Transport yourself back to the 1990s. It’s Friday night and the local Blockbuster is packed with people. You are scanning the shelves and box arts of the video game isle for something, anything, that you can take home and play for the weekend.
Finally, you come across a game that has amazing box art that catches your eye, and without ever seeing gameplay or reading a review, you find yourself greeted by the game’s title screen as you pop it into your console.
It isn’t long before you realize that you have been misled by the cover art and the game you rented is hot garbage.
You ask yourself, how is this possible? How can a video game adaptation of the ABC hit television series Home Improvement not be a perfect game?
This is the pain that many people of that generation suffered.
Similar to the cover of a book, box art can be an entry point for new experiences. However, also similar to a book, you should never judge one by its cover.
Here are 10 bad video games with some pretty amazing box art:
Kid Kool
Releasing back in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Kid Kool was often compared to games like Mario due to both titles being platformers.
Unfortunately for Kid Kool, that is where the similarities end.
Developed by Vic Tokai, Kid Kool’s plot revolves around saving the King from a deathly illness by finding the Seven Wonder Herbs.
The game is plagued with horrid controls, translation errors and unforgiving enemies that make the game a test of the player’s sanity.
The box art, however, is a completely different story. The kid on the cover is definitely “kool”, sporting a leather vest and bright red converse sneakers while flexing at an evil wizard floating in the sky.
The longer you stare at the cover of Kid Kool, the more you will start to find. The artist understood their game extremely well and implemented as much information as they could into the cover, including hiding their signature in the rock that Kid Kool is perched upon.
This is truly a piece of art that continues to catch eyes to this day. If only Kid Kool was a “kool” video game, it may have missed our list of bad games with amazing box art.
