This has to be one of the strangest choices of a US localization ever. I have no idea who thought Americans would want a random weeb puzzle game.
This has to be one of the strangest choices of a US localization ever.
This has to be one of the strangest choices of a US localization ever. I have no idea who thought Americans would want a random weeb puzzle game.
I just really like the knock-off Hanna-Barbera art style they choose for some of these, like the Pocky and Rocky American cover
very well missed.
This one is vomit-inducing, poor Sayo looks 50 here
Pocky looks like she fricks.
Yes but only because she looks like someone's mom
This has it's own charm but yeah, western artists had NO idea how to adapt cutesy anime style art until the mid 2000s or so.
>This has it's own charm
It's about as charming as those creepy cartoon characters painted outside sketchy daycare centers
Eh, the Pocky & Rocky cover looks kooky, like the games are, so it fits pretty well. On the other hand, the "creepy Bert" one you posted is not intended to be kooky.
>it fits pretty well
The drunk middle aged auntie look doesn't fit the cute protagonist and is generally not an appealing design for a video game character.
Missed the point. And it was appealing to audiences back then, so you're wrong. I get what you're trying to say, but it doesn't fit with the broader context of the game's release and content.
>it was appealing to audiences back then
Was it? The choice of replacing a young character for young audiences to relate to with a mature woman was unusual back then as it is today.
I can see the appeal and familiarity of the rest of the picture, but the rendition of the protagonist is genuinely baffling.
Also there are more infamous americanized covers with (Megaman games, Phalanx, ICO) than popular ones.
Well, people bought it despite the cover, so I assume it was amusing and not in an ironic way. But I was also a Sega kid during that gen, so I don't have any first-hand experience with P&R, only hearing that it was popular.
I don't see it as "young woman to mature woman", though, and I think you guys are looking far too deep into it to see that. Seems more like it's just an odd perspective for a "Judy Jetson" type face, though I'd argue it still works for the kookiness of the source material.
On my "odd perspective" comment: caricatures of people to make them look "more cartoony" looked a lot like the one Pocky has there, so it's probably something intended as lighthearted or comical rather than as an age difference.
Needless to say, though, no (or few) major cover artist knew how to translate the anime appeal to Western audiences back then.
pvre sovl, weebs malding.
I was thinking the same.
I love that early 90s H-B revival we had in pop culture. Glad I was there to enjoy it as a kid.
>I love that early 90s H-B revival we had in pop culture
I don't think people talk about that enough, that 90's HB resurgence was big enough that it influenced the art style of cartoons for the next 20 years. Things like Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff girls. The current so-called "calarts" style is shit but no cartoons in the 80's looked like the 90's style either
>And I think it's hipster/contrarian to take the opposite position.
I just like cartoons. I don't think they're better than the original but the OP example is faithful enough to the original character designs so it gets a bit of respect from me, less so the Pocky and Rocky covers.
The American cover of Mystical Ninja blows the Japanese version out of the water though
>The American cover of Mystical Ninja blows the Japanese version out of the water though
the japanese original is still soulful and faithful to the in-game characters, but I do like the overwhelming, eccentric art of the american cover. It reminds me of Garbage Pail Kids or something. It has that early 90s extreme action vibe that other Konami games also had, but in Mystical Ninja's case it's also very wacky and zany.
The Dexter's Lab and PPG aesthetic is partially derived from Soviet animation, since the guy who directed those shows grew up in Russia.
The Japanese cover suits the wacky tone of the Goemon games, but I think more importantly it also works how it does because audiences already know those characters in Japan. As the debut of them in the West, something else had to be done. It's not my first choice, but it gets the attention and sells the concept of Goemon being a crazy fuedal adventure than "Goemon here and also Ebisumaru wearing a ballerina's leotard and tutu"
>something else had to be done
Not really. It's ok if some people to miss the reference. It happens in Japan too.
NTA but it was probably a big factor as to why TLotMN's cover looks like it does, though, regardless of necessity. Hence the surprising horseracing reference on it lol
Milk.
Hoochie mama
I resent the everliving shit out of the localization artstyles.
And I think it's hipster/contrarian to take the opposite position.
I'm
There's a lot of awful western localizations (like straight up ugly floating heads-style layout, brown and bloom shit from non-retro era, and so on). This stuff, however, I like. It's definitely western but it's colorful and soulful.
I don't like them necessarily better than the japanese originals, but I can appreciate the western ones too and bring me back to a bygone era, too.
In some cases, though, the western design surpassed the japanese (like many Konami stuff from NES, SNES and MD)
>In some cases, though, the western design surpassed the japanese
in order to do that they would have to represent the content of the game better than the original illustrations.
The japanese cover pictures are made by the lead designers of the games, to they're inherently better than any imitation.
4th gen shovelware
We have Gals Panics at home, that was its selling point. I don't think it's a bad game
I wish to screw the pink-haired girl.
These things are a dime a dozen in Japan. Most senseless localization next to City Connection.
What constitutes "getting hit" in this game because nothing's coming anywhere near me and I'm just dying.
>Cacoma Knight
>kakomanai to
>gotta surround them
Heh.
>weeb puzzle game
No such thing back then.