Mario och Luigi

April 13, 2009 8:31 AM

Criterion Collection box art for video games.
posted by geoff. (25 comments total)

I was thinking about posting this, but since there's no attribution and no context I didn't. Interesting anyhow.
posted by orville sash at 8:34 AM on April 13, 2009

I like how the one for Final Fantasy X-2 gets right to the point.
posted by HostBryan at 8:40 AM on April 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

I believe they're from the NeoGAF forums. Linked all over the place, original here.
posted by box at 8:43 AM on April 13, 2009

There was a nearly identical project on the Something Awful forums a month or two ago. I swear that one was FPP'd too.
posted by flatluigi at 8:45 AM on April 13, 2009

Really cool, thanks for posting this. I can now admit in relative anonymity that I picked up Shadow of the Colossus fully intending to do nothing for a week but play it - and found myself stumped by the transition from Xbox 360 to PS 2 controls. Sigh.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 8:45 AM on April 13, 2009

Very uneven. Some of these clearly are familiar with the Criterion style (the killer7 one is absolutely perfect) and some of them must have never seen one in their lives (Heavenly Sword). Bonus points to Black & White for not using the words.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:48 AM on April 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

There are some nice ones there, but I liked the original SA post a bit better. Articled here - 1, 2, 3. The results were a bit classier.
posted by graventy at 8:50 AM on April 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

Ah, found the Metafilter post.
posted by graventy at 8:52 AM on April 13, 2009

I figured the Black & White one was more of a dig at Molyneux. Kind of like how Stephen King novels have the title as fine print.
posted by Decimask at 9:06 AM on April 13, 2009

Portal's was very clever.
posted by DU at 9:23 AM on April 13, 2009

Some of these were cool, but I can tell you that none of them were as cool as the actual Legend of Zelda box and gold-colored cartridge on Christmas morning.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:29 AM on April 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

Maybe a change in box-art is what's needed to convince the "games are not art" crowd. I don't think anyone enjoyed Heaven's Sword enough that a Criterion Collection type edition would be warranted, though.
posted by boo_radley at 9:50 AM on April 13, 2009

none of them were as cool as the actual Legend of Zelda box and gold-colored cartridge on Christmas morning

I always get a little jealous of people that got to experience this. (My parents, for some reason, avoided first-party titles at that time.)
posted by pokermonk at 9:51 AM on April 13, 2009

That gold colored cartridge was pretty damn sweet.
posted by cavalier at 10:06 AM on April 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

(Eeek! Err.. sorry pokermonk.. I didn't read your comment.. I swear.. not rubbing it in..)
posted by cavalier at 10:06 AM on April 13, 2009

honestly, I wish some of this design sensibility would go into game art these days. not everything needs it, obviously, but not every box needs to look like a one sheet for an action movie, either.

also, i first asked for zelda for xmas because of that bitchin' gold cartridge. the quality game inside was almost a surprise bonus.
posted by shmegegge at 10:23 AM on April 13, 2009

none of them were as cool as the actual Legend of Zelda box and gold-colored cartridge on Christmas morning

I always get a little jealous of people that got to experience this.

The gold cartridge impressed 8-year-old me, but after "playing" (i.e. wandering around aimlessly) for half an hour, I told my dad it was awful and boring and that he should just take it back. He had to yell a bit, but eventually Toys 'R' Us relented and exchanged that gilded turd for the latest Mario.

I wanted to like it, honest!
posted by Sys Rq at 10:30 AM on April 13, 2009

Sys Rq, did you read the manual? The original Zelda's manual is much more important than most games, giving hints to finding the early dungeons. The sealed map that came with it is helpful too.

I really like the covers in general. I think almost every one of them would be a better cover than the game actually got.
posted by JHarris at 11:20 AM on April 13, 2009

Glad to see Ashley Wood made the cut with his Metal Gear Solid art!
posted by Ct314 at 11:49 AM on April 13, 2009

Glad to see Another World in there. Otherwise the quality/selection seemed pretty random.
posted by HumanComplex at 12:28 PM on April 13, 2009

"after 'playing' (i.e. wandering around aimlessly) for half an hour, I told my dad it was awful and boring"

Heathen. I still have my gold-colored cartridge. It still works*.

*shake shake blow in it jiggle it up and down power off on off on reset reset HOO YEAH it works! Oh wait, no, crap it deleted the first saved game file again... hell.
posted by caution live frogs at 2:20 PM on April 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Sys Rq, did you read the manual?

I'm fairly certain I did eventually, out of "I must be missing something," but by then it was too late; I was already thoroughly steeped in disappointment. IIRC, there seemed to be a first step that required happening upon something which, as it happens, I never happened to happen upon. But that was twenty years ago, so maybe I'm misremembering.

Anyway, that one bad experience put me off fantasy games for good, meaning I would never become a Final Fantasy or WoW junkie. For that, I am eternally grateful.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:29 PM on April 13, 2009

My husband pulled his gold cartridge out of the cupboards and finished a fresh game this weekend. Perfect use of an Easter.
posted by subbes at 5:49 PM on April 13, 2009

The Cover Project carries a lot of actual usable DVD covers. The one linked to above is neat for the pack-ins that don't carry an actual DVD case.
posted by pwnguin at 11:13 PM on April 13, 2009

Some sharp covers in there and some poor ones. I have to agree that I think this level of box art design would be nice to see more often.

Also, a lot of games that don't seem to be worthy of the Criterion treatment seem to be included. Or is that just me?
posted by davros42 at 2:08 PM on April 14, 2009