Classic box art ruined by localisation

[cj iwakura]

Castle Shikigami: the thread.

JP:


US:


JP:


US:


EU:

[apatheticTurd]

Neither covers of Baku Baku Animal are great work of art, but the western art is hilarous to me for reasons I can't properly articulate





Western covers of Japanese games that are actually better than the original... now that'd be an interesting thread.

[cicada88]

Western covers of Japanese games that are actually better than the original... now that'd be an interesting thread.

Agreed. For the vast majority of console games, the Japanese cover is equal to or better than the western release.

NES games that use the same art as the Japanese are sometimes better than famicom or disk system counterparts simply because the boxes are physically bigger.

[Specineff]

^^ Contra 3 and Castlevania 4 had better US covers than the Japanese ones. Who would have wanted Macaulay Culkin and Ah-nuld on a SNES game?

[EmperorIng]

That USA Baku Baku cover is better than the JPN one. I am ready for my coked-out adventure trip with animal heads, thank you very much.

Almost an entire decade destroying Kotobuki Tsukasa's work.

Gotta love these guys for trying though. Keep on reachin' for that rainbow.


My small contribution:


You have to admire the shittiness of a company like Acclaim. They were so shit, they couldn't even put the image of the right game on one of their own products. That incompetence takes some dedication.

[sojtrash]

pretty much any pce-->tg-16 art

jpn


us

[Herr Schatten]

Often the JP version of art would bypass the US magically and still end up on EU releases - a good example being the Phalanx above. In some cases it even extended to consoles, the EU getting both the original Super Famicom design and (thank God) Mega Drive brand.

I'm not sure but I think that might have to do with Europe having a pretty strong import scene back then. Lots of videogame enthusiasts had imported Mega Drives, and even PC-Engines, and the accompanying software long before the official EU launch (which, in case of the PCE, did never happen). Magazines reviewed japanese games for these consoles on a regular basis, and importers advertised them, so people in Europe were familiar with the japanese brands much more than with their US counterparts. It makes sense for the EU marketing departments to build on that rather than the US localizations.

[Skykid]

Often the JP version of art would bypass the US magically and still end up on EU releases - a good example being the Phalanx above. In some cases it even extended to consoles, the EU getting both the original Super Famicom design and (thank God) Mega Drive brand.

I'm not sure but I think that might have to do with Europe having a pretty strong import scene back then. Lots of videogame enthusiasts had imported Mega Drives, and even PC-Engines, and the accompanying software long before the official EU launch (which, in case of the PCE, did never happen). Magazines reviewed japanese games for these consoles on a regular basis, and importers advertised them, so people in Europe were familiar with the japanese brands much more than with their US counterparts. It makes sense for the EU marketing departments to build on that rather than the US localizations.

That's a pleasant way of looking at it but I really don't think that was the reason. Grey importing was strongly discouraged by every company in the race and region lock was prominent across every major console bar handhelds. The fact that we had such wonderfully robust import scene was only kind of recognised retrospectively when the PS1 started to streamline everything.

I think the reality was sheer laziness tbh: the EU arm simply plucking the JP art on occasion and shoehorning it onto the box as required. That said I do like to think whimsically that there was an element of taste involved where the EU distributor sat looking over the available art options, glanced at the US stuff and just said "well there's no way we're using that".

[Jonathan Ingram]

Ju-On: The Grudge

Japanese cover:




European cover:

[ptoing]

Wow, that Ju-On one is amazingly bad.

[cj iwakura]

The American one was much creepier if memory serves, but not half as good as that JP one.

[shmuppyLove]

More good SNES cover comparisons:

http://playingwithsuperpower.com/japane ... -art-pwns/

I literally lol'd at "SUPER PROBOTECTOR ALIEN REBELS"

Fast-forward to today, here is a game I recently bought:



Front of the box, not bad. I think I like the PS3 cover better, but what I'm really bothered by is the back:



More than half of the box is taken up with meaningless garbage, in three different languages.

I blame the Language Police.

[BulletMagnet]

You have to admire the shittiness of a company like Acclaim. They were so shit, they couldn't even put the image of the right game on one of their own products. That incompetence takes some dedication.

Which makes it all the more amazing that the games themselves remained mostly untouched; Rayforce/Galactic Attack even retained tate mode.

[Despatche]

man that old styling kicks my ass so hard, it's just so cool

now we need a thread about this old "panel"/"shelf" style art, faux marble, ye old cg, etc. fucking rayforce album man

what's the point of nostalgia when these old things are legitimately cool and better than what we have now

[CStarFlare]

I actually think the us one would be pretty decent if it were for a different game.




US cover isn't bad, but this PAL one?




I dig the JP cover, even though I don't think it really fits the game. That pink on the PAL cover is awful, though.

Once you start looking these are easy to find. I'd actually like to do this thread for covers that are different but as good.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Agreed about the Robotrek cover. The art itself is fine, but does not fit the theme/feel of the game whatsoever compared to the original.

The cover for Lennus had much better art than its localization, Paladin's Quest. The localization art wasn't awful, but was lacking the slick style the japanese cover had.

[Jet Black]

Box art inexplicably ruined by western localisations.

Rekindle the humour of yesteryear, remember why you started collecting Japanese versions of games, marvel that they paid someone to defecate over a perfectly amazing work, don't post the hillbilly from Phalanx or NES Mega Man again!

Okay, you didn't mentioned Fatal Fury

JAPAN



USA

[shmuppyLove]

Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari:



River City Ransom:

[Specineff]

I'll have to disagree on this one. The Japanese cover shows me two constipated cartoon characters, one of which is a priest still clutching his missing crucifix, and a crowded open-air swap meet. The American one feels like "The Warriors" in game form.

[soprano1]

I'll have to disagree on this one. The Japanese cover shows me two constipated cartoon characters, one of which is a priest still clutching his missing crucifix, and a crowded open-air swap meet. The American one feels like "The Warriors" in game form.

Those high school kids must have flunk a couple of years...

[cicada88]

Yeah, I think that Technos Nekketsu series chibi art is pretty blah. Not that the River City Ransom cover is that great...

[Pretas]

The American one feels like "The Warriors" in game form.

More like West Side Story.

[Mortificator]

Western covers of Japanese games that are actually better than the original... now that'd be an interesting thread.

Jim Lee > renders




Big fan of minimalist covers, but I don't even know what I'm looking at with the Japanese one.

[EmperorIng]

TV static doubling the image (since the game uses TVs as a big motif in choosing the Smiths). The US cover is better though.

[Axelay]

Box art inexplicably ruined by western localisations.

Rekindle the humour of yesteryear, remember why you started collecting Japanese versions of games, marvel that they paid someone to defecate over a perfectly amazing work, don't post the hillbilly from Phalanx or NES Mega Man again!

Okay, you didn't mentioned Fatal Fury

JAPAN



USA

I need a poster of the Japanese cover to fatal fury so good

[cj iwakura]

TV static doubling the image (since the game uses TVs as a big motif in choosing the Smiths). The US cover is better though.

Agreed, same with Neo Contra. I can think of a few games I own with better US covers.

[Skykid]

Ha ha, long time no see

I remember one day in the store during my misspent youth we were cracking up looking at this cover. Basically someone came to the funfair dressed as Terry Bogard and angered a redneck on the big wheel by ogling his gal. After a brief exchange of words boy Bogard finds himself screaming in freefall as he's lobbed off the ride at its peak, onlookers gazing in horror as he falls to his death.

It is indeed the perfect depiction of a 'fatal fury'.

[neorichieb1971]

I never understood why western artwork had to follow a template.

Once the PAL N64 template was set to having a great black border around the edge it pretty much ruined any artwork that was going inside it.

My old friend Dave Cox used to localize the artwork for Konami in Europes zone. Sometimes he actually left Japanese writing on the PAL version.

[Vexorg]

Another classic example:

The Japanese box art for Rockman:


The US box art for Megaman:

[cicada88]

I never understood why western artwork had to follow a template.

Once the PAL N64 template was set to having a great black border around the edge it pretty much ruined any artwork that was going inside it.

Same for the USA for most systems: Super Nintendo, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear

I hate the template / standardization of game artwork but some completionist / OCD types probably prefer it tbh