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Box art that got it all wrong

It's not just bad, it completely misses the point

Words: Brett Elston, GamesRadar US

Offender - Transformers: Autobots and Decepticons

Crime - Mixing up established colors of the title characters

Get a load of this - they named each version after the Autobots and Decepticons and then made their logos the opposite color. Autobot logo is always red. Decepticon logo is always purple. It's been that way for two decades. How can you go to the trouble of securing the license and then screwing it up the color they represent? That's like buying the NBA license and then ignoring the proper jersey colors.

Eff it! We're doing whatever we want with the license; we can't be bothered to know/remember/care that it predates this product by 20 years, there's money to be made!

They even went so far as to make the backgrounds match. One could argue they were going for a contrasting image, swapping the colors intentionally to make the art more striking, but the only people who'll notice the palette swap are the same who get pissed when you mess with tradition. Also, pull away from Megatron. When you get that close he looks like freaking Sauron.

Offender - Bubble Bobble Revolution

Crime - Managing to make Bub & Bob fugly as hell

Christ, look at those things. Two grossly rotund beasts that paradoxically couldn't reach their mouths with those stubby appendages. And what's with the Pac-Man eyes? Good lord what have they done to two characters known for being adorable?

Awww....

D'AWWWWWWWWWWWWW

What a travesty. All this game has to go on is nostalgia and the irresistibly cute duo of Bub and Bob. Guess it was a sign of things to come, as the reviews were cripplingly low. Next time don't get five-year-olds to draw your box art.

Offender - Karnov

Crime - Duping kids into thinking Karnov's a badass

Hey kids, wanna play as a fire-breathing circus strongman that wrestles goddam dinosaurs? Of course you do! Buy our game and we promise a sweltering sauna of Cretaceous beatdowns that'll have your friends lining up around the block. Don't have enough friends to fill a block? They'll come to you after they see Karnov bitch-kick T-Rex right in its stupid teeth.

Oh. He's actually an overweight, fire-breathing Russian that can't jump very well. There's also like one dinosaur in the whole game and the ending is a simple "Congratulations!"

This shit should be illegal. They outright lied to us, and they'd have to in order to get a child to choose this over Super Mario Bros. 2. To be fair, now-defunct Data East depicted Karnov as a 'roided-out goon on the arcade flyer, but when translated to sprites he simply looks fat. Either way this box art fails to deliver, whether Karnov is obese or packing two tickets to the Kremlin's Red Army gun show.

Hmm that sounds better already...


 
13 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
hardcore_gamer1990  - 11 months 14 days ago 
did anyone actually know whish one was bub and which was bob in the original gameboy game?

actually, come to think of it, which are they?

First! =D
afrosamurai3838  - 11 months 13 days ago 
second!!!!!
CashWheel  - 11 months 8 days ago 
Third!
iboy314  - 10 months 12 days ago 
Fourth?

Also, the mario kart one is simple.

Mario and Luigi have the wrist-straps, meaning they're supposed to be PLAYING the game. Not in the game itself. So the shadows of the karts is implying that when you play the game it's as if you're driving, even though you're gaming.

It still sucks hard though
TheWebSwinger  - 9 months 22 days ago 
Correction: Godzilla does indeed have pointy lil' ears.
Maikeru_Go  - 9 months 15 days ago 
The Megaman on the cover seems like a really bad cosplayer who never played the game, but conveniently had stuff lying around that sort of looked like what he once saw in a picture.
drunation  - 6 months 14 days ago 
I love these blast from the past articles. Its great to see the things we may, or may not, have been into back then.
killemall  - 6 months 13 days ago 
i hate to break it to you but its true, the first couple of godzilla's do in fact have the pointy ears,,,
Godmode990  - 4 months 23 days ago 
OMG godzilla pisses out of his mouth
Kikyabut2  - 4 months 11 days ago 
uh, 10th :P and also, i AM sick of hearing about megaman >.< it was bad, but everyone knows about it. and also, bub and bob, lol
robantor  - 3 months 16 days ago 
gozillas eyes freak me out
DoucheMcGee  - 1 month 16 days ago 
To be fair to Ultimate Alliance. Spider-Man is clearly shooting another web, so he could be holding his previous web strand which looks like a rope.
hybrid616  - 1 month 15 days ago 
that's true, douchemcgee. in his normal costume, he shoots a web, then quickly catches it. that's how he webswings...
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