Cool game, bad cover and vice versa [Archive]

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jajaja

11-07-2005, 04:33 AM

What games do you find cool, but if you look at the cover it looks boring? The front cover that is.

My choice would be Mega Man 1 for NES. Looking at the USA cover the game looks boring, but the game is damn cool. Other would be Cheetahmen 2. The cover looks pretty cool, but the game is horrible. Same with Pit Fighter for SNES. The cover looks pretty cool, but the game is one of the most boring games I've ever played hehe.

Niku-Sama

11-07-2005, 04:39 AM

mega man 1 boring looking? dude hes got a 9mm on the pic of the US game...what game with a 9mm in the mid 80's was boring?

of course we all know megaman doesent run arround and capture Dr.Wily with a 9 on his side with unlimited huge white bullets but makes you think how that got by the nintendo of america censors

MarkMan

11-07-2005, 05:13 AM

Street Fighter Alpha(US) - PS1

lol.

Valhalla

11-07-2005, 06:56 AM

Some of the early SMS games come to mind as games with really crappy cover art, but having sweet games inside, but the king of crap cover / cool game is Phalanx on the SNES... What the hell is up with that cover. Some old huy holding a banjo! What has that got to do with blowing up stuff in a space ship?

jajaja

11-07-2005, 07:01 AM

mega man 1 boring looking? dude hes got a 9mm on the pic of the US game...what game with a 9mm in the mid 80's was boring?

lol, have u seen the suit hes wearing? And the face? Doesnt look good.

Austin

11-07-2005, 07:09 AM

mega man 1 boring looking? dude hes got a 9mm on the pic of the US game...what game with a 9mm in the mid 80's was boring?

lol, have u seen the suit hes wearing? And the face? Doesnt look good.

"Boring" and "butt-awful hideous" are a bit different, let's remember. ;)

Tron 2.0

11-07-2005, 07:19 AM

Bomberman for the TG16 ;)

jajaja

11-07-2005, 07:28 AM

Whiskers the Wonder Cat

11-07-2005, 07:58 AM

DigitalSpace

11-07-2005, 08:50 AM

A few cool games with bad covers:

Phalanx (SNES) - Pretty decent shmup. Most of us have heard about this one before: the box art featured a hillbilly playing a banjo. I thought that instead of just posting the box art on this one, I'd show a scan I found on Google of an EGM article that answers why Kemco put the guy there. Click on the thumbnail and enjoy.

http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/8170/phalanxegm8db.th.jpg (http://img236.imageshack.us/my.php?image=phalanxegm8db.jpg)

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/9602/krally7wy.jpg

Karnaaj Rally (GBA) - Why Jaleco thought sticking this guy on the box was a good idea is beyond me. The game has a stupid name too. This is a fun prehistorically themed 2D racer that is similar to Rock N' Roll Racing.

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/924/4x4evoboxlg8wt.jpg

4x4 Evolution (PS2) - I'm guessing whoever put this together got the first grainy image of a rock and tree covered hillside they could find on Google, and spent about five minutes in photoshop before calling it a day. The snow and SUV look like they were just thrown in there. This is the best off-road racer I've played on the PS2.

ham and swiss

11-07-2005, 05:01 PM

Bayou Billy for the NES

n8littlefield

11-07-2005, 05:02 PM

Truffle

11-07-2005, 05:12 PM

The main one that comes to mind for me is the US version of ICO, terrible stuff (great game/bad cover).

I can't think of any where the coverart was great but the game wasn't. I do remember back when I was little buying Hydlide based on the box and being horribly disappointed.

Blegh! :beaten:
I bought Hydlide for $5 complete thinking I got a steal....The cover art looks cool!
However after 10 minutes I felt ripped off, and I can usually find a way to like bad games. x_x

Gamereviewgod

11-07-2005, 05:16 PM

Mobile Light Force 1/2. Same cover with three cheesy looking chicks, two completely different games, both Japanese vertical shooters.

Julio III

11-07-2005, 10:45 PM

it would be cool if everyone posted pictures of the covers so we could see just how bad they were

Nez

11-07-2005, 11:10 PM

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/a16btsuicide/i.jpg

djbeatmongrel

11-07-2005, 11:14 PM

Mobile Light Force 1/2. Same cover with three cheesy looking chicks, two completely different games, both Japanese vertical shooters.

you read my mind.

roushimsx

11-07-2005, 11:17 PM

Mobile Light Force 1/2. Same cover with three cheesy looking chicks, two completely different games, both Japanese vertical shooters.

Both are terrible games, though :(

With Mobile Light Force you get a trimmed down Gunbird that lacks the ability to change the view mode to anything other than "wobble", the intro has been removed (but they were too lazy to take it off of the disc), the omake was removed from the menu (again, it's still on the disc), the cutscenes were removed, and two of the characters' names were changed to names of the localization team members.

Mobile Light Force 2 was just not a very good game at all. Thank god I never wound up importing it, and thank god Castle Shikigami 2 kicked much ass.

My recommendations for "Bad Cover / Badass Game" are:

Tron 2.0 Killer App (Xbox) - The cover makes it look like a ghetto budget cyber paintball piece of shovelware. If you take the time to actually play it, you'll realize it's one of the freshest first person shooters out there (best fps of 2003, damn you all).
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/6397/712725001445f2gk.th.jpg (http://img158.imageshack.us/my.php?image=712725001445f2gk.jpg)

Border Down (DC) - This only pretains to the normal version, not the limited edition. the LE's cover is alarmingly pimptight, but the normal edition's cover is so generic and dull that you'd think that you were picking up second rate shit like Trizeal rather than one of the best shmups ever made.
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/5416/borderdown4ry.th.jpg (http://img158.imageshack.us/my.php?image=borderdown4ry.jpg)

Rival Turf (SNES) - A look at the cover would make you think that the game was about life in the early-90s as a gay street punk just looking to make enough cash behind the dumpster to afford your next fix of blow. Firing up the game revealed a 2 player (!!!) Final Fight clone that kicked much ass and spawned two extremely awesome sequels.
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/4854/rivalturfad2ro.th.jpg (http://img158.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rivalturfad2ro.jpg)

"Badass Cover/ Bad Game"

Siren (PS2) - I'm fully aware that apparently the Japanese version is really good, but I'm stuck with the subpar US release with the horrible euro-english dubbing that's dull, emotionless, and terribly out of place. Portions of the game that otherwise add to the atmosphere were left untranslated (or all together removed) and what you're left with is a tedious clusterfuck with wallhacking aimbot zombies.
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/1239/711719735526f8fx.th.jpg (http://img158.imageshack.us/my.php?image=711719735526f8fx.jpg)

Teknik_SE-R

11-07-2005, 11:46 PM

good game/bad art:
megaman 2 takes the cake for me. it looks like some middle-aged sci-fi freak playing laser tag

never thought about ICO, but yeah, a kid with a viking helmet (doesn't look like a bandaged head) holding a stick...Watch Out! major excitement coming your way! not that it is an exciting game, but it wan't meant to be. best puzzle game on ps2 imo

WARNING: I may start talking cart labels instead of box art

pretty much every official nes game, 1st iteration (e.g., excitbike, hogan's alley, SMB/duckhunt, metroid, kung fu etc.) and others such as rad racer. From one POV, I think they are awesome, showing a closeup of the crappy graphics and all. it instantly forces screenshots to flash in my head, and I recall playing my friends NES in his basement all summer for three years in a row. In that sense, they probably have the best coverart ever. however, if you never had known of these games, their stories,or their awesome gameplay, you probably would have passed them up for something more visually appealing.

T&C surf and sport: a yin-yan symbol, a gorilla, a kid in a tiki mask, and elvis soing a stall on a 1/2pipe. yay. I think that was a cool game. easy. but a good game. lost of nostalgia there, retarded cover art

good cart design/ bad game:

too many to list, especialy on old systems

Niku-Sama

11-07-2005, 11:49 PM

That one mega man(I think it was the first one) where it had a guy wearing a goofy ass looking helmet with the window shield attatched to it and holding something to blast enemies.

It seems the artist of that had no idea who Mega Man even was.

thats megaman 2...in that one to he doesent have his 9mm any more but he does have some sort of furutama-like ray gun

EricRyan34

11-08-2005, 01:15 AM

River City Ransom for NES

looks kinda funny LOL Maybe not back then though I cant really remember, I was only like 6 years old

Crush Crawfish

11-08-2005, 04:23 PM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v421/CrushCrawfish/us_front.jpg

AUGH MY RETINAS.

otterpop

11-08-2005, 04:36 PM

I'm somewhat suprised no one mentioned this one:

http://archive.gamespy.com/top10/january03/covers/7.jpg

Also, the We <3 Katamari cover art -

<img src ="http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/games/coverg/98/677298.jpg">

The first katamari game had such awesome (if strangely bizzare) art, and they follow up with this crap that looks like some Colorforms.

calthaer

11-08-2005, 06:16 PM

I'm going to second that hideous We <3 Katamari one, as I was thinking this whole thread "Why doesn't someone mention that one?" - I took one look at that thing and wanted to gouge out my eyeballs.

roushimsx

11-08-2005, 08:07 PM

I love the US We <3 Katamari coverart. It's much more fitting than the Japanese cover (which was ok, but nowhere near as good). I don't understand all of the hate other than that it's different from the Japanese one... *shrug*

The_4th_Survivor

11-08-2005, 08:48 PM

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Dynamite Duke" for the Sega Genesis (NTSC/USA version). That game is still one of my favorites to this day, but I still remember how horrible the cover was; A gruff looking, black camo face-painted, over-grimacing caucasian soldier in a black beret, holding an Uzi submachine gun. Compared to the Japanese cover art for Dynamite Duke, the American cover art completely.... well, sucks. Plain and simple.

jdc

11-08-2005, 09:08 PM

Incredible game with bad art......Seventh Cross Evolution for the Dreamcast.

Doonzmore

11-08-2005, 10:30 PM

Trouble Shooters for Genesis.

The_4th_Survivor

11-08-2005, 10:55 PM

Trouble Shooters for Genesis.

Oh, you're right. Trouble Shooter for the Genesis also had a bad cover, but was a good game.

Here are some other games that come to mind:

Bad covers, Good games:

"Streets Of Rage 2" (Genesis) - Is it me, or did all of the characters for the cover art (except Jade of course) look like unproportionate people with ugly faces?

"Resident Evil" (original PS1 long box version) - If that's Chris Redfield on the cover, he sure looks like his eyelid was ripped off and that he had just taken some steroids.

"Bloodrayne 2" (Multi)- For a game that featured a non-stop, action packed, anti-heroine, this game also went leaps and bounds past the first title, but falls short in the cover art department. If I wanted to see Bloodrayne simply stand there and pose, I'd turn on the game, pose her myself and then pause the game.

Good cover, Bad games:

"Rogue Ops" (Multi) - Interesting looking cover artwork, featuring an eye-catching character. Too bad that this game still doesn't sell, even at clearance prices.

"Drake (Of the 99 Dragons)" (XBox) - Nice looking cover with the whole comic book/cel-shaded thing happening. Unfortunately, no matter how cool the cover art or how interesting the story is, this game is easily one of the buggiest game titles out there. (You think Majesco based the "Advent Rising" game engine from this stinker?) I will admit, I have a copy of "Drake", but only because I managed to find it on clearance at the local Circuit City, for $2.00. Strangely, I still feel as if I paid too much for it. LOL

"Dual Blades" (GBA) - Upon looking at the cover, which is truly comic book inspired, you think "Finally! A cool weapon based fighting game on the GBA!". That all changes when you pop the cartridge into your GBA and experience a fighting game with no depth, bad control and of all things.... SLOWDOWN. Yes, you read right, the game has SLOWDOWN in it, as if it were a CD-rom game. (Ever play "Mortal Kombat 3" for the PS1? Remember the option to turn off/on Shang Tsung's character "morph" ability? If you left it on and activated a morph transformation into another character, the game would actually slow down as it loaded that character data. The same thing would happen once you revert back to Shang Tsung. Well, this happens ALL the time in "Dual Blades" and it's a cartridge based game!)

whew....... I'll think of some more soon. ;)

Cryomancer

11-09-2005, 10:06 AM

Elemential Gimmick Gear for DC had a pretty lame cover with an awesome game inside.

Spartacus

11-16-2005, 06:57 PM

Well this is so subjective, but I'll have a little fun and run with it.
I'll use Game Rankings scores as a reasonable factor of good vs bad games. The way I use the score is pretty much like graded homework.. 90% an A, 80% a B, 70% a C, 60% a D, 50% stinks! Reasonable enough?

I'll start with bad games/good cover...

I love all things zombie and Bio Freaks looked interesting enough. Ditto with Armorines. Kinda had a Starship Troopers look to it.
http://tinypic.com/ftkmfn.jpg
Critics weren't too kind to either game. Game Ranking gave the Playstation Bio Freaks 56%, though they did give the N64 version 69%. They gave the Playstation Armorines 35% and the N64 version 60%. Interesting that the N64 versions were ranked so much higher than the Playstation versions.

Reloaded and Epidemic are sequels to Playstations Loaded and Kileak: The DNA Imperative. Since I collect long box versions of Playstation games the sequels were of interest to me anyway, but I liked the look of them too. Corpse Killer took advantge of my zombie fascination and Murakumo and Danger girl had pretty decent looking artwork.
http://tinypic.com/ftkopx.jpg
Game Rankings says...
Reloaded 52%
Epidemic 54%
Corpse Killer 43%
Murakuma 52%
Danger Girl 54%

Now we get to some real stinkers. The Ring: Terror's Realm is connected to those two Ring movies. The first movie wasn't too bad. The second one kinda sucked. The game might be worse! McFarlane's Evil Phrophecy looks cool! Bugriders? I thought it looked interesting enough.
http://tinypic.com/ftkoyb.jpg
Game Rankings says...
The Ring 34%
McFarlane 32%
Bugriders wasn't even listed let alone ranked! A bad omen! DP gave it a minus. I haven't played it yet, but I'll trust their judgement.

Good games with bad artwork...

Jim Power looks pretty darn bad in the Lost Dimension, but the game is considered one of the ten hardest games of all time. I think that's a pretty significant accomplishment considering I've never heard anyone say it uses cheap shots to do it. Besides, it has those really cool 3D glasses! Try an emulate those! Trouble Shooter has been metioned already. Great game but that cover art really does suck! Reminds me of Mobile Light Force for some reason.
Strider is a classic. Boy that looks bad! If you think the Japanese version probably looks a lot nicer you'd be wrong. I have the megadrive Strider Hiryu and it's only slightly better looking. I didn't snap a photo of it but the dudes face just looks weird.
http://tinypic.com/ftlanb.jpg

But my all time favorite example of really bad artwork on Japanese megadrive games goes to Golden Axe II. I love Golden Axe, but the guy in the middle has a face that looks like it was done by an eight grader! I cringe everytime I look at it!
http://tinypic.com/ftkp79.jpg

Lastly, this game is highly rated and highly sought after, but honestly, if you didn't know that and just saw it sitting somewhere for the first time, would you bother even picking it up? Both versions look incredibly boring!
http://tinypic.com/ftlau0.jpg

Just my thoughts on the subject.

pragmatic insanester

11-16-2005, 10:23 PM

i thought Bio Freaks was an above-average game. a nice storyline, good gore, and a huge final boss.

Zing

11-19-2005, 01:12 AM

http://tinypic.com/fvh66q.jpg

Damaramu

11-19-2005, 02:30 AM

My favorite Genesis game, Alisia Dragoon:

American/Euro cover art:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v163/Damaramu/alisiadragoon.jpg

Japanese cover art:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v163/Damaramu/boxart_japan.jpg

christhegamer

11-20-2005, 07:23 PM

Dude, the MM1 US box-art shows a 40-year-old guy in a cheesy outfit trying to deal with his constipation problems while holding a crappy gun; how can people think thats cool?!?! O_O

anyways, all though not really a game, my vote is for the " ultimate Kingdom Hearts codes" (gameshark). Pee-Yew!!!
:texaschain:

Lord Contaminous

11-20-2005, 08:36 PM

I gotta agree on the Suikoden cover.

Those people look more hispanic than Japanese.

Shikigami no Shiro 2/Castle Shikigami 2
http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/games/coverg/17/670717.jpg
American. Looks like a deranged over happy family picture. Apparently got molested by 4kids.

http://image.lik-sang.com/images/large/ps2-shikigami-no-shiro-2-best-jap.jpg
Japan. This one looks more dark and mysterious.

CosmicMonkey

11-20-2005, 08:50 PM

Oh, what a topic to get me started on. It seems that nearly all the quality artwork from Japan gets thrown away during the localisation process. The US really is the worst culprit at this. US game covers are, in general, absolutely terrible when compared with the Japanese original. The UK usually suffers the same fate as the US although sometimes we're lucky.

Gunstar Heroes
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/features/developers/treasure/gunstar-heroes-japan-cover.jpg
Absolutely wonderful Japanese artwork.

http://www.classicgaming.com/gunstarheroes/docs/gunstar_box.jpg

Oh dear. And the UK suffers the same fate, minus the Genesis logo on the side.

Gunhed/Blazing Lazers

http://www.vintage-games.com/assets/images/Gunhed.jpg

Cool cover.

http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/indiabasin/1211/0f1bebd0.jpg

Hmm, yes. Great name change too :hmm:

Megaman/Rockman

http://www.tomheroes.com/images/NES%2520rockman%25203%2520box%2520famicom.jpg

http://www.tomheroes.com/images/NES%2520rockman%25204%2520box%2520famicom.jpg

http://www.tomheroes.com/images/NES%2520megaman2%2520box.JPG

http://www.sonichq.org/megaman/images/boxcover/megaman/nes/mm3-front.jpg

AlexKidd

11-21-2005, 05:54 AM

Dungeon Explorer for the tg-16 was the first one that came to mind. Pretty cool game in my opinion but the box art is one of the ugliest things i've ever seen. A lot of the early turbo games had ugly packaging. This was for the most part corrected once the duo came around. Dungeon Explorer 2 looked a lot better than the first game.

Also there were a lot of sms games that were just white with black lines and a tiny picture in the corner. I'm sure some of those were good games.

Quackaddict

11-22-2005, 11:46 AM

Two words. Valkyrie Profile.

http://i8.ebayimg.com/03/c/00/c0/64/18_7.JPG

Lord Contaminous

11-22-2005, 12:30 PM

Y'know all the way up to now, when it comes to Square titles, the US had the upper hand most of the time.

A great majority of Square's Japanese titles have had their game logo on a plain white background. Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 7 are several of the best US box covers I've ever seen.

Lady Jaye

11-22-2005, 01:14 PM

The original Dragon Warrior boxart on the NES... sure, Toriyama wasn't known back then, but still... I always found the not-very-attractive penciled fantasy art to be a turn-off...

http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-027/bf/U-027-S-02000-A.jpg

Dragon Quest:

http://static.flickr.com/29/65914971_26b00b58c4.jpg

Isn't the Toriyama touch so much better?

SegaAges

11-22-2005, 03:01 PM

I always thought that MegaMan kinda looked like a girl in on the 1st cover

nik

11-22-2005, 04:12 PM

The original Dragon Warrior boxart on the NES... sure, Toriyama wasn't known back then, but still... I always found the not-very-attractive penciled fantasy art to be a turn-off...

Dragon Quest:

Isn't the Toriyama touch so much better?

No, looks like a cartoon, Dragon Warrior VIII artwork is a disapointment to me as well.

But then I like mario kart, I guess some genres need that look (goofing around, racing with freinds) rather then some need a more serious note (re: slaying a dragon).

Lady Jaye

11-22-2005, 04:19 PM

But considering that Toriyama also did the original charadesign of the series (and he's back on Dragon Quest VIII), it's only fitting that the boxart is by him as well.

I'm surprised they're not trying to sell DQVIII to the North American market with a mention "Character design by the creator of Dragonball"...

The Great Dane

11-23-2005, 12:58 AM

One game in particular for me is Showdown: Legends of Wrestling 3. The cover is AWESOME! It has a very cool drawing of Hulk Hogan, Sting, The Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man Randy Savage, and Jake the Snake Roberts. The game turned out to be one of the glitchiest games I have ever played. I was upset as it could have been such a good game.

atomicthumbs

11-23-2005, 06:39 AM

ONI for Playstation 2. REALLY cool shiny cover, REALLY bad game.

http://www.gamecom.ru/images/370.jpg

Simply Dave

11-23-2005, 07:10 AM

I have to agree with Ico as being one of the best games with the worst covers. What were they thinking with that one? LOL

BMF54123

11-23-2005, 07:34 AM

Apparently, everyone has forgotten about the original PAL Mega Man 2 cover. And for good reason.

http://misc.rustedmagick.com/megaman2pal.jpg

If you saw Patrick Stewart offering you a bowling pin from a shelf full of games, wouldn't YOU run away screaming?

Milk

11-23-2005, 08:47 AM

http://www.shinforce.com/saturn/reviews/GuardianHeroes/cv-GuardianHeroes-usa-a.jpg

Poor Undead Warrior...forced to wear that ugly polygonal armor even though he's in a 2D game...

roushimsx

11-23-2005, 09:55 AM

But considering that Toriyama also did the original charadesign of the series (and he's back on Dragon Quest VIII), it's only fitting that the boxart is by him as well.

I normally would agree, but I feel in this case that the US box art just worked better than Toriyama's design *shrug*

Lady Jaye

11-23-2005, 10:22 AM

nik

11-23-2005, 09:58 PM

Milk

11-23-2005, 10:16 PM

I have to side with Lady Jaye. The colors are too pale and murky, and the poor dragon's face looks like it's all in one plane. Even if Toriyama's is more cartoony, his features correct perspective and depth. Also, the visible pencil specks look unprofessional, like a little kid's drawing.

evildead2099

11-25-2005, 05:57 PM

Valis (1) for the Genny not only features bad cover art, but the game is pretty weak in of itself. Valis 3's a different story, though ;)

Lady Jaye

11-25-2005, 08:19 PM

I wouldn't mind the more serious fantasy style artwork if it were good artwork. So it's maybe not so much the tone of the illustration as it is the style. That has to be the ugliest dragon I ever saw (and it's ugly because it isn't well drawn).

You mean thats not your style.

Obviously someone was paid to do it becasue they had talent enough to draw the warrior as well, to me the cartoon look is goofy, like a doodle.

Oh well, whats important is the game I guess.

Actually, I like good serious fantasy artwork. I have a Cristos Achilleos laminated poster that I bought when I was 13 or 14. I like the better art from Magic the Gathering.

It's not because someone was paid to draw the boxart that he has talent -- if he's the nephew of someone working at NoA, he could have gotten the contract whereas he wouldn't have had otherwise.

I still think it's god-awful art.

pragmatic insanester

11-26-2005, 04:15 AM

wow. i never saw the guardian heroes cover. jeez.

Griking

11-26-2005, 10:33 AM

Did they hire the artist of the We Love Katamari cover because of his talent? Possibly. I bet he was the best artist in his third grade class.

Lord Contaminous

11-26-2005, 10:42 AM

http://www.tomheroes.com/images/demon_sword.jpg
What the fuck was Taito America thinking? That they could blind us from the fact that there IS a sequel to Legend of Kage?

They totally had their settings mixed up.

Putting a generic Conan the Barbarian on the box when the game is really set in ancient Japan? Work wit me people!

Famidrive-16

11-26-2005, 04:11 PM

Don't think this was posted or not...

http://www.rarevids.com/pictures/nes/IronSword.jpg

When I bought a used in-box copy it came with a full-size poster of this x_x

atomicthumbs

11-26-2005, 05:32 PM

http://i2.peapod.com/c/II/IIMZG.jpg

pragmatic insanester

11-26-2005, 06:19 PM

at least the gunstar heros artwork for america was accurate to the in-game graphics.