11/27/2007 - Bad game box art

Everyone knows you shouldn't judge a book by its cover (or at least that's what they were supposed to teach you in grade school, right?), but the same applies to video games and their box art. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the original Mega Man. I mean, just look at it:



How could anyone at that time imagine that it was one of the best 8-bit games of all time by what's on the box art. Mind you that this was before the internet where reviews of video games weren't as widely available. In order for Mega Man to gain in popularity as it did, people would have to look past that ugly piece of manure and spread the word that it was a good game. In my case, I played Mega Man 2 first and became so enamored of it that I went ahead and bought the original. While it wasn't as good as the sequel, it's quality certainly exceeds that of the art on the box.

Here's a compilation of more bad video game box art. I'm sure there are some gems in there, but my thinking is that most of them would qualify for a review by the Angry Video Game Nerd.