TG-16 boxes in the US -- An Artistic Catastrophe

[gtmtnbiker]

It puzzles me why they go to the expense of creating different art work for different regions. I understand that you need to localize the text on the box but the art work should be the same if possible.

I looked at the website and I didn't think the art work was that bad. The volleyball artwork that someone later posted was pretty ugly I admit. It reminded me of the Intellivision artwork.

[MrPopo]

In general the reason you would want to localize the artwork is that you feel it is not effective at marketing the game to your local audience. If you compare the US and JP covers of Etrian Odyssey you see that the JP cover is much more busy than the US cover.

[gtmtnbiker]

In the example you cited, Etrian Odyssey, I'm having trouble finding the cover art for the Japanese version. I see the PAL & NTSC versions for the US and I have trouble understanding why they feel that it will sell better in their respective regions. The PAL version has two female characters and they're prominent on the cover. The US version shows only one and all of the characters are in the corner.

With the TurboGrafx examples, I can understand changing Be-Ball/Chew Man-Fu game because the art style is distinctively Japanese. But Dungeon Explorer, I don't see why they should be different for the two regions.

[MrPopo]

The PAL and JP covers are identical. If you compare the two:

US: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/ima ... ?box=79604
JP: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/ima ... ?box=77692

The JP cover is very dynamic. You have three people making threatening poses. The US cover, on the other hand, is much more subdued. It also focuses more on the labyrinth itself. It ephasizes more the exploration of the labyrinth, rather than the combat (which, to be fair, is a bunch of still monsters and a few attack effects).

[Gnashvar]

I think back at the time they were made anime or anime style art was not as well accepted as it is now. So maybe back then, and I mean maybe, no one would buy something with that kind of art style so they tried to westernize the art. You have to remember many people in the early 80's were not too open to other cultures and people were just realizing that asian products were not of bad quality.

[pepharytheworm]

I never liked the vol. number in the corner. Made it seem more like a magazine subscription then a video game. I think the western covers were dumbed down so people wouldnt say "awesome cover this game must look great, aw man this game doesnt look as cool as the cover" rather than " This game cover looks like crap, it cant be that bad, lets see what the back looks like, Oh, this game looks kinda cool!"

[cyborc]

Here's one that would've went over well in the US..

[pepharytheworm]

oh, no! Don't hurt Madonna!

[RadarScope1]

Sometimes I find it hard to believe people in the west ever picked a video game up off of a store shelf at all in the 1980s.

At least the Devil's Crush one wasn't THAT bad. The rest ... terrible.

[dsheinem]

excellent article!

thanks for sharing