Welcome back to Box Art Brawl, our regular vote to see which box art variant from around the globe wins your approval.

Last time, we went all modern and looked at the two covers The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild received. We thought it would be a much closer contest than it was, but the result is crystal clear: North American and Japan won by an absolute landslide with Europe getting less than 20% of your votes. Eye contact obviously isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Congratulations to the East-meets-West pan-Pacific superpower!

This week we’re revisiting Capcom’s gruelling Ghosts ‘n Goblins series with the 16-bit entry Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. It’s available for all Nintendo Switch Online subscribers to play right now (it also features on the SNES Classic Mini) and the rewind feature will come in very handy with this rock-hard action platformer. North America triumphed in the three-way Box Art Brawl #31 when the NES game went into battle against itself, but this time that territory is lumped in with Europe, too.

Armoured up? Let’s get slashin’.

North America and Europe

While it sported a natty purple border in certain PAL countries, both regions featured the same key art and basic layout. The spooky landscape is littered — appropriately — with ghouls, ghosts and other unattractive nasties, and the gallant knight Arthur (presumably) stands front-and-centre with the logo running along the bottom.

It’s an odd mixture of styles. Arthur is realistically proportioned (relatively) while the background beasties appear with cartoon-y oversized heads. The gravestones are comically chunky. The font treatment of the title looks like it’s come straight from a ’90s TV commercial for farting goo in a tub. And the least said about perspective of poor Arthur’s right arm, the better. Looks painful.

Yes, it’s a weird hodgepodge. But for some reason… we kinda like it.

Japan

The cover of Chomakaimura, as the game is known in Japan, features a more familiar-looking Arthur at the very bottom with a host of enemies bearing down from above.

Compared to the western variant, the art style here feels more consistent across the box, and the colours certainly pop. It’s a little tough to parse that crowd of monsters and it’s easy to miss the screenshot occupying the upper righthand corner. We like the idea of showcasing the game’s graphics on the cover and the fact that the screen is at an angle — almost as if it’s another enemy looking down on Arthur — but it makes a busy cover even busier.

Killer logo, though. Puts the western version to shame.

Bonus!

And just for funsies (it won’t be featured in the poll), here’s the more straightforward cover of the GBA remake:

So, you’ve seen both covers, but which is best? Pick your favourite and hit ‘Vote’ to let us know below:

Take care beautiful people, and we’ll see you next time for another round.

Activision has made over $3 billion in net bookings from the Call of Duty franchise alone over the past 12 months.

The company said the action series had set new records after shifting to a shared ecosystem business model, resulting in net bookings rising by 80 percent year-on-year and unit sales increasing by 40 percent over the same period.

To give you more context, ‘net bookings’ is an operating metric defined as the net amount of products and services sold digitally and physically over a set period — including license fees, merchandise sales, and publishing incentives — and is equal to net revenues excluding deferrals.

As well as bringing home the bacon for Activision, Call of Duty also attracted 200 million players in 2020, including the biggest November ever for the franchise in terms of monthly players and hours played. Warzone, the series’ free-to-play battle royale offering, has also surpassed 85 million players since launching on March 10, 2020.

“The momentum over the last year across the Call of Duty ecosystem from free-to-play Warzone as well as post-launch support of Modern Warfare, and now to Black Ops Cold War has been incredible,” commented Byron Beede, EVP and general manager on the franchise. “We are focused on building a continuous pipeline featuring a tremendous amount of free, post-launch content and events across the franchise.”

I’ve been doing a research project about Iran’s video games history focusing on how it began, and how it evolved. Through the course of my research I discovered that there were almost no articles in English on the subject, and of the few that exit, none are historical or research-based.

That’s what inspired me to create this document, which should help shine some light on the history of video games in Iran. This is just a small subsection of the larger document I am preparing (in Persian). I thought it would be interesting to compare the history of games in Iran with the recent history of the country itself, pairing important events with events in the video game timeline.

My sources include Persian-language websites about games and technology, physical paper magazines such as Daneshmand, and I also interviewed people I know from the industry, both game journalists and developers. Sometimes I simply trusted my own memory.

The accompanying image should give you a larger context not only for the state of games in Iran, but what was going on in Iran at the time.

• Daneshmand is a monthly magazine about science and technology. The first issue of Daneshmand was published in October 1963. Daneshmand is still running today, and is the oldest magazine about science and technology in Iran. For my research I used the magazine’s 50-year digital archive. Unfortunately, there’s no existing online archive for historians to browse, but there is a pack of 6 DVDs that includes every issue from the start of the magazine through 2013, which I used for my research.

Video Master by Woodrow International in Daneshmand.

Video Master, via http://www.pong-story.com

• Jun 1978, TV Game Released: In its 174^th issue Daneshmand reported that another game console similar to the Magnavox Odyssey was released in Iran. The producer of this new console, TV Game, was General Electronic Kit, located in Tehran. The cost of a TV Game set was about 37 USD. Neither Video Master nor TV Game were manufactured in Iran, but they were both assembled there.
• Oct 1976, Video Master Released: In its 157^th issue Daneshmand magazine published a report showing that a game console similar to the Magnavox Odyssey had been released in Iran. This seems to be the first game console released in the country. The Video Master was imported by a company called Woodrow International, with locations in Tehran and Isfahan. Woodrow International doesn’t exist today.

TV Game set by General Electronic Kit.

A TV Game set similar to Video Master assembled by Shahab company. Shahab is still operating, and now makes TV sets.

• Iran Revolution Succeeded, Iran Hostage Crisis Started, Cultural Revolution Started, Iran – Iraq War Duration: In these periods of time nothing much happened in the fields of entertainment, science and technology. During the Cultural Revolution, all universities closed down for 30 months.
  The Hostage Crisis caused the U.S. to break their relations with Iran, and all official imports were shut down as a result. The Iran Revolution rendered most entertainment and even some sports illegal. This includes card games, pinball machines, chess, billiards, golf, bowling, and any kind of gambling. Some ten years later they slowly became legal again, one by one (with the exception of gambling).
  When the war began, everything and everyone throughout the nation was called to arms to fight against the enemy. There was no fun to be had during the war until the Atari 2600 arrived.
• 1985, Atari 2600 Came to Iran: This was the first game console which was bootlegged to Iran after the Revolution, and the price was about 120,000 Rl, or more than 200 USD. Since this was was after the Revolution, most of the electronic companies of the past were shut down, and official imports from the United States were impossible (just as it is today). So for many years every video game and computer related product had to be smuggled in.
• Nov 1988, First Video Game Reviews Published in Computer Magazines: In its 93^rd issue, Elm Electronic va Computer (Electronic Science and Computer) magazine published a video game review. The review covers two Amiga games. This may be the first game review ever published in Iran, and is certainly the earliest that my colleagues and I could find.
  When the war ended a flood of entertainment came to Iran, including game consoles, PCs, toys, VHS players, movies, and so on. Almost everything related to entertainment was smuggled in to the country. This isn’t distant history either – most PC parts were bootlegged up until 2007, aside from some Korean monitors officially imported by LG and Samsung and, some printers like HP and Epson. So this review was likely of a bootleg copy.

Elam Electronic va Computer Magazine no. 93.

• Jan 1989, Commodore 64, Spectrum, Amiga 500, PC, and other Devices Came to Iran: Right after the war ended, even more consoles and other computer devices came to Iran. I don’t have exact dates on this because of the complicated nature of post-war unformation, but I’m working on it. I can say this influx of platforms happened some time between 1988 and 1989.
• 1992, Micro Genius, a Clone of the Famicom, Came to Iran: As far as my research tells me, there was never an official Famicom in Iran’s market, but a huge number of clones came to the country during the 90s. The first and the most important was Micro Genius, made in Taiwan. After Micro Genius, some infamous clones like Dendy and Super Semtoni became available, both of which continued selling until 2005. During the Micro Genius era Nintendo games became popular in Iran. Mostly Contra, Mario, Duck Hunt, Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, Mega Man, and so on.
  

But the problem was the cartridges! They were expensive and rare to find. Because of this, people used to exchange their game cartridges to each other (this trend repeated itself with the release of the PlayStation 4). Gamers in Iran had to rely on the pack-in games from their Famiclones for the most part.

• Dec 1996, Tank Hunter Released: In the mid-90s we see the first serious attempts at local game development. A game studio was established called Honafa. Honafa was the first game studio which developed a few games for governmental institutions including the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Iran Drug Control Headquarters.

Seyedof, the engine developer at Honafa told me: “Honafa was the first real Iranian game company in existence, and was active for more than 5 years, and developed several finished and polished games.”

Honafa had both a production and R&D team. The production team was busy developing their current projects, since the R&D team was doing research for game engine and 3D technology.

The Tank Hunter was their first release. It was an endless 2D game for MS-DOS in which a man with an RPG destroyed the enemy’s tanks. This game was dedicated to Iranian martyrs and the heroes of the Iran – Iraq war.

Tank Hunter by Honafa Studio.

• Ali Baba Released: Ali Baba was released some time after Tank Hunter, and was developed by Ramin Zafar Azizi, who is not in video games anymore. Ali Baba was a 2D side scroll platformer like Prince of Persia, released for MS-DOS.

Ali Baba by Ramin ZafarAzizi.

• May 1998, Devil’s Death Released: Another 90s game made by Honafa studio for Iran Drug Control Headquarters to promote their anti-drug messages. It was a top down shooter in which the player would destroy smugglers trucks.

In 2019, Ali Seyedof, the game engine developer of Honafa, left Iran for Europe.

Devil’s Death by Honafa Studio.

• Apr 2001, Bazi Rayane Publishes its First Issue: Bazi Rayane was the first Iranian magazine completely dedicated to video games. It was first published in April 2001, using the license of another magazine called Tabarestan. After publishing 4 issues the Tabarestan license was seized by the government and Bazi Rayane stopped publishing for nearly 4 years. At the beginning of 2005 Bazi Rayane resumed publishing using the license from another magazine called Ettela, and continued till 2014. On August 2014 Bazi Rayane shut down forever due to economic problems.
  

  You may be wondering about this license thing. In Iran all magazines and periodicals must acquire a license from the Ministry of Islamic Culture. If the Ministry doesn’t grant a license, it is possible to publish your periodical using another periodical’s license as a “special issue.” This is what Bazi Rayane was doing in order to get published. In later years Bazi Rayane was able to get its own license.

• Sep 2005, Donyaye Bazi Founded: Donyaye Bazi published its first issue in September 2005 using its own license. In September of 2014, after publishing 176 issues it closed down forever due to economic problems.

Another magazine was Bazinama, which published its first issue some time in 2005. Bazinama still publishes today, but it abandoned the paper version in September 2019 and turned to digital.

Two issues of Bazinama Magazine and Donyaye Bazi Magazine.

• 4 Oct 2005, Quest of Persia: The End of Innocence Released: Quest of Persia: The End of Innocence was the first 3D game from Iran, developed by Puya Arts. The chief developer was Puya Dadgar. QoP: The End of Innocence also was the first game developed after a five year break in game development in the country, and was the first Iranian-developed game released since the 90s. In 2011 Puya Dadgar, the lead developer of this game, left Iran for the US.

Quest of Persia: The End of Innocence by Puya Arts.

• 2006, Tebyan Started Investing on Video Games: The Tebyan Cultural Institute existed under the control of Iran’s Islamic Development Organization, which was established in 2001. In 2006 Tebyan started developing some video games and during 8 years of activity developed about 25 of them, including Nejat e Bandar (Saving the Port), Moghavemat (Defense), Afsane ye Nowruz (Legend of Nowruz), Koohnavard (mountaineer). None of these games were particularly successful or popular.
• Apr 2007, IRCG Stablished: The Iran Computer Games Foundation aka IRCG was actually approved a year before this, by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. But in 2007 the IRCG started actually operating, and in 2008 started funding some indie video games like Garshasp the Monster Slayer.
• May 2007, first Digital Media Festival Launched: The Digital Media Festival was the first festival hosting video games in Iran. One of the first games which participated in this festival was Quest of Persia: The End of Innocence.
• Jun 2010, Asemandez Released: Asemandez was one of the first video games which IRCG funded. It was the first MMO browser-based strategic game developed in Iran. Later in 2019 the main developer of Asemandez left Iran for foreign countries.
• Jul 2010, Everything Can Draw on TGS: Everything Can Draw was the first Iranian video game to appear at the Tokyo Game show. The developer Mahdi Bahrami later in 2017 made changes to the game and published it on Steam as Engare.

Engare by Mahdi Bahrami.

• Sep 2010, Entegham Released: September 2010 saw the release of the first Iranian Full Motion Video game. Entegham (Revenge) was a first person shooter similar to Mad Dog McCree.

Entegham by Phenomenon Studio (later Blazingfallgames).

• Oct 2010, Garshasp Released: In 2010 the most expensive Iranian video game of all time (up to that point) was developed by Fanafzar studio with investment from the IRCG. Garshasp 1 and 2’s combined budget was about 500,000 USD at that time (which is about 600,000 USD today). Garshasp 1 was the first locally developed video game which gained popularity in Iran, and gamers started actually playing it. Garshasp 2 was never released, because of a disagreement in contract and lack of budget.

Garshasp: The Monster Slayer by Fanafzar Studio.

• Jan 2011, Mahdi Bahrami’s BO at the IGF: BO was the first Iranian game to get into the Independent Games Festival, developed by Mahdi Bahrami. BO was one of the Honorable mentions in IGF 2011. Later Bahrami sent two other games to IGF called Farsh and Engare. Both were nominated in some fields.

Farsh (Carpet) and Bo by Mahdi Bahrami.

• Feb 2011, Cafebazaar Founded: In 2011 Cafebazaar, an online market for mobile apps and games started operation. Later it became the most important market for Android apps and games, with about 40 million users.
• Aug 2011, National Institute Established: IRCG established the first video game school in Iran, called Iran National Institute of Game Development. One year later IRCG established the first video game incubator. Both the incubator and National Institute were shut down in 2019 due to economic problems.
• 2014, Golden Age of Mobile Games Started: In this year most of the game developers began making Android games and stopped PC game development. Tebyan stopped funding video games and the IRCG staff changed. New IRCG managers changed the way they were investing in video games. IRCG shut down the Tehran Game Expo which had been launched at 2011.
  In TGF 2014, a mobile game section was added for the first time. In the following years of Tehran Game Festival, there was less and less PC game participation, and mobile games overcame the market and game festivals. Rooster Wars and Fruit Craft were two first mobile games that got viral and popular.
• May 2011, First Tehran Game Festival Launched: In this year IRCG launched the first video game festival in Iran, called Tehran Game Festival aka TGF. TGF continued working until 2018. Eight festivals were held but in 2019 IRCG shut down TGF due to economic problems.

Rooster Wars by Medrik Games and Fruit Craft by TOD.

•  Sep 2014, Parvaneh Released. Biggest Fail Ever: Parvaneh Legacy of the Light’s Guardians was a video game which had been developed with the budget of 700,000 USD (800,000 USD today) by Bearded Bird. Although Parvane broke the record of most expensive Iranian video game of all time, previously held by Garshasp, it was a huge failure. It didn’t sell at all and the developer shut down that year.

Parvaneh Legacy of the Light’s Guardians by Bearded Bird.

• 24 Sep 2014, Donyaye Bazi Discontinued: After publishing 174 issues, Donyaye Bazi magazine discontinued forever due to economic problems. Earlier this year Bazi Rayane magazine was also discontinued due to economic problems. The owner of Donyaye Bazi owner left Iran for the U.S. that year and later Bazi Rayane’s owner left Iran for Europe.
• Aug 2015, Motori Published: When Motori (Android, free-to-play) developed by Glim Games was published on Cafebazaar on 2015 it quickly went viral. With 1.6 million local active users Motori broke all sales, download, and active user records within a few months. Iranian mobile game development entered a new era after Motori.

Motori by Glim Games.

• Apr 2016, Clash of Clans Published by Cafebazaar: Clash of Clans was officially published in Iran by Cafebazaar and the market boomed. It was the first big western video game which was officially published in Iran. Clash Royale was later published by the same company.
• 16 Jul 2017, 1st TCG Launched: IRCG launched Tehran Game Convention. Thbis was the first international video game convention in partnership with Game Connection France. It continued the next year but was shut down in 2019 due to economic problems.
• Apr 2019, IRCG Shut Down TGF, TGC, Game Incubator and National Institute: At the beginning of 2019 the IRCG manager announced that there won’t be any TGF and TGC this year. A few weeks later the National Institute of Game Development closed down after 7 years. The Video Game Development Incubator closed down also. All of this happened because of Iran’s economic depression and financial problems. The IRCG couldn’t afford the cost of continuing events and running sub institutes. Later this year IRCG reopened the National Institute by making a contract with Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.

For a better understanding the economic depression and the effect of the current sanctions, please take a look at the USD to Rl exchange rate I prepared on the right part of the timeline.

Arash Hackimi is an Iranian video game journalist and game designer. Arash has been a lecturer in the Iran Game Development Institute, teaching History of Video Games, Video Games Genre, and Video Games Journalism. He started working as a journalist in 2005 as an editor in Donyaye Bazi monthly magazine.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/arashakimi
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Arash.Hackimi

Saeed Zafarany (editor) started his work as a video game journalist at the age of 15 when he joined the web site Donya-ye-Bazi  as a translator in 2009. Soon after, he became deputy chief editor and administrator. In 2014, after nearly 5 years of service at Donya-ye-Bazi, he decided to found his own media platform, and is now Co-founder and Editor in Chief at Gamenews. Saeed also took the role of Editor in Chief at Bazinameh magazine in 2019.

Brandon Sheffield (editor) is creative director of Necrosoft Games and former EIC of Game Developer magazine. He met Arash at the Tehran Game Convention in 2018, one year before it was shut down.

After a week of teases, Garena has now revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo is coming to Free Fire as a new playable character called ‘Chrono’. He’s set to arrive as part of the game’s latest campaign, ‘Operation Chrono’, which takes us to a dystopian “slum universe” featuring advanced tech aplenty and no shortage of intrigue.

Specific details on how exactly Chrono will play remain a little light, though we do know that more info will arrive soon enough. Operation Chrono is currently expected to kick off on December 19.

This is easily among Garena Free Fire’s biggest collaborations to date, which is really saying something considering that we’ve seen crossovers with Netflix’s Money Heist, DJ Alok, The Night Comes for Us star Joe Taslim, and many more. Clearly, Chrono is joining an already impressive roster of Garena Free Fire characters.

Ronaldo himself teases “tons of new features and elements” for Operation Chrono. “It’s a great feeling having not only a character in Free Fire modelled after me, but also having the whole universe within the game changing along with it,” he shares.

If you’re looking to prepare for this new update, we’ve got all the tips you need to start earning those all-important Garena Free Fire diamonds. We’re just nice like that.

Nintendo is at it again, offering some extra incentives to subscribe to its online service. Members located in Japan will soon be able to download a trial of Overcooked 2 on the Nintendo Switch. This offer will be available from 7th December through to 13th December, and during this period the game will be on sale.

Nintendo has previously announced NSO trials like this for Overwatch, Disgaea 5 Complete, Pokkén Tournament DX and more recently Rune Factory 4 Special. The good news is all of these trials have come to North America and Europe, so Overcooked 2 is expected to follow.

Would you be interested in an Overcooked 2 trial? Leave a comment down below.

It hasn’t been the strongest of months for top digital releases, but November still offered up a decent number of eShop treats to keep us busy and entertained.

These awards aim to celebrate the best of Nintendo’s digital store, giving some love and attention to the games that could so easily be missed in the Switch’s ever-growing library.

So, let’s get started. Here are the best Switch eShop games of November 2020!

Honourable Mentions:

While these titles didn’t quite make our top three this month, they’re still certainly worth checking out.

Publisher: Ripstone / Developer: VooFoo Studios

Release Date: 17th Nov 2020 (USA) / 17th Nov 2020 (UK/EU)

Taking third place this month is Pure Pool, a game that offers an experience as close to the real sport as you could hope to get on Switch. It does exactly what it says on the tin, with incredibly realistic visuals and physics and a clean, simple presentation making it a joy to play.

We gave it a very solid 8/10 in our review, noting that this is the sort of game you’ll want to keep stored in your games library for a rainy day. It’s simple: if you like pool, you’re gonna like Pure Pool.

Publisher: Team Alto / Developer: Team Alto

Release Date: 26th Nov 2020 (USA) / 26th Nov 2020 (UK/EU)

Jumping up a spot into second place we have The Alto Collection, a bundle containing mobile hits Alto’s Adventure and Alto’s Odyssey.

Ideal for those who want to just sit back and relax with a simple yet beautiful experience, The Alto Collection has you sliding down a never-ending mountain, accumulating points by collecting coins and performing tricks. That’s all there really is to it, but with its one-button gameplay and gorgeous environments, that’s all it really needs.

After the year we’ve all had, perhaps it’s no surprise that we’ve gone ahead and voted for a game that dials things down and gives you a breather. Either way, be sure to pick this up if you like the sound of it in our review.

Publisher: Frontier Developments / Developer: Frontier Developments

Release Date: 3rd Nov 2020 (USA) / 3rd Nov 2020 (UK/EU)

Taking the gold for November, though, is a game that could – and maybe should – have had a full retail release, Jurassic World Evolution: Complete Edition.

Probably November’s biggest digital-only game on Switch, Jurassic World Evolution: Complete Edition is a feature-packed and surprisingly playable port of what was already a great game on other platforms. Jurassic Park (or World) fans will obviously get the biggest kick out of managing their own dino parks, but anyone who’s into management sim gameplay will like what’s on offer here.

We praised it as being a “hugely entertaining” game in our 8/10 review, and with all DLC included, this edition really is worth considering. Oh, and if you fancy it, our US YouTube wizard Zion decided to make a video where members of the Nintendo Life team were repurposed as dinosaurs in the game – it didn’t end well. What’s not to like?

< Nintendo Life eShop Selects – October 2020

How we decide our eShop Selects top three: As we reach the end of every month, the Nintendo Life staff vote on their favourite titles from a list of games selected by the editorial team. To qualify for this list, these games must have been released as a digital-only Nintendo Switch eShop title in that particular month, and must have been reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the qualifying games based on their review scores.

Staff are then asked to vote for three games that they think deserve to sit right at the very top of that list; first choice gets 3 points, second choice gets 2 points, and third choice gets 1 point. These votes are then tallied to create a top three list, with the overall winner taking that month’s top prize.