As a kid I remember MANY of the Genesis game covers having Conan-like, Boris Vallejo-styled covers, even for games that didn't involve barbarians. With the exception of Golden Axe, which I recognized by it's reputation, and liked because it was actually like a video game version of Conan, all the other games with those type of covers I passed up.
I remember though seeing an ad for Renovation's Valis III for the Sega Genesis and thinking that the cover looked like it was for some cool animated cartoon like Voltron but better. On closer examination Yuko looks like Rosie O'Donnel, but overall it looked awesome. Since many anime's were so popular in the US during the mid 80s (Robotech, Transformers, Voltron), why didn't video game developers here capitalize on that and allow their video games to look like the source material, which was manga/anime styled art design? I bought Chiki Chiki Boys for the Genesis JUST because it looked like a Japanese cartoon.
Was the Dungeons and Dragons crowd that much more popular?