Prototypes, concepts, and unused art of many Nintendo Games.

[Edgerock]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread. ... 455&page=2

Wow at all the stuff shown so far in all the pages. The hand drawn NSMBW cover for example looks so much better. Or that Tingle train...

[Crowbar]

Oh God, that sketch for the NSBW boxart looks incredible. As does this frustratingly cropped Mario Kart sketch.

[gr4yJ4Y]

The NSMBW cover reminds me of the Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Cover. I think the cover they went with better suites the spirit of the game.

[Crowbar]

You mean how it's bland and has no composition?

[Esrever]

The NSMB and NSMBWii box designs are brilliant, though, because they instantly and perfectly communicate what kind of games they are: classic Mario sidescrollers.

You've got to remember, there are like 8 billion different Mario games on the shelves these days. But one quick glimpse of the NSMB box will immediately tell you that THIS one is not a party game or a sports game or a 3D platformer or an RPG... even if you have never heard of it and haven't bought a Mario title in 15 years, even if you are a mother or father who doesn't really follow or care about games much. Everyone knows what a Mario game looks like. Mushrooms, question blocks, pipes, 2D perspective. The covers say it all. NSMB is a classic Mario game where you can get really big. NSMBWii is a classic Mario game that you can play with four people. They may not be the world's most exciting illustrations, but from a marketing perspective they are total genius.

I love the drawing they used for that face-off style cover. It'd be cool to see a finished version as a poster or something! But as a cover, what would that tell the consumer? That it's a fighting game? I can see why they didn't go there.

[Kogen]

The NSMB and NSMBWii box designs are brilliant, though, because they instantly and perfectly communicate what kind of games they are: classic Mario sidescrollers.

You've got to remember, there are like 8 billion different Mario games on the shelves these days. But one quick glimpse of the NSMB box will immediately tell you that THIS one is not a party game or a sports game or a 3D platformer or an RPG... even if you have never heard of it and haven't bought a Mario title in 15 years, even if you are a mother or father who doesn't really follow or care about games much. Everyone knows what a Mario game looks like. Mushrooms, question blocks, pipes, 2D perspective. The covers say it all. NSMB is a classic Mario game where you can get really big. NSMBWii is a classic Mario game that you can play with four people. They may not be the world's most exciting illustrations, but from a marketing perspective they are total genius.

I love the drawing they used for that face-off style cover. It'd be cool to see a finished version as a poster or something! But as a cover, what would that tell the consumer? That it's a fighting game? I can see why they didn't go there.

Thanks for explaining to us how boxart influences the casual nitwits of video gaming. The good ol' cover judges.

[Esrever]

Well, those are the people you are really designing the cover for. People who already know about (and want) the game don't need the cover to convince them! :)

Like, everyone craps (rightly) on that shitty American Ico cover... but I imagine the only people that it actually discouraged from buying the game were people who didn't know what Ico was. The folks who DID know would have bought it even if the cover was just a photo of a potato. Your cover is your sales pitch to the people who've never heard of you.

[Green Gibbon!]

Marketing can wipe my ass.

The NSMB Wii cover still sucks.

[Crowbar]

To be honest, even if it is an accurate representation of the game, the existing NSBW cover is so unfathomably bland that it makes it look like shovelware (moreso given how much of it there already is on the Wii).

At least that sketch makes it look like an actual game, and a reasonably exciting one at that. I suppose if the average consumer actually likes bland, generic, uninspired non-games instead of well-designed, entertaining experiences then the final cover will sell more, but if that's the case then I want them to fuck off my hobby.

By the way, I'm not sure how your point about the Ico cover art helps your argument. So you're saying that crappy cover art discourages the layman from buying a product? Well...that's hardly a defence of the NSBW boxart, is it?

[Crowbar]

Good lord am I ever being sour lately.

Apologies.

[Isuka]

Well, they aren't the only games that could use better boxart.

But yeah, I do agree that the mediocrity of NSMB's and NSMBW's covers faithfully reflect the mediocrity of the games themselves, quite appropriate.

[Crowbar]

I think God Hand's is pretty funny, personally, and it's an immediately distinct and striking image, too. And, while I haven't played the game, from what I've heard of it it seems fitting.

[Segaholic2]

The soundtrack cover is even funnier. They probably censored the game cover for whatever reason.

[Crowbar]

Wait...that's the actual soundtrack cover? I've seen that image before but I thought it was just a fanmade edit!

That is so awesome.

[Edgerock]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=387706

All the concept arts on one page and organized better.

[Esrever]

I just think maybe you guys are mistaking utility for blandness, is all. The NSMB box art is not a terribly exciting piece of artwork. It's not something I'm going to hang on my wall. But it is an excellent piece of visual communication. People aren't buying it because they go crazy for bland art, they are buying it because of the message the art is sending about the content of the game: that unlike the millions of other Mario titles you've seen on the shelves over the last decade, is a platformer. (The face off artwork, as rad as it is, doesn't convey that at all.) That is a very smart design decision, one that they've adhered to not only on the box, but in all the advertising for the game.

[Rob-Bert]

A board full of cynics doesn't understand utility, Esrever. They only play on their side of the fence.

[Crowbar]

You can have utility without blandness.

[Green Gibbon!]

Utility can wipe my ass.

The NSMB Wii cover still sucks.

[Yami CJMErl]

I like that Pokemon concept art--looks like someone smushed together a Latias and a Blaziken.

[gr4yJ4Y]

I think the average consumer could easily mistake the face-off NSMBW cover as one of a new Mario Party. I'm not saying the cover they went with was a great cover. But even disregarding the marketing, when these two are put side-by-side I'd still say the current cover better fits the game.

[Edgerock]

Damn. Would have preferred that to the Propeller Suit.

[Yami CJMErl]

Haha, it looks like "Mario X Billy Hatcher".

[Shadow Hog]

Obviously cut because it'd make Yoshi useless. Mario could just lay and toss his OWN eggs.

[Rob-Bert]

It's not like they used Yoshi anywhere but a few levels in the first few worlds anyway, so... why the hell not?