The worst box art of 2015

16. Garfield Kart

Let us quickly move past the sadness that this game physically exists in the world, and instead focus on the immediately obvious flaws here. For instance, note the overzealous use of the blur effect to Garfield's right, instantly throwing your visual cortex into disarray at the impossibility of this photograph. See how the wall that Garfield and Jon have nearly careened into has arrows pointing in the opposite direction, implying that Lakitu is currently hounding all three of these idiots for driving the wrong way. And behold how the sparks flying from beneath the lasagna-lover's car convey the kind of friction inherent to sawblades on metal, rather than rubber on pavement.

15. Big City Adventure: Barcelona

I'm sure no one in this family regrets letting Little Timmy bring his acoustic guitar to Barcelona, the land of strange, helmet-esque architecture. Meanwhile, Sally seems to be gripping onto a live lizard that's trying to eat her seahorse-encrusted shirt, while their dad silently contemplates if this is his moment to divert the family's attention towards something before bolting in the other direction.

14. Gnomes Garden

Clearly, some fledgling art intern was practicing lighting effects for what a green glow hovering at neck level might look like. Through a clerical error, this doodle was submitted to the proverbial presses as the final box art - but not before adding a shoddy effect to the word 'Gnomes' that makes it look like it's somehow burning with snot-green fire.

13. Contract with the Devil

"HEY KID YOU WANNA' MAKE A CONTRACT WITH THE DEVIL? MY NAME'S SMELLYWINKS, THE S&M GOBLIN WHO HANGS OUT BY THE DOCKS!! PULL ON MY DISGUSTING NOSE RING AND I'LL GRANT YOU THREE WISHES!!"

12. Mahjong: Wolf's Stories

There are way too many anthropomorphic wolves wearing diapers for this to just be a game about Mahjong. Think about how many anthropomorphic wolves wearing diapers you need for the typical game of Mahjong and I guarantee it's less than three. I'm not even certain this is the correct cover for this game. And apparently, if your cub's old enough to wear a shirt, then they're old enough to crawl into a boat completely unsupervised.

11. Moviewood

I enjoy the symmetrical placement of disinterested women staring at their own shoulders. Everything else here is garbage. It's obvious Joe Moviewood popped on over to MyStockPhotos dot com (aka Google Images) and pulled down a grabbag of Hollywood lookalikes. Either that, or this game/movie/whatever follows the story of a grieving, orange-clad widow who's being chased by a ballerina in an old-timey automobile with a gladiator in the sidecar and a wolf with a tribal face tattoo. She's forced to choose between two potential love interests: bootleg Bela Lugosi giving a piggy-back ride to a Lara Croft lookalike, or the Grim Reaper himself.

10. Detective Riddles: Sherlock's Heritage 2

I honestly don't know why this cover is on this list because it's obviously the most amazing thing I've seen all year. So let's try and unpack what's going on here: the name 'Sherlock's Heritage 2' implies some sort of Holmesian influence. So, what, is the monkey Sherlock Holmes? Probably still would've been better than Elementary. Amd wait a second, what's up with Dr. Watson back there...

...OH GOD!

9. Fury of the Gods

Looks like poor Zeus might've dislocated his shoulder there while playing with that lighting. In fact, all the muscles in his upper body seem to have convulsed out of place, which could explain the panicked look in the thunder god's eyes.

8. Greed: Forbidden Experiments

On a cover as bland and generic as this, the artist still took time to add a couple of rib cage protrusions below the woman's chest. Why? You also have to wonder how she's standing straight up when the entire room is tilted, whether or not that spider drone is friendly, and what the deal is with those green tentacles that are dangling from the ceiling and slithering on the floor.

Lucas Sullivan

Lucas Sullivan is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+. Lucas spent seven years working for GR, starting as an Associate Editor in 2012 before climbing the ranks. He left us in 2019 to pursue a career path on the other side of the fence, joining 2K Games as a Global Content Manager. Lucas doesn't get to write about games like Borderlands and Mafia anymore, but he does get to help make and market them.