Hi folks, and welcome back to Box Art Brawl!
Looking back on last week, Tetris Attack on the Game Boy entered the ring for a classic duel, with North America and Europe going head-to-head against Japan. Rather expectedly, including Nintendo's characters gave Japan a significant advantage, and the region won comfortably with 75% of the vote.
This week, we're jumping ahead slightly to the Game Boy Advance with Mario Golf: Advance Tour, the counterpart for the GameCube's Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour. Released in 2004, it would retain many of the RPG elements that shaped previous titles, and went on to receive high critical reception.
Much like last week, it's another duel with the Western design going up against the Japanese design, so without further ado, let's get started...
Be sure to cast your votes in the poll below; but first, let's check out the box art designs themselves.
North America / Europe
Okay, boom, look at Mario there, how cool does he look, huh? We love how he slightly overlaps the GBA branding on the left, too. It's a very bold image, and Nintendo made great use of the background space too, adding additional characters to marvel at Mario's pristine form.
Japan
Hold up... Where's Mario?! Okay, he's on the grass, but gosh, it's kinda weird to have a Mario Golf game without the main man himself, right? It's like the total opposite of last week's clash with Tetris Attack. Nevertheless, this is still a cool image; we're always game for a composition that includes a whole bunch of interesting characters. The environment is also a touch more realistic than the Western design, which makes for a nice touch, even if it's not quite representative of what's in the game.
Which region got the best Mario Golf: Advance Tour box art? (1,771 votes)
- North America / Europe
- Japan
Thanks for voting! We'll see you next time for another round of the Box Art Brawl.
Comments 38
Na/Eu version, I like how it represents Mario as serious golfer.
Peach's cute dress is a bonus.
Wow, this is an odd one! It is indeed quite bizarre that Mario himself was not featured on the Japan box, but it is also strangely refreshing? Maybe? I like the Japan artwork, though, and the NA cover is really bland, so I went for Japan.
The NA/Europe box art is actually logical. The new characters are off to the sidelines. The other one doesn’t even have Mario.
Japan as it shows the cast you'll see the most during the game, in particular the protagonists in front instead of behind Mario and Peach who barely show up in the story.
The reason Mario doesn't feature on the Japanese cover is that he'd just signed a 450 million coin contract to go and play golf in the desert kingdom's breakaway league.
Both covers are pretty dire though. This is one of those times when you wouldn't mind buying the loose cart with no box.
Japanese one really highlights the characters outside of Marioverse, I really like it.
They both have Ella (the MC) though so it's a minor win for JP
The EU/US one is horrendous. Let's look at the JP...
Ooofff... that one is even worse.
They are both terrible. No vote from me.
One of my all time favourite games, the UK cover may not be spectacular but its deeply nostalgic for me so its earns my vote.
You can't just leave Mario out of the box art for a Mario game. No I don't count the logo.
JP might not have Mario, but the composition is a lot better.
That Japanese one is just weird. Nintendos box art is normally so good it’s hard to comprehend what happened there
The Japanese one is atrocious for so many reasons. The NA one is just... Mario playing golf.
@electrolite77 I think their thought process may have been, anyone who buys Mario games will buy this anyways, why don't we put a bunch of anime characters and see if we can shift a few more copies. But I agree it's a really weird marketing move for them to purposely not put Mario on something.
The Japanese one looks more a Everybody's Golf game rather than a Mario Golf game (which ironically was made by same developer.)
Box Art Brawls Current Total:
Europe: 69
Japan: 69
North America: 78
Australia and New Zealand: 1
This one is another clear winner for me. The North American/European variant is much more focused and achieves it's goal of letting the players know what they will experience while playing the game. Easy vote for sure.
NA/EU by a landslide. Besides ACTUALLY showing the main guy in the pixels, the box art shows off a few of the characters without overwhelming the eyes. Which is the fault of the Japanese box IMO.
Hard one, i like those 3D Models, but nor Mario besides the Logo, hmm
The other one is too boring.
I will take the Japanese
Don't really like either to be honest but for entirely different reasons. the NA/EU one is incredibly bland (and reeks of early 2000's 'graphic design is my passion') but is at least very good at signalling exactly what the game is. The Japanese version meanwhile is a lot more visually appealing (admittedly helped out by the horizontal nature of JP GBA boxes but still), but also has literally nothing that alludes to it being a Mario Golf title outside of the logo (which only has the Big M's silhouette at that).
Gonna go with JP overall but yeah: not too enthralling of a decision this week XD
Both are pretty bad. I've played this game exactly once and the Japanese cover describes that experience better since there were no Mario characters to be seen. I had to double check that I was actually playing Mario Golf.
Went with the US box art this time.
Japan probably would have won if they actually included Mario in a more prominent position though.
NA/Europe gets my vote. I don't see Mario on the Japanese cover.
NA/EU version, by far. It prominently features Mario, so you know that this is a Mario Golf game, and even though the NA/EU version is a square instead of a rectangle like the JP version is, it feels more open-spaced, like a golf course should be.
The JP version lacks Mario, and it's too cluttered. If you didn't see Mario's silhouette in the game's logo, or his face on the grass, you'd be excused for thinking that this was a generic golf game.
Of course, Mario has made cameos in non-Mario games, such as Punch-Out!! on the NES and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the N64. So even Mario's face on the grass could just be interpreted as a cameo if you only went by the box art and took out his silhouette in the logo.
I actually like how Nintendo were willing to position the original characters for the game front and centre with more subtle references to Mario in the Japan one; pretty bold for them to forego the easy route. Neither are great but gotta go with Japan for the weirdness of it
When I saw the NA cover, I was not into the 3D-rendered characters. Then I saw the Japan cover had the same thing. As such, this comes down purely to composition. NA wins that easily for me. It's dynamic, and clearly depicts golf. The other looks like a bunch of youngsters taking a group photo to remember the good times with the golf items in the shot so easy to miss.
I was thinking, what am I voting based on? With my opinion, the image itself can go to Japan as it looks really nice but it's just so far off from showing Mario Golf. I voted NA/EU for that reason. Both images are good to look at but only one really shines in showing it's based on Mario. But for myself, Japan's one still has a nicer image.
This one is a bit tough, I like the Japanese one for not having Mario, but I also like the Western one for having Mario and Peach actually golfing with the human characters.
May leave my vote later.
Cartridge art
Western (it's the same all around, only the logos and brandings change):
Japanese:
As for the Japanese cover not having Mario and a bit of trivia, not many people seem to know this but Mario Tennis GB was originally announced at SpaceWorld 2000 as Tennis GB Color and the main art (which was later used for the box art) actually showed the human characters and not Mario and Peach, but some screenshots still show Mario in the game, so you could say that it was originally a Mario game without Mario in the name.
Given the time of the announcement (August 24-26 2000) and the first release of the game (November 1st 2000), I'd say this was probably a last minute change.
Source
Japan forgot the Mario. Too bad.
Both are terrible, but still an easy win for NA/EU for featuring Mario and Peach instead of just those generic characters.
I’m gonna have to go with NA/Europe on this one and it’s not just my nostalgia for this game I loved it as a kid even if I had no idea what to do in it. Need a Vtuber to do a play through of it. But I gotta go with that choice because like the Japanese box art doesn’t even look like Mario it looks like that one Sony series Everyone’s Golf or whatever it’s called?
Not trying to be mean here, but I feel like the author of the article have not played the game.
Saying that the japanese one doesn't represent the game is wrong, in fact is quite the opposite.
The EU one make you think you're going to play a game about Mario, while for the 99% of the time you're in the RPG mode doing mission and stuff with the characters in the Jap boxart.
The NA one very accurately communicates what the game is to me, and I love this game. I still play it regularly after 20+ years!
Japan, Because of the nostalgia of when I played those games and enjoyed the story, getting to know its characters plus those who once met in GB's Mario Golf.
What? The Japanese got a free wireless adapter so they could play without the link cable?! Lucky!
Bruh. What are those non-Mario characters doing in Mario Golf?
Not sure why some are calling the NA/EU one terrible; mediocre/bland, sure, I can get that, but that’s a step or two above being actively bad, let alone terrible.
In any case, the Japan cover not showing Mario, in a Mario Golf game, disqualifies it for me, leaving the admittedly basic, but decent looking NA/EU cover to win by default.
TBF the Japanese one is more realistic to what happens in the actual game, so I totally understand why they chose to make boxart like that. But the art of the EU/NA one is far superior to the doll like characters of Japanese boxart. One ages a lot better than the other, simply put.
japan, since they focus n the story mode.. mario isn't that important in the game..
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