Box Art Used to be So Much Better

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snoopers said:
This is excellent art.

Joke?

Ever red some Liberatore graphic novel ?

No, but I have read cyberpunk, and none of the images in my head during said activity looked that retarded.

Also, CYBERPUNK ffs! How can you hate ?

Because it's total shit work? They took photos of a guy in a Halloween mask, touched up a publicity photo from Knight Rider and called it a fucking day.
 
MattKeil said:
No, but I have read

Smart boy. Let's speak french so I can correct your typos.

cyberpunk, and none of the images in my head during said activity looked that retarded.

Well good for you. Again, I invite you to read some good graphic novel. You may not be sensitive to this style of drawing but calling it bad, especially for a boxart, that's what I find retarded. It has the look and feel of a cyberpunk comic book cover art, and if that's not awesome, I don't know what is.
 
Seriously, I want to know if that is David Boreanaz on that BAT one.

And something I just noticed about the Megaman 2 boxart, why do they have Dr. Light getting ready to send Crash Man after you?
 
CTLance said:
I wholeheartedly endorse the honrorary mention of Albion.

Seriously. Good stuff. One of Bluebytes' best.
It's my favourite RPG to this day. I long for a XBLA/PSN/WiiWare style remake or sequel.
 
Sir Fragula said:
Well yeah, that's pretty good from a generational perspective. Within that general area character drawing I prefer the approach... um... whas-is-name used with the FFVI cast:
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- messy but in a good way.
meh.
Yoshitake amano's work always looked emo to me. His chicks always looked like they're anorexic. I'll take Yoji shinkwa's work over amano's work anyday.
 
snoopers said:
Smart boy. Let's speak french so I can correct your typos.

Sorry, I should have used my prodigious psychic powers to know what language you speak best. All I know is that if I were posting on a French message board, I wouldn't get pissy when they corrected me.


Well good for you. Again, I invite you to read some good graphic novel. You may not be sensitive to this style of drawing but calling it bad, especially for a boxart, that's what I find retarded.

I've been reading comics for thirty years, and I have read exceptional graphic novels. That box art is absolute shit. I don't know if you're referring to the backgrounds (which are decent, if very derivative of Blade Runner), but you cannot be talking about the characters, because they're all traced-over photographs, some of them from other published material.

It has the look and feel of a cyberpunk comic book cover art, and if that's not awesome, I don't know what is.

I'm sure there are numerous awesome cyberpunk comic book covers. That box art is not among them, although it seems likely it stole from a few of them.

I can't tell if you're just not communicating adequately or if you actually hold the idiotic opinion that everything cyberpunk is automatically good. I'm going to to give you the benefit of the doubt and go with the former, but I reserve the right to be completely unsurprised should it turn out to be the latter.
 
I just wanted to say I love box art threads. Someone should just start a video game box art thread andy everyone posts 3 each. Arcade cabinets and old magazine ads also allowed.
 
The best ones that stand out for me are:

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Also the orignal Amiga Cannon Fodder box art, where the guy was a 3D illusion where you had to stare for ages (also came with a bullet!)
 
MattKeil said:
Sorry, I should have used my prodigious psychic powers to know what language you speak best. All I know is that if I were posting on a French message board, I wouldn't get pissy when they corrected me.

Shouldn't it be "...when they correct me" or "if they corrected me"?
 
JodyAnthony said:
The Phalanx SNES box art is and always will be my single favorite piece of game box art

Yea, but is that old guy in the game at all? I mean, how many games these days feature something on the cover art that isn't in the actual game? I can't think of any.
 
A lot of the boxarts in the OP are nice because they look dated and bad. I wouldn't say kitsch or camp is the right word for it, but you get what I mean.






This one I personally find very nice, even though it probably didn't help selling the game.

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I think you can probably find just as wide a gamut of art styles if you looked across all releases in all regions. It's just that most big AAA games tended to have very stereotyped artwork through the PS2 years. That trend has been loosening a lot recently though, what with Bioshock and MGS4 and EA's newfound insistence on covers with strong "graphic designer" style (e.g. Army of Two, Need for Speed, skate., Burnout Paradise).
 
Long live the SSI Gold Box.

(Results may vary based on nostalgia.)

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But really, the 80s sci-fi novel art 'look' isn't for everyone.

And on modern games, it doesn't always work out. Case in point: Suikoden. Damn was it a 70s fantasy throwback (almost nothing to do with the game didn't help) gone wrong.
 
Sorry, but with the exception of the indiana jones, and the art deco boxart - everything is utter shite.

IMO, best covers are probably European ones. Japanese try to put a lot of characters and make it a cluster fuck. American ones generally have one or two characters - in macho action poses or something. European ones are actually in which the put some good art.

Overall, newer boxarts are much better than the older ones. OP is blind.
 
wow...

boxart has improved sooo much since back in the day

thanks for reminding me.

or wait, is this just someone trying to be original? im confused
 
GalacticAE said:
Yea, but is that old guy in the game at all? I mean, how many games these days feature something on the cover art that isn't in the actual game? I can't think of any.

Well, I can tell you right now that I was very disappointed when I found out that Haley Joel Osment WASN'T in ICO.
 
bathhouseterror said:
http://stevewalsh2.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BoxArt/Space1889.jpg

why are they shooting a ship of ninja turtles

Most of them just look like green spacesuits, but that one leaping...

Who cares, anyway? What happened to the far-out, camp concepts like this? So many games play it too seriously anymore. The closest thing I can think of like this is Bioshock (and Fallout 3 I'm guessing, I'm not that familiar with the series). Anything remotely fantasy anymore tries to be Lord of the Rings, anything remotely Sci-Fi can't help but focus on heavily-armed space marines.
 
battleMAUS said:
W T F a game with Baphomet, star troopers, and apes. thats really fucking creepy

i was literally thinking the same thing, only bigfoot in stead of an ape :lol
they should have flipped the star upside down on baphomet's head though
 
I like these boxarts the OP posted in the campy sort of way...I can't for the life of me see how people can take art so seriously, is it that objective? I just like stuff that brings out good emotions/thoughts.

Anyways, I've always liked the Out of this World/Another World box art. Reminds me of some 70's sci-fi movie poster or something.

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I've never wanted to see a game remade moreso than this one.....those guys making Mirrors Edge could probably pull something like this off wonderfully....:D
 
In a way I agree with the OP. I think it's easily explained with the fact the these days boxarts often tend to portray the 3d models of characters and places. 2d art simply can look more "artistic" (if you get what I mean) on a 2d cover.
 


Click on them for the full image.

I know there has to be a database/archive of Atari manual/label art somewhere...
 
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Technically an ad, not a cover, but I can't find a good shot of the cover and it uses the same picture anyway.

I've always loved that there's a massive anthropomorphic rhino, a harpy, and a werewolf in the picture, but it's "based on a true story!" :lol
 
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