GTA IV's slick marketing has us reminiscing about the glory days of game art - step back in time as we cast our eye over some of the strangest, most bizarre game titles you’re likely to see.
The GTA IV launch showed that far from being subsumed by Internet marketing videos, box art is still being taken ever-seriously in the games world. Not only has Rockstar continued the GTA art-heritage with GTA IV, but the latest box art even got its own promo video, showing artists painting the image onto a warehouse wall.
Once upon a time, not all game covers were so slick. Most of this selection comes from the early 1980s and 1990s. In those days, it seemed it didn’t matter what you called your game, the important thing was attracting eyeballs, no matter the taste or style.
For some people, old game covers is an obsession. Check out this collection of manuals to see how far (or not) things have come.
Strange video game covers
Bad dudes
In the spirit of double teaming action platformers like DoubleDragon, the pitch to kids everywhere was that these hooligans meant business.
Platform: NES
Karnaaj Rally
Awful, awful cover art. That nightmarish face, that hard to pronounce title (try saying it five times fast) . . . it’s enough to cause widespread panic.
Platform: Gameboy Advance
Lee Trevino’s fighting golf
The strangest part of this game cover is not that I keep wondering who the heck Lee Trevino is, or what fighting golf would be like in real life (I imagine it’s like hockey, but with golf clubs), but why on earth anyone would care about the special endorsement by the "US National Video game team”.
Platform: NES
Phalanx
Derived from the Greek word ‘phalangos’, meaning the finger, it’s probably what most kids gave this game when they found out they were getting it for Christmas in 1992. Kudos to Kemco for not going with a cliché Han Solo look alike on the cover.
Platform: SUPER NES
Anticipation
Nintendo’s first attempt at providing a video game board wasn’t exactly a smashing success. The cover art looks like a cast photo of some annoying 80’s sitcom that your sister once watched and your mother thought was hilarious.
Platform: NES
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