Box Art Brawl: Kid Icarus (NES)
Hello everyone, welcome to another edition of Box art war!
Before we get into this week’s fight, let’s take a look at how things went last time. We have looked Balloon battle for the NES, a classic Joust-inspired game from legendary developers like Satoru Iwata and Yoshio Sakamoto. It was a close call on this one, but in the end, the pixel art black box seen in the US won the day with 42% of the vote. Japan reached 33%, while Europe reached 24%.
This week, we’re taking a look at another NES classic: Icarus Boy. Released in 1986 in Japan and 1987 in the West, Kid Icarus went on to become a real favorite with Nintendo fans. Masahiro Sakurai’s 3DS sequel, Kid Icarus: Rebellionis also largely considered one of the handheld’s best games.
It’s another three-way brawl this week, and the participants have quite a bit in common with last week’s Balloon Fight in terms of their overall approach. Let’s start with it.
Be sure to cast your vote in the poll below; But first, let’s take a look at the box art designs.
North America
So yes, this is indeed the quintessential pixel art box design seen on many NES titles in the US. It’s not quite the ‘black box’ we’re used to, but the overall design is very familiar. It shows off the potential gameplay quite well, and we’re still actually quite fond of that Pit sprite.
Europe
We get a better look at Pit in this strangely quiet image decorating the European box. Hovering in mid-air while aiming his trusty bow, Pit’s design is certainly quite different from what we might be used to today, but it’s quite pleasing in its simplicity.
Japan
Japan has the same Pit image as its European counterpart, but get this… He’s got a little more edge (inspired!) and he’s been given an angelic yellow glow ( garish!). The overall colors are also a bit lighter, and we’re completely using Japanese text for the game’s title. Lovely things.
Thank you for voting! See you next time for another round of Box Art Brawl.
