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The worst box art of 2007

gamesradar.com — Designing a box for a game is tough. With one image, you need to stand out on the shelf, catch the eye of the casual consumer and convince them that your game is worth their money. Some games get it wrong; others get it so wrong that potential customers actually recoil in horror.

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  • designfarts, on 12/13/2007, -15/+17Ah man, I really love looking at bad art. :)
  • MikeonTV, on 12/13/2007, -12/+4Hey well all have wanted out own Potion Empire at some point in our lives!
  • CaffeinePowered, on 12/13/2007, -3/+90Oh god so many horrible DS and Wii games, please stop flooding them with craptacular cash in games
    • caddyalan, on 12/13/2007, -0/+1It's troubling to see all the licensed spinoffs on the recent Nintendo systems. OTOH, I suspect that at least a few games make money.
      • Ndiggnation, on 12/13/2007, -0/+8No doubt. I own more than 1 next-gen system, including Wii (so I'm not a Nitendo hater). What happened to what the Nintendo Seal of Quality was supposed to mean? There's more crap on it and the DS than anything. I have more AAA titles for other systems than Wii that aren't Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc..
        • semeticstallion, on 12/14/2007, -1/+1There have always been terrible games for every system and by the boatload. History just tends to make you remember the good ones.
        • mooseontheloose, on 12/14/2007, -0/+0Like Billy the Wizard... they don't even try to PRETEND to be original.
    • mooboy322, on 12/14/2007, -1/+1the DS and Wii may be to easy to crate code for if ***** games like theses are coming out on the market
    • Chicken2nite, on 12/15/2007, -0/+1Out of the five games listed here, 3 of them were for the PC. Fairy God Mother Tycoon indeed.
  • DarkSamus, on 12/13/2007, -4/+327that zooming was funny
    • Gir53457, on 12/13/2007, -42/+5it was funny on 4chan two years ago too.
      • thesonofdarwin, on 12/13/2007, -1/+75I bet you and your kind are great fun at parties.
        Situation: Drunk girls taking their tops off and jumping up and down
        You: Meh, tired. This was done by GGW back in the stone age. /goes home to post on Digg about how everything has been done before
      • creep303, on 12/14/2007, -1/+4Yeah, because everyone on the internet ever has been to 4chan and knows about the lame inside jokes and memes on there.

        • luet, on 12/14/2007, -2/+1No of course not, they all know it from places like ebaum'sworld and ytmnd.

          What are you talking about Gir? Effing newfag. It all came from ebaum'sworld.
        • AdmiralKarelia, on 12/14/2007, -3/+1HA! Dude, Ebaum's World is notorious for stealing content and watermarking it with their own logo. Just because they do it quickly and it's where YOU see it first, does not mean it originated there.
    • zwilliams, on 12/13/2007, -6/+12It seems there are more and more /b/ references every day on the outside web.
    • doshindude, on 12/13/2007, -3/+19i rofled at that for a while.
      • zdiddy85, on 12/14/2007, -0/+2I busted out a quick snort, like a pig-hiccup.
    • GliTCH82, on 12/13/2007, -4/+51God damnit, they're back again.. *sprays 4chan repellent* Shoo! Go away!
    • Gryffydd, on 12/13/2007, -3/+13I'm at work and I laughed so hard at that I had to clap my hand over my mouth.
    • Miche1987, on 12/13/2007, -3/+8BRACE FOR IMPACT
    • MrFisty, on 12/13/2007, -2/+19It wasn't funny. It was hilarious.
    • pbone, on 12/13/2007, -0/+56reminds me of this: http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6498/1181361415 ...
      • wolfmanp, on 12/14/2007, -0/+8golden!
      • Hoogs, on 12/14/2007, -0/+3Wow, that's gonna give me nightmares.
      • reduxien, on 12/14/2007, -0/+5LOL
      • xxMarka, on 12/14/2007, -0/+2would someone explain this to me i don't see what i should be seeing =[
      • luet, on 12/14/2007, -0/+3Okay guys... I know everyone on digg hates it... but source is 4chan. I was there when the thread was made.
      • AdmiralKarelia, on 12/14/2007, -0/+2That was so funny I had to download that image to my desktop to preserve it for all eternity.
      • zdiddy85, on 12/14/2007, -0/+2OMG I'm crying laughing right now! I really wish you would all stop bitching about what stays in 4chan or not.

        It's the internets for all of us to share. :)

        Thanks for opening me up to one of the funniest images I've seen in a while!
    • repmekevets, on 12/14/2007, -0/+4"enhance... enhance... enhance..."
    • allenu, on 12/15/2007, -0/+1Reminds me of http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/film/bfearth.h ...
  • maxyRO, on 12/13/2007, -7/+20I wet myself laughing. Fairy Good Mother Tycoon
  • hansk, on 12/13/2007, -2/+178"Touch detective 2 1/2" ?
    starring a penis.....interesting...
    • Niubai, on 12/13/2007, -0/+1Go on for the penis !
    • UbIwerks, on 12/14/2007, -0/+18By the end of the game it becomes "Touch Detective 6"
    • prattstick, on 12/14/2007, -0/+1That came to my mind too! And an equally horrible notion if Atlus were to create a limited edition stylus for the game...such is the rage nowadays
  • 30r05, on 12/13/2007, -1/+64And I thought the Orange Box was bad...
    • Jholder112233, on 12/13/2007, -6/+24Well in my opinion the orange box box-art was the worst there.
      • Legato, on 12/13/2007, -0/+4dude, compared to the others, simply its lack of lens flare wins in my books
    • RoboDonut, on 12/13/2007, -1/+35It's not that bad. Everyone downloads it through Steam anyway.
    • Nobi-Wan, on 12/13/2007, -2/+12I've seen Children's Tylenol that had better packaging.
    • HBNDonut, on 12/13/2007, -0/+3The worst thing I thought about The Orange Box (at least for the 360 version) is that it isn't "Half Life orange". Instead its almost luminous, hurt your eyes orange. I also thought it looked more like a demo disc cover. Still, AWESOME collection of games though.
    • chingy1788, on 12/13/2007, -9/+1design one without using screens form the game then...
      its a box with 3 games
      its not the prettiest box
      it just goes and states exactly what games are in the box
      And who says its boring?
      Portal is amazing
      TF2 is amazing
      and you get another part of HL2 which is an amazing game
      If a proper port was released on PS3 I wonder what they will be saying (when compared to the laggy one posted on digg)
      • Nobi-Wan, on 12/14/2007, -0/+5For such an amazing game collection on one disc it deserves better packaging. I'm a graphic designer and if I saw that before release I would have offered a better design for free.
    • lennybird, on 12/13/2007, -1/+18I for one like the look of the Orange Box. From a developer's standpoint, it stands out among all the other titles in the store, and makes the casual gamer go "Wtf is this," and pick it up and look at the back.
    • ReCkLeSsX, on 12/13/2007, -0/+8Yeah, I've never really had a problem with the box art. It's not repulsive or anything, just bland.
    • GeneralGore, on 12/14/2007, -0/+1I didn't like the box art, but the content more than makes up for it.
    • edilclyde, on 12/14/2007, -0/+2" but publisher EA decided to shovel it into a box that's impossible for anyone but a dyed-in-the-wool Half-Life fan to get excited about. "

      EA? WTF?
      • GliTCH82, on 12/14/2007, -0/+1I dugg your comment then I remembered, EA ported and published the PS3 version of the Orange Box. Possibly even the 360 version, but I could be wrong about that. Either way, the article was probably referring to a console version of the Orange Box, seeing as how everyone with a PC probably just downloaded it through Steam anyway.
      • anubis2591, on 12/21/2007, -0/+0EA did port it to the PS3 but besides that EA was also the publisher. Valve did do the 360 port and didn't bother with the PS3 port.
    • RandomGorilla, on 12/14/2007, -0/+2After seeing the previews for Portal, they could have put Goatse on the cover and I would have bought the ***** thing.

      When I think about it, though... that actually would have been damn funny.
  • LaGStAr, on 12/13/2007, -17/+54There's nothing wrong with the Trauma Center box art. It's actually pretty good.
    • Exhaust, on 12/13/2007, -0/+15Yeah for real! Big red crosses FTW!
    • SgtFish, on 12/13/2007, -6/+3I agree with that. I like the Trauma Center box art.
      The Etrian Odyssey box art was actually nice looking as well. (Along with a few others.)

      I think this article is biased for how fun the author thinks the games might be.
      • dclowd9901, on 12/13/2007, -2/+4That wasn't The EtriaH Odyssey? Damn font...
    • muffinmanpoo, on 12/13/2007, -10/+5Except the misspelling of "centre".
      • AdmiralKarelia, on 12/14/2007, -1/+3Don't be a stuck-up bastard. Seriously.
    • krenzo, on 12/14/2007, -2/+1The Red Cross' logo is trademarked, and the Red Cross has issues with games utilizing it without getting permission. I think that's the issue.
      • AdmiralKarelia, on 12/14/2007, -1/+1The Red Cross is a non-profit organization... why should they give a rat's ass?
  • NathanielJ, on 12/13/2007, -1/+13Dugg for #4. Creepiest box art I've ever seen.
  • inferno10, on 12/13/2007, -37/+32Why are they bashing so many Wii and DS box art?

    Oh wait...it's from a PS3 site.
    • blahtastic, on 12/13/2007, -2/+36Umm.. Actually it's probably cause Wii and DS are flooded with ***** cash in titles. Which most of the ones featured in this article unfortunately are.

      And before you harass me, PS3 is the only current gen system/handheld I don't have. They just don't seem to have terrible art for their games. Probably not enough of them or something ;)

      There are a few 360 games that should be on that list I'm not seeing, though.
    • goldenhearted, on 12/13/2007, -4/+18You say it's a PS3 site?
      http://www.gamesradar.com/us/xbox/game/news/articl ...
      http://www.gamesradar.com/us/wii/game/features/art ...
      Then explain why the Wii and Xbox 360 branches have the article too.
    • doshindude, on 12/13/2007, -13/+1for every 1 Wii crap box art there's about 20 PS(1,2,3) crap box arts
      • Exhaust, on 12/13/2007, -3/+3That's a good one. You forgot the /sarcasm tag though.

        With all ***** cash in games being released on the Wii it amazes me they all weren't Wii games. The Wii is getting 1000000 exclusive games next year!!! Woohooo! And 999997 of them are pure hot garbage.
      • Mearn, on 12/13/2007, -3/+7For every Wii game, there's about 20 PS(1,2,3) games.
      • onidraky, on 12/14/2007, -1/+1While that used to be true when the PS1 and 2 were the best selling systems, now that the Wii is the best selling system it gets all the terrible cash in games. It's all in what more people are buying.
    • mahsah, on 12/14/2007, -0/+1I'm pretty sure you have to have games first before you can bash boxart.
  • gojcaj, on 12/13/2007, -2/+13I dont see whats wrong with the Etrian Odyssey one...as for Touch Detective 2 ½ the numbers seem to explain a lot.
  • kwai, on 12/13/2007, -19/+148"O HAI U CATCHED US SECKSING LOL."
    • Gamer2k4, on 12/13/2007, -0/+55It's good that you copied and pasted that; I didn't catch it when I was reading the page.
  • leetninja, on 12/13/2007, -15/+4and this makes the front page of digg why again?
    • Synn, on 12/13/2007, -0/+16To give you the opportunity to bitch.
      • brownsound00, on 12/13/2007, -0/+5and this is why i view comments by time, instead of most diggs.
        well played synn.
      • AdmiralKarelia, on 12/14/2007, -0/+2That was awesome.
  • scott88008, on 12/13/2007, -8/+3So the playing kittens are "getting it on"? I don't know what's worse, the sexual fixation or the cat fetish.
  • Hensworth, on 12/13/2007, -1/+34wtf at fairy godmother tycoon
    • blahtastic, on 12/13/2007, -0/+7I know. They make this crap, while on the other hand I haven't been able to play Dinopark Tycoon since elementary school. Something is seriously wrong with that fact.
      • ricree, on 12/13/2007, -0/+4Nothing is wrong with that. Dinopark Tycoon is awesome. I'd probably still be playing it if I could find the floppy it came on.
        • blahtastic, on 12/13/2007, -0/+2I just meant that it was wrong that I could go and get Godmother tycoon right now but Dinopark is nowhere to be found.
    • hierophantus, on 12/13/2007, -0/+16What, you don't want to build a potion empire???
  • skyfire1, on 12/13/2007, -11/+3This is one of the best lists ever.
    • vade79, on 12/13/2007, -2/+2Pretty craptastic list to me...some of the 'art' isn't even bad...just bad game concepts, wtf was the box designer supposed to do for some of them.
  • missingnoh4x, on 12/13/2007, -10/+3Out of all the things wrong with a game like Fairy Godmother Tycoon, the box art was what caught their eyes?
    Honestly, it seems like they're picking games at random and looking for something to criticize. I see nothing wrong with Etrian Odyssey or Trauma Center, and you'd have to zoom in several times and be actively looking for a penis to think the mushroom in Touch Detective looks phallic.
    • toughluck1, on 12/13/2007, -0/+7No, it looks phallic.
    • blahtastic, on 12/13/2007, -0/+2Mushrooms are umm...Kinda phallic by nature aren't they? I believe a few slang terms attest to this. (ex. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mus ... )
    • AdmiralKarelia, on 12/14/2007, -0/+1Mushroom? Coulda fooled me. In fact, it did; the mushroom was the first thing I saw and I didn't even need the close-up to know that it was the sole reason for Touch Detective being on this list.
  • soundsofreason, on 12/13/2007, -2/+18#11 made me choke on my fried chicken.
    • imikedaman, on 12/13/2007, -2/+36The penis reference made you choke the chicken?

      *slowly backs away*
    • Hoov, on 12/14/2007, -1/+4Just wash it down with some malt liquor.
  • NikoK, on 12/13/2007, -2/+4LOL such a coincedence I just saw Counter Force yesterday and almost fell on the floor. Now its on digg...I hate that box art haha
    • techlinks, on 12/16/2007, -0/+1Wow, make that a double coincidence, I saw it yesterday too. In the bargain bin.
  • kutateli, on 12/13/2007, -20/+49Also known as "Nancy Drew: The Painting on the Side of the Van Owned by the Middle-Aged Man Who Wears a Turquoise Belt Buckle and Collects Dreamcatchers."

    Unfunny. The writer is trying too hard.
    • gojcaj, on 12/13/2007, -4/+25he tried hard for you JERK!
    • nlevend, on 12/13/2007, -1/+74You're the guy with the turquoise belt buckle who collects dreamcatchers, aren't you?
    • AdmiralKarelia, on 12/14/2007, -4/+2Agreed. I honestly had no effing idea what that meant.
  • McBradd, on 12/13/2007, -10/+86"You think you're too good for lens flare, you little son of a bitch?"
    • seanc6610, on 12/14/2007, -1/+11stop pasting ***** directly from the article with nothing original. it was somewhat funny the first time i read it, sure.
  • jcact, on 12/13/2007, -0/+25I nominate Ultimate Duck Hunting. It's 75% a giant dog head... and he looks sad ;(
    http://wii.ign.com/objects/906/906204.html
    • Chakat, on 12/13/2007, -0/+12I agree. Everyone knows that video game hunting dogs need to be laughing at you.
  • Ascendancy5, on 12/13/2007, -1/+14Oh come on, who here wasn't running to the store to grab "Julie Finds A Way"?
  • Genjeta, on 12/13/2007, -2/+6The trucks weren't that bad....I mean it wasn't exactly creative, and the text is quite stupid, and I have absolutely no impulse to even look into what the game is like, but come on....is that really worse than the box cover of titles like the nancy drew game and "American Girl: Julie Finds A Way".
  • Mikhail101, on 12/13/2007, -12/+4What i love the orange box cover it looks amazing? I love the simpleness and florescent orange and the back looks good too, it just stands out from my shelf with its glow.

    And i dint think trauma centre and nancy drew were bad, Halo 3 in my opinion has bad art, hes jsut stand with his gun pointign down.
    • rustchild, on 12/13/2007, -3/+310-1 odds this guy works for Valve. Takers?
      • therightclique, on 12/14/2007, -0/+1I also feel the box art is beyond amazing and there's no possible way I could work for valve ;-)
  • pkonink, on 12/13/2007, -0/+35I don't know what's worse: that they were so right about the Orange Box (10) or that I just realized it looking like productivity software probably made me subconsciously more excited about it than otherwise.
  • Lou3000, on 12/13/2007, -1/+19Orange Box should be number 1 just because it probably had the biggest budget of any game on there and the artwork was so dissapointing. They should have stuck with the original design that just had an orange box and white lettering. It was bad then, but better than the final product.
  • DarkGerbil, on 12/13/2007, -2/+12Did trauma centre really look that bad? Number three? Really? It just seemed kinda minimalist to me...
    • LouPickney, on 12/13/2007, -0/+1That makes me think of Kurt Longjohn in Boogie Nights: "Right, well, very often, minimal means a lot more photographically than I think, well, than I think most people understand."
  • Mononuclear, on 12/13/2007, -2/+4A lot of these are not that bad. You can't take every single cover and then decide what you personally think about it. You have to look who is the target audience of that game and what are they more likely to be attracted to buy. A lot of those games are targeted to young children and are designed exactly for young children. Just because it looks cheesy or retarded to adults doesn't mean kids aren't going to love it.
  • dagamer34, on 12/13/2007, -0/+6WTF @ Touch Detective...
  • RandomTaskMan, on 12/13/2007, -4/+4What about Halo 3 ?
    It looked like a poster for a cheap-ass movie.

    or the big 3 on the special editions...
  • mrelusive, on 12/13/2007, -0/+6Congrats to La Boite Orange for making the list!
  • Ralan, on 12/13/2007, -1/+23Anyone else get to Julie Finds a Way and think stripper?
  • iamaelephant, on 12/13/2007, -0/+12I'm so glad they called out Orange Box. I love the games but it has to be the stupidest box art I've seen for a PC game in some time. Still, I'm glad they didn't go with the early box art design, which was replaced due to a huge public outcry:
    http://files.playstatic.com/ps3/half-life-2/thumbs ...

    There were a couple which I thought were good - Trauma Center, Mercury Meltdown Revolution and that Petz Catz one were all reasonably good boxes - nothing great but they wouldn't jump out at me as bad.
    • sgtpppr, on 12/13/2007, -0/+3Jeez. Valve seriously needs to get some new print designers. The one you posted IS worse, but the one they released is not a lot better. The art direction on TF2 is incredible...why not let those guys design the box instead of making it look like one of those cheap ass GBA '10 classic arcade games on one cart!!' boxes.
  • leahcim, on 12/13/2007, -0/+6In regards to that weird NEW BLOOD game, it isn't actually The Red Cross that owns that + symbol as a trademark. Johnson and Johnson legally has control of that symbol, but they've allowed the Red Cross to co-opt for their use. J&J has successfully sued the Red Cross in the past when they've tried to use that symbol by making a profit, (i.e. selling bandages with the symbol on it to get some revenue), they're only allowed to use it for non monetary reasons.

    Has nothing to do with the article, but he did mention it and it was on my mind.
    • Mikau735, on 12/14/2007, -0/+4Why should anyone be allowed to own + as a trademark? WTF?
  • darkgarlic, on 12/13/2007, -0/+27Ahaha, I love their version of The Orange Box.
  • shade45, on 12/13/2007, -5/+3Talk about subliminal messaging in that one cover with the penis...
  • loneswish, on 12/13/2007, -0/+30My Lunchable didn't give me enough crackers to complete my final sandwich
    • SKick, on 12/13/2007, -0/+12I found an extra cracker in the last Lunchable I bought...
    • cnot3, on 12/14/2007, -1/+2I found a human finger in the last Lunchable I bought... still ate it tho.
  • Kingmichael, on 12/13/2007, -2/+8A lot of these aren't that bad. Orange Box, The Nancy Drew game, Etrian Odyssey, and OMG 26 look fine. American Girl: Julie Finds A Way should have been #1.
    • sgtpppr, on 12/13/2007, -2/+4I sincerely hope you don't do print design for a living...wait...did you work on these?
    • graduisic, on 12/14/2007, -0/+2I didn't realize that was the actual cover for the orange box until I saw this. I thought it was some crappy software... srsly.
  • Gryffydd, on 12/13/2007, -0/+7Notice that for the most part there's a correlation between awful cash-in games and awful artwork?
    • sgtpppr, on 12/13/2007, -0/+2Well yeah, the cash-in games are supposed to be low budget. It's like comparing a national Toyota tv ad versus a local used car lot. When you spend $50 designing the box, you can't ask for a lot more than this. That's what makes the Orange Box cover so bad. I bet they spent more money on it than any other box on this list...possibly 5x as much.
  • Ghoztt, on 12/13/2007, -2/+8Nothing wrong with Etrian Odyssey box art.
    • muffinmanpoo, on 12/13/2007, -5/+1Except it's *****.
    • explodingtree, on 12/14/2007, -0/+1The composition is all wrong. There's nothing to focus on, and the text is really difficult to read. If the characters were a bit more in frame, and there was some contrast, we might have a good cover.
  • vibez, on 12/13/2007, -4/+1On the other hand. There is some great custom box art over at http://www.console-covers.com
  • dualscreenman, on 12/13/2007, -0/+7Half of these shouldn't be on the list. Many of the games on this list may suck ass, but game sucking != boxart sucking.
  • GhostyBoy, on 12/13/2007, -0/+20"Looking at this feels like a redneck is vomiting trucks into our eyeballs."

    Gems like this are the reason we should continue having the english language.
  • HanSolo69, on 12/13/2007, -0/+4To be fair the box art on many of these is spectacular compared to the actual game itself.
  • chazbone, on 12/13/2007, -1/+3Great article, but in all fairness...Etrian Odyssey was awesome.
  • Juthan, on 12/13/2007, -1/+6The captions are brilliant. I was already laughing at the terrible box art, but then to read their take on it really made it all the better. Good stuff!
  • Meatball01, on 12/13/2007, -0/+2I was going to submit this, but I didn't want to make a dupe off of the original. Guess I learned my lesson.
  • hierophantus, on 12/13/2007, -1/+8Unlike most top "X" lists, this is actually very funny. It doesn't really matter if you agree with the aesthetic judgments; the commentary, and especially the illustrations, are still certainly more entertaining than, say, Cracked or Double Viking.
  • FredFredrickson, on 12/13/2007, -0/+2I didn't really feel like some of the "awful" box art matched up to how bad the first couple were. By the way, does anybody know exactly what that thing on the Touch Detective box is supposed to be? Is it like... a snake, or something? There's got to be some explanation!

    The zooming in on that part was indeed funny... but I kinda feel sorry for the artist(s) who worked on that cover - on the whole, it's a good piece of work.
    • mparker7410, on 12/13/2007, -0/+5Feel sorry for them? They're probably laughing harder than any of us!
      • FredFredrickson, on 12/13/2007, -0/+1Haha, yeah... well, assuming that little thing isn't supposed to be what we all think it is. :D
    • Mikau735, on 12/14/2007, -0/+7I think it's a penis
    • OfficeSpacing, on 12/14/2007, -0/+2What is pictured is indeed meant to be a penis. In the game, I think it's supposed to be a mushroom or something. But seriously, you think no one noticed what it looked like? It's either a pervy-in joke or penises look different in that part of the country where the box-art was made. That thing is so retarded looking I couldn't help but laugh. Still...Disturbing....
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