any other), so for someone to dedicate this piece of street art to him is really special. Especially when it's coming from Granada, Spain, not exactly a well-known hotspot for Mario fandom in general.

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This Viewtiful Joe tribute was sprayed on the side of a train in Holland, and the wording appears to read "Capcom." It seems one Dutch artist, at least, knew what they were talking about.

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It's difficult to sort through the shitstorm known as the internet to find out any actual facts sometimes. Such is the case with this fire hydrant, which we would love to know more about, besides that it's apparently located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The best we could come up with is this contest from 2009, which to be fair is probably it.

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This one was found in an alley beside a pawn shop in Toronto, Canada. We're pretty sure it's depicting an epic battle between Sonic and Dr. Robotnik, though what that bizarro purple Knuckles-looking thing is doing over on the left is anyone's guess.

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In typical Kotaku fashion, they fail to mention anything about the actual mural itself. Suffice to say, it has Mario in it. Bowser looks pretty badass too. Yup.

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What we really love about this one is how the shape of Samus's trusty ship seems to be formed from the text. Now if only we had any idea what it actually says.

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While it's not really graffiti (it's just pieces of paper stuck to the wall), they've got a whole series of photographs of Pac-Man and co. chasing one another down various surfaces. We like this one best because that poor woman is about to be eaten, and we're evil.

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This one's included mostly for our Q-bert love, though Donkey Kong Jr. and some Space Invaders being in there doesn't hurt. We have a feeling there's more to it, but we just can't find it. Drop us a lead in the comments if you've got one.

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This Bubble Bobble-inspired street art was shot in Baños, Ecuador, where we're glad to see love for the classic game has extended.

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While this is definitely in the style of Banksy, the UK artist's pieces usually carry some sort of message. This clearly doesn't, besides "Sonic looks good in black and silver," which we can't argue with.

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Maybe it's the way that Piranha Plant is coming out of its leaves Alien-style, or the fact Mario is clearly about to jam a mushroom down its throat, but something about this one makes us a little uncomfortable. Then again, maybe it's just the look in Mario's eyes. There's pain there.

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If you're going to be lurking under a bridge near the St. Joseph River in South Bend by Lake Michigan, you might as well keep an eye out for any Mega Man graffiti. Oh, also—get away from there! What's wrong with you?

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The caption for this photo literally translates to "Mario crushing my bro LOL." Good thing he explained that one. But seriously, we would've done the same thing if we had happened across this graffito on a drunken eve.

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Bowser Jr. has got to be one of the most misunderstood characters in gaming history. All he wanted was a mommy; we can totally relate. Then again, on his first appearance (in Super Mario Sunshine) he immediately kidnapped Peach. Maybe he really is as loathsome as he is predictable. Either way, we like his bib. It's handy.

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These Max Payne murals by CES, EZO, and DR.REVOLT were apparently commissioned to advertise the movie, which we literally forgot had actually come out until we looked it up on IMDB. That explains why this version of Payne looks so much like Marky Mark, at least.

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Bowser must have caught a lot of flies racing around like this in Super Mario Kart. Maybe that's what's pissed him off the last couple decades. Floss, bro. Floss.

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Though the original Mario mural here is probably harmless, the little red pitchfork in Bowser's hand is apparently a gang sign. Obviously, we knew that, because we're from the street. Just thought you should know.

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This photo was taken in La Rochelle, Poitou-Charentes, France. We appreciate the flying red Koopa love—he was always our favorite in Mario Kart Double Dash. Triple red shells FTW.

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This Mega Man art appears to wrap around the whole building, and we love that Tornado Man is given some time in the sun as well.

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This pixely Sonic appears to have been posted on Flickr directly by the artist. It really brings us back to our Sega Game Gear days, when eight batteries lasted four hours and our only care in the world was rescuing all those fuzzy little animals from Dr. Robotnik.

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This street art by Maria Sassetti was spotted in Lisbon. It's even got a little placque to tell passersby a little bit about it, and there's an image at the source, but since we can't copy and paste an image into Google Translator, you're going to have to figure out what it says for yourself.

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The Mini Marios from the Mario Vs. Donkey Kong games hardly get any love at all, despite being deadly and adorable. They're also dumb as hell, and without you guiding them they'd probably end up in the Koopa Troop themselves. We're just happy someone's honoring them with some street art though.

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Ninja Gaiden is certainly a cult classic, and what better to be slapped on a wall in pixel form? It's another from gameboyone's extensive portfollio.

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Painted on the side of Video Game Galaxy in Ontario, Canada, this Halo art makes us want to shoot people. In a video game, obviously.

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This is a really nice, colorful representation of everyone's favorite plumber. Unfortunately, it looks like he's about to become fertilizer. Oh well, there's always the next life.

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As sick as we are of anything and everything Angry Birds-related, we've got to admit this is nice-looking. The art is by Cheo—you can check out the UK artist's site for more.

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Okay, we're not saying we would do innappropriate things to Peach, but we would watch her do innappropriate things to Daisy, which seems to be the implication here. Also, we actually would do things to her. Sooo yeah.

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Formerly located in Melbourne, this Zelda art is no more. The source sadly notes that the wall has since been demolished. Unfortunate, though we love the commenter who assuredly reports that "the one who demolished the wall was Ganondorf."

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This Bioshock graffito appears to have been commissioned directly by Irrational Games. Is it just us or does that make it less cool?

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We know basically nothing about this one, since it appears in a ton of galleries with really shitty sourcing. It does look a hell of a lot like this one, though it's not quite identical, and we have no idea how it went from Vantard Gallery to a street sign post somewhere. Oh well, you're only looking at the pictures anyway.

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We always though Shadow was the cooler of the hedgehogs, which makes sense since he was pretty much designed that way. Doesn't he have guns? Yeah, definitely cooler.

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This pixelated tribute to Mega Man, Sonic and a few others we're likely not picking up on was seen in Tacoma, Washington. Wait a second—is that an Octorok? Zelda, maybe?

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Mario chasing Luigi is a new spin on things in the Mushroom Kingdom. Then again, so is Mario wielding a baseball bat and a forty. We have a feeling this may not be just any innocent street art. Then again, it's in Montreal, not South Central LA.

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This is a great medley from Flickr user Seetwist, with everything from Fallout and Final Fantasy to Rayman and Diddy Kong Racing. It's location—Alameda—could refer to the street in Los Angeles, the city near San Francisco or a different place entirely. If you've got a clue, let us know in the comments.

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The writing in this Halo graffito from Getafe, Madrid roughly translates to "I have fingers clinging to shoot ugly bugs. I deserve a cold beer." Hard to argue with that.

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What would this gallery be without some oldschool Kirby love? Kirby's Adventure for NES, to be specific. King Dedede never looked so good.

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You'd be forgiven for not recognizing this giant monkey from Brisbane, Australia as D.K. if not for the barrels in his hands. For one thing, we've never seen our favorite Kong decked out in goggles and 'kerchief. And the helis flying around make him look like a different Kong altogether. Still, we like the scope of this one.

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This abstract Mario Kart-inspired mural by Flickr user The Yellow Dino is dedicated to classic console and Nintendo fans everywhere. POWER UP!

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The only thing scarier than this Haunter from Toronto's gameboyone is that you're almost done with the gallery. Shut up, we're running out of things to write.

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Artist Allen Hampton was commissioned to spray this beauty on the wall of a Central Art Supply. It really captures the disgusting way Kraid's extra arms stick out of his stomach. Gross. Well done, though.

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Most of the time when someone's pretending to interact with a piece of street art it's to mime touching some breasts or, in the case of Mario graffiti, jumping underneath a yellow block. This one's a lot more creative, as they actually had to find a cardboard box. That or they carry one around just in case such a situation should arise.

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This is wonderful as much for the composition of the photo as for the art itself. We love the colors—also, Fawful. That is all.

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There's nothing quite as gangsta as an overweight Italian and a furry with spiky blue hair rolling down the street strapped to their eyeballs with steel. Mario and Sonic have teamed up for more than just the Olympic Games—this time they're attending your funeral. After they kill you with guns.

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From New York to Halifax to Pittsburgh, Mario can really travel fast in those pipes. At least he gets to listen to some rad music every time he's down there. Da-na da-na da-na! Da-na da-na da-na!

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Our favorite from Flickr user gameboyone, who's got several other entries in this gallery as well. Little Link is courageously battling Aquamentus, a boss from Oracle of Seasons on the Game Boy Color, and an excellent choice.

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This is a Portal 2 mural by Ukraine artist Dozen. As much as we love Portal, we're more enamored with the fact that there's some Star Wars thrown in for apparently no reason. Actually, we'd totally play that crossover—a Jedi with a Portal gun? Bring it on.

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This incredible piece of art was a collaboration among a huge number of talented artists, and it contains everything from Mario to Bomberman, Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble and Metal Slug. It's one of the most incredible pieces of work we've ever seen—we couldn't even fit it all on this page, so head to the source to check it out in all its glory.

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This may or may not be a Lemmings reference, but we're including it anyway because it's the only possible Banksy piece we could locate with even a flimsy connection to gaming. Adding to the theory is the fact that the graffito was found at Abertay University, where David Jones—the creator of Lemmings, as well as Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown—graduated from decades ago. Clever.

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Believe it or not, this simple piece of work was spotted on an actual, standing portion of the Berlin Wall. It translates to "Happy 1984," an obvious reference to the dystopian novel by George Orwell. Interestingly, since the graffito was clearly drawn after the Wall's fall (in 1989, whereas the PS1 came out years later), this seems to be more a commentary on modern life than on communism or the Cold War.

Bet you weren't expecting to have something to think about when you finished this gallery up. You're welcome!