Game box art challenge?

Not a NES game. And not Star Tropics on any platform.

As a further hint, this is probably going to be one for the Brits. Not sure this got much if any exposure over the Pond, even though it was groundbreaking at the time.

It reminds me a bit of Mercenary.

Getting warmer, but no.

Flight Sims-ulator? I’m lost.

Well, if that didn’t do it, I suspect this is going to be a bust, but this might do it:

Oh come on, why not spell it ¬_¬

I’ll guess Corona.

Virus!

I’d never heard of it until I looked at a list of Braben games.

Also, not fair teasing the outside border. That was very confusing.

Edit: @Ginger_Yellow, post the final shot!

Ding ding ding! Also known as Zarch, in the superior Archimedes version.

I thought that was being helpful, as it would identify the publisher to those in the know.

It’s kind of bizarre how little known it is in the US, given that this was one of the seminal 3D graphics games. A function of the platforms it was released on, I suppose. Elite was similarly, though slightly less, obscure in the US until ED. It was also fiendishly difficult to control, using a mouse to effectively vector your thrust.

The original cover is a bit more realistic:

And some gameplay. These graphics, in 1987!

@kerzain, you taught me how to make a layer and stuff from some website, but I forgot how to do it. Help!

I liked Virus a lot on the Amiga. I never really figured out how to win it, but I liked flying around. In those days there was still a lot of novelty to a 3D rendered environment where everything is moving around in natural parallax.

I can’t decide if this will be really easy or really hard.

Jagged Alliance?

No. But you made me look up that cover, and it’s possibly even cheesier than this one.

I’ll do the second clue now:

The US art to SNK Gals Fighters

I like that guess. But it looks like the US version also has anime women. (SNK Gal Fighters, not this game).

I see a pattern.

Here’s a slightly better clue.