Best of 2012! Top Ten: Video Game Box Arts

Who says games aren’t art? Not Bradly.

By Bradly Halestorm. Posted 01/06/2013 11:00 Comment on this     ShareThis
This story was selected as one of our best from 2012. It was originally published on 9th May 2012 as part of Issue 101: Business as Usual.

Top Ten box art masthead

Box art is something that I have always adored. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t made a tough purchasing decision, or an impulse buy for that matter, based solely off an alluring cover. Call me easily enticed, or simply daft, but I firmly believe in the notion that a well put-together case illustration can go a long way, and even sell a game outright. On a fundamental level, case art encapsulates a game’s meaning, story and even purpose for existence.  If it’s crafted effectively, a cover will provide us with an accurate representation of the journey we will take, should we choose to embark on that game’s adventure. While art in video games is often debated, it may be contemptibly unwise to discredit the power of jacket design, at the very least due to the sheer marketing value behind it.

If we can agree then that box art has a function, and that function is to grab your attention in order to solidify your gaming purchase, then we can begin to holistically understand that there are, and have been, some truly spectacular cover arts over the generations. Conversely, there have been inexcusably horrendous ones. Leaving the latter for another time, though, the former presents an opportunity to better understand the most significant and aesthetically pleasing covers to ever grace a Nintendo console. Today, we’ll explore the top ten pieces of box art available on any Nintendo system dating back to the NES. So without any further ado, let’s jump into the lion’s den.

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