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The Worst Box Art of 2008

Cringe at 20 of the year's best examples of awful packaging

Words: Mikel Reparaz, GamesRadar US

15. My Baby Boy (DS, released Nov. 4)


We may be going out on a limb here, but this stunted little homunculus is probably the reason we can find this game everywhere, but My Morning After Pill is consistently sold out.


14. Rubik’s World (DS, released Oct. 28)


Yes, this is pretty much exactly what it looked like when we took our Rubik’s Cube, smashed it, bleached all but one of the pieces and spent hours meticulously arranging them in a stark, white room to convince a jury that we were insane at the time of the murders. But we don’t know why someone would make a game out of that.


13. Garfield’s Fun Fest (DS, released Aug. 6)


Jon looks like something painted on the wall of a day-care center, Garfield’s feet are nowhere near that tiny and there’s brown everywhere you look. The only thing that would make this depressing little scene fun or festive is if it were tied to the end of a shovel and applied forcefully to Jim Davis’ face.


12. Kidz Sports: Crazy Golf (Wii, released Sept. 16)


That kid’s got “date rapist” written all over him.


11. Command and Destroy (DS, released Feb. 16)


These shitty, shitty flying saucers are the CG equivalent of the hubcaps on strings from ‘50s B-movies. Actually, hubcaps on strings would have been more convincing than these lens-flared saucers and Photoshop-filter planets, which together with that giant crosshair make the game look more like a cross between Space Invaders and Missile Command than the Command & Conquer ripoff it actually is.



Left 4 Dead (PC/360), Prince of Persia Collector’s Edition (PS3/360/PC), Dead Space (PS3/360/PC)


Close-ups of hands probably aren’t the best way to market a new game during the busy holiday season, but no fewer than three high-profile games decided that great big hands were exactly what buyers needed to see on their covers. How could this happen? We have a theory:


Comic by Tyler Wilde

Just, you know, repeated three times across three separate developers.



From the Abyss (DS, released Aug. 26)


Although there’s nothing compositionally or even aesthetically wrong with this, we’re troubled by the thought that somewhere, there’s an artist who has no idea that pants and belts aren’t the same thing.


 
88 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
TheSuburbiaRuins  - 11 months 3 hours ago 
Haha good job Mikel,
Never cease to amaze me.
Love the article
Tasty_Pasta  - 11 months 2 hours ago 
Hahaha, gotta love the Nadal boner. Oh man, you crack me up GR.
PixelSly  - 11 months 2 hours ago 
First time I've laughed that hard in a while. Awesome article
evildevil2  - 11 months 2 hours ago 
Nadal was funny, the final one hilarious "no. no! NO! No! NOOO!!!!!!!!" I gotta read it again.
Crunks  - 11 months 2 hours ago 
The baby on the left in number one looks like he is trying to crush a buncha little japanese people. BABYZILLA!!!
somthing42  - 11 months 2 hours ago 
Fuck, I never noticed the IGN symbel on the Okami box until I read this article.
Elbo444  - 11 months 2 hours ago 
rofl, there was what, 3 of those that weren't for the ds or wii? pitiful, pitifully hilarious
Robusken  - 11 months 2 hours ago 
I had to bite my lip from laughter at that baby one. Great job Mikel
deputy326  - 11 months 2 hours ago 
This is the best website for games and gamers alike.
JoeMasturbaby  - 11 months 1 hour ago 
most of them were Nintendo games.
as an artist i wouldnt try very hard to make art for those crappy games either.
Natehunt76  - 11 months 1 hour ago 
Poor marine animals...
Amnesiac  - 11 months 1 hour ago 
The Nadal boner nearly made Diet Mountain Dew come out of my nose. Oh, GR. Don't ever change.
Hurricrane  - 11 months 1 hour ago 
ROFLS the Nadal boner had me laughing out loud for a good 5 min... and that happened twice!
tirrandir  - 11 months 59 minutes ago 
Hehe. That baby one made me laugh, but the Pony one is the one that made me snicker when I accidently hit page up and saw it again.

Terrified ponies--funny even the second time.
Major_Wuss  - 11 months 55 minutes ago 
I laughed my ass off at the Nadal boner.
Nice article, Mikel!
Defguru7777  - 11 months 43 minutes ago 
This is one of your funniest articles yet GamesRadar. I don't even know where to begin with this. These are just awful.
NinjaCake  - 11 months 41 minutes ago 
al of them are for nintendo except for the hand ones ... also most of the games do suck (wait to go nintendo)
NinjaCake  - 11 months 38 minutes ago 
ROFL air trafic chaos that was genius
R_U_Guys_From_British  - 11 months 21 minutes ago 
The Nadal boner was too funny! Keep it up GR!
fuzzattck  - 10 months 30 days ago 
lol funny shit
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