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General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: Warmsignal on February 14, 2021, 10:22:47 pm

Title: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: Warmsignal on February 14, 2021, 10:22:47 pm
Has a cover art ever been so bad in your opinion, that it made you completely dismiss the game entirely without even looking into what the game was like, only to find the game isn't near as bad as the cover?

For me, and example would Rival Turf on SNES. It makes me think "corny 90s teen rap music video trying to be edgy". It looks so much like what was marketed as "rad" in the early 90s towards the young teen demographic. I always passed over the game, like "WTF is this junk?". Little did I know, it's a decent Final Fight clone called Rushing Beat in Japan. Cover art still wasn't great there, but at least it conveyed the idea of beat-em-up or fighting game of that era. Rival Turf just looks like some shovel-ware junk at first glance.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: mrkonasoni on February 15, 2021, 12:19:20 am
The only one cover I can think I truly dislike is the one from that game named "Tongue of the Fatman".

When I think about old covers I can't complain because while some of them weren't a good example about what the game was about, I can still respect the high quality of multiple covers by professional artists.

I would mention covers for shovelware games but if I am sincere, some games are extremely obviously shovelware I couldn't even buy it if the cover was actually good lol
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: oldgamerz on February 15, 2021, 12:43:37 am
Any cover art that looks childish corny to me I pass on getting it, but I usally don't see a lot of games with corny cover art, but a lot of them early 1990's Games with bad different cover art seem to be rare and expensive game worth a lot of money I've got a nickelodeon game for the PS2 not a lot of people have this game the cover art makes me think it's a child or young teens game, I got it when what my little, now grown sister gave to me  her collection to me, But it was so many games that I offered to pay her for the games and consoles she was trying to get rid of.

https://vgcollect.com/item/1992

(https://vgcollect.com/images/front-box-art/1992.jpg)
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: jipsy on February 15, 2021, 07:25:03 am
Pretty much any PS1 era game where they just put the character on the box art, the 3d modeling was so bad and the boxart was really low effort.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: sworddude on February 15, 2021, 08:08:57 am
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91F70H6YOPL._AC_SY606_.jpg)

(https://www.retroplace.com/pics/ps/packshots/57252--mobile-light-force.png)

garbage bin cover while in reality these where just gunbird on ps1 and castle shikigami 1 on ps2. Why the hell they ever put generic box art on those titles is beyond me.

Some pretty solid shootemups in horrible packaging, a stain in any collection thanks to it's physical appearance of hideous box art in the human realm.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: Warmsignal on February 15, 2021, 11:54:39 am

garbage bin cover while in reality these where just gunbird on ps1 and castle shikigami 1 on ps2. Why the hell they ever put generic box art on those titles is beyond me.

Some pretty solid shootemups in horrible packaging, a stain in any collection thanks to it's physical appearance of hideous box art in the human realm.

I was actually kinda disappointed that you didn't play as a Charlie's Angels knock-off trio running the streets and shooting up the cyborg invasion. It's a case where the false impression made me think I wanted to play what was on the cover, but it wasn't that.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: Flashback2012 on February 15, 2021, 11:55:26 am
garbage bin cover while in reality these where just gunbird on ps1 and castle shikigami 1 on ps2. Why the hell they ever put generic box art on those titles is beyond me.

Some pretty solid shootemups in horrible packaging, a stain in any collection thanks to it's physical appearance of hideous box art in the human realm.

See those had the opposite effect on me. I saw them and I was like "Oooh shitty artwork, what game did they port?!" Of course I've been well seasoned to this ever since the NES days so I've become accustomed to looking for shitty box art (Phalanx on SNES is a great example). Naturally, there have been a few times where shitty boxart also had shitty game but that's bound to happen.  ;)

That said, there are PLENTY of games with horribly bad boxart. Here are a few examples...

Super Bust-A-Move (https://vgcollect.com/item/1266)
Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition (I want whatever drugs Acclaim was on at the time)(https://vgcollect.com/item/7936)
Super Daryl Deluxe (https://vgcollect.com/item/193541)
Mega Man 1 (This falls in the so-bad-it's-good category)(https://vgcollect.com/item/5530)
Dick Vitale's Awesome Baby! College Hoops (Only because of my utter disdain for Dick Vitale  :P)(https://vgcollect.com/item/10119)
Hot Shots Golf 2 (so glad they veered away from the goofy looking husky guy back to Everybody's Golf)(https://vgcollect.com/item/24172)
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: oldgamerz on February 15, 2021, 12:08:50 pm
(https://vgcollect.com/images/front-box-art/3806.jpg)

I had this game a while before I played it because I didn't think it would be a fun game for me, boy was I wrong. as soon as I started to play this game I found out. it became one of my lifetime favorite games, I even narrated  my own campaign story, I made custom levels with the included Campaign editor and everything, even got to learn a little bit about programming triggers and what milliseconds were about :)
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: Warmsignal on February 15, 2021, 12:10:16 pm
Man... that Super Bust A Move cover. It's so terrible! Even knowing that I like the series, I've neglected to pick that one up and I think it's because of the cover art.

With Phalanx, I know everybody comments on how ridiculous it is.... and that's true. But, I have to say it never threw me off from what the game actually was, nor made me avoid it. With the ship in the background, I just had a feeling it was a shooter the first time I saw it, and I knew the old man was just the oddball art direction of the cover. It kind of follows the trope of clueless hillbilly farmer vs high tech space craft alien abduction. I don't think a lot of people really connected those dots, but it still doesn't accurately represent the game either.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: sworddude on February 15, 2021, 12:31:54 pm
garbage bin cover while in reality these where just gunbird on ps1 and castle shikigami 1 on ps2. Why the hell they ever put generic box art on those titles is beyond me.

Some pretty solid shootemups in horrible packaging, a stain in any collection thanks to it's physical appearance of hideous box art in the human realm.

See those had the opposite effect on me. I saw them and I was like "Oooh shitty artwork, what game did they port?!" Of course I've been well seasoned to this ever since the NES days so I've become accustomed to looking for shitty box art (Phalanx on SNES is a great example). Naturally, there have been a few times where shitty boxart also had shitty game but that's bound to happen.  ;)

That said, there are PLENTY of games with horribly bad boxart. Here are a few examples...

Super Bust-A-Move (https://vgcollect.com/item/1266)
Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition (I want whatever drugs Acclaim was on at the time)(https://vgcollect.com/item/7936)
Super Daryl Deluxe (https://vgcollect.com/item/193541)
Mega Man 1 (This falls in the so-bad-it's-good category)(https://vgcollect.com/item/5530)
Dick Vitale's Awesome Baby! College Hoops (Only because of my utter disdain for Dick Vitale  :P)(https://vgcollect.com/item/10119)
Hot Shots Golf 2 (so glad they veered away from the goofy looking husky guy back to Everybody's Golf)(https://vgcollect.com/item/24172)

Super bust a move is indeed really ugly won't deny that but I haven't been that interested in bust a move for the ps2 so it's cover art hasnt had a shot to turn me away just yet.
Mobile light actually made me ignore those titles for quite a while.

Phalanx and rival turf USA snes art is so bad it's good with personality I don't mind those because they look really funny.

Tons of box art examples out there that do indeed give a wrong impression

I was expecting samurai games. hack n slash action based but Both turned out to be high quality shootemups

I was really glad and dissapointed at the same time :P

(https://vgcollect.com/images/front-box-art/95606.jpg)

(https://vgcollect.com/images/front-box-art/45748.jpg)

Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: Flashback2012 on February 15, 2021, 01:26:40 pm
Super bust a move is indeed really ugly won't deny that but I haven't been that interested in bust a move for the ps2 so it's cover art hasnt had a shot to turn me away just yet.
Mobile light actually made me ignore those titles for quite a while.

Phalanx and rival turf USA snes art is so bad it's good with personality I don't mind those because they look really funny.

Tons of box art examples out there that do indeed give a wrong impression

I was expecting samurai games. hack n slash action based but Both turned out to be high quality shootemups

I was really glad and dissapointed at the same time :P

(https://vgcollect.com/images/front-box-art/95606.jpg)

(https://vgcollect.com/images/front-box-art/45748.jpg)

You mentioned Rival Turf and that reminded me of some other Jaleco releases that irked me, namely Tuff E Nuff & Operation: Logic Bomb. Both titles have plagiarized art lifted from Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.s comics. That also reminds me of the Dracula behind Simon on the boxart for Simon's Quest which was lifted from the AD&D Ravenloft module artwork.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: telly on February 15, 2021, 01:41:19 pm
Pretty much every single Master System game   :P
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: Flashback2012 on February 15, 2021, 02:00:04 pm
Pretty much every single Master System game   :P

Phantasy Star, Lord of the Sword, Golvellius, Psycho Fox, R-Type, and Spellcaster all have amazing boxart.

The rest though, with notable examples like My Hero, Transbot, Action Fighter, The "Great" Sports line, Teddy Boy and especially Pro Wrestling are absolutely horribad.  :P
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: sworddude on February 15, 2021, 02:25:03 pm
I think the majority of the good master system games have good to excellent art work if I'm looking in my collection of almost 80 games

So unless your going for full sets it ain't all that bad.

even the more known titles have decent box art (fantasy zone ! & II alex kidd with the exception of it's first entry altered beast shinobi)

Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: Warmsignal on February 15, 2021, 03:26:54 pm

You mentioned Rival Turf and that reminded me of some other Jaleco releases that irked me, namely Tuff E Nuff & Operation: Logic Bomb. Both titles have plagiarized art lifted from Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.s comics. That also reminds me of the Dracula behind Simon on the boxart for Simon's Quest which was lifted from the AD&D Ravenloft module artwork.

Yeah, Tuff E Nuff or "Hey Punk! Are You Tuff E Nuff?" is another where I think both the artwork and the title are so terrible, that I won't even give that game a chance. I assume it's a fighting game, but man that is lame AF.

Operation Logic Bomb, the artwork is not so bad, but the name is kind lame, like something an Internet edge-lord would say - "I'm gonna drop a logic bomb on all the sheeple". Regardless, I picked that one up recently because the game looks pretty good. Jaleco had horrible marketing sensibility for a lot of their games.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: wartoy on February 15, 2021, 05:06:01 pm
For me it was the original mega man worst box art ever.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: kashell on February 16, 2021, 11:18:29 am
I can't think of any game where the box art was the deciding factor of whether or not I picked the game up.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: turf on February 16, 2021, 03:45:13 pm
In the age of the internet, I don’t think it’s happened.
Now if we go back to the days of renting NES games at the video store, I know I passed up some gems because of bad art.
Journey to Silius is a good example. I never gave that game a shot even though I saw the cover a bunch of times at the rental joint.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: ferraroso on February 17, 2021, 01:17:13 am
Of the games I own, this is, by far, my favorite "so bad it's good" kind of cover art.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYtHJSkUwAAzlYF?format=jpg&name=small)

And for as much as I love this cover, I've never played the game... Haha
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: oldgamerz on February 17, 2021, 03:58:26 am
I may have never seen this game before but I thought it should belong in this thread lol

Strike Force Bowling
(https://vgcollect.com/images/front-box-art/2530.jpg)

https://vgcollect.com/item/2530
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: telekill on February 17, 2021, 08:17:53 am
I don't think I've decided to not buy a game because of the cover art, but there have been a handful of times where I didn't like the cover art and decided to make my own. Currently doing that with the Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: arrancaria on February 17, 2021, 02:57:09 pm
I would imagine that the OG Megaman cover art would've turned people away form buying it at first!
The definition of "don't judge a book by its cover"!
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: turf on February 17, 2021, 04:57:12 pm
Of the games I own, this is, by far, my favorite "so bad it's good" kind of cover art.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYtHJSkUwAAzlYF?format=jpg&name=small)

And for as much as I love this cover, I've never played the game... Haha

I don’t know what’s going on in that game, but it sure looks like those gentlemen are happy.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: oldgamerz on February 17, 2021, 05:04:25 pm
Of the games I own, this is, by far, my favorite "so bad it's good" kind of cover art.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYtHJSkUwAAzlYF?format=jpg&name=small)

And for as much as I love this cover, I've never played the game... Haha

I don’t know what’s going on in that game, but it sure looks like those gentlemen are happy.


it looks like 2 Japanese tourists touring their own country. and seeing stars for the vary first time. does anyone know what the title of this game is called? ;D
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: dhaabi on February 17, 2021, 06:25:50 pm
it looks like 2 Japanese tourists touring their own country. and seeing stars for the vary first time. does anyone know what the title of this game is called? ;D

The title of the game is Jounetsu Nekketsu Athletes: Nakimushi Coach no Nikki (https://vgcollect.com/item/173110). It's a typical sports training simulation game. Sadly, no tourists, it seems.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: ferraroso on February 17, 2021, 09:50:33 pm
The title of the game is Jounetsu Nekketsu Athletes: Nakimushi Coach no Nikki (https://vgcollect.com/item/173110). It's a typical sports training simulation game. Sadly, no tourists, it seems.

Yeah. It translates as "Passionate Hot Blooded Athletes: The Diary of a Crybaby Coach"

But I prefer oldgamerz's description way better! Haha
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: pzeke on March 02, 2021, 08:06:59 am
Karnaaj Rally (https://vgcollect.com/item/3057) amd Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Konami's Best (https://vgcollect.com/item/25095).

The former isn't particularly a bad game, but I don't regret not getting it then, while for the latter I already knew about (it's Castlevania after all), I eventually ended up getting the original release years later off eBay.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: ignition365 on March 02, 2021, 08:48:59 am
I'm trying to think of it, there was a game, I ignored it for years because the cover art had me thinking it was like a sports game or something, but it was actually a completely different genre.  I think it was PS2. 

Hurricanes for SNES comes to mind too for the same reason.  idk, the actual game I'm thinking of escapes me.
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: Warmsignal on March 02, 2021, 10:28:21 pm
For a long time, I'd pass right by Michael Jordan Chaos in the Windy City, because I assumed it was just another in a slew of totally rad 1990s basketball game titles, like Barkley's SHUT UP AND JAM, or Slam City with Scottie Pippen. Turns out, it's actually a side-scrolling action platformer. Who'd of thunk?
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: dhaabi on March 10, 2021, 01:09:22 pm
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Konami's Best (https://vgcollect.com/item/25095).

This is definitely an instance of "so bad, it's good."
Title: Re: Which games cover art completely turned you away from the game?
Post by: sworddude on March 10, 2021, 02:19:13 pm
Karnaaj Rally (https://vgcollect.com/item/3057) amd Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Konami's Best (https://vgcollect.com/item/25095).

The former isn't particularly a bad game, but I don't regret not getting it then, while for the latter I already knew about (it's Castlevania after all), I eventually ended up getting the original release years later off eBay.

I feel you. from the classic cool art style it turned into a superbly bad generic anime art style even ingame. solid games nonethelss but that box art could definitely be a turnoff to some.

they toned it down big time in portrait of ruin the art style was much improved and in order of eclessia the anime art style was as good as gone. balanced as all things should be.

That being said the evil laugh of one of the bosses has always been ingrained in my head. It's so bad that it's good

this guy had this stupid laugh during pretty much the entire battle

https://youtu.be/zl2IZBVLTrs?t=37 (https://youtu.be/zl2IZBVLTrs?t=37)