Ugliest video game artwork
- Thread starter Phediuk
- Start date
I loved the game, but thought that the artwork was hideous (some of those are creatures from my nightmares):
It's a shame they went with such an ugly art style because the Japanese version, Quinty, had art by Ken Sugimori, the artist for Pokemon:
It's a shame they went with such an ugly art style because the Japanese version, Quinty, had art by Ken Sugimori, the artist for Pokemon:
That American Suikoden box art always made me think of Hercules: The Legendary Journey and Xena: Warrior Princess for some reason. It's like the cover is a concept for an American "Suikoden: The 108 Stars" TV show. That or some later 80s Sword & Sorcery-type movie in the vein of Deathstalker 2.
I bought Suikoden back in the late 90s after hearing so much good about it. The game is great, but the box art made me go "What the heck..."
At least the cover art looks cool.Try playing Chiller on NES sometime
Probably not near the realm of some of these picks.
I recently replayed Ogre Battle 64 and decided to find any stuff I can about the game. I discovered a JP-only artbook that's somewhat rare and ordered it. This is the art style. It's kind of alluded to in the US release as these tiny unique portraits, but you never really see them clearly.
I quickly discovered I'm not a fan of this style at all. I think it's the somewhat generic fantasy army gear and the same stern face throughout that put me off. Plus the artbook was just one full-body artwork of most of the named characters plus a brief interview with some of the dev team. Pretty disappointed.
B-but...this is dope.
Thanks, came here for this. 👍🏻Obligatory North American Ico post:
The game itself is a masterpiece, but the NA artwork is just...horrendous. Neither character looks like their in-game counterpart (Ico now looks like some bratty American kid, and Yorda — inexplicably now a ghost that takes up the leftmost third of the art — looks completely different: eyes, hair, brow, the works). The random blurriness and splotches of color behind the yellowed-for-no-reason logo also don't do the piece any favors.
I would say "imagine if all of Fumito Ueda's games were done that dirty", but I also made this some time ago:
I really like 10 out of 10's cover art. Batman even gave it a score of Arkham City, and that's box worthy praise!
What can I say... It's no Cory in the house, that's for sure.
Every time I see this cover I think of how legit fun they'd be to hang out with at a dinner party.
i would like to go on record to say that i actually have no idea what's going on here. it's the box art equivalent of this image:
It's also funny because it looks like he got cut in the face by all the stuff. "Ah crap, they just keep popping up... OUCH! this one cut me! Now I got blood on my face"
Lmao yeah it took me a while, too.i would like to go on record to say that i actually have no idea what's going on here. it's the box art equivalent of this image:
Its a bloke with his head submerged in a toilet. Don't ask me what's opening the door tho
Yeah I couldn't play that for long for that reason among othersEverything about Hades is ugly to me. The art the environments the UI. It's just such an eye sore. Looks like newgrounds.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22151710/hades_switch_screenshot05.jpg)
Like what am I even looking at
edit: Whoops double post. Oh well, this is a great thread and I never understood why double posts were so often corrected. Something I think about whenever I see someone with an edit saying "Woops dp!"
As much as I like SpellForce, I would not blame people for presuming that especially the expansion covers are from softcore comics.
Getting in early. Given how good the cover for Rockman is and how cool it looks the fact they made this is awful.
Just to make it clear:
I can only assume the brief here was to produce a cover absolutely no kid would want to buy. Worked like a charm on me.
Although I'm not sure if bad or just confusing?
Back when we first started as game testers at Sony, this was the first game my friend had to test. He had my sympathy.
Last edited:
I know its exactly the contrary, but I can't unsee Alien Hominid being sad going forward to all the poor bastards he will zap with his gun.
And now y'all can't unsee too!
I remember someone hyping this up to be the Xbox mascot- Mario destroying god game and made their whole identity around that. I hope that person is doing ok. (I don't think Blinx even belongs in an ugliest competition....just recounting something weird that happened)
Everything about Hades is ugly to me. The art the environments the UI. It's just such an eye sore. Looks like newgrounds.
Like what am I even looking at
what.....
That's a weirder comparison than some "cal arts" animation critiques.
Last edited:
I bet lots of horny teenagers bought this only to be disappointed.That's tame compared to the UK box art
Looks like one of those crappy flash games from over a decade ago.This screen has been living rent-free in my mind ever since I played the game on 360. It's slightly worse in motion.
It took me some time, but it's a dude puking in a toilet.i would like to go on record to say that i actually have no idea what's going on here. it's the box art equivalent of this image:
-1.jpg)
What the fuck is even going on in this picture? It is awful. Entered this thread to see if it was here, and you already took care of it.
Getting in early. Given how good the cover for Rockman is and how cool it looks the fact they made this is awful.
A lot of american snes cover art was fucking awful
I mean what the hell is this nightmare fuel? What was wrong with this?
I mean what the hell is this nightmare fuel? What was wrong with this?
At that time, it was undoubtedly "too cute" and cute cartoons would be seen as not appealing to the at the time mostly male market. Not saying it was the right call but that seems to be the basic thinking behind scrapping most Japanese illustrated cover art at the time...A lot of american snes cover art was fucking awful
I mean what the hell is this nightmare fuel? What was wrong with this?
Mega Man's ugly box art feels less ugly when a lot of box cover in the US use their own art work
In large part because it's a gorgeous game.
May not be pretty in a traditional sense, but the overall design and art direction come together in a way few titles ever manage.
Dot Gobbler's box art for the C64 just makes me uncomfortable.
I love this one. It's perfect.
i would like to go on record to say that i actually have no idea what's going on here. it's the box art equivalent of this image:
This is some AI generated bullshit, right?
Epitaph The Rising Sun Twilight Juvenile Highway To Hell Stairway to Heaven Rock of Age Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters Daybreak Special Gigs World Tour Little Wing We Want To Rock You You Light My Fire Saturday Night Special Shoot That Crimson Sky Ghost (or ETRSTJHTHSTHROATTGHDSGWTLWWWTRYYLMFSNSSTCSG) is my favourite game of all time!
Box art so ugly it is hard to even tell what the title of the game is.
Christ, that is vile. I felt like I was getting a headache after watching about 30 seconds of it.
Wow really? I've always wondered what the hell went on behind the scenes at Sony for any of the Phoenix Games "games" to pass certification. "Games" because they're obviously not games, they're just shitty knockoff DVD movies packaged with like a sliding block puzzle.
These are art though. It's sad we never got them and had to make do with the mediocre Ueda art...
I've always wanted to see exactly what the art brief was to the artist for this. I can pretty much guess who most of the characters are supposed to be, even if they don't really look like their in-game models.
I bought Suikoden back in the late 90s after hearing so much good about it. The game is great, but the box art made me go "What the heck..."
The thing that confuses me the most is the monster on the lower right isn't just made up, that's an actual enemy from the game. But it's not a boss or anything, it's just a regular enemy you fight in random encounters, nothing special. Like did they give the artist images of a bunch of enemies and they just randomly picked that one? Was that the only monster they were given?
For yet another example of terrible JRPG cover art, I submit Phantasy Star IV:
Yeah, the first Mobile Light Force which came out on the PS1 had the exact same cover art. When you boot it up it turns out it's Gunbird, which looks like this:
On the one hand it's blatantly false advertising, on the other hand it's hard to see how anyone could possibly be disappointed that it doesn't look like the box.
When people who do art for a living read this types of post... I really cant belive people as you exist. Opinions are whatever, this is not an opinion, you are factually wrong, and i cant even process why you even said what you said.Everything about Hades is ugly to me. The art the environments the UI. It's just such an eye sore. Looks like newgrounds.
Like what am I even looking at
I bought Suikoden back in the late 90s after hearing so much good about it. The game is great, but the box art made me go "What the heck..."
Legit question but who are the characters there? The top left is obviously Emperor Barbarosa and the top right is the main character. I'm guessing the left one is… Gremio???
It's actually a taito game called shikigami no shiro... bizzare !
Best guesses:
On the left: Barbosa, Main Character (see that he's also on the Dragon flying from the tower), Windy
On the right: Luc, Leknaat, random enemy.
It never ceases to me amaze me how consistently wrong people are about art on this forum. The Hades character art alone is some of the most vibrant, unique and straight up attractive shit I have ever seen in a game. The shape language and color choices are unbelievably good. I lost count of the amount of artists I know that were inspired or influenced by it.Everything about Hades is ugly to me. The art the environments the UI. It's just such an eye sore. Looks like newgrounds.
Like what am I even looking at