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Favorite All-Time Videogame Box Art Rated

Posted by simoniker on from the squiggles-and-dots dept.

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?

7 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. what art ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  2. Is this a joke? by senocular · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I could have pulled better cover art out of my ass. A lot of the "art" is only impressionable due to reminiscence.

  3. No Atari boxes. by sammaffei · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --

    Political correctness is the newest form of slavery.

    1. Re:No Atari boxes. by Craig+Maloney · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

  4. An Infocom classic by stardeep · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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...

    --
    Sentimentality is merely the Bank Holiday of cynicism.
    - Oscar Wilde
  5. Re:Shocked I am... by Scorchio · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There was a pretty good rule of thumb in the early 80s, and to some extents it still holds today: how exciting, fantastic and wonderful the game cover is, is inversely proportional to how good the game actually is. I was lured several times by drawings of vast space battles, with sleek fighter craft attacking horribly beweaponed starcruisers, through a haze of laser fire and explosions... only to find the game has a triangle firing squares at a couple of advancing, um, rectangles with legs.

    Of course, in those days, you had to use your imagination, which I think lent to more immersive gameplay. Sometimes, though, the gulf between the expectations raised by the game cover, and the actual game was just that bit too wide...

  6. Arcade game flyers/maruqees are where it's at by British · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.