7 Great Games With Truly Horrible Box Art

you should do bad games with great boxart next lol

The original Resident Evil, which had a single bloody eye against a black backdrop in Japan, but in the US had Chris with a “just farted in church” expression and a gun that looked like an M16 before someone told the artist it wasn’t in the game so he tried to salvage it and make it into a shotgun instead.

That description of Mega Man 1's box art as being spray painted on the side of an unsafe carnival ride is maybe the best and most fitting description of something I've ever heard, oh my god

The 90s really were a bizarre time when it came to localizing Japanese media and video games especially. The fact that someone looked at a cutesy, colorful puzzle game and said "It needs more bodily mutilations" and nobody thought that was a little strange, is really indicative of the era...

Ico from the Ico box art went on to play a starring role as both of Ethan's sons in Heavy Rain

As a graphic designer and illustrator, this hurts me in a couple ways. One: because I'm especially hyper-sensitive about bad design (just ask the passenger in my car when I had to pull over to complain about the text kerning on a particularly bad billboard), and Two: because there isn't a designer alive who doesn't harbour a secret fear that in the deepest, darkest, more regrettable part of their portfolio, lives a job so accidentally awful that someday, someone will find it and roast it this savagely. On a sidenote, I have big sympathy for the designer of the Arkham City cover, which is actually quite skillful but reeks of a project on it's 17th revision with management: "I love it – it's great. But can you just add these four more things to it? Thaaaaanks"

"He's still just holding a gun!" is just such a great line, cos it starts to imply an alternate plot where Megaman loses his shit and starts gunning down people on a postal rampage.

I love the story behind the “bad box-art Mega Man” in the VS Capcom game. That year was supposed to be a revival/love letter year for Mega Man fans, but the other long overdue projects were canceled and all they gave fans was a seemingly mean-spirited “Mega Man is old and washed up.” BIG OOF

A friend of mine has just informed me that he has that Bust-a-Move game box. And sent photo proof. Dear God.

Was initially outraged at Ico's art being on this list... because i didn't know about the NA version

Laughed too hard at “Running over Billie Joe Armstrong…”

I’m so glad you mentioned Super Bust-a-Move for the PS2. I remember asking for it for Christmas one year, and I even prefaced it with something like, “I know it looks weird, but…” And even then my Dad asked, “Are you sure this is what you want?” And I was like, “Yes, I know it looks stupid but it really doesn’t have anything to do with the game.” I still hate that box art. XD

From the box art, one might mistake Bust A Move for Clockwork Orange.

"Acclaim are things ok over there?" As it would turn out, things were very much not ok.

For the Japanese version of Resident Evil, it's box art depicted a bloody eyeball against a black background. For the American version of the game, it's box art has Chris Redfield with a silly expression on his face carrying what looks like a machine gun or a shotgun.

The American box art of Fatal Frame aka Project Zero comes to mind. Where the scariest thing about it was the prospect of the artist having to use photoshop to make it.

If you ever do a community version of this we have to talk about Yakuza 3's box art. The Japanese version depicts Kiryu looking up at the sky, having a cigarette and just thinking about life because at this point he's been through a lot and just wants to slow down but you know that it's just not that easy and he knows it aswell. The Western cover is just a zoomed in shot of Kiryu's face looking dead pan with the dragon of dojima in the back. One gives you an interesting image if you haven't played the game and makes you feel something if you have while the other is just rubbish.

The Bust-A-Move box art look like avant-garde 90s album covers

I remember seeing that Super Bust-A-Move baby box art, having no idea what the game was about, and assuming it was some psychedelic rhythm game; and I'm only just now learning what exactly the game was.

Phalanx. This was an old game for SNES, the cover having an old guy in a flannel shirt, overalls, and a cowboy hat, playing a banjo. The game was a shoot-em-up, much like Gradius and Defender. This was intentional, btw, because the marketers knew that the game would need something to stand out against the large amount of space shooters being released at the time. Also, Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction. Yugi is on the cover, even though he is not the protagonist.