So naturally, shovelware tends to have subpar box art. Low quality game, low quality art. Makes sense.
But what GOOD game do you think had the worst box art? Personally, I would have to go with the Western box art for Ico. How that ended up replacing the original box art, I will never understand. I know some might suggest the original Mega Man, but I think there’s some kitschy charm to it.
(I think we can all tell which is which.)
Also Bioshock Infinite is a definite honorable mention for not using its amazing alternative box art that is found when you flip the art inside out.
I wanna put my nomination up for every single piece of box art that just has the silhouette of a dude with his back turned. Sometimes he has a gun. Sometimes he has a sword. No matter what though, he’s always boring as fuck.
Mario Sunshine is pretty good, but it’s boxart is really pretty bad actually
by what I can only assume was some sort of horrible clerical error some random ad copy for the game somehow ended up printed in a circle around mario in light yellow impact font.
Most recently Final Fantasy XV. I hate how you can actually see the market research decision of “we need everybody on the cover to have a weapon in their hand.”
NieR: Automata did the same thing but mercifully had the Japanese box art on a reversible cover.
As boring as all the “random military/whatever dude back with or without weapon” shit is, there’s probably worse.
(Although I should note, I fuckin’ love this The Mystery of the Druids box art.)
I don’t actually know if it’s a good game yet (since it won’t release until later this year), but I’m very interested in it - Elex. From the videos I’ve seen it reminds me of Fallout 3 (which is my favorite of the “modern” Fallouts - 3, NV & 4). Was looking on Amazon to see if they had a tentative release date (they don’t - just the generic Dec. 31, 2017), & that’s when I saw the awful box art. Thankfully, my shelves only show the gamebox’s spines!!!
