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Rhythm Tengoku screenshots, boxart are Gold
It won't be long before you'll have to break open your piggy bank -- Rhythm Tengoku Gold will be out in Japan as soon as July 31st! If you never had a chance to play the original critically-acclaimed rhythm game for the GBA, consider it your mission to import this DS remake later this month.Hit our gallery below for a handful of screenshots from Rhythm Tengoku Gold! They're mostly larger versions of the images shown on Nintendo's fact sheet, but they're still a good preview of how the touchscreen-enabled title will play on the system, book-style. Besides, as this upcoming release shows, the world needs more Rhythm Tengoku.%Gallery-26615%[Thanks, Peter!]
Wario Land: Shake It! says the box
Nintendo's resident psychopath Wario finally has a face for the shelves outside Japan, and it's a bit of a love-hate boxart. It's classic Wario stomping (well, shaking) his enemies all over the place and acting like a total badass. On the other hand, it seems a little ... brutal. Ostentatious even? This blogger loves any chance to use big words he doesn't even understand, so a debate over the quality of this box is more than welcome.Wario Land: Shake It! has taken clearer form just recently, as we all bask in its beautfulness. It might be the title to return the series to its original pedigree of excellence, and the release date isn't too far away. The no holds barred violence on the case shouldn't discourage parents from buying this one for their tots, because a nice little E for Everyone is sitting right there from the ESRB. They are always right.%Gallery-26293%
Rumor: 'Not final' box totally gives away Samba maracas
"Not Final Packaging." Yeah. Sure. Whatever, Sega.We've always believed that the Wii version of Samba de Amigo would be lacking without a maraca peripheral of some description, and it appears we're not alone: Sega itself has already hinted (warning: prepare your retinas before hitting that link) that it was looking into the situation, and now this box has appeared on the site of UK retailer HMV.Because we're pros, we're going to label this as "rumor" until Sega removes that unnecessary disclaimer. But let's be honest: if you seriously believe some art dude wasted his time randomly designing a bigger-than-usual box with fictional maracas on the front, you probably believe that the Komodo dragon lays its eggs in November. In other words, you'd be a gullible idiot.%Gallery-20601%[Thanks, Bryan!]
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.
Purr Pals boxart needs more baking time
We hope that writing about this doesn't get it changed. We think this Purr Pals boxart is a treasure of lulz, and we want it to be like this forever. The cats may be attempting to draw our eyes upward, but we still can't ignore the typo on the bottoms of the box. Well, either it's a typo, or Purr Pals has more to do with Cooking Mama than Nintendogs.Perhaps Crave's decision to leave the ESA was less voluntary than we assumed -- could the organization have looked down upon the publisher's indefensibly controversial game content?
Tomb Raider: Underworld boxart revealed
We're no boxart designers. But, we guess it's kind of understandable for Eidos to go and cut off half the head of your game's protagonist on its boxart, considering most don't remember her for the smart head she has on her shoulders (hey, she does solve a lot of puzzles). No, what they care most about are her pair of ... handguns. What did you think we were going to say?And what at first appeared to be dirt, turns out to be some swirling dark energy thing. We're not digging that, to tell you the truth. It gives us flashbacks to that one really bad game she did.[Via Go Nintendo]
Pokemon Platinum boxart is super effective at being awesome
Can we just say, Nintendo: loving the boxart for Pokémon Platinum. Whereas the art for Diamond and Pearl relied on darker, more subdued colors, Platinum's box employs a striking combination of red, black, and white, blasting out in beams from the center of the cover. It's almost as though cover star Giratina is leaping right out of the box at the viewer/shopper. He's coming to get you, kids! That will be under your bed tonight! Muahaha.As well as the cover, GAME Watch also has a small pool of character art (featuring Regice, Registeel, Regirock, and Regigigas) and screens (which can be found in our gallery). It looks ... well, pretty much like the same game you bought last year. Will that stop you buying it? Nope, thought not.%Gallery-25539%
Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja's Boxart Reverses
Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns featured some fairly risque alternate boxart in Japan, where initial shipments were packaged in H-game-like boxes with art of Izuna and Shino bathing in an onsen. The American box for the game may not be modeled after erogames, but it does feature some extra pinup-style art of the title character.In an absolutely lovely trend, the Izuna 2 boxart has been revealed as reversible, like the boxart for Victorious Boxers Revolution. However, instead of alternate boxart on the other side, the reverse of Izuna 2's cover is a mini-poster of the title character. Nice to see Atlus treating a niche game like Izuna as such a deluxe product.[Via press release]
What is the deal with these Apartment Pets?
Off the top of our head, here's a quick list of questions we immediately asked after noticing several odd details with this The Sims 2: Apartment Pets cover: What are those lines on the woman's pants? We swear to Pete, those better not be some damn convertible pants. It is 2008, lady. You should know better. Why is she walking around the building's hallways, puppy in hand, teasing kittens with toys? Is that cat on the bottom right corner cuddling with the PEGI rating? This might be the only creature in the world who has actually taken a liking to the unsightly box. Why didn't this guy block the door when he opened it to grab the morning paper? He could have prevented this gang of animals from spilling out of his apartment. Is that stoic rabbit doing the shoulder lean? Grab a leash and meet us past the post break for more insightful commentary!%Gallery-24370%
New Twilight Syndrome video isn't as creepy as the old Twilight Syndrome clip
As ominous as the quiet subway scene in the first 50 seconds of this video might be, there's little in this new trailer to convinces us that Twilight Syndrome: Kinjiraneta Toshi Densetsu (Twilight Syndrome: The Forbidden Urban Legend) will be even half as scary as Twilight Syndrome: Search for the PlayStation.Check out the old commercial we embedded past the post break to see what we mean! The animated skeleton and bugs are a bit goofy, but the smiling girl that pops up at the end for half of a second freaks us out every time!Fun trivia: Did you know that famed game designer Goichi Suda worked on the original Syndrome games during his tenure at developer and publisher Human Entertainment? More fun trivia: Did you know that we have Twilight Syndrome: The Forbidden Urban Legend's boxart after the break? It's all true!%Gallery-20543%
Spore Creatures evolves new screens, Japanese release date
In the beginning, there was a confirmation.Shortly thereafter, a release date and gameplay details emerged from the primordial ooze a Newsweek interview, and an involuntary chemical reaction a Joystiq hands-on session soon produced screens. Then, for some time, nothing. Until this morning, that is, when we found that the screens had suddenly multiplied in number, and had inhabited our gallery!The newly developed screens were joined by boxart for the Japanese version of the game, which sort of reminded us of Pokémon Trozei!'s box, and a Japanese release date: September 11th.So goes the ongoing story of the evolution of Spore Creatures.%Gallery-15944%
Promotional Consideration: The Hands of Fate
It's not that often that we hear about the creative process behind designing a game's box -- our own interview with Konami's contracted illustrator and packaging designer Julie Giles is a rare piece. Most people would rather read about the people who designed the actual games. Seeing an opportunity to share his experiences with packshots, Atlus creative designer has posted an update on the publisher's informative series of Production Diaries, detailing the adjustments that were needed to adapt Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2's Japanese cover for the U.S. audience. Join us past the post break for comparison shots and a scan of the surgery sim's new print ad!%Gallery-20065%
Metal Slug 7 boxart will soon wrap copies of Metal Slug 7
The appearance of a boxart image for Metal Slug 7 means that SNK is one step closer to putting the game in boxes and shipping it out to stores in Japan (which happens on July 17!). Then, some time in the future, it'll get shipped out to the U.S. Then, shooting stuff time! Even without the portent of Metal Slug on the way, we'd be happy with this boxart, which can only be described as classic SNK -- detailed, colorful hand-painted art that would be right at home adorning the box for a $300 game. Hopefully SNK realizes it would be cheaper to keep the same awesome art for the American box, rather than replacing it with something boring.
Wario to shake up Australia
The original source of this image is unknown, but Jeux-France seems to have found a tiny rendition of Wario Land Shake's (potential) Japanese boxart. It's small and blurry, but it's clear enough to see that, as they have in the game, Nintendo put aside their usual 3D renders of the Mario series cast. While the game relies on cel-shading, this looks like it could be original, hand-drawn art. We'll get a better look at it soon enough.We may also get a good look at some English-language boxart soon, according to the new OFLC rating for "Wario Land: The Shake Dimension." We expected to hear about a localization eventually, but not so soon! Of course, it could still be forever before the game really comes out.[Via NeoGAF]
PAL Samba de Amigo missing out on pay-to-play content?
Monkeys. Sombreros. Maracas. Banjo-playing cheetahs. Everything about Samba de Amigo says: epic, joyful win. We'll tell you what isn't so worthy of celebration, though: PAL regions getting robbed of the pay-to-play content that will supposedly come with the North American version of the game. Go Nintendo user Ausgamer noticed that the PAL boxart was lacking one key detail that its U.S. counterpart had: that orange Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay-to-Play logo in the top-left corner.Obviously, we don't even know what the pay-to-play content is yet, so we'll hold off criticizing Sega for now. But let this much be said: if Europe and Australia do miss out on downloadable tracks, Sega better be ready to absorb the full impact of our internet petition.%Gallery-20601%
Band Brothers DX introduces new way to embarrass yourself in public
Along with the launch of its official Band Brothers DX site yesterday, Nintendo has released a set of screenshots showing off the rhythm game's new features, such as its downloadable songs and acoustic guitar.One addition that we've been hoping to see more of is the Karaoke Bar (pictured right), a mode in which you can practice your singing abilities with the Nintendo DS's mic. We bet you can't wait to sing Ashley's Theme Song while other people on the bus/train whisper and giggle about your off-key performance.Of course, following the lyrics might prove to be difficult considering that most the words will be written in Japanese, but there's no need to worry about that, as Nintendo will likely localize Band Brothers DX, just like it localized the original game, Jam With The Band ... on opposite day. When you're done feeling bitter about all that, jump into our gallery below for more screenshots. There's some great looking boxart to be found there!%Gallery-24427%
Pictoimage's boxart is inspiring
It's appropriate that a game about drawing should have some nice art on its cover, in order to get players in an art mood right away. We happen to enjoy Pictoimage's boxart, which was also used in Japan, a lot. The little characters are somewhere between Miis and MySims, and the literal nature of the art (which basically depicts eight friends playing Pictoimage instead of anything that happens in Pictoimage) gives the cover a sort of "board game" feeling. As if Pictoimage were something you brought out during gatherings to help break the ice. We're also fond of the spectating pets, who just seem happy that their human friends are having such a good time drawing. While researching, we found something else about Pictoimage that makes us happy: the game was developed by Skonec, creators of the wacky horror puzzle game Joshikousei Nigeru! When you play Pictoimage, be sure to draw some gaping-mouthed dudes as a tribute.%Gallery-21261%
The history of Dragon Quest IV boxart
Square Enix released an image of the box for the North American release of the Dragon Quest IV remake, and it looks pretty nice! It suffers from Akira Toriyama "every character looks exactly the same" syndrome, but there's not really much that can be done about that! It's the same art as the Japanese version, with a more traditional layout, highlighting the hero.Dragon Quest IV has been sold a bunch of times over the years, on three different systems, so it's naturally had a few different box designs. We thought it might be interesting to show you the boxarts for each iteration of the game. Well, not all of them -- we've omitted stuff like the budget rereleases of the PlayStation version, because they're exactly the same art with a different border.Out of all the variations, we like the art on the Famicom release the best. It seems the most dynamic and exciting. We think we like the NES version's art the least, because there isn't any.%Gallery-23461%
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%
