2PieceSnackbox Alternate covers

 Some rabbit-holes should remain unexplored...

Now, what exactly is an 'alternate cover' you might ask. Well, that is very simple within the context of gaming and even here; you see how most physical games come in your standard package of a plastic case with an image shoved into a sleeve? Well what if you changed that image? Similar to how the day-one edition of Mass Effect 3 featured a unique switchable sleeve that had Male Shepard on the front and FemShep on the inverse, except that was an official grift to encourage people to pick up the expensive early copies of that game. (Which I fell for: Hook, line and sinker.) What we're talking about today is a company that generates their very own image box art and sells it off for a neat profit for the benefit of people who are too lazy to just use a printer.

Now to be fair, this is quite a nice idea for a business model that I never really envisioned before. I mean think about it: high quality pieces of custom art work to slide into the plastic wallets of your favourite games, further exemplifying your adoration for the increasingly fading world of physical game resources. And to disparage my own point about being 'too lazy to use a printer', these alternative covers do come pre-stamped with all the studio and console logos that you would expect and even the back blurbs for some reason, even though I think those are the ugliest part of box covers; but it would seem that's just me. Now the further question we must ask ourselves is thus: Why on earth am I sitting here talking about this if it's just a nice and wholesome artist's outlet on EBay? We don't do wholesome here! Well... as you can guess it's not exactly wholesome...

I mean, not always. There have been times, fleeting though they may be, when the group have put together a piece of box art that isn't just an alternate image of a title character nabbed from promotional materials, but a genuinely visually appealing composite! Such as the image of the Sonic Mania gang plastered over the European cartridge cover for the original Sonic collection games. That's a great idea that looks genuinely fun and creative. Of course, the actual assets are still borrowed from here and there, but the creator mounted the ingenuity to bring these decades separated pieces of media together and smoosh them up onto a single cover. That's cool! And if they were doing just cool ideas like that, I probably wouldn't be shining a spotlight on them. Then again, if they were doing that I probably wouldn't have caught sight of one of their 'variation covers' out of the corner of my eye and do a double take so hard I nearly snapped my head clean off.

So, Resident Evil 3 Remake. A fine enough game. I was disappointed with the paired back zombie generation technology, but I understand the sacrifices that had to be made in order for the increased number of on-screen zombies. I wonder what our visionaries over at 2PieceSnackbox had in mind for changing up that boxart? Oh... OH... Yeah, I'm not posting that on my blog, you can look it up on your own. Yes... to describe what I've seen here would be perhaps a bit crass... I guess, it is the Jill Valentine character as modelled by Sasha Zotova, just like on the original cover, but this Jill is... well, let's just say that 3d model is not from the base game. In fact, I suspect that someone might have perused some of the darker, more libidinous, corners of the internet and procured an 'erotic' image to appeal to the lowest common denominator. And there the shoe drops.

If you were brave enough to put that on your search history, you'll likely have also noticed that this RE3 Remake was by no means the company's only foray into... 'coomer bait', to be frank. The Bayonetta cover replacement is just a lewd, the Resident Evil 8 cover appears to be a severely under-dressed Lady Dimitrescu without her signature hat or grey coloured skin, which is wrong on several levels, and worst of all- they've made a pre-emptive cover for the Resident Evil 4 Remake on Switch. Where do I start? RE4R hasn't been announced for Switch, and I'd be very surprised if that changed; it's labelled 'Resident Evil 4 V2' which isn't the naming convention of this new franchise of games at all, and the cover image is another lewd picture of Sasha Zotova's Jill! Excuse the heck out of me- since when did Jill Valentine feature in Resident Evil 4? Last I checked she goes AWOL in 'Code Veronica' and pops up again in 5! Yes, this is what I'm upset about for some reason, excuse me and my twisted priorities!

Now of course, it's probably a little unethical to go around capitalising on the sex-appeal of various scantily clad characters in order to sell print-jobs, probably about as morally dubious as it is to actually buy them. But you know what else it is? Asking for a lawsuit. I can't speak for Capcom and how they want to go about handling their properties, I don't even know if Capcom realises there is a world outside their studio doors considering how little they interact with any of their loyal fans in a one-on-one capacity or respond to community fan pleas. But 2PieceSnackbox did mess up. How, you ask? Well they got a little comfortable, rode the seas long enough to assume they would be unendingly docile, and released one of their lewd alternative covers for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild featuring a lewdified Zelda. (Let us please host a minute of silence for the soon-to-be-removed company.)

What were they possibly thinking! Are these people insane, stupid, or some unholy sludge-like mix of the two extremes? Nintendo would have gone after these idiots even if the artwork was tasteful, they'll probably hire a cartel hit squad to visit them for this violation upon the sanctity of their beloved characters. Nintendo do not allow for fan modifications upon their image, even in the most docile sense. Do you remember when Nintendo clamped down on some internal marketing streamers for daring to propose a 'Nuzzlocke' challenge stream, simply because the prospect of playing a Pokemon game not to the exact parameters that the designers intended offended the gathered executives to their very core? Now imagine if those same streamers proposed to do that in Sexy Misty and Ash Ketchup outfits? We would never have heard of their story because their missing posters would still be in circulation on milk cartons.

I'm all for guerrilla marketing techniques, and going places where your competitors won't in order to get ahead. But lewding the protagonists? That's kinda weird, first off, and it's not really needed. The guys who do this are capable of making some really fancy and well designed alternate covers, albeit usually by mixing about existing assets rather than making something wholly new but you have to work with what you've got, right? I'm just primarily surprised and impressed about another seedy and vaguely degenerate part of our little industry that I totally brushed by until very recently. I wonder how well this catches on in the future. Who knows, we may be able to one-day custom order a new cover for the Switch copy of Skyrim Anniversary Edition with the Imperial Dragon emboss replaced with the Royal Thomas The Tank Engine seal in it's place. (We can but dream of such a day.)