Sega Master System Box Art — Japan vs. the World

[timewarpgamer]

I just uploaded another box art feature, and I thought y'all might be interested.

http://timewarpgamer.com/features/box_a ... y_sms.html

I know there are tons of examples of terrible US/BZ/EU box art, but it's amazing that even when you constrain yourself to good games the boxes still range from horrible to passable.

Enjoy!

[zxqdms]

I agree, SMS box art outside Japan is pretty bad. It's funny to see them side by side. I don't understand why the box art changes from region to region, wouldn't it be easier to just use the same art everywhere?

How dare you refer to Myau as "that cat"!

[Dylan]

Was there a reason that the non-Japanese versions all adopted that horrible grid scheme? I never understood that.

[forsigmar]

Was it only the Activision games that had inserts other than white? I have 3 Activision SMS games and 2 have black inserts (Bomber Raid, Cyborg Hunter) and 1 has a red insert. (Rampage)

The artwork is so half assed it amazes me. Zillion is the worst, looking at the cover you would guess it is some sort of puzzle game.

[Dakinggamer87]

The US box arts really are lacking compared to Japan..

[jfrost]

I love the grid boxes. Screw you haters.

By the way, I might be wrong, but I don't think Wonder Boy was released in Brazil as such. AFAIK, it had its sprites swapped here and was launched as Mônica no Castelo do Dragão (Monica in the Dragon's Castle), based on a popular comic book series.

[noiseredux]

I love the grid boxes. Screw you haters.

I was also a fan of the uniformity of the graphpaper look. I liked that when Genesis came out they stuck with it but made the boxes black. Then I got mad when they switched to the red boxes.

[jfrost]

I love the grid boxes. Screw you haters.

I was also a fan of the uniformity of the graphpaper look. I liked that when Genesis came out they stuck with it but made the boxes black. Then I got mad when they switched to the red boxes.

Yes, I liked the black boxes too.

Nowadays I like the graph look even more. At that time, they should be trying to make SMS games look like something from the future and such. Instead, they chose this "vintage" look. I really think they aged quite well.

[jfrost]

The "Brazilian" Wonder Boy:



Like Mônica, Out Run also had a blue box in Brazil:



The cover for R-Type here was the same as the European and American one.

[timewarpgamer]

Whoops, I can't keep the Wonder Boy games straight. I just updated the feature. Now you'll find Wonder Boy in Monster Land for EU/US, BZ, and JP. Take care, and thanks for all the feedback.