Welcome back to Box Art Brawl, the series where we pit regional box art variants against one another in a fight for your vote.
Last time, the turn-based battle between Super Mario RPG and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Unnecessary Subtitle came to a head with North America ultimately walking away with 69% of the vote. Nice, indeed.
This week, we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Game Boy Advance with a cracking puzzler, Kuru Kuru Kururin. You control a constantly rotating propeller-like craft piloted by Kururin as he searches for his sisters.
This smashing little launch title didn’t see release in North America until it came to the Wii U Virtual Console in 2016. Fortunately, Australia and New Zealand — our PAL’s in the southern hemisphere — did receive the game, and with a different cover to Europe and Japan, too. So, we welcome those territories to the Brawl for the first time! Just to keep things three-way, like.
Enough prevarication — let’s go for a spin.
Europe
The EU cover gives us a a bland artist’s interpretation of the top-down gameplay found on the cart, with some motion-blurred spokes to the left of the Helirin giving the impression of motion.
The colours are warm, but it lacks the character (and characters) of the other covers. The logo is pretty great, though.
Japan
There’s plenty of blue, and much more personality, on the Japanese cover, although it gives you even less of a sense of what the game’s about than the EU version. A similarly impressive logo hovers to the left of Kururin and his pals cavorting around a cute, colourful globe.
It’s all a bit busy, but quite pleasant.
Australia and New Zealand
The cover used in Australia and New Zealand marries the Japanese art with the format of the EU box. The logo has shifted and the obscurred ‘sunlight’ now shines down on the globe and inhabitants from directly above.
The best of both worlds? You decide.
So, you’ve seen the three options, but which one has you spinning right round, baby, right round? Click on your favourite below and hit ‘Vote’ to cast your ballot accordingly:
Thank you for voting. We’re off to play this little twenty-year-old gem on our twenty-year-old GBA. Look out for more GBA goodness on the site soon, and we’ll see you next time for another round.
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