Sega CD Box Art -- US vs. EU vs. JP

[timewarpgamer]

In my third feature of box art critiques, this time the Sega CD is the target, one of the consoles I love but most other people seem to despise. But that's not what this feature is about. Rather, my fascination continues about how box art varies across regions. Here's the latest:

http://timewarpgamer.com/features/box_art_disparity_sega_cd.html

Comments are welcome. I'm sure I've only scratched the surface on this one. For those who are curious about the previous features, they can be found here:

http://timewarpgamer.com/features/tg16_box_art_disparity.html
http://timewarpgamer.com/features/genesis_box_art_comparison.html

Enjoy!

[vivaeljason]

Another great retrospective, but this time I couldn't help but notice that in a lot of cases, the US box art is superior to other regions'. Previous looks at box art showed that comaparatively, we usually got the short end of the stick. But I prefer a lot of the Sega CD stuff for the US over the stuff for Europe and Japan in a lot of the examples (though there are exceptions, like Sonic CD and The Terminator).

[timewarpgamer]

Another great retrospective, but this time I couldn't help but notice that in a lot of cases, the US box art is superior to other regions'. Previous looks at box art showed that comaparatively, we usually got the short end of the stick. But I prefer a lot of the Sega CD stuff for the US over the stuff for Europe and Japan in a lot of the examples (though there are exceptions, like Sonic CD and The Terminator).

Thanks, man. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the U.S. art fared in this one. Nothing was terrible. Often it was superior than others. And even when it didn't win out, it was generally a close match. A vast improvement from the debacle of TG-16 marketing in the US!

[Sosage]

You need to compare Third World War. Saddam and Clinton shaking hands is classic.

[PresidentLeever]

Another great article :)
This is the first time I disagree with you, and it's about Robo Aleste. I thought the lightning in the back of the E/J boxart looked pretty tacky actually, and in the japanese version you see much less art because of both the zoom and the logo covering almost a fourth of the screen. Putting the enemies up front also seems confusing to me, almost like they are the protagonists. You still make some good points though.

[timewarpgamer]

Another great article :)
This is the first time I disagree with you, and it's about Robo Aleste. I thought the lightning in the back of the E/J boxart looked pretty tacky actually, and in the japanese version you see much less art because of both the zoom and the logo covering almost a fourth of the screen. Putting the enemies up front also seems confusing to me, almost like they are the protagonists. You still make some good points though.

Thanks for reading, man. It's about time that I provoked some controversy! Delighted to see that I've survived unscathed until now. How lucky. The EU/JP art is by no means ideal, but in my opinion it shows more game (atmosphere and characters) yet remains no tackier than its U.S. counterpart (the lightning in the JP/EU art is no less tacky/real than the fire/lava effects in the U.S. version).

[Daria]

Heh. Your site has been loaded into a background window at work for a week now. It's one of the few gaming websites I've found that the school board doesn't block. So I actually read this article the other day but had no idea it was written recently or that you were a member here.

[sfchakan]

I love this series of articles, but like the others have said, we didn't get the short end of the stick over and over with the Sega CD. What platform's next? :)

[timewarpgamer]

Heh. Your site has been loaded into a background window at work for a week now. It's one of the few gaming websites I've found that the school board doesn't block. So I actually read this article the other day but had no idea it was written recently or that you were a member here.

Haha, I guess having such a small footprint on the Interwebs does have its advantages. I've been using DigitPress as a reference for old games since I started the site, but I've only recently discovered how good this forum is.

[Daria]

Oh. Might I suggest Screen shots that show gameplay? It's always annoyed me when the only shot shown from a game is the title screen, because you obviously already know the title of the game you're looking at.

[timewarpgamer]

I love this series of articles, but like the others have said, we didn't get the short end of the stick over and over with the Sega CD. What platform's next? :)

Glad to hear you're enjoying this series. I'm working on a couple of different projects at the moment, but I think the SNES is going to be next. I've been neglecting that console for too long. I guess that's bound to happen when you grow up with Sega and NEC in the 16-bit era.

[an_turtar]

Interestingly, the cover art for the US version of Final Fight is the same art as that on the arcade flyers for Europe and Japan, but NOT the US. The same art was also used on the X68000 version.

[Thall Joben]

With the exception of Sonic CD, the US had good covers!

But overall, most of the US covers from the 16-bit era weren't that good. In the early days every cover tried to emulate the Boris Vallejo sword and sorcery look.

Great article. I enjoyed reading it and the other ones as well.

[nebrazca78]

Nice article. I though that the only times one version totally blew the others away were the U.S. version of Final Fight and the PAL version of Sonic CD. So much better than the alternatives. And well maybe Eternal Champions U.S., but only because the PAL version is so unbelievably terrible. It seems like a joke really.

[Zoltor]

Another great retrospective, but this time I couldn't help but notice that in a lot of cases, the US box art is superior to other regions'. Previous looks at box art showed that comaparatively, we usually got the short end of the stick. But I prefer a lot of the Sega CD stuff for the US over the stuff for Europe and Japan in a lot of the examples (though there are exceptions, like Sonic CD and The Terminator).

Yea I agree, I was surprised how in most of those cases, the US fared better, but even in the few cases the US one wasn't better, It was only magenally worse(aka meaning the US one still looked great).

[Vlcice]

Interesting article - thanks for posting this! I haven't seen some of those comparisons before.

Here's one comparison I had been noticing: Shadow of the Beast II. (Images thumbnailed to avoid spamming the thread - click for full-sized versions.)

US:
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9382/92227971827front.th.jpg (http://img187.imageshack.us/i/92227971827front.jpg/)

EU:
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/8716/922279116333front.th.jpg (http://img187.imageshack.us/i/922279116333front.jpg/)

JP:
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5121/92227986822front.th.jpg (http://img187.imageshack.us/i/92227986822front.jpg/)

EU is the definite winner here. I really, really don't like the generic fantasy art on the US box that makes it look like some barbarian game. Both the PAL and Japanese versions are cropped from the Amiga box art, but the composition is much, much better on the PAL version; the logo is kind of awkward on the Japanese one. Not sure why the title is just "Beast II" on PAL Mega CD though; the MD and Amiga boxes have the full title.

[MrRoboto19XX]

Ah, another excellent article, I really dig these, especially with the whole art critique thing. Down the road it'd be interesting to see one take on the Dreamcast, I remember us getting some bizarre art work for that console.

I'm really looking forward to the SNES article though.

Keep up the good work!

[Sosage]

Ah, another excellent article, I really dig these, especially with the whole art critique thing. Down the road it'd be interesting to see one take on the Dreamcast, I remember us getting some bizarre art work for that console.

Capcom of America easily dropped the ball during that era. The Japanese covers were really nice where the American ones were...Zzzzzzzzz.

Japanese Star Gladiator 2 (http://www.covergalaxy.com/forum/attachments/sega-dreamcast/6539d1243950939-star-gladiator-2-jap-back-front-star-gladiator-2-jap-front.jpg)
American Star Gladiator 2 (Plasma Sword) (http://www.gamershell.com/static/boxart/large/8566.jpg)

Japanese Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (http://insidersin.com/images/Marvel2%20JP.jpg)
American Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (http://blackflowermusic.com/blog/wp-content/marvel-vs-capcom-2-dreamcast.jpg)

Oh yeah. Did I mention Japanese Third World War?

http://13.media.tumblr.com/qpsL1iBXPompxj0bLvS9x1Nfo1_500.jpg

[MrRoboto19XX]

Oh yeah. Did I mention Japanese Third World War?

http://13.media.tumblr.com/qpsL1iBXPompxj0bLvS9x1Nfo1_500.jpg

Yep, I want that now.

No, I need it, it's too hilariously bad.

[timewarpgamer]

Oh. Might I suggest Screen shots that show gameplay? It's always annoyed me when the only shot shown from a game is the title screen, because you obviously already know the title of the game you're looking at.

...Gameplay is key. The challenge is that I only have so much time and currently I've got nearly 600 games listed. If your school computers don't pick up on it, though, perhaps you could run some emulators, snap some gameplay shots and send them to me?

[colicub]

This was awesome, dude! Nicely done!

Can I suggest PS2 at some point too? I remember Gamesradar (I think) had an article about the differences between US and Jap PS2 artwork, and I think the PAL art really outshone quite a few!

[nebrazca78]

EU is the definite winner here. I really, really don't like the generic fantasy art on the US box that makes it look like some barbarian game. Both the PAL and Japanese versions are cropped from the Amiga box art, but the composition is much, much better on the PAL version; the logo is kind of awkward on the Japanese one. Not sure why the title is just "Beast II" on PAL Mega CD though; the MD and Amiga boxes have the full title.

I thought the U.S. version was clearly the best. The other two don't really seem to have much going on...

[rockyagami89]

Hmm gotta say depends on game some are greater some are worse

[timewarpgamer]

I've been adding individual pages for every single release of the greatest Sega CD games, showcasing each region box art, title, and even the CD. It's taken forever, but it's mostly complete now (still trying to track down a few images), so if you're interested in going beyond the 10 comparisons of this feature, you can click just about any flag in the list below:

http://timewarpgamer.com/top_games/sega_cd.html

If you have any of the missing images, and would like to hook me up, that would be greatly appreciated.

Merry Christmas!