Hello everyone, and welcome back to another edition of Box Art Brawl!

Last time, Capcom’s SNES classic Breath of Fire II was put in the spotlight as North America and Europe joined forces against Japan. It wasn’t even remotely close either, as Japan absolutely nailed it with 71% of the vote. Well done!

This week, we sifted through all of the Box Art Brawls from yore and realised that, no, we actually haven’t covered every single Zelda game yet. Crazy! So this week, we’re looking at Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for the NES. Yes, it’s a bit of a divisive one, but it’s still an important entry in the long-running series that deserves its spot in the brawling ring.

It’s another duel this week as North America and Europe team up once again, so without further ado, let battle commence!

Be sure to cast your votes in the poll below; but first, let’s check out the box art designs themselves.

Europe / North America

The cover for the western market is that ‘classic’ Zelda composition of a simple, gold background with a single item adorned in the centre. Rather than a shield presented on the original game, we’ve got a sword this time (and it’s a shame we never got a Zelda game that just shows Link’s green hat on the cover, tbh) along with a basic yet suitable logo. There’s also a nifty cutout shaped like a shield through which you can spy the golden NES cart. So cool!

Japan

Japan’s box art consists of a piece of artwork that will no doubt be pretty recognisable to many Zelda fans. It’s a beautiful piece, and we love the bold, impactful lettering that sits above, slightly overlapping the top of the image. It may lack the cool cutout of the western variant along with the iconic gold background, but it’s a pretty sweet approach nevertheless.

Thanks for voting! We’ll see you next time for another round of Box Art Brawl.