The best/worst retro Box art thread

Due to a post of Stu's in the "last retro game you played" thread I thought I'd make this for a bit of fun, so what are the best/worst retro box art you have seen?

I'll start off with a few:

Best




Worst

I think everyone remembers this one

It's a game I've never played, but I flippin' love the boxart for this game:



And this is just a classic stinker:

Ahhhh, I was going to post Mega Man and his menacing lemons.

Mas, your link is dead on my end.

I always really liked Castlevania's box art, despite how 80s kitsch it is.

Stu_the_great wrote:

It's a game I've never played, but I flippin' love the boxart for this game:

A game that's now on wii U VC & that I really want as I only played a tiny bit back in the day but I've just got games coming out my ears at the minute.

---

@Jay I was actually going to put Castlevania as my best choice but then my Super Metroid fanboy took over.

@Jay: I never really noticed the lemons, I was always more preoccupied with the gun that Mega Man's holding. It's a gun! It's nothing like his Mega Buster. It's not even part of his arm!

@Jas: Same here! I was even thinking of buying the actual cartridge over the VC copy.

Here's another one I'm very fond of:



Doesn't that just capture the spirit of the game perfectly?

And another bleurgh one:



Strider looks like he's just escaped from a fitness DVD shoot.

@Jay ohh it's up on my end, it's the Iron Sword Nes game with Fabio on the front that's all it's remembered for.


What about this from the 2600


or this from the 3DO

Hmm...my Super Metroid pictiure seems to have shrunk.

On the subject of terrible box art and Megaman, I came across this the other day and it had me howling out loud.

http://www.dorkly.com/post/43085/mega-man-cover-art-memos?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=amplification

brilliant find!

The face of Mega Man on 3's cover is truly terrifying.

EDIT: Robot genitals.

Treesmurf wrote:

http://www.dorkly.com/post/43085/mega-man-cover-art-memos?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=amplification

Love it. Mechanical eunuchs.

And thankfully it reminded me that Europe got much nicer Mega Man 3 artwork (scary as shit Dr. Wily aside):

Wily is horrifying in that box art.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt there. Maybe it was completely intentional.

More crapness:

The game's allegedly not all that (to put it lightly), but who decided that this scene was the best part of the game to depict? Rubbish.

Not sure why Pac is pulling that face, I'm guessing he seen this box art.

Holy moley! That's gonna replace the whale in my nightmares.

Here's another good one to compensate:

I love that; all the Disney artwork from the 16-bit era was awesome - nothing seemed to be phoned in or copied.


Oh look Jimbob's gone to the BBC Micro archives again LOL
Good:


Not good:

I don't know why but I think that Bone Cruncher one has a certain charm to it.

I like how everything's hand-drawn from back then.

I just had a quick google to see if anyone had hand-drawn modern games in a retro style & found this:

http://www.gamesradar.com/what-video-game-box-art-would-look-if-it-hadnt-changed-30-years/

Love the MH Tri & Red dead redemption ones the most.

Laughed at the Soul Calibur one, very accurate.

Didn't appreciate the blatant error of Demon's Souls being on 360 though!

Oh I didn't even notice that, what were they thinking?

I love the one for GTAV. I think they should've gone with that.

I think I prefer the majority of them, you never see real life shot box art anymore and the dragon from the Skyrim one was deliciously retro.

Sonic box art back in the day definitely seems to differ at both ends of the scale.

Good.


Bad.


Good.


Bad.


Good.


Bad. (Poor americans)

You forgot this one, So simple So Nice

@Smurfy: I actually don't mind the Genesis Sonic boxart, though maybe that's nostalgia: you got said artwork on the posters that came with the European games inside the box. And the only real thing I dislike about Sonic 3's box is the horrid rebranding they did with the colours and the Mega Drive logo by the time that game came out.