Top 10 Modern Video Game Boxarts

Don’t judge a book by its cover, but feel free to do it with these games. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 modern video game box-arts.

For this list, we ranked our favorite modern game covers. In this case, “Modern” constitutes games from around 2000 onwards, in other words the 6th generation of consoles to today. As usual, one entry per franchise.

In case you had any doubt that this post-apocalyptic FPS would be a dark experience, the menacing head of an enemy chimera on its cover certainly let you know what you’d be in for. English artist Olly Moss, well-known for re-imagining movie posters, created the foreboding cover, that seems simple, yet compelling in design. What’s great about the cover is that it becomes more complex upon further examination: bet you didn't notice that the alien's face contains a city scape, now that is detail...

This game was beloved by critics and fans alike for its distinctive cel-shaded art style, and the cover gave us a perfect taste of the beauty that was inside. It features the game’s protagonist, a Shinto sun goddess named Ameratsu embodying a wolf, galloping and howling in all her glory. We’d later create gorgeous art of our own with the game’s Celestial Brush, but the cover was the perfect inspiration to get us started … That is of course, unless you got stuck with the Wii version’s boxart … which was a such lazy photoshop job that the IGN logo can be seen on it. Oops.

Next up is a title that’s usually more acclaimed for its gripping story and unforgettable characters, but its box art is also an achievement well worth noting. The Box, tells a pretty good job on what to expect, the bleak overgrown landscapes, the relationship between the two characters, the violence inherent throughout, almost all of the core themes are present. Of course, there’s no fungus zombies on the cover, but you gotta save some of the good stuff for the actual gameplay, right?

This game received loads of attention for its innovative gravity manipulation gameplay, and the box art hinted at the awesome moves you could pull off inside the game itself. The game was also well-noted for its idiosyncratic cel-shaded visuals, and the cover showed off how the designers used them to portray protagonist Kat and her floating hometown. Channeling a abstract design to challenge the perspective in which you look at this cover, it perfectly embodies the abstract gameplay it’s selling.

This open-world action game depicts the intricate world of organized crime in Hong Kong, and its cover is nearly as complex and detailed as the setting. Alternate movie poster virtuoso Tyler Stout designed it, and he did an excellent job of depicting the sordid activities of the Sun On Yee Triad gang—complete with a menacing dragon in the background. The cover didn’t tell us much about the game, but its unique art style has cult status written all over it.

Rockstar’s “GTA on horseback” open-world western title was particularly notable for the brilliant job it did of evoking memories of Spaghetti Western posters, though the film noir style “L.A. Noire” was also worth noting. While other covers like to cram a lot of elements, this title goes for the simple rout, with a harsh and unforgiving John Marston taking aim at the viewer, hinting at the harsh and unforgiving story that awaits them.

Next on our list is the boxart that can appeal to both fans of the series, and those who know nothing about the game. The cover deliberately mimics the box art from the first game, with a clever twist. Being that this is Borderlands 2, the psycho on the cover is now pantomiming with two guns, instead of the original one. Clever gimmick aside, it’s also noteworthy that the two core concepts of the game are embodied nicely: violence and humor. What a mix.

Here we have another cover that uses numbers and hand gestures to great effect. This zombie co-op FPS’s box art was so terrifyingly grotesque that censors in Japan and Germany deemed it unsuitable for gamers in their countries. The severed thumb that made its way onto North American boxes was replaced by a thumb tucked behind the hand in the censored version. The gory, mutilated hand no doubt represents the fair amount of undead you’ll mow thru in the game, with the 4 fingers not so subtly representing the 4 main characters also represented in the games title.

“Colossus” is a word that represents the epic scope of this game as much as it does the monsters you slay in it. On the cover, the hulking creature known as Valus stares menacingly at you from the cover, where he literally dwarfs Wander and his horse Agro, really captures just what to expect in this game, both in terms of scope and artistic style.

Before we get to our number one, let’s take a look at some honorable mentions:

“Dishonored” (2012)
“Saints Row IV” (2013)

“Injustice: Gods Among Us” (2013)

“House of the Dead: Overkill” (2009)

“Gears of War 2” (2008)

“Xenoblade Chronicles” (2010)

Topping our list is a cover that perfectly established the satirical tone of this 80’s inspired neon fueled open-world FPS. The self-consciously cheesy artwork cleverly pays homage to 80s action films while still establishing the game’s unique style. Well that and there’s a T-rex like creature in the corner that’s shooting laser beams from its eyes, which, is the standard definition of awesome. Also cyborbs. And Michael Biehn.
Do you agree with our list? What video game box-art did you want to get a full poster of and hang on your wall? For more artistic top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.