We happened across the American boxart for
Air Traffic Chaos, and we couldn't help but notice the
speech bubble. "I am an air traffic controller!" the character (who looks a
lot like one of those "premium" (pay) emoticons, whose pop-up ads we see occasionally) exclaims, confirming the theory that a game called
Air Traffic Chaos is about air traffic control. What we thought at first to be simply a banal explanation of the game is a little
more: we remembered that the Japanese name of the same game was
Boku wa Kuukou Kanseikan DS, which translates to ... "I Am an Air Traffic Controller DS." We don't understand
why the Japanese title had to be plastered across the box like that, but at least it seems slightly less random.
Speaking of that Japanese boxart, it's interesting to see the differences in marketing strategy evident from the contrast between the two. Majesco's box is very kid-friendly and cartoony, suggesting a casual, simplistic experience. But the Japanese box is all business: stock photos of airplanes and air traffic controllers hard at work, with a text bar at the bottom stating "You also become an air traffic controller on the DS!" It looks more like a training game than anything.
Taxi past the post break for larger images of both boxarts, as well as a couple of examples of what
other boxes would look like with the
Air Traffic Chaos exposition.
_cg_oct22_kjgfdhd_thumbnail.jpg "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-15-2008 @ 4:45PM
Deozaan said...
My only guess is that they were trying to be sensitive to the idea of "Air Traffic Chaos" being associated with the September 11 attack and therefor chose to use a cartoon instead of realistic airplane on the cover.
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5-15-2008 @ 6:27PM
hvnlysoldr said...
Burn .er I mean touch the witch!
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5-15-2008 @ 6:35PM
Shiny said...
The Nintendogs one made me laugh. Thank you.
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5-15-2008 @ 6:38PM
harvest_god said...
Um... is the text bubble on Doki Doki Majo Shinpan's cover supposed to come out of the girl's boob...?
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5-15-2008 @ 6:41PM
harvest_god said...
Oh, and am I the first one to notice the "i-am-a-tag" tag? XD
5-15-2008 @ 9:02PM
Cheese Muffin said...
Given that they are nippless boobs, I find it appropriate. Too bad we didn't have such accurate methods of finding witches during the Salem witch trials.
"Expose thine boobage!"
5-15-2008 @ 6:47PM
cbylife said...
lol! "I am a dog!" good stuff!
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5-15-2008 @ 10:24PM
Sam said...
when I saw the Japanese box art I was all like "whoa, AWESOMETASTIC!" the American box art just makes me go "Whoa bad marketing!" I'm sure parents will look at the Japanese box art and go "scoff, dip darn terrorists, deys be trainin' on dem wii games! (because they think ever video game is now a wii game, because of popularity) govrn'mnt need to stop this!" mmhmm, sure...
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5-15-2008 @ 10:27PM
Sam said...
also on the American box art, I love how the dude is all posing and giving a thumbs up like he's doing a good job, and planes are doing loops and going sideways all over the airport, lulz.
5-16-2008 @ 11:00AM
animeman_59 said...
Both box-arts sucks. Although the american one is hilarious since the plane on the right is about to crash. Nice job Air Traffic Controller. You ain't controllin' jack!
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5-16-2008 @ 5:20PM
evil twin of sparrow said...
dumbed down for the american audience?
not the first time
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