AVGN Bad Game Covers - The Complete Marathon! 

I would love the nerd to be a museum guide

They showed us this video in class a while back. I'm a graphics designer in training, and our lecturer showed us this video to show us how these video game artworks are bad examples of portraying the product related to the artwork. He told us straight, that this sort of thing must be avoided at all costs when designing an artwork, logo, poster or any graphic for that matter. It has to fit with the composition otherwise it looks out of place. And they criticize us for work that fits the description of those seen in this video, if you catch my drift.

1:29 James trying to NOT smile is adorable. :3

Mega-man, perfect for people with no necks! “Finally! A game poifect for me!”

Dont judge a book by its cover. But you can judge the cover

"They called Lil Jon, and he was like, 'WHAT!'." Best part

James, as someone who has studied art and design and works in the field, your analysis of each piece is totally valid. That's what's funny.

Snow White looks like some awful Video Brinquedo nightmare

SNOW WHITE AND THE 7 CLEVER BOOOOOOOYS!!! WHAT IS THAT F**KING NAME!!!

Maybe the old guy playing the banjo was the pilot in the game of Phalanx.

The Mega Man 1 cover truly is horrendous.

I'm not gonna lie. I genuinely love the Phalanx cover.

The Treasure Master cover looks like it was designed by 90s Kid. "duuuude! the cover needs aliens, sharks and spiders on computer chips!"

14:01 "Snow white and the 7 clever booooooooooooys"

I'm impressed by how deep he actually gets with these.Jame's nails the creativity aspect once again

"Dot Gobbler"... Jesus Christ, that's hilarious, and accurately describes Pac-Man.

33:06 For the record, nobody actually won the contest. It was quietly canceled due to the political unrest going on at the time with the fall of Romania's notoriously harsh dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.

I miss this series already!

"I didn't know they stacked shit this high!" Nice Full Metal Jacket refrence

I thought the cover said "Snow White and the Seven ELEVEN Boys".

I was surprised and kind of disappointed that the baby 'artwork' in the intro wasn't actually part of the series. I really wanted to see that awful cover ripped to pieces.

I actually always thought the Phalanx cover was actually really badass.

I remember seeing phalanx in the store when I was kid and being utterly baffled.

Killer kong made me laugh so hard I almost cried

He should do the greatest game covers....Ninja Gaiden on the NES comes to mind...bad ass ninja with a burning city behind him.

Mega Man cover. Kinda reminds me of works from Picasso's cubism phase.

"Phoenix Games didn't realize you don't make it look like the in game graphics..." Oh nerd, if you only knew what the game actually looks like.

Here because Eliminator Boat Duel is going to be on Nintendo Switch Online

I wish there was another marathon with the NERD about crazy box art. This was such a fun addition to AVGN.

Phalanx was actually genius cover art. The goal of covers wasn't to hang in a museum, they were to get you to pick up the box off the shelf to check the game out. An old man playing a banjo made the game stand out. WAY more people checked the box out than if they had some generic spaceship shooter cover art. In every sense that mattered, the Phalanx cover was a massive success. The worst cover art is something that convinces you NOT to get a game despite everything else. In that sense, I would nominated Final Fantasy 3's cover with that stupid moogle. I was the biggest fan of FF2 and the Final Fantasy Legend gameboy games. FF3 wasall but a cetain buy for me. But then I saw that moogle and wondered if they had dumbed it down to some baby game like they did with Mystic Quest. On top of that, they had ONE screenshot on the back and they somehow managed to find the single dullest shot in the entire game to put there (and on top of that, gave it some warped slant to make it seem like some sidescroller). That cover took what was a guaranteed buy, and made me hold off buying it for over a year until overwhelming word of mouth told me the game was actually great.

We're long overdue for a part 2 this year in 2020!

42:12 this made me burst out in laughter.

13:17 I want to hear the complete song. Now!

"Running through the maze of never ending sexual frustration" Lmao

Saw this on recommended... Clicked on it... Ended up watching the whole thing... Enjoyed it... And wanted MOOORE!!!!

Please make a sequel for this series! It's THAT gooood!

The dog from Scrapyard dog looks more like a Koala than a dog lol

13:09 I am a bit disappointed there was no mention of what is clearly a bootleg X-Wing image on the cover.

24:31 Wwwwwhat!!!!! 24:40 Oooooookay!!!! 24:45 Yeeeeeeeaah!!!!

I love how the Nerd picked surprisingly appropriate background music for each game cover.

The AVGN talking about art theory. SERIES PLEASE!

AVGN can you please play Turbo Trucks on the PS2? It won't disappoint you...

You could genuinely make this as a little side series of the AVGN. As a visual artist myself, I found the world of Box arts fascinating and I feel there's a lot to talk about. You should do a video about the cases of plagiarism in cover arts.

The Lil John impression had me laughin' hard, then it made me sad, cause me and my old best friend used to do Lil John impressions all the time back in the day when we were drinking together. But he died 7 years ago when he was 20. RIP Bro

24:30 "... So they got lil' jon and ask him and he said: What?????" Lol

I loved this series. I hope you continue doing this.

"Warning this game is badass, woof woof"

So can we get a full version of the "Old Man Phalanx" song? (Sorry, I've been watching these again at work today)

My version of Commander Shepard was inspired by the face of that Mega Man box art. In his 40's, scars on his face and body, and kind of surly looking.

"Street Hockey '95" reminds me of "Honk Kong '97".

I've seen the cover of Phalanx before, but never zoomed in. I can't believe they were able to put an X-Wing fighter on the cover and get away with it.

49:57 James can smile with a frown :()

I hope he does another one of these this year.

Rallo Gump is nearly 300MB? Holy shit.

Joel: GRAPHEC DESIGN IS MAH PASSION.

Killer Kong: Partial tracing of the Grinch turned into a gorilla. Hammerin' Harry: Goonies/Rambo mashup

dollar store brand colored pencils is a perfect representation

Killer Kong looks like some awkward middle school kid getting his picture taken

The eliminator boat duel cover has such a good vaporwave aesthetic going on

This video is my happy place.

6:03 - I almost started to cry.

why didn't i watch this until now????

12:47 I don't know if this was intentional or not, but the man in the Phalanx cover art was actually a professional Mall Santa.

I have been through almost all of your stuff (5/3/2020). I have to say, your 2015 season is where you really hit your stride. In fact, I think it was your best stuff. I still watch and love your work, but if you are looking for an opportunity to fine-tune, you might look back to 2015. It's the stuff I rewatch.

Where's Dot Gobbler & Super Bust-A-Move from the thumbnail??

never got a chance to watch any these so glad it was made into one video. Thanks James. :D

I think the best line in the whole series is: 40:12 "Stare at it long enough, you'll grow a mullet." For whatever reason I die laughing every time!

the cover art for Scrapyard Dog features what looks like ersatz Wallace & Gromit rip-offs.

"SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN CLEVER BOOOOOOOOYS... WHAT IS THIS FUCKING GAME!? WHO MADE THIS!?!?!?"

6:05 YO MAN. WASSUP!

"I'll tel you where you can jam it" I'm weak😂

The old man on the Phalanx cover was literally a Santa for 25 years lol.

The Phalanx at 12:21 looks like a X-Wing from Star Wars

Do this again this year! :D

47:31 All Might from My Hero Academia? 😂

The Ultimate Stuntman cover is awesome. It's meant to be hyper-masculine and nothing wrong with that.

Mega Man on Mega Man 1 does a little "Hip to be square" dance.

You should do more of these, there are soooo many bad covers and your analysis of these is so well done

19:50 I've been trying to remember the name of an obscure, bad DOS game I played years ago. "Gateworld" jogged my memory and-- what do you know! It's the name of the game I was looking for!

that lil john joke was my favorite. XD

I greatly appreciated this series while it lasted, I would welcome another segment of it!

This was a good series. Thank you for making it all for one video.

Eliminator Boat Duel is the most Vaporwave cover I've ever seen

I love Cinemassacre with a very large portion of my heart. ♥️

I wasn't prepared for SUP MAN!! That was hilarious.

Wish we could've seen some actual gameplay from all these monstrosities. This series had potential to be legendary.

I can literally look at bad game/movie/album cover art all frickin day! Love it!

I love this compilation. I watch it every holiday season 😊👍

A lot of these game covers would be better if they included no images.

The Super Bust a Move on PS2 cover gives me strength.

Watching this every year is a welcome new tradition; thank you again

I love how he starts off sounding articulate, pretentious and wordy and slowly slips into his signature style of vulgarity, profanity and rambling. Well Done!

Eliminator Boat Duel. V A P O R W A V E before it was cool.

I didnt know what to expect for this video, i love how he is actually giving artistic analysis of each image, fucking hilarious

No one: Hammerin’ Harry: *M y C o C k i S s O h A a R r D*

you had me in tears....such an awesome show

Well. This made my morning right here.

James, after all these years, you still crack me up like nobody. I really have to stop here and come back tomorrow or I'll wake up the neighbors from laughing

These series are all the best, I missed these series so much.

I never knew I needed this video in my life so much. Thank you 😊