Real Talk By: Steph-O

Hey folks, I chose five box art covers for games released between Holiday 2011 and March 2012. For the Winter 2012 Box Art report card. Here’s how they fared:

Assassins Creed Revelations

I really like the cleanliness of this design. It also stays true to past Assassin’s Creed box art covers by featuring Ezio on a blurred background with a white and red title. I would have liked to see a little less abstract background on this cover though. The maps in the Assassin’s Creed are, in my opinion, one of the game’s great features, and it’s too bad that they ignore them on the game cover(s). However, they may have stuck to a simple background here to further highlight one of the game’s other protagonists, Altair, who shares the spotlight with Ezio.

Out of Five

Asura’s Wrath

I have mixed feelings about this cover. Composition wise it fares well, with a 2/3 orange 1/3 blue contrasting background featuring Asura leaping out towards the viewer. I like that enemy boss Great Wyzen is shown in the background, but the composition downplays the fact that this enemy is HUGE- larger than Earth. Also, I think more of Asura himself could have been included, or artwork that shows some of the Hindu influences in the game liked the example below.

Out of Five

Soul Calibur V
Ezio is featured on a second box cover this season alongside other Soul Calibur characters.  Although Soul Calibur is a well established fighting game franchise, I like that the characters are still engaged in combat, making for a more dynamic image. I would still not have minded a simpler cover, like the alternate version below that features the Soul Swords.

Out of Five

Twisted Metal (2012 release)
It’s interesting how white and blown out this cover is for a game that has otherwise very dark artwork, but maybe that’s the point, since this game takes place in a different universe than the other Twisted Metal games. They make up for the bright colors with lots of grungy texturing, and the overall it definitely gets the point across: this is still a demolition derby! I also really like how Sweet Tooth’s fiery hair takes up the top 1/3 of the image, with the title set over that.

Out of Five

Mass Effect 3
This cover does a great job keeping it both simple and larger than life at the same time. Commander Shepard is the focus, but the background really makes him stand out. There are lots of nice orange-blue contrast going on as well. I especially like the orange light reflecting off his armored suit from the orange flares in the background. Another really cool feature (they did this for past Mass Effect covers as well) the cover is reversible so players can choose to have a female Commander Shepard on the cover!

Out of Five  & WINNER

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