Today I wanted to go to one of the best box arts ever, Jumpman (Mobygames). This is the canonical image:
Another cover goes for the neon approach, while changing the tagline from “Computer games thinkers play” to “Strategy games for the action game player.” Epyx seems to be trying different tags to see what sticks, or maybe pivoting to different audiences (“thinkers,” “action game player”).
The PC booter version gives up entirely and gives a screenshot:
This was a bit of a shock at the time.
Phantasie II, North America: Alright, let’s make this a big D&D party gathered around an orb with a dragon looming in the background. That’s cool stuff.
Phantasie II, Japan: Giant sword warrior fights a dragon, yeaaaaaah!
(Japan had a theme going after its Phantasie cover, and they continued it with Phantasie III.)
Shadowrun (SNES), North America
Shadowrun, Europe (I love the old Shadowrun deckers with the big keyboards and headjacks.)
Shadowrun, Japan
While it’s a bit boring, I think the American circuitry backdrop is real slick.
One of my coworkers told me he composed the music for this game.
(Shouldn’t be surprised given the format but I had no idea Tempo came out in the US.)
The seminal German board game Catan has a fairly recognizable box art. I am sharing the most recent German edition here but it has remained pretty similar and unified through the different ages and localizations, and even its different video game adaptations, so most of you are, probably even vaguely, familiar with this design.
Same for Japan. Nothing weird.
But there is one exception: for a little while, at the turn of the millennium, Capcom got so enamored with the promised future of online games that, together with a(n eventually canceled) Makaimura Online game, they tinkered with the idea of releasing a Catan Online game on PC & PS2. Actually, my very first trip to TGS in 2002 was partly related to a discussion with Capcom regarding this video game adaptation. They organized a Closed Beta Test on PS2 in Japan in March 2003, then nothing came after that. The game was quietly canceled.
However, Capcom did get the rights to the Japanese version of the board game in the process, and so between 2002 and 2004, the actual Catan board game was distributed by Capcom in Japan, with a totally different box art by Matsushita Susumu (and even minor changes in the tile design). Big ファミリーコンピュータ vibes from this package design.
And since this little business arrangement coincided with the apex of Rockman’s popularity in Japan (via Rockman.EXE), we also go this: Rockman.EXE Catan (2003). It’s 1:1 the same Catan rules, with a different character design.
Going off the credits and assuming from “he” that it’s not Yuko Yamazaki or Ippo, you work with Kenji Yamazaki?
Skate looks like he’s just going through the motions and has lost his passion for kicking punks in the face.
I do! He’s not involved in game dev anymore.
Note that this is the ONLY game he composed for. There’s another game composer out there also named Kenji Yamazaki who’s more prolific.
Not wildly different, but same artist, same lil’ gang, two different vibes for Hikari no 4 Kishi: Final Fantasy Gaiden a.k.a. Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light.
First one is cute and friendly, 2nd is whimsical and adventurous. I like em both! This looks earlier in his career when he was drawing far more proportionally cartoony characters. DS wasn’t all that long ago though.
If you’re only going to do one game, you could do worse than Psycho World. It’s a cool game with cool music. How did his involvement with it come up?
I was showing him my Anbernic RG35XX H and he asked if it could play MSX and then he said he composed an MSX game once.
Legend of Legaia
Japan
Europe
North America
As I look more closely, the three character models are the same in each, but they’re moved all over the image. The logo is added for the PAL and NTSC versions, but moved around. The overall color is changed in each, for no clear reason.
Bending the rules a bit but I was looking at Zill O’ll, an RPG series by Koei. The first game was not released in English, but it did get three releases in Japan with a pretty subtle progression.
