box-art! where's the love nowadays?

[Sebastian]

since all was said already that i would say...

i'll just add that all the Gran Turismo boxes - ALL OF THEM

THEY JUST SUCK! Great games.... bad art

I don't get it

[Damaramu]

I remember my friends and I were astounded at how bad the SNES Street Fighter covers were back in the day. In between turns, we'd sit and laugh at the covers. All of them. The Alpha 2 cover used original art, IIRC, so I can forgive it. Not a bad port either. Sorta.

[Doonzmore]

Ecco the Dolphin and Aero Fighters are among my favorite box art. Damn they look gorgeous!

[pragmatic insanester]

what's wrong with the first two SF boxart? they may not be official artwork, but its not inaccurate and was pretty cool for a fighting game cover.

[irata]

I think it really comes down to individual companies, since they're the ones who actually have control over what the art looks like. It really has nothing to do with the current generation. Granted, trends within the industry exist, what with computer generated renders not being available to the 2600 generation. If you look back at Atari's lineup for the early years, they all had the same painted appearance to them. They used that style to help the consumer's imagination since the games never looked anything like them. They also used the same style consistently, creating a brand image, something that we can all remember today, not unlike the initial Nintendo lineup.

Some companies see value in creating a nice looking product, i.e Namco with Katamari Damacy, while other companies couldn't give a shit, Rival Turf being a beautiful example.

In the end, some are good, some suck my ass. It's all in the eye of the beholder anyway.

[Aussie2B]

One of my favorite things about buying Super Famicom games, besides just playing the games, is the box art. I don't think any system's library or any particular era has it beat. The US got a better Chrono Trigger cover, though. I think it better suits the overall feel of the game than the goofy, chibi character line up against a plain white background.

[swlovinist]

US box art has always sucked. Obviously the powers to be think that all US gamers dont care about our box art. It makes me sick. I could go out to a middle school, ask some kid to doddle his favorite character, and come up with better cover art. It drives me nuts

[secretvampire]

I still find this to be the worst (and also most hilarious) piece of box art I've ever seen:

http://www.vgmuseum.com/scans/scans4/dino.jpg

[agbulls]

There has always been good and bad box art. I use to talk a lot about how American box art seems strangely fixated on "guy holding weapon staring out at you." Think about it. Just about EVERYTHING has one character, almost no background, and they're holding a weapon that is trying so hard to say, "look at me I'm so badass you must buy my game." Even Ninja Gaiden went this route. Talk about a wasted opportunity.

Occasionally, we have slight variations and alterations to this rule. All I ask in my box art is I get a general "feeling" of the game. My favorite recent example? Both God of War games. Yes, Kratos is holding his blades. BUT--the background is really quite involved and gets you a great sense of the epic scope of the game. The first game's cover art is some of my all time fav for a modern game.

[jajaja]

Here's another thread with some "great" box art

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146492

My fav:



Trust me, the actual game is just as bad.

lol i saw this game for sale some months ago if i'm not mistaken. I've seen it before atleast, damn horrible cover haha

[PentiumMMX]

To be fair, a lot of the US NES/SNES boxart was terrible.

Mega Man NES for instance is certainly one of the worst ever.

Ditto.

I personaly like some of the hand-drawn botarts (Kingdom Hearts and Super Mario Bros. 2, for example), though I don't care about the box if it's a fun game.

[Griking]

Shitty covers isn't something that's unique to today's games. My Bally Astrocade games are all rather boring looking with cover art nut much better than the actual game graphics. Most Colecovision games just had pictures of the arcade cabinet on the front cover. Most SMS games were in those boring grid like covers with very little graphics.

Also, I know that I'm in the minority here but I absolutely HATE the hand drawn artwork on Final Fantasy games such as Origins and most of the new GBA releases. Yeah, I know, I know, its all hand drawn. But hand drawn doesn't automatically equal quality. It reminds me of the crap that my friends would be drawing on their notebooks in high school.

[diskoboy]

The Atari 2600 first party games had the best box art ever, until they started going with the silver boxes.

Seriously - find me a first party VCS game, in the colored boxes, that has bad artwork....

[Frica89]

For an example of what all newer boxart should look like, take a look at Pikmin 2:




Clay + Giant Killer Crab = Awesome.

[Captain Wrong]

The prosecution rests, your honor.

[man_traic]

It's funny that box art has learned to suck in new ways. How did it get to the point where we would become nostalgic for the artwork from the 8/16-bit era?

Of course, this isn't just a gmaing thing; far too many DVD's in the US are packaged terribly. Some great stuff, to be sure (Criterion Collection, for example), but the average Studio-produced product just looks lame. And have you noticed how everything has that creepy sameness to it? Is this what corporate consolidation leaves us?

As for the games, the Japanese artwork has always been superior, even now. Just look at any of the Treasure games.

same with CDs/ LPs etc IMHO

[diskoboy]

The jury rests, your honor.

The VCS version of Pac-Man had better artwork than that atrocity. Why didn't Atari just use that?

And I'll even go so far as to say - that picture wouldn't be so bad if pac-man didn't have a body, and didn't look like he belongs on the short bus

[XYXZYZ]

<delete>

Portnoyd beat me to it.

[ShenmueFan]

Mega Man's US box art for teh NES was the best.

[Lady Jaye]

Shitty covers isn't something that's unique to today's games. My Bally Astrocade games are all rather boring looking with cover art nut much better than the actual game graphics. Most Colecovision games just had pictures of the arcade cabinet on the front cover. Most SMS games were in those boring grid like covers with very little graphics.

Also, I know that I'm in the minority here but I absolutely HATE the hand drawn artwork on Final Fantasy games such as Origins and most of the new GBA releases. Yeah, I know, I know, its all hand drawn. But hand drawn doesn't automatically equal quality. It reminds me of the crap that my friends would be drawing on their notebooks in high school.

I agree. On the other hand, I love the boxart (and charadesign) for Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance.