Your Favourite Box art

[Elunil]

Hello guys !
So i'm going to start working on the box art of Pawarumi for the physical edition on PC.

I'm asking you to take pictures of your favourite box in your shelves and post it here I want to make a gread box art for our game and i think i might have great feedbacks coming here

I'll keep this thread updated starting next week !
Cheers everyone:!

[PFG 9000]

Reading this really makes me realize how mediocre the box art is on most of my shmups. Seems like 99% are just a ship flying into or out of the screen with assorted generic enemies in the background, and really, what more do you do with a shmup? An old fart playing a banjo?

Looking through my collection, I came across Gradius Gaiden as something that stands out. Yes, it has the above criteria minus the geriatric guitarist, but it also has a giant space iceberg in the background, and that's just cool.* Actually, I think it's just that it's one of my favorite games and has special meaning for me, but the box art is kinda neat.

Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy also stands out. But I think that's more because where most games boast cover art that's action packed and explosive, this cover accurately portrays how goddamn awful the game is.

If we're counting Contra III as a shmup, it would probably take the cake. Almost all the box art Tom Dubois did was amazing; it's just that shmups don't translate too well to unique box art. But lots of his game cover art has a fantastic way of freeze-framing a great action scene and perfectly implying the movement of everything in the frame.


*no pun intended

[Bananamatic]

[schleichfahrt]

These days you can retire on the value of the box alone.

[Ghegs]

I don't own these so won't be taking pictures of my own, but I've always liked these:

R-Type on MSX/X68000 - great illustration of possibly the most iconic boss in shmups.

Phalanx on X68000 - I like how instead of action shot it's the ship at dry dock. Lots of neat detail.

[BIL]

But lots of his game cover art has a fantastic way of freeze-framing a great action scene and perfectly implying the movement of everything in the frame.

Also not quite an STG, but his Top Gun: Guts & Glory (GB) boxart is a stunning example of this. Wish I could find a bigger scan, or preferably the raw artwork - even in this tiny scan, the sense of g-force and twisting motion is damn near palpable:

Spoiler

Regarding forum-recognised STGs, I recently picked up Whip Rush (MD), whose sleeve art is by the famed kaiju/mecha artist Yuji Kaida (he also did Soldier Blade and Battle Garegga). The front is certainly ok, but it's the back cover that really caught my eye. It's dead simple, but I dig the dwarfing of the speeding ships against a massive future-industrial backdrop.

Spoiler

Phalanx on X68000 - I like how instead of action shot it's the ship at dry dock. Lots of neat detail.

Ah yes, always loved that one. I always associate it with PC-88 Silpheed. Very future-functional.



(click for full res)

[waiwainl]

Simply because it was my first SHMUP (without realizing it was a shump)

[BIL]

Oh also, Guardic Gaiden. NES covers had nothing on the FC's beatific dark angel of technodeath.

Box format:

Spoiler

Original:

Spoiler

(click for full res - rather big)

[schleichfahrt]

Even though some on these forums have expressed.. reservations about this game, I always liked Last Hope's box art (don't own it, though, and never played it).
Biomechanic style with interesting lighting, by Steven Wen.

Spoiler

[parallaxscroll2]

And (already mentioned)

[Jonny2x4]

The original painting for the Nemesis III/GOFERの野望エピソード2 box art by Hideaki Kodama/小玉英章, which was auctioned off several months on Yahoo! Auctions.

Spoiler

[parallaxscroll2]

The original painting for the Nemesis III/GOFERの野望エピソード2 box art by Hideaki Kodama/小玉英章, which was auctioned off several months on Yahoo! Auctions.

Spoiler

That is fantastic!

[Oniros]

The Mushihimesama arcade poster is simply the GOAT:

Spoiler

[Casey120]

The Mushihimesama arcade poster is simply the GOAT:

That's not the arcade poster !

[Eaglet]

This is the best.

[Sumez]

The Gleylancer and Eliminate Down boxes are ripe for the Dick Stock thread.

[uroko-sakanabito]

Revolty II Sharp X1 is great, also both MSX Aleste
https://scontent-frt3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/ ... e=5AE65F63

[parallaxscroll2]

The Gleylancer and Eliminate Down boxes are ripe for the Dick Stock thread.

Bwuahahahaha.

[Jonny2x4]

That is fantastic!

Here's more Kodama art for some of Konami's run 'n gun games. I'm hoping more of his stuff will surface in the future.

Contra GB

Spoiler

Contra Spirits

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Sunset Riders

Spoiler

[Despatche]

Stahlfeder, sure wish I had something bigger: https://i.imgur.com/YM7kVk4.jpg

I could also spam flyers for days. For example, Fire Shark: https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page= ... 79&image=1

And it would be stupid of me to not post the obvious Inter Stellar, which I used to have a great scan of: https://i.imgur.com/wvVt7xv.jpg

Might as well post the set of arcade flyers too: https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?db=vi ... age=thumbs

Since I'm here: the correct name of this game is Inter Stellar, as you can see here, and the katakana given on the MSX release even uses an interpunct (rare). Laser Fantasy was a subtitle/brand name that never went beyond this one game, and does not actually appear in the game itself nor on the MSX version packaging. The flyer also uses "Laser Disc", but that's obviously not the same thing; Funai can name their own product, but not someone else's. Even then, "Laser Disc" is an official alternative in Europe, if I remember right.

[BulletMagnet]

I doubt it's feasible from a marketing perspective, but personally I'd like to see Pawarumi's artwork take as much advantage as it can of the Aztec-ish theme; an angular, stone-carved abstract rendering or painted mural of the action, maybe. In the "weirdly specific" department, for some reason I keep envisioning a priest-ish figure standing atop a ziggurat pyramid, arms ritually raised, and down the sides flow three rivers of the game's signature blue, red, and green; I guess that's really more of a Mayan thing if I remember my 6th-grade history right, though.

[Jeneki]

The Gleylancer and Eliminate Down boxes are ripe for the Dick Stock thread.

Guardic Gaiden as well, that chick totally destroyed the tip of a Dick Stock.

[Stevens]

The Gleylancer and Eliminate Down boxes are ripe for the Dick Stock thread.

I was thinking Eliminate Down belongs in the yet to be created vagina stock thread.