Poll: Box Art Brawl # 64 – International Superstar Soccer 98

Welcome back to the Box Art Brawl, where we see two or more regional box art variants thrown into the ring, kicking each other seven shades in the fight for your vote.

The last time we saw it Advance Wars: Dual Strike Give fifteen birthday bulbs in a two-way match between East and West. It seems that a large percentage of you did not appreciate the toy town war that informed the models on the Japanese cover, so North America and Europe traveled to a credible victory with over 85% of the vote.

This week, we thought Switch-owned football fans could do the same with Pick-Me-Up after the release of the utterly discouraging ‘Legacy’ edition. FIFA 21. Yes, for Brawl # 64, we’re going back to the appropriate 64-bit era when football games on Nintendo consoles weren’t just ‘good enough’ or ‘great’ – no, ISS 98 Is Bloody awesome. We saw its predecessor back in Brawl # 29 at the classic exhibition match‌, but it’s time for a sequel.

Grab your jumpers for goalposts and let things start in this highly random three-way match.

Europe

As you can see above, European countries got one of two covers. In the UK, for example, we are looking at Italian striker Fabrizio Ravenelli against Paul Ince. Alternatively, German goalie Andy Kopke is replacing the Englishman elsewhere, although he is looking into the camera instead of blinking at the Italian. “Why is it always me?”.

We love the simplicity here – the black and white photo is given a color splash from the logo at the bottom and the Konami logo runs to the left. It is subtle and striking at once. Not bad.

North America

Although not more dynamic than the NA cover of the previous game, the North American cover is not small in color. Konami went here with the flamboyant styling of Colombian star Carlos Valderrama and as one of the most recognizable footballers in history, it was a pleasure to see him, we. By the time the game was over at the age of 37, he was not at the top of his game and his presence felt a little odd.

Our main dispute is that they have a cover Carlos Valderrama (‘International Superstar’, if you don’t know) Very amazingly static and boring. This is a great credit.

Japan

The Japanese version of the game has already arrived and World Cup France boasts about the 98 license. Therefore, in Japan the game features off-brand Woody Woodpecker ‘Futix’, the competition symbol of the year.

There is really nothing more to be said about this simple cover – as a licensed product, the brand and logo must have worked on the front and middle store shelves. There is so much horrible white here, and you can easily suck this picture into any Merch piece. Lively, but functional.

So, you looked at three (well, four) options, but which is the best? Select your favorite to let us know and press ‘Vote’:

And the whistle blew. We’ll be back for another game next week – until then, have a great time.