Hated video game art of the 90s - pre-PS2

[Mister Six]

As a companion piece to @George White's thread on great pre-PS2 video game art, here's one for the stuff you loathed, for aesthetic reasons or anything else.

Here's one I hated as a kid. This is actually an advert, but the cover had the same ghastly, sick-making image of a screaming man whose flesh and limbs are being devoured by some kind of horrific disease...



I remember being haunted by that cover, on display in the basement of the Virgin Megastore at the top of Briggate in Leeds. Had to avert my eyes; I felt positively unclean, looking at the sadistic glee with which the poor suffering bloke was depicted.

This, on the other hand, was just shit:



And the game was even worse.

And while Resi 2's PAL cover rightfully gets pride of place over in the good thread, its predecessor - with a Chris Redfield who has apparently gone through reconstructive surgery after falling face first into an industrial blender - belongs right here.

[Lemming]

Fuck's going on here? Admittedly, this is right on the borderline between being in this thread and being in the superb cover art thread.



Having the only female character be wearing that stupid fucking costume is bad enough, but the way her entire spine is twisted and snapped with her gut pushed forward is a real body horror situation, the kind of thing that can only be drawn by an artist who has never seen another human. The biggest AI-art anatomical fuckup is still less bad than that. It's a shame because the cover might be alright otherwise.



Bust-A-Move is just Bubble Bobble. I don't know why, instead of the easily recognisable dinosaur mascot, they chose this for the American box art. Has a very 90s gaming magazine feel, where an advert for a new SoundBlaster card would be, like, a full-page photograph of a man's head being thrust through a windshield with his brains flying out or whatever. For comparison, here's the Japanese box art for the Game Boy version:


In fact, a lot of American boxart of Japanese games could qualify - Phalanx is probably the most famous example, but I love the American box art for that one.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

germ crazy

googled this piece of shit and it jumpscared me

https://youtu.be/Tq4br284HIw?t=32

[Mister Six]

Lex Luthor, AFAB transitioning Sigourney Weaver, Donald Trump, Master Chief and some cunt with a SNES bazooka are looking well.

Fuck me, I think we can just close the thread right here, can't we?

[Magnum Valentino]

And while Resi 2's PAL cover rightfully gets pride of place over in the good thread, its predecessor - with a Chris Redfield who has apparently gone through reconstructive surgery after falling face first into an industrial blender - belongs right here.

QI Klaxon - that's not Chris, it's Richard Aiken, the guy you meet outside the snake room. It's taken from a promo comic which follows him through the mansion.



I've always enjoyed covering one of his eyes at a time and letting my brain give him a complete single expression.

But yeah it does look like Chris, unlike his gun, which looks like NOTHING. What is that thing?!

[George White]

 

Is that Jasper Carrott?

[Glebe]

Is that Jasper Carrott?

Jasper was preparing to become host of Golden Balls by being an actual ball.

[bgmnts]

Classic

[The Crumb]

That expression, the ridiculous tagline, that Puzzle Bobble cover is a perfect proto YouTube thumbnail.

[oggyraiding]

The game was good but at as a four year old the cover art shat me up, I would attribute my fear of clowns to this art.

[Catalogue Trousers]

Good old Ashens came out with a whole presentation of awful computer game artwork. I'll link the YouTube video below, but first, a trio of his picks:







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFF9O73iwko

[Glebe]

Matt Hancock: The Early Years.

[Mister Six]

I quite like the cover of Graffiti Man.

And I think I had a copy of Biff! Might have just been on a covertape or something though.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Baffling. What are they shooting at?

[Glebe]

They appear to be destroying the game logo itself.

[curiousoranges]

Nothing wrong with this box art for the Japanese release of Wrestle War for the Mega Drive. Except the game didn't feature Hulk Hogan, or any real wrestlers. Bit cheeky.

They used a different head for the pic on the Western release.

[Magnum Valentino]

That's clearly Titan Mogan mate, no harm done.

[kidney]

[Kankurette]

Oh Christ. Everything about Bubsy 3D was horrible, the graphics looked like something out of Lander.

[QDRPHNC]

In fact, a lot of American boxart of Japanese games could qualify

Absolutely this, the artwork on the US SNES / Megadrive releases were woeful. This being the one that sticks with me:





"Yeah, can you just make it more lifeless? More... more... Perfect. And you're sure these are two of the least iconic characters of the era, yes? Lovely."

[bgmnts]

Oh my god Sagat looks so fucking sad there getting hit by E Honda.

Want to give him a hug.

[samadriel]

It's funny how bad we (my friends and cousins)  were at fighting games as kids, and we'd all think almost every character in SF2 had an outrageous advantage that in fact anyone could bypass with a little early experimentation.  The hundred hand slap! Lightning legs! Fireball zoning! Stretchy limbs!  Electricity! The spinning piledriver -- the most damaging move in the game! Guile's turtling! I bought into all our apprehension regarding these moves,  and yet the funny thing was, I wiped the floor with all my associates in SF2, it's one of the few games I've ever been a contender in. I actually had to say "Yeah, that wasn't fair, I shouldn't have won that one" to keep my cousin mollified so I'd still have someone to play. I'm no match for dedicated players in SF6 these days, but I guess I'm a crusher of noobs.

Oops, off topic.  Oh well!

[Obel]

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

That one is so bizarre, it's kind of brilliant.

[Mister Six]

Perfect.

Alan Moore's looking well etc.

[El Unicornio, mang]

There's a whole thing here about the video game art in the 80s that cheekily stole from Arnie movie posters.

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2022/09/random-is-arnold-schwarzenegger-the-centre-of-the-gaming-universe

[Misspent Boners]

Oh Christ. Everything about Bubsy 3D was horrible, the graphics looked like something out of Lander.

The game so bad it made me shit myself.

Would've been around 10, had a mate staying over and I was lying on my bunk bed (bottom bunk) playing while he was sat on the floor watching. Just out of nowhere exploded out of my backside like never before or since, like went everywhere. Can only surmise it was the game

That whole era, where developers were trying to exploit the idea of 3d before it was had truly been fully realised, was so horrible...walking round a desolate and lifeless chessboard like environment like in Sonic 3d...I would've got that for my bday around the same time and was so excited as a Sonic fan; I cried when I played it

[Thursday]

[

I remember Playstation magazines really bigging up this game in previews. "Oh it's going to be a Mario Beater!" A phrase that would be used for every mascot- 3d Platformer, then the demo and reviews came out and it was just really bad. The reviews weren't great but mostly just kind of mediocre 6/10's.

A real awakening to me as an 11 year old. "Oh they're just trying to sell you on the idea of Playstation being good so they're trying to convince you it's as good as the N64 platformers."

Rascal - The game that taught me that game critics are either lying or stupid.

[Magnum Valentino]

That's interesting as I remember Rascal having an absolutely dogshit reception at the time. I had the demo and it felt horrible to control. I wonder did I just read one scathing review, probably in OPSMUK. Anywhere to look those up online?

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I remember that about Rascal as well. Screenshots looked good but then a demo appeared on a covermount disc (probably with the official PS magazine, I expect) and the camera rendered the game unusable. As far as I can remember this wasn't fixed for the full release- I seem to recall it being mentioned in reviews