NES bad box art: Ironsword

OK so if you have been following my blog for any length of time then you will have most likly realised that I love looking at cover art, often comparing different art from different regions. In most cases it has been megadrive/Genesis cover art and usually I have been looking at which region provided the best art. Today is a little different as I am looking at a piece of NES box art, it's an Infamous piece of art. As I have obviously posted the above picture then you know I am talking about Ironsword. If you look at the case without having played the game you might wonder what the issue is, well to put it simply they put a famous model Fabio on the front cover dressed as a barbarian the main issue with this is the fact in the game you don't play as a Barbarian you play as a knight.

Here is the games title screen and the in game sprite basically matches this so that basically tells you that the people responsible for the case art had either never either tried the game or been in touch with the creators to get any information on what the game was like beyond its title. It was like someone just really wanted to be around Fabio while he was getting oily barbarian loin cloth photos done, usually he was on the front of romance books so who knows, but the cover certainly didn't fit the game and often when you do hear about the game it's for the infamous cover art as it's a shame as it's quite a cracking little title.

This is the sort of thing I would have made as a front cover for ironsword wizards & warriors 2 for the NES instead of the famous Fabio one, seeing as you play a knight in armour in the game I thought it would be more appropriate to have an armoured figure on the box art. Yeah the armour might not be exactly the same as the one in the game and be a little more realistic but it in my opinion certainly fits the theme more. Maybe if the game had gotten something a little more like this it would be remembered fondly on its own merit as apposed to for its quirky cover.

Megadrive Box art, A piece of Japanese art I dont like so much: Art of Fighting

So I wanted to continue with my previous topic and talk about Various bits of MegaDrive box art, but I thought for a change I would look for Japanese case that I dont like as much as the American or European case, surly there must be at least some games where the Japanese art is the worst art? Well here is what I believe to be just such a case, and its for Art of Fighting.

Well what can I say, its one of the latter blue boarderd MegaDrive Covers, which some people seem to like more than the old black ones because of them being brighter but in other ways I think they loose some of the class of the old black ones.  Overall I quiet like this case the art is good and large and very well placed, I cant complain much at all. I dont think its the perfect case I dont like the fact that the picture in the background on the back is just an enlarged part of the front art but its a fine case overall.

Well here we have the American case, if you take a look the main image is the same piece of art as the European but flipped with the contrast turned up and pulled back slightly so you can see more of the fighters, I also think the way the Logo is handle makes it pop out more and I like that. Also with the image being very blue tonned I think the red boarder works a lot better.

Now to start with I like the back of the case, I also dont hate the front of the case but I do think its just too darn plane, the central piece of art is a very nice logo and would look great on the back of a T shirt But I dont think it is right for the front cover of a fighting game especially not when this leaves the majority of the front filled up with plane black space.

I did think about building my ideal cover and what it would entail but I kind of figured it would be beyond my skills. So what did I want to see in my idea of a perfect case? Well the American front picture and the words Art of Fighting from off that cover but with a classic black Megadrive border and on the back I would like the main Japanese piece of art of the main two characters, and I would also like to throw the logo in but in a much smaller capacity. Such a dark bland front for a Japanese game when so many of there cases have such awesome bright pieces of art on the front was just so dissapointing for me to see