The box art thread

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Craig
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The box art thread

Post by Craig »

You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but that doesn't mean you can't judge the covers themselves.


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I love the early Mario box arts. They're all bursting with energy and a full world. The Mario World one really brings galaxy to mind too.

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I don't have the patience for JRPGs for the most part any more, but I love this picture. It brings up so many images.

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F-Zero had a real comic angle in Japan which I don't think was as apparent in game until X.
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Suits
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Re: The box art thread

Post by Suits »

Sweet. box art was always such a cool thing to me as a kid, especially in the 16 bit era.

I recently pre-ordered the Super Famicom Box Art Collection book, after Ratsoalbion retweeted it, really looking forward to getting my copy for the coffee table :D .

http://www.funstockretro.co.uk/super-fa ... ction-book
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ratsoalbion
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Re: The box art thread

Post by ratsoalbion »

Our friend and occasional podcast guest Simon Cole co-runs this superb Twitter account: https://twitter.com/CoolBoxArt

Another resource I'd recommend is this excellent tumblr: http://boxvsbox.tumblr.com/
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dezm0nd
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Re: The box art thread

Post by dezm0nd »

Well, the new Doom boxart won't be winning any awards for imagination and presentation. So boring!

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Suits
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Re: The box art thread

Post by Suits »

Is that honestly the new Doom box art ??

What a shame.

Even the placemaker image of just 'Doom' on a black background was better. FFS.
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Craig
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Re: The box art thread

Post by Craig »

ratsoalbion wrote:Our friend and occasional podcast guest Simon Cole co-runs this superb Twitter account: https://twitter.com/CoolBoxArt
Oh great! I would be lying if I said this thread wasn't at least partially inspired by that Twitter feed. Didn't realise he was a friend of the show!
dezm0nd wrote:Well, the new Doom boxart won't be winning any awards for imagination and presentation. So boring!

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Oh cool a new Halo game.
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InsrtCoins
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Re: The box art thread

Post by InsrtCoins »

That box art communicates all you need to know about the game: it's called Doom. It has guns. Master Chief is in it.
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macstat
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Re: The box art thread

Post by macstat »

To be honest i dont remember any boxart that really blown me away. Unfortunately they are usually cliche movie posters. Back shot, front shot, and now a collage of characters (and so on).

I was googling some box arts just to see if anything in particular and i found pretty nifty "worst box arts" article :D SOme of them are pure gold. http://www.dorkly.com/post/51904/worst- ... me-history and http://www.dorkly.com/post/53420/20-mor ... f-all-time.
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Suits
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Re: The box art thread

Post by Suits »

The two that jump out at me in terms of absolute impact as a child, ones I'd stare at and try to match the characters on the box to the sprites in the game are;

Super Mario Land - Game Boy

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Streets of Rage 2

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Craig
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Re: The box art thread

Post by Craig »

Listening to the latest Cane and Rinse of course I had to look up the much maligned eu street fighter alpha box art. Oh my. But let's look at a few.

The good.

http://i.imgur.com/dorZd0l.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8v0e5bP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/evYEJTs.jpg

The bad. Michael Jackson's Bad specifically.

http://i.imgur.com/sMj95W2.jpg

The...uhh...
http://i.imgur.com/TntbpC2.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/oBKkJlX.jpg
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James
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Re: The box art thread

Post by James »

Yep, that last link is the one we mentioned. I really don't like it at all!

I can't imagine it's universally liked, but I've always been a big fan of this poster (originating from the US, I think) for Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers:

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Every time I look at it I find something new to make me smile. Right now it's Honda (near the middle, with red face paint, right behind Cammy and 'Gief), just looking all kinds of uncomfortable! :lol:
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mikeleddy83
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Re: The box art thread

Post by mikeleddy83 »

Scored James, between yourself and cool box art my phone theme has been deciphered:

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of course, I need an entry into the thread and as Castlevania SOTN is just so obvious I've plumped for this bad boy that always spelt out that I'd spent time after school with the correct mate:

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James
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Re: The box art thread

Post by James »

Very cool phone theme!

The Ghouls 'N Ghosts art sent me straight back to that late 80s home computer/early console era. :-D
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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Re: The box art thread

Post by Sinclair Gregstrum »

I always found the Exhumed box art pretty striking.

Certainly stood out on the shelves at the time and there's no way you're not picking that up to check out what it's about!

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ratsoalbion
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Re: The box art thread

Post by ratsoalbion »

For comparison, here's the US PS1/PC art:
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The Japanese version also had a different title, but retained the skull motif:
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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Re: The box art thread

Post by Sinclair Gregstrum »

Yeah I think we PAL players won there - the US one is a shambles (I knew they'd changed the name but never seen that dodgy art!) and the Japanese one over complicates things a bit I think. Even just how the portrait format of the PAL Saturn box reflects the shape of the skull, it just works.

Love seeing how different things are across regions, particularly on older titles where there was often such a massive change.
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Craig
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Re: The box art thread

Post by Craig »

There's an amazing trend on Japanese Twitter right now. Check the hashtag #いらすとやさんでゲームパッケージを再現する for people replicating box art with stock art for some wonderful results.

http://i.imgur.com/8rqXjG9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2JVL8cr.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/rw9RZz0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/P73NlZ9.jpg



http://i.imgur.com/z8Dxzq4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cglGot1.jpg
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BlueWeaselBreath
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Re: The box art thread

Post by BlueWeaselBreath »

I know this is an old thread but I had to bump it to ask -- is this real?

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And if so, why isn't this all that anybody ever talks about? It's incredible.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: The box art thread

Post by ratsoalbion »

It is real, but these sorts of um, 'interpretations' were quite commonplace at the time!
:)
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Re: The box art thread

Post by Flabyo »

VCS and Intellivision box art has a lot of that 70s sci-fi feel going on. I love some of them, they're incredibly evocative of a period that is long past now.

Nice piece here on The Verge on it in fact.
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