10 Most Baffling Video Game Covers Ever

By Robert Nichol /

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Game art and gaming have gone hand in hand since the inception of the medium. Before the Internet or magazines and the world of reviews and opinions that come with them, the humble gamer often had little to base their purchasing decision upon. In those early days the box art looked nothing like the actual game, as the game was made up of about 30 pixels. Thus, developers had to draw in gamers with fancy artwork. While there are certainly some great game covers (some even worthy of a framed poster in your gaming cave), there are many that are far from framable. Today we will be looking at a selection of the most baffling gaming covers and attempt to answer some questions about them. Although much like philosophy, bad gaming cover art usually just leads to more questions. In this article we will be taking a look at some of the most unusual design choices taken by developers and explore the odd, unexpected, and sometimes disturbing covers that have graced the covers and cartridges of games through the ages. Without further ado, here is Whatculture€™s Top 10 most baffling video game covers:

10. Imagine: Babyz Party

We start our journey with the most recent release on this list, the anything-but-classic Imagine: Babyz Party. Stylistic spelling errors aside, the cover, featuring a troop of nappy-clad infants behaving like adults is a brilliantly dreadful image. Instead of opting for the highly stylised and cartoon-like babies that inhabit the game, the developers decided to feature four creepy, ethnically ambiguous tots engaging in an apparently unsupervised shindig, complete with confetti, party hats, partial nudity and what no party respectable can do without: maracas. The imagine series is an unfortunately long standing franchise with over 40 titles primarily aimed at the female gamer. With most titles revolving around fashion, pets or babies it's pretty obvious which type of female gamer they are trying to appeal to. This, combined with the fact that they released almost 20 games in 2009 alone suggests that this company won€™t be winning any €œgame of the year€ awards any time soon.