Favorite Game Box Art

[SpellSword]

Almost bought this one when it came out due to the really cool box art, but after reading a few reviews I reconsidered.

40K Fire Warrior (PS2).jpg

The game itself may be pretty janky but who ever did that cover art knew their stuff.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I remember seeing these covers when I was young and being intimidated by them. No friendly face or heroic character to look to, no pristine landscape to fight for or an evil tower to journey to destroy. Just the cold rock face engraved probably by some mayan/aztec empire that practices human sacrifice or something.








The Banner Saga covers on Steam look good when lined up next to each other.




Very dramatic cover, almost looks like the poster for the final game in a series. Unfortunately it's a case of false advertising as Zack (on the right) has nowhere near as much screentime as this cover would suggest.




Art by Kazuya Takahashi. I like the scale implied in the background of the city dwarfed by the The Last Remnant-esque giant crystal sword.




The Trails of Cold Steel 1 & 2 PS4 rerelease covers.

► Trails of Cold Steel 2 spoiler

[maidenhaver]

Games Workshop will always be immitators.

[Maledict]

Some dogshit boxes were posted. I have to repost the best one once again:

I remember when Guild Wars (not the furry sequel) really knew how to snipe me with their box art:




And the other weren't any worse. I still feel a very particular, strong way seeing them. I can't fathom how we've lost a world so beautiful...

The grooved and raised elements were mentioned. Man, I miss those. If I still had my GW box, I'd probably carefully take the front apart from the back and turn it into a wall decoration. Pure art.

[Oyster Sauce]

My dad would always turn the case upside down at Blockbuster

[OGchan]

****, there's actually tons of great box arts around if I think about it. My all-time favorite is probably the Diablo cover:

1-DiabloUS.webp

This one is also pretty cool:

2-Rogue Atari ST.jpg

The original artwork for the first Wasteland is also very iconic imo.

EDIT: Always had a soft spot for the box art of StarTropics too:

3-スタートロピックス.jpg

[logincrash]

Spoilered because the post was getting too annoying to scroll past.

► 5 covers

A classic.

deus ex.jpg

I like the Human Revolution cover because it's not just "a cool dude standing there," and they tried to spice it up with the glass shards showing glimpses of the game.

deus ex human revolution.jpg

The 3D GTA covers do this "glimpses of the game" thing and they're very stylish. My personal favourite is the San Andreas cover because it's not as realistic as the 4 and 5, but it's more elaborate than the relatively simple and flat 3 and Vice City covers.

GTA San Andreas.jpg

The Prince of Persia Sands of Time box art also isn't just "a cool dude standing there;" the dude is actually running on walls. Very dynamic.

prince of persia sands of time.jpg

The Left 4 Dead cover is striking. Conveys the tone with very little. The 4 fingers references the 4 players, the bitten off thumb hints at zombies, the pose(?) of the hand and the scratches show the panic and desperation.

left 4 dead.jpg

The Left 4 Dead 2 cover is cool because of the two fingers, but I couldn't find a good image in my arduous 5 minutes of search. It has the same cool features but it's referencing the fact that it's a sequel.

[asf]

gta boxes always sucked

[OGchan]

What about the first one? It's not that bad:

4871105-grand-theft-auto-dos-front-cover.jpg

[Kolgrim]

A lot of great stuff was already posted but I'll share a few of my favorites:

► some games

[logincrash]

Can't believe I forgot about Dragon Age Origins. Simply awesome. Blood splatter dragon with nice art in the red, on white background.

Batman Arkham City has a similar style, but with a little splash of red. There's also like a dozen of different cover variants for that game, but they all follow the same color scheme.

GreedFall box art is cool because it's just this awesome painting.

[Nemesis]

What about the first one? It's not that bad:

Good box art.

[Kolgrim]

Batman Arkham City has a similar style, but with a little splash of red. There's also like a dozen of different cover variants for that game, but they all follow the same color scheme.

I really dig the Arkham City box art. Shame they butchered it with the GOTY edition and all the scribbling they added like 10/10 IGN! There's a funny meme years ago that summed it up well:

[sheet]

[The_Mask]

[Maledict]

I miss game boxes for the tiny screenshots on the back. Game 'zines too.