Poll: Box Art Brawl: Zelda: A Link To The Past And Four Swords (GBA)

Definitely not NA, Europe is slightly better with a muted Link on the cover, but Japan's vibrant and colourful depiction of both parts of the game is the best, hands down.

I prefer the more focused art work of the European over Japan but it’s fairly close. North America is a no show this time.

I think conceptually Europe has the right idea but it's not put together well, so I'm going Japan.

Europe but that's nostalgia for the SNES and GBA box arts of which I owned both. US close second.

Prefer the shield behind the Z vs the triforce.

Japanese version looks more like a double pack of Oracle of Seasons and Ages minus the multiple Links on first glance.

Ocarina of Time had the most bland design, particularly the PAL version.

Japan rules again.

Europe for me. Japan gets the message across the best but feels a bit too separated for me. US one feels just a bit too minimalistic. Europe gets it just right.

Not often Europe wins these for me, but hey!

I love the four Links so obviously Japan is the best

I like the Japan one the best mainly because the Four Swords bit of the western ones feels cheap and tacked on, though there was no way around that with that old style of design I guess.

Having said that, I did always like the classic Zelda boxarts of just having the logo. Felt like a statement, like they didn’t need eye catching art because the fact it was Zelda was enough to draw you to it. Very classy. I can see why they went away from that but part of me wishes they still did it and varied them with background colours and the design of the logo itself (Majora’s Mask for example)

NA is boring
EU is a little better but don't know why Link is winking or wincing just looks off
Japan by far is the best

@larryisaman completely agree. I adored the black (PAL) OOT box with its striking logo and nothing else. Gave a sense of weight to the franchise, "I'm here, nothing else needed, my name is enough"
Having said that, I always loved the Four Swords cover for GC

The fact I was just playing this game at the same time as the SNES version. Gonna try and go for the Palace of the Four Sword.

I like NA more than EU, something about the ghostly image of Link sort of detracts from the art of the medieval style logo. It just clashes too much for me.

But JP actually shows that you're getting two separate games! You can also really tell that it's a Zelda game, or at the very least, a game with a lot of Links. Its got five times the Links as the EU box art.

NA is classic and fitting for a rerelease of a classic game. Europe's shade of gold color just feels off to me and it's too busy. Japan's is also too busy and, despite the different representations of Link being in the game itself (LTTP vs FS), I really don't like the clash of Link styles being on the same box. Also, I prefer the Z being over the shield/sword as opposed to the Triforce.

I like the drawn-on-parchment style of the European one but they did choose an odd image for Link. It's like the logo is getting in his way. He's gotta duck around it and close one eye to see around it.

Japan is probably better at representing the games but Europe got my vote because I've been here long enough. Y'all gonna vote for chibi Link. The European box art needed a boost.

I had this game growing up and legit did not understand what was going on. I didn't have a manual for it I don't think, but that Japanese box at makes it clear. Would have helped a younger me for sure

The multi-language muddle at the top of the European version is ugly, but why is “English screen text” also repeated in another language (Dutch? Danish?)

@Fake-news Europe is sure focused on multilingual instructions. It's terrible.

europe link be like ;(

Having more "stuff" on a cover doesn't always make it better, but in this case, it does. I've always been indifferent to the "classic" North American gold Zelda box arts like this one. Frankly, I find the box designs lazy. I get it, those games sold themselves, but that doesn't make their boxes good. In this case, NA is covered in logos, so it's not only boring, but doesn't even get the benefit of the "clean" design. Europe's is a bit more interesting, but it has the same logo problem, and the image of Link with one eye open is a bit odd as some have said.

Much like with other Zelda box art polls, I voted for Japan. I think it's clever how they split the box art in half with the sword as the divider. That hurts the overall composition a bit, but the art and character designs are very strong and I find the Japanese box to be the most appealing.

@JohnnyMind yeah why would I know that?

Good art on Japan, but it still is bad.

While I do love the classy approach of the NA box, I gave this one to the Japan box art because it’s the only one that gives Four Swords adequate billing as a main event and not a bonus feature.

Man, I’m nearly always on the outs. NA, in not a very close call. The simple inclusion of characters and busyness doesn’t itself make a cover better. The cover is what gets you to pick up the box, not what you recall about a game 20+ years later.

Looking again, I do kinda like Japan’s, mostly for use of color (I’m a sucker for primaries and secondaries), but still NA.

Box Art Brawls Current Total:

Europe: 81

Japan: 82

North America: 93

Australia and New Zealand: 1

The only good thing of the North American cover is that it is consistent with the box art of the SNES original version of A Link to the Past, which isn't really that hard to accomplish when all your box arts are just the logo on a golden background. It feels like the NA GBA box art wants to minimize Four Swords.

For that reason I'm voting Japan, it conveys the idea that there are 2 games on the cartridge better.

Cartridge art (this time I couldn't find good images for the western cartridge)

Europe (shared with North America, only with a different shade of gold, couldn't find a good picture of the NA cartridge that was an original, not a bootleg)

Japan

NA >>>> EU, imo, but I think Japan's is the best overall. Surprised EU seems to be doing so much better than NA!

I get the appeal of using the classic box art for the NA one to appeal to nostalgia...but that Japan art is so good.

@Uncle_Franklin 3rd place is neck and neck!

Hey Franklin....

I voted Japan because the contrast between the 2 games was handled perfectly. The North America variant is beatiful using the less-is-more approach, but the "includes new multiplayers adventure Four Swords" logo seems out of place and hurts the composition overall

I just love that classic gold box art. Japan is good too

I always liked the classic look for the Zelda boxart with gold and a big logo. I'd say Europe is the best one this time since it respects the classic style but still tries something a little different with it by including the character.

@Pally356 NA kind of spent entirely too long fixated on that one box office style. You had some exceptions like Majora's Mask but it wasn't really until Four Swords Adventures that we started more consistently playing with other formats beyond the all gold look and not really until Majora's Mask 3D that we finally completely abandoned it.

USA.
Pro: no toon link
Pro: not overly busy like Europe

None of them are that great though.

Probably Europe for the game cover. As an aside, that cartoon version of Link for the SNES A Link to the Past instruction manual is probably the best-ever version of him.

Link looks stuck in the Europe one

All pretty meh. I have the NA box and it's okay but that Four Swords text has always looked like it should be a sticker that came off with the shrink wrap. Just having Link to the Past + Four Swords underneath would have been much better.

Here in Europe we've always been lucky enough to have better Zelda box art than North America. That's not always the case when comparing ours with what Japan gets though.

I'm not crazy about the Japanese art either, but it definitely blows the other two out of the water. I never liked the logo-only box art that we were too often subjected to in the West.

Once again, the JP art looks more like a poster than actual box art, which instantly disqualifies it for me. As for the other two, the Link in the EU one doesn’t really seem to mesh well with the rest of the image, which just leaves NA’s admittedly simple, but effective (and faithful) image.

I like Europe best, Japan second.

America always gets the worst box art, worse than Europe and nothing like Japan, for some reason.

@tektite_captain It's Dutch, from the time Nintendo didn't bother translating games into our language, they often did add a small warning to the box.

I miss those days.

I love the clean and traditional look of the NA one, but the LttP logo undersells the more important game on display, which is Four Swords. The beauty, colors, and messaging of the JP one truly gives equal weight to this two game package, so JP gets my vote. Side note: Not a fan of "Popeye" Link on the EU cover lol.

@sanderev I see. Wouldn’t the same thing be accomplished by not including Dutch in the list of supported languages? Ha, it seems like they’re teasing the Dutch - “Hey Germans, English, Italians, French, and Spaniards, we love your languages! No other languages are supported, and the Dutch in particular can go to hell.”

North America.
It's Zelda, it doesn't need flash or an overly busy box art. Simplicity can say alot more.
The European one is alright, but still better than the Japanese one. Its just too busy and tries too hard.

@tektite_captain No, they often just added a translated manual to the box. But all game text was in the other languages or just English.

On DS we did get some translated games, but it didn't really start until the 3DS and the Switch. Now they translate (almost) all first party games. (except Pokémon, and a few smaller games)

And honestly that's most media here. Movies for adults / teens never get dubbed in Dutch, just subtitles. Movies for kids usually get both (dub and sub). TV shows are similar: adults / teens: subs, childeren: dubs and (most) subs. (Except ofcourse for original Dutch works)