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?

King of the Zoo (1990) – I never really grew out of the ‘thinking anthropomorphic animals are cool‘ phase, but in the early 1990’s I was all about walking and talking animals.  Nestled right smack-bang in between my fandom of the stop-motion Wind in the Willows series and The Animals of Farthing Wood, King of the Zoo sat proudly in my brand-spanking new Game Boy.  Instantly grabbed by the character oozing from the animals in the box art as a youngster, King of the Zoo was a Game Boy mainstay for me for years, and knocking “Cow” out with a ball never really got old.  But as much as I love the box art, years later I spotted a Japanese copy in an antique toy store, thats box art was far superior in almost every way, not to mention being more representative of the game’s sprites.  Sprites which are, simply put, gorgeous.

Miss previous entries in the countdown?

Space Ace (1983) – Transylvania (1984) – Impossible Mission (1985) – Defender of the Crown (1986) – Faery Tale Adventure (1987) – F/A – 18 Interceptor (1988) – Blood Money (1989)