0:01 you should never judge a book by its
0:04 cover but this is a video game when i
0:06 was a kid i had the weirdest games this
0:08 was pre-internet time so i didn't know
0:10 about chrono trigger or metroid i was
0:12 out here getting biker mice from mars okay
0:12 okay
0:14 and the toy story game and they both had
0:16 isometric racing which is not a good
0:19 idea why did i have biker mice from mars
0:21 instead of zelda
0:31 cool box art
0:33 maximum carnage this is another one i
0:36 had as a kid because a look at that box
0:36 man it's so
0:38 red there's like a evil demon on there
0:40 with a spider-man even the cartridge is
0:42 red so you know it's good
0:44 as an adult i look at this box art and
0:46 all i see is the ljn logo the cover art
0:48 for pac-man 2 on the other hand
0:50 not not quite as good bronchi the
0:53 branches saurus this was intended to be
0:55 the gex killer bronchi would teach
0:55 little kids about
0:58 asthma see his little inhaler there what
1:00 they didn't expect was that gex team had
1:01 already recruited the greatest designer
1:02 in the biz
1:05 dontel indigo needless to say the cover
1:07 art for gex was exactly correct and even
1:09 funnier than the game box art was
1:12 generally much better back in this era
1:14 you have these beautiful hand-drawn
1:16 illustrations even for aerobiz compared
1:18 to now where you can only have
1:21 black white and a shadow man on the
1:22 front it's like the marketing team is
1:24 saying to the consumer don't worry
1:26 there are no original ideas here super
1:28 mario bros 3 is one of the all-time
1:30 iconic box arts because of its
1:32 simplicity yellow background
1:34 cool logo and a very stylized drawing of
1:36 mario with these thick lines that
1:38 minimalist design was a much bolder
1:40 choice back in the day
1:42 where covers were very busy and colorful
1:44 and was typically reserved for games
1:46 that didn't need marketing like zelda
1:49 sonic and knuckles mortal kombat halo 2
1:50 doesn't even say halo on the front it
1:52 just says two
1:55 you know what game this is [ __ ]
1:58 it's covered too right i forgot what it
1:58 was however
2:01 you can't apply the same strategy to 3d balls
2:02 balls
2:08 nobody is going to tell santa they want
2:09 balls for christmas
2:11 it's hard to pinpoint what makes a cover
2:13 great it's got to have that drama but it
2:15 can't be too complicated it's got to be
2:17 clean but it can't be boring
2:19 a truly great work of art has the
2:21 ability to transport you to another place
2:22 place
2:25 entirely and if you listen carefully
2:31 [Music]
2:33 now look at donkey kong the colors just
2:36 jump off the box with these beautiful 3d
2:38 models draped in the shadows of glossy
2:40 foliage diddy kong is hanging on for
2:42 dear life under randby who has this rough
2:42 rough
2:44 rhino skin texturing this is one of my
2:46 favorite covers even though donkey kong
2:47 has hot dog fingers
2:50 talca glow on the other hand not quite
2:51 as good
2:54 as the lawnmower man cover art spiderman
2:56 for ps4 this is fine
2:58 this there he is on a red background but
3:00 now let's take the same idea to the next
3:02 level wow
3:04 look at that spider-man crawling up the
3:06 building with his reflection in the
3:07 glass and you can see
3:08 all the way down to the street such a
3:10 great use of perspective
3:12 there is a sense of place and scale yet
3:15 spider-man remains the focal point
3:17 and the graphics here's a grain from
3:19 infogrames called
3:21 alone in the dark 2. what a majestic
3:24 cover let's go ahead and slap a big
3:26 stupid-ass stick around there jack is
3:28 back baby i don't know what the [ __ ]
3:30 that means cover art can be a great way
3:31 to differentiate your game in the marketplace
3:32 marketplace
3:34 if every game has a dude with a gun you
3:36 can be the game that has a spider with a gun
3:37 gun
3:39 and a knife take duke nukem everyone
3:42 knows this game is a doom knockoff so to
3:43 combat this image
3:44 they designed their cover art to be a
3:46 one-to-one copy of doom castlevania
4:20 until you hit this one no it's it's not
4:22 worse than bio freaks right
4:24 but it's not on par with dino city now
4:26 is it just some default looking anime
4:27 characters with
4:29 very little attitude it's better than
4:31 russell grant's astrology
4:33 but it isn't good like donkey kong where
4:35 things really start to get messed up
4:37 though is on the ds version of the game
4:38 because it was already
4:40 on the ds but then on the 3ds version
4:42 it's really starting to get very little
4:43 and then
4:47 on the switch version
4:50 nobody's going to find this astrology
4:53 one of my biggest no-nos are templates
4:54 capcom did it
4:57 konami did it sega really did it the
4:59 master system cover art
5:01 this is where creativity goes to get
5:03 murdered these are an abomination
5:05 imagine your entire collection of games
5:07 all with identical
5:09 grid backgrounds gary kitchen was one of
5:11 the great game designers like tim
5:13 clancy that really understood the allure
5:14 of mystery
5:16 what is the free offer you have to buy
5:18 the game to find out that's the genius
5:20 of it all who is this man on the cover
5:21 art of columns 3
5:24 and why is he also on sonic for the game odama
5:25 odama
5:26 nothing is left to the imagination you
5:29 look at the artwork and go okay yes
5:31 i understand what kind of game this is
5:33 bonus microphone included
5:35 obviously this is a racing game titles
5:37 will often have different cover art
5:38 depending on
5:39 which region they are released in in
5:41 japan and europe
5:43 phalanx is some kind of spaceship game
5:44 but in north america
5:46 we know that it is actually a game about
5:48 an old man with a banjo i think it's a
5:50 lot of fun to go through your favorite
5:52 games and compare the artwork
5:53 to other regions see how they take
5:55 different approaches to make the game appealing
5:56 appealing
5:57 sometimes we're out here whooping their
5:59 ass other times we got
6:02 [ __ ] smoked like really bad like damn
6:04 here is the japanese box art for mega
6:05 man 1.
6:07 the first thing you are going to notice
6:09 is that they spell the mega man wrong
6:10 but this is fixed
6:12 by writing it in english so japanese
6:14 people won't know
6:16 the artwork itself isn't bad it's not
6:18 great but then you realize it was pretty
6:24 not only does the american art hit you
6:26 with the capcom template
6:28 but rockman also shows up now here's the
6:34 european version
6:36 what the hell no bonus microphone let's
6:38 do a test boom
6:41 boom which one of these do you prefer
6:43 we're just walking down the hall of fame
6:45 now here's a beautiful design by the guy
6:46 who does
6:52 well that's just green pac-man eating a
7:03 what the [ __ ] is changers hey
7:05 hiya it's me checkers the last one i
7:06 want to talk about
7:09 is busta move which is actually a very fun
7:09 fun
7:12 well-made game and here's the box art
7:13 and what's
7:15 [ __ ] up about this is that it's
7:16 actually a significant
7:19 improvement over the box arc for the ps1 version
7:19 version
7:22 where this guy's eyes are in jail to
7:23 bring things
7:25 to an even further degree of [ __ ]
7:26 there is also a game called
7:36 [Music]
7:38 so when you ask your grandma for the
7:40 cute bubble popping game with the
7:42 dinosaur and she is faced with this or this
7:42 this
7:44 she will probably gravitate towards the
7:47 game called super bubble pop [Music]
7:52 or she might get bubble bobble which has
7:54 the correct dinosaur but is a completely
7:56 different game unless they're using this
7:58 cover art which is a [ __ ] disgrace
8:01 at which point your grandma says [ __ ]
8:03 this [ __ ] go ahead and give me uh one
8:13 copy of russell crowe's astrology [Music]
8:15 [Music] you
