Good album covers can be the difference between success and failure for a video game. This used to be more the case, but with the rise of digital sales, the album cover isn’t as important a factor as it used to be. Before online stores made life easier for gamers, there was a time when spending hours looking at the great album cover in stores was part of what made gamer so special.
Deciding which video game to buy often came down to how good the album cover was. The Sega Master system was interesting because the cover art appeared to be drawn on a graph paper back. A lot of the album cover wasn’t very good to be honest either, but in hindsight it was also unique, which is what makes it special. This list will celebrate the excellent (and sometimes bizarre) cover art of forgotten Sega Master System games, comparing Japanese cover art to what the rest of the world has experienced.
14 Double Hawk
Released in 1990, Double Hawk is a two-player shooter that follows the adventures of Jack Thomas and John Jackson. The gameplay is very similar (if not identical) to the arcade game Clique where the player must avoid being shot while moving a reticle to shoot enemies.
The album cover for Double Hawk isn’t too bad, but the most notable thing about it is how it’s inspired by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Stallone artwork, in particular, is clearly based on one of his most famous characters, Rambo. This type of artistic license was not uncommon in the ’80s and ’90s, when artists copied images from movies and used them for video game cover art.
13 Chase HQ
Arcade racing games like run out & Power Drive were very popular in the late 1980s. Chase HQ was released in 1988 and tried to capitalize on the popularity of racing games but also added a little twist. The player takes on the role of two cops driving a Porsche 928 and has to chase criminals who have their own sports cars. The twist is that once the police have caught up with the criminals, they have to ram them off the road.
The Sega Master System version of Chase HQ is generally considered a good arcade conversion. However, the cover is not good at all! This is a shame as there were some excellent album covers for other home releases that could have been used quite easily. The home computer’s cover art is inspired by the movie 48 hourswith the main characters looking like Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy.
12 air rescue
air rescue is one of those rare Sega Master System games that has really good album covers. Released in 1992, the gameplay bears more than a passing resemblance to another Sega title called choplifter.
There was an arcade version of air rescue released the same year, which took the perspective from a first-person perspective rather than Master Systems’ side-scrolling point of view. When the Sega Master system came to the end of its life cycle, air rescue probably won’t have been experienced by a large audience.
11 Double dragon
Side scrolling beat ’em up Double dragon is arguably one of the most influential games in this beloved genre. Brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee have been fighting street punks and the success of for decades Double dragon opened the floodgates for similar games to appear in arcades and later in the home.
The Sega Master System cover is actually really good for filling the box with a dragon and the Lee brothers fighting a group of enemies. The Japanese version exudes an almost supernatural style due to the facial expressions of the main characters.
10 pro wrestling
Wrestling games have been popular for many years, especially those based on characters from The World Wrestling Federation, or WWE as it is now known. pro wrestling was released in 1986 and tried to capitalize on it with its version of sports entertainment.
The album cover is downright bizarre, where it shows a headless person wearing a head that wouldn’t look out of place in a horror game. Japanese cover art is much more dynamic and tries to show the theatrical design often associated with wrestling.
9 action fighter
action fighter is Sega’s version of the classic arcade game Spy Hunter. Both have top-down views of vehicles and have an element of the best James Bond-style car chases. Both also give the player the chance to drive different vehicles.
action fighter starts with a motorcycle that then turns into a sports car. The car will then have wing mounts similar to Matt Trakkers’ Thunderhawk vehicle from the MASK series. The game then turns into a vertically scrolling shoot ’em up. The American and European album covers are uninspiring to say the least. Again, the Japanese version is much more exciting and would no doubt have sold a few more copies if it were used more widely.
8 Shinobic
The adventures of ninja Joe Musashi have been well documented over the years in the Shinobic series, making him one of the most iconic ninjas in video game history. Sega often added a bonus level to their games, and Shinobic is no different. The bonus level in Shinobi lets players throw shurikens at ninjas before reaching Musashi.
The album cover for Shinobic Not so bad, as it reflects the pull-on screen, which shows a masked ninja with shurikens flying around his head. However, the Japanese cover is much more interesting with a lot of action.
7 My hero
Released in 1986 for the Sega Master System, the album cover for My hero is to the point to say the least. My hero is a side-scrolling beat ’em up where you punch and kick people in the face and that’s exactly what’s shown on the cover.
The player takes control of Steven, who must rescue his girlfriend from the vicious street gangs who have taken her hostage. An interesting aspect of the game is the clothes Steven wears. In many side-scrolling beat ’em ups, the main character will often be shirtless or showing off their muscles. In My heroSteven wears a suit and tie, which makes the martial arts he displays even more impressive.
6 black belt
black belt is an interesting case where a game is practically identical in gameplay, but the story has fundamentally changed. in Japan, black belt is known as Hokuto no Kenowhich is based on the Fist of the North Star series.
This was changed for western audiences when the game was renamed black belt. Again, the western album cover for black belt is quite simplistic, while the Japanese album cover directly uses images from Fist of the North Star.
5 Quartet
Run and gun shooter Quartet (also known as Double purpose) gave the player a chance to test their skills while taking on an army of enemies. As the name implies, up to 4 players could participate in the arcade version while the Sega Master System version was only a 2 player experience.
Again, the Sega Master System cover art for Quartet is very simple and not particularly inspiring. To be fair, the album cover for the home computer conversion was also bad. The Japanese version fared much better and would have given gamers a lot more reason to at least pick up the game and check it out before deciding whether to buy it.
4 run out
Yu Suzuki made some incredible games and helped make Sega a dominant force in the arcades. run out is rightly hailed as a classic racing game that has been ported to many systems and home computers. Special mention deserves the arcade cabinet, which, like many Sega arcades, was a beautiful thing.
The album cover for the Sega Master System version of run out is not bad, but it is very basic and cartoonish. It was a strange decision to use this artwork, especially when Off Run 3-D (also released for the Sega Master System) has much better album covers.
3 master of darkness
master of darkness is Sega’s take on the Castlevania series. The story follows the wonderfully named Dr. Ferdinand Social investigating murders committed by Jack The Ripper. The Ripper wants to bring Count Dracula back to life, so it’s up to Ferdinand to stop it.
Released in 1993, towards the end of the Sega Master System lifecycle, it seemed like the marketing games for the console had improved a lot. The album cover is beautifully detailed and full of exciting images that jump right out of the box. The Master System version is arguably better than the Sega Game Gear album cover.
2 Lord of the sword
Pretend games were very popular in the 80s and 90s. Titles like golden axe and Dungeons and Dragons gave players the chance to play in worlds full of adventure and monsters. The story of Lord of the Sword follows the heroic Landau, who must confront evil and save his kingdom
Despite the impressive graphics for the time, Lord of the Sword was not particularly well received by critics. On the plus side, both the Western and Japanese covers had impressive cover art that captured the spirit of fantasy titles.
1 secret mission
secret mission is an overhead shoot ’em up that looks a lot like the Capcom classic command. secret mission is one of those cases where the album cover isn’t very good, but that’s not the most interesting story of this game. secret mission is a real game adaptation of Rambo: First Blood Part 2.
The Rambo license was used in North America while the game was renamed secret mission for the European market. The Japanese version of the game was called Ashura where the main character was an armed Buddhist monk. All versions played the same way, but with different graphical differences.
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