"It was a grey Tuesday in December - cold, like every other night in this city. The dame walked into my office on the stroke of nine, all legs and perfume, holding a mushroom and a fire flower..." is how we'd imagine a pulp fiction gaming novel would start out.

And now, thanks to the talented Ástor Alexander, we know what the cover would look like as well.

The San Diego-based illustrator has combined his love of trashy novel cover art and video games in spectacular fashion, creating adaptations of video game reads we wish we stumbled across in a dusty book store.

Starting with the crime noire themes of BioShock's Burial at Sea, Alexander goes on to imagine how classic Nintendo titles would look in a 1950's crime setting, with adaptations of Mario, Zelda and Metroid.

You can see more of Alexander's work on his Behance profile.

(Images: Ástor Alexander)