What’s the laziest/most boring game boxart you’ve ever seen?

[Frickinfrik]

I think it’s probably these three:

Demolition Girl’s European boxart looks pretty sloppily made. It’s like a collection of stock images. Also it’s false advertising, You never go to Seattle in this game, also the girl does not look like that. Also how ironic that Seattle is on the cover despite the game never releasing in America.

Sonic 06’s boxart isn’t very great either. This feels like a temporary boxart. It doesn’t give a good highlight of what the game is mainly about. And yes, i know previous sonic games had just sonic on the cover but they at least gave a hint and had more effort put into it.

Most of Blast! Entertainment’s games have really shitty boxart. But I think Beverly Hills’ Cop Ps2’s boxart is the worst offender. It’s just a picture of Axel Foley’s car. They just edited the movie’s poster and removed Eddie Murphy from it. I don’t think a picture of a stationary car would get anyone excited.

 

[Spike's iconSpike]

 

[NoMention]

Yeah, I know. I just did that. I can't say that I felt good about it either... But c'mon. Was the advertising budget for this title that low that they got this old banjo playing grandpa that didn't even smile and then photoshop some blurry ship and text and call it a day? And what about this guy and his banjo infers "HYPER-SPEED"?? I'm sure at some point I saw this at the rental and skipped right past it because of this cover, as probably did many people well before this became an internet sensation for its art.

I'm sure this thread will spawn many more postings of equally as bad box arts.

 

[What's His Face]

The original cover wasn't bad. It showed off the main character. It used a black/white motif to separate itself from the previous game and to give special emphasis on teh blood. Yet, it's not great, either. It also flipped expectations - thanks to Tim Burton's Batman film and Batman: The Animated Series (plus years of box art), we expect a portrayal of Batman / Gotham City to be dark. Yet, the only pop is the blood. It's a solid 7/10.

But I have no idea why Rocksteady changed the name of the game from Batman: Arkham City to 10 out of 10. That was a bold decision.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Where is the main character? All i see is a tree and some lame background colors.

 

[Tortuga]

Honestly that Demolition Girl doesn't look too bad, at least something original
When it comes to worst and laziest box arts its pretty much most of the modern games
Just take official render of main character copy past it into terrible gradient background, yep my job here is done, that will be 5000$ plus tax thank you

 

[Spike's iconSpike]

 

[RockinACup]

View attachment 71557

Metal Gear Solid White background. Kojima really did know art when he saw it back then.

While on that sort of schtick, Crazy Taxi's box art for ps2 is basically gross to look at. That weird mustard yellow tinge that the logo just kinda sits on. Also what the sam-hill is that symbol the left by the "C" in the name is it supposed to be? It's got what I THINK is teeth so...maybe a monster? I don't know but this cover is just dumb. I mean what did you expect from sega after crawling from the ashes of their own dumpster fire

 

[middler]

 

[TotzOnGaming]

Maybe not as lazy as the next posts but I think they really dropped the ball on this one. Love this series though.

 

[CanicheSlayer]

Special SEGA : Two examples from my own collection.

 

[Glimbo]

This is about as lazy as you can get.

 

[valosagutas]

I don't even have to show for I can tell:

Most sports games.

Most military related game.

Most racing game.

Almost every Nintendo game.

Almost every RPG.

Almost every puzzle/casual game.

Every video game released after 2010 (far fetched assumption I know, but lol).

To me it seems it would be actually too hard to find cover arts they really bothered. Then it can be another follow-up thread I would have fun lol.

 

[Daughter of Janus]

The original cover wasn't _bad._ It showed off the main character. It used a black/whit motif to separate itself from the previous game and to give special emphasis on _teh blood._ Yet, it's not great, either. It also flipped expectations - thanks to Tim Burton's Batman film and Batman: The Animated Series (plus years of box art), we expect a portrayal of Batman / Gotham City to be _dark._ Yet, the only pop is the blood. It's a solid 7/10.
View attachment 71559

But I have no idea _why_ Rocksteady changed the name of the game from Batman: Arkham City to 10 out of 10. That was a bold decision.
View attachment 71561

(Serious):
The second one. The 10 out of 10 cover looks more like they scanned a game magazine cover to use for it, honestly

 

[What's His Face]

View attachment 71558

Yeah, I know. I just did that. I can't say that I felt good about it either... But c'mon. Was the advertising budget for this title that low that they got this old banjo playing grandpa that didn't even smile and then photoshop some blurry ship and text and call it a day? And what about this guy and his banjo infers "HYPER-SPEED"?? I'm sure at some point I saw this at the rental and skipped right past it because of this cover, as probably did many people well before this became an internet sensation for its art.

I'm sure this thread will spawn many more postings of equally as bad box arts.

Oh, I read an interview with the advertising agency about Phalanx years ago! Turns out they had played the game, they were aware of the Japanese covers, and had done covers to dozens (if not hundreds) of other games in the period, too! The reason why they did the cover this was was... they had absolutely no idea how to differentiate Phalanx from the dozens of other shooters already on the market that hadn't already been done, many by them.

• Ship speeding at you? Gradius 3.
• Emphasis on the pilot? UN Squadron.
• Hyper stylized space battle? Earth Defense Force.
• Flying away from the viewer? Thunder Spirits.
• Flying out of a huge explosion? Darius Twin.
• Stylized artwork of a boss? Super R-Type, among many others.
• To say nothing of the metric duckton of other shooters on other consoles by Fall 1992

That's when someone, likely a fan of the first Superman movie, got the idea of making a cover based on the perspective...of a farmer seeing a spaceship fly by (much like Kal-El crib-ship falling onto the Kent farm in front of the Kent's startled eyes)! So, they used an actor (who they had used previously for other marketing photos, including dressing him as Santa holding an umbrella for the cover of an Oregon/Washington-based Christmas CD/album) who they thought had suffered a stroke at some point in his life and used the "old man model" gig to supplement his Social Security (pretty smart idea, if you ask me - nice side-hustle on the old guy), put him in overalls and gave him a banjo, snapped some photos, then had the art department do the rest.

But did the game sell well?

Eh, not really. But no-one really knows if the middling sales were due to the eye-catching cover (that we're still talking about 32+ years alter), or if it was due to the absolute glut of shooters already on the market... and a little game called "Street Fighter II" releasing earlier that same year diverting attention and money from shooters to fisticuffs.

Oh, and those Japanese covers I mentioned? One was too "Japanese-y" (most retailers in that era refused to stock Japanese-looking anything on their shelves due to both retailer and consumer biases/racism of the time and is why everything in the US got a redraw back then, which I've written diatribes on before) that resembled a squatting duck begging for bread crumbs... and the other for looking like a giant dong:

And that, my friends, is The Story of the Phalanx Box Art.

 

[Daughter of Janus]

Malkavian(Insane):
*Eyes twitch* Oh, darling, laziness is an art form, and this is the Picasso of procrastination.
*snickers*
Besides, why settle for the original when I can paint my own chaos?
Maybe I prefer the beautiful mess. Or maybe I just like watching the world burn a little slower, hmm?

*sighs*​

But no, go ahead... Don't use the original. It’s so boring, like a date with a corpse.​

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

I think it’s probably these three:
View attachment 71551
Demolition Girl’s European boxart looks pretty sloppily made. It’s like a collection of stock images. Also it’s false advertising, You never go to Seattle in this game, also the girl does not look like that. Also how ironic that Seattle is on the cover despite the game never releasing in America.

That Demolition Girl boxart had me burst out laughing at the audacity so I guess it’s not that bad lmao

I’m trying to think of bad examples but no matter what I can never think of anything that shits the bed harder than Mobile Light Force 1 & 2

 

[valosagutas]

Malkavian(Insane):
*Eyes twitch* Oh, darling, laziness is an art form, and this is the Picasso of procrastination.
*snickers*
Besides, why settle for the original when I can paint my own chaos?
Maybe I prefer the beautiful mess. Or maybe I just like watching the world burn a little slower, hmm? *sighs* But no, go ahead... Don't use the original. It’s so boring, like a date with a corpse.
View attachment 71580

*Let's put some random guys and let's not even bother with poses. Just make them stand but look at different directions." -- the most basic cover artwork lol.

IDK much about movie covers but any time I see one they are basically like this. Body of people or their heads floating in the air in a very creepy way as they have no idea how basic and BS it looks like lol.

 

[Daughter of Janus]

This is about as lazy as you can get.
View attachment 71575

(Serious):
I agree, that is lazy. But to be fair, all the Sega Master System box art is like that, or close to it. A few have some, what I can only assume, are 12-year-olds' art on them. So I can't really fault this game for being lazy. It was just how SEGA did the MS games

 

[What's His Face]

That Demolition Girl boxart had me burst out laughing at the audacity so I guess it’s not that bad lmao

I’m trying to think of bad examples but no matter what I can never think of anything that shits the bed harder than Mobile Light Force 1 & 2
View attachment 71586

Mobile Light Force 1, by the way:

 

[Spike's iconSpike]

I wonder if anyone thought they were buying a Charlie's Angels game only to find a Psikyo shoot 'em up inside.

 

[Nelson2001]

This is about as lazy as you can get.
View attachment 71575

In fact, several American covers of Sega Master System are very simple and basic.

 

[stealthRUSH]

 

[ciro64]

Imagine going from this masterpiece:

To this:

 

[valosagutas]

However don't judge a book by its cover, after all the point of books are not reading their cover. What matters is the inside!!! You may apply this logic to people, fruits, video games and movies too lol.