[Article] Curiosities on video game covers 5

A few years ago I wrote a series of articles about curiosities in video games, some of them focused exclusively on their covers. These were a place where many homages (and plagiarisms) were hidden that generally went unnoticed at that time, but seeing them today they are an inexhaustible source of surprises. So I intend to continue the saga with a fifth installment of Curiosities on video game covers. I hope you like it.

Double Dragon: hair dyes and epic showdowns

He latest curiosities article on covers was dedicated entirely to games that were inspired (or blatantly plagiarized) by actors specialized in action films such as Arnold Swarzenegger, Silvester Stallone or Jean Claude Van Damme.  On this occasion I am going to start the article by talking about other veterans of the action, specifically the brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, protagonists of the saga Double Dragon.

As with Mario and Luigi in their first games, Billy and Jimmy shared the same sprite, changing only the color of their outfit (blue for Billy, red for Jimmy). Another way to tell them apart was their hair color, since Billy was blonde and Jimmy was brown.

Although that method is not very reliable because, depending on the game you saw, it seemed that the Lee brothers shared the dye bottle, well It was never entirely clear which of the two was blonde and which was not.. Initially we see that Billy was blonde, then in later games we find that they both have brown hair and then that Billy is brunette and Jimmy is blonde.

The point of maximum confusion comes when we see that in Battletoads and Double Dragon, Jimmy appears blonde on the cover, but he is dark in the game... Let them decide once and for all!

One of the most legendary confrontations in martial arts movies was the one that brought together two greats like Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee. There are many iconic scenes from this confrontation (my favorite is when Bruce Lee pulls Chuck Norris's chest hair) so it is not strange that it inspired an illustrator when making the cover of a game. In this case, that of the excellent Double Dragon Advance, where Billy and Jimmy take the place of Bruce and Chuck respectively.

When graphic art met martial art

Since I mention Bruce Lee, it goes without saying that his influence on video games is enormous, both in the creation of characters (Fei Long of Street Fighter, Law and his son in Tekken, Dragon in World Heroes…) as its appearance itself.

We have an example of the latter on the cover of Yie ar Kung Fu 2, sequel to one of the most influential (and sometimes forgotten) fighting games of its genre. The cover looks so similar to the real Bruce Lee that there is no doubt that its direct copy is quite accurate, since as I remember, in some versions of the first Yie Ar Kung Fu The name of the protagonist (Oolong) was changed to Lee.

And there is nothing that looks better than copying a photo of a martial artist, it doesn't matter if his name is Bruce Lee or Joe Lewis.

International signings

It is quite common that, if an athlete is good, rival teams pay millions to take him to their team. What is not so common is for this to happen on video game covers. Here we have the curious case of Kick of 2 (1988-1991) and Super Sidekicks 2 (1994), both with the same footballer celebrating the goal.

Most likely, both covers were based on a real photo, but because I don't understand much about football, I haven't been able to recognize the player (if anyone knows, please don't hesitate to let me know). In fact, it's entirely possible that all of the people featured on both covers are based on photos of real players.

Mirror mode

Mario Kart It is a very curious saga and has had a tremendous influence on video games, to the point that it could be considered a genre in itself, mainly due to the constant increase in clones of that game.

Although on this occasion I am not going to comment on any copy from cover to cover (or extreme inspiration) but rather one of those failures that seems incredible to happen, but they do happen.

On the cover of Mario Kart Double Dash! de Gamecube, se puede ver que la gorra de Luigi tiene la letra L invertida. Lo más seguro es que la imagen original estuviese hacia el lado contrario y al invertirla se olvidaron de arreglar ese detalle tan nimio (ya que si os fijáis, las letras del coche de Donkey Kong si que están al derecho).

art and sword

Y, para finalizar, un par de curiosidades bastante tontas pero que no dejan de tener su encanto.

Hace años era muy común que se cambiase la portada de una zona del mundo a otra (algo que se ha ido dejando de hacer para que el mismo producto sea reconocible en cualquier parte del mundo), de manera que no es raro que las portadas occidentales y las japonesas fuesen muy diferentes en más de una ocasión, lo cual normalmente significaba que un artista que nada tenía que ver con el desarrollo del juego se encargaba de hacer las portadas occidentales.

La portada de Super Ghouls and Ghosts de Super Nintendo que tuvimos en Europa y América era bastante intimidante y se alejaba mucho del estilo caricaturesco del juego. Obviamente el dibujante puso empeño en hacer la portada, y seguramente no había jugado jamás a un juego de la saga debido a que evitó dibujar la cara del protagonista tapándola completamente con la armadura. Más perdonable y, al mismo tiempo, más curioso es que el arma elegida para el caballero fuese la espada, arma relativamente común, pero desafortunada como elección para esta portada porque en ese juego Sir Arthur usa lanzas, dagas, hachas, antorchas, hoces… pero no espadas.

Caso similar sucede con el Aladdin de Super Nintendo, cuya portada nos muestra al protagonista subido en la alfombra mágica blandiendo una espada… que durante el juego no podemos usar.

Está claro que al crear la ilustración se más de hacer que fuese atractiva a la vista y  que encajase en el estilo horizontal de las cajas de Super Nintendo que en el contenido del juego. Eso sí, la decisión de incluir una espada en la portada es un tanto curiosa, debido a que en la película no era un arma propia del personaje. Vamos, que la usaba en alguna ocasión, pero tampoco era algo que lo definiese.  Al llegar el juego a Japón le cambiaron la portada por una ilustración diferente donde no llevaba la espada (aunque nunca sabremos si fue por gusto o por ser conscientes del fallo).

Y con esto acaba el artículo. Espero que os hayan gustado las  curiosidades y, en caso de saber alguna más, no dudéis en comentarlas, especialmente si reconocéis algún futbolista en las portadas de Kick Off 2 and Super Sidekiks 2.