I've talked about my favorite pieces of video game box art before, but now 1Up.com has gone ahead and explored a little into why some artwork is so very good and why other artwork is so very bad. It's an interesting read with plenty of pretty pictures, and I must say that I learned something new while reading the article: the artwork for the European version of Mega Man 2 is even worse than the artwork for the North American version of the original Mega Man. Seriously, if Mega Man were a real person he'd have fired his agent long ago.
The Mega Man series had an interesting collection of box art in its early years. The original game is infamous for its completely off-kilter design that barely bore a resemblance to the titular character. But this was actually relatively tame compared to the European cover of Mega Man 2, which featured a ridiculous shiny tin man reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz instead of the little robot we know and love.
I understand why publishers feel the need to augment and replace original artwork from time to time, but I think it's interesting that... no, no, sorry... I just can't get past that Mega Man 2 cover. The blue bomber looks like someone's creepy cousin enjoying a weekend at a fetish fantasy camp. That's not the Mega Man I know. I can't talk about this anymore. I think I need to go lie down for a while.
