___ 32 Years of Brilliant Box Art, Pulp

32 years of brilliant video game box art – #7 (2008) Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

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?


Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 (2008) – There was a time in the late 90’s that I wasn’t sure if Westwood and Electronic Arts knew how ridiculous the Command and Conquer series was.  Sure, Red Alert was almost the whacky spoof version of vanilla Command and Conquer, but even then there was something about it that felt that everyone was in on the joke but the developers themselves.  The 2000’s increased the broodiness, introduced a first person shooter, and then in 2007 Command and Conquer 3 shut the door on its brief dalliance with clever self aware humour.  And so the joke was on us.

Which is why the box art for Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 is so great.  One look at this magnificent piece of art and there are no ifs buts or maybes, this game is one enormous bloody piss-take.  If the Armoured bears and the ridiculously cliched Russian femme fatale on the cover aren’t enough to convince you that, hey Red Alert is one big f**k off joke, wait until you start producing  weaponised bottle-nosed dolphins.  The fact that it so perfectly captures that Soviet propaganda art of the cold war period is just icing on the cake really.  I love it.

 

C&CRA3

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) – We Love Katamari (2006) – Digital Devil Saga 2 (2007)