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[IceDoesntHelp]

...and I loved it.

 

[Anteater]

Only during the gameboy/nes era

Never even beaten it, I think it's called Nail 'n' Scale in the US

 

[Quadrangulum]

Any game with a space theme on the cover used to convince me. The last time this happened was with Project Sylpheed.

 

[The_Monk]

The cover... talked to me...

I don't, I was really "aaaahumm?" then got it.

 

[ghibli99]

Like the OP, haven't done this since the 8-bit days when information and impressions were harder to come by. Bought a lot of stinkers back then.

Now, it's like a bonus when a game I already want has a particularly nice cover. It's like the icing on the cake that I already know I'm going to love.

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

Almost every game from my childhood

 

[Thoraxes]

 

[SturokBGD]

I used to do it back in my Commodore Vic-20 days as a kid. There was obviously no internet, and I didn't have any gaming magazines (I assume they existed in some form, but my parents didn't buy them for me), so my decision making was based purely on whatever the picture on the front of the cassette looked like.

Happier times. No-one could tell you your game was a turd, but on the bright side, NO-ONE could tell you your game was a turd.

 

[rSpooky]

Cover and whatever small description the back.. all the time when i was younger. Pre-internet, Hardly any games mags around if any and one of the few/first with games console(s) in the house. As the years went by i started getting games magazines to read reviews and try demo's etc ( Amiga500)

 

[base shagohod]

Yesss. Got this through some Kool-Aid proof-of-purchase thing. Collected like 800 of those damn UPC's or something lol.

This cover was mind blowing to a 10 year old me. They might as well have just written "This game is awesome, trust us." in bold letters.

 

[PokéKong]

I was real young and never heard or seen it before. Thought it looked real fun, we needed a two player game, and my family loved Tetris. It delivered on two of those criteria.

 

[Allonym]

Not a chance, unless you count the back cover of Z.O.E. damn that game had great music! Wish I hadn't sold it but that what the Zoe collection is for

 

[tapedeck]

 

[kokujin]

 

[Haunted]

Had that picture of MegaMan painted on the wall of my room and everything.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

I also bought Maximum Carnage because of the cover and the red cartridge (pawn shop).

I bought Orange box because what was on the cover (3 games in one).

 

[Pyccko]

This guy

After that, I basically started living videogames, so I was always informed before I bought.

 

[DeadByDawn]

The Orc cover for Warcraft 3 grabbed my attention and lead to my purchase of the game.

 

[EvilMario]

Back when they sold Atari 2600 games, you could ONLY buy a game based on its cover. They hung the boxes up in the isles and you had to bring a slip up to the cage near the front of the store to receive your game.

Great times.

 

[backflip10019]

Had that picture of MegaMan painted on the wall of my room and everything.

This. Great impulse buy.

 

[Ecrofirt]

Loved every minute of it.

 

[Momo]

fuck you Bungie.
fuck you.
fuck you take two

 

[JaskoX1]

actually a badass game from what I remember

 

[Bay Maximus]

YESSS!!!!

NOOOO!!!!!!

 

[Emily Chu]

walked into toys R us
the game was 29.99$ in 1999

didn't know nothing about it

it was the white simple covering with red text that caught my eye.

BRICKS WERE SHITed

saw RE3 in a preview never played a RE game b4 wanted to buy RE3 but this was all they had in my local game store used for 20$ dual shock edition around 1999-2000

best 50$ ever spent

20$ - RE2
30$ - MGS1

 

[Muskweeto]

Lemmings for SNES, nothing like I imagined it would be, but SO happy I did.

 

[giggas]

Totally disappointed afterwards.

Awww, I guess I could see being let down, but what a great game that was. Man, spent hours playing that thing. I had it down to a science where I could run through it in like 15 minutes.

 

[bigboss370]

never beat it, but damn it was fun

 

[drugstore_cowboy]

Traded that dogmeat back in later the same day.

 

[Aeana]

Were it not for this cover, I may not have become such a fan of the series. I begged my dad to buy this for me based on the cover alone.

 

[Typographenia]

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/1/196641_80275_front.jpg

actually a badass game from what I remember

You remember wrong. So very, very wrong.

This was a GOOD one that got me.

These... less so. Granted, I bought LRRHZBBQ more for the name than the cover.
Also, I got chameleon twist and clayfighter right when I got the n64 (my first console). So, yeah, I didn't know any better, and I was still young.

 

[LQX]

Plenty of Atari and later Sega Saturn games, especially imports. Back then I was into anime a lot.

Remember buying Lunar Story because of the cover and was so turned off by how the characters looks so small and fat. I completed the game though and loved it.

 

[legbone]

no, not really. when i was a kid it was always the back of the box that got me instead of the front.

 

[Azriell]

When I was a kid, I got this thing for Christmas that was kinda like a clipboard you'd hook up to your tv, and then you could draw shit and it'd show up on the tv screen (a bit like Mario Paint, I suppose). I don't remember what it was called, but I had to have it as a kid. So I got it, and Christmas morning we hooked it up and the shit was broken.

So the next day we drove over to Toys 'r' Us and returned it, and I had enough credit to get two SNES games. The games were behind the counter, in a display case so that you could see each game's cover. From that shitty vantage point, based solely on the box art alone, after looking for like half an hour, I picked these two gems:

 

[zephervack]

I got Goldeneye for N64 based on the cover alone, i had no idea it was FANTASTIC, best random purchase ever.

 

[bryehn]

Tons when I was a kid. Some good, some bad.

Super Dodgeball, Gargoyle's Quest, Bionic Commando come to mind for the good.

 

[Marleyman]

Bayou Billy

 

[Broder Salsa]

Though it did it last gen just once, with no knowledge before hand.

Look at that beauty.

Yup I didn't really know anything about Ico at the time but I saw that cover and though "Oh this looks like something special" so couldn't help myself.

 

[Epix]

 

[tmarques]

As a kid, yes.
.

.
It was an expensive lesson.

 

[Jokab]

I never buy games on impulse anymore.

(so no)

 

[Mupod]

Yes. In my defense, the box was a tombstone with a hologram of a skeleton on it.

Game's actually really cool too.

 

[Murkas]

One and only time.

Was a very good choice.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Sex sells

Actually, that is very false. If that was the case, Onechanbara, Playboy the Mansion, X Blades, Rumble Roses, Rumble Roses XX and the Dead Or Alive XBV series would be multi-million sellers.


I bought Shadow Hearts Covenant because I loved the cover and I love RPG's.

 

[OMG Aero]

One of the best gaming decisions I have ever made.

 

[Firebrand]

I'm sure I did many times as a kid, especially when trading in games for other ones. But I at least looked at the back of the box for some screenshots.

One in particular comes to mind, when I had to pick a game on the spot from a very small selection because they didn't have the one I actually wanted. I chose this one I had never even heard of:

And it was amazing.

 

[Unknown One]

Megaman X and Dark Cloud. Both were great impulse purchases.

 

[Pizza Luigi]

 

[Hyunkel6]

Ninety-Nine Nights and Supreme Commander 2, both for the 360. Horrible choices. Fortunately, they were cheap.

 

[chessnut]