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?

We Love Katamari (2006) – It’s a bit strange that whenever I hear the much overused phrase “games as art”, the first game series that comes to mind is Katamari Damacy.  My first experience with the series was with the sequel, We Love Katamari, which in a year where the world was all gung-ho for high definition there is a certain level of audacity in going for the very stylised and minimalist art style that the series became known for.  Something about it just draws many parallels to the time at which both the impressionist and cubist art movements bucked the respective art trends at the time, by rejecting the hyper-detail and realism of the movements of the time.  We Love Katamari was if anything a rejection of the assumption of monotonicity of graphics in video games.  At the most the crayon-art box is practically rubbing graphical fidelity in the world’s face.  At the least it’s a damn smile inducing happy machine – with or without the game.

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) – King of the Zoo (1990) –Lemmings (1991) –Pinball Fantasies (1992) – The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! (1993) – Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land (1994) – Primal Rage (1995) – Wipeout 2097 (1996) –  Theme Hospital (1997) – Resident Evil 2 (1998) – Formula One ’99 (1999)– Gran Turismo 2 (2000) – Soul Reaver 2 (2001) – Gitaroo Man (2002) – Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly (2003) – Warioware, Inc.: Mega Microgames! (2004) – DK King of Swing (2005)