Best box art

[kainemaxwell]

Which these classic systems you think have/had the best box art?

[Raedon]

In the way of "art" I'm going to say 2600 as I've seen some great 2600 boxes. same with NES.. I think the worst was the SMS followed by the big black boarder of all SNES games.

[Griking]

this is the 2-3 time I've seen this poll in the the past couple of months and so far nobodys even included the Odyssey 2 in the poll choices which is a shame because I think the Odyssey 2 had the best box art that I've seen.

[Lexicon]

I agree with Griking on that.

[jaydubnb]

I cant select a particular system, but Japanese box art as a whole is sooooooooooo beautiful. I dont know why we just dont simply port the boxes over along with the game...except with english labeling of course ;)

[kainemaxwell]

Griking, can u post some examples please?

[Lady Jaye]

The 2600 has had some really nice box art (for some reason, the Defender art comes to mind). The NES did too, but it also had some horrendous art (such as the first Dragon Warrior; whatever happened to Toriyama's art?, and the first Mega Man game).

[IntelliSteve]

The Inty had some nice cover art! Several of the Activision games had cool boxes, and the Imagic ones were pretty funny in a campy kind of way. Loved those chrome dinosaurs for the original Demon Attack box!

I liked the 'Networks' that organized games by genre, too.

[Keir]

While some of the best box artwork I've seen has been for Atari 2600 games, so has some of the worst. My vote goes to Odyssey 2 for best overall.

[Daniel Thomas]

I think the best box artwork was Atari in the late '70s. This was before we saw game photos on the boxes, or graphics that were anything but the most rudimentary and abstract. The illustrations portrayed the spirit of the games in a way that has never been recaptured. Look at the illustrations for Super Breakout or Surround or Adventure or the early 2600 sports titles like Home Run or Football; these artworks made all those games better than the games standing alone. They create their own mythology.

By the way, who were the people who drew those illustrations for Atari? If only those works were somehow preserved for us now. I'd kill to see this stuff in a museum; it wouldn't hurt to play the damn games while you're there, too.

After that, my favorite videogame box artwork would have to include Konami's NES era, various games for the Genesis like Thunder Force 3 and Herzog Zwei, and, aw hell, Bust-a-Move on the PS2. Whoever thought up the gurgling baby was a genius.

[Ruudos]

The NES has.
Mega Man 3 PAL @_@

[Arqueologia_Digital]

The best box art are the Atari 2600 games and also NES games, Master system is not too good, Coleco vision is pathetic and the rest...are not good as 2600 and NES. :D

[TVs Hasselhoff]

Overall gotta go with 2600. One of my favs is the Night Driver art. Being an avid race fan as well as games, I thought the artwork conveyed the mystique of racing of that time well. The driver's head being annonymous allowed one to place himself into that position, and the cars reflected the most exotic and respected names in GT racing of the time. It just had a sense of excitement that racing should have.

For recent art, I thought the ICO box from Japan for PS2 was great. Two tiny figures viewed from overhead, running through a giant set of ruins. Mystery and helplessness all rolled up in a clamshell case. Great stuff, but to esoteric for the American audiences. Surprised we even use pictures over here, why not just plain white wrapping with the words FOOTBALL GAME stamped across the cover.

But on a further side note, Atari's cover art for Ikaruga on Cube for America is way better than the Japanese artwork. Way to go Atari, who is now owned by a French company, porting a Japanese game, for an American audience, who buys Cubes because the players like Japanese-style games.

[orrimarrko]

Neo-Geo AES Japanese!!

[dreamcaster]

Well, I voted for SNES. But this is based on the PAL boxes (and the Australian ones at that).

Our boxes didn't have the black that the US ones had. The first generation boxes were totally coloured with the picture in the middle. There is a black border along the bottom and the left side, but it's functional as one on the horizontal has a comment about the game, and the one on the bottom has the SNES logo.

The second generation boxes (1995 onwards) were just a giant picture with the SNES logo on the bottom-centre and they looked really great! The cover was like a giant poster!

[death1024]

The early atari box art was by far the best. :D