Cover Art PCE vs Turbo Grafx (Image Heavy)

[nat]

Dig the PCE World Court Tennis cover!

Is there anyone else that agrees with me that the US Valis II cover is nicer than the PCE? The PCE cover is so stale and flat, while the American is more fleshed out, imaginative, and colorful.

I agree with this. I think this is only the second agreement we've ever had on anything, ever....

[Keranu]

Shanghai and Valis II are all that really matter in life.

[Dyna138]

Is there anyone else that agrees with me that the US Valis II cover is nicer than the PCE? The PCE cover is so stale and flat, while the American is more fleshed out, imaginative, and colorful.

I mentioned this before and I'm glad I'm not alone. I like it too I think its colorful and well done, Valis III on the otherhand.....ugh!

[apachacha]

Dig the PCE World Court Tennis cover!

Is there anyone else that agrees with me that the US Valis II cover is nicer than the PCE? The PCE cover is so stale and flat, while the American is more fleshed out, imaginative, and colorful.

I dunno,  II's not impresive, but the cover looks like what you get in the game.

US III's definitely worse then both though, simply because the characters in the game look nothing like that hideous Red Sonja wannabe.....but it's worse because it stil has stils from the game !

[spenoza]

I have to say I like the US Dragon Spirit cover better. The JPN cover is more consistent with the anime styling that was popular for everything at the time the game was created, but you don't see much of the actual characters in-game, and in that respect I think the US cover reflects the game itself better. That and I kinda like the soft art on the US cover. I dare say I think it's actually a somewhat successful art cover. Dungeon Explorer tried something similar but didn't pull it off nearly as well.

[SuperPlay]

Added:

Doraemon: Meikyuu Daisakusen / Cratermaze

PacLand

[sunteam_paul]

So far the only US cover I prefer is King of Casino, parhaps TV Sports Football as well but it's a close thing.

[Marll]

Pretty much all of the US art was total crap, and partly to blame for the TG16 marketing failure. When looking at some of the lame covers that the games had, it's no wonder that more people looked at Genesis art and went that direction. Even at 12 in 1989 I could have made better decisions about what art to use on the game boxes and covers, and bemoaned it constantly even as a kid.

The smart (and likely cheaper way) way to market the games would have been to make small icon tweaks and English translations to the Japenese art and just release it here. Overall just another example of how the marketing arm of NEC in the US was bad at best, criminally negligent at worst 

[SignOfZeta]

Genesis art was just as bad, possibly worse.

[sunteam_paul]

Even at 12 in 1989 I could have made better decisions about what art to use on the game boxes and covers, and bemoaned it constantly even as a kid.

Same here. I never understood why Japanese art for many systems was disregarded. The Japanese art was exotic and exciting and made me want games more. Suits never thought that way.

[nat]

Perhaps you're (by that, I mean everyone) thinking about it the wrong way.

We know the region lockout was there not to "screw" us in the American market, but to prevent the "edited" U.S. versions from re-entering the Japanese market.

What if the alternate U.S. art was something that NEC Japan stipulated alongside the region lockout to prevent any sort of "regional" confusion? The "bad" art makes a lot more sense in this scenario, too. Say NEC of America is going to release these games, but Japan is mandating unique artwork. In true NEC of America (later TTi) form, they farm the work out to the cheapest session artists they can find and the rest is history.

[apachacha]

Even at 12 in 1989 I could have made better decisions about what art to use on the game boxes and covers, and bemoaned it constantly even as a kid.

Same here. I never understood why Japanese art for many systems was disregarded. The Japanese art was exotic and exciting and made me want games more. Suits never thought that way.

But Paul, it's like.....Oriental, it's full of pervertedness and satanism ! Think of our white,catholic, suburban children !

[Gao]

Even at 12 in 1989 I could have made better decisions about what art to use on the game boxes and covers, and bemoaned it constantly even as a kid.

Same here. I never understood why Japanese art for many systems was disregarded. The Japanese art was exotic and exciting and made me want games more. Suits never thought that way.

My understanding is that it's often focus groups.  A while back, I read a post on another forum who managed to get on one that dealt with the cover art for I think one of the Street Fighter compilations.  He was all for the Japanese art, but most of the people actually said that they preferred the art that most gamers didn't like as much.  This wasn't as extreme, with I think the issue being a shot of Ryu alone vs. a group shot, neither of them being terrible, but it was still interesting.  And this sort of stuff isn't only used for box art.  The most insane example of focus groups leading a gaming company astray that I'm aware of happened with the Atari Lynx.  The focus groups said that the Lynx, a rather large portable system, wasn't big enough.  I shit you not.  They honestly said that they'd feel they got their money's worth more with a larger console, and this information was used to create the butt-ugly monstrosity that was the first model of the Lynx.

[shubibiman]

 

It sounds so...american! No offense intended but that's quite the cliche here in France.

[apachacha]

.  The focus groups said that the Lynx, a rather large portable system, wasn't big enough.  I shit you not.  They honestly said that they'd feel they got their money's worth more with a larger console, and this information was used to create the butt-ugly monstrosity that was the first model of the Lynx.

OMG then that means the CD-I was the best console ever O.O