2010 Box Art Walk Of Shame
December 30, 2010
Another year gone by means that we have a whole 'nother year of horrible, cringe-worthy video game box art to look back at for gawking and chuckling purposes. GamesRadar has stepped up to the annual challenge once again to drag thirty or so terrible samples of artwork into the harsh light of day for our amusement. We'll see drab backgrounds, off-model characters, just plain bad design, images to stalk your nightmares, and just plain deceptive imagery. Step right up and check out predator & prey teaming up to attack the audience, North Korea's Kim Jong Il busting a move, a haircut simulator sporting plastic CGI tresses, a soulless bobblehead with a sinister smile that's ready to eat your soul, actor Jeffrey Tambor toplining a game show challenge (seriously, it's really him!) with Brad Garrett (it's really him, too!), a camp of Pixar rejects, a dancing ocarina girl, and, well, this:
What… I just… GOD. There’s lazy, and then there’s whatever the hell this is. Hewing to the old (and mostly true) belief that kids don’t generally care how ugly their entertainment is, the GBM box promises only the stiffest animation and most cutting-edge circa-1992 visuals that the money left over after licensing a candy property can buy. And to top everything off, that bear clearly didn’t warn that frog before attempting to play through. What a sociopathic dick.
If nothing else this year I think we can definitively declare that there are some really terrible box art images floating around in the marketplace. Granted that you can't tell a book by its cover, but how could any self-respecting publisher send one of their games out into the world with some of the images you'll find in this year's shameful collection and expect it to generate any revenue? Just how big is the clueless grandmother demographic?