{"id":136812,"date":"2026-04-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-199724"},"modified":"2026-04-12T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T09:00:00","slug":"poll-box-art-brawl-duel-mendel-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/04\/12\/poll-box-art-brawl-duel-mendel-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll: Box Art Brawl: Duel &#8211; Mendel Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/21fb444d87c87\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/21fb444d87c87\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"21fb444d87c87\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Mendel Palace - BAB\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/21fb444d87c87\/mendel-palace-bab.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/21fb444d87c87\/mendel-palace-bab.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" alt=\"Mendel Palace - BAB\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We hope you&#8217;re ready for another clash of covers, because it&#8217;s time for this week&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/tags\/box-art-brawl\">Box Art Brawl<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/features\/poll-box-art-brawl-duel-star-fox-assault-gamecube\">Last time<\/a>, thanks to a certain <strong>Super Mario Galaxy Movie<\/strong> appearance, we took a look at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/gamecube\/star_fox_assault\">Star Fox: Assault<\/a> for the GameCube. While the grey Japanese cover put up a good fight, it was the European and North American design that comfortably walked away with 64% of the vote and the win.<\/p>\n<p>This time, to celebrate its surprise drop on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2026\/04\/nintendo-expands-switch-onlines-nes-library-with-three-more-games\">Nintendo Switch Online NES library<\/a>, we&#8217;re taking a look at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/mendel_palace\">Mendel Palace<\/a>. There&#8217;s every chance that you haven&#8217;t heard of this one before, but does the name Game Freak ring a bell? Yes, this was the debut title from the <strong>Pok\u00e9mon<\/strong> team, a puzzly adventure game about flipping tiles to get through a monster-filled dream world.<\/p>\n<p>There are two different covers to pick between this week, so let&#8217;s check &#8217;em out!<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/retro\/related-articles:199657 @ 1776010478 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<h2>North America<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"3f5a98b3ff6fc\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Mendel Palace -\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/3f5a98b3ff6fc\/mendel-palace.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/3f5a98b3ff6fc\/mendel-palace.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"1236\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Mendel Palace -\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/gamesdb.launchbox-app.com\/games\/details\/1337-mendel-palace\">Hudson Soft \/ Launchbox<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There&#8217;s a vague <strong>Labyrinth<\/strong> vibe to the North American cover that we can&#8217;t help but dig. It&#8217;s absolutely jam-packed with weird-looking characters, while the mysterious gothic tower looms in the background. Cap it all off with the purple border and funky font, and you&#8217;ve got one of those covers that wouldn&#8217;t look out of place on your hip co-worker&#8217;s office wall.<\/p>\n<h2>Japan<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"ff21c8e0a51b6\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Mendel Palace -\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/ff21c8e0a51b6\/mendel-palace.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/ff21c8e0a51b6\/mendel-palace.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"1315\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Mendel Palace -\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/gamesdb.launchbox-app.com\/games\/details\/1337-mendel-palace\">Namco \/ Launchbox<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Japanese design is&#8230; different. It&#8217;s a lot cuter, for sure, with all those weird characters from the previous cover taking on a chibi aesthetic and the central castle looking a lot more welcoming. There&#8217;s a general brightness to the whole thing, too, with the blue skies and white border presenting an entirely different game to that seen by audiences out West.<\/p>\n<section id=\"poll-11690\" data-block-type=\"poll\" class=\"poll\" data-uri=\"polls\/which_region_got_the_best_mendel_palace_box_art\" data-id=\"11690\" data-question=\"Which region got the best Mendel Palace box art?\">\n<div class=\"results hidden\">\n<h3 data-toc=\"skip\">Which region got the best Mendel Palace box art? (821 votes)<\/h3>\n<ol class=\"poll-results many-results\">\n<li class=\"result with-image first\">\n<div class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/901295dd8bb96\/100x60.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"60\" alt=\"North America\"><\/div>\n<p><strong class=\"answer\">North America<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"370 votes (45.1%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"45\"><span class=\"val\">45<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"result with-image last\">\n<div class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/4e818b5717e29\/100x60.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"60\" alt=\"Japan\"><\/div>\n<p><strong class=\"answer\">Japan<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"451 votes (54.9%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"55\"><span class=\"val\">55<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><em>Thank you for voting! We&#8217;ll see you next week for another edition of Box Art Brawl!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: Nintendo Life We hope you&#8217;re ready for another clash of covers, because it&#8217;s time for this week&#8217;s Box Art Brawl! Last time, thanks to a certain Super Mario Galaxy Movie appearance, we took a look at Star Fox: Assault for the GameCube. While the grey Japanese cover put up a good fight, it was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}