Fans of bad cover art alert! The resurgence of Sega in the eyes of the press, retailers, and - most importantly - the consumer has apparently done nothing to heighten the collective graphic-design sense of the video-gaming industry. As a great deal of the games we play today were originally developed in Japan, so too was most of the cover artwork game fans know and love. Capcom and SNK are noted for their incredible character designs and art, as are other companies like Atlus, Sega, and Namco. Only recently have the US counterparts of these publishers shown a respect and appreciation for the original art.

　　For every great Soul Calibur or Marvel vs. Capcom cover, we get 100 Street Fighter Alphas (remember the original US SF Alpha? blechh!!), Guardian Heroes, Suikodens, Toshindens or Ehrgeizes. These come from bad design firms who have no comprehension of the feel of the game or the original source material. So many times have great covers from Japan been "localized" for American tastes and subsequently butchered in the process (Deception 2 anyone?).

　　Now, the latest and greatest fallacies are about to befall us in the form of uniformly literal and spectacularly blase covers for Crazy Taxi and Zombie Revenge. Aside from keeping the original logo (which was bad enough) for Zombie Revenge, a whole pile of nondescript monsters adorns the front cover, with nary a glimpse of the main characters in sight. Running a close second in the "yuck" department is Crazy Taxi, which features an appropriately (but crappily) illustrated taxi driver of a distinctly "rad" nature. Totally, dude. None of the original character art for Crazy Taxi is anywhere in sight. His passenger is a bon-bonneted cheerleader of equally bad design. It's too bad the most powerful software on the market has the weakest packaging.

　　Lastly, when will Sega spill for full-color booklets anyway? The PlayStation games get 'em, so why shouldn't Dreamcast games? You'd think the company would want to be proud not only of the contents of the package, but of the package itself. This is a small but significant reason why many gamers flock to the immensely cooler import market for their games. Sometimes it's a good thing you can't judge a game by its cover. Although some people may not care about stuff like this, great package art certainly won't hurt. Check the screens for the full dumbed-down horror.