![]() Long-time games writer Scott Sharkey penned that metaphor ages ago, and I never forgot it. Guns, knives, and the occult were disallowed in the merry world of FX Nine, leaving an empty-handed Snake to make "an inexplicable jerk-off motion" for eternity. Snake Reese also features on the cover for the FX Nine novelization of Metal Gear. Killer robots, time travel, deception, rapid-aging viruses, and torturous plot threads capable of choking a moose. Solid Snake started life as Kyle Reese from The Terminator. My best guess is that the artist for the Simon's Quest box eyeballed the Ravenloft cover, guessed the statue next to von Zarovich is a griffin of some kind, and drew the creature accordingly. The gargoyle next to Ravenloft's Count Strahd von Zarovich has details that Dracula's stone pal lacks, such as nostrils and scales. The gargoyles beside each box's respective vampire is the proof. I'll say this much for the artist, though: The box for Simon's Quest is seemingly a free-hand copy, not a trace. I initially thought it was a coincidence, even though it's clearly not. A friend of mine had the Ravenloft Dungeons & Dragons module that served as the, um, basis for Dracula and his castle on the Simon's Quest box art. I remember discovering Konami's thievery with Castlevania II: Simon's Quest without the aid of the internet. Not to far down the road, we'll see Konami basically break out a transparent cell, slap it on someone else's work, and whip out a Sharpie. It's not uncommon for artists to use references in this way (though citation is customary), and the Castlevania box art still carries its own style and message. I think "inspiration" is the key word here, though. The Norseman, a classic '70s painting by Frank Frazetta, was obviously the inspiration for Castlevania's box art. Shout-out to Arcade Sushi for pointing out how closely the box art for Simon Belmont's inaugural vampire-shredding adventure mirrors another work of fantasy. Let's continue our NES box art appreciation by breaking down the good, bad, and "?" of Konami's packaging. Much of Konami's box art, especially the early stuff, straight-up lifted heroes, monsters, and scenes from paintings, book covers, and action movies.Įven when Konami didn't engage in the artistic variation of Finders-Keepers, its box art sometimes turned out a little weird-looking, or promised experiences that weren't in the game – though that usually wasn't the fault of the box artist. This game had blades, and they were indeed steeled.īut while Konami's box art became famous in the '80s for being good, it gradually became infamous as the information highway hooked gamers together in the '90s and early aughts. Moreover, Konami's games usually lived up to the amazing experience portrayed on the front of those iconic silver boxes. The studio knows there's enormous marketing power in box art, and it took the time and care to dress up its games in technicolor dream coats. We're all in agreement that Konami deserves to be recognized for its work. Being a clever and astute bunch, many of you noted that games by Konami (and its subsidiary, Ultra Games) rightfully featured prominently in the line-up. On top of the art, I also included a little game play action or a commercial for each one.Last week, I singled out some of the best box art adorning NES games. You can't judge a game by its cover, even if the cover of the book looks awesome. I know I only wanted to play the games with the radical art on the cover. ![]() I'm sure the good art helped in the marketing and selling of the game. There was a lot of logo art, a lot of pixilated art, and some really bad art. A lot of the game art just wasn't like that back in the day. An artist actually put in some effort into making it feel badass. Castlevania sure seemed to know what they were doing when it came to the art as the first three games top the list.Įach piece that I included actually has some artistic flare too it. One of the other things I noticed is that the bad art outweighed the good, so I thought I'd pluck out a few of the coolest NES game cartridge illustrations that I came across and do a little post for them. As I was skimming through some stuff, a lot of video game cartridge images were popping up and I noticed there was some really cool art that was created for some of these games. It got me thinking about all the games I used to play back in the day, and I started looking up some old stuff to reminisce on those good old days. I recently posted a great piece of art that featured a little kid blowing into an original Nintendo Entertainment System game cartridge. ![]()
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