Box Art Brawl: Sonic CD

Sniper


Box Art Brawl - Sonic CD
Image: Nintendo Life

Hi folks, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl!

As usual, let’s take a look at last week’s edition before we crack on with another high stakes brawl. We threw the NES classic Punch Out!! into the ring to see which of the very distinct variants would come out on top. Rather surprisingly, it seems that the vast majority of you preferred the version featuring “Iron Mike” himself, Mike Tyson. Winning with 57% of the vote, it beats out the Gold Edition at 29%, and the Mr. Dream variant at 14%. Well done, Mike!

This week, we’re going to be looking at Sonic CD for the Sega CD. Launched back in 1993 as a planned enhanced port of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic CD is a curious entry to the franchise that felt a tad messy at times, but was nevertheless well received for its unique time travel feature and exceptional music.

We’ve got three distinct variants this week from North America, Europe, and Japan, so it’s going to be a proper three-way brawl, which is just the way we like it! So enough chit-chat, let’s get on with the show.

Be sure to cast your votes in the poll below; but first, let’s check out the box art designs themselves.

North America

Sonic CD - NA
Image: SEGA

North America’s version of Sonic CD is arguably much busier than the other variants, featuring Sonic and Metal Sonic grasping for a Time Stone while a pretty sizable explosion lights up the background. We have to admit, we like the fact that Sonic is just casually smirking here, despite the clear danger he seems to be in. That’s the way to do it, Sonic!

Europe

Sonic CD - EU
Image: SEGA

Europe’s version is a lot more straight-forward and makes full use of the smaller space available on the game’s cover. We see extreme close-ups of both Sonic and Metal Sonic gazing menacingly at each other and… well, that’s about it! There’s a weird, sort of paint-splattered background effect going on, but really, the focus here is on the two characters. It’s certainly impactful!

Japan

Sonic CD - Japan
Image: SEGA

Finally, Japan’s version is an expanded variant of what we saw for the EU cover. Sonic and Metal Sonic are once against glaring at each other against a pure black background, but this time we’ve got a funky, Sonic-themed border around the outside, which is pretty awesome! We love the font design for the title itself here, even if it is unreasonably squished.

Thanks for voting! We’ll see you next time for another round of the Box Art Brawl.