not by virtue of them being official, but in the way they're drawn. they have that quality about them, this presence that is imposing in a way one struggles to describe.

perhaps it's because they are perfect. or rather, designed to be perfect. traditionally-skilled artworks that let technical talent beat individual expression - or otherwise perfectly functional model and reference sheets.

rarely does it appear the artists are having fun when drawing them, for fear of being off-model or otherwise damaging to the subject they depict. this must be a liability in the corporate environment which makes this art.

it wouldn't do one good to bring attention to a billion dollar brand... but then most of the works appear so non-controversial that one wonders why they were published at all.

personally i enjoy the simple beauty of indie artists. what do you think official art is good for?

Official art is good for selling you shit. It used to be extremely important for video games to have good box art back in the day because that was pretty much the sum total of a person's knowledge about the game right there...the cover art and that bit of text on the back.

I'm very glad it exists though because it provides reference for my own art as well as other people's. I mean if everyone was drawing Mario however the fuck they wanted then how are we supposed to know exactly how he looks?

That would actually be cool af...like a tv show where each episode has been farmed out to a different animation studio. The story is set in stone, but each studio is given only a rough description of each character and each scene and they're supposed to do the rest. It would be crazy to go from episode to episode with the art style and character designs changing each time. So if there were 10 episodes you'd basically see 10 different designs for the same character.