gaming Battle of the Box Arts

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 42,202]

Box arts are something of a, well, near lost art these days. While there are still good ones, there is not much of a focus on them anymore. As such, publishers/developers don't seem to put a lot of work into them. Sometimes though, there are ones that are just amazing, current or past.

 

However, what I want to discuss here, is regional differences in box arts and which ones YOU think are better. Like how North American and European arts differ, and so on. What are some box arts that you felt were better than another for the same game? You can also compare different arts from different systems if that is the case. I personally find NA box arts inferior most of the time, far too much focus on protagonists and less on atmosphere.

 

A prime example of this? Resident Evil 4.

The left is North America. The right is Europe. The NA art absolute pales in comparison. The Europe art just oozes with creepy atmosphere and perfectly sets the tone. The NA one is a tad iconic, but still inferior.

[Megas 28,119]

Another good example was how the Ico boxart in EU completely stomps the US Box Art

 

 

And let's not forget the ever famous Megaman box art

 

 

US

 

vs

 

Japan

 

 

Even some small changes can make a boxart more memorable, for better or for worse, like US Kirby

 

[Denim&Venöm 20,459]

Yeah, the U.S. tends to play it safe and got he direct route in terms of box art. 

 

For WWE Smackdown 4: Shut your mouth, the U.S. art seems randomly cobbled together, while the Euro art fits the tone of cover images from prior games. 

 

 

 

Same w/ SD 5: Here comes the pain. Already unoriginal, the cover being a rip off of the Unforgiven '02 ppv poster, at least the PAL art tries to do something different. 

 

 

I'm also a fan of the Dead Or Alive games, and here, the U.S. tries to play up the fighting game aspect with it's cover, showing the most Bruce Lee lookign character of the roster (Named Jan Lee), while the Japan version focuses on central character Ayane, leaving things more ambiguous. 

 

 

Actually, I think I found something that describes discrepancies in cover art on between Japan, Europe & North America. 

[Scrubbed user 3,417]

 

We've all seen this one. It sucks. If Doom wasn't written on it, I wouldn't know it was Doom.

 

 

Now this is more like it. A modern recreation of the original box art. Also make a great poster for your wall.

Edited September 5, 2016 by Vulon Bii

[Castle Bleck 19,448]

 

Brock Lesnar: "Now I am become Bluesnar, the destroyer of red lighting."

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 42,202]

 

We've all seen this one. It sucks. If Doom wasn't written on it, I wouldn't know it was Doom.

 

 

Now this is more like it. A modern recreation of the original box art. Also make a great poster for your wall.

I, for the friggin' life of me, cannot figure out why they didn't go with the superb recreation art for the box as standard instead of that terrible art they used. Come on, you have one of the original major FPS games ever created, you reboot it and you make a box art of a guy with a gun, just standing there? The same bland thing most FPS's have been doing for over a decade? Ugh.