The visual evolution of game logos

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See how your favourite games' logos have changed over the years

While game content, design and technology constantly change year after year so does game packaging and design. This interests us.So we've taken 10 major game series and visually charted their logos' progression to see howthey'veevolved. We've even added comments.

Be aware in most cases we've gone for 'canon' games rather than offshoots or side projects. Also, the images aren't supposed to represent every title from a series, just the ones which show the logo design evolving the best, in case you were wondering.


General theme? Adventure, stencil typeface, tomb textures

How's it changed? Intially choosing to represent the fact that tombs are made of rocks by re-using the same stone effect, Raider's logo design changed tack with the launch of new Lara in Angel of Darkness.

The new direction represented the mid-2000's obsession with brushed metal and incorporated an element of the Star Wars 'A long time ago' fading-into-the-distance effect.

Is it better today than before? Definitely - they made the first one by throwing a copy of PhotoShop 1.0 at a wall.


General theme? Blue, the S is a bit like a tube that Sonic might go through, this is harder than we thought

How's it changed? Amazingly, given that Sonic has always been about going really fast, none of the logos attempted any sort of motion-blur. That's a FACT that you can't argue with.

Sonic wins hands-down in terms of brand consistency - the font has never changed. The designers have settled into a pattern of just changing the inner texture of that font in recent iterations. Which in some indeterminate way is like Sega'sapproach to the Sonic game series.

Is it better today than before? Not really, we quite like the stark, business-like nature of the original Master System logo.

Next up: Metal Gear and Metroid