Three recently revealed Japanese box arts that ring my bell

You know what my favorite discussion thread is over on NeoGAF? The one that's devoted to "new Japanese box arts."

Anyway, while perusing the thread this past weekend I came across the following trio of recently revealed pieces of Japanese cover art--all of which really tripped my trigger, so to speak.

Because I'm "that kind" of gaming geek, I thought I'd share them (and chat about them) here.

1. Game & Wario (Wii U)--It pains me to say this, but I have little to no interest in this forthcoming (it's due out in both Japan and North America on March 28) Wii U title. In part that's because Game & Wario doesn't follow the tried-and-true mini-game format of the WarioWare series, and in part it's because I just haven't been impressed by what I've seen of this wonderfully titled spin-off. That said, I'm loving the game's Japanese cover art, so at least it has that going for it.

2. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle (PS3)--Full disclosure: I'm no fan of fighting games. Although I used to like the genre quite a bit back in the days when Street Fighter II and its ilk ruled the arcade roost, I've since switched my allegiance to other genres, like puzzlers and adventure games. Still, if I owned a PS3, I'd probably have a tough time keeping myself from buying this CyberConnect2-developed, Namco Bandai-published battler that's based on Hirohiko Araki's manga series.

3. Sei Madou Monogatari (Vita)--When I first heard that Madou Monogatari was going to make a glorious return to the gaming world, I was beyond thrilled. When I heard it was going to be released for the Vita, I was a bit less so--and I was downright pissed when I heard that it wouldn't feature Arle, the protagonist of pretty much every previous title in this series. On the positive side, Sei Madou Monogatari, which will hit Japanese store shelves on March 28, looks a lot like Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, which is a very good thing.

See also: Additional posts about box art

My, er, Wii U Experience experience

As some of you (i.e. those of you who follow me on Twitter) already know, I attended the "Wii U Experience" event Nintendo of America held in downtown Seattle last night.

In case you've never heard of them before now, these invite-only events have been held in cities across the country over the last month or so and provide attendees with a bit of hands-on time with Nintendo's next console and a number of its games (both first- and third-party).

As far as I can remember, the following games were demoed during the "Wii U Experience" I attended: Batman: Arkham City--Armored Edition, Game & Wario, Just Dance 4, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U, Project P-100, Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends, Sing, Wii Fit U, Wii U Panorama View and ZombiU.

I think Scribblenauts Unlimited, and possibly another game or two, may have been at the event as well, but I'm not sure about that. (The venue where the "Wii U Experience" was held had a number of rooms, and I didn't go into all of them, shockingly enough.)

Anyway, of all of the aforementioned games, I personally got to, well, experience just four of them: Game & Wario, Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U and the still-tentatively-titled (I hope) Project P-100.

Below are my impressions of each of those titles, as well as a few thoughts on some of the games I simply watched other people play.

* Game & Wario--If there was a Wii U game at this event that disappointed me, or at least confused me, it was this one. For starters, I find the art style used here to be kind of off-putting, especially when compared to the style that's been used in the most recent WarioWare titles.

The oddly childish (in a bad way) art style employed here isn't Game & Wario's main problem, though; no, that would be its rather unappealing gameplay. You see, rather than rapidly throwing a series of hilarious (or at least mildly humorous), single-player-focused mini-games at players like WarioWare does, this Wii U title tosses a bunch of slower-paced (as in, some of them have time limits that last for a number of minutes), multi-player-focused games at them.