boxart-battle
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Boxart Battle: Lock's Quest vs. eyestrain
Finally, conclusive evidence of what the new 5th Cell game's title is going to be! It would certainly be a waste of a logo if the name were to change.Nintendo.com's page for Lock's Quest is the first to show the game's boxart, tiny though it may be. It's definitely big enough to see what's going on: Lock, slightly Sora-like in his short pants, poses triumphantly with a big old wrench over the ruins of some Clockwork enemies, as the game's signature structures (and more enemies) loom in the background. A huge red inset advertises the Drawn to Life connection, suggesting that Drawn to Life really did well!Even in a tiny image, we can tell that the art is excellent. 5th Cell's artists remain on top of their game. According to Nintendo.com, the game is out September 8.
Boxart Battle: Cooking Guide
Wow, they're pretty much the same! We were sure that after years of waiting, the new European version of Shaberu! Cooking Navi, or at least its marketing, would be the subject of a significant facelift. But if the boxart is any indication, Nintendo is presenting Cooking Guide in exactly the same way they did Cooking Navi.The title fonts are similar, the layouts are similar, and even the food photographs are similarly lit and focused. The only differences, really, are that the European box has more food photographs on it, and lacks the playful "Shaberu!" ("Talk!") that bounces out from the title in the Japanese box. Really, it looks even more like a training game. After the break, we've prepared a heartier, lumberjack-style serving of Cooking Navi boxart.
Boxart Battle: Super Mario Galaxy vs. Pop!
Balloon Pop!'s U.S. boxart was never the most eye-catching piece of work, a mistake that 505 Games was determined not to repeat when it launched the game in Europe last week. In place of Balloon Pop!'s forgettable NTSC art, the PAL edition features a shot of the game's hero hurtling through space beneath brightly colored letters, passing a lush planetoid covered in greenery on his way.And if that all sounds extremely familiar, that's because it totally is, as one NeoGAFfer recently noticed. Whether intentionally or not, Balloon Pop! -- or just Pop! as it is known in Europe -- sports boxart that is eerily similar to that of this other game called Super Mario Galaxy. There's even a damn mushroom!Suffice to say, Nintendo's crack legal team have been contacted. In an office located somewhere beneath Redmond, Washington, they wait. Suits pressed. Teeth bared. Preparing to feed.%Gallery-4735%%Gallery-15750%
Boxart battle: Air Traffic Chaos U.S. vs. Japan
We happened across the American boxart for Air Traffic Chaos, and we couldn't help but notice the speech bubble. "I am an air traffic controller!" the character (who looks a lot like one of those "premium" (pay) emoticons, whose pop-up ads we see occasionally) exclaims, confirming the theory that a game called Air Traffic Chaos is about air traffic control. What we thought at first to be simply a banal explanation of the game is a little more: we remembered that the Japanese name of the same game was Boku wa Kuukou Kanseikan DS, which translates to ... "I Am an Air Traffic Controller DS." We don't understand why the Japanese title had to be plastered across the box like that, but at least it seems slightly less random. Speaking of that Japanese boxart, it's interesting to see the differences in marketing strategy evident from the contrast between the two. Majesco's box is very kid-friendly and cartoony, suggesting a casual, simplistic experience. But the Japanese box is all business: stock photos of airplanes and air traffic controllers hard at work, with a text bar at the bottom stating "You also become an air traffic controller on the DS!" It looks more like a training game than anything.Taxi past the post break for larger images of both boxarts, as well as a couple of examples of what other boxes would look like with the Air Traffic Chaos exposition.
