You are Sega. The Japanese division have a hit series called Yakuza. You have attempted twice to bring the series to the West with little success. Third time around you have some demand with fans campaigning for a Western release who played the first two at a friends or through second hand copies. You have the opportunity of actually getting some sales this time around. Then you announce that this is the boxart.
There are plenty of examples of bad videogame boxart, but using complicated scientific techniques, the major offender is having giant faces on your cover.
Check out this following example – on the left is the gorgeous European artwork for ICO, on the right, the USA version.
Same for Heavy Rain – left is European, right is USA, this time full of faces.
The worst combination of all is big face, budget packaging and award stickers – well done Germany.
Though the UK has to take the blame for this one.
Do you have a most hated video game cover? Do you love big faces?
One Comment
Wow, the ICO European art is fantastic, the US one is fucking godawful. What were they thinking?