Bad Retro Videogame Cover Art

Back in the golden age of video games, most cover art was atrocious. Nowadays, developers spend more money on the cover and overall design than what it cost to make an entire game back in the 80′s. But there’s really no excuse for poor art and design.

The artwork usually committed one of the three offenses (or sometimes all three) as follows:

1. Artwork done with no regard to the game inside.
2. A complete and blatant rip off of something else.
3. Done with such lack of artistic skill that you wonder if it was done by a 10-year-old.

MEGA MAN ?

I’ve included a few of my personal favorites, from the ridiculous to the just plain awful. My all time favorite terrible cover in the history of everything is for the U.S. version of Mega Man.  I’m not sure how everything that could have went wrong did, but man did it go wrong.

It could be due to the fact that the artist had no concept of proportions and human anatomy. Or maybe it was a complete lack of the understanding of perspective. I think it could be that the main character is holding a laser gun (he didn’t carry a gun) and he isn’t even the correct color palette as he appears in the game.  Also, it kind of looks like a 8th grader’s first attempt with watercolors. Whoever approved this must have never seen the game, or maybe they couldn’t because they were blind.

SPACE… RIGHT?!

Here’s one guilty of the the first offense: the artwork has nothing to do with the game inside. Phalanx is a space shooter that came out for the Super NES, but wanted to stand out amongst other space shooters. So, instead of putting the expected space ship, lasers, and intergalactic space battle on the cover, they place an old hillbilly playing the banjo.

It’s either the dumbest or smartest marketing move you can make. Sure, maybe it stood out, but having your package reflect what it contains is never a bad thing. I’m pretty sure every 10-year-old they were trying to market to passed this one up in favor of something with a space alien on the front.

JUST MAKE IT LOOK LIKE THIS

I suppose in the 80′s, the world was a nicer place and videogame developers thought they could rip off movie art and characters without resulting legal action? We aren’t even talking inspiration or reference, I’m talking straight blatant carbon copies slapped on the box and called by another name.  I have included my three favorite examples below, including “the source material”:

Contra (1987) box art vs. Predator poster. Arnold is apparently the main character, but in Contra, he wears a headband. Also as a bonus the Alien from Alien also makes an appearance in the background.

The Metal Gear (1987) box art totally rip offs a still from the main character in 1984′s Terminator.

Last but not least is the 1987 game Xenophobe, riding the back of the successful Alien franchise by slapping one on their cover. But I’m sure that was just a coincidence.