box-art! where's the love nowadays?

[Zubiac666]

Am I the only one who thinks that 95% of the box-art for x-box,ps2 and gc sucks?
I was going through my NES and SNES collection yesterday and I was amazed of the boxart of several titles.
They were nearly all "hand-drawn" and have a huge amount of details.
Just look at "Battle of Olympus","Guardian Legend" etc etc.
and now take a good look at new games' boxart........BAH!
Stupid photos and rendered modells and hardly any drawn art(exept maybe Zelda WW and some japanese only titles).
It seems that all has to be"super-trendy" and "hyper-cool"(see EA games).
that's kinda sad iMO

What do you think?
Do u agree with me or not?

Tell me your opinion!

:( :shameful:

[NE146]

I agree

[Parodius]

To be fair, a lot of the US NES/SNES boxart was terrible.

Mega Man NES for instance is certainly one of the worst ever.

[Daniel Thomas]

It's funny that box art has learned to suck in new ways. How did it get to the point where we would become nostalgic for the artwork from the 8/16-bit era?

Of course, this isn't just a gmaing thing; far too many DVD's in the US are packaged terribly. Some great stuff, to be sure (Criterion Collection, for example), but the average Studio-produced product just looks lame. And have you noticed how everything has that creepy sameness to it? Is this what corporate consolidation leaves us?

As for the games, the Japanese artwork has always been superior, even now. Just look at any of the Treasure games.

[Zubiac666]

As for the games, the Japanese artwork has always been superior, even now. Just look at any of the Treasure games.

yeah that's strange
I don't know a single person who thinks that the western boxart is better than the japanese one.
BUT why do they change it though?
I don't get it!

@Parodius
Indeed,megaman's face is just ridiculous
the worst ever? I don't know
"Bignoes-the caveman"(NES) is also terrible
x_x

[Isometric_Bacon]

I think nowadays videogames are sold more on hype, than how attractive the box art is. The backs of videogame covers also hardly ever show much of the game or give a really good indication of what it's about nowadays either.

And today's design ethics is that minimalistic images are better. The more complex the image, the uglier it is, and harder to focus on one particular part. So simpler box art is more attractive to the eyes.

Besides, hand drawn art is very retro to look at nowadays. Look at the original Star Wars image, or National Lampoons "Vacation" videos, to see what I mean.

[Jasoco]

I'll have to agree. I prefer the nice hand drawn look of many older boxes over what they pass off on us today.

One of my favorites, the original DOOM artwork. Shown on many DOOM boxes (Jaguar DOOM) and the Ultimate DOOM Poster.

Super Mario 2 and 3 had some nice simplistic cartoony looks. And I absolutely adore the original NES "pixellated" boxes and labels.

Also, I do afree that the original MegaMan does look pretty freaky.

I also like Tengen's little logo crosshairs they put on their older releases on the boxes and carts.

At least I can admire the packaging for Serious Sam. I wish THAT came with a nice big poster of the cover art.

[GaijinPunch]

I think box art is definitely where our Japanese friends excel... well, coding the games too. There's a lot of things where they don't --- magazine layouts tend to be a mess some times, and advertising in general is sometimes just too "in your face" but the box art... that's where they excel.

Maybe it's just me --- I've always thought so though.

I think the Japanese vs. US Dreamcast hardware boxes is a great example. The japanese side definitely used the simplicity of things... and then it sold like shit, but that's another story.

[Sotenga]

As long as we don't have to observe art along the lines of THIS again...

http://kidfenris.com/stridercover.jpg

I cannot complain with box art today. Seriously, does that guy even remotely resemble Hiryu?!? x_x

(Thanks to one of our board members for that photo... *coughKidFenriscough*) ;)

[Darth Sensei]

Well, Japanese society has always been about process. They love to focus on the process rather than the result. This is a place where you can go to the market and buy some crackers or cookies and the product is wrapped in 5 different layers. The outside graphics, modern plastic to seal, and 3 layers of rice paper just to look good.

I think the old time games used box art to hide the fact that they didn't want to show you screen shots. Remember buying Atari games and you had no idea what the game looked like or what it was even about? They didn't put screen shots on them, IMHO, because the graphics were so bad. If you don't have screen shots, you must have some image to sell the product.

Feel free to disagree,

D

[Zubiac666]

I think the old time games used box art to hide the fact that they didn't want to show you screen shots. Remember buying Atari games and you had no idea what the game looked like or what it was even about? They didn't put screen shots on them, IMHO, because the graphics were so bad. If you don't have screen shots, you must have some image to sell the product.

Feel free to disagree,

D

Nintendo just did it the other way:
Remember the boxart of their own games for NES?
One series(of excitebike,march rider etc) had a completly pixelated cover-art of the charactersprite itself.

looked horrible though

[Bratwurst]

Hand drawn art is a thing of the past, driven extinct by the ease and use of computer illustration. It's cheaper, faster and when used right -can- look more polished than the traditional method. Unfortunately it doesn't always happen. I would wager that even Japanese packaging (anime-style illustrations and such) are mostly done through Photoshop or some other program these days.

It has been a transition in effect since the late 80s when magazines and print advertising were slowly immersing themselves into the use of computers. By the mid-90s it had become so prevalent that it was most apparent on PSX titles. Simply a matter of all the freelance illustrators, in-house layout guys and anyone else the company might have had the box art done through, catching up with the times and getting new equipment.

It seems to be unquestioned that Japanese box art is always best but I don't feel that way. You look at the market at Japan and everything is packed close together on the shelf in close competition with one another. The need for flash and extraordinary, zany graphics is necessary if it's going to be catching anyone's eye. It's a style that doesn't carry over well in their magazines because I suspect it's hard for them to break out of the figurative mold of what's been established, just as I hear complaints about design aesthetics being too similar over 'here.'

[Solid Snake]

A good example in the whole US vs Japanese cover art is present in the current box art for The Twin Snakes. The Japanese cover has Shinkawa art of Snake and Liquid on a red backdrop, while the US gets two crappily rendered models of Snake and Liquid, with a fuzzy Metal Gear Rex backdrop.

Also, consider what it means when the soundtrack for SOTN had better box art than the game itself.

[Flack]

Just to elaborate on what CueWarrior said ...

Way back when, games needed box art to sell their games. Back in the TRS-80 days, you would pick up a game with a beautiful spaceship on the front of a box, only to find out that the game was written in basic, and that wonderful spaceship was now represented by this: <O>

Another early trick was for games to show screenshots of the arcade version on the back of the box instead of the version you were buying. After playing the game for the first time, you knew why. When we just had our Apple II, I can't tell you how sick I was of seeing "Commodore 64 version shown" on the back of every game I bought.

[Ed Oscuro]

A good example in the whole US vs Japanese cover art is present in the current box art for The Twin Snakes. The Japanese cover has Shinkawa art of Snake and Liquid on a red backdrop, while the US gets two crappily rendered models of Snake and Liquid, with a fuzzy Metal Gear Rex backdrop.

Heh, that sucks.

I like most of the art on US produced games more than I like the (usually awful) stuff found on translated games for the SNES and Genesis. The Phantasy Star series come to mind (Boris Vallejo art creeps me out). On the other hand, some of the originals aren't too great either.

Now for the Atari VCS...well, I don't like the box designs that much, but the artwork for big releases seems by and large very good, and better than a lot of the generic crap we get today. Yeah, the stuff for the old Atari systems was sometimes generic as well, but it has a soul to it...today's clean-cut figures often don't seem to.

[Kejoriv]

I really dont mind the new box art for some reason.

~Kejoriv

[Jasoco]

As long as we don't have to observe art along the lines of THIS again...

<Picture>

I cannot complain with box art today. Seriously, does that guy even remotely resemble Hiryu?!? x_x

(Thanks to one of our board members for that photo... *coughKidFenriscough*) ;)

I dunno.. I kinda like Kuros as a Barbarian instead of a Knight.

http://www.holger-reiter.de/Rare_World/About_Rare/Spielearchiv/wiz2_irons.jpg
Look, Kids! It's Fabio!

Seriously, I went into a GameStop a year and a half ago and they had an Ironsword cart hanging on the wall with a sign that said "Look, Kids! It's Fabio!" I didn't even REALIZE it was him until I saw that sign. LOL
And I had that game since it came out!

[Jasoco]

[Damn. Site froze this afternoon. Triple Post.]

[Jasoco]

[Damn. Site froze this afternoon. Triple Post.]

[Daniel Thomas]

If I didn't know better, I'd think you were a Fabio fan or something.

And, yeah, the Strider artwork barely resembled the actual game, but the hero on the box had a certian Flash Gordon quality. Sega probably felt that American consumers wouldn't buy something with an obviously Asian (or non-Anglo) bent.

[jaydubnb]

I think comtemporary box art -- save for Mobile Light Force II -- is light years better than the utter crap of the 80s and 90s. Some of my recent faves have been Ikaruga, Mark of the Wolves (DC), SNK vs Capcom Chaos (both the Neo and PS2 versions). I havent seen anything made recently as bad as THE UNHOLY TRIO -- except, once again, MLFII.

Behold...


http://www.geocities.com/jaydubnb/fatalfury.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/jaydubnb/megaman.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/jaydubnb/bomberman.jpg

[GaijinPunch]

You look at the market at Japan and everything is packed close together on the shelf in close competition with one another. The need for flash and extraordinary, zany graphics is necessary if it's going to be catching anyone's eye.


Does anyone actually go to a gamestore and not know pretty much what they want? With the internet, and the pre-hype of games, I can't remember the last time I went to the store and though "I want a game... let's go see what's out."

The only exception is when I went on a 2-week trip home and bought 4 GBA games, and only knew vaguely what was out. I basically picked up 4 games that looked good (based on the screenshots, and the description, not the box art) and was pretty happy.


BTW -- I'm going to make a big update to Japanese Gaming soon once I figure out where the hell I stuck my old hard drive, and we can have a better look at some old Famicom vs. NES box art. Quite a few flyers as well. :)

[calthaer]

I don't know if hand-drawn has completely gone away. Freedom Force, the Heroes of Might & Magic series, Age of Empires / Mythology, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and lots of other PC games have hand-drawn art. I see a lot on GBA covers.

Now for the major consoles you mentioned it does seem to be more rare. Sly Cooper and Maximo are the only two games for those consoles that I have that feature hand-drawn cover art.

[Lady Jaye]

Not nearly as bad as the examples above, I still find the box art for Dragon Warrior 1 on NES to be a turn-off, especially compared to Akira Toriyama's (of DragonBall fame) original art for the Japanese release.

[Sotenga]

Okay, gotta link to KidFenris again... as I said, box art today is pretty cool. It was American box art back then that was THE suck. I defy you to let it become worse than THIS: (WARNING: Picture might make you scream out WTF at the top of your lungs, causing you to attract the stares of several of your nearby co-workers)

http://kidfenris.com/rivalturf.gif

Beat THAT. :eek 2:

[Oobgarm]

Hand drawn art is a thing of the past, driven extinct by the ease and use of computer illustration. It's cheaper, faster and when used right -can- look more polished than the traditional method. Unfortunately it doesn't always happen. I would wager that even Japanese packaging (anime-style illustrations and such) are mostly done through Photoshop or some other program these days.

It has been a transition in effect since the late 80s when magazines and print advertising were slowly immersing themselves into the use of computers. By the mid-90s it had become so prevalent that it was most apparent on PSX titles. Simply a matter of all the freelance illustrators, in-house layout guys and anyone else the company might have had the box art done through, catching up with the times and getting new equipment.

It seems to be unquestioned that Japanese box art is always best but I don't feel that way. You look at the market at Japan and everything is packed close together on the shelf in close competition with one another. The need for flash and extraordinary, zany graphics is necessary if it's going to be catching anyone's eye. It's a style that doesn't carry over well in their magazines because I suspect it's hard for them to break out of the figurative mold of what's been established, just as I hear complaints about design aesthetics being too similar over 'here.'

You're smart for a sausage. :) I agree with everything stated in the quote above.

[jaydubnb]

Those two look like rejected "Fame" actors.

[Jasoco]

Beat THAT. :eek 2:A winner is you.

[Arcade Antics]

Okay, gotta link to KidFenris again... as I said, box art today is pretty cool. It was American box art back then that was THE suck. I defy you to let it become worse than THIS: (WARNING: Picture might make you scream out WTF at the top of your lungs, causing you to attract the stares of several of your nearby co-workers)

http://kidfenris.com/rivalturf.gif

Beat THAT. :eek 2:

Classic. I always wondered what the dude from Fine Young Cannibals and Marky Mark had to do with that game. LOL

[portnoyd]

http://kidfenris.com/rivalturf.gif

Beat THAT. :eek 2:

Ok.

http://www.gamespy.com/top10/january03/covers/10.jpg

Now what does that have to do with anything?!

dave

[Kroogah]

US PS2 releases I like the boxart for:

Activision Anthology (love the Atari Cartridge look)
Gitaroo Man (unchanged from Japanese release)
Grand Theft Auto 3 & Vice City (stylized)
Kingdom Hearts (ooh...)
NBA Street Volume 2 (makes me want to grow an afro, lace up some Chuck Taylors and play my Earth, Wind & Fire records)
The Mark of Kri (this game oozes style)

[Zubiac666]

my fav cover (I love it):
http://www.tomheroes.com/images/battle_of_olympus.jpg

-----------
sorry,but wtf* ? *looking below
http://www.tomheroes.com/images/nes%20princess%20tomato.jpg


Note: images thanx to tomheroes.com

[jaydubnb]

Ok.

http://www.gamespy.com/top10/january03/covers/10.jpg

Now what does that have to do with anything?!

dave

lol well, you know, UFOs only like to kidnap dudes out in the backwoods...

[Zubiac666]

Nintendo strikes back with their absolutly best mario-boxart EVER:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000B8J7JQ.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

OmgZ!1!
this is tH3 l33t-rulo0or
X_x

i luv it.
hope it doesn't change for europe

[joshnickerson]

Super Mario Strikers has some of the best Mario artwork in AGES. I just wish they implimented it more in the actual game.

Sort of staying on topic of this thread, I think there should be some sort of a happy balance between CGI and hand drawn. It's kind of like computer animated movies and traditionally animated movies. I like both, but to me, CGI could never replace the uniqueness and fluidity of hand drawn animation.

[Daria]

sorry,but wtf* ? *looking below
http://www.tomheroes.com/images/nes%20princess%20tomato.jpg

The whole game and concept is WTF inspiring. I don't think the box falls under the bad design catagory though. Those clay vegtables do look like the characters from the game. Although I haven't seen the Japanese version.

And if you haven't played the game, you should.

[evil_genius]

As long as we don't have to observe art along the lines of THIS again...

http://kidfenris.com/stridercover.jpg

I cannot complain with box art today. Seriously, does that guy even remotely resemble Hiryu?!? x_x

(Thanks to one of our board members for that photo... *coughKidFenriscough*) ;)

See the box art for Arrow Flash or Sagaia.

[crazyjackcsa]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the "canvas" as it were. It's the same as when music went from records to tapes. Suddenly the size of the canvas was a fraction of what you were used to dealing with and detail had to be dropped. I think with the Jap Saturn, PS1 and DC the size of the canvas was obviously a limitation.

Looking through what I have The Saturn has some beautiful artwork on Shining Force 3, Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Burning Rangers.

The Genny has the Earthworm Jims the Sonics and the Eccos. Even the Vectormans I like.

The Dreamcast on the other hand really has nothing I truely love. There are some nice covers, such as Shenmue and Jet Grind Radio. But nothing that really stands out.

The Gamecube covers of the Prince of Persia is really nice. And Even if it is a little on the simple side I think Metroid Prime is superb.

To an extent all I'm trying to say is that canvas size is an issue.

[Jasoco]

Nintendo strikes back with their absolutly best mario-boxart EVER:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000B8J7JQ.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

OmgZ!1!
this is tH3 l33t-rulo0or
X_x

i luv it.
hope it doesn't change for europe
Yes, I just saw that at IGN. Holy cow is that awesome!

Especially the character art for Mario, Peach, DK and Wario.

http://media.cube.ign.com/media/748/748415/imgs_1.html

God, I hope they keep this art when it comes to the US. I just KNOW they'll pull a We Love Katamari and totally shoot themselves in the foot and give us the old style Mario. Bah I say. But you know it'll happen. :/

[pragmatic insanester]

i always wondered...how the hell did the mobile light force artwork come about? i could understand inaccurate/generic spaceship stuff...but why they settled for that crap, is insane.

[Sebastian]

since all was said already that i would say...

i'll just add that all the Gran Turismo boxes - ALL OF THEM

THEY JUST SUCK! Great games.... bad art

I don't get it :eek 2:

[Damaramu]

I remember my friends and I were astounded at how bad the SNES Street Fighter covers were back in the day. In between turns, we'd sit and laugh at the covers. All of them. The Alpha 2 cover used original art, IIRC, so I can forgive it. Not a bad port either. Sorta. LOL

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v163/Damaramu/sf2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v163/Damaramu/sf2t.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v163/Damaramu/ssf2.jpg

[Doonzmore]

Ecco the Dolphin and Aero Fighters are among my favorite box art. Damn they look gorgeous!

[pragmatic insanester]

what's wrong with the first two SF boxart? they may not be official artwork, but its not inaccurate and was pretty cool for a fighting game cover.

[irata]

I think it really comes down to individual companies, since they're the ones who actually have control over what the art looks like. It really has nothing to do with the current generation. Granted, trends within the industry exist, what with computer generated renders not being available to the 2600 generation. If you look back at Atari's lineup for the early years, they all had the same painted appearance to them. They used that style to help the consumer's imagination since the games never looked anything like them. They also used the same style consistently, creating a brand image, something that we can all remember today, not unlike the initial Nintendo lineup.

Some companies see value in creating a nice looking product, i.e Namco with Katamari Damacy, while other companies couldn't give a shit, Rival Turf being a beautiful example.

In the end, some are good, some suck my ass. It's all in the eye of the beholder anyway.

[Aussie2B]

One of my favorite things about buying Super Famicom games, besides just playing the games, is the box art. I don't think any system's library or any particular era has it beat. The US got a better Chrono Trigger cover, though. I think it better suits the overall feel of the game than the goofy, chibi character line up against a plain white background.

[swlovinist]

US box art has always sucked. Obviously the powers to be think that all US gamers dont care about our box art. It makes me sick. I could go out to a middle school, ask some kid to doddle his favorite character, and come up with better cover art. It drives me nuts @_@

[secretvampire]

I still find this to be the worst (and also most hilarious) piece of box art I've ever seen:

http://www.vgmuseum.com/scans/scans4/dino.jpg

[agbulls]

There has always been good and bad box art. I use to talk a lot about how American box art seems strangely fixated on "guy holding weapon staring out at you." Think about it. Just about EVERYTHING has one character, almost no background, and they're holding a weapon that is trying so hard to say, "look at me I'm so badass you must buy my game." Even Ninja Gaiden went this route. Talk about a wasted opportunity.

Occasionally, we have slight variations and alterations to this rule. All I ask in my box art is I get a general "feeling" of the game. My favorite recent example? Both God of War games. Yes, Kratos is holding his blades. BUT--the background is really quite involved and gets you a great sense of the epic scope of the game. The first game's cover art is some of my all time fav for a modern game.

[jajaja]

Here's another thread with some "great" box art LOL

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146492

My fav:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/neopokekun/covers/kong.jpg

Trust me, the actual game is just as bad.

lol i saw this game for sale some months ago if i'm not mistaken. I've seen it before atleast, damn horrible cover haha LOL

[PentiumMMX]

To be fair, a lot of the US NES/SNES boxart was terrible.

Mega Man NES for instance is certainly one of the worst ever.

Ditto.

I personaly like some of the hand-drawn botarts (Kingdom Hearts and Super Mario Bros. 2, for example), though I don't care about the box if it's a fun game.

[Griking]

Shitty covers isn't something that's unique to today's games. My Bally Astrocade games are all rather boring looking with cover art nut much better than the actual game graphics. Most Colecovision games just had pictures of the arcade cabinet on the front cover. Most SMS games were in those boring grid like covers with very little graphics.

Also, I know that I'm in the minority here but I absolutely HATE the hand drawn artwork on Final Fantasy games such as Origins and most of the new GBA releases. Yeah, I know, I know, its all hand drawn. But hand drawn doesn't automatically equal quality. It reminds me of the crap that my friends would be drawing on their notebooks in high school.

[diskoboy]

The Atari 2600 first party games had the best box art ever, until they started going with the silver boxes.

Seriously - find me a first party VCS game, in the colored boxes, that has bad artwork....

[Frica89]

For an example of what all newer boxart should look like, take a look at Pikmin 2:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d123/FunkmasterFrica/pikmin2boxart.jpg


Clay + Giant Killer Crab = Awesome.

[Captain Wrong]

http://www.flamingmayo.com/firstchurchofpacman/800pacman.jpg

The prosecution rests, your honor.

[man_traic]

It's funny that box art has learned to suck in new ways. How did it get to the point where we would become nostalgic for the artwork from the 8/16-bit era?

Of course, this isn't just a gmaing thing; far too many DVD's in the US are packaged terribly. Some great stuff, to be sure (Criterion Collection, for example), but the average Studio-produced product just looks lame. And have you noticed how everything has that creepy sameness to it? Is this what corporate consolidation leaves us?

As for the games, the Japanese artwork has always been superior, even now. Just look at any of the Treasure games.

same with CDs/ LPs etc IMHO

[diskoboy]

http://www.flamingmayo.com/firstchurchofpacman/800pacman.jpg

The jury rests, your honor.


LOL

The VCS version of Pac-Man had better artwork than that atrocity. Why didn't Atari just use that?

And I'll even go so far as to say - that picture wouldn't be so bad if pac-man didn't have a body, and didn't look like he belongs on the short bus ;)

[XYXZYZ]

<delete>

Portnoyd beat me to it.

[ShenmueFan]

Mega Man's US box art for teh NES was the best.

[Lady Jaye]

Shitty covers isn't something that's unique to today's games. My Bally Astrocade games are all rather boring looking with cover art nut much better than the actual game graphics. Most Colecovision games just had pictures of the arcade cabinet on the front cover. Most SMS games were in those boring grid like covers with very little graphics.

Also, I know that I'm in the minority here but I absolutely HATE the hand drawn artwork on Final Fantasy games such as Origins and most of the new GBA releases. Yeah, I know, I know, its all hand drawn. But hand drawn doesn't automatically equal quality. It reminds me of the crap that my friends would be drawing on their notebooks in high school.

I agree. On the other hand, I love the boxart (and charadesign) for Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d4/CVHOD-front.jpg

[PallarAndersVisa]

i miss the hand drawn art, even if some of it was terrible (Mega Man 2). It offers more to look at, and you appreciate the time and effort that it used to take to make such box art back then.

nowadays its usually just an exaggerated screen cap.

[Daria]

For the record, Atari did release 'normal' box art for 400/800 Pac-Man

http://web.comporium.net/~scottith/a48pacbox.jpg

Not sure which came first, but I can't imagine why they would have ever thought that running Pac-Man version was release-worthy

I actually like the running Pac-Man better. It's a lot more imaginative, even if that's not how anyone pictures Pac-Man as looking.

[djsquarewave]

I just went and looked at all my current-gen games and was surprised how many actually did have hand-drawn (well, computer-drawn, prolly) art. Neo Contra and Gitaroo-Man are probably my faves.

Tangent!

Speaking of Castlevania art, does anyone know if Ayami Kojima ever did any art for Koei?
http://hybridfront.teknolust.org/lolgames/slps01319.jpg
I mean, it's either that or Alucard and Maria had to find new jobs.

[NinjaJoey23]

Gun*Nac, being possibly my favorite game for NES, has some..er.. interesting artwork.

http://www.tomheroes.com/images/NES%20Gun%20Nac.jpg

Gosh, those flying carrots just reel me right in!


Mega Man NES for instance is certainly one of the worst ever.

Check out Mega Man 2. That live action shot is stunning.

[goemon]

Here's some bad recent box art: PHOENIX GAMES! (http://www.phoenixgamesgroup.com/uk/playstation2a.html) Take your pick. Seriously. They all look horrible.

[Captain Wrong]

Not sure which came first, but I can't imagine why they would have ever thought that running Pac-Man version was release-worthy


Interesting. I've never seen that one before. The running one was the one I got back in the day.

[Griking]

I agree. On the other hand, I love the boxart (and charadesign) for Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d4/CVHOD-front.jpg

Agreed. This cover is well done.

[Lady Jaye]

I just went and looked at all my current-gen games and was surprised how many actually did have hand-drawn (well, computer-drawn, prolly) art. Neo Contra and Gitaroo-Man are probably my faves.

Tangent!

Speaking of Castlevania art, does anyone know if Ayami Kojima ever did any art for Koei?
I mean, it's either that or Alucard and Maria had to find new jobs.

Actually, she did create the boxart for that game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayami_Kojima

[diskoboy]

http://www.vgmuseum.com/scans/dc/jetset.jpg

Still my favorite box art.. :)