Few can resist instantaneous loathing at the sight of Mega Man

   Earlier last week, the GIA published a feature presenting six candidates for the worst box art in video game history. The original candidates and nomination speeches are available here. In short, we left it up to you, the reader, to choose a final winner and give the special piece of box art the attention it has long deserved. And the winner?

   Mega Man. Mega Man, by far.

   Mega Man captured almost two-thirds of the votes, far ahead of Phalanx and Cosmic Fantasy 2. Few could deny the sheer hilarity of seeing the now-familiar cartoony, "blaster-armed anime superkid" transformed into a "middle-aged, constipated midget waddling painfully towards the camera." Tecmo Secret of the Stars, Suikoden, and Tomb Raider rounded up fourth, fifth, and sixth place, respectively. Full results are available down below.

   Many readers reacted quite vocally to the choices in box art nominations, but one, in particular, stood out. Victor Ireland, president of Working Designs, dropped us a line to comment on the choice of Cosmic Fantasy 2 -- an RPG released by the company on the TurboGrafx 16 back in 1992.

     Actually, while I am dismayed that Cosmic Fantasy 2 got the pole position in
your feature, I was going to write and nominate it myself.  In hindsight,
which is always 20/20, it was a WAY wrong move, and it should be noted that
we have atoned a hundredfold by putting anime art first ever since the SEGA
CD days.  However, one thing you noted was wrong.  We weren't given
mountains of art.  We were given 1 piece.  It was Babbette, Van, Pico
leaping out atcha.  Should have been the US art, but we went a different
way...obviously.

     Another interesting tidbit is that to get the composition right (or wrong)
in the picture, we used a real picture of our marketing manager, his brother
and sister posing while dressed up kid-style with wood broomstick swords and
sheet capes.  I remember that one of them had a pastry blender as the base
of the "sword" Van was to hold.  Pretty embarrassing picture. I think Don
(our marketing manager) was Pico...and, I think I still have the pics
somewhere... :)

     Anyway, spanks for the memories!

     - Vic

   (Understandably, though much to our disappointment, Don declined our request to publish the photographs.)

   Finally, while each GIA staffer involved could only make one nomination, we received a flood of suggestions for additional candidates. Some of the more popular mentions included:

Snatcher

   We've got tentative plans for similar-themed competitions in the future.

Final Voting Results -- 2802 Votes Total
Cosmic Fantasy 2	180	6%
Mega Man	1864	66%
Phalanx	300	10%
Suikoden	150	5%
Tomb Raider	126	4%
Tecmo Secret of the Stars	178	6%

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Feature by Brian Glick, GIA