2009's ultimate box art roundup - Part one

Considering 2009 gave birth to the horrendous, hate-filled creature that is Aussie-Nintendo's weekly box art roundup, it's only fitting we start a new annual feature; one that involves gathering up a bunch of images from the past year, then typing some words. That already sounds tiring. Welcome to 2009's ultimate box art roundup! It has 'ultimate' in the title, so you'd better wear a jacket. Think of this as a 'game of the year' type affair, but just focusing on box art, because really, that's the only part that matters.

This is part one, but stay tuned, because we'll have the 'worst of' 2009 up soon enough, along with a grab bag section that just couldn't possibly be rated. Enjoy!


The House of the Dead: Overkill: I'm almost tempted to swap my NSMB Wii case with this, just to complete the red. Headstrong nailed the presentation in every possible way (long night), so of course the grindhouse-style box art is awesome. The only possible thing that could have made this better would be Detective Washington holding an ice cream.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World: Honestly, it almost hurts to praise Namco Bandai Europe after the disgusting amount of time this game took to get localised, but there's no denying that the PAL version has a stunning cover. A year and a bit well spent. I mean, they've somehow managed to pull off the tiring 'cram as many characters on there as possible' thing in an almost relaxing way. Really, the soft use of colour is... calming. Maybe I'm just drunk.


Another Code: A Journey into Lost Memories: Shame some wanker had to whack on that gaudy looking 'it's like a book, but it's a video game - ah haw haw haw' circle, but otherwise, this is a class act. Different and refreshingly laid back; but maybe Ashley rocking out on stage with her father crowd surfing would have been cooler.

Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy: Released mid-2009 in PAL regions, this is another game that suffered an absurd delay but saw a huge improvement in the box art department (click here for the American version). Being such an obscure, limited release, not even the internet seems to know about this cover. The internet. I had to scan it in myself, which is why it's got that... bendy thing on the left. Sshh. The whole thing is pixel art. Glorious, nonsensical pixel art.


Punch-Out!!: It's like an explosion of excitement. Perhaps they should have rebranded it as Excite Punch or something, the final boss could be a truck. It's mind blowing that Australian retailers didn't want anything to do with this game, that's some seriously eye-catching box art.

Sin & Punishment 2: Stylish and moody as Hell. I hear that joint's pretty hip. Actually, with enough effort, I could probably hear my actual hip joint. What am I talki- oh Sin & Punishment 2 – making ridiculous shorts look awesome. There's a 1080° Avalanche vibe to the character art, and that's always a good thing. Here's hoping Nintendo doesn't mess with this too much when/if it gets localised.


Big Bang Mini: What's this, an animated GIF to sap away precious bandwidth? Arkedo and SouthPeak did something very special with Big Bang Mini, giving it the very first animated, lenticular cover for a video game. It's very impressive; although sadly this was exclusive to America. Europe and Australia just got a plain old boring, non-animated cover. You can still tilt it back and forth, but you might look a bit weird in doing so.

Jake Hunter: Memories of the Past: This was Aksys' second attempt at bringing over the long-running Jake Hunter visual novel series. The first release bombed out, suffering from a sloppy localisation with dull, stilted dialogue and huge chunks of the storyline completely missing, but this is such a massive improvement. The box art is suitably fitting - classy and mature. The whole package is something of a rare beast on the DS.


Last Window: Midnight Promise (Hotel Dusk 2): Unlike that loser in the background, Kyle Hyde is too cool for footpaths. Traffic has to get out of his way. This box art screams “I'm awesome, you can also be awesome if you play this game”, very loudly. Please don't muck this cover up, Nintendo of America/Europe. Kyle Hyde will stand in your parking lot if you do, and he won't move. Ever.

Dementium II: I hate when that happens. People will be able to relate to this cover; they'll think about the last time a hand came out of their mouth to grab their face. “I was driving when it happened, I almost ran over some cool looking guy walking down the middle of the road!” A unique and attention-grabbing look to the slim horror genre on DS.


By Lance McGill (Infernal Monkey)