English Games with better box art.

[greedostick]

Besides the obvious, Valis III, does anyone like any American box art better than the Japanese version? I guess we would be comparing manual art technically, since Japanese games have no boxes.

I think Air Zonk art is much better looking than the Japanese Denjin version art. And better huey art as well.

But I honestly can not think of many more. They always screw us in the USA and UK! But there has to be at least a few more.

[johnnykonami]

Maybe Exile: Wicked Phenomenon, depending on your taste.  I like the clay/diorama cover better.

From this page (http://timewarpgamer.com/features/box_art_master_tg16.html) I was thinking King of Casino, Legendary Axe, Raiden, and Timeball.

By contrast I really like the PCE versions of Dungeon Explorer and Vigilante.  The shadows of the adventurers in DE are really cool!  And the closeup of the kidnapped girl in Vigilante are both more interesting than the "welp, in this you kick guys in the face in a junkyard" approach.

[Phase]

SuperPlay has this nice thread on it here https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=9703.0
I'd have to say AeroBlasters for one looks better
Magical Chase looks better without the weird window

While I like the US Air Zonk art I think I prefer the J cover do to it matches the Zonk 2d art that was in all the ads and inside the manual. Although the PCE cover has too many logos and the volume corner stuff going on. Also I think the US should have used the title font that was on the title screen instead of the round balloon red font.

[Black Tiger]

Valis III is infamous around here for being one of the worst North American covers, since the artwork looks like a man.

[esteban]

Valis III is infamous around here for being one of the worst North American covers, since the artwork looks like a man.

There is such a brooding atmosphere in NA's Valis III art as Tranny Yuko-cum-Sandra Bullock stands in stoic silence. I like the NA art (it has a classic, dramatic fantasy formula), but it doesn't belong on Valis.


DEVIL'S CRUSH

Speaking of trannies, I wish the Japanese Art for Devil Crash was more fierce/bolder because it does not hold my interest. I'm ok with "subtle" and "nuanced" compositions, but the female face (maybe it's the dead eyes?) falls flat and is boring. A bit more intensity (get rid of the lifeless eyes, lips*) and it could have been a haunting, intriguing cover. THEREFORE, despite the horribly goofy green demon-devil on the US cover, US wins.

* If the intention was to draw "lifeless" eyes and lips, well, damn, a real artist would have achieved this without the final result being so "blah"...I really feel a slight tweak or two would have made all the difference.

[Black Tiger]

Cosmic Fantasy II stands out as my all time favorite NA box art.  I applaud WD and their bold but righteous decision to eschew the "anime" styling of the game's cinematics and JP box art in favor of the ahead-of-its-time "drunken highschool art student" styling.  Bravo!

They should have just used the photo of the stand-ins used as the basis for it.

[wildfruit]

I prefer the NA dungeon explorer

[Punch]

Bloody Wolf (Same art but character centered on cover)
Air Zonker
Aero Blasters (stupid digitized Picture of jet + anime overlaid on JP version)
Chase HQ (you could argue that the US version is generic but it is a lot more cooler than the cartoony JP one)
Hit The ICE
Action Kung-Fu
Klax (lol)
Raiden
Sinistron (Only the logo surrounded by black, pretty cool imo)
Sonic Spike (Starring Duke Nukem)
SPLATTERHOUSE (the JP version with Rick punching one of those worms is kinda cool but it doesn't beat the US version).
Time Cruise

[Black Tiger]

Cosmic Fantasy II stands out as my all time favorite NA box art.  I applaud WD and their bold but righteous decision to eschew the "anime" styling of the game's cinematics and JP box art in favor of the ahead-of-its-time "drunken highschool art student" styling.  Bravo!

They should have just used the photo of the stand-ins used as the basis for it.

Does such a photo exist? I'd love to see it! I searched on google but this is what came up:

Vic Ireland swears that some people dressed up and posed for the photo in their office. I'd like to see the stand-in for Pico.

[ElSeven]

i always thought davis cup tennis had much better cover art for the NA release.  looking back on the threads that compared all the cover art, there are just so many horrible choices.  moto roader and cosmic fantasy 2 are hilariously terrible.

[johnnykonami]

Man, Bonk 3 US has Bonk looking pretty "special."  I will never understand why the Japanese art wasn't used in some of these cases, especially when it was cute and they had to make it serious for American kids because they wouldn't approve.  The Ordyne art is pretty silly, I love how they just had to change the pilot's faces.

I also want to add Silent Debuggers (Japanese) to my list of cool, subtle covers.  I love how they're just standing around waiting for something to happen, rather than BLAM shootin' aliens up in this piece!  Japanese designers are all around so good at story telling, even in a case like this it tells you so much more about the overall vibe of the game.

[Arkhan]

China Warrior's USA box art trumps Teh Kung Fu's.


http://pcengine.co.uk/HTML_Games/Kung_Fu.htm 

see for yourself.

[Punch]

China Warrior's USA box art trumps Teh Kung Fu's.

No way dude, the stylized kung fu fighter drawing his vital energy around him in a bruce-lee esque pose is 100x better than that airbrushed crap.

[imparanoic]

most of the turbographx box art are simply naff and unappealing, some of simply disgusting, while the Japanese ones are far decent.

turbo grafx artwork is almost like the artwork on aphex twin 'windowlicker'. embarrassing!

[imparanoic]

http://slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/2013/february/worst_video_game_cover.htm

the worst artwork on video games, makes want to squirt lemon juice on your eyes