The following post originally appeared on attractmo.de, on July 17, 2013.
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A heads up for anyone who is both a resident of Tokyo and way into shumps. Specifically the kind that feature assorted gigantic, mechanized sea life as end bosses (statistically speaking, there has to be someone reading this who fits that bill).
Next month, select Taito arcades in Akihabara will start selling reissued posters that are based upon various past installments of the 90s arcade staple (in Japan at least) Darius!
I’m a HUGE shooter fan, yet Darius has never been high on my list. Still, I’d nab these in a heartbeat, simply because they’re gorgeous. I remember a large portion of my trip to Japan was spent at arcades, but instead of actually playing games, I mostly just stared at all the pretty posters that could be found everywhere.
It’s a shame that most publishers on this side of the ocean have never done anything remotely similar, with the exception of Club Nintendo’s freebies and a few random pre-order incentives from GameStop. The closest we got back in the 80′s courtesy of Konami…
Who else got one of these posters as a kid? I had Gradius and Stinger (Twin Bee), obviously. If I knew as ten-year-old child that I’d still want them well into my adult life, I definitely would have exercised more care (I believe they didn’t last long once I entered my Ninja Turtle phase).
Back to why such stuff doesn’t exist today: it also doesn’t help that most box art really aren’t worth celebrating in such a manner.
