There's something that seems old about it to me. Maybe I just associate it too much with the Cube cases and those certainly look old today (they're not yet old enough to look retro). I didn't really like the Cube case look and I think it's because it stood out too much as a Gamecube game. That approach makes sense from a marketing point of view as you want your system's game to "pop out" on the shelf (the original Xbox games can be spotted a mile away with those green cases) but it doesn't look as nice from a collector's perspective. Of that gen I liked the PS2 case the best because it was just a black bar at the top and black comes across as very neutral. Your eye naturally focuses more on the box art than the branding. This gen I liked the PS3 cases the best until Sony switched to this red font that makes every game look like a Greatest Hits title. I prefer if my casing just makes it look like a videogame, instead of it acting like an ad for the system itself.
Of course the Cube's purple colour made it worse (though the Xbox green looks WAY sillier in retrospect) as that isn't a very neutral colour and I would never choose to cover a book shelf with purple items. Blue is a much better colour, and I liked how the Wii used white.
In the NES days you got a lot more variety with the covers as the shape and the Nintendo seal were the only truly common elements. Plus different publishers had their own scheme at times. Nintendo originally had the black boxes with the blocky graphics, Capcom had the grid, Konami had the silver boxes. No console maker would go for that now because they want that branding in our faces but it would be nice if there was more freedom for the publisher to use whatever box art fits the game.
Topic: First Look at Wii U Game Case Design (Read 11164 times)
