When Retro Games Hit the Street (12 Photos)

August 7, 2026

By Vidar

The games have left the screen.

A real drainpipe fires a Bullet Bill. Tetris takes over a wall. A giant Goomba steps into the real world. Across these 14 works, artists turn walls, pipes, utility boxes and even hay bales into scenes from familiar games.

More: See 15 Retro-Game Characters in Real Life

🍄 “With My Goomba” — By French artist SCAF 🇫🇷

SCAF titled the work “With My Goomba”. He turns an abandoned interior into a full-size Mario encounter: the painted Goomba appears to project from the wall, while the artist completes the illusion by posing on top dressed as Mario.

💡 Nerd Fact: The opening Goomba in the original Super Mario Bros. also functions as a tutorial. Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata explained how the encounter teaches new players, without written instructions, to avoid Goombas and defeat them by jumping on them.

More: See 26 3D Paintings by SCAF

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🏀 Mario Goes for the Dunk — By Pappas Pärlor in Sweden 🇸🇪

A tiny bead-built basketball hoop turns this concrete corner into a sports minigame. Mario is caught mid-jump with the ball raised and the real wall supplying the arena. Östergötlands Museum identifies Pappas Pärlor as Johan Karlgren and describes how his fuse-bead art moved from the studio into public space.

More: Explore 90 Pixel-Art Pieces by Pappas Pärlor

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🥶 Mortal Kombat — By Dsquet Siete in Uruapan, Mexico 🇲🇽

Dsquet Siete’s post identifies the fighter as Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat 11. Electric blues, metallic highlights, icy vapor and a shadowy dragon emblem give the wall the intensity of a game screen at mural scale.

💡 Nerd Fact: The 1993 home-console release of Mortal Kombat was central to the debate that led to a unified North American game-rating system. The ESRB’s official history records that the game was a major focus of the December 1993 U.S. Senate hearing; industry representatives began discussing a unified rating system the following month.

More: See 29 Street Art Gems From Mexico

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🧩 “Tetris” — By Andrea Ranieri Emeid in Baronissi, Italy 🇮🇹

Emeid’s post titles the work “Tetris,” dates it to 2022 and credits OVERLINEJAM in Baronissi. Pink hands become the game pieces, bending across the wall around the words “GAME OVER.”

More: See Emeid’s Tetris-Inspired Mural in Baronissi

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🚀 Bullet Bill From the Drainpipe — By Pappas Pärlor in Sweden 🇸🇪

A real drainpipe becomes Bullet Bill’s launch tunnel while a tiny Mario stands directly in its path. Pappas Pärlor uses fuse beads for the characters and lets the street supply the rest of the level.

More: Explore 90 Pixel-Art Pieces by Pappas Pärlor

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🍄 Super Mario Power-Up — By Hebs Art in Stadlau, Vienna, Austria 🇦🇹

Mario crouches beside oversized mushrooms on a wall already layered with earlier tags and pieces. Hebs Art leaves much of the surrounding graffiti visible, so the game scene reads as another layer on an active paint surface.

More: Explore 6 Walls by Hebs Art

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🕹️ Blaze from Streets of Rage — By Van Jimmer in London, England 🇬🇧

LDNGraffiti documented the Streets of Rage jam on Grey Eagle Street on September 29, 2022, and lists Van Jimmer among the painters. His Blaze Fielding has bold color, hard edges and a fighting pose that makes the brick wall read like a frame from a 16-bit beat ’em up.

💡 Nerd Fact: Composer Yuzo Koshiro wrote the original Streets of Rage score with overseas players in mind. He drew on music he encountered in Los Angeles and at Tokyo clubs, sampling Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum sounds alongside FM synthesis.

More: See Van Jimmer’s Streets of Rage Mural in London

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👻 Pac-Man in Dnipro — Artist Unknown in Dnipro, Ukraine 🇺🇦

Painted in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag, Pac-Man advances toward ghosts arranged in the white, blue and red of the Russian flag. The source post places the work in Dnipro but does not identify the artist.

More: See the Pac-Man Intervention in Dnipro

🥊 Ali vs. Ryu — By Combo in Paris, France 🇫🇷

On Rue Saint-Denis, Combo’s Ali vs. Ryu replaces Sonny Liston with the Street Fighter character beneath arcade-style health bars. Ali’s pose comes from Neil Leifer’s photograph of the 1965 Ali–Liston rematch in Lewiston, Maine.

More: See Combo’s Ali vs. Ryu in Paris

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🏹 The Last of Us — By Alkimist in Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸

Alkimist shared the first stage of the wall as a graffiti work based on The Last of Us. The close-up of Ellie sits beside a monochrome bow-and-arrow silhouette, with the game title and PlayStation mark built into the composition.

💡 Nerd Fact: The fictional infection has a real biological model. Experiments with Ophiocordyceps found that the fungus induced its characteristic biting behavior in its natural ant host but not in other ant species, indicating highly specialized host manipulation.

More: See Ellie and Eight More Murals From Around the World

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❤️ Mario’s Love Box — Artist Unknown in Wynwood, Miami, Florida, USA 🇺🇸

A familiar question block gets a softer reward: a red pixel heart. Photographer Alex Bartole titled the image “Mario’s Love Box,” photographed it on 11 March 2014 and tagged it in Wynwood, Miami. His Flickr record does not identify the artist.

More: See Mario’s Love Box in Wynwood

📸 Photo by Alex Bartole

🟢 The Cork City Warp Pipe — Artist Unknown in Cork City, Ireland 🇮🇪

Coins, Goombas, blocks and a Piranha Plant spread across the wall, with utility boxes turned into game objects. A 2013 eyewitness photo post places the work near Fitzgerald Park and University College Cork, but neither that record nor Denise Murphy’s Flickr photograph identifies the artist.

More: See Mario Take Over a Cork City Wall

📸 Photo by Denise Murphy