Favorite All-Time Videogame Box Art Rated

Thanks to GameSpy for its feature discussing and rating the best videogame box art of all-time. The author cheekily argues: "Video games have indeed been graced with some wonderful covers over the years, art that you'd be proud to put in a frame and hang on your wall for all to enjoy... Except when girls come over, when it must be hidden in the closet", before highlighting game covers including Pinball Construction Set ("Rather than showcase a typical pinball scene like most pinball games have done, this cover is mostly symbolic"), the non-U.S. cover for ICO ("Impressionistic and surreal, as if it's capturing a moment in fantasy or memory rather than reality"), and DOOM ("Bottom line, this is a classic.") What's your favorite game cover art of all time?

Comments

Altered Beast

[B00yah]

Altered Beast for the Sega Genesis had a bad ass cover imho... seen http://www.roarvgm.com/COVERS/GENESIS/altered%20be ast-USA.jpg there.

Minimalist

[Flyboy Connor]

I just loved the minimalist cover of Ultima VII: The Black Gate.

Of course, the cover of Spellcasting 301: Spring Break is not to be missed either.

No Atari boxes.

[sammaffei]

Atari had great artwork on their boxes. Actually, they set the standard for others that followed.

Check out Defender, Berzerk and Missle Command

Even Mattel Intellivision (boo, hiss) had some cool artwork.

Article seemed kinda biased to late 80s / early 90s if you ask me.

Re:No Atari boxes.

[Craig Maloney]

The Atari artwork for the early 2600/5200 cartridges and 8 bit computer software was some of the best artwork to grace videogames, bar none. The paintings were almost a trademark of the early Atari software. These were most definitely works of art, and anyone from the era would be proud to have thse hanging in their living room.

Infocom

[dave-tx]

Repeating a recent theme of mine, I'll nominate Infocom's "Suspended" - an early release shipped in a box that had a contoured white plastic face, right in line with the theme of suspended animation. It was way cool looking.

http://infocom.elsewhere.org/gallery/suspended_mas k/suspended-mask.html

An Infocom classic

[stardeep]

I have always been fond of the atmospheric cover art for Wasteland and the naive-yet-groovy picture on the Tass Times in Tone Town box as well as the "artist's rendition" of an LCP on the little cassette case for Little Computer People.

(I'm too lazy to google for links. Be my guest and explore the Internet yourself!)

I will give you a link to my absolute favourite, tough. I love the way it all looks completely different from what I'd pictured in my head, especially the house. I guess Infocom's motto still holds true...

Simple and smooth

[MMaestro]

Call me lame but I as much as I like pretty videogame box art, I always thought having a smoother more crisp box art was always better (at least for the front). Case in point : the box art for Final Fantasy 2/4 and 3/6. Take a look.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/scans/snes/ff2.jpg/
http://www.vgmuseum.com/scans/snes/ff3.jpg/

Call me a marketing moron but I think this sort of smooth, simple box art is the best way to gather attention against rows and rows (or stacks and stacks) of other video game box art.

Arcade game flyers/maruqees are where it's at

[British]

This article I do not agree with. To me, the most beautiful video game 'art' was in the flyers for early 1980s arcade games and their marquees. Sure, there were "cliches" such as glowing text, grids with a perspective deformation, and red-orange-yellow combos, but I love it.

Check out http://www.arcadeflyers.com/ for a gallery of some of the most(IMO) beautiful artwork to have graced the decade. Sure, some are cheesy, but that's where it's at for me.

Oh, and don't forget...

[cmdrwhitewolf]

That knockout of a redheaded Swordswoman on the cover of 'The Curse of the Azure Bonds' (http://atariforce.free.fr/st/images/scans/azure.j pg), with that 'oh, my' specially designed armor! ;)

Re:what art ?

[anim8]

most games I had were just floppy disks with a name written on them.

Same here. And when I actually bought games the box, manual and marketing filler would get tossed after a week.

So what "best of/worst of" topics are left for these game sites? "Best Bar Code Number"?

Burn: Cycle

[TheRealMindChild]

Hell, I bought the game for $2 JUST FOR THE BOX. It looked black, but it has the heat sensitive color changing gell stuff. A wonderful time indeed.