Go back 30 or 40 years, and video ... game looked like. It relied on limited concept art, data, and technology. And it often sold a fantasy that didn’t accurately represent the game inside the box.

First, it has the classic Sega Master System template ... Talk about original premises for video games, right? The box art is just that. In the crudest, most realistic way possible.

But what about the opposite situation, where a brilliant game has such unfathomably awful box art that it swears you off playing the game altogether? It's certainly rarer that this happens ...

Video game box art is like a visual handshake between the game and the player. If the art is tantamount to a limp handshake, gamers will forget about it and move on to a video game that seizes ...

We’re talking about this North American box art for the NES version of Mega ... pastels on a paintbrush turned a dynamic, wide-eyed video game sprite into a badly-dressed, squatting gunman ...