Poll: Box Art Brawl

Assemble your best team of warriors, kings, wizards and burglars, because it’s time to embark on a Box Art Brawl adventure.

But before Gandalf comes a-knocking, let’s take a look at what went down last week, when we matched up two different covers for Blast Corps. In the battle of East and West, Japan came out on top, with the badass ‘Blastdozer’ cover taking 58% of the vote and leaving Europe and North America with the remaining 42%.

If you hadn’t guessed it by now, we’re taking a trip to Middle Earth this week (what can we say? Tales of the Shire has put us in the mood for something… else) as we match up two covers for The Hobbit on Game Boy Advance. Now, is it the best LOTR game out there? Not by a long shot, but it throws up two drastically different cover designs, so prepare for some whiplash.

North America / Europe

You might expect the design for a game of The Hobbit — a children’s book, let’s not forget — to be bright, colourful, and full of fun. Not in the West, it seems. The North American and European design is all about the gloom, with slightly uncanny Bilbo standing front and centre, and uncanny Gandalf and Smaug looming behind.

Despite the gloominess, we quite like the design on this one. It promises drama and adventure in a way that the game never really delivered on, but there’s no denying that ol’ Mr Baggins looks rather heroic.

Japan

Okay, now this is something else entirely. The Japanese design goes ham with the bright colours, placing Bilbo, Gandalf and Smaug (now joined by Gollum) in broad daylight, with the Lonely Mountain and Mirkwood backdrop not looking quite so menacing. The One Ring also makes an appearance on this one, you know, if you were curious which Hobbit the game was about.

Thanks for voting! We’ll see you next time for another Box Art Brawl.