15 Truly Hideous Examples of Game Box Art

We've discussed it before, but it's something that bears repeating: sometimes the art on game boxes just isn't very good. 1up has rounded up 15 examples of poor art direction for a smattering of games since the start of the hobby. They've taken some pains to avoid oft-repeated examples of this malady, and managed to remind me again of my favorite space shooter advertised by a man with a banjo. "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial : Interplanetary mission. (PS1) - This is not a game cover. This is what you see when you lose at Mystery Date. 'I got the Jock.' 'I got the Trust-Fund Brat.' 'I got the Elephant Man and a bouquet of alien flowers that laid eggs in my face.' The whole thing is creepy enough without actually commenting on E.T's robot stalker friend hiding in the distance. There's something to be learned here for future game-cover artists: Don't bother actually filling in your backgrounds. That way the cover can double as a superfun coloring book for the kids."

Comments

Re:this has been a peeve of mine for a while now

[raddan]

It's funny. Now that I think of it, one of my favorite games of all time, Starflight II, had great box art. I bought the game simply because I loved the original game; no thought as to the artwork. But I do remember how intensely the pictures captured my imagination on the long car ride home from the store in the back of the family minivan (I lived in the boonies of Maine at the time). In fact, when I pictured what my own crew looked like, I pictured the crew shown on the cover.

Of course one of my other favorite games, Spaceward Ho!... not so good. IIRC, the "packaging" was photocopied (which explains why I can't find an example on the web). The game itself was fantastic.

More bad artwork?

[Dogtanian]

Sheesh, some of the early 8-bit artwork from small British companies wasn't that hot. I could probably get some of those old "Your Computer" magazines I got from my Dad, and scan a few examples from them, but I'm too lazy. :-)

This Timeslip budget reissue cover is actually a later example, but it's still quite bad; it looks like they got a child from secondary school on work experience to do it.