Another year, another countdown, another birthday.  And I’m boxing it all up, tying a nice little bow around it, and turning the ripe old age of 32 with a celebration of 32 BRILLIANT examples of FANTASTIC video game box art.  Join me, won’t you?

Defender of the Crown (1986) – I’ll be honest and admit that it wasn’t until I was much older that I had any bloody idea what was going on in Defender of the Crown.  You know, something about knights, something about castles.  But as a kid that was more than slightly obsessed with medieval Europe – well just knights and castles really – I’d have been damned if I was going to not enjoy a game that featured just that on the cover.  Luckily I had a brother seven years my senior who I could watch play the game, while I just smiled and nodded in the background, pretending to know I had a clue what was going on on the monitor.  Of course years later when the household upgraded to the Amiga 500 version of the game, and my brain had somewhat matured, I saw what the fuss about the game was all about.  But really that Ezra Tucker illustrated box art is what kept me longing to play and understand the game for all those years.

Miss previous entries in the countdown?

Space Ace (1983) – Transylvania (1984) – Impossible Mission (1985) –