30 Days of Video Games - BONUS: Why Do You Play Games Pg. 142

[Winston]

Day 3: Favorite Cover Art

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

I know it's not the most imaginative cover art, but gosh darn this cover art still gives me vietnam flashbacks to the day I got this masterpiece. I remember when I was in the car riding home and couldn't stop staring at it, I was just so excited to put this in my Wii I basically stared at this cover for like a 15 minute drive with little to no speech at all. This cover is pretty cool, plus it has alot of the Nintendo characters I really like on it, especially Wario! Come on, any box-art with Wario on it is immediately one of the greatest pieces of artwork in the history of man-kind. But yeah, I like this game cover for the chills it gave me when I first got the game, it's not the most imaginative or anything, but I still really like it for what it did to me when I first got it, and no other game has lived up to that...until Smash 4 that is, maybe. But yeah, this is my favorite. 

[Xtremer Sadiqachu]

Cover art is usually what defines your gaming choice. Looks aren't everything, I know, but when you're picking out a game, it kiiiind of is.

Although some games can be a bit.....misleading.

I'm not really one to care about boxart but when i saw this fucking boxart.....oh god.



Look at this shit. This looks AWESOME. You don't even know what kind of game this is gonna be, but damn, you want to know now. It looks like some badass acid trip about a KKK member (no offense to anyone here). I'm sold, LET'S DO THIS!





....Well now we all know you can't judge a game by it's boxart. This game isn't actually too bad. It's just a bit flawed. It's graphics and music are quite nice too. But I wouldn't expect this to be a happy go lucky platformer about finding a flag. I WANTED A BEAT EM UP! I WANT MY MONEY BACK!




 

[Pawn]

                      

 

 

The cover for NiGHTS into Dreams is one that always comes to mind, eliciting a dream-like sense with its colourful rendition of the night sky and translucent figure. Phantasy Star Online's relatively minimalist approach is another, with each class representative coming together to form one image against a white background. It was a very clean, modern look for its time.

 

I'm a big fan of these Bioshock Infinite covers as well. I'm not sure if they were actually used as alternates in the end:

 

 

         

 

 

Not only do they stand out for their unique styles and general composition; they show Songbird and/or Elizabeth, import characters that you actually see and interact with (especially in the latter's case, as she's the real star of the game). The former gives you a taste of what to expect from the location as well. It's a shame that the standard box art is of a man you never see during the game, outside of the odd poster here and there...

[Tori Himemiya]

DAY 3 OF PRESIDENT CROW ADMIRING BOX ART!

It took me a while to figure it out but I got what I like.

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness!

Just this comic book like cover really stands out for me. Its pretty well drawn and it showcases a lot of important characters in the game in various scenes. It even foreshadows the extra bosses Prier and Marjoly in the lower right which is pretty cool. It just looks so dynamic that I love it so much and that's why its here as my favorite box art.

On a side note, the original Japanese box art (which is also on the manual) is basically a bunch of chibis of the cast and units you can create hanging out which is why I like the newer box art for it cause it says a thousand words all at once.

[Blue Wisp]

Day something - Favourite Cover Art

 

 

Having beaten this game like five times, just seeing this cover gives me goosebumps. Just an amazing game, you felt paranoid every inch of the way, and it was just a great experience. Not too horror but not too kiddy, just a perfect balance. The whole environment around the Metro with the darkness and all of that, just too good. Would love to own a poster of this.

[Jango]

Day 3: Favorite Cover Art

 

 

 

This cover is badass, and so is the game. It's simple, yet tells you everything you need to know. Ralph in the middle, is you. The knife with Sam's reflex shows your enemy, and the fork with the Sheep, shows your target. Couldn't be the other way around, makes perfect sense.

The black background creates an atmosphere of despair, you must get thoses sheeps to survive.

And then, the "Starring" thing, gives an extra touch. If you've played the game, you know Ralph and Sam are actually stars in Daffy's game show, but in fact, the whole situation is real, you're playing for your surviving.

 

I also feel like I should do this:

 

I really dig Generations cover art. Both renders are fantastic, modern Sonic's smile don't look weird or anything. The Green Hill background is very deep and cool to look at, and the graphism is pretty nice too, makes it feels like a birthday game. The logo is also my favorite of the franchise.

[Gregzilla]

Day 3: Best Cover Art

 

Oh hey, an easy question!

 

 

Awesome colors.  Tons of monsters.  A kickass logo design.  And, unlike a lot of covers these days, the big badass protagonist is actually doing shit instead of just standing around looking gloomy!  This is a game about going to Hell and fighting demons.  The cover makes me want to go to Hell and fight demons.  Not much else to say.

 

Runner up goes to SA2: Battle for what I think is the best use of the 2D modern Sonic art style.

[Carbo]

Day 3: Favorite Cover Art

Let's say you are one of the few luckiest people on earth to live in America, own a Wii, be a Metroid fan and have had the money in time to obtain what is one of the holy grails of video gaming.

Give yourself a pat on the back and ditch that ugly paper sleeve that's arguably only there for advertisement and protection purposes while it's on the store shelves. Let the steel book absorb you for that split moment in time and relish the fact that you probably won't be having anything as awesome as this for the foreseeable future.

I'm not one of those people. I have to deal with the dinky European one which means I only experience half the effect.

But that's really besides the point, and even if you own the standard release that still has the identical cover it is something to feel proud of. Among all the re-releases imaginable, very, very few can stand up against the solid gold that is the Metroid Prime Trilogy. Each game is it's own master of game design; unforgettable adventures that only highlight how Retro Studios are some of the most efficient designers in this particular era, something which persists to this day thanks to their immeasurable efforts on the Donkey Kong series. Not only that, but this version came with the benefit of the superior Prime 3 controls across all games that were only possible thanks to the Wii controller.

The Prime Trilogy felt like an event of it's own and they knew it. It's why booting up the game alone yields one of the most immense and overwhelming video game title screens. The incredible amount of stuff here is something worth having and the allure of the cover is the cherry on the top. There is no need for buzzwords when it comes to this one - all you need is the metallic finish and those bold words, which might as well spell out "you want this".

[Exploder]

Day 3: Favorite Cover Art

 

I haven't really paid that much attention to cover art before, honestly, but I guess I'll have to go with this.

 

 

I like this cover because outside of showing the main character and various side characters around him (who indirectly reflect the themes of the game), the glass shards aren't just for artistic purposes - there is a visual image that is shown in one of the game's endings that's very similar to the cover, which is too spoilerific to say here, but after that, it kinda hits you as to what the cover actually means. So yeah, it is both cool-looking and meaningful.

[Endy]

Day 3: Favourite Box art

 

Metroid Pr-no just kidding, Pikmin 3!

 

 

I guess I PICKmin 3. im sorry I will never make that pun again This is the most gorgeous box art I've ever seen, it almost seems photorealistic. There is the perfect amount of stuff going on in the background and foreground and it looks seriously amazing. Its made in a way that draws your eyes to the title, to the three Pikmin and eventually down to all the beautiful scenery. It doesn't really tell you anything about the game other than it has Pikmin in it, but I don't feel like it has to.

 

 

Now Animal Crossing New Leaf does an amazing job of telling you pretty much everything through its box. You get previews of some of the structures you can build in the game, and you have Isabelle holding a picture of one of them in that book she has there, indicating you can indeed build it.  You get to see you can go to a Tropical Island, and get a glimpse of man street. This paticular image is based on a full banner which even has variants for the different seasons! 

 

did you thnk i wouldnt mention metroid

 

 

The Japanese box for Metroid Fusion is my favourite Metroid boxart. The NA one is fine I guess but this one has Samus looking even more awesome than she has before. Walking down a decrypted hallway with an assortment of the freaky monsters you will be fighting in your adventure. Samus doesn't care, she could nuke them all in a second. Also an X-Parasite is eating the box.

[super saiyan weegee]

Day 3: Favorite Cover Art

 

Hm...

 

I think this one fits the bill for me:

 

 

Why the cover art for Test Drive Off-Road Wide Open? Well man, for me, it's simply that I just think it looks really cool. I really like the red-ish tone that the desert area in the background has, I think the font used is real nifty looking. I also think the Hummer looks cool with the way it's just sorta jumping out with the lights trailing it giving the impression of speed. And just, I dunno man, but ever since I first saw it as a kid it just stuck out in my mind as really rad lookin', and it's what first comes to my mind when box arts are brought up. So yeah, man.

[gato]

Day 3: Best Cover

 

Man this one is a toughie... Mostly because it's not something I feel qualified to talk much about, for some people a cover could be something inspiring, a piece of art of it's own inspired by the game you play... Or if you are NinjaShark an old guy playing a banjo for a shoot-em-up. :V

 

Shallow as it might sound, I just like covers that look cool. And for this day a lot of them come to mind (and many more might still come if I keep thinking about it) so yeah, I have problems thinking about it... But the ones resonating in my head the most would be these ones:

 

First Pick:

 

The "WH40K: Dawn of War" series.

 

 

 

Some covers like to show the main character being badass, but what can you do when the entire universe is filled with badass? Where the very first soldier you bring to the field is badass enough to star his own video game series or novel? Well it's a daunting task if you don't want to make things that feel like convoluted messes. But the artist working for THQ pulled it off quite nicely by giving proper spotlight to one faction (or 2 if there were more than one cover) for each expansion of their games (and trust me, there are a lot)... The Eldars and Orkz kinda got the short end of the stick here but all in all I'm still happy with these covers. They are really impressive to look at and gives you a sense of the oh so crappy world you are getting yourself into. (crappy as in, everything is trying to kill you BTW)

 

 

Look at this guy! He has so much Space SWAG that a civilization could born and prosper in it... If it weren't because the guy in question also happens to be batshit insane.

 

 

 

 

B Pick:

 

 

I feel this one will be better since I'm talking about a single game rather than a series.

 

Jet Grind Set Radiooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

 

Look at this funky piece! The game is very special as far as art style, gameplay, story and soundtrack are concerned and this cover manages to convey most of that! It really captures the whole wild graffiti style you are going to use during this game. Though I feel the Japanese cover does a better job at this.

 

 

This comes to mind (wrong game tho :V)

 

 

 

 

Pick 3:

 

 

I only lasted 2 days without Sanic but just look at this piece of awesome!

 

Sonic Adventure

 

 

Just watching sonic making that pose that would break a lesser being with that smug as hell smile pumps you up for some adventurin'. The effect doubles if you played the game before because the cover is designed similarly to the title screen which means just looking at it makes your head play that oh so very awesome game theme,,, Awwwww yeah! This is happening!

 

 

 

 

Now if you excuse me, I'm off ot headbang and jump around a little because I got that track I posted above stuck in my head.

 

 

 

EDIT: dayum I forgot how cool the original Phantasy Star Online cover was.

[Starman Swift]

Day 3: Favorite Cover Art

 

 

Since I feel like limiting myself to the box arts of games I actually own, lets go with this one. It's colorful, and it's got some nice effects going on with it. I especially like what they did with all the lines on the characters. There's no mistaking it's got a pretty nice style, and it also makes good use of space. Other than that, it's got Luigi on it, that scores it some brownie points. Twelve Luigi's. A plumber's dozen. When it comes down to it, it's just some really cute and colorful box art for a really cute and colorful game.

[C4k3]

Day 3: Favourite Cover Art

 

 

 

Surprisingly, this is the only Burnout cover that doesn't depict a vehicle crashing and engulfing into flames, but instead goes for something more slick. The monotone lineart and the image of what the game actually looks like on the car's drawing really blends well together. It's simple, yet effective.

[The Deleter]

Day 3: What's your favorite box art?

 

Eh, I've never really paid attention to box art in the past, so I'm going to go with the one that has the most unique style compared to the rest.

 

 

Pikmin 2's box art

 

If there's one thing I love about Pikmin's art style, it's the use of claymation for its CGI cutscenes and boxart. It's just so unique and charming you can't help but love it. I would have chosen Pikmin 3's boxart due to it being the nicest looking out of the three, but I think this box art describes the game it's supposed to represent a lot better: A little man in a spacesuit throwing multicolored creatures at insect-sized monsters. That pretty much sums up the game play for me.

 

Day 3: Complete

[Arcade Racer CC14]

Okay, favorite cover! When I saw the question, THIS instantly popped into my head:



I just LOVE the B-movie aesthetic of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time's boxart. You've got a shadowy new alien threat carting off Peach, you've got a massive time hole sucking up everything in sight, you've got UFOs shooting lasers all over the place, you've got a nice collection of characters including an absolutely freaked out Yoshi, and finally, you've got the leads, ready to jump into action to save both timelines. It totally fits the whole game's sci-fi tone and it's just so eye-catching. TELL ME that you wouldn't want to know how a completely bonkers situation like this plays out! Definitely one of the best covers in the Mario & Luigi series AND the Mario franchise in general. It's also probably one of the most dramatic covers that you'll see the twin brothers grace. I'd love to have a poster of it.

[TearForFear]

I have two:

 

 

That's an unusual cover. Link is there, but you can't see him at first. The spotlights are all for the sword in the middle.

Mysterious and evocative, really makes you wonder what the game is about.

 

All hail George Stobbard, Nicole Collard and whoever hand-drawn this beautiful piece of art! It perfectly captures what the life of George was about when he first went to Paris: café, music, love, and death.

[jords]

Can this one count?

 

 

 

Anyway, it's an amazing view of peach's castle upside down and finally they got rid of the white background. The white background was always boring to look at.

 

I just loved the detail, the sparkle in Mario's eyes, Peach's ponytail is going up because she is upside down. Everything here is just colourful and bright and the effects on the wheels, it really wants the players know that anit-gravity is happening. Love it.

 

If peach stop gawking at Mario she's about to fly of course.

 

 

 

This one was pretty cool. It really has that futuristic feeling and has a lot of detail.

[Kamicciolo]

Day 3 - Favourite "Ninjashark's crayon squiggles can't compare" Cover Art

 

WELCOME TO WARIO WORLD!!!!

 

Just look at this cover. Look at this happy fat man, swimming around in his vast treasure. He looks so happy :V

 

Yeah I mainly like it because its my favourite character, so what? It's still a nice cover. It gives you an idea of how the adventure will turn out in the end and everything~. Plus just look at all that money and stuff, you can't deny you'd be just as pleased as ol' Wario up there~.

 

In short, it's a very pretty cover and features my favourite character, what else is there to say? :V

[Rusty Spy]

Day 3: Favorite Box Art

 

 

I always preferred 2D art to 3D models for box covers, especially when it came to Sonic games, and SA2's Dreamcast cover art is by far probably my favorite of all Sonic games. It goes beyond that though, I've always loved the old jewel cases used on Dreamcast and PS1 games for it's sharper design and symmetry, which is further exemplifying in SA2's cover, with very stand out color scheme and striking characters against a smooth, vibrant background that blends perfectly with the foreground.

 

 

There's also Rayman Origins, which above all else I really like it's art style and the artwork has that 'new-game' look to it that just makes me want to play the game. It's simple, but very colorful and welcoming.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Day 3: Best boxart

 

Again, don't have an outright favourite... but these keep coming to mind.
 

 
Me: So Day 3 is about boxarts eh? 
Orangutan: Oww owW...
Me: I like boxarts... boxarts are nice, they have colours *hic*
Orangutan: Ow!
Me: Course I know what my favourite is..
Orangutan: OW! OW!
Me: Yeah it's that one.
Orangutan: OWW! OW!
 
Me: Yeah it's that one game... *hic* that one game which starts with a drunk wizard who *hic* accidentally detonates a bomb that kills the Grim Reaper so nobody can die but just turn into the un-dead *hic* so the Wizard has to find a way to make death mean dead, only he fails, but it's ok because the Grim Reaper isn't dead just on vacation and doesn't want to go back so then this big thing happens.

Then there's a giant elf queen, a Jypsey, dragons, and a horse!
 
Oranutan: Oww oww!
 
Me: Why yes it does have a good boxart... look!
 

Discworld 2

I love this boxart, it captures everything about the game in one single image, also just look at it, how could you not pick it up. You see that on a shelf, you're going to pick it up, go on you know you will.

Next up is this...
 

Streets of Rage

 

I played this game when I was young, probably too young, i had no idea what the story was, only that it seemed that the world had gone mad and I was going around trying to take out the bad people... and this cover fitted that thought and the impression of the gameplay perfectly. 

 

Everything about that cover is great, it reflects the tone of the game and makes you want to pick it up. Though the EU version is better.

 

Honorable mentions...

 

Alien Storm (JPN)

 

Look at it... THAT IS AWESOME! It just makes you want to pick up the game! How could you not? Wrap around cover yet it shows you exactly what the game will be like, 3 heroes battling against a storm of aliens! It's a great game and this box art is equally as grand.

 

Catherine

 

Catherine, because Katherine, with a K. Because.... glasses and, black tight outfit, and she is quite cool and calm character, but cross her and she becomes a raging bull I take no shit character....

 

And that's about it, there is absolutely no other reason!

 

 

No!

 

*tries to hide the tiny love heart above his head* 

[Tracker_TD]

Day 3: Favourite Cover Art

 

NiGHTS into Dreams

 

 

NiGHTS' cover art is just incredibly pretty to look at - it's got that lovely painting quality about it, and the image of NiGHTS and his invisible flute is just so iconic and memorable - the atmosphere of the image is also pretty damn beautiful too, with the lush deep clouds hovering around the jester, and the striking, beautiful contrast of the colours also creating a wonderful impact.

 

Not much else to it really: Runner up is probably the JP cover of Sonic 1.

[Lucky]

Day 3: Favourite Cover Art

 

This is another question that's hard for me to answer as there's a lot that I love, and I was almost going to pull the Sonic card for this one. But I decided to be good and just narrow it down to another one of my favourites...

 

 

I love the European NiGHTS box art as it has this mysterious and surreal vibe to it, and it's also just nice to look at. Not going to go into a great amount of detail as Pawn (oh and Tracker just above me as I was writing this lol), but the artwork gives off these dreamlike qualities that somehow manage to represent the entire tone of the game while keeping it simple, and it's just such an iconic image from that era. When I was a kid the main reason I picked NiGHTS up was because it was made by Sonic Team and that made me curious, but I think the box would have drawn me in even if it hadn't been as I would have been interested in knowing more about it.

 

An honourable mention goes to Dragon's Lair on the SNES.

 

 

I don't like the SNES version of the game and only owned the CDi one growing up, but I just love the artwork for this one in particular. Don Bluth's style has always appealed to me and I love the designs in this game even if it's not one of my favourites otherwise, and feel like this cover captures the style best out of all the home releases.

 

 

Catherine

 

Catherine, because Katherine, with a K. Because.... glasses and, black tight outfit, and she is quite cool and calm character, but cross her and she becomes a raging bull I take no shit character....

 

And that's about it, there is absolutely no other reason!

 

 

No!

 

*tries to hide the tiny love heart above his head* 

 

 

 

Catherine was one of the other answers I was considering, although I prefer Catherine with a C.

[Celestia]

Day 3: Favourite Cover Art

 

 

This cover art sums up the game perfectly and doesn't sum it up at all at the same time. You've got one of the final enemies of the game, a background that's just as odd as the backgrounds you'll see in the battles in-game (pretty sure it is one of those backgrounds, probably), and the protagonist is reflected in the bad guy's visor thing.
 

Ness actually doesn't look like that in the only area you can encounter that kind of Starman...leading to the theory some have that the "Ness" reflection is actually

Giygas inside the Devil Machine, as his first form has Ness' face!

 

Runner ups: every Smash Bros. cover, Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World, Spyro: Year of the Dragon (NA)...and possibly others that I'm forgetting.

[Mr Loopone]

Day 3: Favourite Box Art

 

This one is actually hard since I don't really have a favourite among favourite box arts since it is very hard to decide from around 500 physical games with most of them actually are from decent to great due to that a publisher usually tries a good cover to get people to buy a game. Since some of the box arts that I like have already been covered and avoiding using Sonic otherwise this post would be about Sonic Triple Trouble, I would talk about a well known game series that my favourite cover out of the entire series is from a lesser known game.

 

 

(Reminds me of the time that I did an inmature joke of that remove certain letters of Mario games box art, the one that people used Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Galaxy)

 

I know people might be thinking why did Don Corleone chose this one out of the 500 odd games? Well as a confession, I liked the way 2D Mario was drawn. Not to say the 3D Mario renderings are bad since I do like the N64 era and the recent era (Super Mario Galaxy onwards) ones however seeing 2D Mario art just lights up my eyes. Like the covers for Super Mario Land, Super Mario Land 2 (sadly they don't count since I had a Game Boy Pocket bundle but the covers were on the manual) and Mario & Yoshi to choose a few examples. Honestly with 3D renders being commonly used especially on box art, I thought a cover like this would never got made but Nintendo surprised me.

 

So what makes this appealing to me? First it shows Mario being annoyed that Donkey Kong has kidnapped Pauline and ordering the Mini Marios to save her, with DK smirking and Pauline looking worried. Usually Mario is shown smiling or being happy so it isn't often Mario is shown with that emotion (Sunshine, the PAL N64 Super Mario 64 bundle and Super Smash Bros. Melee/Brawl were some of the exceptions). It describes the game which that Mario (who you would control via the DS stylus, you don't see him since it is a cursor and you are Mario or at least I think it is?) orders the Mini Marios however to get towards the goal, you have to move or place girders among other items that is shown on the cover with one going down while sliding, one going up a girder and one with the hammer.

 

Rather interesting, the US cover is a bit different with an orange/yellow background while the EU/JP version has a blue background. It's strange how one colour can change a box art from good to not as good, the yellow background looks a bit gaudy and presumably Nintendo of America did it to highlight the characters more while Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo Co Ltd chose not to add an colour layer to also show the location of the game which is set in a theme park while Nintendo fans will also spot the iconic hills from various Mario games (with Super Mario Bros. 3 being one of the early ones) that was also removed from the US cover. It's a bit like the recent Zelda games actually with the gold layer in the US ones, the JP ones have a drawn or rendered cover and the EU is pick and choose between the two regions.

 

It's only when I'm working on my post that a complete version of the cover was made...

 

Honourable Mention:

 

Usually I wouldn't do this unless one of the future topics is about VGM Music however in the terms of covers, it is very hard to stick to one cover. Also some scans especially of European versions are either completely missing, very small or heavily JPGed which is one reason why a few alternative choices weren't chosen. My second choice would have been Rayman 3 due to how Rayman is portraited on the cover and one of the reasons why I bought the game physically (the other due to how the HD remake has a few bugs and missing features) however for some reason Rayman doesn't appeal to me as much as 2D Mario even though I really like the cover. It might have been something related that the first game literally made me asleep on the controller and stuck on my brain even though I did enjoy Rayman 2. It is also hard since I'm content with most covers of the games that I have or at least ones that I have the box for.