Ok, so I love cover art. It was the first thing we saw while buying a game. It would make us pick up that box and give it a closer look. Usually leading up to revelation that screenshots on the back are not as cool as cover art on the front. :D

So what are some of your favorite covers?

I'll start with:

Another World

Secret of Mana

Sacrifice

Hey, cool idea! A few more:

Blackout
Plenty rough and nasty, no?

Quarantine
So stylish!

Super Oswald
True art!

Impossible Mission
One of my first games ever. This cover is just so "the eighties".

Isle of the Dead
I think this is for the uncensored one.

Harvester
Cheesy, yet stylish!

Far Cry: Blood Dragon
It feels like a poster for a great eighties action flick I wish I had seen.

I don't know if this counts as cover art but this box for Postal.

What you can't tell is that those bullet holes go all the way through. Simple but it was so cool.

My favorites are probably The Legend of Dragoon and Majora's Mask. The former is balanced well, and the latter broke out of a long-standing tradition of boring Zelda box art while punching you in the face with something every bit as dark and weirdly colorful as the game itself.

I have a soft spot for the Breath of Fire covers, though. The first game's cover was kind of generic, but it's amazing when you compare it to how Ryu and all of his friends are so much more muscular and angry for the sequel's cover art. It was disappointing to find out that the third and fourth games broke from that trend. It would have been amazing to eventually get to the point where the cover art is 100% biceps and rage.

The Fire Emblem series has some good covers, too. is probably my favorite, though [url=http://images.nintendolife.com/games/wii/fire_emblem_radiant_dawn/cover_large.jpg]Radiant Dawn has a pretty good one, too. Seisen no Keifu has the best worst cover I've ever seen. That face is a meme waiting to happen.

I love the japanese cover for Demon's Souls. That's your character in the cover. Dead.

I actually don't think the Souls games are that hard, it's just that people are used to beating most things on their first try, and in the Souls games you need to be okay with the fact it might take a few tries before you learn how to deal with a challenge or boss fight. You gotta roll with the punches, and this cover does an amazing job at setting the stage and drilling into you the mindset you need to beat the game, that death is a part of it. It's such a huge contrast from most covers that try to make your character look like a badass.

The japanese covers in the general have been pretty good. Conveying the feeling of a challenging and arduous journey. It had a knight taking some much needed respite by the fire in Dark Souls 1, and another collapsed knight in Dark Souls 2.

Such a stark difference to the standard western covers, with their [url=http://darksouls.wdfiles.com/local--files/start/na-cover-art.png]badass with his [url=http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/darksouls/images/f/f7/Bloodborne_cover.png/revision/latest?cb=20140816145351]back turned to the camera.

The one exception being the cover for Dark Souls 3 which is the same in all regions. Maybe there's some thematic relevance going on there, with the ashes, but it still reminds me more of the lazy photoshop made by the marketing firm's intern we found in the previous western box art.

THIS!

In all seriouslyness... in this stage of evolution, a limited human mind can't truly comprehend the mindbending awesomeness of this piece!

Thief: Gold

Stronghold (European cover)

Age of Empires and The Rise of Rome

Civilization II: Test of Time

RollerCoaster Tycoon (European cover)

I recently bought a LCD game, original box included:

In my opinion the covers of the 80s and 90s are superior to the photoshoped covers nowadays. Some examples:

Hard Nova

, [url=http://www.mobygames.com/game/ishar-2-messengers-of-doom/cover-art/gameCoverId,82746/]Ishar 2, Ishar 3

, [url=http://www.mobygames.com/game/turrican-ii-the-final-fight/cover-art/gameCoverId,384980/]Turrican 2, Turrican 3

, [url=http://www.mobygames.com/game/z-out/cover-art/gameCoverId,95278/]Z-Out

Katakis

Eye of the Beholder, Eye of the Beholder 2, Eye of the Beholder 3

Awesome stuff guys. :)

Here's more:

Discworld Noir

The Thing

The G.G. Shinobi

Icewind Dale and it's expansion Heart of Winter

and a bunch more expansions

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles

Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods

StarCraft: Brood War

Quake Mission Pack No. I and No. II

Here are a few more:

Rings of Medusa

Death or Glory: The Battle of Morgan

Crusader: No Remorse, Crusader: No Regret

Uridium 2

Game Over, Game Over 2

Castle Master

Invest

Zone Warrior

First Samurai

Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds and all other games of the Gold Box series.

DSA: Schicksalsklinge (Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny), DSA: Sternenschweif (Realms of Arkania: Star Trail), DSA: Schatten über Riva (Realms of Arkania III: Shadows over Riva)

Here's a few of my favourites:
- Soul Reaver
- Soul Reaver 2
- The Last of Us
- Dragon Quest VIII
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
- Rogue Galaxy
- Final Fantasy XII

Ohhh I have quite a few... later.

Until then, I leave you with an article about the "golden age" of game covers. ... I wish we would do that again. Hire traditional artists for the covers. Drew Struzan has only done a handful of Indiana Jones game covers... there should be more. :(

Humanity has gone too far into full retard mode for real beauty/art.