90's American box art has that flashy in your face look with those dark blues and super exaggerated facial expressions while Japanese box art has that subtle feel with the soft whites and toned down facial expressions. Quite a contrast in style back then.

I always loved the Japanese cover arts! The sonic ones were so flashy and the kirby ones so cute!!

That transition from Crash to Yakuza was smooth.

I’ve read that the differences in box art is because in America, cute styled things are for kids. While in japan cuteness is just an art style. Hence Kirby frowning. It’s to make him look less kiddy. Also why Crash was changed so much.

0:33 I mean Megaman still looks really impressive for the NES.

Another think about Yakuza is the name, in Japan it's called "Ryu Ga Gotoku" which translates to "Like a Dragon", the name would late be the subtitle of Yakuza 7 and now with the 8th game, it seems like Yakuza is no longer called Yakuza but rather the original Japanese name "Like a Dragon".

To be fair on Sonic Spinball, it was developed my the American team at STI (this is shown by the SatAM characters in the bonus stages and Sonic resembling the Greg Martin design more than the original Sonic 1 appearance. It also "treats" your ears to audio produced with the GEMS sound driver, which was popular with US devs and is the source of truly the compositions ever produced), so it makes sense that it would come out in America and Europe before Japan. Japan still has the better boxart though, so that's the one I use for Spinball in my Steam library (with the exception of the Game Gear version, since the Greg Martin artwork just seems more "Game Gear" to me).

2:40 Kid Icarus isn't displaying anger, he's showing focus and concentration, which if you ever watched someone prepare to fire a bow, they're completely concentrated on firing at their target.

I love how Sonic is more serious in the Japanese box art and more happy in the International release, mirroring Kirby.

7:02 when I saw the cover for the first time, I was like "Sonic looks HD" before I realized that HD didn't exist in the 90s

1:03 Dr Wily looks like, he just invented the atom bomb

The reason why Kirby had a more meaner look in the US cover art is to make him look fiercer because Japanese devs think that the muricans prefer their playable video game protagonists to be aggressive, you can see this with the Crash Bandicoot cover arts too. In fact, there even exist an official US ad of Kirby being depicted as a criminal complete with inmate facial hair so....yeah....you get the idea now.

Your editing style has been improving 👀

Interesting to note when it comes to different box art for video games. The covers for the first "Ape Escape" game in Japan, America and Europe were also quite different as well.

American Sonic: Oh look how 90s cool he is, He(s) so cool! American Kirby: Oh look how cute he is, But where is the Colors American Mega Man: 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

I prefer old guy with banjo

Japan: Cute US: Edgy Europe: Everything goes

Hell yeah, Crash mention! The sometimes arbitrary changes they made to the series in Japan has always been so fascinating to me :0

Ristar was also different in America in Japan, he was like Sega’s Kirby in that regard, they both travel to different planets, they are both Star Children, Ristar came out in 1995 and Kirby Superstar 1996 so technically Ristar did the whole Milky Way Wishes thing first.

I'm actually writing my thesis on this subject, so this video was very interesting and very informative. Thank you!

8:00 you could say, a new frontier I'll see myself out

I am still envious for Japan for their box art of Ocarina Of Time 3D.

Yooo, Kirby mentioned! Box art is always very interesting anyways!

The American box art almost always has like 200 shades of one colour while the European and Japanese box art have a single colour

2:53 spyro on the american box art looks like hanna-barbera’s wally gator

man i thought this was a 1 mil channel and i was shocked that it was only 21K? after i watched this i went and watched like half of your videos and i gotta say man you are great! you are videos are amazing and the presentation is really good i love your content man keep on doing videos id like to see you a youtube star one day stay awesome!

Yakuza 3's Japanese boxart is artistically striking. The West is just "just get his model and chuck up some generic oriental themed background". 😅

I’m glad they went with these edgier covers for America cause seeing them side by side with the other ones I generally prefer them to this day. They were smart to do that cause sometimes people would select a game not by word of mouth but by judging it by it’s cover especially in a video rental store.

Sonic, I remember. I was so confused about how to draw Sonic. I had Sonic for Sega master system wuth the Japanese cover, and Sonic for Mega Drive with the American cover. I ended to learn to draw(from memory) the Japanese Sonic because I though he was cuter. I didn't like the mohawk thing. My brother instead learned to draw the American Sonic. In Italy you could easily see both version of Sonic.

The American boxart for Sonic always got too much hate when it came to comparison with the Japanese boxart. In a way, it's really cool because it's almost reminiscent of movie posters for action flicks.

I always prefer the Japanese cover arts

Great stuff as always, Kiro! Personally, when it comes to older games like those released in the 1980s and 1990s (and even a couple in the 2000s) I have a general preference for the Japanese box arts over their American counterparts, and this is true for many franchises. Kirby and Sonic are the two biggest examples of this, but some others include Klonoa, Mario and Mega Man. Though, this doesn't mean I think every American box art from that era isn't worth anything, since they can be pretty great as well at times!

This channel is something special. Can't believe I'm just now finding it! Awesome content, keep it up!

I think the four fingers are censored because alot of Japanese work with machine and often lose fingers same thing happened with oddworld on the ps1

The fact that he actually had to ponder over the Yakuza 3 box art just astounds me

2:13 THATS RA-

@1:15 "like megaman's expression changing SLIGHTLY" ughhh they changed his whole face lmaooooo

Sonic spinball Japan looks like Sonic just installed a Sandevistan cyber deck into his spine

why does the left backround look like the dutch flag lmfao

I think I am probably the only one who finds Frontiers' JP boxart to be awkward. The lighting of the scenery looks like a little desaturated compared to Sonic, making him look like he's just awkwardly photshopped onto the cover. Side note: I remember how the EU boxart for Record of Agarest War (or Agarest: Generations of War in Europe) was supposed to be a grumpy adult dude that looks like he's awkwardly cosplaying as the protagonist. Good thing the final boxart had gone for the anime art style that the actual game has.

The american mentality toward games, comics 'kids don't want to be treated like kids), so, according to this, a comic, a game destined to kids, 9-10 years old, must feature adult characters, so kids don't feel treated like kids. I must say when i reached that age, I started to watch anime. It featured characters of my age (at that time) instead of adult characters.

4 fingers also relates to superstition regarding the number 4 in Japan. The number 4 is closely related to death, and if you played Silent Hill the number 4 is used for horror effect.

1:00 Hold on now, the European versions slap... I need to move over there! 😂

Idk how the fact that Y1 and Y2 having literally almost the same box art didn't irk you. The second game having 2 guys instead of one is the most logical thing ever, and they blew it

7:40 I could not stop my laugh here 🤣

Bad Box Art Megaman also got mentioned again in the animated series called Megaman: Fully Charged (I forgot the name) where a human vigilante wore a suit made out of cardboard that looks like bad box art megaman and went by the name ManMan.

It's weird that both Knuckles chaotix and Mcdonalds treasure land adventure have the american box art flipped for the european release.

Yo new kiro talks vid

My favorite Sonic Box Art ever is Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast.

7:09 Sonic Spinball was developed by Sega Technical Institute in the US, so it makes sense why I came out there first. Also, the Japanese version has a few changes such as translated text and a different (and way better) death jingle.

0:04 what is this room thing? Is it a game or a VR type thing?

I need more box art cover videos

Nice video! Thank god this video and this channel appeared in my home feed! You seriously have a lot of potential my friend! I wish you great amounts of happiness and success! :)

If videogames kept the cutesy Japanese style in America there probably wouldn't be as much of that 'videogames causing violence' controversy.

i really like that segue into the yakuza franchise. i also really like the yakuza franchise.

Crash being a yakuza member? Bro, a crossover game with Kazuma Kiryu from Like A Dragon? Would be so cool

The Professor Layton differences in box art are crazy, especially Miracle Mask. In Japan it uses that white background like Yakuza

Sonic 2, 3, & Spinball were made in the United States. Also, I love the American Sonic Boxarts.

7:04 sega wanted to tell Japanese people that sonic is Italian just like Mario to remain competitive

My favorite when Kirby triple deluxe USA and Japan box it's a little bit different color,s

The US Phalanx cover inspired one of my favorite web comic one-offs. I wish I remembered the artist but it was about an old war vet of some space war. It was very touching.

While I do overall prefer the japanese covers in most cases throughout cover history, I do still enjoy seeing the creative western ones.

you should see the EU box art for Mega Man 2 lol

Actually shocked u only have 23k subs. U deserve way more

Yes I knew I wasn’t the only one I felt this way Thank you for making this video

That's the Netherlands flag on the thumbnail

The easiest way to tell which is the better box art? Just ask yourself which would make the better poster you'd hang on your wall.

Oh boy..

0:49 that jessie from team rocket ?

Aka the Virgin American Box Art vs The Chad Japanese Box Art

0:28 thats the reason why the first Mega Man didn't do well here in North America.

Spyro in Japan: cute🥰 Spyro in America: confidently cold 🥶

personally, i prefer the japenese box art of sonic frontiers than the worldwide box art. just like with breath of the wild's box art that's not present in the european one, the japanese box art truly conveys the message and emotion that sonic is about to explore a whole new world that neither he nor anyone else has ever known about before. the box art that we got outside of japan just more so gives off the feeling of playing another standard modern sonic boost game instead of exploring an open-ended world. and while yes there is in fact some of that stuff in the game, those things don't really take up the remainder portion of exploring the vast empty world. to me, those parts are supposed to act as supplements instead of the key main thing you're doing to which i think the worldwide box art kind of tried to play off as the key thing you'll be doing for the entirety of the game. many times, i wish we'd get box arts that more so truly sells in on the actual significant things you'll be getting into instead of showing off some random cool shot for stupid marketing purposes.

The crash thing may also be because the number 4 represents death in Japan which is most commonly seen with villains (see the robot masters in the megaman where they put the ring and middle finger together to make it look like they have 4 fingers) and crash isn’t a villain so they have him 5 fingers instead

The Eurasian Sonic 3-D blast cover art was pretty scarier in this design

I imagine the finger change was because of the superstition around 4, like we have for 13 in the west.

Resident Evil 4: Leon vs Ganado Biohazard 4: Spooky figure in red misty forest.

The segway from talking about the four fingers of crash being attributed to practices of the yakuza to talking about the game Yakuza was genious.

Of course the game called Phalanx has a ship with a phallic shape in it's box art

I actually don't mind the American design of sonic granted I understand why so many people like the style of the Japanese style of sonic I like that design as well as well as the American design of sonic as well honestly I belive that both designs of him are my favorites they both are uquinqe in there own special way

Me at the 3:12 mark: Oh that’s right. Konami made video games.

7:12 Sonic 2, 3, Sonic Spinball and Sonic & Knuckles were all made in the USA. So it's not too weired.

hold up the lady talking to human version of mega man sounds like jessie from team rocket

It would be cool if u had a discord server

American Kirby is Badass

The finger thing also happend with abes Oddesy

Remember Double Dragon's artwork? In both Japan and the US, the artists can't make up their minds on -Billy- Bimmy and Jimmy Lee's official appearances unlike how well they did on River City characters. They keep changing the Lee Brothers' looks from Bruce Lee's Billy Lo & Tang Lung, to The Warrior's Swan & Ajax, to Fist of the North Star's Kenshiro & Ein, and to looking like Chuck Norris & Benny Urquidez on the box-art of the desperate Atari 2600 port.

What about silver megaman from mm2 european cover?

I disagree entirely on the Japanese Sonic Frontiers cover. It straight up looks like they took some random render of Sonic and put it over a screengrab from the game.

The mega man amercian box art is unexplainably weird

Japan - lets make it cute and silly lookin- Amarica - MAKE IT ANGRY, CUTENESS IS FOR THE JAPANESE, AGGRESSION IS 'MURRICA

I honestly would prefer if every region had its own box art bc its easy to buy from any region these days

Sometimes I think in art box for Japan, they removed the background because unlike us, Japanese look at the background picture first and not the subjects. Like, the Gioconda, a Japanese viever would look at what is behind the woman in Leonardo's painting.

The guy holding a blaster on the mega Man cover does not look that old

I have a White WiiU. Although, I'm buying a black one soon to replace it (if the replacement runs better).

remember ICO American box art

you shouldve talked about chrono trigger's and earthbounds box arts!

American box art can sometimes be weird

In a few exceptions in good early North American box art I think the NA River City Ransom goes hard

Oh so that's why Sonic has 5 fingers