Megadrive Box art, my love of the Japanese art: DJ Boy

So I have said before that when I started collecting retro games at first it was all about trying to get the games again which I owned as a kid and then as I gatherd more and more stuff I started also trying to track down games that friends had owned which I had either lent of them or enjoyed while I was over at there house. Well there was a game I played at my friend Andrew's house and I have had my eyes on it for a long time but I have been waiting for it to be the right price and finally I have a copy of it orderd and it should be with me soon. Usually unless there is a lot of reading involved or some other reason to opt for a particular version I will usually just grab the cheapest version I can get regardless of what region it comes from, in this case however I really didnt want the American copy and you will proberbly see why below. The game I am talking about is called DJ Boy which is basically a walk along beat em up and also an arcade port. So here we go again looking at MegaDrive box art.

OK so here is the American copy, the one I didnt want, I would explain it as being a horrible cover made with terrible computer style cartoon characters, I really hate it, the same kind of art is on the cart and well I just didnt want to own it, I am not saying DJ Boy is the best game in the world but I like it quite a bit and it deserved better than this. I know they say dont judge a book by its cover but thats easier said than done, looking at this cover in my oppinion you basically expect the game to be a cheap peace of garbage.... Apparently the copy I am recieving is a pal copy but if it came with this case well I would just have to print out another cover for it and slide it in front of this awful awful piece of work.

This is the Japanese box art, and I have to say I think its great, it basically looks like a proper anime style cartoon, big eyes, high on expresions, it just looks fun, the cover makes you want to dive in to the game and see what kind of a game it is.

All I can say is thank goodness that the European case used the japanese art. I still prefer the Japanese version mostly because the title feels like it is a part of the art instead of covering up the art. If you look at the European case you will see the big area of empty space between the enemies and the hero, its just wasted space but I still think its a great cover.

If I could improve it in any way I think I would make it a little bit more like this version I have knocked up, its pretty much just a cut and paste job and I admit it could have been done better but this is the kind of thing I think would have been perfect. Still the European one is not bad at all its certainly a million times better than that horrid American case art.