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

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

 

this is my favorite box arts. i really like this one because it kinda remind me of Lost World. But this one is more fun and colorful and it makes it look like a fun and happy go lucky game to play. it have the fun plants to explore on and it has the stars. it also in space which make me want to get the game. i really like games that you go to space and have star powers.

[Kiah]

As I said in the 30 Days of Sonic topic, I'm on a really short timetable due to my brother's birthday. I don't want to miss the day, so here's a list I'll edit when I can sit down:

1. Burnout Paradise cover.

2. Resident Evil 4 PAL cover.

 

Nep, it's fine. Don't worry about it and get back to editing your post whenever you can with both topics. Enjoy your time with your family. 

 

Anyway...

 

Day 3: Favorite Cover Art of a Video Game (that is NOT Sonic 3):

 

I'm not going to think too hard about this due to me running on just an hour of sleep last night due to me working at 4 AM and driving to North Carolina right after. I've been running around all day and I can't think straight worth anything.  I'm just going to go with the cover art that first came to my mind:

 

Kirby's Epic Yarn

 

 

 

In a nutshell, I really like this cover art and how creative and detailed it is due to it being very colorful, crafty with the craft of yarn element prevalent with the additional sewing references of patches, stitching, quilt patterns, denim patterns, and plaid patterns, other fabrics and threads, buttons and a zipper, and the whole thing is cute as well. Kirby is automatically cute in his own right but him being portrayed via yarn provides an additional cute touch to him 

[Tornado]

What the hell is that non-hardcore thing?

[Xtremer Sadiqachu]

 

 

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.

Oh hey another game from DATA VICE

[turbojet]

Day 3

 

Simple, but to the point. This reflects the game so much. You see the colossus and at the corner, you see the main character on his stead. The scale of it reflects just how massive of a task it is to take this mother down. The art itself is not reflective of the detail of the game, but I like the contrast in colors. It has that dusty look to it and you can see the sun light and the shadows. I don't know know. I just really like this cover and the game was fantastic as well.

[Phantomime]

I'm gonna be honest here, I don't really have many strong feelings. I also don't have many strong feelings about box art. If I was gonna choose one, though, I'd pick: 

 

FAVORITE BOXART: Rayman Origins

 

 

Okay, I honestly don't have too much to say about this one. It's fun to look at, it has the game's fantastic and fun artstyle, and it shows exactly what the game is about: running around in a vibrant, hand-drawn world, doing shit. It's not really anything special, I guess, but it's fun and exciting looking. So yeah.

[Jimbo]

Day 3: Favorite Box Art

 

 

Wind Waker HD. I don't really focus much on the box art of games, so this wasn't an easy choice for me. There are two things that I absolutely love about this cover:

 

1) Link is the only person on the cover in color. The different shades of yellow and gold that make up the rest of the characters make the cover very pleasant to look at.

 

2) Ganon's presence in the background is a nice touch. It makes the cover much more sinister.

 

I'm normally a fan of more minimalistic covers, but this one has been one of my favorites in recent memory.

[Komodin]

Day 3 - Best/Favorite Cover Art

 

I’m not one to really pay all much attention to cover arts. If it doesn’t look like a load of crap or overly fanservicey, then it’s probably something that’ll entice me, at least a little bit. Over the years, though, I’ve seen quite a few cover art pieces that I can’t help but admire for one reason or another. However, there is one cover art piece that I always look back to when this sort of topic pops up.

 

 

Perhaps it’s just me being a big Mario fan, but there’s just something about the cover art for Super Mario Galaxy that’s always gelled with me. I think it’s the combination of relative simplicity and a sense of majesty that always makes it stick out in my hand. It depicts Mario flying through the depths of space with one of the Lumas, looking like he’s having one heck of a good time. In a way, I think it perfectly illustrates the main point of the game: “Mario, in his journey to save Peach from a god-complexed Bowser, goes through all sorts of new worlds and locales the whole universe over… but don’t worry, the journey may seem a little daunting, but Mario’s still the same as ever, no matter where he is. Look how happy he is? Everything’s gonna be alright…”

 

... Eh, maybe I’m just overthinking its message a bit, but currently, out of a long list of great cover artpieces, it really is my favorite among them.

[Forte-Metallix]

Day 3: My Favorite Cover Art

 

 

While I don't care much for the game itself (It is CHEAP, even by Mario Party standards.), I can't get over how bright and colorful this art is! I am a sucker for anything multicolored, so I actually have a poster of this box art hanging in my room!

 

My only criticism:

 

 

Why is the best character so far off in the distance?!

[Speederino]

Day 3: Favorite Video Game Boxart

 

To be honest, I don't really pay attention to this. At most I just look at a box, go "oh hey that's neat I guess" and then I just go straight to the game and never think about the cover again. But if I *have* to pick one...

 

 

I don't know, I just remember really liking this as a kid. I imagine what it would be like to be staring at a brick wall for whatever reason and then BAM NINJA TURTLES ON SKATEBOARDS HOLLYYYYYYY SHIIIIIIIT while the Kool-Aid Man just stands off to the side bowing his head/entire body in shame. Plus it seemed really awesome after the really weird and lazy art for the first game that my 5 year old mind couldn't really explain. Now I understand that it's inspired by the TMNT comics, but I probably just assumed the artist was color blind or didn't realize that there were three other turtles aside from Raphael. TMNT II's box art fixes that and looks EXTREMELY RADICAL !!!!!!/90's

[Blue Swallow]

Day 3 - Best Cover Art

This was a really tough question, but I finally decided on this,

beatmania IIDX 12 HAPPY SKY

I think it's really beautiful, and really fits with the game. The sunflowers and feathers really add something to the cover, And Xia looks great. It's somewhat different than other IIDX covers, they tend to look more "cool", they often have a futuristic cyber kind of look. This cover goes for a beautiful look and does it very well.

The cover art for 8th style and DistorteD are great too.

[-Robin-]

Day 3: Favorite Box Art

There's just something very charming about the rustic nature of the boxart for TTYD. It feels like it matches with the story itself: discovering and overcoming one of the past's greatest secrets with your ordinary self and your ragtag bunch of friends, going through adversaries along the way. The ancient treasure map magnified in the background really completes it and gives the art a historical vibe.

Only way the cover could get better is if the entire thing was in brownscale. Otherwise it's perfectly homely.

[Noir]

Day 3 - Favorite Cover Art

 

 

No blurbs. No screenshots. No frills. It doesn't need any. It carries all the weight it needs to say that you're holding one hell of an experience. The simplicity exudes a kind of respect for the games that they absolutely deserve. Why clutter the box trying to convince you it's worth your time? It's like it says, yeah we know these games are amazing - just fucking play them.

 

Among my collection of games, this case is probably my most prized piece.

[Mania Pipe]

Day 3 - Favorite Video Game Cover Art:

 

 

Phantasy Star 2, I just love this artwork cover of the game. Just look at its beauty, this was back in the day when video game covers look awesome and eye catching and just wanted us to buy them. It looks like Star Wars' sci-fi adventure mixed with Dungeons and Dragons' fantasy lore. 

 

 

There's also this image I want to show as a honorable mention and speaking of sci-fi adventure... I just love how awesome this cover art of Mass Effect 1 look. This image of really reminds of some sci-fi movie that I've seen  back in the late 90's and early 2000's. 

[Shane]

I choose Street Hockey '95.

 

---

 

I'd use Donkey Kong Country 2 again, probably, but I've done enough Donkey Kong Country stuff and I've already focused a post on Donkey Kong Country 2 itself.

 

 

I choose Dark Chronicle. The original Japanese boxart is my favourite of the three, too. It represents the game well, with the top half based on the game's future (with Monica, who is from the future), and the bottom half based on the game's present (with Max, who is from our time). The style is really nice and I enjoy the colours they used to represent each era. The game is beautiful, it still holds up today graphically, and it doesn't look much different from the boxart. This game needs an HD re-release or I need a computer that can emulate it in HD.

[Nintendoga]

Damn, I missed yesterday's. If there's an actual poor soul out there that actually cares about my opinion, my favorite game was Persona 4 Golden,

Day 3: Favorite Box-Art

I'll be honest. I'm one of the few people that doesn't really care about box-arts. I never payed too much attention to them in the past, only identifying them as "Okay, that's *X* game" instead of appreciating it or basking in it's glory. I've slowly been making the transition to digital only this past generation, it's become to the point where I can't even remember the last time I bought a game physically ( I believe early last year?)

But away from that. While I don't care too much about them these days, some box-arts are embroiled deep within my memories. So if I had to pick a "favorite one", it'd probably be Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest.



Usually once someone bought a SNES or N64 game, they'd throw away the huge unnecessary box, keeping the cartridge only. Well for some odd reason, my family never threw this one away, opting to keep it in a shelf near the TV. What can I say about this box-art? I've loved DKC2 for as long as I can remember. And I certainly remember looking at this cover-art alot when I was getting ready to play the game.

It's effective, yet a cluster of characters. It feels tight and compressed, yet appropriate. One glance at this game and a person would be overwhelmed by what the game was trying to be, or even what message it was trying to get across. But it works. It grabs your attention and keeps your eyes posted to the box trying to figure out what the heck it even is.

It certainly is dark, danky,  and "antagonistic", but these themes fit the mood of the game. It's one game where I can't tell if they intentionally made it like this, or if Rare realized a week before release "Oh crap! We're supposed to make a cover for the game!" and rushed to Windows 95's version of Photoshop. Be it as it may, I love it.

Honorable mention goes out to Super Mario 64.



It gives you the sense of freedom, which is what Super Mario 64 tried to accomplish for the player. It's simple, yet very effective.

[w00tkins]

Unfortunately, I can't think of anything not Sonic related this round but here goes:

 

 

Sonic Rush's box art isn't a terribly complex concept. You've got some character art, a background and the logo. However, I think these components are done really well and together they produce an attractive design. Uekawa's style is as cool as ever. I also really like the purple and blue dichotomy. 

 

Overall, it gives off a really 'fresh' vibe.

[azoo]

Day 3: Favorite Box Arts

 

 

Sonic Team in general has just always seemed to have a way with making really, really mesmerizing covers for their games; especially before they went third-party. They always gave this otherworldly, 'trippy' feeling to them that encompassed the mysteriously inviting visual styles that Sonic Team's best artists (and best games, even) seemed to have. It's hard to necessarily pick the best from their entire collection, so I just picked three from each of their main eras that really stand out the most.

 

Speaking of Sega..

 

 

Jet Set Radio Future is one of my personal favorites. Not only is the game a true gem of gritty, grungy garage punk / hiphop Shibuya-kei music and art, but the box art seems to keep this feeling at full force, and with good reason: it just looks cooool. Although the Japanese version is on such a high level of amazing I can't tell if it or the one I've shown is better.

 

On subject of the less bizarre Japanese-y box arts (meaning we're breaking away from Sega, of course)..

 

 

Ocarina of Time's box art is simplistic in the most beautiful way. The roughly textured background and models go well with how minimalistic the cover is, and it basically sends a straightforward message with it's barebones look: you're in for something when you start this game up. And boy did it work.

 

 

Pokemon Stadium 2's cover I always found to be VERY awesome. I seriously cannot tell if Lugia and Ho-Oh are clay or 3D models, but both of them look totally spot on and their poses mixed with the structure of the picture is just so satisfying to look at.

 

And man...

 

 

Japan's cover of Super Smash Bros. Melee is too much for me, man. I don't even know how to muster up words that express how amazing this looks.

 

That's all I can think up at nearly 2AM, lol. But yeah! Covers are great.

 

- I'm free from Day THREE -

[Sean]

I like the first Katamari Damacy's cover quite a lot. Of course, it highlights how bizarre the game is - but I think those two cows in the foreground make it for me. It shows how nobody in-game seems to be all that bothered that a mass of things is gathering everything and everybody up; what makes this game so strange and hilarious isn't just the fact that you can wreck total, nonsensical havoc, but you do so in a setting that takes all of this chaos and confusion in stride. Nobody is seriously injured; being rolled up into a katamari is but a mere inconvenience for most living things you encounter on your journey. You can play this game and breath a sigh of relief that those fictional, polygonal cows will continue to lead normal cow lives whether they're made into one of the prince's stars or not.

[T-Min]

Day 3 - Favorite Cover Art

Litterally any Tales game after Destiny.

 

 

One of my biggest pet peeves for gaming nowadays is all these fucking CG boxarts. They look so fucking lazy to me to just use in-game models in stock poses.

 

Tales always gets boxart right. That beautiful washed-out water color look is one of my favorite things about these games.

Gonna piggyback off of this, too. The watercolor look of these is so...stylistic. It's really unique and it makes the games really stand out. Plus, it's freaking beautiful. I love looking at these, and I'm glad they've started using these for the US box arts as well.

 

Because before that, we had this:

 

GRAARRGHARGH

 

yeah no thanks

[Thigolf]

 

I just love this boxart. It is bright and colorful, got a great style and has an awesomely designed logo, but what really makes this for me is how dynamic it is. While many boxarts just have characters sitting or standing around or simulate a little bit of motion, you can almost feel the fast pace action and quick movement on this boxart, wanting you to immediately try it out yourself.

[Jeffhog]

DAY OF THE TRIUMPH FORK

~ Get Your Game Face On! ~

 

 
Day 3/30: Favourite Cover Art
 
Game Selected: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Platform: Nintendo Wii (2011)
 

"This is a tale that you humans have passed down through uncounted generations..."

~Fi

 
What is that I'm looking at, you may ask?
 
That is a landmark in entertainment history, ladies and gents.
 
Skyward Sword marked the 25th anniversary of one of gaming's longest running franchises, The Legend of Zelda, and acts as the overall origin piece of the series' continuity. The legend in the making, the key players in the ever ongoing battle for the Triforce, the creation of the fabled Master Sword -- it all begins here.
 
The box art is relatively simplistic in its design, and sure, the box arts to a good number of Zelda games strongly use gold in some form -- this case is no different. However, it stands out as a favourite of mine due to the magnitude of depth the box art represents. Smackdab in the centre, we have our hero, Link, with the Master Sword up high.
 
See that silhouette behind the blade of evil's bane? That's its -- well, her -- spirit right there, otherwise known as Fi. The 
 
That Link is the first Link, the original Hero of Time (I MEAN THIS CONTINUITY-WISE), and the link behind the many incarnations of the green-clad swordsman the we've come to know and love throughout the Zelda series.
 
Those two are the ones who started it all.
 
This is where the Legend begins.

 

I love that box art.
 


 

all that it's missing is His Grooseliness because let's face it we all know it's really his story

 

 

thaaaaaaat's better

[Goldenlink64]

Day 3: Dat Boxart tho

 

 

I always loved the sense of mystery I got from this box art. It's simplistic, yet stylized enough to make you wonder what happens in the game and want to play it (and given that it's a Suda51 game, you should... or at least I highly recommend you do. I think it's easily one of, if not his best work I've played).

 

I really like the depiction of Travis Touchdown here. It looks like he has that calm and collected "don't screw with me" attitude that he puts off in the game, it's not like the NMH2 boxart when he's all like "RAWR" and trying to be in your face. I know that also probably has to do with the whole Revenge thing but still... 

 

It's that good ol Subtly thing JonTron likes to bring up. Good stuff. I always thought the white background went extremely well with the always white case the Wii had going too. I also think the stylized 2D drawn art is cooler too, but ya know that's just me. 

 

(but seriously though, I really like the style of whoever drew this, wish I knew who made the art)

 

Previously on Day 2 Grumps;

Next time on Day 4 Grumps;

[DemonShad716]

Day 3: Favorite Cover/Box Art

 

I liked how they were able to show off all the possible transformations on the cover art for this game. Every time I look at the in-between transformation from plane to car, it reminds me of one of my favorite movie trilogies "Back to the Future." I always think that Sonic is about to hit 88MPH in his little hovercar and end up traveling through time (as if Sonic hasn't done that already) XD. I like how this cover pretty much tells you what you can do in the game without having to try it out. Its like "HEY LOOKIE HERE! You can drive all of these at once in a single race!" I also like Dr. Eggman's feeble attempts to blow Sonic up with his rockets when we all know how Dr. Eggman ended up on the title cutscene. This game is very fun to play and even more enjoyable on the PC with the exclusive DLC characters.

 

I like this cover, and it could use more characters around the upper corners to make it even better to show off the res of the roster.

[Red Cap]

Day 3: Favorite Box-Art

 

This was actually a tough one for me. See, I don't pay much attention to box-art at all. The only time I ever really stare at a case for more than a few seconds is when I'm having a hard time deciding what to play, but there is one that I absolutely adore:

 

Mario Party 9's box-art. The first time I saw this I just couldn't take my eyes away from it. It's super-colorful and has a lot going on in it, but it manages to do so without being an eyesore. I also find it cool that they managed to fit every playable character in it without things looking too cluttered.