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

The best this, the worst that...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

What is the matter with the /. editors? These lists are content free. They're just a way to organise non-information, which you'll forget after about 5 minutes, in such a way that you have to click on a long sequence of pages, exposing you to as much advertising as possible. They are almost the lowest form of journalism. Given that there are many of millions of people out there in the tech world, many of whom are smart and interesting and working hard on cool stuff, surely there's something better to post than this drivel?

Wow, What a crappy article.

[The Rizz]

This was a just plain bad article. Uninspired, filled with lame jokes, and with no real objectivity to it.

There were quite a few really crappy box art examples in there, yes, but there were others that got in there pretty much because the author didn't like the style the artist used. Hell, this article actually said on two of the entries, "my editor made me put this in here." Lame, lame, lame.

This has also been said before:

[pissedoffamerican]

5 pounds of shit does not need to be put into a 20 pound bag. (I know they like ad revenue, but geez...)

Again, Misleading Headline

[Enderandrew]

There are plenty of articles depicting poor box-art.

This article however if you read it was fairly interesting in comparing America, European and Japanese box-art for various games, and showing how those changes came about. You can observe evolving changes and cultural differences.

The article covers both the good and bad, and certainly isn't simply a list of poor covers.