I can’t research it at the moment, but I want to say that was a common thing in the pre-NES days, and I think Nintendo required actual gameplay graphics to be shown on the box because of that.
Could be off on the specifics, but I do vaguely recall those kinds of non-representative box art having some controversy.
Nintendo of America often used pixel art for their own box art early on in the NES era. It was similar to the in game graphics, but usually more detailed. See Metroid’s original artwork. If there was a requirement for third parties, perhaps it could be met by simply including screenshots on the back.
Mega Man would like a word.
Just look at that sexy bastard.
Maybe they got a pass if the in-game graphics were better than the box art? 😆
What do you mean? This is the greatest art in the history of art. It makes me FEEL something. Those in game graphics don’t make me feel at all.
That feeling is called nausea
Wtf did they do to his legs??
Mind you, that was only American artwork. Original Japanese:
That’s quite the banana hammock he’s wearing.
You miss half the fun then, the imagination in your head of transforming the graphics into whatever you want. And then gameplay is the most important
I remember renting Phalanx just because of the box. like “why’s this old man playing the banjo?” then you look at the back and it’s a friggin space shooter. I had to rent it.
The agency that created the box art created it for the exact reason you picked it up.
yeah after posting this I read the story on Destructoid about it. It worked. it was a meh game but the only reason I wanted to play it was because of that box.
“you can’t take the sky from me”
TIL Firefly is part of the Phalanxverse.
the back usually showed gameplay shots.
Yes, where they put the superior Amiga screenshots on the back of your ZX Spectrum game
Lol how was that allowed? It’s a complete different version.
If you think it’s an unregulated mess now, take a look at the home computer scene in the mid-80s. Absolute wild west, dude.
The scene was too small back then for anyone to pay attention. Most microcomputer developers were selling games out of their garage via mail order.
In today’s gaming envoriment large companies can make promise after promise, deliver on none of them and walk away like nothing happened. The worst thing that can happen is some people calling you bad names online. What makes you think advertisement would be more ethical at a time no one gave a shit about gaming?
My games were all pirated. Covers had a handwritten list of all games on the cassette (and later CD). The first legit game I’ve ever seen was Mortal Kombat Trilogy and I remember being taken aback by the waste of using a full CD for a single game (iirc the game used just 30 MB of space on that CD).
ahem…
That’s the masterpiece that helped kick off the new age of gaming!
but all the fun is taking the game graphics and transforming it in your head to resemble the cover art
As someone who lived through that era, let me tell you, the gameplay graphics were never a disappointment. In your mind they looked as good as graphics today. The only thing I can remember being disappointed about was the Nintendo Powerglove. Man, what a collosal, non-working, over hyped advertising lies, piece of shit that thing was!
Mario 3 was the most mind blowing leap in graphics I think I’ve ever experienced.
But if you would have saved it until today you could resell it foe a whole $25 more (of course accounting for inflation it’s actually $105 less)
…
Wait is that true? Did a rare Nintendo product depreciate in value???
It was a mattel product
Nah there were definitely games that had disappointing graphics relative to what I was expecting lol
Although it’s true, we generally were more forgiving about graphics back then than we are these days.
The game in the example is Bad Street Brawler which is every bit as terrible as portrayed. I have it somewhere still. Could never get past like thr second level.
I’m gonna press X to doubt on that one.
No X button on the controller. Just A and B.
Touché.
No, he’s right. The power glove was garbage from the get-go. Really cool cyberpunk thing on paper but … hell, we still aren’t there today!
We absolutely could be “there” today but the lingering aura of the Powerglove is still so powerful that nobody has tried to make a better one. It got clowned on so hard the first time that the echoes of that are still rippling through our global subconscious 35 years later.
Also, Nintendo would probably try to sue you if you sold a glove-based controller, even 35 years later.
I’d argue that haptic gloves, valve index controllers, and hand tracking are there, but the hardware for VR isn’t quite cheap enough for it to be mainstream.
Even if it worked well, the idea was bad from the start. No one wants to control a game with motion controls.
I dunno, Wii seemed to manage it just fine.
The Wizard lied to me for 2 hours about that useless piece of plastic.
Dude, the guy who introduced it in the movie straight up said “it’s so bad!”
Which meant “it’s really really really good” at the time.
Box art back then was more akin to book cover art: an artist’s interpretation of the content. It never disappointed me. I even miss it sometimes. I used to collect images of box art even without the games, because it really was art.
I 💯 went through this disappointment. I used to also love looking at a game’s concept art because they always looked so much cooler and atmospheric than the game. I remember the inflection point clearly. I was playing Mass Effect 3 and walking around the citadel wards/docks, with it’s beautifully detailed textures, evocative colours, and painterly lightshafts, feeling absolutely enthralled, and thinking “Holy shit, they’ve finally done it, the gameplay looks better than the box/concept art.”
I’m so glad I finally got around to playing the ME series. Such a memorable trilogy of games
Holy crap that’s Bad Street Brawler. I have this game still. It’s straight up the worst game I’ve ever played.
To think all you had to do was wait 2 more years for River City Ransom to come out. If only precognition was real.
It’s the same with lots of indie games now. Oh, and mobile ones too
Bro, that stupid game with the guys that shoot barrels to get more fighters/better weapons looked fun. The actual game is a shitty base builder with timed progression, of course you can pay to get past the time locks. Fuck that company and every “influencer” that takes their dirty money.
Back in the day, deep down you knew what you were really getting. I’m a little annoyed these days when indie games use marketing visuals that look like they could be in-game for a modern title and then it’s all pixel art style. I get that you don’t make a pixel art poster, but in that case, go all-in on an art cover don’t let it be mistaken for game graphics.
Back when XBLA got going there were so many games with anime character art that ended up being meh side-scrolling platformers with 8-bit pixel graphics. Looking at the Nintendo eShop… not much has changed. 😄
Uh…bad street brawler was amazing
Looks like a swell game to me!
The “actual game” looks like a Altered Beast that takes place in a US park.
Honestly graphics aren’t really that important compared to the gameplay. Games such as those in the UFO 50 collection are a really good example of that. Also if you actually want a quality god vs satan game with old school graphics then I highly recommend Grimstone.
UFO 50 is so damn good