Box Art

Widely regarded as the worst box art for a great game in NES history, the US cover depicts a middle-aged man in a blue suit firing a pistol — bearing no resemblance to the Japanese original's iconic robot boy.

One of the strongest pieces of NES box art, the US Castlevania cover depicts Simon Belmont in dramatic confrontation with Dracula in a composition that accurately captures the game's gothic horror tone.

The Japanese Famicom Disk System Metroid cover is a moody science-fiction illustration strikingly different from the US NES box, which replaced its atmosphere with a generic action scene that concealed Samus's identity.

An unusually effective piece of licensed NES box art that depicted both Mike Tyson and Little Mac in a composition conveying the game's David-versus-Goliath premise before a single pixel was seen.

The US NES Final Fantasy box features a bold painted warrior figure that diverges from Yoshitaka Amano's delicate Japanese artwork, reflecting Square of America's decision to reposition the game for Western action-game expectations.

The SNES Street Fighter II box art distilled the fighting game's roster into a single explosive composition that became one of the most recognisable game covers of the 16-bit era.

The Genesis Sonic box art placed the character in a confident pose that embodied the marketing attitude Sega was selling alongside the game — faster, cooler, and deliberately positioned as the anti-Mario.

The US Contra NES box is a knowing riff on 1980s action-film poster art, depicting two muscle-bound commandos in poses directly inspired by the Alien and Predator promotional images of the same era.

The Super Mario Bros. Famicom box — later adapted for global markets — established the primary visual identity of gaming's most successful franchise with a simple but instantly legible character portrait.

The DuckTales NES box used official Disney animated series artwork that accurately represented both the game's visual style and its licensed source material, making it one of the most faithful licensed game covers of the era.

The US Ninja Gaiden NES box used a dramatic painted composition of Ryu Hayabusa that communicated the game's cinematic ambition and harder action tone compared to most contemporary NES platformers.

The EarthBound SNES US release came in an oversized box containing a full-colour strategy guide, making it one of the most elaborate and distinctive game packages ever produced for a home console.

The North American box for Mega Man 2 is a beloved piece of accidental absurdity — a painted hero brandishing an ordinary handgun instead of his trademark arm cannon, the result of an artist working on a tight deadline with no knowledge of the game.

Perhaps the most baffling box art in console history: the North American cover of a futuristic space shooter features a bearded old man in overalls and a fedora playing a banjo — a deliberate act of marketing surrealism designed to make shoppers stop and stare.

The North American box for The Legend of Zelda paired a gleaming black-and-gold cover with a die-cut window revealing the game's famous gold cartridge inside — a packaging masterstroke that made the treasure literal before the player even bought the game.

A lone marine on a rock, firing down into an infinite horde while demons claw up his legs — painted by a Playboy and National Geographic illustrator, using John Romero as the body model.

Square put the artist behind Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest on the cover of its most ambitious RPG — a snowbound battle scene selling the game on star power alone.

Samus squares off against Ridley while a second, unseen creature reaches in from the edge of the frame — and the Japanese cover shows you exactly what it is.

The box art for the first Metal Gear did not depict its hero Solid Snake at all — the figure is copied from a publicity still of actor Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese in The Terminator, one of the most famous cases of 1980s game art "borrowing" from film.

The North American box for Super Mario Bros. 3 — a leaf-tailed Raccoon Mario mid-flight against black, beside a giant red "3" — is one of the most recognisable covers of the NES era, and the game it wrapped was hyped to America through a whole feature film.

For years Nintendo gave the cheerful pink Kirby a furrowed, scowling expression on Western box art that he never had in Japan — a deliberate marketing decision to make a cute character look "tough" enough to sell to American boys.