Five favorites: Japanese Game Gear box art

Now that the holiday season is over, it's about time I got back to discovering my favorite pieces of box art, don't you think?

This time around, I'm going to focus on that brick-sized handheld of yesteryear, Sega's Game Gear.

As the header above suggests, each of the cover illustrations below appeared on copies of Japanese Game Gear games at one point or another.

House of Tarot--I've never played this first-party tarot-reading simulator and I'm not sure I ever will, but I sure like its cover art. That's mainly because it screams "old-school Sega" (or at least it does to me), although I also really like its peachy color scheme and its prickly logo.

Ninja Gaiden--I can't speak for how well this game stacks up to the arcade original, but its box art is awesome, don't you think? I mean, it features a ninja (duh), missiles, some kind of zombie-like being, and a whole lot of purple. Yeah, it's awesome.

Phantasy Star Gaiden--Hey, more purple! I guess I really like purple packaging--at least when it comes to video games. Anyway, I think this may be my favorite piece of Game Gear-related box art, but don't quote me on that.

Puyo Puyo--Could this cover illustration be any more cheerful or colorful? I doubt it. Granted, I like pretty much any piece of box art that features this series' gelatinous logo, but even then this one manages to stick out from the crowd.

Shining Force Gaiden II--Yes, this piece of box art also features a lot of purple. It features some really nice character illustrations, too, though, so I'm including it here even though doing so means this post could be re-titled, "Five favorites: purple-tinged box art." Anyway, I really could have chosen any of the Shining Force Gaiden covers, as all three of them are top-shelf creations.

Be on the lookout for a second "five favorites" post devoted to Japanese Game Gear box art in the next week or so.

Shinobi x Ninja Gaiden x Strider, you say?

I know retro-tinged indie games are a dime a dozen these days, but I can't help but be attracted to some of them.

Take the focus of this post, for instance--which calls to mind such 8-bit standbys as Shinobi, Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden and Strider. You'd have to have a heart of stone--or have started playing games after the 16-bit era--to not find JoyMasher's Oniken at least somewhat appealing, in my opinion.



Does this mean I've already picked up--for $4.99, via Desura--and spent some quality time with this colorful side-scroller? Not yet, but that's not due to a lack of interest on my part. Rather, it's because my backlog is already too full of un-played games (check out some of my recent "Acquisition #123" posts for a few examples) for me to start another one.

That said, don't be too surprised if you see me update the "Now Playing" section of this blog to include Oniken in the coming weeks.