Classic box art ruined by localisation

[Skykid]

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!

Only rule: You must post whatever examples of hilarity alongside the Japanese (or other) original for comparison.

G-Darius

JAPAN



USA





SFC Prince of Persia

JAPAN



USA





Super Bust a Move

JAPAN/KOREA



USA




Rushing Beat Ran

JAPAN



USA

[DrVenom]

I disagree with the first two.
G-Darius actually looks like something from the game and Prince of Persia is really a western game (even if this remake was made in Japan) and this art resembles the Prince of Persia 2 art as well.

Also I think both Rushing Beat covers are kind of ugly.

[options]

Street Fighter II

Japan




US




Street Fighter II Turbo

Japan



US



*shudder*

Einhander

Japan





US



The western version doesn't suck, it's just nowhere near as cool.

[ptoing]

US vs Japan/Europe

[Lord Satori]

US vs Japan/Europe

image

In an ideal cover I would take the US title font and put it on the original cover.

Also, the japan G-Darius image is broken.

[ptoing]

US vs Japan/Europe

image

In an ideal cover I would take the US title font and put it on the original cover.

Sorry, but no. The treatment of the logo in the US version is very tacky use of Photoshop layer effects and would detract from the art of the original cover.

[Squire Grooktook]

I disagree with the first two.
G-Darius actually looks like something from the game and Prince of Persia is really a western game (even if this remake was made in Japan) and this art resembles the Prince of Persia 2 art as well.

Also I think both Rushing Beat covers are kind of ugly.

I like the JP cover of G-Darius better, but it's not a huge difference.

Prince of Persia 2 jp cover wins hands down though.

[MX7]

Most of the Western covers are as good, if not better than the Japnese versions. I clicked on this thread expecting some Phantasy Star 2 level horrible! But I'd forgotten about the NTSC-U version of ICO. thank god we missed out in that in Europe...

[ptoing]

Prince of Persia 2 jp cover wins hands down though.

Indeed. It looks like it was made by Katsuya Terada. Can't go wrong with that.

[Skykid]

Most of the Western covers are as good, if not better than the Japnese versions.

[CIT]

Classy:



Trashy (and ripped off from a shitty movie poster, no less):

[CIT]

Most of the Western covers are as good, if not better than the Japnese versions. I clicked on this thread expecting some Phantasy Star 2 level horrible!

You don't really want us to get out the TurboGrafx-16 stuff do you?

[Ruldra]

Master System the thread: http://timewarpgamer.com/features/box_a ... y_sms.html

But this one takes the cake:

[Skykid]

Sorry about the broken G Darius JP cover, fixed now. I love the JP's arrangement on this one, particularly the logo - its cybernetic 'G' with fish-eye centre behind the steely Darius text is iconic for me. I can't believe they shat the whole thing up so absurdly on the US one, even replacing the logo with a generic Photoshop rush job. The weirdest part is the composition is the same: they essentially redrew it, but worse.

As it happens the EU version is better than the US (a third arrangement) although still no way near the JP original.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Guardic Gaiden

I still desperately want a print of that. I love Naoyuki Katoh's art so very much.

A classic:



The JP original art isn't great or anything, but the totally unrelated guy with banjo art is still a complete headscratcher by comparison. More good SNES cover comparisons:

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

[Despatche]

arcade game flyers for american releases, regardless of where the game was made, like to advertise "profits" over the actual game and so tend to have bad visual design/art. iirc, many sega games in the late '80s had only master system-like flyers for their us releases. japanese flyers are generally really stylish to the point of being collectible, while world flyers tend to keep everything about the japanese flyers and just replace the japanese text with english/another language. pinball flyers tend to be much like japanese flyers, which makes it all even more sad

edit: i was mistaken, the pop sfc us art is indeed unique to this version. i still like it though, always have. there's something about it that elevates it above bad box art

[Blackbird]

It always baffles me to see that they threw out beautiful illustrations like the Prince of Persia box art to replace them with something else; just seems like wasted expense. If I had to hazard a guess, I would assume it was a licensing/copyright issue; perhaps US localizations rarely got the rights to the illustrator's artwork for the cover.

Of course, when I was a child, I was none the wiser, because I got the US versions of the boxes and had no idea that another region of the world was getting awesome box art.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

In some cases, not using the original art could be a cost-savings measure. If it's a well-known artist who did the cover, you'd have to pay licensing costs to use their work, and to use it for the cover of a release overseas, the US/EU publisher I imagine would have to pay licensing fees as well. That might explain why in a few cases really high-quality art covers were replaced with far more mediocre covers (they found an artist to do it cheaper).

[Herr Schatten]

Master System the thread: http://timewarpgamer.com/features/box_a ... y_sms.html

I know I hated them when I was a kid, but today I kind of appreciate what Sega were trying to do with those covers. Pushing the Master System brand rather than the individual games was a bold move and it just might have worked had the cover illustrations been a little less shitty. Lacklustre quality of those aside, I do like the stylish approach Sega were taking. I do remember their games really standing out on shop shelves. Maybe they just were a little ahead of their time, or it was just a good idea ruined by poor execution.

To be fair, early western covers of NES games were not much prettier.

[cicada88]

The JP original art isn't great or anything, but the totally unrelated guy with banjo art is still a complete headscratcher by comparison. More good SNES cover comparisons:

OP said not to include Phalanx or else

BTW, I think the original JP art is amazing

[BareKnuckleRoo]

How could you NOT post the hillbilly though?

Just remembered these:





The US/EU versions basically give you a demon crotch shot as opposed to the really cool Japanese cover. In fact, the Japanese covers of basically all the Gargoyle's Quest & spinoffs/sequels are far worse.





Yet another lovely view of his loincloth.

[Pretas]

Can't leave out Mustache Yoko from Valis III. For whatever reason, US Turbografx-16 games had almost universally bad cover art.

[soprano1]

post too long

You know what's funny? I would be less offended if i was a soccer mom from the 90's if my son was playing a game with the JP covers.
"What is this Satanic game?!"


edit: And let's not forget the Klan looking enemy from the GB US cover...

[BulletMagnet]

The JP original art isn't great or anything, but the totally unrelated guy with banjo art is still a complete headscratcher by comparison.

As ridiculous as he is, I can never bring myself to hate Pharmer Bob, if only for the sheer marketing chutzpah/insanity he represents.

[Xan]

Most classic case of this for me:




Seriously, the NTSC-U cover looks like something they threw together in five minutes...

[Skykid]

Ha ha, that Demon's Crest is hilarious!

To set it straight, and unless all the magazines I used to read during my childhood had it wrong, the only reason the cover art was changed regionally was for marketing purposes. US distributors were essentially blind and considered the Japanese art to be less palatable to an American audience, so it was discarded in place of a less cartoons, more 'adult', totally shitted up version. 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.

[Pretas]

Didn't another company already own the trademark on Mega Drive in the US? Similar to how the European Dreamcast logo changed its color because someone else there was already using an orange spiral.

[soprano1]

Didn't another company already own the trademark on Mega Drive in the US? Similar to how the European Dreamcast logo changed its color because someone else there was already using an orange spiral.

I thought the Genesis name was just a marketing thing for the US market.
As for the Dreamcast logo, i think it was some cd maker company who had that, but i'm not sure.

[Specineff]

Tivola's symbol is an orange swirl as well. It looks more like a ribbon, but I can't blame Sega for wanting to cover their backs.

[KAI]

Toshinden JAP


Toshinden West


Almost an entire decade destroying Kotobuki Tsukasa's work.