Culture Clash!: Eight Comparisons of American Video Game Boxart vs. the Rest of the World

By Peter Mai Wed., Nov. 18 2009 at 8:00 AM

Categories: fresh nostalgia, geeking it up

Hey, newsflash: Americans? Completely different from the rest of the world. And even our choices of video game boxart paints a vivid picture of the uniqueness of our culture. Whether you want to chalk it up to something as simple as different cultural values or just attribute it all to ultra conservatism or a western obsession with being overly PC, compare for yourselves!

Pink Doesn't Sell in America!: Kirby's Dream Land
(Game Boy, 1992)

Kirby debuted in Hoshi no Kirby on the Japanese Game Boy in 1992. His design was simple: he was a pink ball with arms and a goofy smile. However, Nintendo realized that this character would not sell well with the American audience, and they needed to drastically change Kirby's appearance so that Americans would even accept him. What did they do? They made him a white ball with arms and a goofy smile. Americans are comfortable and can identify with white people, right? Remember, this was the early '90s--Reese Witherspoon and Bret "the Hitman" Hart hadn't popularized the color pink yet.

Americans Aren't Afraid of a Little Violence: Left 4 Dead
(XBOX360, 2008)

Violence is nothing new to American culture--we actually might love it too much here. Ever since watching Wile E. Coyote getting killed over and over and over again as children, violent images and acts on television have become embedded into our minds as normal parts of our everyday lives. Look at the American Left 4 Dead boxart above, for example. I'm sure we can all agree that it's awesomely undead. On the other hand (get it?), the Japanese and Australian boxart is much more tame, with a slightly healthier hand--albeit still with a green zombie tinge.

Americans Are Afraid of a Little T&A:
Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier
(Nintendo DS, 2008)
and
X-Blades
(XBOX360, PS3, PC, 2009)

Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier is a game that stars a womanizing cowboy/bounty hunter who travels with a big breasted android in order to save the world from some crystals. In your travels, you encounter catgirl, robots, ninjas, mermaids, pirates and foxy girls--all of whom have huge breasts. Clearly: This game is Japanese.

Giant, exposed breasts right out in the open in media are a lot more common and accepted in Japan than it is in the United States. They have game shows about breasts, clothing that looks like breasts and piles of toy breasts in vending machines. Clearly: They love breasts! (And don't get us wrong... we here in America do, too. Magazines, advertisements, television, etc. But let us also remember when everyone went ape-shit over Janet Jackson showing a little nipple on TV for a fraction of a second.)

That is exactly why publisher ATLUS decided to shuffle around some of the characters on the Boxart for Super Robot Taisen. The three pairs of breasts (circled conveniently for you above) on the Japanese cover are strategically hidden on the North American cover. Heaven forbid that Americans, as violent and bloodthirsty as we are, can see such horrors! America's perception of sexuality in the media is perfectly stated by the great Bruce Campbell. According to him, "You can chop off a breast, you just can't kiss it."