Tracing the Influence: Retraced Edition
Tag: Raw Deal
Jim Power PC Engine CD cover (1993) 🔗
Now, the original Amiga box art of Loriciel's Euro platformer has its own history of 'inspirations', but when Jim Power was brought to Japan for the PC Engine CD, it got a brand new cover image – which was once again cobbled together from other media. The hero is represented by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the poster for Raw Deal, whereas the president's daughter he's tasked to rescue in the game is Lesa Ann Pedriana ripped straight from a Playboy photoshoot (which Loriciel had sourced for a cover before). There's two things I'd like to know about this cover: First, why did the artist feel the need to change up the positioning of both character's arms, quite weirdly in Schwarzenegger's case. Second, did they like the little rocket man in the background (scraped from a book cover painted by Peter Elson) so much that they chose him as the only element retained from the Amiga cover?
Mercs (1991) 🔗
Even though Capcom's game Commando predates the movie Commando, perhaps they got cold feet about similarities when coming up with the English title for the seque, but that still didn't prevent them from ripping off the Schwarzenegger vehicle in the game. Another character's portrait pose was taken from Raw Deal – not the most celebrated of Arnie's action movies, but it seems to have gained some popularity in Japan (where it was known as Gorilla), at least judging by the number of games riffing on the film's poster. The third guy in the game obviously has the Schwarzenegger physique as well, but I haven't found a matching pose yet. The item merchant that's only found in the Sega Genesis version also looks like she's based on something real.
