Poll: Box Art Brawl #68 - Super Mario World

I voted Japan version.

I fear the Japanese cover is going to table the other two this week,

Jap, euro the the NA for me. I love the art work but i like the fact it closer up in the Jap version. Lets you see all those iconic characters a little bit closer. Also the yellow background i find more pleasing to the eye than the red. The EU version is still a pretty box art but that bland NA version. Where is all those popping artworks? 🎨

Something about the striking red and green of the European version just does it for me.

Much to be said for the simplicity of the NA box - but Japan’s shows the whole world! I like the European box - it’s still a fine design - but it’s caught between two stools, and probably isn’t as good as either of the alternatives.

USA. Straight and to the point. The clutter on the other two is unnecessary.

I'm from the Netherlands and we didn't get that version. We actually got a NA variant with yellow borders instead of black. Never saw this one. Maybe Belgian?

The NA version is my fave.

30 years later and now i'm confused. I have the EU console but apparently the NA box. Is this correct?

North America's boring and Europe's too cluttered. Japan ftw.

European. It's red. I like red.

USA wins for me, the yellow and red backgrounds clash a bit too much with those extra details

The North American one is very dear to me because it was my first video game ever (that's the cover we got in Portugal). But I voted for the Japanese one because that makes more sense. It conveys the idea of "World" better than the NA one.
The French one is just ugly, too much text, strange composition.

Japan here. I actually had the NA boxed version as well. I am from Europe. Hmmmm ...

NA and Japan are both decent.

What's up with the European colour choice? Is it a horror version? Was there a bloodbath on Dinosaur Island? That much red doesn't work at all.

Funny how, despite being from Europe, it's actually the least familiar of the three for me. Probably due to me getting this game back then on the All-Stars + Mario World version where the US box-art was used.

Anyway, Japan wins this time.

NA cover was also in Europe, I remember it like yesterday

Gorgeous Japanese super famicom bot art, that's what made the 16bit era even more special.

I have no recollection of the European art, probably because the game was bundled in the system’s box. I do remember that the art on the cartridge was the same as the NA one above, while the booklet was... yellow like the Japanese one shown here. Circle = full

I live in Italy and I have never seen the red cover. The “US” version is the one sold here. Don’t know about other european countries

I’m from the uk and my copy is like the North American but yellow box

I missed not having a box art brawl last week. >,<

Also, I voted for the Japanese one. I definitely love seeing the little globe with the worlds depicted on there.

1000% the Japanese version for me. I’ve often wondered with the whole globe there if it was any sort of inspiration for Super Mario Galaxy.

Plus the Japanese version comes with a gorgeous fold out map and loads of drawings of the characters. I really miss the old hand-drawn Mario style, these days it’s always the 3D rendered model (well aside from Paper Mario).

Too bad the European one ditched the yellow for an awful red.

Why is this called a duel when it's between 3?

Box Art Brawls Current Total:

Europe: 17

Japan: 22

North America: 18

In the UK, we had the NA box and I always liked it. But now I've seen the alternatives...

I've gone with Europe. I prefer the red. The yellow is too bright on the Japanese one.

America for me xx

I am from the UK, I had never seen the European box! We did indeed have the NA one. For the best I think, I like that one most.

Gotta go with Japan. As nostalgic as I am for the NA cover, I love the background art on the Japanese cover. Sorry Europe, but that red background just isn't doing it for me, and the art is a bit tiny.

From the US and I went Japan. It’s rare nostalgia doesn’t win out for me, and I was very surprised it didn’t with this super nostalgic game (especially as the sticker on the cart was the same as the box essentially).

But I liked the japanese design enough they won my vote.

My favourite game of all-time, an absolute classic. I was tempted to vote for the North American cover, mostly due to nostalgia, but man I really love the Japanese box art.

PAL: Too much red.

Japan: Too much yellow.

NA it is, then!

Europe's is awful. Bad color, way too busy. Also, "Instruction Booklet Included"??? Wasn't that the default then? It would be a selling point now...

Japan's makes much better use of the same image from Europe, and I like it, but the simplicity of NA's is great, I think.

If Japan doesn't win this one then people have gone mad. Lovely cartoon artwork.

(disagrees with this part of the article):

"(and socking his poor steed on the back of the head, apparently),"

UK got the blue box version.

I think Japan is the best, easily. The Euro version shown here is also nice, as it uses the same art, but the better BG color and size increase for Japan make it superior. The art itself is great, with a lot more going on in a good way. To me the NA box is too simple and not very interesting.

I’m in the UK and had that red box variant. It’s what I own now as it’s what I have nostalgia for. I never had the yellow one with the USA artwork, although it seems that was the main one.

I voted for Japanese box though. Easily the best with the yellow and that ‘World’ artwork.

North America gets my vote. Its nostalgic, simple, clean and doesn't have a koopa statue popping out from the "planet" like a giant zit.

The globe is cool but the yellow background in the Japanese one is such a bad choice of colour. The red in the European one ain't a good choice either but it's better than yellow.

Good ol' Super Mario Bros. 4 lol. Little known trivia there. On a similar but separate note, I remember back in the day on a Saturday morning, the cartoon Captain N/Super Mario World. I remember hearing the announcer say once "Stay tuned for Captain N and Super Mario Bros. 4" though Super Mario World was how it was known in the States lol. Good times.

Japan by a country mile.

@echoplex was thinking the same thing. The cartridge only ever had the plastic bag it came in unfortunately.

Look, people are of course allowed to have personal tastes and opinions--no one is denying that--but the Japanese box is superior to the other two from an actual technical artistic and graphic design point of view.

There are many best-practice rules and techniques and methods that define what makes good art [and packaging] and indeed go into creating it (colour theory, composition, balance, clarity and readability, etc), even though, once again, what each person thinks of a particular piece of art is of course totally subjective, and the Japanese box just gets far, far more of the important things right, which ends up in an objectively better design in all the ways such things are measured in any kind of professional capacity.

For me, the American and European boxes look like your average USA/EU SNES game boxes, not terrible and not particularly strong either, whereas the Japanese box actually looks like a piece of art that you could almost frame and put on a wall as is. It could literally be released straight up as a poster and no one would even question it wasn't always meant to be as such imo.

But--AGAIN--you are free to have your own personal taste and choice based on nostalgia or whatever you think it is that makes one of the other designs better for you personally.

That’s weird I thought the American one was used in Europe lol

Japan is my choice for this

@impurekind I really like your well-reasoned comment. It's funny, I went with the NA cover based on nostalgia, but also just the fact that blue is personally more pleasing to my eyes. But I do like the picture and layout of the Japanese one better. You mention a poster and I mostly agree with you; I'd love a poster of the Japanese art but with blue replacing the yellow background.

On that very topic: I have a poster of the original SNES Mario Kart artwork, however it has the yellow-sky background of the Japanese box. I always thought it'd look better with the more blue background of the North American (and European) boxart. Kind of a pattern with me I guess. Lol.

Peoples memorys often get confused in Europe as we tended to get different box art but 9/10 we got the USA art on the cartridge itself. Smash bros 64 is a great example of people miss remembering the PAL box due to the cart art

@Cosmo_Joe Really it isn’t, atleast it wasn’t in the Netherlands. I can’t proof it, but look at 1UP_MARIO2:39pm Comment

In France there wasn’t a red splashed background, but I can’t remember how it was looking

Blue backdrop with good framing >>> yellow backdrop with noisy foreground, but that's it as far as advantages go. (Enough to get my vote.) The island full of striped mushrooms would be my only other nitpick of the JP boxart. Still, just like SMB3, something iconic about that solid color.

You know, I usually vote european as i genuinely think they have some strong covers. But I have NO nostalgia for the european cover of this one, NoA all the way

If the Japanese art had the blue background it would be absolutely perfect.

I'm actually impressed by Europe's cover here. Nice background and the red background echoes Mario's color scheme. Japan's is much too....yellow.

@SenseiDje @datamonkey @reaktor @cosmo_joe

Thats what i always wonder when i see these polls

The art labelled as North American is the one i always knew, i never knew there was a red box

And that goes for almost every SNES game art i see in these polls

I do like the Japanese version, but I'm just feeling the chillness of the NA version right now. (That, and LOT of nostalgia influenced my choice.)

I have never seen this European Version before

The NA cover art is a lie! There aren’t 96 levels in SMW, but 96 exits. SMB3 actually had more levels than SMW.

That European cover was about 17 years ahead of the curve telling us an instruction book was included.

Still makes me think of the classic Tiny Toons skit "Super Plucky-o Bros. for the Nonmindo system". I recall the disclaimer was like "game, console, instructions, cord not included" or something. A console with no cord included? What a silly thought to us in those days!

@MeloMan I believe the commercial bumpers for the show even called it "Captain N and Super Mario Bros. World".
Though I think the official title was "The New Adventures of Captain N and Super Mario World".
"New" because from reading the old Mario Mania Player's Guide (Nintendo's official SNES SMW guide for NA) it said Captain N and Super Mario Bros. 3 were originally an hour programming block with both shows a half-hour long, but I know for that last season, they got shrunk into a single program.

Instruction booklet included! Don't think i have ever seen that on a box before

@KingMike Ha nice you are right! I hated when they reduced it to a single half hour program. I was worried the series was about to end for Captain N and Mario and I was right for the following season. Sad day.

Gotta go with the Japanese box this time.

Don’t think I have ever seen the Europe version as everyone I know got the game with the console

they didnt show the yellow european box. pretty sure this came out in the uk as well as the red one

Japan as always
Also does anyone finds the Yoshi expression on this covers mildly disturbing? Its like he knows something Mario does not that would eventually lead to his demise and he is enjoying it.

I have the yellow UK variant. Much nicer than the red.

I went with the USA cover. It may be just me, but the other two could be slightly spoiler-y. I mean, having the entrance to Bowser's Castle come up out of the water was kind of a wow moment for me when I first played through the game, so having Bowser's castle on the cover might've slightly ruined that for me.

Best game 100% beat it so fun

@Reaktor in the UK we had the red variant and the blue variant of the boxes(plus allstars & world) all released at different times. But the cartridge art was always the USA art regardless of the box art version.

Japan pulls it off for once!