Video Game Box Art

[schild]

I'm trying to make a relatively high-res library of video game box art that is fantastic. Here's the two that I have thus far:




Specifically, I'm looking for art that actually looks like art. Paintings and whatnot. Not stuff like Mario 3 or Mega Man 2.

[Paelos]

[Dark Vengeance]

Much of that series qualifies.





Bring the noise.
Cheers..............

[Stephen Zepp]

Man..memories. Don't ask me why, but Ultima V and Ultima Underworld were the most immersive games I have every played in my life.

And I still remember my first "game hacking"--we decoded the data files in Ultima II and gave ourselves massive stats!

[LordDax]

Don't forget being a 5th-grade uberhacker! Sadly, the game was C&C and the hacked item was the ini. Ah the innocence of youth...

[LordDax]

These may or may not qualify


[Admin Edit: Took out Angelfire Links. Don't do that. Bad Touch.]

[sidereal]

While those are all great games, a lot of the art itself is pretty pulpy.  I wouldn't let your love of the game drown your aesthetic sensibilities.

http://www.games-guide.de/x_bilder/pc_games/adventure/myst.jpg">
http://www.toysnjoys.com/gamecube/pikmin2.jpg">
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx_assets/product_images/242114.jpg">

[El Gallo]

Wow, what are those things in that "Pikmin" game?  I can't stop staring.

[Merusk]

Wow, what are those things in that "Pikmin" game?  I can't stop staring.

Pikmin.

  The mindless masses you control with your little alien avatar who will  fight, die or explode as you command!  Fear my animal-vegetable army of doom, vile beetles!  

It's a fantastic game for anyone who liked Lemmings.

[geldonyetich]

Some kind of wierd plant aliens you up-pluck and get to follow you around in droves.  That about covers it.

I was going to try to post up some game boxes, but while looking at them it occured to me that (with few exceptions) they all boil down to some fairly nifty marketing statement or another.

[Murgos]

I was going to try to post up some game boxes, but while looking at them it occured to me that (with few exceptions) they all boil down to some fairly nifty marketing statement or another.

It just now occured to you that game boxes were advertising?  Andy Warhol called, he said you don't get 15 minutes.

[geldonyetich]

Not so much that the box cover is designed to sell the product so much as how the commercial meaning behind the art sort of robs it of it's artistic meaning.

I'm back in College, the rampant attack of knowledge on my sad sack of gray matter has made me a fruity socialist. It's probably just a phase.

[schild]

Is there any box in the world as good as ICO? Pikmin 2 is pretty nice though. And high-res people, high-res. And use imagebucket, not angelfire.

[geldonyetich]

[schild]

I think I was supposed to buy that game like 10 times and I kept forgetting.

[stray]

[Krakrok]

I say Wasteland or the Dune 2 box beats Ico but that's just me. Ico looks too Dali for me.

[Zetleft]

Great box art and an amazing game... wish I still had the box.

[Zetleft]

[LordDax]

This one is a personal favorite because not only did I get the artist to smile at me at my first PC convention ever, I spent countless hours playing this game in my younger years. Box art that harkens back to the day when CG was an avant garde artist's wet dream...

[Kenrick]

(The later EA-ized expansion cover art was meh.  But the original was fantastic.)

[Righ]

The Warcraft 3 orc box art was splendid:



Decent resolution image (zipped)

[eldaec]

Max Payne 2 Though it isn't very high res.

EDIT: Bigger here

[Shavnir]

Great box art and an amazing game... wish I still had the box.

I have a friend that claims its the hardest game ever to this day.  He somehow found the SNES version on eBay.

[Nebu]

Grim Fandango... fun game, great cover.  The Pimkin box looks like the illegitimate child of an ant from "Ants" and a Teletubby.

[schild]

Max Payne 2 Though it isn't very high res.

EDIT: Bigger here

I forgot about MP2. Nice pull.

[WayAbvPar]

Perhaps my favorite piece of software of all time. Just seeing the box gives me  chills. Back in the day before EA was actually Satan.

[Rasix]

[HaemishM]

Wow, Hell, the Cyberpunk Thriller. Loved that piece of shit game. Great soundtrack, and nothing quite like Dennis Hopper hamming it up as a fucking demon in a pixel-hunt adventure game. Back when they were still making decent adventure games.

[Furiously]

I always loved the Wasteland box art.

[Lum]

Pretty much anything in the Final Fantasy series, really. They tend to use concept art as box packaging.







Of course, some of it is also embarassingly bad:

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[Shockeye]

[WayAbvPar]

You should have posted the big one.  

Is that actually larger than the box itself?  =P

[geldonyetich]

[Re:Rez]
I think I was supposed to buy that game like 10 times and I kept forgetting.

I tried to buy or rent that game like 10 times and failed to find it for sale anywhere :P   I like the box arts and the screenshots and the videos, though.

Re: Grim Fangdango, Out of This World, Adventure Construction Set: Ah, the memories.

I guess even in the old days they knew how to make a good box cover:

Mail Order Monsters (Nice, made it look like a letter.   How do you suppose they did that dino - dressed up a toy?)

Below The Root (Includes full color book illustration)

Not that modern game covers suck - in fact, they're sometimes even cooler than the game:

Kingdom Hearts - sappy wierd plot, awesome artistic style

Final Fantasy X - sappy wierd plot, awesome artistic style
 (Yeah, I know, Squaresoft - easy pick for artistic style.)

Or sometimes, the art is only almost as cool as the game:

Einhander, a fitting cover for one of the best SMUPs ever.

Ring of  Red - fairly descriptive of the mood of the game.

I guess I'm over my "OMG, Game Box Covers are commercialized!" kick.
P.S. Mobygames is love except if you try to directly link their images then they kick you hard where you least desire it.

[schild]

Jesus mothercock, fix that post.