The story behind Keith Courage

[gilbert]

They gave Opa-Opa a pilot in the boxart, which is Bigly wrong. He's a sentinent ship!

Yeah, and he even has a father. But but but... He also has a cockpit! You may consider it like this. I think Twinbees are sometimes depicted as sentient and sometimes not, but officially they also have pilots, so they're like buddy-linked together or whatever.

If all covers go the extreme route, I bet no one would complain. 

[Arkhan]

by accurate, I meant the "it looks like a child drew it" part.

not the cover itself.

The cover is f*ckin goofy.

[SiberianSpForces]

Bad box art you say;

[Black Tiger]

SMS games look great by design. Even the simpler artwork looks fine and the overall aesthetic isn't ruined by inconsistent random box designs.

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, aside from a few standout examples I think SMS boxes look great. I’ve never understood why people complain about them.

[gilbert]

Well, the Zillion box does look odd, but it's just bland and does not represent what the game is about. I don't think it's really bad. It could be better if it's just shown with the gun, but then people may misinterpret it as a Zillion light-gun game.

The Black Belt box... It really fits the game and I find it awesome. I don't understand why someone will find it bad. Simple designs aren't necessarily bland or bad.

[nodtveidt]

I agree with SiberianSpForces. Those boxes are terrible. It's like someone didn't want to make the effort to make something stand out... or even something all that good... so it's like "whatever, here's some basic bitch graphics, go with it".

[DragonmasterDan]

Yeah, aside from a few standout examples I think SMS boxes look great. I’ve never understood why people complain about them.

The grid pattern on those box designs is incredibly nostalgic to me, and I didn't even grow up owning a master system (and barely played one until I got my own in the late 90s). But just seeing those boxes conjures up images of visits to toy stores, seeing SMS games for sale and wondering if they were any good. While not all of the art around it is great.
 The consistent design element of the checkerboard patterns is at the very least a warmer and friendlier aesthetic choice than the template of art used by Turbografx games.

[SignOfZeta]

Well, the Zillion box does look odd, but it's just bland and does not represent what the game is about. I don't think it's really bad. It could be better if it's just shown with the gun, but then people may misinterpret it as a Zillion light-gun game.

So the game based on a Sega sponsored anime where the hero carries a SMS light gun as a weapon...you think the US box overemphasizes the light gun. Got it.

[xelement5x]

This is the worst SMS box art in my opinion. 

[esteban]

You guys are insane.

The aesthetics of the Keith Courage cover/comic is actually quite nice. You may certainly argue that it isn’t “badass” enough...but it is tastefully done.

Cosmic Fantasy 2, however, is f*ckING AMATEUR HOUR.

There is an old thread (or three) where we discussed all of this game art...

...and there is an old thread where SuperPlay has NA vs JP cover art side-by-side... that might be fun to look at

(BE BALL vs. Chew Man Fu...guess what? Stoopid-ass Chew Man Fu is better.... DEVIL CRASH...the original Japanese cover? AMATEUR HOUR.)

[Arkhan]

The SMS box art is so stupid it's good.

The grid, though.   Is genius for many reasons.

You can spot SMS games in a pile of stuff from a mile away.   The stuff pops out and is easy to read. 

It gave some consistency that admittedly looks nice on a shelf, spine out.


but some of the art.... it's so dumb.

Not all of it, but some of it.   Ninja was terrible art.   Quartet, also terrible.

Tri Formation's art was sweet, granted, they kinda could've used the Japanese picture...

Phantasy Star's art was also pretty good.  and Miracle Warriors.



Cyborg Hunter had that standout box. 



Anyway, my gripe with KC is that Keith himself looks like a tool. 

[SignOfZeta]

Hmm, I thought for sure this thread was getting bumped because Wataru is in the next Super Robot Wars.

[Arkhan]

Nope, but man there's some funny try-hard shit on FB about that.

WHATS KETIHCOURAGE I NEED A PCE

[nopepper]

I always found the uniformity of the grid pattern in SMS boxes to be so boring. Then the art used was so blah. I can only recall Ys, Phantasy Star, Miracle Warriors, Golvellius, RType and Aztec Adventure being pleasing. I remember actually buying Ys just because of the box art (and because I had just gotten done with Phantasy Star and wanted more of the same).

I was always envious of the diversity found in NES boxes, where each publisher had their own style. Sure, they were missing the awesome clamshells, but the art was generally more colorful and interesting.

I also must be part of the 0.1% that actually likes the Dungeon Explorer USA art. I like the colors used and the sort of impressionist approach taken. It gives me the feeling of going on an adventure in some fantastic land, and actually prefer it to the PCE version (although that one is nice too).

In general, I would say that the worst cover art comes from SMS and the Turbo, which as stated earlier, seems odd, since Atari, Intellivision, Coleco, Odyssey, etc. covers were usually very well done.