jawa asks... How much for the box, dude?

What have been your favourite game boxes?

The game box! There have been plenty of different designs and colours for various systems over the past forty years, all aiming to catch your eye and make you think about a purchase.

But which ones have been your favourites? Select up to five game boxes from the voting options and then please do jot down words about your choices!

I really liked the tall PlayStation ones we never got. Undoubtedly the worst ever was the Master System boxes. I mean, Jesus.

Japanese Game cube boxes are the best.

jiggles wrote:I really liked the tall PlayStation ones we never got...

Ah! The US PlayStation cases, jiggles?

jiggles wrote:...Undoubtedly the worst ever was the Master System boxes. I mean, Jesus.

Really? . I thought the hard case design was great! Fake edit: Maybe you mean that design artwork? It sure was divisive, but I liked the squares+comic pic combo!

Pedz wrote:Japanese Game cube boxes are the best.

I've not seen them, Pedz. Are they smaller DVD boxes?

I tend to prefer the tougher cases. Nintendo's cardboard boxes were pretty awful albeit I do like the design and styling; they just wore out so quickly. Sega' Master System and Mega Drive cases were ace, setting a standard upon which later cases such as those for the Neo Geo Pocket and Nintendo DS improved upon.

In terms of DVD-styled case colours, I love the light blue of the Wii U and the light green for the 360; although earlier 360 games used pretty solid DVD cases and later releases had very poor quality ones.

For current systems I like the Switch cases although, housing just a cart and no manual, I wish they were a bit smaller. I like the white banner of PS5 games but I think they'd look better with white or black cases rather than the PS4-styled blue ones.

Even though they’re too fragile, PS1 and Dreamcast are my favourite. Hate cardboard as it degrades, and DVD cases are boring (though I did like the white and red ones they used for GT3/4).

Great topic and title. I need to give this one some serious thought.

jawa_ wrote:

Pedz wrote:Japanese Game cube boxes are the best.

I've not seen them, Pedz. Are they smaller DVD boxes?

I tend to prefer the tougher cases. Nintendo's cardboard boxes were pretty awful albeit I do like the design and styling; they just wore out so quickly. Sega' Master System and Mega Drive cases were ace, setting a standard upon which later cases such as those for the Neo Geo Pocket and Nintendo DS improved upon.

In terms of DVD-styled case colours, I love the light blue of the Wii U and the light green for the 360; although earlier 360 games used pretty solid DVD cases and later releases had very poor quality ones.

For current systems I like the Switch cases although, housing just a cart and no manual, I wish they were a bit smaller. I like the white banner of PS5 games but I think they'd look better with white or black cases rather than the PS4-styled blue ones.

Japanese are the cool tiny ones, and it's a cardboard sleeve.

jiggles wrote:I really liked the tall PlayStation ones we never got. Undoubtedly the worst ever was the Master System boxes. I mean, Jesus.

WRONG!

Nintendo's shitty cardboard ones are the worst.

I wish the Switch boxes were the same size as the JP GameCube boxes, those were great!

Big box Amiga/PC games will always have my heart. Just something so satisfying about the size of them, it really showcased some of the amazing art and allowed for the inclusion of so many trinkets and extras like maps, figures, lore books etc. that just never could have happened in the console boxes

OG black and white Mega Drive boxes were awesome as well, but I couldn't stand the mid-gen blue circles redesign

KK wrote:Even though they’re too fragile, PS1 and Dreamcast are my favourite...

I do like the PS1 cases and the original "small PlayStation logo" cover design looked so cool. They did scratch and break fairly easily, though - with the Dreamcast cases perhaps even more prone to damage. But, yeah, they sure were neat at launch, KK!

Pedz wrote:(Japanese Gamecube boxes)

Those do look to be great, Pedz. Are those pictures from copies in you own collection, dude?

Ironhide wrote:

jiggles wrote:I really liked the tall PlayStation ones we never got. Undoubtedly the worst ever was the Master System boxes. I mean, Jesus.

WRONG!...

I'm *assuming* that jiggs was referencing the cover designs rather than the case itself, Ironhide. Certainly hope so .

Jenuall wrote:Big box Amiga/PC games will always have my heart. Just something so satisfying about the size of them, it really showcased some of the amazing art and allowed for the inclusion of so many trinkets and extras like maps, figures, lore books etc. that just never could have happened in the console boxes ...

Those "big box" games certainly were pretty neat, Jen, and you needed plenty of space for a game collection then . I still have my Amiga games, albeit they've been up in the loft for years.

Jenuall wrote:...OG black and white Mega Drive boxes were awesome as well, but I couldn't stand the mid-gen blue circles redesign

Amen to that, man. The original black designs were so good and, whilst I thought that the later blue designs were *okay*, they didn't - in my view - look as cool.

Jenuall wrote:Big box Amiga/PC games will always have my heart. Just something so satisfying about the size of them, it really showcased some of the amazing art and allowed for the inclusion of so many trinkets and extras like maps, figures, lore books etc. that just never could have happened in the console boxes

OG black and white Mega Drive boxes were awesome as well, but I couldn't stand the mid-gen blue circles redesign

Is that the design where they changed the Megadrive font to the metallic cyberpunk type one? because yes, that was awful.

Was pleased when they changed the original 'cardboard glued to plastic' Saturn boxes though, they always ended up falling apart.

Ironhide wrote:...Was pleased when they changed the original 'cardboard glued to plastic' Saturn boxes though, they always ended up falling apart.

I never owned a Saturn but, having seen a few of those boxes, they must be in with a shout for being the worst ones! Somehow they seemed to get damaged easier than plain cardboard boxes! Sega went from having - IMHO - the best game boxes with their Master System and Mega Drive ones to some of the shoddiest (or, rather, most easily damaged) with the 32X, Saturn and DC. I do really like the Mega CD "double" cases, though :-).

jawa_ wrote:

Pedz wrote:(Japanese Gamecube boxes)

Those do look to be great, Pedz. Are those pictures from copies in you own collection, dude?

Nah, I do have some. Wind Waker, Doshin The Giant and 2 other games (I can't remember what ) I found them on the Web instead of hunting out mine.

Eh, they’re just boxes to me Obviously the plastic ones are much better than cardboard ones (although they did look really neat in their own way), they basically just end up sat on a shelf or chucked under the bed anyway! The main thing missing from boxes for me these days are instruction manuals

Pedz wrote:...I do have some (Japanese GameCube games). Wind Waker, Doshin The Giant and 2 other games (I can't remember what ) ...

Nice, man. I was *so* close to purchasing a Cube console along with a copy of Doshin the Giant at one time. I held off and, a week or so later, went for Xbox instead. I wonder what that parallel Cube universe would have been like? .

Robbo-92 wrote:...The main thing missing from boxes for me these days are instruction manuals

Absolute truth, Robbo. Looking over older games, it's amazing to see how good some of the manuals were. I like to have the controls in front of me when playing, even if it's just a sheet of paper rather than a complete manual!

jawa_ wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:...The main thing missing from boxes for me these days are instruction manuals

Absolute truth, Robbo. Looking over older games, it's amazing to see how good some of the manuals were. I like to have the controls in front of me when playing, even if it's just a sheet of paper rather than a complete manual!

I remember reading the Pokémon Red and Blue manual so many times

I'm a sucker for dinky packaging so I voted for the PSVita boxes. I also liked how the PSP UMD cases looked on the shelf as well.

That was such a Sony format. Jaws, you should do a poll on best physical media because I think I'd happily vote for the UMD. Not entirely practical but so so sexy to look at.

Carlos wrote:I'm a sucker for dinky packaging so I voted for the PSVita boxes. I also liked how the PSP UMD cases looked on the shelf as well...

I've not had a Sony portable system so I'm not too familiar with the cases, but I think that the Switch ones are roughly the size of the PSP cases?

Carlos wrote:...That was such a Sony format. Jaws, you should do a poll on best physical media because I think I'd happily vote for the UMD. Not entirely practical but so so sexy to look at.

Now that could be an idea, Carlos! I'll make a note of it as a possible future topic!