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Anticitizen One · Mar 23, 2013

Seriously whoever was designing the box arts for SNES games did an amazing job at creating eye grabbing imagery that made you want to play the game. Modern games have extremely boring covers now and majority of the time it will just depict the main characters holding guns trying hard to look cool.

TalesOfWin · Mar 23, 2013

I agree that SNES had the best boxarts.

My favorite:

Pyrokai · Mar 23, 2013

Nope.

DaBoss · Mar 23, 2013

It definitely has the most creative boxarts, that's for sure.

The color choices seem poor though.

enzo_gt · Mar 23, 2013

For a second I thought this was about the Super Nintendo bit surrounding the actual art and I was gonna say HELL NO.

Not enough orange and blue otherwise. Now that we've discovered contrast, we are unstoppable!

VanWinkle · Mar 23, 2013

A lot of hand-drawn stuff back then which was cooler than the primarily CG stuff now.

Cheddahz · Mar 23, 2013

Yes

Ingueferroque · Mar 23, 2013

Don't just single out Super Nintendo, that era had just the best box arts.

Takao · Mar 23, 2013

This looks exactly like what you're criticizing. It's the main character trying to look cool while holding a weapon...

Cheddahz · Mar 23, 2013

Pyrokai said:
Nope.

There was a Altered Beast game for the PS2?

smr00 · Mar 23, 2013

Yeah, i want more covers like this.

Terra · Mar 23, 2013

Box art has no place in an all digital future.

Anticitizen One · Mar 23, 2013

Ingueferroque said:
Don't just single out Super Nintendo, that era had just the best box arts.

For some reason Genesis box art was somewhat hit or miss:

FutureZombie · Mar 23, 2013

Takao said:
This looks exactly like what you're criticizing. It's the main character trying to look cool while holding a weapon...

Get your logic out of here! This is NeoGaf!

Coin Return · Mar 23, 2013

Eh, I guess.

Zia · Mar 23, 2013

Do you like van art, OP?

LeleSocho · Mar 23, 2013

And i don't even like Final Fantasy...

Quackula · Mar 23, 2013

Terra said:
Box art has no place in an all digital future.

What? Sure it does. I've yet to find a download game that didn't have some sort of image representation. MP3s still come with album art, Downloadable movies still come with posters, etc. Even in a digital future, box art isn't going anywhere.

smr00 said:
Yeah, i want more covers like this.

Already nailing that blue/orange contrast!

peanutbutterlatte · Mar 23, 2013

I don't know, some boxart this gen has been good;

Mihael Mello Keehl · Mar 23, 2013

Takao said:
This looks exactly like what you're criticizing. It's the main character trying to look cool while holding a weapon...

Show me comparison to this gen.

Cold Shadow was so good dat bungie rope level.

mightynine · Mar 23, 2013

How was Phalanx not the first response in this thread?

Anticitizen One · Mar 23, 2013

Coin Return said:
Eh, I guess.

Do you really think 1 or 2 bad box arts from that era disproves my point? I already knew someone was going to post the dumb phallanx box art. Congrats I guess?

cyborg009 · Mar 23, 2013

Made a thread similar to this a while ago.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=506241&highlight=

My fave:

revolverjgw · Mar 23, 2013

Konami's painted covers were all amazing, but they're not exactly representative of the era. Most of it was still garbage.

smr00 · Mar 23, 2013

Anticitizen One said:
Seriously whoever was designing the box arts for SNES games did an amazing job at creating eye grabbing imagery that made you want to play the game. Modern games have extremely boring covers now and majority of the time it will just depict the main characters holding guns trying hard to look cool.

You do know almost every cover you showed depicts the characters trying to look cool while holding weapons, right?

Quackula · Mar 23, 2013

I would prefer if we went back to more traditional art for game covers and less CG render, but eh.

CG renders of characters holding guns is basically the video game version of 'floating heads'

Canis lupus · Mar 23, 2013

Anticitizen One · Mar 23, 2013

.

SRTtoZ · Mar 23, 2013

Am I the only person who doesnt give a shit about box art? I take the game out and put the case away never to be seen again.

darthbob · Mar 23, 2013

Anticitizen One said:
Do you really think 1 or 2 bad box arts from that era disproves my point? I already knew someone was going to post the dumb phallanx box art. Congrats I guess?

It'd be easier to just admit that the topic flopped.

Cover art has been the same for ages.

Anticitizen One · Mar 23, 2013

smr00 said:
You do know almost every cover you showed depicts the characters trying to look cool while holding weapons, right?

There is a difference between trying to be cool and actually BEING COOL

Mihael Mello Keehl · Mar 23, 2013

darthbob said:
It'd be easier to just admit that the topic flopped.

Cover art has been the same for ages.

lol no, compare castlevania iv to lords of shadow, or dkcr to dkc2, or megaman X to any box art ever made.

BasilZero · Mar 23, 2013

Agreed.

SNES had many of the most iconic boxarts ever ;o

Risette · Mar 23, 2013

SNES box arts were never good

SFC box arts were sometimes good

kitsuneyo · Mar 23, 2013

pizzaroll said:
SNES box arts were never good

SFC box arts were sometimes good

I agree. The Japanese box arts were always better. Street Fighter SNES box arts in the US and Europe were particularly ugly.

Secret of Mana is the only good US box art posted in this thread so far. Rest I don't like.

baphomet · Mar 23, 2013

Definitely not. Nostalgia glasses at its finest. Ill bet you think you grew up with the greatest cartoons and toys as well? Everything you say about boxes this generation was very plentiful in the 16bit era as well. It's just nostalgia clouding your memories.

valkillmore · Mar 23, 2013

pizzaroll said:
SNES box arts were never good

SFC box arts were sometimes good

Untrue blanket statement. Post an example of a 'sometimes good' SFC boxart and I'll post three that are at least as good.

Drago · Mar 23, 2013

Pyrokai said:
Nope.

I knew what this was before I clicked on it.

Reversed · Mar 23, 2013

We need to go back to SMS boxarts.

Quackula · Mar 23, 2013

Reversed said:
We need to go back to SMS boxarts.

I'll endorse this

Anticitizen One · Mar 23, 2013

baphomet 666 said:
Definitely not. Nostalgia glasses at its finest. Ill bet you think you grew up with the greatest cartoons and toys as well? Everything you say about boxes this generation was very plentiful in the 16bit era as well. It's just nostalgia clouding your memories.

I grew up with the playstation era. SNES was before my time.

Azzurri · Mar 23, 2013

Coin Return said:
Eh, I guess.

Still one of the best snes boxart

Takao · Mar 23, 2013

smr00 said:
You do know almost every cover you showed depicts the characters trying to look cool while holding weapons, right?

Seriously.

That Maui Mallard box art is bad. It tells you nothing about the game other than the fact there's a ninja duck. You get no indication of a setting. No indication of what the game's trying to convey. Instead you get what looks like stock art of said ninja duck trying to look cool while holding onto a staff. That is the modern video game cover.

The other ones I'll excuse on the fact that they're trying to convey the gameplay to player. Castlevania is an adventure game where fight off swarms of enemies, Turtles in Time has well, the ninja turtles going through time, and I'm assuming Axelay is some sort of space shooter.

Quackula · Mar 23, 2013

Anticitizen One said:
I grew up with the playstation era

Well I think we can all agree that that was the worst era for box art.

Ugly 3D renders everywhere.

SMD · Mar 23, 2013

Maybe next gen we'll stop seeing the weird differences between NTSC and PAL box art.

PaulExcellent · Mar 23, 2013

smr00 said:
Yeah, i want more covers like this.

This is what dreams are made of.

rallaren · Mar 23, 2013

Shit. Heroes and monsters were real back then. Dat art.

These things too:

Ingueferroque said:

baphomet · Mar 23, 2013

So you weren't even there when it was going on? I can assure you that you're wrong. For every good SNES box there's 30 that are terrible.

Chet Rippo · Mar 23, 2013

The 90s are over.

tehrik-e-insaaf · Mar 23, 2013

super famicom boxarts >>>>> all

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Super Nintendo era had the best box art. Can next Gen please go back to that?

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