Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Actraiser

I don't know... JP one just looks cooler than the NA one. So, JP one for me this week.

They’re both terrible

The Japanese one is the only decent one. It actual conveys a little about the game.

They're both not too hot, but I grew up with the NA box.
Love this title and had high hoped for the recent HD version, but man... I couldn't even finish the thing. Way too much tower defense, not enough arcade action. Rather bland visual style. I'm with the original all the way

Wow. They’re both awful, but I’ll take the North American one, for taking a more spiritual approach to the design.

Box Art Brawls Current Total:

Europe: 64

Japan: 67

North America: 70

Australia and New Zealand: 1

The Japanese cover art looks like something I would've fawned over as this mysterious game I'd see in the import section of EGM or something.
https://i.imgur.com/cbxJvGY.jpg?1
Now I'm going to go do a sad now.

Wow… a 50-50 with 144 votes? That’s a really close competition

This one's close but I think I lean the western one, the more understated look just suits it.

I find my eye lingering on the JP one far more. Bouncing comfortably between elements, guided nicely. The EN one is just, “OK, seen it” and then look away unintrigued.

I love the minimalistic covers, but Japan has so many random things in it, it makes me actually curious about what the f the game is about

Japan wins by a single pyramid brick

The characters look ugly in the Japanese cover. I will take the minimalism, thanks.

I've had Actraiser since Christmas 1993 (great game) and have only JUST noticed that there are pyramids on the box cover of the North American/European version...

I’m glad it’s 50/50 because I love them each equally.

The american one looks like an Amorphis album cover, so my voto goes to that one. The japanese one looks terrible.

I didn't think the American was great, but it's much nicer than the Japanese one!

Both are horrendous…. But at least the japanese give you a very little more context… with more horrendous art…

Never played the game so I got no clue what the game is about.
Voted for JP regardless.

The JPN one is so cluttered. The Western one at least (subtly) showcases the god-game aspect. Neither are very good though.

Both aren't great, but I went with the US art. I would have gone with JPN if the characters looked nicer, but they're ugly as sin.

584 votes still 50/50.

I agree both are pretty bad, but NA's is so boring. I have no idea what this game is going to be.

Sometimes less is more.

Still though, that logo. Is it ActRaiser or ActRaisers?

The North American one is a little to plain Jane, it was an easy choice, to go with the Japaneae box art, this week.

@Lady_Galadhiel You are God/a God-possessed living statue. Each stage begins and ends with a side-scrolling platforming section, with a fairly basic town-building sim game in between.
Rather simplistic but I think was fairly good for being one of the first SNES games made.

How is this even close? The NA one is boring as hell. The Japanese cover is campy and silly as hell. It’s Japan by a long shot.

That is, by far, the ugliest rendition of a Manticore I have ever seen in my entire life.

And the EU/US one is just so nicely mysterious, which gels well with the vibe I always got from the game.

Still 50/50 at 728 votes.

"We not overly keen on the logo itself, mind" Same here! Also, the tag line on the side "...order from chaos". And the giant border. Also, the key art with the pyramids and the lightning. Basically the nonsense minimalism for this cover. I'm not keen on basically all of it, but aside from everything, it's great.

Japan for me by a mile.

Oh boy this is really close. I will come back to this article later to see the "final" results.

@Uncle_Franklin I think you got to come back to this poll later to make sure which one won. They are like two votes apart right now.

I don't really like either.

The NA box contained a poster of the japanese art (without the japanese characters if I recall correctly), so it's only natural that this brawl resulted in a tie.

@Uncle_Franklin Why call these so early? This one for example is at 50/50 even hours later. Also how do you score them when some are merged, like with NA/EU here?

For a tiebreaker, I find the NA/EU wordmark easier to read. Perhaps it has a subtle extra layer of outline.

@sleepinglion Yeah, I really wanted it to be great, the original is still one of my all time favorite games, but it just wasn't that good at all. And, the reworked tower defense stuff made that part less fun, so thr whole thing just kinda ruined itself in my opinion.

This one mostly comes down to what I grew up with. The NA/EU version is borderline iconic to me despite how "boring" it is. The Japanese one just a tad too busy/corny to me.

Wow… still 50/50 at 819 votes? This is like watching really ugly horse races

@Thomystic @IceEarthGuard @Uncle_Franklin

Maybe our beloved Uncle drives a DeLorean.

Or maybe he just publishes scores from previous rounds in the current one.

Neither box art tell me what the game is about. But I may vote for "Thunderstorm over Egypt".

Maybe the cartridge art can cover me on what the game is about.

American

European

Japanese

Mmmm nope.

@RogerFederer He does? Well I never knew that. (Also they don't number these polls anymore it seems? So it's not like I can add it up easy. Have to manually count the articles.)

I'm not terribly fond of either. The NA version would be better if it was a bit zoomed in and there was a figure descending from the clouds within the lightning storm.

Easily the Japanese variant due to the extra artwork. I have never played this game before so I really don't think my opinion is super well informed on this one. I went off of artwork alone in this case.

Japan version is better, the us version looks like it's a game about thunder or the weather.

Japanese version hands down, it includes so many elements from the game. The US one is almost Phalanx-esque in its lack of detail on what the game is about. That said, maybe it’s supposed to be a hint to use lightning on the pyramid to get the hidden item? 😉

US/EU one for me, though more because it isn’t absolutely cluttered like the JP one than for anything it does itself (though I guess it is unique).

These are both a bit rubbish, frankly. Voted for the western cover because, while it has nothing to say about the game, it doesn’t inflict quite as much visual pain as the Japanese one, which just looks like someone made a collage of bad art.

Both are kind of God awful lol

@MisanthropyAGoGo Than you, I found your reply very helpful. At the time, I thought I was being too hard on the game... but all that added tower defense stuff really grinds gameplay and the story to a complete halt. I also felt the new visual style didn't have nearly the same charm as those early sprite-based efforts. At the end of the day, had they just re-released the original with widescreen support or something, that would have been enough for me

Honestly, I think they both suck...
They are very unappealing to me, but I rather have the JP cover over the barren boring looking NA/PAL cover.

I went with US/UK. I thought the minimalism conveyed a little more mystery whereas the Japan one is overly crammed and a bit cheesy looking.

Yeesh, these are both awful. The NA tells me almost nothing, but its tagline intrigues me (along with the lightning). I’m feeling some Stargate vibes with the pyramids. The Japanese cover suggests a fantasy RPG of the lowest-quality imaginable, so that’s a hard pass. NA for me.

The Japan cover looks like it should be on the side of an 80s van.

So metal!

@Thomystic

I usually call them late Sunday/Monday, but I couldn't stand to look at either of these covers for much longer.

Winner has been edited.

JP box is too busy, but NA box is too sparse. I agree with many that neither is very good at all.

I like both. The western one gives off this sort of music cover feel, while the Japanese one has everything but it's put together all tidy.

Neither are great.....
The NA does look like an album cover, but I appreciate its simplicity over the crowded Japanese one. Japanese box art seems to want to cram everything they can onto it and I find them too busy a lot of the time.

I figured it was going to be kind of close. I'm usually a fan of a little bit of intrigue, and a lot of box arts back then went harder on that. This game is no exception as the emphasis on "act raising", or in other words playing a god, are emphasized better to me in the western image.

I'll take NA/Euro. The art is pretty awful on the Japanese box art.

My favorite SNES game.

Such a close brawl this week. Intense!

Japan only for the less generic cover art.

I prefer our packaging shapes in the West which makes me a touch biased in many cases though.

@sleepinglion Sorry I missed your reply, thank you, and I agree 100%. Give me the original on Switch, untouched even, and I'd be happy forever. Actraiser was SUCH an important game for me, and the remake just didn't do it for me. The original should be on NSO though, and it's honestly a little ridiculous that it isnt.