# Worst game boxart



## Nobody_Important4u (Oct 19, 2019)

i am really suprised that nobody made thread like that. i only found one dead thread.

let's post shitty boxart here

i start with this







it's like cover of obscure 1 & 2 but bad






this sucks too!


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## dragonblood9999 (Oct 19, 2019)

Enough said.





Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk


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## Alexander1970 (Oct 19, 2019)

Very disturbing.....


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## SG854 (Oct 19, 2019)




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## spotanjo3 (Oct 19, 2019)

Not an option but a fact.. I agreed with @dragonblood9999.. My favorite games are MegaMan and this art box was the worst I ever saw in my life when I was young. LOL!


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## Joe88 (Oct 19, 2019)




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## spotanjo3 (Oct 19, 2019)

SG854 said:


>



To be honest, it was better art than America version because Mega Man used gun ?! This art showing Mega Man used cannon.. Yeah American version was number one the worst art box for Mega Man than everywhere else!


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## DinohScene (Oct 19, 2019)




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## Tony_92 (Oct 19, 2019)

One of my favs.


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## Zyvyn (Oct 19, 2019)

Joe88 said:


>


I had to look at the box for a solid 5 seconds before seeing the title


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## dragonblood9999 (Oct 19, 2019)

Zyvyn said:


> I had to look at the box for a solid 5 seconds before seeing the title


What are you talkin about the name is clear there. It's Game of the Year Edition. You've never played Game of the Year Edition?

Enough joking but I do agree that the Game's name should be top Center, or at least bigger than Game of the Year Edition

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk


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## supernintendo128 (Oct 23, 2019)

Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest for GameCube






This game, in my opinion, has the ugliest video game logo on the GameCube, probably ever. Most game logos convey the tone of the game, like Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, or the Legend of Zelda. What does this logo tell me? Nothing. They opted for a boring-ass font that does not fit well with the game's aesthetic at all, and made minimal effort to convey what the game is like. Oh wow, you put fangs and an eye on the C. Really creative, Atlus. Couldn't they go with a blockier font to fit in with the "cube" asthetic instead of whatever font they actually went with?


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## Sonic Angel Knight (Oct 23, 2019)

Here you go. You maybe thinking I'm crazy but I'm not. It's the iconic Ghostbusters. But look at it from someone who doesn't even know what Ghostbusters is. A white generic ghost with a black background. Sure the logo is used in the words to replace the "O" but even the font is wrong. The one on the right is the Japanese Famicom version and that even had the right font from the movie. Same goes for the Sega versions. The same black background with the same ghost and same boring font the NES International one had. On master system, the black background is now turned to white checkerboard pattern. Other console versions of Ghostbusters around the same time least have the actors or characters on the box.


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## godreborn (Oct 23, 2019)

wasn't bad boxart mega man in marvel vs capcom?  it was intended as a joke for Inafune from what I remember.


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## relauby (Oct 23, 2019)

godreborn said:


> wasn't bad boxart mega man in marvel vs capcom?  it was intended as a joke for Inafune from what I remember.



He was in _Street Fighter X Tekken_ and he's kind of awesome. They aged him 25 years since his picture was taken for the NES box art and just turned him into this bumbling doofus. I would play the shit out of a game about this guy.


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## godreborn (Oct 23, 2019)

ah, that's it.  thanks.  I'm a huge mega man fan, but that version is pretty funny.


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## relauby (Oct 23, 2019)

godreborn said:


> ah, that's it.  thanks.  I'm a huge mega man fan, but that version is pretty funny.



Yeah some people took offence to it, like they were making fun of Mega Man. But he's clearly not Mega Man, he's North American Mega Man, who already looked like a doofus anyway.


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## godreborn (Oct 23, 2019)

yeah, I know Inafune left capcom, because he was fed up with the way they did things at that company.  I think some people took offense to it, because it was like a stab at Inafune's creation.  still, if given a choice, I'd prefer the normal mega man look.


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## relauby (Oct 23, 2019)

godreborn said:


> yeah, I know Inafune left capcom, because he was fed up with the way they did things at that company.  I think some people took offense to it, because it was like a stab at Inafune's creation.  still, if given a choice, I'd prefer the normal mega man look.



Ah, I didn't realize it was around the time he left, that makes sense why people would get offended. Apparently Inafune's reasoning for wanting it to be this guy was that the traditional Mega Man had already been in a lot of fighting games so he wanted to do something weirder and more interesting. I definitely respect that.


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## The Real Jdbye (Oct 23, 2019)




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## AmandaRose (Oct 23, 2019)




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## godreborn (Oct 23, 2019)

there's some game where the box art is just a person's hand holding the cartridge.  I think it's for the pc engine.  lol  it might be in avgn's list.


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## AmandaRose (Oct 23, 2019)

godreborn said:


> there's some game where the box art is just a person's hand holding the cartridge.  I think it's for the pc engine.  lol  it might be in avgn's list.


To be fair the vast majority of pc engine box art was god awful.


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## godreborn (Oct 23, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> To be fair the vast majority of pc engine box art was god awful.



oh, yeah.  the legendary axe (can't remember if it's 1 or 2) is legendary.  

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

that's not the only problem with pc engine games.  sometimes the instructional manual had no screenshots.  I remember the blazing lazers instruction manual just had drawings.  despite that, some of the cd games are quite good.  I still think that the pc engine version of the ys games is the way to play them.


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## AmandaRose (Oct 23, 2019)

godreborn said:


> oh, yeah.  the legendary axe (can't remember if it's 1 or 2) is legendary.


Both are terrible here they are along with some other terrible pc engine box arts.


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## godreborn (Oct 23, 2019)

the girl on the the valis 3 cover looks like a man.  lol  I own valis 2, not 3 or 4.


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## AmandaRose (Oct 23, 2019)

godreborn said:


> the girl on the the valis 3 cover looks like a man.  lol  I own valis 2, not 3 or 4.


Fuck ya do remember I'm a trans woman ￼￼￼￼￼ right ￼￼￼￼￼ ￼￼￼￼ so I couldn't possibly comment on that lol.


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## Sonic Angel Knight (Oct 23, 2019)

I don't know what you guys are trying to say. You don't like the box art because the art is bad? Least there was effort placed into making it more visually interesting and stimulating. It may not be as out of place as something like the lazy ones. Lazy box art are just plain bizarre. It won't make anyone want to play the title. Does something like this (see below) make you want to play the game? Yellow background with feet at the top?


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## The Real Jdbye (Oct 23, 2019)

All the old Sega Master System boxart is pretty bad. Not even in a funny way, just bad and lazily made.
These two are especially bad:


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## godreborn (Oct 23, 2019)

wicked 18:
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




  if you don't read what it says, it's almost misleading.  when I first saw this, I thought it was an adventure game.


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## godreborn (Oct 23, 2019)

with the bad mega man box art, it makes you wonder if the artist only got a description of the character rather than seeing the real thing in the game.  lol


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## osaka35 (Oct 24, 2019)

godreborn said:


> with the bad mega man box art, it makes you wonder if the artist only got a description of the character rather than seeing the real thing in the game.  lol


pretty dang close



> "What happened was I had to go down to Capcom and do a game they just got in from Japan.  They had a beta version; they were in a hurry to get this thing out.  So I went down there.  The gentlemen was the art director was there with the beta guy and they were waiting for me and I came with my pad and they started running the game.  What we saw was this little pixelated figure of the famous Mega Man running around on the screen shooting.  Bang, bang, bang, he's shooting obviously like this with his arm [Marc points his arm forward].
> 
> So I said to the art director, 'what is he shooting? What is he shooting with?'  The art director said, 'he must have a pistol because I don't see that he's got a rifle so he must have a pistol.' 'So... a pistol? You want me to do a pistol?' And he said, 'yeah, let's put a pistol in there.'  So I did what I was told and I put the pistol in there.  Add to the fact that they only had, like, a day and a half for me to do the painting and what you wound up with was not the greatest result but certainly a result that was not my fault.  It was one of those things. Here's my opportunity: I'm saying to everybody now that was not my fault! Talk to Capcom about the pistol." -- Marc Ericksen



Megaman 1 had a similar "a day or so to do it based on vague description" thing going on, so...yup. I don't know why they made art such an after-thought.


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## AmandaRose (Oct 24, 2019)




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## ThoD (Oct 24, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> View attachment 183855


I actually like this one, too bad the actual game looked NOTHING like the boxart Would have been awesome to be a 3D action game with similar graphics as the boxart honestly...


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## SG854 (Oct 24, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> View attachment 183880


Thanks, I now have a new avatar


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## Dust2dust (Oct 24, 2019)

I always thought that one was horrible.  In most cases, I would think bad boxart is the result of no budget left for that.


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## godreborn (Oct 24, 2019)

I managed to get this transcript from an undercover operative at Capcom.  here's how it went down.

artist: "is this right sir?  I didn't really notice mega man holding a weapon.  the pellets just seemed to fly out of his arm."
boss: "yes, yes, we don't have time to redo it."
artist: <holds up mega man 1 boxart print> "oh, my, what have I done!?"
boss: "it's good enough.  we just need to get this bad boy into stores, so little Timmy has something to play on Christmas."


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## Coathanger08 (Oct 24, 2019)




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## Nobody_Important4u (Oct 25, 2019)

c'mon you can do better




Introducing the new smash bros dls character: some ugly guy!




Do i need to say anything?




It looks like c64 boxart but no its a ps2 game...


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## FAST6191 (Oct 25, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> Both are terrible here they are along with some other terrible pc engine box arts.


Are they they bad?

By no means are most of those great or anything (between a terminal case of 80s art and a lack of perspective in a few of those) but they all seem to showcase something of what the game is about, give or take the yellow one that I don't know anything about.


Anyway I am not sure what to pick here. You have the obvious ones that people have picked already but I tend to make something of a note of overdesigned artwork (if your first pick for PS360 era game that is described as "send in the hardnut to clear the room, possibly also have them defend someone at the same time" is not this then the second one will be), and some of the changes between regions to... appeal to various sensibilities I guess.


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## 8BitWonder (Oct 25, 2019)

Joe88 said:


>


Our game good plz buy


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## Deleted User (Oct 25, 2019)

They kind of look similar.


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## Taleweaver (Oct 26, 2019)

godreborn said:


> wicked 18:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


LOL... It's a golfing game? 

Honestly : when I read your 'it's not an adventure game' I assumed it must have been some corny xxx-rated game (wicked 18...what where they smoking when they came up with that name? ... And box art, obviously).


Edit: oh, man... If I hadn't played this game through illegal means, I'd never have known this is a pretty great game :


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## The Real Jdbye (Oct 26, 2019)

godreborn said:


> with the bad mega man box art, it makes you wonder if the artist only got a description of the character rather than seeing the real thing in the game.  lol


Probably got a heavily compressed JPEG of a screenshot of the game and had to go by that. 


Coathanger08 said:


>


Eh, that's not that bad. It's just the title screen of the show. Which was pretty mediocre, so it's only fitting that a mediocre game based on a mediocre show gets a mediocre boxart.


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## Nobody_Important4u (Oct 26, 2019)

This one doesn't seem THAT bad until you compare it with pal boxart...








bonus:




AAAAHHHHH! DRUIDS! HEEEEEELLP MEEEEEEE!


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## ThoD (Oct 30, 2019)

darkherobrine4u said:


>


Noticed his face first and actually read it as "The Mystery of the Drugs" for some reason the first time


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 3, 2019)

gotta keep this thread alive





"Whoa dude this drug is good but how is it called?"
"its called "Snood" dude"




"Whoa dude this drug is even better than the one from before but what's the name of this thing?"
"its called "Snood 2" dude"


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## CosmoCortney (Nov 4, 2019)




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## Taleweaver (Nov 4, 2019)

darkherobrine4u said:


> This one doesn't seem THAT bad until you compare it with pal boxart...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! 

Ahem...how do I explain this one? Okay...when you posted it, it shows in full size. But for some reason, I was browsing from newest to oldest. As such, I saw Thod's quote first. Which had the box art auto-cropped (same as with this post, I presume).

Then I clicked on that box-art. I knew it was supposed to enlargened, but I anticipated it to happen immediately. Instead, the image popped out of @ThoD's post.
...and for a second it startled me, because that gave the impression that that guy on the cover was coming straight for me. I immediately envisioned a "RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAARRRRRR" scream as he came for me. 

(TL;DR: just click the cropped image in this post for some mild after-Halloween fun  )


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## gamesquest1 (Nov 4, 2019)

darkherobrine4u said:


> bonus:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


looks like the face you would pull if you walk out your house and find someone halfway through shitting on your door step


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 7, 2019)

Everyone loves ugly CG cover art!













Don't play this at home!




...




"Hmmm my hand looks weird..."




yeaaaah more expolsions!




More electricity!




Am i the only person that hates ntsc boxart?


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## mightymuffy (Nov 7, 2019)

Dust2dust said:


> I always thought that one was horrible.  In most cases, I would think bad boxart is the result of no budget left for that.


Sony obviously disagrees with you on this one...


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## Hardline (Nov 7, 2019)

this


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## Shadicluigi (Nov 7, 2019)

God Hand if it hasn't been said already. Not the godly Japanese cover though


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## Hardline (Nov 7, 2019)

LolcatPlays said:


> God Hand if it hasn't been said already. Not the godly Japanese cover though


hehehe


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## Bimmel (Nov 7, 2019)

Spoiler: I win


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## Dust2dust (Nov 8, 2019)

Bimmel said:


> I win


I gotta admit that's a very strong contender.


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## James_ (Nov 8, 2019)

Can't forget about this masterpiece


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## ThoD (Nov 8, 2019)

James_ said:


> Can't forget about this masterpiece


How did they give this 3+ when it's clearly a horror game?


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## FAST6191 (Nov 8, 2019)

Bimmel said:


> Spoiler: I win


I watched a playthrough of the game in question, didn't look like a great game (ambitious flash game really, and themed minigame collections are tricky at the best of times) but art style seems to match the boxart (which in turn is a bit of a send up of some known art styles from those sorts of circles -- you see some of it in Li'l Abner but if you do a search for hillbilly comic or hillbilly clip art then you will see better examples, even more so if you chuck in caricature as a search term), and said boxart sets up the general theme of the game (you are probably not expecting an RTS having seen that, granted it does have text telling you what it is).
Dude by the outhouse seems like a bit of an afterthought (or at least a step down from an already suspect composition job) but compared to some of the other things on this list... it has perspective and everything. The black splotches on the trailer also scream "no effort with the spray tool in [insert image editor of choice]" but forgivable as well.


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## Issac (Nov 8, 2019)

The American Silent Hill cover for PS1 is horrible. I mean, it's not one of those super bad "snow white" levels, where even the game is total crap... this is a freaking top rated game. So with that in mind, the cover art sucks, compared to the Japanese and European ones:


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## godreborn (Nov 8, 2019)

James_ said:


> Can't forget about this masterpiece



that box art is sure to give me nightmares.


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## AmandaRose (Nov 8, 2019)




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## Taleweaver (Nov 9, 2019)

Hardline said:


> this


LOL... That guy looks exactly like Charles 'Mario' Martinet. 

@James_ those were the early days of 3D. 

@darkherobrine4u no offense, but those covers don't seem bad at all. Sure, they won't win contests, but compared to some entries they're masterpieces


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## AaronUzumaki (Nov 9, 2019)

Terrible visual presentation overall, but this game slaps. I've put in more hours than I care to admit.

Also:


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## James_ (Nov 9, 2019)

Don't worry folks, I have even more to show to you


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## relauby (Nov 9, 2019)

AaronUzumaki said:


> View attachment 185732



“Oh yeah, that’s what I looked like in the theatre watching The Matrix Reloaded”
-Spoony


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## AaronUzumaki (Nov 9, 2019)

relauby said:


> “Oh yeah, that’s what I looked like in the theatre watching The Matrix Reloaded”


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## James_ (Nov 10, 2019)

Also, yes, all the box art I showed you are all from the same company.


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## AmandaRose (Nov 11, 2019)




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## James_ (Nov 11, 2019)




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## MrCokeacola (Nov 12, 2019)




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## FAST6191 (Nov 12, 2019)

James_ said:


>



Night trap might be a bad game but is that not bad boxart, give or take it maybe being a bit spoilery.

That said I am now reminded of one of the "deals I lost out on" -- there was a whole stack of segaCD games in the shop at the dump one day and I could have had a copy for my collection of notable censorship points in gaming games but was a bit low on fun stuff money and missed out.


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## DarkCoffe64 (Nov 14, 2019)

Here's the boxart for the worst game
Is what op said to share, no? :v
is a joke you dumdum


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## AmandaRose (Nov 14, 2019)

Why on earth are the two sumo fighters pressing their arse's together? Oh wait its three sumo fighters lol



this is just hideous



no idea what is going on here.





Ok probably best to keep quiet on the rather gay vibe of this one I think.


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## James_ (Nov 14, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> View attachment 186394no idea what is going on here.


These two guys are just pointing at the PlayStation logo and crying

This could be some sort of sign


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 19, 2019)

This looks like something that i made in ms paint when i were 6 years old


 
AAAAAAGHHHH!!!MY FACE!!!


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## Asia81 (Nov 19, 2019)

Zyvyn said:


> I had to look at the box for a solid 5 seconds before seeing the title


The title is "Game of the year edition".
Learn to read my friend.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



Hardline said:


> this


hey, enrico macias


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 21, 2019)

Found this today

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



 
And this


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## Hardline (Nov 21, 2019)

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



James_ said:


> Don't worry folks, I have even more to show to you



--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Pinocchio waset so bad


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## AmandaRose (Nov 21, 2019)

Terrible box art and a terrible name. This is the ZX Spectrum version of Bomberman they changed the name simply because it had Bomb in it.


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 22, 2019)

I find something cool everyday


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## AmandaRose (Nov 22, 2019)

darkherobrine4u said:


> View attachment 187570 I find something cool everyday


I don't see anything wrong with that cover. When the game came out Tim Henman was a huge tennis star so it makes sense for him to be on the cover


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 22, 2019)

But his face looks do dumb


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 22, 2019)

It's weird that nobody mentioned this:


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## FAST6191 (Nov 22, 2019)

Is it bad? In the game you appear to be a cameraman reporting upon odd and slightly twisted events. That sets it up somewhat as that. Don't know if the lightning is entirely necessary but is not out of place either.


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 22, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> Is it bad? In the game you appear to be a cameraman reporting upon odd and slightly twisted events. That sets it up somewhat as that. Don't know if the lightning is entirely necessary but is not out of place either.



If you don't think its bad then show me something that you think is really bad.
C'mon!


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## FAST6191 (Nov 22, 2019)

darkherobrine4u said:


> If you don't think its bad then show me something that you think is really bad.
> C'mon!


We have several fine examples already in this thread. As yet nothing much more than what I have already shared or seen has jumped out at me.

As for that one it showcases a scene wherein you are somewhat alone (while you are usually with a team you don't ever really count as safe), showcases something of the main conceit of the game, hints at a mystery/tension with those blood trails. The lighting is not great and the CGI is... of its time but all pretty within reason. Object placement might do better (though all together serves to draw the eye to the middle of the image) but I will skip golden ratio and rule of thirds type talks, even if that camera framing is actually not bad there for that one. The distressed font is a bit overdone today but is legible and at the time was perhaps not so played out (granted the zombie thing that ultimately killed that one was only just starting to gather speed -- 2002 we saw 28 days later which used it extensively*, 2004 was the dawn of the dead remake). Having watched a bunch of gameplay footage the voice acting is absolutely atrocious (well into "so bad it is good" territory if you like cheesy horror), the story scarcely any better and the mechanics of the game itself are borderline non existent, though I am drawn to wonder if the Dead Rising people gave it a spin at some point, and awkwardly crowbarred in at that. I am probably also supposed to ponder the prevalence of found footage films around the time that was released (mid 2004 release is a bit late for Blair Witch craze, even given pitch and development time, and before Paranormal activity, REC or Cloverfield but it was all getting started I guess).
All that said if we are contemplating boxart then while it is likely never going to make a best boxart list it is perfectly serviceable.

*indeed I even have a font on my machine that I use quite a lot called that https://www.dafont.com/28-days-later.font

Still for bad game art then it ought to not showcase something of the game, even if it is just a feeling, or actively mislead the viewer in a bad way. That said a nicely designed bit of word art on a plain background non relevant pattern can sort of work or at least not rank as bad (lazy, certainly, bad, less so). There can be some overdone tropes (solider walking away from an explosion, possibly faded out with some orange highlights, being a good one here). Speaking of overdone then I have a handful of ones from the 360 that were probably overdesigned (a lot of the lesser send in a hardnut to clear the room games were this if my stint on the releases desk were anything to go by, though most things I noted there were more about region differences) but that could just as easily be a reflection of the game itself ("skulls on armour is cool, more skulls is more cool" also being the choice of many a character designer). Not the one I was trying to think of but Hunted the demon's forge boxart is probably a good example here, especially if you compare the NA to EU stuff.
8 bit era stuff, especially Japanese and not Nintendo or Sega consoles (though they are hardly immune), often have some spectacular oddities and are probably almost a subgenre of this. Here you often see very odd (especially given the nature of graphics of the day)... I want to say realistic hand drawn stuff that bears little resemblance to the work in question, though I might wonder if that is the benefit of hindsight and the games themselves become the art rather than something to project onto a la mental images of books that some cast them as. Said hand drawn stuff might also be quite bad as far as perspective is concerned but not really following any historical or notable style. The PS2 it seems had something of its own spin on this with bad CGI, worse is it was not in game footage, that we have already seen several examples of.
Sometimes you get bad object placement or character eyelines and hand placement, bonus points if it is sexual for a decidedly non sexual character/game.

The following video is more about films but notes games in passing and hits a few other points and I otherwise like its take on things


I could probably cover what I would normally seek in something here (though most of that is do the opposite of above, and if you are doing in game characters on the boxart then maybe have their pose convey something about them and the nature of the game rather than "3d modeller crucifixion pose is only worse because it is associated with glitches and no effort").

Edit actually I am greedy and going to have another video.
Judging anime by its cover


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## Megadriver94 (Nov 23, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> Terrible box art and a terrible name. This is the ZX Spectrum version of Bomberman they changed the name simply because it had Bomb in it.
> 
> View attachment 187488


They should have called it "Eric and the Exploders".


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## TamarindoJuice (Nov 23, 2019)




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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 29, 2019)

The art is not bad but someone fucked up


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 30, 2019)

I was browsing list od cdi games and found a few things


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Sorry i that didin't put description for any of those


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## Cosmic_Link (Nov 30, 2019)

Nothing wrong with the box art, as I think it looks awesome, but something doesn’t sit right with me, putting an End Game Spoiler on the cover art.  I guess most would already expect what the end of a Zelda game will be like anyway, but doesn’t make it right. 

Edit: After having had a proper look through all of the thread, perhaps I was a bit unfair. Some of the covers that people have found are truly awful!!


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## James_ (Nov 30, 2019)

Cosmic_Link said:


> Nothing wrong with the box art, as I think it looks awesome, but something doesn’t sit right with me, putting an End Game Spoiler on the cover art.  I guess most would already expect what the end of a Zelda game will be like anyway, but doesn’t make it right.
> 
> Edit: After having had a proper look through all of the thread, perhaps I was a bit unfair. Some of the covers that people have found are truly awful!!


I didn't even know there was a limited edition for Windwaker.


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## AmandaRose (Nov 30, 2019)

Cosmic_Link said:


> Nothing wrong with the box art, as I think it looks awesome, but something doesn’t sit right with me, putting an End Game Spoiler on the cover art.  I guess most would already expect what the end of a Zelda game will be like anyway, but doesn’t make it right.
> 
> Edit: After having had a proper look through all of the thread, perhaps I was a bit unfair. Some of the covers that people have found are truly awful!!


That cover is weird this is what the limited edition cover was here in Scotland.


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## relauby (Nov 30, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> That cover is weird this is what the limited edition cover was here in Scotland.
> 
> View attachment 188377



That’s not too exciting but at least they just stuck a 10/10 in the corner instead of going full Batman Arkham City on it.


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## James_ (Nov 30, 2019)

relauby said:


> That’s not too exciting but at least they just stuck a 10/10 in the corner instead of going full Batman Arkham City on it.


*TEN OUTTA TEEEEEEEEEN*


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## FAST6191 (Nov 30, 2019)

darkherobrine4u said:


> I was browsing list od cdi games and found a few things



What is wrong with those? Indeed aside from Mad Dog II are any of those worth being on a worst boxart list? Chaos Control's composition is a bit off (though for the time I saw worse). Burn Cycle's people with the guns could stand not to be there (the one on the right looks like they might have used a gun before a bit, left less so) and if they weren't then that is probably what I would call great cover art. Axis and Allies might be a bit busy but it is a strategy game so it is not unfitting.


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## Cosmic_Link (Nov 30, 2019)

AmandaRose said:


> That cover is weird this is what the limited edition cover was here in Scotland.
> 
> View attachment 188377



Yeah, so the cover I posted was a HMV Exclusive sleeve cover which contained the main game box as you have pictured. I should have made that more clear.


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 30, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> What is wrong with those? Indeed aside from Mad Dog II are any of those worth being on a worst boxart list? Chaos Control's composition is a bit off (though for the time I saw worse). Burn Cycle's people with the guns could stand not to be there (the one on the right looks like they might have used a gun before a bit, left less so) and if they weren't then that is probably what I would call great cover art. Axis and Allies might be a bit busy but it is a strategy game so it is not unfitting.


Again if you disaggre with me then you can show youre contentast for worst game boxart. I post what i think is bad you post what you think is bad. Now if you exuse  i am going to check list of 3do games for new contenstants.


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## FAST6191 (Dec 1, 2019)

darkherobrine4u said:


> Again if you disaggre with me then you can show youre contentast for worst game boxart. I post what i think is bad you post what you think is bad. Now if you exuse  i am going to check list of 3do games for new contenstants.


Most of the ones I know of have already been taken, moreover it does not really matter when questioning another's picks for it.

I already covered what I reckon goes into bad boxart (pretty much what makes bad art, with the added bonus of in the case of boxart it being intended to convey something about the game so probably ought to do that or at least not actively undermine it or spoil things too badly). If you can avoid too many cliches or tropes and thus have it a bit more memorable then so much the better.

In the case of Burn Cycle it would be described as a race against time before your mind betrays you thanks to an embedded computer virus; you are some kind of spy/data transport... so far so Johnny Mnemonic (even if this predates it) so near future sci fi with an exploration about what makes a mind (and thus human). The three/multiple heads displaying different emotions/aspects of a fractured mind is a bit cliche I guess (second only to looking into a shattered mirror or perhaps patchwork of different photos to make up a whole) but still works. Font is fine as a techno/cyber thriller, especially for that point in time, and the background also serves to convey future. Colours... they could do better and the washed out red on dark/dark blue background might also be a bit cliche for this style of work and 80s sci fi/action sci fi posters but for 1994 I am not complaining much. I already mentioned my misgivings with the background characters, indeed one hasty painting out of them





At this point this almost seems less "worst boxart" and more "haha look at these tropes in boxart" which is great* but don't call it worst boxart if you are not going for that.

*and keep them coming if so -- I might question it as a pick for worst boxart but that is not to say I am not enjoying seeing such things.


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## Nobody_Important4u (Dec 1, 2019)

Meh... 3do wasnt too bad anyway i am going to post what i found anyway
Warning: there's a lot of it


 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I have to make second post to fit all of those lol

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Part 2 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Now that i am done i would like you to vote for the worst one!
Anyway next time on dragon b... I mean worst boxart i will check Saturn boxarts have fun until then!


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## FAST6191 (Dec 1, 2019)

Once more I am going to have to question those. Going through them in order

Zhadnost
"Welcome to Zhadnost, the "most popular game on Bizzarnian state run television"! Bizzarnia, a small communist nation has kidnapped contestants for this its favourite game show and is playing them against each other to compete for their freedom."
Seems pretty fitting then.

Winning Post.
They might have only seen the intro video and made that but a bit of stylised art that is clearly about horse racing.

Way of the Warrior.
Assuming that you are not trying to make a comment about how that is a Japanese style sword/dagger and the yin yang is a symbol in various Chinese philosophies I am not sure what needs to be said.

Has a guy playing golf for a golf game... seems OK to me.

Game show game has game show art... while I am always up for more it is hardly bad.

Space Pirates. I am not a fan of photo boxart so much but mean looking guy in a sci fi helmet... seems within reason.

Space Hulk. That is not the best Warhammer 40K art I have ever seen but definitely a 40K space marine there.

Slam Jam. Bit basic but motion blur for action and clearly indicating a basketball game.

Sewer Shark. Not terribly indicative of the gameplay but don't know if I would call it bad.

Road Rash. By this point it had lost some of its humour and charm from the other efforts but it is a game about motorbike racing with some combat options.

Seal of the Pharaoh. I would have probably lost the 4 enemies from the main panel, maybe put the door as a faded out thing in the sky but works.

Scramble Cobra is a bit dark in that scan but the Cobra at the time was well identified as an attack helicopter.

Return Fire. Text work is not great and we can have a debate about the nature of abstract art like that and its suitability here. If you wanted to put the PS1 logo on the 3do artwork then that would be the superior version of both.

Quarterback Attack. That is some aggressively 90s font and text styling but serviceable overall.

Psychic Detective. Colours are fine, the split head thing for psychics and the like I covered last time and one is wearing a pulp detective novel type hat to indicate as such, so maybe a touch cliche but still works.

PO'ed. "It features a cook of a destroyed spaceship marooned on an alien world." offers so many options so yeah that is lazy as you like, and I am not entirely sure what slime has to do with this. So yeah I think we have our first bad one.

Plumbers Don't Wear Ties. A somewhat infamous game but if you wanted to nail that 90s porn VHS look then they have it. By itself though then yeah nothing to write home about.

The Perfect General. What is wrong with that? Tells you what it is about, evokes any number of propaganda posters or war iconography and is generally pretty pleasing to the eye (almost has a bit of golden spiral going on even). If I was making a modernish military strategy game I would be delighted to get back cover art like that.

Olympic Summer games and Olympic Soccer. By the numbers sports game covers and I am not sure about the graphics for the Summer Games one but not a complete turn off either.

Night Trap. You mean the game where you spy on pretty ladies in a house via CCTV (said game also being a full motion video game, which was still a novel concept) and try to protect them from invaders? The game is lacklustre at best and mostly only remembered for the controversy surrounding it at the time but boxart wise I have seen far far worse.

Mazer. Font is a bit hard to read and CGI pretty sub par but at least gives you an idea of what it is about. Not great by any means.

Bazookatone. The game is a mediocre slow platformer with the donkey kong prerendered sprites approach to the world (albeit a bit after they made it notable) and that boxart conveys more speed than that guy ever really moves with but I can't get to bad really.

Jammit. I know some want to go back to edgy sports games and to be fair fifa street probably came as close to not making me fall asleep as a football game has ever got since sensible soccer but it is a street focused basketball game.

Immercenary. That is probably the last time EA would allow their logo to not be front and centre and they probably ought to have kept it hidden as I am sure the owners of Battlestar Gallactica will be on their case. Still if they did not have the "combat in a digital world" line in that it would have been my among my first guesses about the contents of the game.

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam. In this game you ride skateboards downhill. By no means a good game but boxart wise that does what it has to do.

The Horde. It does prominently feature a king and a squire/esteemed subject, and you are under attack by hungry red monsters. I reckon the title screen for the game would have been better in some ways and I would have no clue as to the mechanics of the game (though action strategy was new at the time), nor does it particularly please my eye but I am having a hard time arriving at bad.

Fun'N'Games. Nightmare fuel really but broadly in keeping with the art style of the game and cartoons of the time.

Escape from Monster Manor. I would have blown up that image to the whole boxart (or nearly so with a black background if necessary) but that with the escape from Monster Manor title tells me most of what I need to know here.

Doctor Hauzer. The swinging blade thing is classic trap iconography, and the gears speak to puzzles and whatnot (better yet they also don't appear to be 3 gears that will lock themselves up if someone tried to turn them which is what I normally see). Another by no means good but speaks to something of a mystery/trap dodging affair with the wormhole thing being a mysterious forces theme as well. I imagine far better could be done but I would also let that go out to the world.

Journeyman Project. Victim of bad, or at least badly aged, CGI. Does not tell me too much about the game really so there is that, and does not make me want to play it. As as complete turn off though I can't get there.

Corpse Killer. Bad? That is great. Game has you dropped on a tropical island to fight zombies and that tells me just that. Another I would be delighted to have for such a game. Font wise Killer is perhaps not the best font choice and Corpse maybe leans too much for old school horror poster but those are both fairly minor things.

Battlesport. Future sports game where you fight in spaceships of a sort in an arena for a sport (think Rocket League but a fraction as good). Saw it in action as part of this and I think i would rather play Speedball, and I really don't like speedball (don't know why, just never clicked for me). Don't know how you are going to work the sport angle into graphics without getting cheesy but it is a game featuring a space ship that looks somewhat like that one depicted. Could be worse.

Ballz. Victim of the extreme naming trends of the time I guess and I will probably have to cover things here as far as history of graphics (short version being 3d balls are easy to render so there was a bit of a fad for making things from them for a while, see also Vectorman, and even traditional 2d made use of it -- megaman, 

Icebreaker. Yeah don't need to say too much about that one.

Castlevania Down of Sorrow. Grey label/player's choice/second issue version. Actually took me a second there to realise what you meant. The base boxart twisted to a jaunty angle is the absolute laziest method out there (as in black background times new roman text is less lazy) and the original was nothing special to begin with (character display with main character up front was probably old when the hills were young, that doing less than most here). That said it I would sooner have that on my shelf than a lot of grey label/player's choice/second issue versions I have seen/obtained over the years.

As you frequently seem to want things then one of the games I was thinking of last time for the bad region changes was Knight's Contract.


 
Now when comparing US to EU approaches to graphics design then most people will tell you the US goes in for massively oversaturated and if they can stimulate you more visually then they will. This is basically the perfect example in boxart form.


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## Alexander1970 (Dec 1, 2019)

C64 Diskette and Multi Platform Cassette Version:


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## Nobody_Important4u (Dec 2, 2019)

Again art is not bad but someone fucked up


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## ThoD (Dec 2, 2019)

This thread has turned into nightmare fuel to be honest looking at some of these



darkherobrine4u said:


> View attachment 188596
> Again art is not bad but someone fucked up


Thanks for posting that, the art isn't bad, but I wanted to play that again, one of the RPGs I've had the most fun with on the PSP and just couldn't remember it's name so I could play it again!


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## Nobody_Important4u (Dec 8, 2019)

I am back!
This time i looked thru Sega Saturn and it wasn't bad main thing bein that a lot of boxart are manga style so they are good.
Anyway here's what if found.
Enjoy!


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Second one...


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

And the third one!

 









 







 









 







 

 







--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

And the last one!


 

 

 

 

 

 
Well that took more time than i thought it would take there's more and more every time.
 special thanks to: my guinea pig and cottage chesse
Next i will do game.com game gear or maybe something entere diffrent


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## FAST6191 (Dec 8, 2019)

Several of those were what you might call of their time, virtual volleyball probably being the absolute best, but most were not even close to being bad. I am not sure Lost Vikings 2 needed to be a gritty CGI reboot but anything I say here will probably be kinder than what most had to say about the game so I will skip that one.

Not sure about double switch and generations lost looks more like a bodice ripper novel set in the age of conan than slow and methodical platformer. Hi octane is a bit do nothing. Cleopatra's fortune was an odd font choice (so much that at first I thought it was the non trademark infringing Cleopaira's fortune that we were seeking, and that is before the odd choice to rotate some of the letters (screams "ooh I have a new toy" or "I have to make a mark" to me). Sky Target is a bit too much motion blur but stops short of ruining things (especially if you can see it all at once, unlike me scrolling down the screen here).
Return to Zork... the crack of light signifying cave coming to an end was cliche even then but given the game's premise it is not too out of place.
Baky Baky is standard Japanese nightmare fuel but I am not sure I can get to bad.
Area 51 is a bit too much "look at me" for my taste but still within reason. Similarly Destruction Derby's composition leaves a bit to be desired.

So again this is less bad boxart and more "haha look at boxart back in the day".


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## BORTZ (Dec 22, 2019)

Yeah I am going to agree with FAST, a lot of the posted box arts aren't what I would call bad. There are a few in there that tell me so little about the game that yes I would call them bad, but there are a lot that maybe you just dont like.


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## MUDD_BR (Jan 4, 2020)

James_ said:


> Don't worry folks, I have even more to show to you


Lololol... reminds me of this gem:


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## Nobody_Important4u (Jan 10, 2020)

Just a little find


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## MrCokeacola (Jan 10, 2020)

Pure Pinball is a banger, it's not the worst of anything.


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## Nobody_Important4u (Jan 10, 2020)

MrCokeacola said:


> Pure Pinball is a banger, it's not the worst of anything.



Game is Great but the boxart looks bad

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Actually pure pinball looks Great compared to this:


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## FAST6191 (Jan 10, 2020)

Pure pinball seems to have adopted the "make it sexy" approach to things, which is the sad counterpoint to the "make it edgy" thing which that era of games was known for. I did check to see if there were themed boards or something but nope (technically there is an old west/wild west one, a war one and probably the others). The characters do feature on the title screen and loading screens at least.
The art itself... not bad, bit cliche. So yeah can't say it is the route I would have picked but could also see it being the publisher foisted it upon them and they made the best of it. Definitely would not deserve to rank alongside the offensive to my eye stuff we have seen elsewhere in this.

That said what is wrong with the wii pinball boxart? I am not a huge fan of the text work (the grey striped thing was played out many years ago and while in keeping with the concept the change of the loop of the p... it does not add to things, though that is a distant second to the less than ideal alignment and layout -- at a glance is it dream pinball or pinball dream?) but it does not make if fail for me. If you have spent too long looking at 3d graphics reflection demos then shiny floating ball becomes like "in a world" from film trailers or 4 chords in pop music but given pinball does rather notably tend to revolve around a shiny metal ball we can let that one slide. That close to a ball in pinball (even more so with the long exposure/motion blur/motion lines) is a reasonable path to take and certainly more dynamic than a table shot. Probably only going to attract pinball game fans than randoms off the street (though randoms off the street is seemingly the last thing most pinball games aim for, second only to the really super hardcore military strategy games), especially as the supporting assets are pinball staples (the rails being obvious, the dots at the top presumably to simulate a bit of the light peg board type setup classic pinball tends to go in for).
Your scan there might be a bit oversaturated (did a token search and another was far less so) and red and green is a bit brave (while a classic colour combo up there with orange and teal, which might just be the secondary colour palette for that one, most people have it encoded as Christmas colours).
If I was going super art snob then having your company logo in there is a bit crass but it is only there if you look hard so eh.


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## Nobody_Important4u (Jan 30, 2020)

Sure.


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## spotanjo3 (Jan 30, 2020)

MegaMan X7 is ugly. Rockman X7 is way better than America and EU version. Here is ugly version:


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## Deleted User (Jan 30, 2020)

Joe88 said:


>


I thought about that, but the SEGA Master System game covers are pretty bad.


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## Taleweaver (Mar 12, 2021)

While prepping my wii flow with great games I found these anti gems of actually great games :

Wonder boy for master system :




Like... Seriously? Every single ingame screen is a esthetically pleasing. But what is this? The author's five year old daughter's fan art?


TMNT arcade game :



Way to blend amateur photo hour into your cover there, Konami. But even without April... You want your protagonists to look tough but approachable, not like they're the villains. And Raphael chewing on his knife like that is both dumb and dangerous. 
Result : arguably your best turtle game with the worst cover. Luckily it was on arcade so the audience just saw the gameplay.


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## Deleted member 323844 (Mar 12, 2021)

Transport Tycoon 3D on PlayStation. The original game by Unbalance had a pretty cool cover showing the big improvement of the PlayStation port, the 3D engine.






When the game came out in Europe, Ocean decided to not advertise that feature, and instead, they inverted the colors of the PC cover. Probably the worst marketing change I've ever seen.






It never came out in the States.


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## Taleweaver (Mar 12, 2021)

@stranno: Hmm...I've got to admit: if they used a decent color printer for the Europe image, I would say the cover art is a vast improvement over the original (which looks like 'traffic jam the game'). Admitted: I'm absolutely no fan of early 3D models, but even without that taking into account they tried to cram way too much stuff on the original cover.


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## Silent_Gunner (Mar 12, 2021)

relauby said:


> Yeah some people took offence to it, like they were making fun of Mega Man. But he's clearly not Mega Man, he's North American Mega Man, who already looked like a doofus anyway.



Actually, it was all supposed to be a part of a series of Mega Man promotions, but after Inafune left Capcom (while giving us Emo May Cry and making other "JAPAN SUCKS AT GAME DEVELOPMENT EVEN THO PEOPLE WERE BUYING OUR GAMES BECAUSE THEY WERE UNIQUE, BUT NO LET'S BE MORE LIKE COD, GUYS"-levels of stupid decisions as a producer) all of the Mega Man projects in development at the time bit the dust.


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