LGR - Worst Classic PC Game Cover Art 

"If you dont have annotations on... what is wrong with you?" - Me watching from the future where annotations are no longer an option

I'm prety sure Jones in the Fast Lane is trying to mimic business software packaging, which has to be so bland it can't possibly offend anyone.

Turns out that seemingly random _Spear of Destiny_ art is taken from a Boris Vallejo piece, titled _Last Stand!_ And on seeing the whole thing, it's pretty freaking awesome. vallejo.ural.net/1978/show.php?018

The cover for Jones in the Fast Lane made me want to make a spreadsheet of some sort.

My favorite The Mystery of The Druids related thing is that one case where someone printed a whole bunch of that face and hid them all around his friend's apartment. Like his mouse wouldn't be working and then he flipped it over to have that face over the sensor and so on. He kept finding them from places for weeks.

When I saw Mystery of the Druids I thought it read Mystery of the Drugs which I think would explain the face.

0:30 That annotation bit has not aged well at all. RIP RU-vid annotations.

That dragon looks like a pickle.

The "That's Life" artwork looks like the animation from "Food Fight".

Love how that Spear Of Destiny as an "Anti Virus Seal" sticker on it. 'Cause you know, if you don't properly seal your games, they'll get viruses.

I actually didn't realize "Tongue of the Fatman" was just someone's face (as opposed to a deformed 3D model of a human head) until you pointed it out... so I guess their trickery worked on me?

Tracers looks like Spock vs. Hank Hill

I did not realize that was a nose with eyeballs shoved in the nostrils until you pointed it out, and I have watched your Tongue of The Fatman video so many times that I'm embarrassed I didn't notice it sooner.

I dunno man, a dragon made of cucumbers is pretty awesome.

Haha, I remember pretty much all of these boxes! I bought Relentless when I saw that box because I thought it looked so cool. :)

You know mystery of the druids is that bad when you try to search in on google and its full of memes

The cover on That's Life reminds me of that Desperate Housewives game in every single horrible way imaginable.

I actually didn't know it was a nose until out mentioned it.

That Virtuoso one looks like it's "Dog The Bountyhunter, The Game".

Please cover "Mystery Of The Druids". The box art may be bad, but I have no idea what this game is about, and the title alone has got me intrigued as hell.

On "The Kristal" the guy's expression doesn't really look like the face of a man engaged in a sword fight.. it looks more like the face you'd make if a best friend showed you this horrible growth on their skin, and you were simultaneously revolted and concerned.

The Spear of Destiny is traditionally the Roman spear that gave Jesus of Nazareth his last wound when blood and water flowed from his pericardium. Why they have a cover from some Daniele Steel romance novel for the game is beyond me! And by the way, I remember that author's name because I WORKED AT KMART and we sold thousands of her books.

Man...the last one is so bad....it's great!

I remember seeing a thing where this guy printed out hundreds of copies of Mystery of the Druids cover art, and hid them all around his friend's house. "He'll be fucking finding that screaming druid for years" being a quote from it. Makes me giggle every time I see the cover.

the Jones in the Fast Lane box art looks like the cover to some business application, it's actually really fitting

Call me weird, but I actually like the Deep Sea cover art. It's cute, I want to hug that shark, lol. And Ken's Labyrinth is ok, too. Much better than the game (no disrespect to Ken Silverman, but it was barely a game and the art in it was just awful).

"Today is gonna be a contrast from my previous video which you can click on right here..." - No, I can't. Thanks, RU-vid fuckos

As a professional illustrator, I think personally that it's likely that many of these game companies couldn't afford the commission rates for quality or custom art back then, which would be considered "high" for any small or "indie" company. For example: Let's say a small company, maybe a few dudes running it out of a spare room in one of their houses, is ready to design and release a box version of their game for a limited run or test run on the shelves. Factoring in all other costs, an extremely small company like that, given everything else they needed to worry about and essentially get done themselves, very likely only thought about box art actually needing to be done (instead of just a concept) when it came down to the last "stages" of work, which isn't enough time for an artist to really make something high quality, given pre-existing deadlines for publication/printing, which were likely also pressing at that stage of work! This is a common thing; People have concepts and consider it "done" for the time being, but pro tip, hire artists early in the process to avoid bad cover art! And on top of that, it's common that clients (particularly clients who may not have any experience with drawing of any kind or level) sometimes struggle to explain fully the "prompt" of the piece. For an example, I once received a job description from a client in an early project email (well, early for me; for them, the project was close to a close already!) which only read: "A4 sized poster, painting style textures, a crowd of people with at least one man and one woman over the text, situated at the bottom, 90s style colours". WHAT? I need more information if I'm going to make you exactly what you want! And then that client proceeded to yell at me and call me a "bad artist" when I asked for more details, sigh. (Not saying these game devs were mean to their artists, but often, stress and heavy approaching deadlines can turn anyone into an asshole, especially if a passion project product is on the line, which was often the case with early "indie" game companies who were figuring things out in the early days, or so I've heard from older illustrators. And unfortunately, STEM field people sometimes tend to look down on us artists pretty severely, so sometimes you get genuinely mean people, although thankfully that's relatively rare, and in the gaming industry people tend to value their artists a little more!) Hopefully this provides some insight as to WHY the box art sucks so bad in some cases! This is only two possible reasons, but they're pretty common in projects like these for us illustrators, so I figure it may be the case for some of these as well. Kinda wish there were behind the scenes material for stuff like this!

Aww, I like the Deep Sea pinball art - it's cute!

LGR in 60fps?? :D

9:33 the dragon looks like a pickle

Worst Box Art? Like, every Sega Master System game ever.

'Heartlight' and 'Robbo' (11:45), are the games originally written for the Atari, by a polish genius Janusz Pelc, who was about 18 years old by the time. specially Robbo was a massive hit in Poland, and has pushed the boundaries in Atari graphics by then. Nobody could believe, that such beautiful colors could have been generated out of simple Atari machine :)

HAHAHA Poor little big adventure. I remember when I choose it from the shelf of a store, with just 6 or 7 years old. I remember my thoughts exactly when look at the cover: -Angry guy? Check -Sword? Check -Dragon? Check -Castle? Check And that's all, I told my dad to buy this one and I don't regret at all! What a great game for god's sake.

Little big adventure 1 and 2 are some of my fav games ever! and i picked up number 2 from a closing down sale and didnt know what it was, i just wanted an adventure game, a FPS (quake 2), and some strategy games. MAX 2 (ew) and Conquest earth (not bad but forgettable) i got 4 games for 100 hong kong dollars.

90 bucks for a Cdv game?! Australia needs an adult.

I love going through the LGR backlog when I can't sleep, thanks LGR!

Hehehehe these are legitimately cringeworthy! Nice work!

11:20 "Get me outta here" Pretty sick to imagine that this dog is actually a sentient being crying out beyond space in time for anyone to help him because he's trapped in some sort of nightmarish purgatory dimension surrounded by small PEZ Dispenser-esque statues of his deceased companions.

Why does “Welcome to the Future” have BSE (aka Mad Cow Disease) in large text on the front?!

the alternate art for 'out of this world' just screams tim & eric to me, and i love it.

I think the Deep sea cover was pretty good in his way.

I'm an artist and I love videos like this. From my perspective, video game covers are different from fine art so it's fine to critique them because they are a commercial product first. In the case of "Ken's Labyrinth", "Jill of the Jungle", etc. it might be a little unfair to blame the graphic designer / illustrator for the weird art style. The person responsible for choosing the appropriate style / artist is usually the Art Director. Maybe the company just hired whoever they could get?

I agree %100! More effort needed from EA on LBA's art lol.

90$ in Australian dollars still is around 75$, this better be a fkin good game! lol games were overpriced back then. I remember SNES cartridges at around 80$ right? Poor parents back then...lol

would megaman be on this list if it weren't just PC games?

Its weird watching people in 60fps, im used to it in pc gaming but, you rarely ever see film in 60 fps. I do like it though.

I really think the Deep Sea pinball box art looks actually kind of nice... if it were accurate to the game at all, that is. It would definitely fit a stylised cartoon game about fish adventures or something.

With a lot of these, it made me think either "were they tripping?" or "how lazy were they feeling that day?" Some of them were pretty entertaining though :)

I actually like the Deep Sea cover art. The shark is almost adorable with its blunt edges and nightmarish tooth-circle.

Gotta love that "Anti-Virus Seal" sticker on the Spear of Destiny cover.

"Everything about these smells like poo" I lost it, straight up laughing.

I immediately had to play Jones in the fast lane after seeing this.

i have a question: mystery of the druids is 90.00?? is the disk made of a rare metal?

I never noticed that the face on The Tounge of the Fat Man was a nose.

Hi Clint ! You say Little Big Adventure is a great game in this video, so maybe you could review it sometime. I remember my father buying me LBA 2 when I was a kid, it was wonderful ... The game was created by French developer Frederic Raynal, who was a kind of pioneer in 3d graphics PC games (he also made alone in the dark). Maybe you already know that. Thank you for your funny and interesting videos !

Re: Spear Of Destiny box art. This seems to be inspired by the ending screens when you beat the game. It uses the same Black-And-Brown shading, though the box art has a little more red in it. But yes - to anyone who hasn't actually beaten the game, the box art doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. :-)

I'd love to see you talk about Little Big Adventure 1 and 2. LBA 2 is my favourite one since it's less 'dark' than the first one. LBA needs more attention since it is so underrated!

All Epic Megagames games in '93 - '94 had the worst box art. Cartoon-y, very little to do with the game. But they were decent games. Ken's Labyrinth, Jazz Jackrabbit, Zone 66, all the Pinball games, all pretty good games, all goofy boxes.

I think you're being a bit hard on the LBA cover. Yeah, it's terrible 90's CGI, but it's the best they could manage at the time, and it's not like the game itself looked any better. At the very least it's indicative of the artstyle and characters. If anything, the PS1 version cover was worse because it's just a cropped picture of Twinsen from the PC cover with a logo slapped on it. Nevertheless, a very entertaining video as always ;) That black monster's nose-tusks on the Out Of This World cover tickle my funny bone.

$90 AUD in 2001 was about $46 USD, which is still sort of expensive for a crappy PC game in 2001, but I recall N64 games selling for like $50 USD so it's not too crazy.

I wait years for you to talk about Little Big Adventure and this is it's first appearance on this channel!? DAMN YOU! Oh, and the image depicts the Temple of Bu which is suspended in the mantle type area of the planet. Not entire sure why, or how, Twinsen and Dino-fly are there but I guess it's just to illustrate the main character. As others have said at least it gives an honest representation of the art style, though the font on the American version is disgusting :p.

VIRTUOSO might not have been a good game but I really liked it. It had some really neat atmosphere. I loved it's music, but not the CD quality, but the PC midi music. It was so catchy.

Still they are better than today's generic manly man with a weapon posing for the camera.

It's Another World (Out of this World) but the source material is never used. (0:59)

Whao. 60fps. So strange. I love tongue of the fatman!! Yeh, I kinda dig the wierd art on it. (it is such a wierd game). Dang now I want a new copy. Hmm. Hope GOG has it.

With Mystery of the Druids, it came out back when the Australian Dollar was down around 60 US cents, so 90 dollars was quite close to the equivalent prices in the US for new games. Its just a pity the prices didn't drop as the Australian dollar got stronger.

seems like Problem Sleuth, a comic by none other than Andrew Hussie, has references to The Mystery of the Druids. for example, in TMotD, you have to re-assemble a phone to use it to progress in the game. the same thing happens in PS. also, PS uses a similar drag-and-drop inventory system.

I thought Mass effect 2 and Binary Domain have the worst cover in gaming history....apparently I was wrong.

6:23 - "I AM CORNHOLIO! Are you threatening me? I need teepee...for my bunghole!" lol ;)

Seems like steam greenlight type of games existed 20+ years ago.

Just wanted to let you know, due to my current location, Internet is slow as heck. So, I put this on 144p and listen to it at .5x speed so it buffers sometime sooner than next week. The entertainment value produced by this is exceptional.

So, what's your rationale for picking the best and the worst artwork? Is it technical-based? Or is it more towards relevance and the ability to capture your attention and making you want to buy it?

That sharks mouth and teeth are totally messed up. Guess the artist missed his art classes explaining perspective.

I think one of the most obnoxious bits of art on a box I have is Phantasy Star IV, thing is it's well rendered but it's not accurate. It's done by Boris Valjeo, it's well painted and is a classic style fantasy pic. Thing is the actual game is an RPG with 90's styled anime in comicbook-like cutscenes. The manual is also filled with more anime styled stuff so it's so confusing and strange.

Whoa your selection is very balanced, from flat out ugly designs to boring and disorganized design layouts. I like how you focused on different types of ugly instead of just obviously ugly box arts. Thanks for the excellent quality videos, keep on at it LGR!

Oh my god I want spear of destiny on a poster and a t shirt! I love it! Its so much cheese its cool!

I guess RU-vid made us all really strange by disabling annotations. What is wrong with You... tube?

Rip annotations :(

BSE on Welcome to the Future: did they know at the time that was another term for Mad Cow Disease? Woops.

Fatman art is pretty scary, the problem is where is the tongue?

That Spear of Destiny cover is to Spear of Destiny what the Silent Hill moves are to the Silent Hill games.

I recognize the "eyes" they used in that Tongue of the Fatman boxart. The came from a kids toy from the 90s. Yeah, that's right. They couldn't be bothered to get proper prop eyes, they just used some bits they got from a toy.

That Spear of Destiny's cover almost made me spit out my morning coffee, bravo!

0:27 People in 2021 are strange

$89.95?! Jesus Christ.

i'd love to go to camp corn and cheese!

6:21 We don't blame you, man. Is there any other reason 4chan loves this cover so much?

mmm.. 60fps smoothness

LBA 1 had a different box art where I live...

The "That's Life" female looks like a younger Hillary Clinton.

$90 for a PC game?! Madness.

The Virtuoso cover is kinds cool.

That Spear of Destiny box art is *FANTASTIC*! It somehow manages to simultaneously be both the worst and best box art I have ever seen XD

hory shiet, yours is the first video in which i clearly see the difference between 30 and 60fps. will have to get used to it! also, am i the only one who sometimes feels like you're lypsincing? the audio quality is TOO DAMN HIGH, i need to hear lipsmacking and breathing!

Mystery of the Druids looks like a Residents album. I don't know, something about the CGI quality, his expression/clothes, even the title

you should do a quickie explanation and review of these games. N.B - I like how the Little Big Adventure box art is the only box art of it's generation that accurately reflects the in game graphics and content. You've got to hand it to them; they were at least honest about it :)

Having seen Retsupurae play Mystery of the Druids, I can say the druid on the cover is in shock because of what the protagonist does

4:40 oh hey, Spoony made it on a video game cover!