sdelfin

Europe's is okay, but generic. It doesn't really show much specific to the game as far as I can tell. But it's done well enough. The other two attempt to show the game's concept. The NA cover doesn't work all that well for me. It's too cramped in my opinion. The concept works far better for the Japanese cover. The concept works better with more space and the composition is also superior.

I was just thinking about this game a few hours before this article went up. I was wondering when it would finally be coming out. Regardless of the last delay, it had to be close to done, so it had felt like there should be news about a release and here it is, minus a hard release date. But the fact that the game is done is great news.

I don't buy a lot of games day one. And price is going to determine if I get this one immediately. But with how great of a game and value Shovel Knight was, I'm willing to go a bit higher than for comparable games for which I'd wait for a sale. Hopefully they'll have the details quickly.

No. The story is just a framework for the gameplay to mean something. Story is very low on my list of priorities in action-oriented games. For Zelda, story is even less important to me. In fact, I think the padding the story provided in Twilight Princess dragged the experience down, especially in the beginning. Wind Waker worked better in that regsrd, for me. Also, it's trickier to tell a good story with a silent protagonist.

I never like any of the Layton covers, and this is no different. Europe is my least favorite here. I just don't like the concept or layout. Japan's has a better layout than the NA cover, so Japan is the least bad in my view.

I can definitely see why the headline refers to it looking terrible and amazing simultaneously. It's definitely not for me. I saw a bunch of things I don't like, though some of them are just common elements of modern movies, like the camera shenanigans and CGI. But I will say, they got a lot of the visual elements right, and it was cool seeing the special moves incorporated into it. Incidentally, I hope Cody Rhodes does a flash kick at Wrestlemania this weekend, which would totally go viral. Leaving aside the fan-service aspect of the costume, the Cammy costume looks great, like straight out of Street Fighter Alpha 3. Since Street Fighter Alpha takes place before Street Fighter 2, perhaps they'll switch Cammy to her Super Street Fighter 2 outfit if there is a sequel, which I assume would be called Street Fighter 2(perhaps the first of many Street Fighter 2s).

The NA version is strange, especially with the art style. I do kind of like the disco guy at the top left. But the rest of it doesn't do much for me. The Japanese version isn't amazing, but it's more pleasant. I do like the '80s/'90s-style chibi anime art style, so that would have been a big factor if the NA version was good enough to make this a fight for me. But in this case, Japan wins for me easily.

NA/Euro for me easily. Better concept, composition, and background. Japan's has too much visual clutter and that background takes away from it.

@Sylamp was the demo limited? I hate that. I missed out on one demo like that. But I did get the Truxton Extreme demo. I can tell you that I found it enjoyable as someone who has played the other two. There will be some things that some people won't love. The visuals won't be to everyone's taste, but I thought it worked in motion. A sticking point for some will be that it's widescreen horizontal, but a vertical shooter. That's a deal breaker for some. It's not ideal, but it doesn't have to ruin an experience by default. There's a new white weapon that is spectacular when fully powered up, with the downside of it making it harder to see other projectiles since things get crazy at that point. But if the price is right on Steam, I'll be buying it.

I thought I left a comment earlier. I definitely wrote one out. Maybe I failed to post it. I don't see why it would be removed, and I think it would be visibly deleted if so, so I will assume the former, that it just didn't post.

I will repeat the slightly provocative thing I said earlier, apparently "banger" doesn't mean what I thought it meant. I guess it means mediocre at best if it applies to last week's covers.

Anyway, the JP/Euro cover just doesn't do a thing for me. The concept, composition, and overall execution are not that good. The NA cover isn't great, but it works better and it's more coherent amd visually pleasing, regardless of the characters chosen.

Well, this is definitely random. I know of someone who has a Mew tattoo, so maybe she'd be into something like this. Hopefully people know each other well enough to have an idea whether a Pokemon ring will be a hit.

@Banjo- thank you. It's a topic I've thought a lot about and have gone back and forth on a few times. Let me guess. The broken appliances to which you refer include at least one refrigerator. LG quality has been all over the place. Their TVs seem highly regarded and, at least at one point, their large OLED screens were considered the best. In the case of the phones, it was probably a design element they just didn't catch because the problems took a while to arise with the G4 phone, one of their most important phones for better and for worse.

If I'm right the fridge thing, just know that Samsung also had a period with the same problems. I have heard quality has improved in the last couple of years, but remains to be seen if that's truly the case for both of those.

This is one of those weeks where it's awful vs. horrible vs. terrible. This might be the worst lineup of covers for one of these Brawls. I always vote in these, even if I don't like any because I approach these as a relative thing. Which is the best cover each week, even if they're all bad? I don't want an all, or a none. I will always vote.

This week, I think the Euro cover is the worst by far. Extreme close ups are not easy to pull off effectively. For such a game cover, it's not a good idea. The ombie reflection is barely noticeable and not effectively done. The NA cover uses better models and having Claire appear like she's looking at something specific gives it something more than the Japanese cover. NA gets my vote as least bad of a terrible batch.

@PeterTomlan86
@Questionable_Duck

I've been fond of MeTV through the years. Even as a kid in the 1990s, I gravitated toward older shows and usually preferred TV from before my time, or shows that were current when I was very young and have vague memories of seeing on TV at that age but couldn't appreciate. Same with movies. Many of my favorites are also from before my time, wich the '70s being a period of film I like a lot. When you watch old stuff, you can start to pick up trends from that time and from those I think you can get a good idea of when the quality started to drop off. I think mid 2000s was when I soured on Hollywood movies, with TV declining a bit earlier than that.

It's been harder for me to watch MeTV with my family doing some cord cutting and finding out that my antenna reception is marginal to where I can see the channel, but not reliably. What I've been doing in recent years is buying old DVDs and building a personal media server, like my own MeTV-style streaming service. I've always had unusual interests, so I've also found it difficult to chat such things. I just unapologetically bring stuff up and sometimes it lands, and sometimes it doesn't It's like the time I was at a dinner party and randomly brought up PC Engine and ended up talking to someone about it for a good while.

I commented previously. I'll reiterate my love for all four of the Mega Man Zero games. I'd put them all in there. I last played the Metroid games three years ago, along with Super Metroid. I have always preferred Fusion over Zero Mission and still do, so I'd swap them. Zero Mission is still very good.

The GBA was one of my favorite systems to experience in its time and I still love it. I've been meaning to sit down and compile a list of best games and hidden gems to look into, along with revisiting games I haven't played in a while. The GBA has a strong library of good games, many of which aren't on this list. Tony Hawk is not listed. Double Dragon Advance is a great beat-em-up regardless of platform and is a top game for me. Star Wars Revenge of the Sith looks to be a cool beat-em-up based on my limited time with it. Some of its Dragon Ball games are good fun too. Lots of great stuff like that on GBA.

I think this is great. Massive kudos to the EU for this and mandating USB-C ports. This is government reach, not government overreach. Overreach can be seen in the push for age verification at the OS level. That one was poorly conceived. On the USB-C issue, someone replied to me elsewhere that it would stifle innovation, as if 80Gbps and 240W was already inadequate, yet the main point of the mandate was to force manufacturers to stop using micro USB which was stifling progress. It was also so that companies like apple could no longer gouge people with proprietary connectors and adapters. So that argument defeats itself. USB-C was the stifled innovation due to corporations choosing to still use micro USB.

Replaceable batteries have been a big deal to me since the beginning of the smartphone era. It's one of the many reasons I hate apple so much. The other manufacturers don't get a pass for following their lead. Consumer electronics should have truly user-replaceable batteries. That used to be a fundamental thing. There are more upsides to it than downsides. Some sealed batteries last a long time. Some don't. It's a bit of a lottery, so that's one problem. Unsafe puffy batteries can be removed and replaced, so it's safer. Of course, replacing a battery means the lifespan of a device can be longer. Sealed batteries make planned obsolescence easier(though there are other ways).

I want to dispel the notion this was just the free market in action. Not how I see it. I will admit, replaceable batteries are not a high priority for most, but I think people have been trained to accept that by the manufacturers. No one asked for sealed batteries from apple, and people were wowed by the tech to where they were okay with it. In some cases, people didn't know. I've had such conversations. So the Android side started doing it too. People still needed phones, so they couldn't vote with their wallets. LG held out, but their phones had some notorious quality problems that ultimately killed their product line. Samsung did the same thing with their curved glass edges. They released the S7 with and without curved glass, but the regular version had lower specs which mattered in that segment. So the curved one sold more and they quickly announced curved only for the future, before many people(anecdotal) reported not liking the curved edges in usage. That kind of manipulation to get a desired end result has been common with phones and tablets, and they used that method for batteries too.

Not much to say here. This was very easy. The NA cover is way better than the lack of background for the other.

I didn't even have to see the results to have a good laugh as the assertion "It'll be close though." No. NA is way better. The busier background for the western cover works very well. The featured characters are posed much better. The quality of the illustration is also noticeably better for the west, especially for the main character which looks a bit too off model. I should say the Japanese cover isn't bad, but the western cover is much more refined in a good way.

The Jet Set Radio art style looks great here. The color use makes for some very pretty screenshots. I wasn't aware of this one as far as I can remember. Since there's a demo, it would be impolite not to check it out.

I was really into He-Man when I was really young, 3-6 years old probably. Voltron and Thundercats stuck with me more. Incidentally, do Thundercats next!!!! Anyway, the pixel art here looks fantastic, and the gameplay looks great as well. I love that the trailer isn't filled with camera shake either and didn't waste time avoiding showing off gameplay. That's how a trailer should be done.

No nostalgia for me. I didn't play my first Pokemon game until late 2012. I like the Gen 1 boxes the most. I prefer the true hand-drawn look, plus I think the designs are the most appealing.

I have no love for the gold Zelda covers. They served their purpose back in the NES days, but Nintendo should have left those behind much earlier, and by the time this one came out. While iconic, they're also boring and lazy as covers, as others have said. They also don't really stand out from each other. Not only is a logo on a colored background lazy, in this particular case the art for the Japanese cover is fantastic, so the difference is quite stark.

Japan by a country mile!

I also don't like any of these. Japan's is my least favorite. I think the green is worse than the red, so my vote is for Europe's version as least bad.

Metal Gear Ghost Babel is interesting, thought I'm not a huge fan. I can see why others like it so much. They did a good job of taking the essentials of Metal Gear Solid and translating that to Game Boy Color. And it looks and feels more advanced than the early games. I ended up not liking Metal Gear Solid on PS1, so the property itself means nothing to me. I found the GBC game still does a few things I don't like. For example, it's wordy for a Game Boy game. I also don't love the stage design, but that's just a matter of taste. The game mechanics are great, though. Plus, the VR missions are more my style, so I was able to enjoy those. Either way, it's good that they're making this available, even if it's not on its own.

Both are okay, but also disappointing to me because I expected more. Both have pros and cons, which others have pointed out. So this is one of those duels where it comes down to what each person prefers here. For those that love the pile of characters just posing, they have Japan. For those who like the cover depicting some action. there's the western cover. For me, I'm voting purely on layout. In this case, I prefer the vertical orientation and more symmetrical artwork for the Japanese cover. I just think it looks more pleasant to the eye.

While some people like these, I am not among that group. These areboth pretty bad to me. NA's cover is very generic and I don't particularly like the style. Japan's cover is a poor concept overall in my opinion. I think Japan's cover is much worse, even though I consider both of these to be bad.

Like others have said, I think they're both pretty good. I like how the western cover features that blue enemy because it's one of the more distinctive things in the game outside of Yoshi. Mario and Yoshi might be a bit too far forward and them seem disconnected from the scene. It's also a bit cramped from the logos and such.

Japan's cover is simpler, but very nice. One thing I really like from Japan's box is how the game title script is textured and matches well with the overall cover. It's a really great detail. In this case, I prefer the Japanese cover a little bit, and that's how I voted.

"Classy" is one of those odd terms that is largely undefined in this context and is often applied to minimalist covers. You know what else is classy? A quality illustration like the one on the Japan/Euro cover here. And it's quite a good illustration. I don't love the plain white background, but it works well here. Japan/Euro cover gets my vote, easily.

"Our prized plumber stands front and centre, gearing up to send a shot back over the net"

Are you sure about that? Have you seen where the net is? Conceptually, the western cover is a total failure in depicting tennis. However, it succeeds in its composition as a game cover. The Japanese cover is fine, which is the nicest thing I can say about it. It does nothing for me as a game cover. So despite the tennis fail of the western cover, I will still vote for it.

At the end of the day, picking covers comes down to vibes. Some covers that show the game concept or show more elements from the game are better. Sometimes they're not. Sometimes dynamic covers are better. Sometimes they're not. Yes, certain elements and concepts work more often than not. Artists figured that out for comic books long ago. So it's not a quantitative thing where a certain cover shows more, so it's better. Visual clutter is real. At the end of the day, it's always what information is a cover giving and what feeling does it give off. Vibes.

The standard cover is nice and probably my second favorite. For me, the best one is Captain Commando. That's basing it purely on being a cover. The standard cover at least communicates it's a compilation.

Late to the party on this one. As it usually the case with these spooky games that do minimalism, it doesn't land for me. I would go as far as to say the Euro cover is not good. Perhaps a more ominous pose would have made a difference, but I just don't get a horror vibe from that. Speaking of covers that are not good, there are the other two covers here. The cropping for Japan is just bad and lazy. I'm not a fan of this rendering of Leon in general outside of the game itself. The zombie guys behind him are pretty good though. So my late pick comes down to which one of these is the least bad, and my vote goes to the North American cover.

@TheBoilerman your comment on this one is fantastic. That's exactly the vibe I get from that cover. Horror is definitely not the vibe I get.

@rvcolem1 you're not alone. For certain games, these minimal covers really seem to land for a lot of people. To me, it's terrible. In some comments, all sense goes out the window, like not understanding what a cover is for. But there was one comment that I thought his the nail on the head, the one calling the Euro version a tree-harvesting simulator.

Street Fighter 2 was a great game, and still is in my opinion. The SNES port is probably the most important game of the 16-bit generation and probably single-handedly sold enough SNES systems to close the gap Sega got from being out for two years(with Sonic arriving right before the SNES launched in North America). It was a great exclusive to have in 1992. Luckily, other systems eventually got versions too. I don't have the same nostalgia for it, but I do go back and play it. But not World Warrior. And not the SNES versions. Some of the music irritates me. My favorite version is Champion Edition arcade. I do really like the SNES version of Super SF2, though. But as Christmas gaming traditions go, you could do a lot worse. Imagine if the tradition was the SNES port of Pit Fighter.

US black-box games....classic? I guess. Good? Debatable. I don't like the black-box game boxes. The actual art of the other two is far better in this case. Japan's is the best by several miles here due to real artwork and much better framing than the Euro cover. US cover is a distant third place, and was lapped several times along the way.

I remember reading about this back in the day and maybe seeing some screenshots. I've always been fascinated by demakes and other attempts to push systems to their limits or make them do things they weren't designed to do. It doesn't always work out in terms of ending up with a quality game, but it's cool to see developers come up with clever ideas. And I remember the GBC being an interesting platform in that regard. Plus, there are also just smart adaptations of bigger games, like a Daikatana and stuff like that.

I had to think this one over a bit. As others have said, the composition for NA is better, at least for many of us. The Japanese might be one of the weaker of the Rockman Famicom covers. Still, I like the art style of the Japanese version more. The robot bird looks great on both. In the end, I chose the art style as the deciding factor, so Japan got my vote. But nice to see the NA covers looking decent after a shaky start.

It's interesting the different methods kids will come up with in situations like this. Very creative and interesting. Definitely less direct with the hints than back in my day. I'm not a Switch person. Didn't have the first one, and no desire to get the second one. The lack of OLED doesn't bother me, and might be a plus in my book, but I have other reasons. I probably would have gotten a Vita if not for those memory prices. But buying for yourself is different than buying a gift, and that's the important thing. If I was in a position where a child really wanted the Vita, for example, I probably would get them the system and a decent card, but make it clear they would have to make that memory card last because of the massive price gouging.

Your son makes one excellent point that I fully agree with. You don't need two racing games. You need at least two. Racing games are great fun, and it's especially fun learning how different games and vehicles handle.

No hesitation for me this week. Japan is an easy pick this week. Japan's is more vibran, which I like. But what made it easy was the composition for the western cover. The way the table and Samus fade into each other just doesn't work for me and it takes away from both elements. Samus looks weird looming over, or in front of the table. The end of the table is obscured and what is visible is the least interesting part of the table.. The logo just makes the situation worse, but it has to be somewhere. On Japan's cover, Samus is off center, but I think it works better because she's behind the table which just looks cohesive as opposed to disjointed like the western cover.

I echo the sentiments of a handful of others in the comments, Paramount not getting this deal is the one positive in all this. But these gigantic mergers need to be stopped and not much good will come from this level of consolidation.

I see people complaining about Netflix, and I take no issue with people doing so. It just makes me laugh a little because I never bought into streaming services like Netflix. The funny part to me is thinking about how when I was a Netflix subscriber, it was for DVD by mail. And it was the early days of when they did that.

Very easy call for me this week. North America by a mile. The western comic book style is great, and this one is very well executed. Great composition. Very good all around.

Europe's is funny because, at first, it looked totally out of nowhere. It's like the artist did it based on a verbal description of the character. Not quite the green outfit from the game, but it is green, so points for that. Once I viewed it from the perspective of it resembling a pre-1975 or so sci-fi aesthetic, I started to like it more. It has a look similar to the likes of Logan's Run, Buck Rogers, The Phantom, and stuff like that. I don't hate it.

Japan's is well drawn, but obscuring the hero's face on cover art is a huge error. It was the first thing I noticed. It just hurts the effectiveness as a cover.

Edit: No reason not to do the Game Boy version as a "duel" at some point. The two covers for it are both interesting. I just played the Game Boy version again last week. I love the changes they made when bringing it to the Game Boy and I was surprised how good it all turned out.

I was a little bit anxious because, while I am a fan of traditional animation, digital animation often fails to do much for me for various reasons. It's not that good results are not possible, but sometimes it looks really off or allows them to do things that are better off not done. However, I was pleasantly surprised how this turned out. I enjoyed this into animation and am looking forward to it.

PS: Needs more Batman!(just kidding)

I had to sit and think about this one for a bit. I like them all. Europe's is probably the weakest because of the age ratings and that other message on the left side. Japan's is good for what it was going for, but I'm partial to actual shots of the system and games, or logos in this case, so NA gets my vote.

Both covers have similar framing issues. On the Japanese cover, the character overlap takes away from the action pose from the blond kid who looks straight out of Dragon Ball Z. Also, the logo is so big and so high up that it detracts from the other character and makes it hard to see he's holding the ball. The Euro cover has the same problem. The logo is so high that it also makes it difficult to see the ball which is an important element for that pose. In the end, I think the poses on the Euro cover work better for a cover. I think the overall composition is better for the Euro box. And I think the green background, regardless of it being a field, though that's also a nice touch, works better than the red background for Japan.

I do like the console case designs of the past. The Mega Drive/Genesis 1 & 2 had lovely cases, as did the PC Engine, among others. But I also like simpler, "bland" mini-PC style cases, so it just being a box or cube doesn't bother me. The intent is for it to not stand out much. Of course, the real appeal is what it can do and if the price is right. Valve knows from the Deck the price needs to be right, especially since this is the second attempt at a Steam Machine for the living room. If the price is fair, then I love the bland cube design.

It's worth mentioning, they settled on the cube design because that was the best way they found to get the thermal management they wanted with only one, hopefully quiet, fan. Knowing that, I like it even more.

Clearly, the dude on the NA box has that guy who has the look of a hero....in spite of his outfit....and everything else about him. Who wouldn't want to play as that guy?

Okay, in all seriousness, Japan by a mile. I like Toriyama's art(didn't always like it), but the whole thing is conceptually better and more appealing regardless. And professional. It looks way more professional. Credit to Europe for using the Japanese art without modifying it, but putting that horizontal art on a vertical box meant it had to be smaller with a lot of empty space, which is why those pixel portraits are in the lower left. It's so weird how Japan and the US used different box orientations back then. NES was vertical while Famicom was horizontal. SNES was horizontal while Super Famicom was vertical. Weird how they flipped and how out of sync things were back in the day.

They're both pretty good and well executed for what they are. And they convey similar vibes. My pick comes down entirely to composition. The west's cover is dominated by the logo, and all the elements surround it like a ring. For the Japanese cover, the eye is drawn down to the logo, but also to the portion below which is the main element of the cover that isn't the logo. I think Japan's cover does a far better job with the composition since the character elements are not stuck on th edges of the frame. Japan's cover is the one I prefer.

Also, 58 to 42 in last week's poll isn't THAT close.

They're both fine, but somewhat standard fare. They're both nothing special. I think the tighter framing of the Japanese one detracts from it. I also find the background elements of the western cover to be more interesting and purposeful, so that gets my vote.

Good to see Iron Man in it, even though that was not surprising. Also nice to hear Jennifer Hale will voice Phoenix. I've always loved her voice work when I've heard it.

Yeah, add me to the list of those saying neither one is particularly good. I voted for Japan as the better of the two. The US is extremely cluttered. The box tells you that it's the game plus the microphone and voice-recognition unit on the right. Then it tells you again there's a voice-recognition unit in the upper left. And then someone felt it necessary to show the whole setup, if it wasn't clear at that point. It's bad composition. It's redundant. And, on top of that, I hate the North American N64 box template in the first place, so it already has that going against it.

I got 17. A couple of them were tricky. I missed Duck Hunt because my brain was still calibrating to what this quiz actually was, and I think I would have gotten that one if I knew what to expect at that point. But it was fun and I'm happy.