Am I the only one who hates the way new game packaging looks?

[csauce]

Pretty much everything PS2/Gamecube/etc up just looks bland/uninteresting to me. I loved the old school NES/SNES boxes and even the Saturn/Sega CD long boxes, but to me every new game case just looks completely terrible. The box art SOMETIMES looks nice... but from the side... no thanks. On the other hand, this is a good thing because it makes me have like zero interest in collecting for newer systems so that I can concentrate on the older ones. And if Nintendo's new console is digital only, that's the final nail in the coffin for me.

Am I alone on this, or?

[kamikazekeeg]

It depends.  The big size of older cases was nice for sure, but there's something I like about the consistency with modern case visuals.

[telly]

Eh, it doesn't bother me too much.

I feel like most retro cases, from the side at least, really aren't that different/special from today's anyway. The majority of them are a flat color (or specifically black for SNES, red/black for GEN) with the game's stylized name along the side. The SNES has some cool additional artwork, but they had the space to put that stuff on there to begin with, with fours sides, a large box, etc. It is nice that the cart boxes are bigger though - makes the label stand out more.

Nowadays game cases are so thin that they really can't put that much on there. But a thin box does take up less space, so it depends on what you like, I suppose And like kamikazekeeg said, I also like when game cases are consistent from the side, like with the 3DS, Saturn, Sega CD, XBOne, etc.

But that's just my opinion haha. The front box art is hit or miss for every generation

EDIT: N64 boxes are definitely the exception. Lots of colors and other stuff going on along the sides.

[burningdoom]

^ NES games are an exception. There were series that were uniform (like the Konami silver series, or the original Nintendo black-box games). But other than that, they were like VHSes. Artwork all over the place and however the company wanted to make it. I love NES boxes for that reason.

[Warmsignal]

It's okay, depending how they dress the packaging. PS2 is admittedly bland, Game Cube as well, but I liked Xbox's black on green pretty well, and also liked the neon theme of 360, and I somewhat like the blue cases Wii U games come in. I thought it was a nice touch how Xbox One games actually have Xbox One embossed on the plastic, but the case itself is a bit puny. I thought there was a fair amount of last gen games with cool cover artwork, not so much this gen. I was at the store the other day looking at PS4 games and I swear there were like 5 games that had nearly black and white covers that all looked very similar - Bloodborn, The Order, Dragon Age, Mortal Kombat, Godzilla, Arkham Knight... bland, colorless and boring.

I'd agree that packaging hasn't been all that spectacular since N64, Saturn, and early PS1. The worst packaging, however, was the use of the standard CD jewel case, it just never did games justice IMO.

[matimo]

It's what you grew up with, i think Ps2/Gamecube/xbox games look iconic because i grew up with them. Where as i think old generations boxes and what not look too different from each other and look rather messy. I do hate how flimsy Modern game cases are though, i've been having issues with games arriving loose and damaged as of late because of this.

[aliensstudios]

I personally like all game packaging but am partial to box art that was more imaginative such as the stuff from the '80s. I love Mega Man's box art because it's such a unique portrayal of the game even though it's nothing like the art style the rest of the series it portrayed. Modern box art can be just as good too unless its sports games or shooters which all look the same mostly.